Abstract
This lecture examines the figure of the medieval copyist, taking the Byzantine world as its main field of observation, without neglecting comparisons with the Latin West. It will highlight the profound diversity of copyist profiles—professionals, monks, scholars, civil servants—and the fragility of their social status. Particular attention will be paid to the ways in which they learned their trade and their working techniques, the tools they used and the absence of a formalized curriculum. We will focus on the coexistence of direct transmission of know-how between masters and disciples, forms of self-learning and practices of repeated imitation. Using manuscript, iconographic and literary sources, we'll show how the act of copying was part and parcel of technical, economic, spiritual and cognitive logics. Finally, the lecture will examine the place of the copyist in the wider history of written culture, highlighting the decisive role played by these often invisible actors in the formation, transmission and transformation of knowledge.
