Understanding how medieval textual cultures engaged with the heritage of antiquity
(transmission and translation) depends on recognizing that reception is a creative cultural act
(transformation). These essays focus on the people societies and institutions who were doing
the transmitting translating and transforming -- the agents. The subject matter ranges from
medicine to astronomy literature to magic while the cultural context encompasses Islamic and
Jewish societies as well as Byzantium and the Latin West. What unites these studies is their
attention to the methodological and conceptual challenges of thinking about agency. Not every
agent acted with an agenda and agenda were sometimes driven by immediate needs or religious
considerations that while compelling to the actors are more opaque to us. What does it mean to
say that a text becomes available for transmission or translation? And why do some texts once
transmitted fail to thrive in their new milieu? This collection thus points toward a more
sophisticated ecology of transmission where not only individuals and teams of individuals but
also social spaces and local cultures act as the agents of cultural creativity.
