Call for papers: ‘Premodern Parchment’
Parchment is a familiar medium to medievalists. Animal skin, specially prepared, and employed primarily as a substrate for written communication, it is a substance that many researchers across fields of study regularly scrutinise and handle. There is now no shortage of scholarship that refers to parchment’s experiential qualities—its varied textures, smell, even sound—and its symbolic, especially Christological, significance as skin when bound in books. We seek proposals for papers that build on and move beyond this work, focusing on aspects of the medium that have been somewhat taken for granted including its (quasi) two-dimensionality, sidedness, relative opacity, colour and pliability; and/or delving into the uses of parchment outside the codical context. Our aim is to better understand the perceived possibilities and limitations of parchment in the premodern world and the qualities for which it was valued.
We plan for the session to be in-person and for papers to be 15–20 minutes long. Proposals from individuals in the academic, museum and library sectors; at any stage of their careers and from all disciplines and fields are welcome. If interested, please send an abstract of no more than 250 words along with your CV and the information below (required by IMC) by 23 September 2022 to Megan McNamee: mmcnamee@ed.ac.uk.
- Full name
- Email address
- Postal address
- Telephone number
- Affiliation details (department, institution)
- Title (e.g. Dr, Ms, Mr, Mx, Professor etc)
Call for papers: ‘Concertina-Fold Books Across Premodern Cultures’
Accordion, concertina, pleated, screenfold—scholars use a variety of terms to describe the zig-zag- or ‘fan’-fold book format. Although not identical in structure, books of this type share at least one common feature: they (appear to) comprise a continuous, oblong surface broken by creases. Most are bound in such a way that they can be flipped through like a codex; some can be fully or partially extended to reveal multiple ‘pages’ at once. Just how and even what information was articulated across the surfaces of concertinas, the extent to which the different folded states were meaningfully exploited by premodern people—these are among the questions to be explored in this session.
We seek papers that consider the contents and mechanics of concertinas in various cultural contexts. By taking a comparative approach, we aim to identify commonalities that may signal formal imperatives whilst sharpening our understanding of particularities preserved in different traditions. Proposals by individuals in the academic, museum and library sectors; at any stage of their careers; and from any discipline and field of study are welcome.
Please send an abstract of no more than 250 words along with your CV and the information below (required by IMC) by 23 September 2022 to Megan McNamee: mmcnamee@ed.ac.uk. Information to include with abstract and short CV:
- Full name
- Email address
- Postal address
- Telephone number
- Affiliation details (department, institution)
- Title (e.g. Dr, Ms, Mr, Mx, Professor etc)
Organised by Sarah Griffin, Lambeth Palace Library and Megan McNamee, University of Edinburgh
Medieval Art Research 