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Shaping Art and Craft by Means of Text: Wording and Metaphor – Image and Aesthetics of Techne-Literature

Session at the International Congress on the Study of the Middle Ages in Leeds (IMC) 2025 „Worlds of Learning“

Our knowledge of premodern techniques, processes and practices of art and craft is not only based on technical literature, theoretical treatises, accountant books, or anecdotic reports on objects and artisans but on diverse narrations about the techne and mastery of craft and art scattered across a broad and heterogeneous field of literature. Nevertheless, literary studies tend to deal differently with the technical knowledge of so called ‘pragmatic’ literature and poetry, drama, or narration. While for a long time the former was analysed mainly regarding the transfer of certain skills and special knowledge, the latter was mostly examined concerning the functions and effects of ekphrasis or regarding a self-reflexive aesthetic discourse, whenever it spoke about the making of artificial objects. The section will address this bias and observe the precise technicality of (literary) narratives and poetry as well as the aesthetics of so-called pragmatic or technical literature. It asks how knowledge on arts and crafts is shaped by means of text. The structure, wording and imagery of how-to-knowledge should be considered as well as the material dimension of prints and manuscripts that aim to convey knowledge and skills.

Henrike Haug (Project: Technical Tales) – „Et in aliis locis in quibus fui, et vidi experiri“: Practical Knowledge and Natural Philosophy in Medieval Times

Christina Lechtermann (Project: Handling and Instructions) – Aesthetics of Skill and Knowledge in Late Medieval and Early Modern Books


OpenEdition schlägt Ihnen vor, diesen Beitrag wie folgt zu zitieren:
techneredaktion (16. Juli 2025). Shaping Art and Craft by Means of Text: Wording and Metaphor – Image and Aesthetics of Techne-Literature. Dimensionen der techne in den Künsten. Abgerufen am 6. März 2026 von https://doi.org/10.58079/14cle