This course examines how the vehicle of the manuscript and the circumstances of manuscript production shaped the creation, transmission, and reading of texts before the fifteenth century. Among the topics to be studied are orality and literacy, the transcription of sacred texts in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, the political, economic, and social impacts of manuscript production and circulation, the impact of institutions (such as universities) on reading practices, contexts for the suppression, control, and alteration of texts, and the radical differences between print and manuscript cultures.