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Synnøve Midtbø Myking's picture

Synnøve Midtbø Myking

Guest Researcher, on the project Flanders, Norway, and Denmark: Relations and Intertextual Exchanges in the High Middle Ages (ca. 1080–1383)
  • E-mailsynnove.myking@uib.no
  • Visitor Address
    Sydnesplassen 7
    HF-bygget
    5007 Bergen
  • Postal Address
    Postboks 7805
    5020 Bergen

The project FLANDRIA (Flanders, Norway, and Denmark: Relations and Intertextual Exchanges in the High Middle Ages (ca. 1080–1383)) examines the contact between Flanders, Norway, and Denmark in the High Middle Ages, and how this contact influenced Scandinavian manuscript culture. Flanders, especially Bruges, was a hub for trade and sea travel, where Scandinavians would disembark to continue their journey over land when having errands on the continent. We know that Scandinavians visited Bruges and its surrounding areas; however, there are few studies on this contact, and even fewer on how it shaped the development of writing and book culture in Scandinavia.

FLANDRIA studies Norwegian and Danish manuscript material, focussing on fragments. This is due to the fact that most Norwegian and Danish books only survive as fragments, "recycled" as binding during the 16th?17th centuries. The Danish fragments are little examined so far, and one of the project's goals is to get a better overview over which texts and books are represented in this material. An important part of this work consists of identifying fragments which once belonged to the same book. Another goal is to determine the extent to which the Danish material is similar to, or overlaps with, the Norwegian fragments. A third goal is to examine to what extent, and how, the Flemish connections have influenced the Norwegian and Danish material. Some of the fragments have already been found to contain texts otherwise unattested outside of Flanders, and/or script and decoration which indicate a Flemish influence. Comparing Norwegian and Danish fragments to Flemish manuscripts allows us to obtain a better grasp of how travel, trade, and religious networks helped to shape Scandinavian book culture.

The project is funded by a three-year mobility grant from the Research Council of Norway, comprising research stays at the Centre for Medieval Literature (Odense) and the Henri Pirenne Institute for Medieval Studies (Ghent) for a total of two years.

Academic article
  • Show author(s) (2023). Thomas Becket, Clairvaux, and Ringsted: Saintly Diversity and European Influences in a Twelfth-Century Fragmentary Legendary from Denmark . Classica et Mediaevalia. 255-288.
  • Show author(s) (2023). The Low Country saints of the Næstved calendar. Scandinavian Journal of History. 31 pages.
  • Show author(s) (2023). A Psalter for a Danish Queen? Remarks on London, British Library, Add. MS 17868. Collegium Medievale. 241-265.
  • Show author(s) (2021). «De andre findes (vden tuiill) paa Herness heller Gilleskaall» – Mellomalderbøker i Nordland i etterreformatorisk tid. Collegium Medievale. 229-271.
  • Show author(s) (2021). Les livres français dans la Norvège médiévale : connexions culturelles, religieuses et sociales. Pecia: Le livre et l'écrit. 163-213.
  • Show author(s) (2021). Fragmentsamlinga i Riksarkivet - ei kjelde til norsk bokkultur i mellomalderen. Klassisk Forum. 36-65.
  • Show author(s) (2019). Alle vegar fører til Nidaros: om eit fransk handskriftfragment og dansk-norske kontinentale nettverk . Collegium Medievale. 39-57.
Lecture
  • Show author(s) (2023). Creating Databases for Manuscript Fragments: Challenges and Solutions.
  • Show author(s) (2022). The Victorine Network of Scandinavian Churchmen: Traces in Manuscript Fragments .
  • Show author(s) (2022). From Tournai to Trondheim: Flemish Saints in Danish and Norwegian Manuscripts .
  • Show author(s) (2022). Flandern, Noreg og Danmark: handskriftsmateriale som kjelde til kulturell kontakt i høgmellomalderen.
  • Show author(s) (2021). Fragment av bokkultur i Nordland.
  • Show author(s) (2020). Magnus Lagabøtes landslov gjennom 400 år: bøker og brukarar.
Popular scientific lecture
  • Show author(s) (2023). Band over Nordsjøen: engelsk og kontinental påverknad på norsk bokkultur i høgmellomalderen .
  • Show author(s) (2022). Fragment frå mellomalderbøker i norske samlingar.
Academic lecture
  • Show author(s) (2023). Scribes and Saints' Legends in Danish Monasteries: New Insights through Manuscript Fragments.
  • Show author(s) (2023). Liber Polypticus og dei danske cisterciensarane: eit nytt blikk på Esrum-handskriftet Vat.lat. 636 I.
  • Show author(s) (2022). Handskriftsfragment som kjelde til norsk bokkultur i mellomalderen.
  • Show author(s) (2022). Flemish Saints in Denmark and Norway: Textual Traces.
  • Show author(s) (2022). Danish Scribes Revisited. Some Cases from the Royal Library and the National Archives in Copenhagen.
  • Show author(s) (2021). The Cult of Thomas Becket in Medieval Denmark.
  • Show author(s) (2021). Manuscript Fragments in Norway and Denmark: Keys to a lost Book Culture.
  • Show author(s) (2021). Connections between Scandinavia and the Low Countries in the High Middle Ages: Traces in Manuscript Culture.
  • Show author(s) (2021). Cistercian Manuscripts in Medieval Denmark and Norway: Traces of a European Network.
  • Show author(s) (2021). Amendments of the Norwegian Code of 1274: between text and practice.
  • Show author(s) (2019). The contribution of manuscript studies to historical research.
  • Show author(s) (2019). Fragments of manuscripts, fragments of history. Contextualising the remnants of medieval book culture in Scandinavia .
Book review
  • Show author(s) (2022). Drechsler, Illuminated Manuscript Production in Medieval Iceland. The Medieval Review.
Popular scientific article
  • Show author(s) (2019). På sporet av Tore. Ei vandring gjennom Latinarkvarteret i Paris, på jakt etter den tapte verda til norske bondestudentar og/eller kyrkjas mektige menn. Syn og Segn. 90-97.
Doctoral dissertation
  • Show author(s) (2017). The French Connection. Norwegian Manuscript Fragments of French Origin and their Historical Context.
Programme management
  • Show author(s) (2023). 38. Med skriftkultur på Europa-reise i mellomalderen. Samtale med Åslaug Ommundsen og Synnøve Midtbø Myking.
Programme participation
  • Show author(s) (2023). Med skriftkultur på Europa-reise i mellomalderen.
Poster
  • Show author(s) (2022). Imitation and Innovation in Twelfth-Century Danish Scribal Culture: The Case of Ringsted Abbey.
  • Show author(s) (2019). Mellomalderlov i endring. Nyvinningar og bruksmåtar i førmoderne norske lovhandskrift .
  • Show author(s) (2019). Amendments of the Landslov: manuscript practices and societal changes .
Website (informational material)
  • Show author(s) (2021). From Flemish books to Scandinavian manuscript fragments.

More information in national current research information system (CRIStin)