Naming Multiple-text Manuscripts

What is a title where multiple-text manuscripts (MTMs) are concerned? Titles most commonly denote the individual texts of an MTM - but what about those that indicate the text collection as a whole? Are such titles found in every manuscript? And do they unequivocally refer to the physical manuscript, to the text collection, or both? These and other questions are addressed in the present volume, which analyses the development and roles of titles in MTMs and the influence of those who produce and use these works. By way of an introduction, a conceptual essay first traces the limits of the term title for MTMs, then elaborates on the term label as a recently proposed alternative. For a broad view of the phenomena in question, a series of case studies illustrates practices of titling and labeling in Greek MTMs from the late Renaissance; selections of Chinese poetry from Dunhuang; legal documents from pre- and early imperial China; secret Shingon Buddhist teachings from medieval Japan; hagiographic MTMs from Ethiopia; small prayer books from the Islamic world; and Ottoman Turkish song-text collections.

Antonella Brita, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy; Janina Karolewski, Universität Hamburg, Germany.