PPROTEX examines coherence and consistency in the material dimensions of the manuscripts and maps these against philological and animal biological knowledge.
Initially, PPROTEX will survey the bio-codicological potential of the samples from the corpus of extant manuscripts produced in the scriptorium of Alfonso X el Sabio, king of Castile and Leon (r.1252-184), to provide the following data:
(i) the types of animals used in the scriptorium to produce the codices concerned;
(ii) the sex of the animals concerned;
(iii) the genetic diversity of the flocks and their management;
(iv) the chemical damage suffered by the parchment in its making and its impact on recovery of biomolecular signatures;
(v) the prevalence of disease/starvation in the animals used, and consequently an estimate of the location of flocks before sacrifice.
We employ these data to address four key philological and biological aims:
• detailed mapping of (i) -(iv) cross referred to the contents of the manuscripts will reveal the consistency and evolution of codex preparation practice in the years of the Alfonsine scriptorium;
• the mapping of (i) – (iv) in each manuscript will seek to reveal the ways in which material questions inflect the composition and contents of the historiographical, scientific, ludic and sacred works in the codices;
• (i) – (v) will be cross-referred to (inter alia) the itinerary of the court in the period to provide a more granular understanding of the contemporary historical context;
• (i) – (v) will contribute to the development of our understanding of animal biology in the later Middle Ages in the light of (e.g.) climate patterns etc. specifically in Iberia and more generally in Europe and the Mediterranean world.