Text and paratext in the early medieval book continuities and innovations

The presentation of a text to a reading public may provide evidence, either of an accommodation to the expectations of anticipated readers, or of new ways to read a text. How a text was received by a scribe, as well as how, why, and in what circumstances the text was then presented, remain among the underlying considerations in any study of manuscripts. The role of ‘paratexts’, that is, all those elements in text presentation other than the main text, in the extraordinary range of new text formats and new types of books created in late antiquity and the early middle ages, will be considered in this paper. I consider three categories of text: history, law and scripture. Continuities and innovations in relation to possible precedents and models will be explored, as well as how particular examples of extant manuscripts reflect scribes’ imaginative engagement with the potential needs of new readers.