Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes

Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes
Name	Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes
Native name	Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes
Established	1940s
Location	Paris, France
Parent institution	Centre national de la recherche scientifique
Type	Research institute, manuscript library

Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes is a French research institute and manuscript center specialising in medieval and early modern palaeography, codicology and textual criticism, affiliated with the Centre national de la recherche scientifique and based in Paris near the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Founded in the mid-20th century, it collaborates with international libraries, archives and universities including Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Collège de France, École pratique des hautes études and the Max Planck Society. The institute has acted as a nexus for scholars working on manuscripts associated with figures such as Charlemagne, Thomas Aquinas, Dante Alighieri, Geoffrey Chaucer and Christine de Pizan, and cooperates with institutions including the Vatican Library, British Library, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana and Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon.

History

The institute emerged from post-war efforts that linked researchers from the École des Chartes, the Centre national de la recherche scientifique and the Sorbonne to streamline access to manuscript collections in France and abroad; founders drew on models used by the Bodleian Library, the Vatican Library, the Alcázar holdings and the Royal Library of Denmark. Early projects connected to catalogues of manuscripts from the Abbey of Saint-Denis, the Monastery of Saint Gall, the Monastery of Cluny, and collections related to Louis IX of France, Philip IV of France and Charles V of France. During the Cold War era the institute exchanged microfilms with the Biblioteca Nacional de España, the Russian State Library, the British Museum and the Library of Congress, while collaborating with scholars tied to the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Warburg Institute and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.

Mission and Research Activities

The institute's mission brings together expertise from the École nationale des chartes, the Université de Paris-Sorbonne, the Institut catholique de Paris, the École pratique des hautes études and the Centre Michel de Boüard to study manuscripts, early printed books and documentary texts. Research programs address palaeography related to hands associated with Gregory VII, scribes active in the Carolingian Renaissance, notaries of the Kingdom of France courts, and copyists who worked for patrons such as Jean de Berry, Philip the Bold, Charles VI of France and Isabella of Castile. The institute organises conferences with partners like the International Congress of Medieval Studies, the Society for Renaissance Studies, the Royal Historical Society and the International Medieval Society and conducts seminars on sources tied to Ibn Sina, Avicenna, Averroes, Maimonides and Rashi.

Collections and Manuscripts

Holdings include microfilms, facsimiles and original manuscripts from repositories such as the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Vatican Library, the British Library, the Biblioteca Marciana, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, the Bibliothèque municipale de Rouen and municipal archives of Toulouse, Bordeaux and Lyon. Key manuscript traditions represented include Carolingian codices associated with Alcuin of York, Ottonian illumination tied to Otto I, Byzantine manuscripts reflecting collections of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, and Renaissance humanist codices connected to Petrarch, Erasmus, Lorenzo Valla and Marsilio Ficino. Religious texts include liturgical manuscripts attributed to monasteries such as Cluny Abbey, Saint Gall Abbey and Monte Cassino, and legal and diplomatic charters from archives linked to Philip II of Spain, Louis XIV of France and the Holy Roman Empire.

Cataloguing and Digital Projects

The institute has led cataloguing initiatives comparable to projects at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the British Library and the Vatican Library, producing descriptive inventories that reference standards used by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions and collaborate with databases such as Europeana, Gallica, Manuscripta Mediaevalia and the Pinakes project. Digitisation efforts have involved partnerships with the Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon, the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Wellcome Library, and the institute has participated in linked data and TEI XML encoding projects alongside teams from Oxford University, Harvard University, Princeton University and the École normale supérieure. Conservation collaborations include training with the Institut national du patrimoine, the Getty Conservation Institute and the British Library Conservation Centre.

Publications and Scholarly Output

Scholarly output comprises printed catalogues, edited critical editions and journals in partnership with publishers and presses like Presses Universitaires de France, Brepols, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and the Éditions du CNRS. The institute's editions address texts by Boethius, Cassiodorus, Isidore of Seville, Bede, Gregory of Tours, Anselm of Canterbury, Peter Lombard, Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon and Nicole Oresme. It organises lecture series with visiting scholars from institutions like the Institute for Advanced Study, the Warburg Institute, the School of Oriental and African Studies, the Institut d'Égypte and the Leipzig University and publishes proceedings from symposia held with the International Medieval Congress, the Renaissance Society of America and the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing.

Organisation and Administration

The institute is administered within the framework of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique and coordinates research units connected to the École des Chartes, the École pratique des hautes études, Université Paris-Saclay and the Université de Strasbourg. Governance includes a directorate, scientific council and advisory committees that liaise with cultural bodies such as the Ministry of Culture (France), the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Conseil national des universités and international partners like the European Research Council and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Training programs and internships link the institute to the École du Louvre, the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers, the Institute of Historical Research and professional networks including the Association internationale de bibliophilie.

Category:Research institutes in France