New Publication: ‘The Ponte Vecchio: Architecture, Politics, and Civic Identity in Late Medieval Florence’ by Theresa Flanigan

All information available via https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9781912554683-1

Drawing upon new documentary research, this is the first in-depth modern scholarly study of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence.

Famous today for the shops lining its sloped street, the Ponte Vecchio is the last premodern bridge spanning the Arno River at Florence and one of the few remaining examples of the once more prevalent urbanized bridge type. Drawing from early Florentine chronicles and previously unpublished archival documents, this book traces the history of the Ponte Vecchio, focusing on the current bridge’s construction after the flood of 1333. Much of the Ponte Vecchio’s original fourteenth-century appearance is now obscured beneath later accretions, often mistakenly interpreted as original to its medieval character. To the contrary, as argued in this book and illustrated by new reconstruction drawings, the mid-trecento Ponte Vecchio’s vaulted substructure was technically advanced, its urban superstructure was designed in accordance with contemporary Florentine urban planning strategies, and its “beautiful and honorable” appearance was maintained by government regulations. The documents also reveal new information about the commission and rental of its famous shops. Relying on these sources, this study offers a more complete history of the Ponte Vecchio, adding significantly to what is currently known about the bridge’s patronage and construction, as well as the aims of civic architecture and urban planning in late medieval Florence.

Author Biography

Theresa Flanigan is Assistant Professor of Art History at Texas Tech University and a specialist in Italian Medieval and Renaissance art and architectural history. Dr. Flanigan received her Ph.D. in Art History from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, a M.A. in Art History from Syracuse University’s Florence Program, and a B.Arch. in architectural design from Syracuse University. She was also a foreign fellow at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy.

Mmmonk School 2024: Webinars on Medieval Books

Join us on 22 November, 29 November and 6 December for a new edition of Mmmonk School! Mmmonk and Henri Pirenne Institute for Medieval Studies (UGent) will host the third edition of Mmmonk school in the autumn of 2024. 

Mmmonk School offers lessons for advanced beginners about the medieval book. It is an interdisciplinary practice-focused programme about medieval Flemish manuscripts. Experts introduce the main concepts, skills and methods of their given field of expertise. The lessons are online, free and open to everyone. Join us on three consecutive Fridays in November and December!

Find out more about Mmmonk School on their website.

Programme Mmmonk School 2024

22 November 2024 – Online

4pm CET – Alberto Campagnolo (KU Leuven): An Introduction to Manuscript Collations with the VisColl Tool (registration) 

Manuscript collation, a key aspect of codicology, analyses book composition, particularly gathering arrangements. This presentation examines manuscript collation methodologies through the application of VisColl (https://viscoll.org/), a digital tool for modelling and visualising codex structures. VisColl generates visual representations of these structures, offering new insights into manuscript construction and conservation. This talk will elucidate collation principles, demonstrate VisColl’s functionality, analyse its efficacy in enhancing comprehension of historical texts, and discuss implications for codicological research. By rendering complex data more accessible, VisColl contributes to a deeper understanding of manuscript structure, complementing traditional methods and potentially expanding avenues for book history research.

Alberto Campagnolo is Assistant Professor at KU Leuven and Director of the Book Heritage Lab. Trained as a book conservator in Italy, he has worked at the Vatican Library and London Archives. He holds degrees in Conservation of Library Materials (Ca’ Foscari University, 2006), Digital Culture and Technology (King’s College London, 2009), and a PhD from the Ligatus Research Centre (University of the Arts London, 2015), where he developed automated visualisation of historical bookbinding structures. His current research focuses on the intersection of digital humanities and manuscript studies, particularly book conservation, codicology, and digital representation of books’ materiality.

5pm CET – Laura Light (Les Enluminures): An Introduction to the New Thirteenth-Century Bible: Changes in Form and Function (registration) 

The Bible that most of us are familiar with today–one fairly small and compact volume that includes the entire Christian scriptural Canon from Genesis to the Apocalypse, with the text arranged for easy reading and reference–was a new phenomenon, created only in the thirteenth century. We will begin by looking quickly at selected examples of earlier medieval Bibles from the ninth and the twelfth century, and then explore the new thirteenth-century Bible in more depth, focusing on how changes in the format and presentation of the Scripture reflected changes in how the Bible was read and used.

Laura Light is Director and Senior Specialist of Text Manuscripts at Les Enluminures, where (among other things), she oversees content for the Text Manuscript site, supervises cataloguers, and describes manuscripts herself when time allows. She is the editor, with Eyal Poleg of Form and Function in the Late Medieval Bible (Brill 2013) and has written numerous articles on the Bible in the thirteenth century and the Paris Bible. She was formerly medieval manuscripts cataloguer at the Houghton Library and published Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Volume 1. MSS Lat 3-179, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies (Binghamton, New York 1995).

29 November 2024 – Online

4pm CET – Lisa Demets (UGent): An Introduction to Multilingualism in Medieval Flanders (registration) 

Multilingualism was the norm in the Middle Ages. Traveling from the Scandinavian towns to the Italian city states, language changed gradually from village to village, town to town. Port cities such as Bruges in the Late Middle Ages were vibrant multilingual hubs, facilitating interactions and language exchanges. This raises questions about medieval manuscript culture. Literary language choice and professional language use often overlapped. In this session, we will focus on the contextualization of metadata of Flemish literary manuscripts from 1200 to 1500.

Dr. Lisa Demets is a postdoctoral researcher (FWO) at Ghent University. In 2019, she defended her PhD thesis on the manuscript variation of the Excellente Cronike van Vlaenderen. From April 2020 to March 2022, she was stationed as a postdoctoral researcher at Utrecht University on the NWO funded project The Multilingual Dynamics of Medieval Flanders. Her main research interests are manuscripts and their multilingual reading and writing contexts in the late medieval county of Flanders. She has published on gender history, medieval chronicle writing, manuscript studies and the political and cultural history of the late medieval Low Countries.

5pm CET – Hendrik Callewier (State Archives Belgium) (registration)

An introduction into biographical research on patrons: archives to the rescue!

Our knowledge of the context in which medieval art was produced is often limited. Yet in manuscripts, in paintings, or on other objects, we find references to patrons: a coat of arms, a particular iconography, or sometimes even a name. How can we identify these individuals and learn more about them? Based on archival research, it is possible to reconstruct the life and network of patrons and learn more about their motives. Yet this often seems like searching for a needle in a haystack. Focusing on some concrete examples from late medieval Flanders, the possibilities for biographical research based on archival sources are outlined.

Hendrik Callewier studied and history and archival studies at the universities of Brussels and Leuven, where he obtained a PhD with a thesis on the secular clergy of late medieval Bruges. Since 2010, he has been associated with the Belgian State Archives, where he holds the position of Head of Department in Bruges and Courtrai. He also teaches as a visiting professor at KU Leuven Kulak. His historical research includes biographies of singers, composers, painters and their patrons. He is currently working on a biography of Canon Joris van der Paelen, one of Jan van Eyck’s main patrons.

6 December 2024 – 7.30-9pm – Bruges Public Library (Reading Room)

On 6 December we will welcome Christopher de Hamel in Bruges for an evening lecture followed by a drinks reception.

With his extensive experience as the librarian of the Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and as an auction expert at Sotheby’s, Christopher de Hamel is a leading authority on medieval manuscripts. He became widely known to the public through his award-winning book Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts, in which he revisits famous manuscripts from multiple perspectives, uncovering surprising new insights. This makes him the perfect advocate for the multidisciplinary vision of Mmmonk School!

Christopher de Hamel will tell a little of his life among medieval manuscripts, especially encounters with manuscripts illuminated in Flanders, often for export, and why these are important in English and European history. He will follow the migrations of two Bruges Books of Hours of the Use of Sarum now in New Zealand, and will touch on discoveries made while at Sotheby’s, including finding the Spinola Hours in 1975, and on work on Simon Bening for several chapters of his book on The Manuscripts Club.

Registration link for Christopher de Hamel on 6 December at Bruges Public Library.

PhD Position: Storytelling as Pharmakon in Premodernity and Beyond: Training the New Generation of Researchers in Health Humanities (StoryPharm), deadline 15 December 2024

The StoryPharm project is pleased to announce 4 three-year Special Scientist PhD in Medieval Art History with a generous research allowance in an international, multi- partner EU project, employment beginning between June and August 2025.

The StoryPharm project, which is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action – Doctoral Networks – Grant Agreement 101169114, is announcing a total of 19 PhD fellowships within the training programme “Storytelling as Pharmakon in Premodernity and Beyond: Training the New Generation of Researchers in Health Humanities” (https://www.ucy.ac.cy/storypharm/).

The focus of the project will be on premodern narratives and images involving medicine, health, and healing. These will be studied from a transdisciplinary and comparative perspective, across linguistic and cultural borders. 

This international doctoral network, funded by the European Marie Skłodowska-Curie program, involves the universities of Cyprus (leading institution), Salerno, Bamberg, Lund, and Cardiff. It aims to recruit 19 medieval studies researchers with excellent salaries.

In particular, we would like to draw attention to the positions related to Medieval Art History:

StoryPharm Fellow 7: “Images of Christ’s Miraculous Healings between Medical Awareness and Social Inclusion (9th–11th c. CE)” (Salerno, Italy, Project 2).

  • The successful candidate will work under the supervision of Maddalena Vaccaro (Salerno) and Katharina Schüppel (Bamberg).

StoryPharm Fellow 11: “The Pictorial Narratives of Herbal Medicine in Dioscorides’ De materia medica” (Lund, Sweden, Project 2).

  • The successful candidate will work under the supervision of Christian Høgel (Lund) and Katharina Schüppel (Bamberg).

StoryPharm Fellow 14: “Ecologies of Healing: Visual Storytelling in Medieval Medical Manuscripts and Herbals” (Bamberg, Germany, Project 3).

  • The successful candidate will work under the supervision of Katharina Schüppel (Bamberg) and Maddalena Vaccaro (Salerno).

StoryPharm Fellow 15: “The Healthy Place: Architecture and Images for Healing Devotional Experiences in Southern Italy in a Mediterranean Context” (Salerno, Italy, Project 3).

  • The successful candidate will work under the supervision of Maddalena Vaccaro (Salerno) and Maria Parani (Cyprus).

Applications, including the submission of a research proposal on the indicated topics, will be accepted from October 15 to December 15, 2024, according to the guidelines in the calls.

We also encourage you to consult the General Call, which outlines all the individual projects, including research in historical, philological, and literary disciplines, as well as Byzantine studies.

All calls are available on the dedicated project page, and we remain personally available for any clarification:
https://www.ucy.ac.cy/storypharm/vacancies/
Maddalena Vaccaro, University of Salerno: mavaccaro@unisa.it
Katharina Schüppel, University of Bamberg: katharina.schueppel@uni-bamberg.de

CFA_StoryPharmFINAL ARTDownload

Lecture Series: British Archaeological Association Programme of Meetings 2024-2025

The British Archaeological Association holds regular monthly lectures on the first Wednesday of each month between October and May in the rooms of the Society of Antiquaries of London, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BE.

The lectures are open to all and provide an opportunity for professionals, students and independent scholars to present research that falls within the BAA’s areas of interest.  We aim to cover both British and European topics that are susceptible to art-historical, archaeological, architectural, and historiographical investigation between the Roman period and the 19th century, but with a bias towards the medieval period.

Tea is served from 4.30 p.m. and the Chair is taken at 5.00 p.m. 

Find out more information here.

Lecture series programme:

6 November 2024

Dr Niamh Bhalla, ‘Newman University Church, Dublin: Architectural revivalism in the British Isles and the authority of form’

4 December 2024

Dr Michalis Olympios, ‘CoNUNdrum: Gleanings from 800 square metres of Salvage Excavation at the Cistercian Nunnery of St Theodore in Nicosia, Cyprus’

6 January 2025

Dr Nicola Coldstream, ‘Crowd-funding in the Architectural Patronage of Late Medieval English Merchants’

5 February 2025

Dr Katharine Harrison, ‘Crafting St Cuthbert: Narrative in the St Cuthbert Window, York Minster’

5 March 2025

Dr Alfred Hiatt, ‘The Antonine Itinerary and the Invention of Roman Britain’

2 April 2025

Professor Joanna Olchawa, ‘The Püsterich of Sondershausen: Explosive Bronze Figures between Art and Science’

7 May 2025

Dr Jackie Hall, ‘The Lost Cloister of Southwark Priory’

Postdoctoral Fellowship: Dan David Society of Fellows, deadline 15 December 2024

The Dan David Society of Fellows is accepting applications for outstanding postdoctoral research in the study of the past. This two-year fellowship offers generous funding for international and Israeli scholars to conduct innovative research at Tel Aviv University, while benefiting from professional mentorship offered by faculty members.

The fellowship is open to candidates from all disciplines studying the human past, including but not limited to history, archaeology, art history, history of education, history of science, technology and medicine, physical anthropology, literature, philosophy, and digital humanities. Applicants must have completed their PhD between October 1, 2020, and September 1, 2025.


Researchers who completed their PhD at Tel Aviv University are not eligible for the fellowship. Candidates who have not yet completed their degree should attach a formal statement signed by their institution indicating the prospective date of submission. Applicants who took parental leave are entitled to add an extra year for each child born since receiving their PhD.

The fellowship is awarded to suitable candidates, regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender, or age. The Dan David program is committed to excellence, interdisciplinarity, diversity, and equity.

Up to four fellowships will be awarded for a maximum of two years each, beginning October 1, 2025. Those accepted to the program must commit to completing a full two-year term. Fellows will be asked to spend at least three days a week at Tel Aviv University and be active members of the university’s scholarly community. They will be required to fully participate in the activities of the Dan David Society of Fellows, including a twice-monthly seminar dedicated to  utting-edge methodologies and historiographic approaches, and to present their research to the other fellows once a year. The program’s academic activities will all be conducted in English.

Fellows will receive an annual scholarship of $40,000.
Additional research and travel funding may be available.
Non-Israeli fellows will also be eligible for subsidized on-campus housing.

Applications must be submitted in English and should include:

  • A comprehensive CV, including a list of publications and
    research languages
  • A statement of research plans (maximum 5 pages)
  • A summary of the PhD dissertation (maximum 1 page)
  • Two letters of recommendation:
    • One from the applicant’s doctoral supervisor(s). If there are multiple supervisors, a joint letter is required.
    • One from a scholar outside the applicant’s university.

The deadline for applications for the 2025-2027 academic years is December 15, 2024.

The application process is completed online: https://en-humanities.tau.ac.il/dan-david-fellows-form

Candidates will be informed of the decision regarding their application by April 202

Online lecture: ‘The Winter Sun in Capricorn: Portal Imagery in Chaucer & Chartres Cathedral’ with Shelley Williams, American Friends of Chartres, 25 October 2024 (19.30-21.00pm EDT)

Join the American Friends of Chartres to find out how Chaucer’s poetic description inspired by the Labors of the Month matches the art of the north porch and portail royal.

At the dead center of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Franklin’s Tale, part of his Canterbury Tales written in Middle English between 1385-1400, is a striking visual emblem. This passage describes the feeling of winter when the sun is in the zodiac sign Capricorn, and then describes the Roman god Janus sitting by a Christmas feast. It was long ago recognized that this image was derived from the Labors of the Month tradition, a medieval motif in art which pairs zodiac signs with seasonal work or occupations. If this is so, then which version of the Labors of the Month, exactly? Are there visual matches with Chaucer’s poetic description and extant contemporary art? The answer is surprising: the only precise match with Chaucer’s emblem is at Notre-dame de Chartres, on the north porch and portail royal. I explore these analogous images and consider what this parallel may indicate, both for Chaucer’s tale and the cathedral sculptures.

Register on Eventbrite.

Conference: Owning Gothic Ivories: Buying, Giving, Circulating, British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum, 25-26 October 2024

Over the last three decades, research on Gothic ivories has seen a significant shift from studies concerned with stylistic attribution and classification towards the investigation of their materiality, iconography, function, and – last but not least – patronage. Although we now have a much better understanding of the social, devotional, and cultural contexts in which especially religious ivories were commissioned and produced, overall, we still know comparatively little about the owners of Gothic ivories. This is especially true for the secular sphere, where it has not yet been possible to link any surviving fourteenth-century carving to its first owner.

This conference aims to return to the question of the ownership of Gothic ivories, an area which offers great potential for further discoveries, particularly (but not only) through the combination of art historical object analysis with evaluations of contemporary written sources such as inventories, wills, and other documents. Illuminating the stories of historic owners, be they individuals or institutions, and their Gothic ivories is the first aim of this two-day conference, while the second is to shed light on the later life of these objects, and on their transition into new ownership contexts and uses.

Organised by Manuela Studer-Karlen (University of Bern), Naomi Speakman (British Museum, London) and Michaela Zöschg (Victoria and Albert Museum, London).

This conference is supported by the project “Love and War. Secular images on Gothic ivories”, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Venue

  • 25th October: The British Museum, Stevenson Lecture Theatre, Great Russell Street, London
  • 26th October: Victoria & Albert Museum, Hochhauser Auditorium, Cromwell Road, London

Registration

Please note that attendees will need to book a separate ticket for each day. 

If you would like to receive a notification when booking is activated, please email Michaela Zöschg at m.zoschg@vam.ac.uk

Conference Programme

DAY 1: Friday, 25 October 2024, The British Museum

10.00 – 10.30: Registration and coffee

10.30 – 10.40: Welcome

Manuela Studer-Karlen & Naomi Speakman

10.40 – 11.00: The Ivories Study Group

Neil Stratford and Paul Williamson, London

11.00 – 12.30: SESSION 1: Religious Owners 

Chair: Catherine Yvard

  • Was There a Franciscan Patronage of Gothic Ivories? (Charles Little, New York)
  • Reading Sources on Prelates as Owners of Gothic Ivories (13th-14th centuries) (Michele Tomasi, Lausanne)
  • Navigating the Anticlerical Laws Storm: Circulation and Art Market Dynamics of the Certosa di Pavia Ivories between the 18th and 19th Centuries (Flaminia Ferlito, Lucca)

12.00: Discussion

12.30 – 13.30: Break

13.30 – 15.00: SESSION 2: Objects in Focus

Chair: Michaela Zöschg

  • Reflecting on Memory: Donors, Owners and Exemplars (Iris Ippel, Leiden)
  • The Lives and Afterlives of the Ivory Crozier of Archbishop Walter de Gray (Sophie Kelly, Bristol)
  • Write, Pray, Love – Owning an Ivory Booklet Throughout the Centuries (Svea Janzen, Jena)

14.30: Discussion

15.00 – 15.20: Coffee break

15.20 – 16.50: SESSION 3: Networks and Mobility

Chair: Lloyd de Beer

  • About Lost Objects: Gothic Ivories at the Court of Savoy According to the ‘Comptes de l’hôtel’ and the Castle Inventories (Simonetta Castronovo, Turin)
  • Quest for Ivory in the Kingdom of Bohemia: Imports, Substitutes, and National Historiography (Milan Matejka, Zurich)
  • ‘Let them pass freely when they go and come back to us’: The Florentine Merchant Baldassare degli Ubriachi and the Circulation of Gothic Ivories (Joanne Morice, Melbourne)

16.20: Discussion

16.50 – 17.00: Closing Remarks Day 1

DAY 2: Saturday, 26 October 2024, Victoria & Albert Museum

10.00 – 10.30: Registration and coffee

10.30 – 10.40: Welcome

James Robinson & Michaela Zöschg

10.40 – 12.40: SESSION 1: Collectors in Focus

Chair: James Robinson

  • The Ivory Collection of Nicole Gilles and Marie Turquam, a Parisian Bourgeois Couple, c. 1500 (Sarah Dyer Magleby, Kansas)
  • Collecting Gothic Ivories in the Time of Production: Queen Clémence of Hungary’s Ivories (Paula Mae Carns, Illinois)
  • Staging Ivories in 19th-century Paris: the Spitzer Collection (Paola Cordera, Milan)
  • Prince Władysław Czartoryski (1828–1894) as a Collector of Gothic Ivories (Elżbieta Musialik, Krakow)

12.00: Discussion

12.30 – 13.30: Break

13.30 – 15.00: SESSION 2: Displaying Gothic Ivories

Chair: Naomi Speakman

  • ‘Your ivories attracted a great deal of attention’: Display of the Mayer Collection of Ivories from 1850 to the Present (Nicola Scott, Liverpool)
  • Love & Reproduction: The Visual Biography of a Gothic Ivory Mirror Back (Tom Nickson, London)
  • From Gothic to ‘Medieval Style’: Perceptions of Fakery in Gothic Ivories, 1915-1930 (Marian Bleeke, Cleveland)

14.30: Discussion

15.00 – 15.20: Coffee Break

15.20 – 16.50: SESSION 3: Later Interpretations

Chair: Manuela Studer-Karlen

  • Beyond Late Antique Diptychs. Re-reading the Thesaurus by A. Francesco Gori in Search of Gothic Ivories (Benedetta Chiesi, Milan)
  • Gothic Ivories in the Treasures of Saint-Étienne d’Auxerre and Saint-Étienne de Sens: Medieval Artefacts and 19th-20th Century Scholars (Chloé Cazalet, Auxerre)
  • The Biography of a Fictile Collection (Jack Hartnell, London)

16.20: Discussion

16.50 – 17.00: Closing Remarks Day 2

Online conference: British Archaeological Association Post-Graduate Online Conference, Thursday 28th November 2024, 12.20pm-17.30pm (GMT)

The British Archaeological Association are excited to present a diverse conference which includes postgraduates and early career researchers in the fields of medieval history of art, architecture, and archaeology. The British Archaeological Association postgraduate conference offers an opportunity for research students at all levels from universities across the UK and abroad to present their research and exchange ideas.

The conference will take place online via Zoom.

Use this link to register for the conference.

Conference Programme: Thursday 28th November 2024

12.20 pm (GMT) Welcome

Panel 1: Sacred Spaces and Monumental Art

12.30 pm – 14.10 pm (GMT)

Chair: John McNeil

  • Isabella Schwarzer (Courtauld Institute of Art) – Reconsidering the Effigy of Archbishop Konrad of Hochstaden (d. 1261): Pathways of Metal Bodies in Cologne Cathedral
  • Klaudia Śnieżek (Jagiellonian University in Cracow) – Niccolò’s Influence and Lombard Roots in the Romanesque Sculpture of Czerwińsk Abbey
  • Tanja Kilzer M.A. M.A. (University of Trier) – Knights and Angels: The Discovery and Iconographic Programme of Romanesque Frescoes in the Chapel of Hohenwerfen Castle, Austria
  • Jules Teal (Northeastern University London) – Doom Painting in the East of England: Resurrection and Redemption at Waltham

14.10 pm – 14.20 pm (GMT) Break 

Panel 2: Devotional Objects and Personalised Practices

14.30 – 15.50 pm (GMT)

  • Anastasios Kantaras (Doctor of the School of Philosophy of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece)) – Incised Enkolpia as Amulets in Byzantium: Magic or Faith?
  • Jillian Reid (London Museum) – Leaving her Mark: Seal Matrices and ‘Objectifying’ Women in Medieval Britain
  • Caroline Croasdaile (University of Oxford) – Strings of Time: Prayer Beads as Customisable Sites for the Curation of Memory

15.50 pm – 16.00 pm (GMT) Break

Panel 3: Reconsiderations and Rediscovering Medieval Material Culture

16.00 – 17.20 pm (GMT)

  • Sophia Adams (Courtauld Institute of Art) – The Early History of Beinecke MS 410 and its Display
  • Akari Takatsuka (University of Durham) – The Chertsey Tiles Tristram Series: A Reappraisal
  • Lúcia Valdevino (IHA – NOVA FCSH) – English Medieval Alabasters in Portuguese Collections

17.20 – 17.30 pm (GMT) Closing remarks

End of conference

Zoom talk: ‘Claus Sluter’s Well of Moses for the chartreuse de Champmol, Philip the Bold and the battle of Nicopolis’ with Susie Nash and Alexandra Gajewski, Wednesday 16 October, 5pm (BST)

The Great Cross (Well of Moses) at the Chartreuse de Champmol (1396-1404), built by Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy, is one of the most extraordinary and striking late medieval monuments.

In an article in this month’s Burlington Magazine, Professor Susie Nash offers a new reading of its imagery in the context of the failed Burgundian crusading ambitions, and provides a compelling explanation for its form and purpose. Professor Nash (The Courtauld) and Dr Alexandra Gajewski (The Burlington Magazine) will discuss the imagery and the circumstances of the creation of the work with reference to the article and the author’s three preceding articles published on the subject in the Burlington.

Professor Susie Nash has taught at the Courtauld since 1993, specialising in the art of northern Europe during the late medieval and Renaissance periods. She works on a wide range of panel painting, sculpture, textiles, metalwork, and illuminated manuscripts from across northern Europe, including Spain. She is particularly interested in the work of art as a physical object, considering its materials, making, condition, conservation history, afterlife, and reception, combining evidence from primary sources with the first-hand examination of the work itself.

Her current research projects focus on the Valois courts of France in the late 14th and early 15th centuries and include a book, Making Lists, about the Valois brothers Charles V, Louis of Anjou, Jean de Berry, and Philip the Bold, and their inventories. She is also working on a study of the Libretto of Louis of Anjou and its biography, the de Limbourgs and their interest in Italian painting, and ongoing work on the monuments at the Chartreuse de Champmol in Dijon, particularly the tombs of the Dukes of Burgundy. Additionally, she is working on a book about the Seilern Triptych in the Courtauld Collection and on paintings on parchment created as independent objects.

Dr Alexandra Gajewski, FSA, is the Deputy Editor of The Burlington Magazine and a fellow of the Institute of Historical Research, London. Her research focuses on Gothic architecture in Burgundy, monasticism, medieval women and Avignon as a papal residence.

Find out more on the London Art Week website.

Online seminar: ‘Trans Theory as Method in Manuscript Studies’ with J. D. Sargan, 15 October 2024, (5:30PM – 7:00PM (BST))

Modern bibliographical methods developed within the structures western imperialism and kyriarchical power as an investment in the construction of nationalist cultural heritage. This genesis has left a legacy, both in the unspoken investments of the field, and in the methodological manoeuvres needed to overcome them. This talk offers queer and trans theory as a tactic for negotiating this legacy. Building on work in trans studies, and on the interventions of archivists and scholars of later periods, it demonstrates how re-theorizing the methods of manuscript studies allows us to see through the material record to the communal relations and dissident experiences that underlie it.

Speaker: J. D. Sargan (University of Georgia)

This event is part of the London Palaeography Seminar Series.

Book your place on the IES website.