As a researcher at Huygens Institute I specialize in intellectual history of the Middle Ages and manuscript studies. I combine these disciplines with an avid enthusiasm for and interest in digital humanities approaches. It is my firm belief that students profit from a good introduction in digital skills.

More information about Mariken Teeuwen

Fields of interest

• intellectual life of the middle ages
• manuscript studies
• digital humanities approaches 

Research

I studied the medieval reception of ancient and late ancient knowledge traditions, specifically the quadrivial arts. I was the principle investigator in a project that studied practices of annotating books in the early middle ages. Together with Irene van Renswoude I lead a project that studied the Art of Reasoning in medieval manuscript margins, and developed a project that builds a prototype for a virtual library of manuscripts in Dutch collections. I also lead a project that experiments with applying deep learning in the field of palaeography. Currently, I am the head of the research group Innovating Digital Editions at Huygens Institute.

Grants and awards

• Veni grant 'Carolingian Scholarship and Martianus Capella'
• Vidi grant 'Marginal Scholarship'
• Free Competition grant 'The Art of Reasoning'
• KNAW Fund grant 'Digital Forensics'
• KNAW Fund grant 'eCodicesNL'
• Gilbert Fellowship in Humanities 2022 (Sydney, Australia)

Curriculum vitae

Mariken Teeuwen studied Musicology and Medieval Studies at the University of Utrecht. Since 1998 she is employed at Huygens Institute, now as head of the research group ‘Innovating Digital Editions’.

Her research concentrates on the history of knowledge in the Middle Ages, culture of learning and medieval manuscripts. She secured research subsidies from the Netherlands Foundation of Scientific Research (Veni, Vidi and Free Competition) for projects about the liberal arts in the early medieval tradition (Carolingian Scholarship and Martianus Capella), annotations in medieval books (Marginal Scholarship) and the techniques of reasoning in the manuscript margin (The Art of Reasoning).
In addition she developed an interest in digital techniques for the publication, analysis and publication of medieval text- and research materials. This resulted in a digital edition of the commentary tradition on Martianus Capella, a database with observations about manuscripts from the Carolingian period and their annotations, and a virtual exhibition about the art of reasoning in medieval manuscripts. The collaboration with the digital department of Huygens ING and HuC also gave rise to two new projects: Digital Forensics (2018-2022) and eCodicesNL (2020-2022). In the first project, with software engineer Rutger van Koert and PhD student Hannah Busch, we develop a Deep Learning system to support palaeographic research. In the second, with Irene van Renswoude, Renée Schilling and Sebastiaan van Daalen, we set up a prototype for an online research environment to consult digital medieval manuscripts from Dutch collections and their descriptions.

Mariken Teeuwen held a chair by special appointment for the Transmission of Medieval Latin Texts at Utrecht University from 2011-2021. Her teaching concerned medieval intellectual culture, text transmission and manuscript culture and digital methods of research in history and humanities. Since March 2022 she has been appointed professor by special appointment at the Institute for History at Leiden University, for the ‘Culture of Writing in the Middle Ages’. She teaches medieval manuscript culture and trains students in the old traditional ánd new, digital skills needed in the field. 

She is a member of the International Committee of Medieval Latin.

Key publications

M.J. Teeuwen 2020, 'Reading Boethius Around 900', Knowledge and Culture in Times of Threat: The Fall of the Carolingian Empire (c. 900). Pezé, W. (ed.). Hiersemann, p. 279-303 25 p. (Monographien zur Geschichte des Mittelalters; vol. 69).

M.J. Teeuwen 2018, 'Practices of Appropriation: Writing in the Margin', The European Book in the Twelfth Century. Kwakkel, E. & Thomson, R. (eds.). Cambridge University Press, p. 139-156 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature; vol. 101).

M.J. Teeuwen & I. van Renswoude (eds) 2017, The Annotated Book in the Early Middle Ages: Practices of Reading and Writing, Turnhout: Brepols.

Activities