Dedicated to the question of the sign, this volume brings together the three plenary lectures given by Daniel Heller-Roazen (Philosophy and Comparative Literature, Princeton), Michel Pastoureau (History and History of Art, EPHE Paris) and Susan Rankin (Musicology, Cambridge), at the 7th doctoral course of the Institute of Medieval Studies of the University of Fribourg (3-5 September 2018), and is introduced by a critical essay by Marion Uhlig (French Medieval Languages and Literatures, Fribourg). The articles focus on the figures handwritten on the manuscript page, seen as a space of interaction between content and form.

The publication is the result of the Freiburg Colloquium 2017 on the topic "Belles Lettres. Figurationen des Schreibens im Mittelalter". The publication deals with the various phenomena of the design of medieval manuscript pages and takes an interdisciplinary approach.

The publication presents the results of the interdisciplinary Freiburg Colloquium 2021 (Université de Fribourg, Switzerland) "Paradigms and Perspectives of Comparative Medieval Studies". The contributions explore the theoretical and methodological premises of historically orientated comparative research that focuses on the specific cultural conditions of the pre-modern period. The focus is on two central paradigms in current medievalist discourse: the materiality and mediality of medieval manuscript culture on the one hand and the central role of the Latin language as a supra-regional lingua franca and motor for exchange and innovation across linguistic and cultural borders on the other.