RUTTER TRAINING SCHOOL: The long life of manuscripts: from material to immaterial texts

This course provides a thorough overview of multidisciplinary approaches to early modern scientific writing practices. The course consists of three parts. The first is a theoretical part with lectures providing knowledge on book history, manuscript terminology, recording methods, cultural heritage and digital humanities. The second, practically oriented part, will provide training on documentation techniques, including paleographical, linguistical and computer skills with fieldwork at Ajuda’s Library and the Academia de Ciências. The third part will focus on how the collection and analysis of archival data are used to write new historical narratives. Throughout three crucial moments of historical investigation, the participants will gain familiarity with a great variety of written texts, sources and case studies, as well as general competencies of the digital tools applied to historical research. All these core skills will help researchers to use historical knowledge to demystify simplistic ideas and interpret scientific phenomena in a new way.