Jakub Kozák (Charles University, Prague) presents: "What Scribes Tell Us (and Don't): Modelling Variation in Medieval Latin Colophons"

With a response from Elaine Treharne. See the abstract below: 

"This paper examines the interpretive challenges posed by medieval Latin colophons – final scribal statements that both illuminate and obscure the conditions of book production. It sur-veys conflicting scholarly approaches to construing the colophon as a textual phenomenon, highlighting the methodological tensions between viewing them as individual acts of self-ex-pression and as formulaic conventions. In response, the paper introduces a newly developed database of medieval Latin colophons designed to enable large-scale comparative analysis. Drawing on this material, it proposes a preliminary typology that identifies principal modes and functions of colophons within medieval manuscript culture. A related project – a complemen-tary database of late medieval scribes and a forthcoming publication – is also briefly noted. To-gether, these efforts aim to reassess how colophons, through their formulae, silences, and varia-tions, shape our understanding of scribal practice and the transmission of textual identity in the later Middle Ages."

Jakub Kozák is a PhD student in Medieval Latin and Neo-Latin Studies at Charles University in Prague. He holds an MA in Classical Philology and Latin Medieval Studies from the same institu-tion (thesis on the typology of Latin colophons). His research focuses on medieval manuscript culture, with particular emphasis on Latin colophons and scribal additions. Furthermore, Jakub has explored the reception of classical antiquity in the Middle Ages, the medieval Latin mne-monic proverbial tradition, and is interested in Latin historical linguistics and editorial practices.