CFP: In Search of Crusader Art: Current Approaches and New Perspectives, 4th Forum Medieval Art, Berlin (20-23 September 2017), deadline 31 October 2016

CFP: In Search of Crusader Art: Current Approaches and New Perspectives, 4th Forum Medieval Art, Berlin, 20-23 September 2017.
Organizer: Ioanna Christoforaki (Athens)
Deadline: 31 October 2016

Although the concept of crusader art is effortlessly understood by scholars, its precise definition is notoriously elusive. Crusader art has traditionally been described as the figural art and architecture produced for the Crusaders in the Holy Land. The patrons were men and women, laymen as well as clergymen, who arrived to the Holy Land as pilgrims, soldiers, settlers, rulers, or merchants, while the artists were Franks and Italians who were residents in the Outremer, Westerners who travelled to the Latin East, or Eastern Christians who worked for Crusader patrons.


In recent decades, however, this conventional definition of crusader art has been challenged. Since it sits on the boundaries of many artistic traditions, its borders have become more porous. The centres of production have shifted beyond the Holy Land, to include places like Cyprus. From Sinai to Cilician Armenia, multifold artistic traditions have converged and numerous people have interacted in the production of what is recognised as crusader art.
The aim of this session is to reflect critically on the limitations of terminology, while addressing issues of artistic transmission across the fluid borderland of the Medieval Mediterranean. It will seek to expand the cultural dialogue between the various religious and ethnic groups in the Eastern Mediterranean, by examining how Islamic, Syrian and Jewish artistic traditions interacted with the Byzantine and Western paradigms. It will attempt to identify the varied forms of crusader art that have emerged in recent years and explore how this revised corpus of crusader material challenges accepted notions. Finally, it will inquire whether crusader art, as an essentially transcultural contact zone, acted as an agent of separation, communication, or convergence.


This session invites papers which re-evaluate traditional approaches to crusader art, artefacts and architecture and seek to re-examine the interplay between material culture, patrons and artists. Participants are expected to explore the artistic interaction between the different ethnic groups in the region and are encouraged to explore a novel approach in defining the notion of crusader art.

How to submit: Paper proposals of max. 1 paper are due by 31 October 2016. Send proposals at mail@mittelalterkongress.de

For more information, click here.

Conference: Fatimids and Umayyads: Competing Caliphates, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, 23-25 September 2016

Relations between the Fatimid caliphate and its neighbour and opponent, the Umayyad caliphate of al-Andalus constitute a field of study that merits careful and extensive consideration. Scholarship has tended to study both dynasties separately and the existing entanglements between the two caliphates have been noted, albeit briefly, in a number of academic publications.

The project Fatimids and Umayyads: Competing Caliphates endeavours to place both dynasties in context by creating an academic forum in which to reflect upon and illustrate the processes and mechanisms of interaction, and also to explore and problematise the existence of crosspollination. Various scenarios (historical, social, intellectual, economic, legal, theological, religious, cultural, technical, visual, and artistic) are considered in order to assess affinities, as well as discrepancies, connections and contrasts with regard to how these shaped the Fatimid impact on Umayyad dominions and vice versa.

Contact Info:

For more information, you may email Ms Naushin Shariff (assistant of Dr Omar Ali-de-Unzaga, Deputy Head, Dept. of Academic Research and Publications, IIS

Contact Email:

Conference: Greek Manuscripts in the British Library, British Library Conference Centre, 19 September 2016

Click here for the Conference Programme

To mark the completion of the third phase of the Greek Manuscripts Digitisation Project and the launch of the Greek Manuscripts Online web resource, the British Library is hosting a one-day conference devoted to Greek Manuscripts on 19 September, 2016. Confirmed participants include Sebastian Brock (Oxford), Charalambos Dendrinos (Royal Holloway), Elizabeth Jeffreys (Oxford), Charlotte Roueché (King’s College London), Maria Georgopoulou (Gennadius Library, Athens) and Giorgi Parpulov (Plovdiv, Bulgaria). Speakers will discuss a variety of topics related to the Library’s digitised Greek collections, such as Greek-Syriac palimpsests, Byzantine illuminated manuscripts, Greek written culture and the digital humanities and the cultural interactions between Greece and Britain.

The conference will be accompanied by an evening lecture by Michael Wood on ‘The Wisdom of the Greeks’. Michael will be looking at how the legacy of Greece and Byzantium in science, religion and literature was transmitted to the Latin West. Fascinating stories about texts and ideas, scribes and scholars will come to life in the course of this illustrated talk that will include Anglo-Saxon kings, Crusader knights and Renaissance humanists – and even a well-known Elizabethan dramatist!

Please book your place in advance and register online at http://www.bl.uk/events/greek-manuscripts-in-the-british-library-day-ticket .

Lecture Series: British Archaeological Association, 2016-2017

BAA Lectures, 2016-2017 Programme : Society of Antiquaries of London, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BE, 4.30 p.m. (tea)/5.00 p.m (lecture)

5 OCTOBER 2016* – ‘Miraculous Ground Plans and the Liturgy of Building Sites in Late Medieval Italy’ by Dr Lucy Donkin, University of Bristol (The lecture will be preceded by the Association’s Annual General Meeting.)

2 NOVEMBER 2016 – ‘Architecture and Landscape at Restormel Castle, Cornwall’ by Dr Jeremy Ashbee, English Heritage

7 DECEMBER 2016* – ‘Monuments in Wax: Form and Function in Medieval Charters’ by Dr Jessica Barenbeim, Magdalen College, Oxford

4 JANUARY 2017 – ‘The Great English Medieval Bridges: Designs and Functions.’ by Dr David Harrison, International Bridges Group (The lecture will be followed by the Association’s Twelfth-Night Party)

1 FEBRUARY 2017* – ‘When is a Cathedral not a Cathedral? Typologies of Secular and Monastic in the English Great Church.’ by Jon Cannon, University of Bristol

1 MARCH 2017, ‘The Medieval Glazing of Westminster Abbey: New Discoveries’ by Professor Richard Marks and Laura Atkinson, University of Cambridge and Canterbury Cathedral Stained Glass Studio

5 APRIL 2017 – “See God Face to Face; Pray for the King’: The Late Medieval Painted Glass of Winchester Cathedral c1495-c1515’ by Anya Heilpern, University of York

3 MAY 2017* – ‘The Late Medieval Master Mason as Manager; a New Assessment based on a Systematic Analysis of the English Cathedral Fabric Rolls’ by Christopher Paterson, University of Oxford (The lecture will be followed by the President’s Reception)

NB: Council meetings will precede the meetings on dates marked with an asterisk (*).
Non-members are welcome to attend occasional lectures, please sign the visitors’ book on arrival.

CFP: British Archaeological Association Sessions at the IMC, Leeds 2017, deadline 23 September 2016

Call for Papers: BAA Sessions at the IMC, Leeds, July 3rd -6th 2017
Deadline: Friday 23 rd September

After a successful outing to the Leeds IMC this summer where the BAA hosted two sessions, the BAA welcomes proposals for further BAA organised sessions next year (July 3rd -6th 2017). The IMC’s research theme for 2017 is “Otherness” which I think could be interpreted very successfully by the BAA’s members and relate well to research incorporating material culture.

“Other” could refer to those who are deemed to be other in society (strangers, foreigners, monsters); objects that are unusual, or out of the norm, and could therefore be considered as ‘other’; case studies that do not conform to type; and even topics concerning what is culturally “other” (such as artistic, architectural, and literature styles).
Approaches to this topic could include how “other” is encountered and responded to, or how ‘other’ can be defined and identified.

Suggested topics from the IMC include:
• Peoples, kingdoms, languages, towns, villages, migrants, refugees, bishoprics, trades, guilds, or seigneurial systems
• Faiths and religions, religious groups (including deviation from the ‘true’ faith) and religious orders
• Different social classes, minorities, or marginal groups
• The spectrum from ‘Strange’ to ‘Familiar’
• Individuals or ‘strangers’ of any kind, newcomers as well as people exhibiting strange behaviour
• Otherness related to art, music, liturgical practices, or forms of worship
Full details of the IMC and their interpretation of ‘other’ and other topic suggestions can be found here:
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/arts/info/125137/international_medieval_congress

It is hoped that the BAA can organise several sessions once again, with similar papers grouped together (either methodologically or by subject). Therefore if you do have any ideas about colleagues whose research would complement your own paper, please do include such comments along with your paper’s proposal.

How to Submit: Proposals should consist of a title, and short abstract (50-150 words). Please send paper proposals to hpmahood@gmail.com by Friday 23rd September. If you have any questions, please do get in touch.

CFP: Special thematic strand: ‘Otherness,’ IMC Leeds 2017

imc_postcard_2017_front_1Call for Papers: Special thematic strand: ‘Otherness,’ International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, 3–6 July 2017
Deadline for paper proposals: 31 August 2016.
Deadline for session proposals: 30 September 2016. 

The IMC provides an interdisciplinary forum for the discussion of all aspects of Medieval Studies. Paper and session proposals on any topic related to the Middle Ages are welcome.

However, every year, the IMC chooses a special thematic strand which – for 2017 – is ‘Otherness’. This focus has been chosen for its wide application across all centuries and regions and its impact on all disciplines devoted to this epoch.

‘Others’ can be found everywhere: outside one’s own community (from foreigners to non-human monsters) and inside it (for example, religious and social minorities, or individual newcomers in towns, villages, or at court).

One could encounter the ‘Others’ while travelling, in writing, reading and thinking about them, by assessing and judging them, by ‘feelings’ ranging from curiosity to contempt, and behaviour towards them which, in turn, can lead to integration or exclusion, friendship or hostility, and support or persecution.

The demarcation of the ‘Self’ from ‘Others’ applies to all areas of life, to concepts of thinking and mentalité as well as to social ‘reality’, social intercourse and transmission of knowledge and opinions. Forms and concepts of the ‘Other’, and attitudes towards ‘Others’, imply and reveal concepts of ‘Self’, self-awareness and identity, whether expressed explicitly or implicitly. There is no ‘Other’ without ‘Self’. A classification as ‘Others’ results from a comparison with oneself and one’s own identity groups.

Thus, attitudes towards ‘Others’ oscillate between admiring and detesting, and invite questioning into when the ‘Other’ becomes the ‘Strange’.

The aim of the IMC is to cover the entire spectrum of ‘Otherness’ through multi-disciplinary approaches, on a geographical, ethnic, political, social, legal, intellectual and even personal level, to analyse sources from all genres, areas, and regions.

Possible entities to research for ‘Otherness’ could include (but are not limited to):
•       Peoples, kingdoms, languages, towns, villages, migrants, refugees, bishoprics, trades, guilds, or seigneurial systems

  • Faiths and religions, religious groups (including deviation from the ‘true’ faith) and religious orders
    •       Different social classes, minorities, or marginal groups
    •       The spectrum from ‘Strange’ to ‘Familiar’.
    •       Individuals or ‘strangers’ of any kind, newcomers as well as people exhibiting strange behaviour
    •       Otherness related to art, musics, liturgical practices, or forms of worship
    •       Any further specific determinations of ‘alterity’

Methodologies and Approaches to ‘Otherness’ (not necessarily distinct, but overlapping) could include:
•       Definitions, concepts, and constructions of ‘Otherness’
•       Indicators of, criteria and reasons for demarcation
•       Relation(s) between ‘Otherness’ and concepts of ‘Self’
•       Communication, encounters, and social intercourse with ‘Others’ (in embassies, travels, writings, quarrels, conflicts, and persecution)

  • Knowledge, perception, and assessment of the ‘Others’
    •       Attitudes and behaviour towards ‘Others’
    •       Deviation from any ‘norms’ of life and thought (from the superficial to the fundamental)
    •       Gender and transgender perspectives
    •       Co-existence and segregation
    •       Methodological problems when inquiring into ‘Otherness’
    •       The Middle Ages as the ‘Other’ compared with contemporary times (‘Othering’ the Middle Ages).

    How to Submit: The IMC online proposal form is now available.
    Proposals should be submitted online at: www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/imc2017_call.html
    The IMC welcomes session and paper proposals submitted in all major European languages.

Call for Contributions: Of Man Eating Men: Medieval and Early Modern Cannibalism (edited volume)

Call for papers: Edited volume: Of Man Eating Men: Medieval and Early Modern Cannibalism, edited by Sarah Lambert, under consideration with the series Explorations in Medieval Culture (Brill).


The “headline” idea of cannibalism evokes images of depraved killers feasting on the flesh of their victims, Sweeny Todd-style. Modern society has been fascinated by cases of murder that involve ingesting parts of other human beings. However, the word and the concept have a fascinating early history in the medieval world.


Debates around transubstantiation engaged with the idea of theophagy—the cannibalistic consumption of Christ’s body, and the virulent anti-Semitism of the period focused on accusations of the Jewish consumption of Christian blood in an imagined act of blasphemous cannibalism. During periods of famine or siege, people occasionally resorted to cannibalism out of desperation. Dante records literary horror at his invention of the divine punishment of Ugolino della Gherardesca who gnaws upon the head of Archbishop Ruggieri, implying that in starvation, Ugolino may have been driven to cannibalize his sons and grandsons—an act disproven by modern forensic science. There are numerous scenes of cannibalism in medieval and early modern art and narrative. Cannibalism has always existed and is a facet of what it means to be human. It is a universal phenomena that often relates to the primal desire to survive, but can also be an act of veneration and honor, and is still a topic of fierce debate amongst anthropologists and archaeologists today.


This volume examines way that cannibalism served variant and normative functions in the culture of the European middle ages, taking in religious, literary, psychosocial, artistic and historical fields of inquiry; it interrogates distinctions of “reality” and “fiction”, and questions early definitions of the human species as illustrated by discourses of autophagy, “eating the self”.

How to submit: The editor welcomes abstracts of 250 words on any aspect of cannibalism in the medieval or early modern period including, but not limited to, theology, art, literature, history, law, medicine, archaeology, anthropology, psychology and forensics.


Abstracts should include the author’s name, contact details, affiliation, email address and a brief bio, and should be sent to Sarah Lambert: s.lambert@gold.ac.uk

This volume is under consideration with the series Explorations in Medieval Culture (Brill).

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CFP: The Stones Cry Out: Modes of Citation in Medieval Architecture, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo (11-14 May, 2017), deadline 15 September 2016

Call for Papers: The Stones Cry Out: Modes of Citation in Medieval Architecture, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, May 11-14, 2017
Deadline: September 15, 2016.

Organized by Lindsay Cook (Columbia University) and Zachary Stewart (Fordham University)

Citation, understood in its earliest legal sense, refers not to the act of reiterating or to the act of repeating but rather to a formal process of assembling parties separated by space and time. It is therefore best understood as a complex procedure for forging new relationships between people, places, and things that, though highly structured, are by no means inherently stable.

Over the past several decades, a growing number of scholars—including, most notably, Wolfgang Schenkluhn, Hans-Joachim Kunst, Dieter Kimpel, Robert Suckale, Dany Sandron, and Arnaud Timbert—have examined, in explicit terms, the role of citation in architectural production during the Middle Ages. On the one hand, their work has been of great benefit to the field, demonstrating that citation is a productive paradigm for understanding the ways in which isomorphic relationships enable spatial environments to create, support, or subvert social orders. On the other hand, their work has also raised troubling questions about the capacity of buildings to convey meaning, assuming as it does that architecture, like language, functions as a coherent semiotic system. Vitruvius laid the groundwork for the application of this logocentric analogy to classical architecture, but does it necessarily obtain within all modes of architectural production, particularly those considered un- or anti-classical? What are the advantages or disadvantages of choosing citation—versus imitation, replication, appropriation, influence, or habit—as a discursive frame for studying the recurrence of formal elements within architectural ensembles? How does such a visually oriented method address issues of production, perception, technology, function, and value? How might it alter current accounts of the design, construction, and meaning of buildings modeled after famous precedents such as St. Peter’s in Rome, the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, the Great Mosque of Damascus, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, or the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris?

This session invites papers that pursue these kinds of questions as they pertain to the diverse building cultures of the Middle Ages, West and East, between c.300 to c.1500. Highly encouraged are contributions that investigate the stimuli for citation, the media that make it possible, and the agents that make it productive. Especially welcome are papers involving case studies that consider the potential volatility of architectural citation across cultures, regions, institutions, audiences, materials, architectural types, art-historical styles, or chronological periods.

How to submit: contact Lindsay Cook (lsc2140@columbia.edu) and Zachary Stewart (zdstewart@gmail.com) to propose a 20-minute paper. Submissions must include a title, a one-page abstract, a short CV, and a completed Participant Information Form (available here: wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions).

CFP: Other Spaces: Gender and Architecture in the Imagination, International Medieval Congress at University of Leeds (3-6 July 2017), deadline 12 September 2016

Call for Papers: Other Spaces: Gender and Architecture in the Imagination, International Medieval Congress at University of Leeds (IMC 2017), July 3-6, 2017
Deadline: September 12, 2016

Paper Panel sponsored by the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship (SMFS)

Recent scholarship has drawn attention to the significant roles played by medieval women as patrons of architecture and to the ways in which gender informed the design and function of architectural sites. But what about representations of women and architecture in the medieval imagination? How do visual materials such as manuscript illuminations, paintings and tapestries, and literary works, such as dream visions, conceptualize the relationship between women and architectural space? To what degree are gender and architecture mutually constituted? What conclusions can we draw about spaces considered feminine, and how do these spaces renegotiate the divisions between private and public? Given the longstanding associations between the female body and enclosure, what is the relationship between gender roles and real or imagined enclosures? In what ways do gendered imagined spaces help reconceive real spaces, or vice versa?

Though all topics will be considered, we are particularly eager for papers that address female identity and agency as figured through architectural forms.

How to submit: Please send your name and affiliation, a paper title and abstract (200-250 words) to Boyda Johnstone (bjohnstone1@fordham.edu) & Alexandra Verini (averini@ucla.edu) by Sept. 12, 2016.

Conference Review: International Bridges Group in Prague 2016

This year, the delegates of the International Bridge Group assembled in Prague for their annual symposium. Held over three days, the delegates enjoyed tours of medieval monuments, a day of papers at Vila Lanna, and a day trip to study medieval bridges outside of Prague. The event was a spectacular introduction to medieval Bohemia and – via the none-too-shy monumental decoration of the Charles Bridge in Prague – provided a fascinating insight into the socio-economic ramifications of the campaign of stone bridge construction in the Middle Ages.

Day 1: The Charles Bridge and medieval Prague

A visit to St Vitus Cathedral was one major highlight of this aesthetically munificent event. Dr IMG-20160710-WA0012Klàra Benešovská (Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences) and Petr Chotěbor (master mason of the cathedral) opened the doors for us an hour before the official opening. Points of particular interest to the IBG included the work of Peter Parler, who took over as master mason from 1356 and who also designed parts of the Charles Bridge. Likewise, St Wenceslas’ chapel, with its lavish decorations, stood out as a relative of Karlštejn Castle’s interior, impressing upon us the ties between court and church in fourteenth-century Prague.

Being in Prague enabled the group to take full advantage of the expertise of IBG’s co-founder, Dr Jana Gajdošová, whose forthcoming book focuses on Prague’s medieval bridges. As visitors populated the cathedral, we made our way to the so-called Judith bridge tower. The 12th century bridge, which was built by King Vladislav I, was destroyed in the St Mary Magdalene flood in 1342; however, fragments of its towers survive, built into the fabric of the later structure. We were granted access to one of the towers which once fortified the west end of the Judith Bridge and where a relief carving of two figures, that once decorated the exterior wall of the tower, survives.

From here we made our way to the House at the Stone Bell, which was probably the private residence of John of Luxembourg and Elizabeth of Přemyslid, and which has a gothic façade bearing formal resemblance to that of the bridge tower.

IMG_-cdlg22The Charles Bridge and its Gothic tower was our last point of call. The tower, built facing the Old Town, greets users of the bridge. Designed by Peter Parler, the decorative scheme includes an elaborate east-facing façade which is decorated with heraldic emblems representing ten lands of the crown of Bohemia and figural statues. Within its central blind arch are statues of Emperor Charles IV, and his son, King Wenceslas IV, either side of the standing figure of St Vitus, one of the patron saints of Bohemia. Gajdošová emphasised the way in which the original sculptures, now in the Lapidárium, would have overlooked the viewer as they passed under the tower.

The bridge was a portal connecting the general populus of the Old Town and the sacred royal centre, as much in the imagination as in practice. Charles IV’s patronage is a testament to the political importance of bridges; far beyond the domestic concerns of the civic sphere, this vast structure, adorned with his likeness, facilitated crucial trade, communication and travel between eastern and western Europe.DSC_0811

The first day ended with a keynote from Prof Christopher Wilson, Emeritus of UCL. It explored the prolific career of the late thirteenth-century architect Henry Yevele and his construction of a chapel of St Thomas Becket on London Bridge. The two-storey apsidal chapel was built according to Yevele’s design between 1384 and 1397. Probably recalling the chapel to Our Lady Undercroft beneath the shrine of St Thomas at Canterbury cathedral, the lower and upper storeys of the chapel were dedicated respectively to the same pair. Eighteenth-century etchings suggest its appearance accorded with the reserved perpendicular style favoured by Yevele in his design for the nave of Canterbury cathedral. The paper drew from medieval and antiquarian sources to build up a picture of the lost edifice.

Day 2: The Papers

On the second day the delegates heard ten papers, divided across three sessions, outlined below.

Session 1: Lost, Destroyed and Re-used Bridges

David Harrison, a co-founder of the IBG, discussed the apparently systematic demolition of medieval bridges during the Georgian period, suggesting the motivations behind the destruction often had as much to do with fashion as engineering. He was followed by Klàra Benešovská, who considered the extensive patronage undertaken by Jan of Dražice, the last Bishop of Prague. The focus was his patronage of the bridge in Roudnice nad Labem and its connections to Avignon, where Master William came from to teach the local builders the bridge building techniques of southern France. The paper was a useful complement to the conference’s emphasis on the legacy of Emperor Charles IV but also to the following paper. For this, Michal Panáček shared his exhaustive research into the building technologies of the medieval bridge in Roudnice nad Labem and the Charles Bridge in Prague. The paper emphasised how much more technologically advanced the bridge in Roudnice was – probably since it had a direct connection with the sophisticated French bridge builders.

Finally, Alexandra Gajewski addressed the medieval afterlife of the magnificent Roman aqueduct, the Pont du Gard, sharing shocking accounts of how the piers of the second storey of arcading were recessed to enable wagons to cross a bridge never designed for human passage. She explored various reasons – aesthetic, practical, economic – that compelled medieval travelgaers to use this treacherous bridge.

Session 2: Bridges in Art, Sources and Myths

The second session opened with a paper by Gerrit Deutschländer who discussed medieval gates, their relation to bridges and their ability to glorify rulers. Then, Sarah Harrison gave an art historical overview of depictions of bridges as narrative cues, geographical aides or simply as aesthetic motifs. Susan Irvine closed the session with an exploration of the motif of the bridge in late medieval Middle English romance narratives. In her chosen case study, Gawain and the Green Knight, the bridge serves as means of testing the mettle of the chivalric hero and exploring prevailing questions of personal or universal morality.

Session 3: Digital Technologies and Bridges

Engineer Bill Harvey presented to us the usefulness of 3D-imaging medieval stone bridges as means of assessing their structural integrity and, often, saving them from demolition. Although Simone Balossino was unable to attend the event, he had sent us a video which captured the methods used by the Avignon team to digitally reconstruct the medieval Pont Saint-Benezet. Next, the author of this review presented the Digital Pilgrim Project, which is making 3D-images of a selection of the British Museum’s medieval badge collection and uploading them to the museum’s account with the 3D-imaging platform, Sketchfab. Lastly, Jana Gajdošová and David Harrison presented The Bridge Project to the group, funded by the GEO Sea and Currents Fund, which aims to bring awareness to medieval bridges, to plot them on a map and to thus digitally preserve them.

Day 3: Pìsek and Zvikov Castle

Our last day in the old territories of Charles IV took us to the town of Písek. Here we visited its 13th century bridge, the oldest in Bohemia, which survives close to its original form despite a number of floods and thanks to conservation work. The bridge was fortified by two gate towers, neither of which survives; however, the IBG was able to get an impression of these gates by studying the monumental wall painting in the castle of Písek. Viewing the town’s museum and churches was an opportunity to appreciate the reach of the gothic aesthetic in Bohemia during the Middle Ages. This was intensified by a sun-baked walk to the castle of Zvikov, positioned at the confluence of the Vltava and Otava. There, we encountered a moat bridge, an early example of the use of triradials, traceried arcades, and the cool interior of a fourteenth-century chapel with vibrantly restored wall-paintings.

To sum up, the IBG Conference 2016 achieved a balance of action and reflection. Prague, as an extreme case study in terms of the Charles Bridge’s potency as a political tool, proved both fascinating in isolation and a lens through which to consider the multifaceted functions of bridges across medieval Europe. Thanks is owed to Jana Gajdošová and David Harrison for organising this fascinating conference.

— Amy Jeffs