La escritura en Santiago de Compostela en el tránsito de la Edad Media a la Edad Moderna

Abstract

In this thesis we shall study the scripts and the graphic culture of Santiago de Compostela from 1450 to 1550, a historic period characterised by many changes and transformations, as well as the survival of other traditional elements. The main purpose of this research is the analysis of the whole life of scripts used in this city altogether with some villages and rural areas of the dioceses. We shall focus on different issues related with this subject like the types of scripts which were in use at that time, their formal features and their historic evolution, the notaries, scribes and book copyists who executed them or how other extragraphic features influenced the writing (documents typologies, scribe’s training, the language of the written product or the social, cultural and artistic context). Finally, according to some of the features above, we shall examine the scripts used by the rest of the society. Through a large representation of most part of the social groups of Santiago de Compostela and the analysis of subscriptions and other more complex texts, we shall study the social diffusion of writing knowledge, the scripts widespread all over the city, the graphic skills of each person or the social background of those who were able to sign and write at that time. To sum up, we have tried to undertake a comprehensive research on the history of scripts in the transition from the 15th to the 16th century from the multiple perspectives and methods of Paleography.