Variance and change is central to this program. The manuscript culture of the Middle Ages has been characterised as constituted by variance on all levels, from palaeography and ortography to the transmission of motifs and larger textual units. An important contention at the outset of the program is that this variance plays perhaps the most significant role in our understanding of norms and change in the establishing of a literate culture. We therefore intend to carry out investigations of the modes of modification on various levels in the transmission of texts in order to establish a systematic synthesis. Two central perspectives concern time and space. We will operate with rather open definitions of both the time period covered by the program and the delimiting of the geographical area, something that may prove challenging but is essential to our approach. As for the time period relevant for the program the preliminary time-frame will be c. 900 to c. 1600, but this period will be transcended in both directions when necessary to achieve the synthesis we wish to establish. Primarily we will study the literate output of the Nordic region, but our perspective must inevitably lead us into European comparison. The overall aim of the program is twofold. Our first objective is to form a new synthesis in the view of texts in transmission in the Nordic realm. A second objective is to explore the theoretical and methodological issues further in order to contribute to the debate.