Author Archives: Roisin Astell

CFP: ‘“As stiffe twin compasses”: Allegory and Sciences, 1300-1700’, deadline 15 June 2025

Papers are invited for this upcoming conference that investigates the multifaceted roles of allegory within scientific and intellectual traditions from the Late Middle Ages to the Early Modern period in Europe.

Conference: ‘Siena: The Rise of Painting 1300-1350’, London, The National Gallery, 20 June 2025, 9am-5.45pm (BST)

Join the National Gallery in London to hear about the remarkable achievements of Siena’s artists and the significance of Sienese painting in the wider world during the late Middle Ages.

Murray Seminar: ‘African coastlines, the Manueline Style and Changing Perceptions of Nature’ with Scott Nethersole, Birkbeck, 10 June 2025, 5-6.30pm (BST)

Please join Birkbeck for the final Murray Seminar of this academic year with Scott Nethersole, ‘mai non vidi la più bella costa de quel che me parse questa: African coastlines, the Manueline style and changing perceptions of nature’.

Scholarship: The Dowley/Retford Studentship in History of Art, Birkbeck University of London, deadline 16 June 2025

Birkbeck, University of London, invites application for the their Dowley/Retford Studentship in History of Art.

CFP: BAA Post-Graduate Conference, deadline 31st July 2025

The BAA invites proposals by postgraduates and early career researchers in the field of medieval history of art, architecture, and archaeology. Papers can be on any aspect of the medieval period, from antiquity to the Later Middle Ages, across all geographical regions.

CFP: ‘Cultural Crossroads: Artistic Encounters between the Low Countries and Spain, 15th-17th Centuries’, deadline 6 June 2025

Applications are invited for the Moll Institute (Madrid) and the Fondation Périer-D’Ieteren (Brussels) research study days that focus on identifying and studying the art that developed in the Low Countries between the 15th and 17th centuries and that is preserved in Spanish collections.

Symposium: ‘Concertina-Fold Books across Time, Space and Cultures’, Lambeth Palace Library, Friday 2 May 2025, 10am-5.30pm (GMT)

The symposium is part of programming for the Unfolding Time exhibition, on medieval ‘pocket’ calendars, which looks at the way the concertina format was deployed in late medieval Europe, with a focus on England. In-person attendees will have the opportunity to visit the exhibition and play with concertina facsimiles.

Panel discussion: ‘A Conversation about Concertina-Fold Books across Time, Space and Cultures’, Weston Library, Oxford Bodleian Library, Thursday 1 May 2025, 3-4pm (GMT)

Accordion, screenfold, chain—various terms have been applied to books folded in a zig-zag or ‘concertina’ pattern. Seen now as novelties, concertina-fold books were once found worldwide. This discussion will be grounded in some of the outstanding examples of these books in Bodleian collections.