New Publication: Tree of Pearls: The Extraordinary Architectural Patronage of the 13th-Century Egyptian Slave-Queen Shajar al-Durr, by D. Fairchild Ruggles

Shajar al-Durr—known as “Tree of Pearls”—began her remarkable career as a child slave, given as property to the Ayyubid Sultan Salih of Egypt. She became his favorite concubine, was manumitted, became the sultan’s wife, served as governing regent, and ultimately rose to become the legitimately appointed sultan of Egypt in 1250 after her husband’s death. Shajar al-Durr used her wealth and power to add a tomb to his urban madrasa; with this innovation, madrasas and many other charitably endowed architectural complexes became commemorative monuments, a practice that remains widespread today. A highly unusual case of a Muslim woman authorized to rule in her own name, her reign ended after only three months when she was forced to share her governance with an army general from the ranks of the Mamluks (elite slave soldiers) and for political expediency to marry him.

Despite the fact that Shajar al-Durr’s story ends tragically with her assassination and hasty burial, her deeds in her lifetime offer a stark alternative to the continued belief that women in the medieval period were unseen, anonymous, and inconsequential in a world that belonged to men. This biography—the first ever in English—will place the rise and fall of the sultan-queen in the wider context of the cultural and architectural development of Cairo, the city that still holds one of the largest and most important collections of Islamic monuments in the world. D. Fairchild Ruggles also situates the queen’s extraordinary architectural patronage in relation to other women of her own time, such as Aleppo’s Ayyubid regent. Tree of Pearls concludes with a lively discussion of what we can know about the material impact of women of both high and lesser social rank in this period, and why their impact matters in the writing of history.

D. Fairchild Ruggles is Professor and Debra L. Mitchell Chair in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she also holds appointments in Art History, Architecture, Medieval Studies, Spanish and Portuguese, and Gender and Women’s Studies. She is the author and presenter of short films on Islamic art for the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf, and she is current art and architecture field editor for The Encyclopaedia of Islam.

You can pre-order the book here.

New publication: Architecture of Disjuncture: Mediterranean Trade and Cathedral Building in a New Diocese (11th-13th Centuries), by Joseph C. Williams

Through careful analysis of the Romanesque cathedral of Molfetta (in Apulia, southern Italy), Williams demonstrates how the commercial boom of the medieval Mediterranean changed the way churches were funded, designed, and built. The young bishopric of Molfetta, emerging in an economy of long-distance trade, competed with much wealthier institutions in its own diocese. Funding for the cathedral was slow and unpredictable. To adapt, the builders designed toward versatility, embracing multi-functionalism, change over time, specialization, and a heterogeneous style.

Joseph C. Williams is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. Williams holds a Ph.D. in Art History from Duke University, where he was advised by Dr. Caroline Bruzelius. His research focuses on Romanesque architecture in Southern Italy, with a particular emphasis on　building process, construction techniques, and pan-Mediterranean exchanges of specialized knowledge. Williams is also active in the Digital Humanities and new ways of representing historic buildings, including digital photogrammetry and GIS, and has served as Project Manager for the Kingdom of Sicily Image Database. At Maryland, Williams teaches courses on ancient and medieval architecture, buildings archaeology, and the theme of interaction and conflict in the Mediterranean. Williams is the recipient of a Phyllis W. G. Gordan / Lily Auchincloss / Samuel H. Kress Foundation Rome Prize in Medieval Studies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Studying Architecture at the Joints

1. A Disjointed Program: Form, Function, and Finances

2. The Joints of Process: Design Change Through Constructional Episodes

3. The Joints of Expertise: Design Choice Across the Division of Labor

4. The Joints of Geography: Geology, Travel Pathways, and Knowledge Cabotage

Conclusion: A Mediterranean Building Strategy

Appendix 1: Construction Chronology of Molfetta Cathedral (c. 1100 – 1300)

Charts

You can purchase the book here.

CFP: Histoire et transmission de la ‘Passio imaginis Salvatoris’, deadline 1 September 2020

La Passio imaginis Salvatoris est la première réitération de l’accusation de déicide imputée aux juifs (787). Repris et répété sans relâche, traversant au fils du temps des registres fort divers de la production littéraire, de la liturgie romaine et byzantine (avant 1000), en passant par les miracles de la Vierge du nord de la France (avant 1200), aux manuels scolaires de l’Université de Paris (avant 1300), le texte est aux origines du fait d’accuser l’autrui et précède aux accusations de meurtre rituel (XIe-XXe siècles). Précurseur de l’accusation d’infanticide, d’homicide, d’ennemi du genre humain, son actualisation est d’une redoutable logique et fut reprise, dès l’invention de l’imprimerie, dans un cadre savant par les grandes entreprises éditoriales de l’époque moderne (XVIe et XVIIe siècles). Décrire sa transmission, ses rebondissements, ses versions, ainsi que donner l’édition de son archétype, doit nous mieux renseigner sur les coulisses de sa propagande.

L’édition critique dans le Corpus Christianorum (Brepols) de l’archétype latin de la Passio imaginis Salvatoris, élargie aux autres versions latines, est prévue pour le printemps 2021. La tenue d’un colloque, qui devrait réunir les meilleurs spécialistes venus de différents domaines de la recherche, va accompagner à l’IRHT sa publication.

Les contributeurs au colloque sont invités à prendre note du programme prévisionnel (https://passio.hypotheses.org) et à envoyer un titre et un résumé au comité scientifique avant le 1er septembre 2020.

Afin de mesurer les ambitions du colloque, sont évoqués ici brièvement quelques points essentiels de l’histoire et de la transmission de la Passio imaginis Salvatoris. L’histoire de sa répétition écrite permet la critique de la chronologie du fait d’accuser en repoussant le début au dernier quart du VIIIe siècle, c’est-à-dire avant l’an 800.

Au regard de la répétition, il s’agit de la première réitération de l’accusation de déicide. En mettant en scène une communauté de juifs qui réitère la Passion du Christ, ne fût-ce qu’à travers une icône, non seulement l’accusation de déicide est renouvelée, mais elle redevient également d’actualité, de notre temps. S’il est légitime de poser la question de la première fois (et sa célébration), l’actualisation a une force irrésistible car elle remet le déicide dans le hic et nunc, dans le temps d’après l’accusation initiale, le temps du pèlerinage. Que le mot eikôn soit traduit en Occident par imago, que l’homme soit fait à l’image de Dieu, ne fait qu’amplifier la répétition. Associée à d’autres textes accusatoires, s’opère ainsi un glissement de déicide vers infanticide et, par extension, vers homicide, avant même les premiers passages à l’acte (XIIe siècle).

Connue d’abord du deuxième concile de Nicée (787) où la Passio est lue pour la première fois devant le rassemblement des ecclésiastiques, son histoire débute réellement une fois qu’elle fut extraite des Actes du concile pour servir de lecture pour la Dédicace de Saint-Jean du Latran (Xe siècle). Si l’on comprend encore mal la raison d’un tel choix de la part des moines de la basilique constantinienne, commence alors une transmission à maints rebondissements qui assure de génération à génération la continuité de sa lecture liturgique et extra-liturgique.

Lecture pour la Dédicace de l’Ecclesia mater (avant 1000), lecture pour l’Exaltation de la Croix et réemploi pour le culte du vrai sang du Christ dit e latere (avant 1100), l’insertion dans des collections de miracles de la Vierge (avant 1200), l’insertion dans les abrégés des sommes de saints et les compilations d’exempla pour la prédication universitaire (avant 1300), enfin sa reprise dans un cadre savant par les grandes entreprises éditoriales à l’heure de l’imprimerie (XVIe et XVIIe siècles) − partant d’un testimonium pour la cause iconophile (VIIIe siècle), la propagation est ainsi renouvelée par la reprise de la Passio dans des situations historiques bien différentes que celle de sa lecture initiale.

Le colloque a comme vocation de replacer la transmission de la Passio imaginis Salvatorisdans cette histoire multiple.

Thèmes abordés

1. L’Orient

  • Premiers textes VIe-VIIIe siècles
  • Les dossiers préparatoires grecs VIIIe-XIIIe siècles
  • L’image et répétition. L’argument accusatoire VIIIe-IXe siècles
  • La variante d’Alexandrie. Le texte copte du pseudo-Cyrille IXe siècle
  • Les lieux de mémoire. L’histoire ecclésiastique de Beyrouth à Venise Xe-XVIe siècles
  • La transmission grecque Xe-XVIIIe siècles

2. L’Occident

  • Les dédicaces lombardes au Saint-Sauveur VIIIe-XIe siècles
  • Les usages liturgiques. Saint-Jean du Latran, moines et chanoines Xe-XIIe siècles
  • Le dossier du Volto Santo et le culte du vrai sang du Christ XIe-XVe siècles
  • Le libellus liturgique de Lucca XIe-XVIe siècles
  • Le dossier iconographique XIIe-XIVe siècles
  • Les textes accusatoires en France, en Catalogne et en Angleterre XIIe-XVIIe siècles
  • Les outils de prédicateur XIIIe-XIVe siècles

3. Critique d’érudition et les érudits

  • Le doute dans la Contre-Réforme. La critique d’attribution de Cesare Baronio XVIesiècle
  • Le corpus des Mauristes XVIIe siècle
  • Les Bollandistes de Papenbroch à Delehaye XVIIe-XXe siècles

Comité scientifique

  • Vincent DÉROCHE (COLLÈGE DE FRANCE)
  • Michele BACCI (UNIVERSITÉ DE FRIBOURG)
  • Michele FERRARI (FRIEDRICH-ALEXANDER UNIVERSITÄT ERLANGEN)
  • Alexandros ALEXAKIS (UNIVERSITÉ D’IOANNINA)
  • Niek THATE (IRHT/CNRS)

Contact : n.thate@irht.cnrs.fr
Carnet de recherche : https://passio.hypotheses.org

Information:

  • Type d’événement:  Colloque
  • Conditions d’accès:  Libre
  • Date de début et fin:  23/02/2021 to 24/02/2021
  • Dates des séances:  23/02/2021 – 09:00

New Publication: Medieval Things: Agency, Materiality, and Narratives of Objects in Medieval German Literature and Beyond, by Bettina Bildhauer

What does medieval literature look like from the point of view not of knights and ladies, but of treasure, and rings, nets and the grail? How does medieval literature imagine the agency of material things, and what exactly distinguishes human subjects from inanimate objects? Medieval Things: Agency, Materiality, and Narratives of Objects in Medieval German Literature and Beyond brings together a theoretically informed and politically engaged new materialist approach with a study of how everyday objects are understood in medieval literature. Bettina Bildhauer argues that medieval narratives can inspire current critical theory on agency and materiality. She focuses on famous and forgotten German narratives from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, including Wolfram of Eschenbach’s Parzival and the epic Song of the Nibelungs, and sets them in their global context. Many such tales can be reconceptualized as “thing biographies”—stories that follow the trajectory not of a human hero but of a coin, a gown, a treasure, or a ring. Many also use nets and networks to conceptualize dangerous structures of knowledge. Shine, glamour, and charisma emerge as particularly powerful ways in which material things exert a kind of agency that is neither pseudo-human nor fetishistic. In analyzing details like these from medieval literature, Bildhauer thus contributes in new ways to current theory on agency and materiality.

Bettina Bildhauer is Professor of Modern Languages at the University of St Andrews.

You can pre-order the book here.

Call for Applications: ICMA Viewpoints Series Editor(s), deadline 15 July 2020

Applications due July 15, 2020, for position beginning January 1, 2021

The International Center of Medieval Art and the Pennsylvania State University Press announce a new book series: ICMA Books—Viewpoints. This series aims to engage with and instigate new conversations, debates, and perspectives not only about medieval art and visual-material culture, but also in relation to the critical practices employed by medieval art his­torians. Books will typically be data-rich, issue-driven, and even polemical. The range of potential subjects is broad and varied, and each title will tackle a significant and timely problem in the field of medieval art and visual-material culture. The Viewpoints series is interdisciplinary and actively involved in providing a forum for current critical developments in art historical methodology, the structure of scholarly writing, and/or the use of evidence. Books in the ICMA Books—Viewpoints series will be short: ca. 45,000–75,000 words, illustrated by no more than 20–30 black-and-white images, and will be written to engage specialists and students alike.

The International Center of Medieval Art (ICMA) invites applications for the position of Series Editor(s) for our recently-established book series, Viewpoints, co-published with the Pennsylvania State University Press.  The Viewpoints series aims to instigate new conversations and engage with fresh perspectives on medieval art and visual-material culture.  (Please see the description below.) The new Series Editor(s) will collaborate closely with Eleanor H. Goodman, editor at the Pennsylvania State University Press.  The successful Series Editor(s) will be effective, efficient, and driven; they should share the established vision for this book series and have the energy and time to commission thought-provoking contributions that engage with current debates in the fields of medieval studies and art history.  We underscore that Viewpoints breaks with traditional modes for the scholarly monograph.  Books in the series will be short and idea driven and will not be heavily illustrated. Viewpoints volumes should be attuned to the social and historiographical stakes of scholarship (bound, for instance to issues of race, gender, or power dynamics) and address both the original functions and modern re-uses of medieval material.
 
We seek applications from individuals or teams of two, and we are particularly eager to work with scholars who identify with groups that historically have been underrepresented in the academy.  Applications consist of a CV and a cover letter.  The cover letter should explain your vision for the series, including ideas for particular volumes, and delineate your editorial experience and/or why you are well-suited to an editorial appointment.  The position is unpaid, but you will have the satisfaction of making an important mark on the field.  Please email requested materials to Amanda Luyster, Chair of the ICMA Publications Committee (aluyster@holycross.edu), and Nina Rowe, President of the ICMA (nrowe@fordham.edu).

Find out more here.

CFP: New Perspectives on Italian Art, Italian Art Society sponsored session, Renaissance Society of America 67th Annual Meeting, deadline 13 July 2020

This is a sponsored session by the Italian Art Society for the Renaissance Society of America 67th Annual Meeting in Dublin, Ireland on 7–10 April 2021.


This session aims to create a space for emerging scholars (recent Ph.D.s or Ph.D. candidates) of Italian art to present their work. Proposals on any area of Italian early modern art (1300-1600) are welcome. We are particularly interested in scholars working in new methodologies, new areas of study, or innovative approaches to more traditional areas of Renaissance studies. The intention is to provide new scholars a forum to present their ideas and methods and an opportunity to receive constructive feedback from senior scholars who will serve as respondents.

Please send proposals to the organizers, Ilaria Andreoli (ilaria.andreoli@item-cnrs.fr) and Kelley Di Dio (kelley.didio@uvm.edu) by Monday, July 13, 2020.

Paper proposals must include:
– abstract (150 words max)
– paper title (25 words max)
– your full name, current affiliation, email address, and Ph.D. completion date (past or expected)
– a brief c.v. (300 words max, and must be in list not narrative form)
– a list of key words (8 max)

Please note: Speakers must become RSA members by November 1st to speak at the conference.

CFP: ‘Hidden Gems’ Virtual Conference, ICOM International Committee for Museums and Collections of Decorative Arts and Design, deadline 1 July 2020

“Hidden Gems” Virtual Conference ICOM International Committee for Museums and Collections of Decorative Arts and Design

15–16 October 2020

The 2020 Annual Conference and General Assembly of ICOM International Committee for Museums and Collections of Decorative Arts and Design was meant to take place in Lisbon, Portugal, in October of 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ICDAD board has elected to postpone the previously selected theme of “Revivals” to 2021, when we hope to meet in Lisbon in person. All proposals already submitted for the “Revivals” meeting will be eligible for the 2021 meeting, and the CFP will re-open for new proposals at a future date. In October of 2020, ICDAD will instead host an online meeting centered around the theme of “hidden gems.”

Every public decorative arts and design collection has hidden corners and unplumbed depths, and many private collections are difficult for outsiders to access during the best of times, much less during a pandemic. As institutions and individuals face the possibility that we might not be able to visit each other’s museums and discuss with colleagues in person for some time, ICDAD is thrilled to host a two-day virtual conference and general assembly exploring these hidden holdings in decorative arts and design collections around the world.

Does your collection have objects that you wish scholars and visitors knew more about? What is the subject on which you have always wanted to present an exhibition or essay, or a small yet significant story that has not yet been highlighted at your institution? If you work with a private collection, what in your holdings would you most like to see made accessible to the wider design community? We welcome presentations that address any of these questions, as well as issues related to:

  • Challenging collections that require special treatment, both physically and intellectually
  • Stories of “hidden” or underrepresented collectors, or unexpected ways that a collection may have come together
  • Works by designers and makers who were previously unknown or under-explored
  • Collection access and display, physical and digital, their challenges and best practice examples

Submission: please send an abstract of 250–300 words including your name, job position, institution, short CV, photo (headshot), ICOM number and ICDAD membership confirmation*, to Shoshana Resnikoff at editor@icom-icdad.org by July 1, 2020.

Notification of acceptance: July 31, 2020

Format: The conference will be held digitally October 15–16, 2020. Presentations should not exceed 20 minutes in length and should be accompanied by a powerpoint slide show. The official language of the conference is English. The annual general assembly will take place online during these dates as well.

Please contact Shoshana Resnikoff at editor@icom-icdad.org with any questions, and we look forward to seeing you (online!) in October.

*Please note: ICDAD welcomes abstracts from museum professionals worldwide, members and non-members alike. However, all participants must be members of ICDAD and ICOM at the moment of the conference. If accepted to present at the meeting, please get in contact with your national ICOM committee for membership registration. See icom.museum/en/get-involved/become-a-member/.

More information here and here.

Scholarships: MA in Medieval Studies, University of York, deadline 31 June 2020

The University of York is still offering scholarships for those pursuing an MA in Medieval Studies at the university. Ensure you’ve applied for a place on our MA by the end of June. Applications after that date are still welcome but sadly cannot be considered for bursaries.

You can learn more here.

MA Medieval Studies, University of York

Explore all facets of European medieval life and culture, from 400 to 1550, studying in the heart of England’s medieval capital.

Our expertise spans over 1,000 years and four different disciplines, offering dedicated training in medieval languages, palaeography and diplomatic – the analysis and authentication of historical documents. Our innovative interdisciplinary approach makes the Centre for Medieval Studies (CMS) one of the world’s leading centres for study and research of the Middle Ages. 

The MA in Medieval Studies is an introduction to the medieval cultures of Europe. New disciplines will complement your existing skills, offering you world-class teaching from the departments of Archaeology, English, History and History of Art. You’ll learn to recognise how the subjects are inter-related, while exploring the fields of study that most interest you.

In the medieval city of York, inspiration is everywhere, and you’ll have access to some of the UK’s most important medieval records, including York Minster Library and Archives and the Borthwick Institute for Archives.

Our graduates go on to work in a wide range of professions, including archives, libraries, museums, galleries, publishing companies and the heritage sector.

New Publication: Rome in the Eighth Century: A History in Art, by John Osborne

This book addresses a critical era in the history of the city of Rome, the eighth century CE. This was the moment when the bishops of Rome assumed political and administrative responsibility for the city’s infrastructure and the physical welfare of its inhabitants, in the process creating the papal state that still survives today. John Osborne approaches this using the primary lens of ‘material culture’ (buildings and their decorations, both surviving and known from documents and/or archaeology), while at the same time incorporating extensive information drawn from written sources. Whereas written texts are comparatively few in number, recent decades have witnessed an explosion in new archaeological discoveries and excavations, and these provide a much fuller picture of cultural life in the city. This methodological approach of using buildings and objects as historical documents is embodied in the phrase ‘history in art’.

John Osborne is a Distinguished Research Professor and Dean Emeritus in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Carleton University, Ottawa. He is a cultural historian of early medieval Italy with a focus on the material culture of Rome and Venice. His publications include studies of medieval use of the Roman catacombs, murals in churches such as San Clemente and Santa Maria Antiqua, cultural contacts between Rome and Constantinople, and the medieval understanding of Rome’s heritage of ancient buildings and statuary.

Purchase the book here.

Call for Submissions: Individuality and Tradition in Medieval Book Culture. A Comparative Approach to Variation, Vox Medii Aevi, deadline July 15th 2020

Deadline: July 15th 2020
The articles should be sent to voxmediiaevi@gmail.com

Any work with medieval manuscripts implies studying hundreds of variants. The 20th century witnessed a dramatic change in the approaches towards this variation, from the search for the Graal of the reconstructed original to the humble appreciation of any individual manuscript as it is. The latter approach has been developing since the famous manifest, first proposed in the essay by Bernard Cerquiglini and then picked up by Steven Nichols — to understand the medieval book culture, one needs to recognise variation as an integral part of medieval literacy that cannot be put aside but has to be studied on its own.

The variation manifest going hand in hand with the appreciation of orality in medieval intellectual culture has given rise to new approaches towards variation in the individual regional manuscript traditions. Thus, it seems of great interest to see whether variation itself can vary in any way from tradition to tradition, from context to context. This issue aims to collect examples of the approaches towards variation in different regions of medieval literacy, not only stimulated by the variation manifest but also ones that had a separate history of dealing with medieval variation. The collection will render to comparative perspective both on the variation and on the ways the scholars coming from different backgrounds developed by long traditions of their predecessors as well as the particularities of their subjects approach this subject .

Possible topics might include — but are not limited to:

  • Manuscript variation in different language cultures of the Middle Ages;
  • Variation and working strategies of medieval scribe;
  • Oral and written in the medieval book culture;
  • Place of the retelling in the medieval book culture;
  • Variation in specific contexts;
  • Variation and methodology of its research in medieval studies.

We also welcome reviews of recently published books on the topic (no more than 3 years old).

Found out more information here.