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Document Details : Title: The Modes of Literary Production Subtitle: Remarks on the Composition, Revision and 'Publication' of Persian Texts in the Medieval Period Author(s): LEWIS, Franklin Journal: Persica Volume: 17 Date: 2001 Pages: 69-83 DOI: 10.2143/PERS.17.0.500 Abstract : Persianists in Europe and in Iran have been codifying manuscripts and publishing critical editions of texts for over two centuries now, yet only in the last decade has a program in codicology and paleography at the University of Tehran been established to systematically pass on the collective wisdom and experience of the great textual scholars. A wealth of information about the manuscript transmission of isolated literary works can of course be gleaned from the introductions to numerous critical editions and from a variety of studies. However, no one has as yet pieced these together to create a systematic narrative history of Persian manuscript culture in particular (as opposed to the manuscript cultures of Classical Greek and Latin, or the various vernaculars of medieval Europe), its scribal traditions, the history of its royal scriptoria and medieval libraries, the economics of the Persian manuscript trade, and so forth. A comprehensive historical study of the development of literary transmission, the processes by which literary works were produced, published and preserved in the chirographic environment of the medieval and early modern period would undoubtedly enhance the efforts of those working to produce critical texts of Persian literature, by creating a greater degree of consensus and standardization in editorial decisions. |
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