Conference: Reconsidering the Concept of Decline and the Arts of the Palaiologan Era
University of Birmingham
24-25 February 2017
This one day and a half conference combines a symposium and a workshop. The aim is to examine and contextualise the artistic and cultural production of the geopolitical centres that were controlled by or in contact with the late Byzantine Empire. This conference will explore the many intellectual implications that are encoded in the innovative artistic production of the Palaiologan Era often simplified by a rigid understanding of what is Byzantine and what is not.
24 Feb 2017 – 1st day 14.00-14.10 – Opening remarks: prof Leslie Brubaker, University of Birmingham 14.10-15.00 First Keynote lecture and discussion: Dr Cecily Hilsdale, McGill University, Title TBC 15.00-16.00 First panel – Chair Dr Ruth Macrides, University of Birmingham
Ivana Jevtic: Late Byzantine Painting Reconsidered: Art in Decline or Art in the Age of Decline?
Andrew Griebeler: The Greek Botanical Albums in Late Byzantine and Early Ottoman Constantinople
Maria Alessia Rossi: Political ruin or spiritual renewal? Early Palaiologan art in context 16.00-16.20 Discussion 16.30-16.50 Coffee break 17.00-17.50 Second Keynote lecture and discussion: prof Niels Gaul, University of Edinburgh: Palaiologan Byzantium(s): East Rome’s Final Two Centuries in Recent Research 18.00-19.00 Reception
25 Feb 2017 – 2nd day 9.00-9.50 Opening keynote lecture and discussion: Dr Angeliki Lymberopoulou, Open University, Palaiologan art from regional Crete: artistic decline or social progress? 10.00 -10.40 Second panel – Chair Dr Daniel Reynolds, University of Birmingham Anđela Gavrilović: The Stylistic Features of the Frescoes of the Church of the Mother of God Hodegetria in the Patriarchate of Peć (c. 1335-1337)
Ludovic Bender: Mistra and its countryside: The transformation of the late Byzantine religious landscape of Laconia 10.40-11.00 Discussion 11.00-11.20 Coffee break 11.30-12.30 Third Panel – Chair Dr Francesca Dell’Acqua, University of Birmingham Andrea Mattiello: Who’s that man? The perception of Byzantium in 15th century Italy
Tatiana Bardashova: Palaiologan Influence on the Visual Representation of the Grand Komnenoi in the Empire of Trebizond (1204-1461)
Lilyana Yordanova: The Issues of Visual Narrative, Literary Patronage and Display of Virtues of a Bulgarian Tsar in the Fourteenth century 12.30-12.50 Discussion 13.00-14.00 Lunch break
Workshop 14.10-14.50 Two 10-mins presentations by MA students and 20-mins discussion 14.50-15.30 Two 10-mins presentations by MA students and 20-mins discussion 15.40-16.00 Coffee break 16.10-16.50 Two 10-mins presentations by MA students and 20-mins discussion 16.50-17.00 Closing remarks: Andrea Mattiello/Maria Alessia Rossi
The programme, further information and details of how to book can be found at:
How can the life and cult of Thomas Becket be traced through material culture? This was the question at the heart of the ‘Locating Becket’ workshop, sponsored by CHASE, and held at the British Library, British Museum and Courtauld Institute of Art on Tuesday 6th December 2016. Curators and scholars gathered first at the British Library to examine a number of manuscripts connected to Becket’s life and cult, including Cotton Claudius B II, with the earliest representation of Becket’s martyrdom (below). This fairly stable iconography could be followed in later manuscripts, including the (very bloody) Huth Psalter (Add MS 38116 ), a 15th-century Book of Hours from Rouen (Harley 1251), and in two seals attached to Ch. 17353 and Harley Ch. 44 C 33.
Becket’s martyrdom, from Alan of Tewkesbury’s letters, British Library Cotton MS Claudius B II, late 12th century. Image in the public domain.
An early collection of Becket’s miracles was also examined (Egerton MS 2818), as well as the early fourteenth-century ‘memorandum book’ of Prior Henry Eastry (Cotton Galba E. iv), which includes an inventory of Prior Eastry’s interventions, an extensive inventory of the sacristy, and an inventory of the library. Finally, we looked at the early fifteenth-century customary of Becket’s shrine (Additional 59616), with extensive instructions for the celebration of his feast days, which is bound together with two copies of his lives which seem to have been kept at the shrine and read to pilgrims.
The afternoon was spent looking at the British Museum’s extraordinary collection of pilgrims’ badges, ampullae, reliquaries and other objects related to Becket, including the impression of the 15th-century seal of the Mercers Company (below), which shows Becket on a ship, returning from exile.
Impression of a Mercers’ company seal matrix, after 1462
Below is a full list of the objects consulted at the British Museum:
Badges 1836,0610.32, ca. 1320-1450, Becket bust, purchased from Cureton.
1855,0804.70, ca. 1250-1350, Becket contained within a T, found Thames 1845, previous owner Chaffers, then Cureton.
1855,0724.5, head of Becket between two raised swords contained within an octofoil frame, ca. 1320-1450. Purchased from William Edwards.
1856,0701.2036, ca. 1300-1350, bust of Becket between a nine point star, inscription SANCTVS.THOMAS, found 22nd August 1850, purchased Charles Roach Smith.
1856,0701.2031 and 2032, two badges in the form of Becket’s bust, ca. 1320-1450, purchased Charles Roach Smith.
1856,0701.2039, ca. 1350-1400, four embossed fleur-de-lis in the form of a quatrefoil around a central boss, inscription SANTE.THOMA.OR.P.M., purchased Charles Roach Smith, previous collection Edward Wigan.
1868,0904.39, badge in the form of a kind of ship known as a cog, ca.1350-1400, donated by Franks.
2001,0702.1, Becket’s bust reliquary, ca. 1320-1375, found Billingsgate.
OA.1817, decorative sword sheath (referring to the relic of the sword tip) with Fitz Urse coat of arms, ca. 1350-1450.
2001,0702.2, Becket riding a peacock, ca. 1250-1350, found Thames Exchange.
Ampullae
1891,0418.21, ampulla with circular openwork tracery. The obverse of the ampulla is embossed with the standing figure of St Thomas Becket in a bishop’s mitre and chasuble, with an equal-armed cross standing out from his breast. The reverse bears a representation of his martyrdom with Becket kneeling in the centre, inscription OPTIMUS EGRORVM.MEDICVS.FIT.THOMA.BONORVM, ‘May Thomas be the best doctor of the worthy sick’, ca. 1220-1420.
1896,0501.69, the front of the ampulla depicts the standing figure of St Thomas Becket in mitre and chasuble, making a gesture of benediction and holding a crosier. The reverse shows the scene of his martyrdom with one knight faced by a kneeling Becket. The frame is filled with openwork decoration of symmetrical sexfoil and fleur-de- lis motifs and a representation of the front- and back-view of a seated Becket, depicted in episcopal garb, enclosed within a roundel. Inscription, REGENAKDVS.FILIVS HVRS:THOMAS:MARTIRIVM:FECE:FR., ‘Reginald Fitz Urse brought to pass the Martyrdom of Thomas’, donated by Franks.
2001,0702.3, chasse shaped ampulla, ca. 1250-1350, found Billingsgate.
2001,0702.6, ship-shaped ampulla (referring to Becket’s return from exile) with a high relief representation of Becket, ?ca. 1170-1250, found Billingsgate.
Seals
1880,0624.1, impression of Mercer’s company seal matrix, showing a half-figure of St Thomas of Canterbury in a ship, inscriptions, ‘sigillu : anglicor in flandria : brabancia : hollandria: zeeladia : m’cat’ and ‘s. thomas catuar’, after 1462, found Harrow.
1913,1105.3, Langdon Priory seal matrices. On the obverse is a Virgin and Child seated in a canopied niche on a corbel. On the reverse is a scene of the Martyrdom of St Thomas in Canterbury Cathedral. 13th century. Inscriptions, ‘SIGILL’ . COMMVNE MONASTERII: ECCE: DE MARIE: DE: LANGEDON’ and ‘CAVSA: DOMVS: XPI: MORTEM: SIC: IRTVLIT ISTI’.
1981,1103.1, Seal-matrix: Warden of Greyfriars at Canterbury. Inscription, ‘SIG GARDIANI FRUM MINORU CANTUARIE’. Ca. 1330-1350.
Reliquaries and other objects
AF.2765, Reliquary pendant showing on the observes John the Baptist and possibly Thomas Becket on the reverse. Inscription, ‘A MON + dERREYNE’. Late 15th century, found Devizes.
1878,1101.3, Chasse depicting the martyrdom of Becket, ca. 1210, donated by Meyrick, previous collection Douce.
1852,0327.1, Henry of Blois plaques, made possibly in England, ca. 1150-1171. Inscriptions:
+ MVNERA GRATA DEO PREMISSVS VERNA FIGVRAT. ANGELVS AD CELVM RAPIAT POST DONA DATOREM;. NE TAMEN ACCELERET NE SVSCITET ANGLIA LVCTVS, CVI PXA VEL BELLVM MOTVSVE QVIESVE PER ILLUM (= ‘The aforementioned slave shapes gifts pleasing to God. May the angel take the giver to Heaven after his gifts, but not just yet, lest England groan for it, since on him it depends for peace or war, agitation or rest.’) + ARS AVRO GEMMISQ (UE) PRIOR, PRIOR OMNIBVS AVTOR. DONA DAT HENRICVS VIVVS IN ERE DEO, MENTE PAREM MVSIS (ET) MARCO VOCE PRIOREM. FAME VIRIS, MORES CONCILIANT SUPERIS. Also inscribed within the scene, HENRICUS EPISCOP (‘Art comes before gold and gems, the author before everything. Henry, alive in bronze, gives gifts to God. Henry, whose fame commends him to men, whose character commends him to the heavens, a man equal in mind to the Muses and in eloquence higher than Marcus [that is, Cicero].’)
1854,0411.2, enamelled casket depicting the murder of Becket, 13th century, purchased from William Forrest.
1890,0809.1, alabaster panel showing the murder of Thomas Becket,
Prints and Drawings
1973,0512.3.2, Ecclesiae Anglicanae Trophaea, Plate 2: the Trinity surrounded by angels in the upper section; two bishops in brocaded cloaks in the lower section, after Niccolò Circignani, etching.
1973,0512.3.25, Ecclesiae Anglicanae Trophaea, Plate 25: the martyrdom of St Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, the saint kneeling before the altar, about to be martyred by a group of soldiers with swords; scene separated from the background by a balustrade with balusters; St Thomas named archbishop by Henry II at far left; saint kneeling before Pope Alexander III seated on a throne, accompanied by two male attendants at far right, etching.
Illustration to Bowyer’s edition of Hume’s History of England, 1793
1853,1210.383, Illustration to Bowyer’s edition of Hume’s History of England; the assassination of Thomas Becket, wrestled to his knees by a gang of four knights, one raising a bludgeon above him, his mitre and staff fallen at left. 1793, etching and engraving.
1856,0607.15, Portrait of Thomas Becket, head and shoulders to left, with hands joined in prayer, wearing ecclesiastical robes, a sword wedged in his skull. 1647, etching.
Call for Papers: Conference: Bishops’ Identities, Careers and Networks Centre for Scandinavian Studies, University of Aberdeen 26 May and 27 May 2017
Bishops were powerful individuals who had considerable spiritual, economic and political power. To be a bishop was to be a leader who might crown kings or foment rebellion. So who became bishops? What were their family backgrounds, educational attainment, social networks? What was the impact of international Church events such as the Great Schism or the Council of Basle on the types of bishop appointed in individual dioceses?
The aim of this two-day conference, funded by an AHRC Early Career Research Grant, is to stimulate discussion on how individuals achieved a bishopric in Europe, including Scandinavia and the British Isles. An edited volume is the planned outcome for the conference.
Topics for the conference include, but are by no means limited to:
Family origins
Education
Pre-episcopal careers
Social networks
Spiritual networks
Political networks
the centralisation of the Papacy
international Church events
Diocesan patrons
Election of bishops
We invite proposals between 250-300 words for individual 20 minute papers relating to the conference theme. Please send abstracts to bishopscareersnetworks@gmail.com.
Please send abstracts by Friday 27th January 2017.
Please direct any queries to Sarah Thomas and Michael Frost at bishopscareersnetworks@gmail.com.
Call for Papers: Mobility and Space in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe Oxford University, 23 June 2017
Deadline for submissions: 1 February 2017
The application of spatial paradigms to the study of late medieval and early modern societies is now well underway. In contrast, the so-called ‘mobility turn’ has struggled to find its way from the social sciences to the humanities and particularly to disciplines concerned with the study of the past. This conference proposes to bring the two together by exploring how everyday mobility contributed to the shaping of late medieval and early modern spaces, and how spatial frameworks affected the movement of people in pre-modern Europe.
In focusing on these issues, the conference also intends to relate to current social challenges. The world is now more mobile than ever, yet it is often argued that more spatial boundaries exist today than ever before. The conference hopes to reflect on this contemporary paradox by exploring the long-term history of the tension between the dynamism of communities, groups and individuals, and the human construction of places and boundaries.
Prospective speakers are invited to submit proposals of no more than 300 words for 20-minute papers. Papers may engage with questions of mobility and space at a variety of levels (regional, urban, domestic) and interdisciplinary approaches are particularly encouraged.
Potential sub-topics may include, but are by no means limited to:
Performing space through movement (border patrols, civic and religious processions, frontier trespassing)
Mobile practices in public spaces (itinerant courts, temporary fairs, diplomatic exchanges, travelling performances, revolts on the move)
Power of the Bishop III: Bishops as Diplomats 1000-1400 (Cardiff University, 1-2 June 2017)
Deadline for Abstracts: 20 February 2017
This two-day conference will explore the importance of diplomacy in a bishop’s career. How bishops responded to situations was often crucial to building or destroying their reputations, and, sometimes, their very lives depended on their ability to exercise their diplomatic skills.
This conference aims to explore the common themes regarding the use and development of diplomacy in a bishop’s career; how and when was it deployed, and in what circumstances? What impact did the Gregorian Reforms and Investiture Crisis have on this aspect of a bishop’s skill-set?
Most importantly, how do we see diplomacy expressed? As well as through legal agreements and treaties, we would like to explore the role of diplomacy in other areas, including but not limited to: the architecture of the Cathedrals and Bishop’s Palaces, the various uses of the landscape, the visual elements within manuscripts that bishops patronised, the types of gifts given and exchanged; the choice of special dates and feast days to mark particular events.
Dr Magdalena Skoblar(British School at Rome) presenting on:
‘Lost in Transformation: Early Medieval Sculpture and National Narratives in Croatia’
The London Society for Medieval Studies is hosting a lecture on Tuesday evening, November 29th, at 7.00pm in the Wolfson Room (NB01), IHR Basement, Senate House (located on Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU)
All those who are interested in Medieval Studies are very welcome to attend the lecture.
Illuminating the Law
Illuminated Legal Manuscripts in Cambridge Collections
L’Engle, R. Gibbs
Series: Studies in Medieval and Early Renaissance Art History
€ 96 > € 20
This catalogue offers introductory essays on the making and the use of medieval legal manuscripts in Cambridge collections, in order to call attention to the illuminated legal texts as splendidly decorated medieval manuscripts.
Making and breaking the rules: succession in medieval Europe, c. 1000-c.1600
Etablir et abolir les normes: La succession dans l’Europe médiévale, vers 1000-vers 1600
Edited by F. Lachaud, M. Penman
Series: Histoires de famille. La parenté au Moyen Age
€ 55 > € 20
Proceedings of the colloquium held on 6-7-8 April 2006. Actes de la conférence tenue les 6, 7 et 8 avril 2006, Institute of Historical Research (University of London).
The Order of the Golden Tree
The Gift-giving Objectives of Duke Philip The Bold of Burgundy
C.M. Chattaway
Series: Burgundica
€ 70 > € 20
“Chattaway’s study is a profound one and solidly grounded in archival research, which is why it has earned a place in the prestigious Burgundica series”. (Bas Jongenelen in Sixteenth Century Journal, XXXIX/1, 2008, pp. 326-327)
“Enlisting a wealth of sources, the author attempts to explain the valorization of martyrdom as a cultural norm in medieval Jewish communities of Germany, France and England.” (Susan L. Einbinder, in: The Medieval Review, 09.02.06)
Le travail de Georges Lekkas est unique, en ce qu’il construit une thèse qui suit parfaitement le rythme de l’élaboration origénienne et qui décrit l’évolution progressive du réseau argumentatif.
Chefs-d’œuvre de l’art Roman et Mosan
Edited by C. Dumortier
Series: Royal Museums for Art and History, Brussels / French version
€ 55 > € 20
La Salle aux Trésors du Musée du Cinquantenaire présente des œuvres médiévales comptant parmi les plus belles, les plus précieuses et les plus rares conservées aux Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire.
A Catalogue Raisonné of Scientific Instruments from the Louvain School, 1530-1600
Van Cleempoel
Series: De Diversis Artibus
€ 75 > € 20
This object-based study concentrates on scientific instruments made in Louvain between c. 1530 and c. 1600, a period in which the university fell from the peak of its importance into a state of decline.
Les Principautés dans l’Occident Médiéval
A l’origine des régions
Edited by B. Demotz
€ 61 > € 20
Cet ouvrage présente un panorama des fondations et de l’évolution des principautés afin d’évaluer une réalité historique encore trop sous-estimée, mais il se veut aussi une réflexion sur un des sujets fondamentaux de l’histoire politique.
“La force du livre, luxurieusement illustré, de Martine Clouzot est de montrer que les enluminures des manuscrits médiévaux, loin d’être une fenêtre ouverte sur le monde des musiciens, recodent une réalité déjà codée.” (L’Histoire, n° 329, mars 2008)
Le château, autour et alentours (XIVe – XVIe siècles)
Paysage, parc, jardin & domaine
Edited by J.-M. Cauchies, J. Guisset
€ 73 > € 20
Un château, c’est d’abord une bâtisse. Il y a un faisceau de composantes qui mériteront de capter, à travers textes, images et objets, l’oeil de l’historien, de l’historien de l’art et de l’archéologue.
On 23rd November 2016 Lloyd de Beer and Naomi Speakman from the British Museum once again kindly allowed staff and students from The Courtauld to look at objects from the museum’s store rooms, focused on the theme of light.
We looked at a number of objects associated with the production of light, including a Byzantine brass lamp and polycandelon. This led to a long discussion about the kinds of shadows such objects would produce, and the use of olive oil for lamps across the Mediterranean. How would other objects on the altar be affected by the light from candles or lamps, we wondered, especially in relation to transparent reliquaries such as this late 13th- or early 14th-century example.
We then examined a number of candlesticks, including this bronze base for a candestick, probably made in 13th-century England; a Limoges pricket candlestick, of a kind found across medieval Europe; and a 15th-century silver candlestick, one of a set of altar implements from the church of Vera Cruz in Medina del Pomar (Spain). We wondered about the relative costs of olive oil vs wax, and the potential for collection and reuse of dripped wax.
We also discussed the custom of lighting candles around cult images, as implied by this 13th-century seal from York, and the story of St Blaise and the two wax candles, as shown in this 16th-century French seal. Finally, we spent a long time puzzling over the BM’s extraordinary candle-stock. This is one of a pair (the other is in Jesus College, Cambridge), but is otherwise a unique survival. It is made of wax and is tapered like a candle, but is richly decorated and completely hollow, so could never function like a candle. Instead it seems to have been a kind of disguised support for a candle, one that would give the impression that very large (and expensive) candles were being burnt.
We were accompanied in this handling session by Dr Mikkel Bille, an anthropologist from the University of Roskilde, who gave a lecture the previous evening as part of The Courtauld’s 2016 Frank Davies Lecture Series on Light and Darkness, organised by Tom Nickson and Stefania Gerevini. We were also joined by two artists from Lumen Studios. This was the latest in a series of workshops organised through the ‘Medieval Touch‘ research group.
This volume contributes to current discussions of the place of relics in devotional life, politics, and identity-formation, by illustrating both the power which relics were thought to emanate as well as the historical continuity in the significance assigned to that power. Relics had the power to ‘touch’ believers not only as material objects, but also through different media that made their presence tangible and valuable. Local variants in relic-veneration demonstrate how relics were exploited, often with great skill, in different religious and political contexts. The volume covers both a wide historical and geographical span, from Late Antiquity to the early modern period, and from northern, central, and southern Europe.
The book focuses on textual, iconographical, archaeological, and architectural sources. The contributors explore how an efficient manipulation of the liturgy, narrative texts, iconographic traditions, and architectural settings were used to construct the meaningfulness of relics and how linguistic style and precision were critically important in creating a context for veneration. The methodology adopted in the book combines studies of material culture and close reading of textual evidence in order to offer a new multidisciplinary purchase on the study of relic cults.
Call for Papers: Conference: Bishops’ Identities, Careers and Networks
On 23rd November 2016 Lloyd de Beer and Naomi Speakman from the British Museum once again kindly allowed staff and students from The Courtauld to look at objects from the museum’s store rooms, focused on the theme of light.
Medieval Art Research 