One Object, Fluctuating Trajectories: Harnessing the Document Future of Premodern Manuscripts

Using copy theory as a framework to explore document surrogacy and simulation, this paper discusses premodern manuscripts as a case study for understanding relevant aspects of temporality and materiality in the experience of documents to speculate on the nature of immersive documents of the future. This speculation is powered on mapping and synthesizing the paths of interconnected temporal and material change manuscripts have followed by examining multiple “versions” of these documents based on various contexts of use and access and technological innovations. As hand copied documents of similar texts, premodern manuscripts are posited as both copies and originals depending on their human context and purpose, which have implications for the work scholars who study the informative content of manuscripts alongside their status as unique heritage objects. Description and digitization also play a role in increasing and complicating the nature of access and scholarship. The paper concludes with the suggestion that the expansion of copies and representations of manuscripts can be employed the development of immersive document systems informed document phenomenology to create holistic virtual manuscript experiences.