The project “Cistercian Horizons. To study and characterize a medieval scriptorium and its production. Alcobaça. Local identities and liturgical uniformity in dialogue” (PTDC/ART-HIS/29522/2017) starts out by studying the scriptorium of the Monastery of Alcobaça, between the late 12th and 16th centuries. Launched in October 2018, this aims to study and date the illuminated liturgical manuscripts of the Alcobaça scriptorium (Breviary Alc. 66, image 1), through an interdisciplinary approach that intends, on the one hand, to study the manuscripts in their materiality (characteristics of the illuminated decoration, the pigments (image 2) and the structure of the bindings (image 3)) and, simultaneously, to study their liturgical content (image 4) (in articulation with the Cistercian guidelines and the influence of the local context), from the late 12th century to the early 16th century.
In Alcobaça, a significant number of this type of manuscripts have survived, in contrast to other abbeys, which will open up new perspectives in terms of the scope for dating them more precisely and consequently characterising the evolution of the materials and techniques for codex production within the scriptorium over four centuries. The project results from a consortium containing the IEM, LAQV REQUIMTE of the FCT UNOVA and the HERCULES Laboratory of the University of Évora (image 5). The partner institutions are the UCP Centre for Religious History Studies, the National Library of Portugal and the Monastery of Alcobaça.
The project has as its PI the researcher Catarina Fernandes Barreira and Co-PI Conceição Casanova, lecturer at FCT UNOVA (and alongside Catarina Miguel, leading the project in the HERCULES Laboratory) (image 6) and involves a team of about two dozen researchers at different levels (from master’s degree students to university professors (image 7)).
After a year and a half, project researchers have submitted several publications in peer reviewed journals, participated in several international congresses (Leeds (image 8), Barcelona, Bruges, Brno, Lisbon, Madrid, Batalha, Oporto…), with a total of 16 communications and in national congresses, with a total of 13. Within the scope of this project, we organised another Cycle of Conferences at the Monastery of Alcobaça in 2019 (image 9), a research mission to CERCOR, in Lyon, a course for Guides and Interpreters in January 2020 (images 10 and 11) and workshops for students (images 12, 13, 14 and 15).
