Medieval Art Research

PhD Funding: The University of Edinburgh Programmes in History, Classics, and Archaeology (Deadline 25 January 2021)

The University of Edinburgh School of History, Classics and Archaeology is delighted to invite applications from outstanding candidates for a range of PhD scholarships designed to attract the best and brightest candidates to study in Edinburgh.

From the University:

We welcome applications across our full range of research areas in History, Classics and Archaeology, both in areas in which we have long-standing strengths and in areas where we are currently expanding.

History
The size of Edinburgh’s history department, and the breadth of expertise available from our staff, means that we can offer supervision for research projects in a wide array of fields, spanning two millennia and five continents. We have particularly strong research concentrations in Scottish history, American history, Irish history, social and economic history and medieval history. We are also keen to encourage applications from prospective doctoral students in the following research areas:

Global and Transnational History
Intellectual history of early modern Europe (including Britain and Ireland)

Classics
We can offer supervision and welcome applications across most of the major areas of Classical studies: Greek and Latin literature and thought, Greek, Roman, Late Antique and Byzantine history, and classical art and archaeology. We are also keen to encourage applications from prospective doctoral students in the following research areas:

Ancient Law
The Classical Tradition in Byzantium/the Medieval West

Archaeology
Our research interests range from human osteoarchaeology and forensic anthropology to Roman archaeology, early civilisations and urban societies in Europe, the Byzantine world and late antiquity, late hunter-gatherers and the spread of farming in Europe, megalithic monuments, later European prehistory and the archaeology of Scotland. We are also keen to encourage applications from prospective doctoral students in the following research areas:

Cultural Heritage and Community Engagement
Western and Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology

These PhD scholarships will pay a stipend at the equivalent rate to that offered by the Research Councils of the United Kingdom. Tuition fees at the UK/EU rate will also be paid. Payment will be made in equal monthly instalments for a maximum of three years, subject to satisfactory performance.

Applicants for these awards must:

Hold a UK 2.1 or first class honours undergraduate degree (or overseas equivalent) in a relevant field
Hold, or successfully achieve before commencing their PhD with us, an equally high standard of postgraduate master’s degree in a relevant field

Applicants must submit a PhD application by 25 January 2021, and a scholarship application for the School Doctoral Award by 4 February 2021.

Call for Papers: International Workshop on Medieval Epigraphy, 15-19 September 2021 (Deadline 15 January 2021)

The first International Workshop on Medieval Epigraphy held in Roda de Isábena (Aragon, Spain) from 15 to 19 September 2021 is opening a call for applications for young scholars working on medieval inscriptions. Successful applicants will be invited to present their research topic in a three-day international seminar aimed at creating dialogues and exchanges of ideas in the field of medieval epigraphy.

Despite the dynamism of editorial initiatives in Europe and the ever-renewed researches on written cultures of the Middle Ages, works on medieval epigraphy still suffer from their small diffusion in the broad panorama of medieval studies. International symposia is this scientific area are very rare and give little space to the presentation of works in progress on medieval inscriptions, especially from Ph.D. candidates and young researchers.

The organization of the first International Workshop on Medieval Epigraphy in 2021 aims to create an opportunity for young scholars to present their work, and to exchange on their investigation and the methodological issues related to the analysis of epigraphic sources. To ensure this space for discussion and constructive debates, the format chosen for this meeting is different from that of symposia and congresses. The Workshop will bring together a community of twelve young researchers, accompanied by four international experts in medieval literacy, for a three-day seminar of extended presentations (one-hour papers followed by a one-hour session of Q&A). Only the abstracts of the presentations are published online to ensure the dissemination of the research topics. Participants and organizers will thus be able to focus on the intellectual debate, the confrontation of experiences, the sharing of methods and the deepening of the historical questions arising from the analysis of medieval inscriptions.

This call for applications is aimed at young scholars (Ph.D. candidates, post-doctoral fellows, ECR who defended their dissertation after 2014) currently engaged in researches on medieval inscriptions regardless of the theme or approach (paleography, technique, linguistics, text analysis, prosopography, iconography, liturgy, literature, archaeology, etc.). To build the conditions for intellectual debates and to contribute to a better knowledge of the written culture of the Middle Ages, we invite the applicants to focus on methodological questions and the anthropological aspects of their research in medieval epigraphy.

The International Workshop on Medieval Epigraphy will take place in Roda de Isábena, a small medieval village in the mountains of Aragon that keeps the largest collection of medieval inscriptions preserved in Europe (with 231 funerary texts). In the heart of the village, participants will experience a collective journey of intellectual sharing, with visits and scientific events, in Roda and the surrounding area.

The organization of the International Workshop on Medieval Epigraphy will cover the candidates’ travel expenses (up to 250 euros), on-site accommodation, meals and all activities. Successful candidates commit to actively participate in debates and exchanges during the seminar, and to provide an extensive abstract of their presentation before the workshop. All the sessions of the seminar will be videorecorded. All sessions will be held in English.

To apply to International Workshop on Medieval Epigraphy, applicants must submit the following documents (in English, French or Spanish) by January 15, 2021 at this email address vincent.debiais@ehess.fr :
– A cover letter describing their ongoing research,
– A one-page resume,
– A presentation of the project for the seminar (max. 500 words).
The application will be reviewed by the Scientific Committee of the International Workshop on Medieval Epigraphy and candidates will be notified of the results by February 1st, 2021.

New Publication: ‘A Companion to Late Medieval & Early Modern Siena’, edited by Santa Casciani & Heather Richardson Hayton

A Companion to Late Medieval and Early Modern Siena presents chapters by prominent scholars on the powerful commune that birthed a pope, sheltered saints, built banking institutions that have thrived for nearly 1000 years, and nurtured vibrant communities of artists and intellectuals. This multi-disciplinary book, edited by Santa Casciani and Heather Richardson Hayton, redresses scholarly imbalances of the past by introducing early period Siena to a wider audience. Focusing mostly on the 12th to 16th centuries, each chapter explores how the Sienese crafted a distinctive civic identity that remains intact still. Modern readers will find Siena’s responses to plague, political factionalism, and aggression from powerful neighbours particularly relevant.

Contributors are: Mario Ascheri, Saverio Luigi Battente, Elena Brizio, Santa Casciani, Konrad Eisenbichler, Bradley Franco, Fabrizio Nevola, Anna Peterson, Colleen Reardon, Sheri Shaneyfelt, Jane Tylus, Andrea Beth Wenz, Demetrio Yocum.

Introduction, Heather Hayton

Part 1: The City and Commune

1. Siena: the City and its State Throughout Time, Mario Ascheri

2. The Significance of Montaperti, Bradley R. Franco

3. “Per queste cose ognuno sta in santa pace et in concordia”: Understanding Urban Space in Renaissance Siena, Fabrizio Nevola

4. Saint Catherine and Siena, Jane Tylus

Part 2: Art and Religion

5. “Beata quella città della sua patria!”. Siena’s Religious Culture and Carthusian Monasticism, Demetrio S. Yocum

6. The Marian Altarpieces of Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Sheri F. Shaneyfelt

7. The Discussion and Transmission of Reformed Religious Beliefs in Early-Modern Siena, Andrea Beth Wenz

8. Bernardino of Siena in the History and Culture of the City of L’Aquila, Santa Casciani

Part 3: Culture and Society

9. Public Health and Hospitals in Medieval Siena before the Black Death, Anna M. Peterson

10. “Sebben che siamo donne …”: Sienese Women in the Troubled Years at the End of the Republic (c.1500–60), Elena Brizio

11. “Sotto un Lauro in corona”: Literate Women in 16th-Century Siena, Konrad Eisenbichler

12. “An Occasion to Banish Melancholy”: Musical Culture in Early Modern Siena, Colleen Reardon

Epilogue: The Foundations of Contemporary Siena

The “Gothic Queen”: the Myth of Siena in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Saverio Luigi Battente

Santa Casciani, Ph.D. (1994, University of Wisconsin, Madison), is Professor of Italian at John Carroll University and founding director of the Bishop Anthony M. Pilla Program, and a Rome program. She has published widely on Michelangelo, Dante, Italian and Italian- American literature, and pedagogy.

Heather Richardson Hayton, Ph.D. (2000, Pennsylvania State University), is an award-winning professor of English and director of the Honors Program at Guilford College. She has published on medieval desire, monstrosity, and various topics in pop culture. She regularly leads a study-abroad program in Siena.

Find out more here.

New Publication: ‘Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, Volume 7’, ed. John A. Cotsonis

From Harvard University Press

Dumbarton Oaks houses the largest collection of Byzantine lead seals in the world, with approximately 17,000 specimens. Volume 7 of the ongoing series of Dumbarton Oaks catalogues presents a distinct part of the collection: 572 anonymous seals bearing sacred images on both sides. The seals, almost all previously unpublished, are fully illustrated and accompanied by a detailed commentary that provides transcriptions of the identifying sigla. This volume represents the first attempt to analyze this group of seals chronologically and typologically.

The depictions of Christ, the Virgin, and a remarkably wide array of saints and narrative scenes offer rich and untapped material for scholars interested in Byzantine piety and culture. Discernible trends within this body of seals help to track the popularity of various saints and the changes in devotional images over time. The variety of these images, enhanced by reference to examples in other collections, will also enable scholars to compare the renderings of holy figures on lead seals to those appearing in other Byzantine religious images.

Call for Papers: ‘Movement’, Medieval Studies Student Colloquium, Cornell University, 26-27 March 2021 (Deadline 15 January 2021)

The Medieval Studies Program at Cornell University is pleased to announce its thirty-first annual graduate student colloquium (MSSC). The conference will take place on the 26th and the 27th of March, to be held virtually over Zoom.

This year’s colloquium focuses on the theme of movement. Movement denotes the movement of peoples, cultures, thoughts and goods, the migration of plants and of animals. What happens to movement when it is frozen in stone (the swoop of hair across a person’s face in a marble statue)? How does an idea change when it is translated from one language to another? We are interested in movement defined broadly and represented across a range of disciplines.

We invite 20-minute papers that investigate movement in the Middle Ages as defined by/within a range of different disciplines and perspectives. Possible topics may include (but are not limited to):

The migration of people, animals, and plants;
Cultures of movement;
Translation and adaptation (of cultures, languages, etc.);
Traditions that involve physical or spiritual movement;
Cosmology and the movement of celestial bodies;
Trade and movement in economics;
The stagnation or absence of “movement;”
Detainment;
The representation of “movement;”
Displacement, dispersal, or diaspora;
Moving into the “unknown;”
Temporal movement;
Effects of movement;
Ethics of movement.

Preference will be given to papers from underrepresented backgrounds and disciplines. We strongly encourage submissions that expand these themes and categories of inquiry beyond Christian, Western European contexts. We invite submissions in all disciplines allied to Medieval Studies, including Asian Studies, Africana Studies, Critical Race Studies, Near Eastern Studies, literature, history, the history of art, archaeology, philosophy, classics, theology, and others. The deadline for submission is 15 January 2021.

New Publication: ‘The Medieval Iberian Treasury in the Context of Cultural Interchange (Expanded Edition)’, edited by Therese Martin

The Medieval Iberian Treasury in the Context of Cultural Interchange—expanded beyond the special issue of Medieval Encounters from which it was drawn—centers on the magnificent treasury of San Isidoro de León to address wider questions about the meanings of cross-cultural luxury goods in royal-ecclesiastical settings during the central Middle Ages. Now fully open access and with an updated introduction to ongoing research, an additional chapter, composite bibliographies, and indices, this multidisciplinary volume opens fresh ways into the investigation of medieval objects and textiles through historical, art historical, and technical analyses. Carbon-14 dating, iconography, and social history are among the methods applied to material and textual evidence, together shining new light on the display of rulership in medieval Iberia.

Contributors are Ana Cabrera Lafuente, María Judith Feliciano, Julie A. Harris, Jitske Jasperse, Therese Martin, Pamela A. Patton, Ana Rodríguez, and Nancy L. Wicker.

1. Beyond the Treasury of San Isidoro: a Tale of Two Projects, Therese Martin

2. Caskets of Silver and Ivory from Diverse Parts of the World: Strategic Collecting for an Iberian Treasury, Therese Martin

3. Narrating the Treasury: What Medieval Iberian Chronicles Choose to Recount about Luxury Objects, Ana Rodríguez

4. Textiles from the Museum of San Isidoro (León): New Evidence for Re-Evaluating Their Chronology and Provenance, Ana Cabrera Lafuente

5. Sovereign, Saint, and City: Honor and Reuse of Textiles in the Treasury of San Isidoro (Leon), María Judith Feliciano

6. Between León and the Levant: the Infanta Sancha’s Altar as Material Evidence for Medieval History, Jitske Jasperse

7. Demons and Diversity in León, Pamela A. Patton

8. Jews, Real And Imagined, at San Isidoro De León and Beyond, Julie A. Harris

9. The Scandinavian Container at San Isidoro, León, in the Context of Viking Art and Society, Nancy L. Wicker

Find out more here.

Online Lecture: ‘Three historical oddities, from the fall of the Roman empire to the BC/AC divide & the continent of Europe’ with Eric Fernie, BAA Lecture, 6 January 2021, 5:00 PM (GMT)

The British Archaeological Association’s January Lecture will be by Professor Eric Fernie (Courtauld Institute of Art) who will be presenting ‘Three historical oddities, from the fall of the Roman empire to the BC/AC divide and the continent of Europe’.

The lecture will be taking place on Zoom on 6 January 2021, 5:00 PM (GMT). Register here.

New Publication: ‘Picturing Death 1200–1600’, edited by Stephen Perkinson & Noa Turel

Series: Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History, Volume: 321/50Brill’s Studies on Art, Art History, and Intellectual History, Volume: 321/50

Picturing Death: 1200–1600 explores the visual culture of mortality over the course of four centuries that witnessed a remarkable flourishing of imagery focused on the themes of death, dying, and the afterlife. In doing so, this volume sheds light on issues that unite two periods—the Middle Ages and the Renaissance—that are often understood as diametrically opposed. The studies collected here cover a broad visual terrain, from tomb sculpture to painted altarpieces, from manuscripts to printed books, and from minute carved objects to large-scale architecture. Taken together, they present a picture of the ways that images have helped humans understand their own mortality, and have incorporated the deceased into the communities of the living.

Contributors: Jessica Barker, Katherine Boivin, Peter Bovenmyer, Xavier Dectot, Maja Dujakovic, Brigit Ferguson, Alison C. Fleming, Fredrika Jacobs, Henrike C. Lange, Robert Marcoux, Walter S. Melion, Stephen Perkinson, Johanna Scheel, Mary Silcox, Judith Steinhoff, and Noa Turel.

Introduction, Stephen Perkinson and Noa Turel

Part 1: Housing the Dead

Chapter 1: Looking beyond the Face: Tomb Effigies and the Medieval Commemoration of the Dead, by Robert Marcou

Chapter 2: Portraiture, Projection, Perfection: The Multiple Effigies of Enrico Scrovegni, by Henrike Christiane Lange

Chapter 3: Plorans ploravit in nocte: The Birth of the Figure of the Pleurant in Tomb Sculpture, by Xavier Dectot

Chapter 4: Gendering Prayer in Trecento Florence: Tomb Paintings in Santa Croce and San Remigio, by Judith Steinhoff

Chapter 5: Two-Story Charnel-House Chapels and the Space of Death in the Medieval City, by Katherine M. Boivin

Part 2: Mortal Anxieties and Living Paradoxes

Chapter 6: The Living Dead and the Joy of the Crucifixion, by Brigit G. Ferguson

Chapter 7: The Speaking Tomb: Ventriloquizing the Voices of the Dead, by Jessica Barker

Chapter 8: Feeding Worms: The Theological Paradox of the Decaying Body and Its Depictions in the Context of Prayer and Devotion, by Johanna Scheel

Chapter 9: Not Quite Dead: Imaging the Miracle of Infant Resuscitation, by Fredrika H. Jacobs

Part 3: The Macabre, Instrumentalized

Chapter 10: Dissecting for the King: Guido da Vigevano and the Anatomy of Death, by Peter Bovenmyer

Chapter 11: Covert Apotheoses: Archbishop Henry Chichele’s Tomb and the Vocational Logic of Early Transis, by Noa Turel

Chapter 12: Into Print: Early Illustrated Books and the Reframing of the Danse Macabre, by Maja Dujakovic

Chapter 13: Death Commodified: Macabre Imagery on Luxury Objects, c. 1500, by Stephen Perkinson

Part 4: Departure and Persistence

Chapter 14: Coemeterium Schola: The Emblematic Imagery of Death in Jan David’s Veridicus Christianus, by Walter S. Melion

Chapter 15: A Protestant Reconceptualization of Images of Death and the Afterlife in Stephen Bateman’s A Christall Glasse, by Mary V. Silcox

Chapter 16: Shifting Role Models within the Society of Jesus: The Abandonment of Grisly Martyrdom Images c. 1600, by Alison C. Fleming

Find out more here.

Postdoctoral Research Fellowship: Late Antique and/or Medieval Greek and Near Eastern Narrative, Ghent University, deadline 5 January 2021

The Department of Literary Studies at Ghent University (Belgium) is seeking well-qualified applicants for a fully-funded and full-time postdoctoral research fellowship in the European Research Council Consolidator Grant project Novel Echoes. Ancient novelistic receptions and concepts of fiction in late antique and medieval secular narrative from East to West. Its Principal Investigator is Prof Dr Koen De Temmerman, who specializes in ancient fiction and its reception.

The successful applicant will start employment after 1 March 2021. In order to be eligible, candidates must have obtained their PhD degree at the time of application or demonstrate that they will have that degree in hand by the start of their postdoctoral fellowship.

Within the ERC project, subprojects are assigned to individual team members. For the current vacancy, this subproject is situated in the following area: GREEK AND NEAR EASTERN STORY-TELLING: CONTACTS AND RECEPTION IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN IN LATE ANTIQUITY AND THE MIDDLE AGES. The successful candidate will work on receptions of ancient Greek fiction in Near Eastern story-telling, on the importance of rhetorical, hagiographical and/or other narrative traditions therein, and on concepts of fiction in cross-cultural narrative environments of the Eastern Mediterranean (in, for example, Christian, Islamic, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Samaritan, or Manichaean literary corpora).

The successful candidate will spend at least 70% of their time on academic research, contribute to the strong research tradition of the Department and the University by pursuing excellence in his/her research and by publishing in journals and with publishers that are internationally accepted as being of the highest quality, publish under the parameters of the project in consultation with the Principal Investigator, live in Belgium, and play a leading role in the scholarly activities of the research group (e.g. by organizing events, co-supervizing PhD students, etc.).

Qualifications

Thesis-based doctorate (obtained max. 6 years ago).
Excellent command of (ancient or Byzantine) Greek and/or one or more Near Eastern languages (Arabic, Persian, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, Georgian).
Expertise in comparative literature and/or literary theory;
A demonstrable interest or specialization in intellectual or cultural exchange between the Greek/Byzantine world and Near Eastern cultures;
Demonstrable research experience with cross-cultural transmissions, translations or adaptations of narrative (or, more generally, cultural) production.

New Publication: The Interaction of Art and Relics in Late Medieval and Early Modern Art, ed. Livia Stoenescu

The collection of essays gathered in this volume investigates the interaction between art and relics as a distinct historical relevance for devotional art of Early Modernity and the Renaissance. Recent studies in the material culture of artifacts from these periods have drawn increasing attention to a sense of material tangibility derived from relics. Putting that conclusion into perspective, this edited collection focuses on the aesthetic meaning generated by a specific material culture of sanctity – one in which artists based their practice upon the nature, variety, and history of relics. Works of art that contained relics shared in the aura of the relics, defining themselves as non-substitutable signs, or signs that preserved the physical relationship to the immutable nature and origin of relics. As studied in this volume, funerary monuments, chapel decorations, altarpieces, liturgical objects, and sacred sites yielded an unordinary aesthetic meaning, one that captured and at the same time transmitted the histories linked to a relic. Each chapter emphasizes the specific history contained within works of art premised upon relics and thus forever embedded in the relics’ status as sacred originals.

Table of Contents:

I. Relics in the Art, Decoration, and Architectural Memory of Early Modern Chapels

Kristina Keogh, Authenticating the Holy Body: Transitions between Relic and Image in the Early Modern Cults of Caterina de’ Vigri and Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi

Cloe Cavero de Carondelet, Reframing a Medieval Miracle in Early Modern Spain: The Origins of Our Lady del Sagrario of Toledo

Alison Fleming, Art and the Relics of St. Francis Xavier in Dialogue

II. Relics Integral to Sacred Spaces and Works of Art

Sarah Cadagin, The Interrelation of Curtains, Altarpieces, Relics: Domenico Ghirlandaio’s Response to the Cult of the Volto Santo in Lucca Cathedral

Suzanna Simor, Relics and the Visualization of the Christian Creed

Livia Stoenescu, The Place of Relics in Loca Sancta, Medieval Combinations, and the Catholic Reform

III. Artists Engaging with Relics

Jérémie Koering, Michelangelo’s Relics: Some Aspects of Artistic Devotion in Cinquecento Italy

Sarah Dillon, The Duality of Glass: Revealing and Concealing Holy Relics in Early Modern Italy

For more information, visit the Brepols website: http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503583983-1