Marks of usage: discerning information literacy practices from medieval European manuscripts

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to discern medieval information literacy (IL) practices through scrutiny of medieval manuscripts: both the content and the “marks of usage” evident therein.

Design/methodology/approach

Analysis of the writing of scribes. Engagement with selected primary texts (manuscripts) and prior scholarly investigations.

Findings

Ample evidence exists of the practice of IL in the medieval era, and how it was transmitted and negotiated across time and space. Popular guides for scholars, including Hugh of St. Victor's Didascalicon, and the marks of usage left on manuscripts by readers/scribes, are evidence of how members of scholarly communities engaged in collaborative metacognitive work, helping each other with tasks such as understanding the ordinatio (organisation) of texts; cross-referencing; locating information; and making judgments about relevance, amongst others. New practices were stimulated by key historical transitions, particularly the shift from ecclesiastical to secular settings for learning.

Research limitations/implications

This is a preliminary study only, intended to lay foundations and suggest directions for more detailed future investigations of primary texts. The scope is Eurocentric, and similar work might be undertaken with the records of practice available elsewhere, e.g. the Arab world, South and East Asia.

Originality/value

Some previous work (e.g. Long, 2017) has investigated medieval scholarly communities by retrospectively applying notions from practice theory, but no prior work has specifically focused upon IL as the practice under investigation.

Citation

Whitworth, A. (2024), "Marks of usage: discerning information literacy practices from medieval European manuscripts", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 80 No. 2, pp. 337-353. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-05-2023-0098