Hidden Harmonies: Manuscript and Print on the North Atlantic Fringe, 1500-1900volume 54

This volume of Opuscula presents a selection of essays on the subject of post-print manuscript cultures along what may be called "the North Atlantic fringe"--Ireland, Gaelic-speaking Scotland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands. While printing had been adopted as the primary mode of literary dissemination in the majority of western European cultures by the mid-seventeenth century, in these countries chirographic transmission remained the norm until well into the nineteenth century for most genres of literature. Written by noted scholars from Denmark, Iceland, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, the essays gathered here seek to establish overarching reasons for the continuance of manuscript culture across this region and analyze the common modalities of scribal practice from each area. The study of post-print manuscript culture is still in its infancy but has been receiving increasing attention in recent years. This book hopes to facilitate its further development, cementing its position as an area of academic endeavor in its own right.