Medieval Art Research

CFP: The Empire of the Palaiologoi: Ruin or Renewal? (Leeds 2015)

Call for Papers:
The Empire of the Palaiologoi: Ruin or Renewal?
Session at Leeds International Medieval Congress, 6–9 July 2015
Deadline: 31 August 2014

The entry of Michael VIII Palaiologos into Constantinople in 1261 seemed to herald a new beginning for the Byzantine empire, consigning the shattering experience of the Fourth Crusade to the past. Initial hopes were soon dashed as the empire faced more enemies while disposing of fewer resources than ever before. Political, military, economic and ideological challenges were presented by the Latin west, the rising powers of the Muslim east and the newly independent nations of the Balkans. How successfully did Byzantines meet these challenges? Although it is easy to point to the empire’s ultimate demise, more recent scholars have shown that old narratives of decadence and decline are misguided. Astonishing feats of diplomacy and adaptation can be seen, as well as periods of intense intellectual, literary, theological and artistic energy. It was a period of new ideas, self-examination and unprecedented cultural engagement. But was the restoration doomed by unfavourable circumstances in a rapidly changing world, or were poor decisions by Byzantine elites to blame? How far were the Palaiologoi themselves, the most tenacious of all Byzantine dynasties, responsible?

Please send proposals (abstract of 250-300 words and a 50-100 word biography) for 20 minute papers to: Brian Mc Laughlin (brian.mclaughlin.2009@live.rhul.ac.uk) or Christopher Hobbs (chris.hobbs.2010@live.rhul.ac.uk) by August 31, 2014.

Suggested topics include but are not limited to:

– Imperial policy and administration: ruin or renewal from above
– Popular political movements: ruin or renewal from below
– Orthodoxy: Union, Hesychasm, the Byzantine Commonwealth
– Artistic developments
– Byzantine historiography
– Byzantine identity
– Changes in trade and the economy
– Is the notion of Palaiologan ‘decline’ inescapable or outmoded?

CFP: Rethinking Medieval Maps I and II (Kalamazoo 2015)

Call for Papers
Rethinking Medieval Maps I and II
50th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, 14-17 May 2015
Deadline: 15 September 2015

Rethinking Medieval Maps I: The Unmapped, Marginalized and Fictitious

medieval-map-770 This panel is devoted to the cartography of spaces that are far—either geographically or conceptually—from the umbilicus terrae at Jerusalem and the seemingly well-known confines of Europe. Proposals are invited for papers that explore the less privileged aspects of medieval maps: the mapping of the unknown, negative space, and things omitted from maps; the inhabitants of the margins, monsters, and marginalized peoples; and the cartography of the fictitious or counterfactual. While we seek papers that engage closely with the details of the maps themselves, we welcome proposals that highlight new approaches to maps across time and space.

Papers are expected to be amply illustrated with high-quality images of the maps discussed.

Please send your title and abstract (250 words), together with a short CV, to chet.van.duzer@gmail.com and LauraWhatley@ferris.edu by September 15, 2014.

Rethinking Medieval Maps II: Evidence for the Use and Re-Use of Maps

P.D.A. Harvey has written that “Medieval Europe was a society that functioned largely without maps”—and we take this statement as a call for a closer look at how medieval Europeans engaged with maps when they did resort to them. What evidence do we have, either from maps themselves, their contexts, or from textual sources, about how medieval maps were used? What about cases in which maps were designed for one purpose, but employed for another? What do these uses and re-uses tell us about the place of maps in medieval society, and their connection with broader developments in visual or material culture?

Papers are expected to be amply illustrated with high-quality images of the maps discussed.

Please send your title and abstract (250 words), together with a short CV, to chet.van.duzer@gmail.com and LauraWhatley@ferris.edu by September 15, 2014.

Free workshop: Books Across Cultures in the Late Medieval Low Countries, Manchester, 5th November

A half-day workshop will be held in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, on Wednesday 5 November (1.30-4.45 pm). It is aimed primarily at PhD students in relevant disciplines (history, English, modern languages), though master’s students are also welcome subject to approval from their programme director.

Books Across Cultures in the Late Medieval Low Countries aims to introduce students to:

– hands-on work with manuscript and early printed books (codicology, material bibliography, transcription, editing), using books from the library holdings;

– the importance of translation and rewriting in literary cultures of the late medieval Low Countries.

It accompanies the library exhibition Communities in Communication: Languages and Cultures in the Low Countries, 1450-1530: www.library.manchester.ac.uk/rylands/exhibitions/communitiesincommunication/). The exhibition itself forms part of an ongoing research project supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Transcultural Critical Editing: Vernacular Poetry in the Burgundian Netherlands, 1450-1530:www.transculturalediting.eu.

The workshop is free of charge; places are available on a first-come-first-served basis. Prospective participants should send a firm expression of interest to the workshop organizer, Professor Adrian Armstrong (French, Queen Mary University of London: a.armstrong@qmul.ac.uk) by 30 September 2014, indicating their university affiliation, thesis topic or master’s programme, and languages read (French, English, Dutch, Latin – most of the materials studied will be in French). Master’s students should also ask their programme director to confirm approval. Briefing materials will be emailed to students in advance of the workshop.

CFP: Kalamazoo 2015: Slavery and the Slave Trade in Medieval Mediterranean Society

The Malta Study Center of the Hill Monastic Library will be sponsoring a session entitled “Slavery and the Slave Trade in Medieval Mediterranean Society” at the The 50th International Congress on Medieval Studies to take place on May 14-17, 2015. This session will focus on the role slavery as an economic force linking disparate religious and ethnic communities across religions and kingdoms, where the role of unpaid, forced labor provided a common economic and cultural relationship between Muslim and Christian communities controlling the Mediterranean Sea. Please send 200 word abstract and C.V. by September 15 for a 20 minute paper to Daniel K. Gullo (dgullo@csbsju.edu).

Please feel free to contact the Malta Study Center if you have any questions.
Dr. Daniel K. Gullo
Joseph S. Micallef Curator
Malta Study Center
Hill Museum & Manuscript Library
2835 Abbey Plaza • PO Box 7300
Saint John’s University
Collegeville, MN 56321-7300 USA
Phone: 320-363-3993
Fax: 320-363-3222

Postgraduate Study Course: Textos, libros y lectores: Una introducción a la cultura manuscrita de la Península Ibérica durante la Baja Edad Media (Madrid, 13-17 October 2014)

Postgraduate Study Course:
Textos, libros y lectores: Una introducción a la cultura manuscrita de la Península Ibérica durante la Baja Edad Media
Madrid, 13-17 October 2014
Deadline: 30 September

El objetivo de este curso es ofrecer una introducción al estudio de la cultura manuscrita peninsular durante la Baja Edad Media, en la que tenga cabida la producción libraria latina, hebrea, árabe y romance. Para ello, los diferentes participantes irán tejiendo una panorámica de la compleja realidad ibérica y de las particulares dinámicas que rigen la creación, transmisión y recepción de los manuscritos creados al amparo de estas tradiciones, que en ningún caso han de considerarse compartimentos estancos. Las clases se han planteado a partir de cuatro ejes fundamentales: a) una reflexión sobre los condicionantes impuestos por la circulación manuscrita de los textos y los retos que este fenómeno plantea al historiador/filólogo hoy en día, b) un breve acercamiento a la codicología partiendo de ejemplos concretos, c) cuatro catas puntuales sobre aspectos que singularizan a la producción libraria peninsular frente a otros territorios europeos (la prevalencia del romance frente al latín desde un momento muy temprano, el diálogo multicultural en torno al texto bíblico, la impronta dejada por la poesía andalusí en la lírica peninsular, y el peso de la literatura legal en el conjunto de la producción manuscrita hispánica), y d) una inmersión en el análisis de las relaciones entre texto e imágenes en el soporte manuscrito. De este modo, se pretende dar cuenta de la singular condición del manuscrito en tanto que objeto en la encrucijada entre varias disciplinas.

Organisers: Rosa Rodríguez Porto (University of York) and Javier del Barco (ILC, CCHS-CSIC)

For the full programme and to apply, see: http://www.cchs.csic.es/en/textoslibrosylectores

Call for Papers: Liturgical and Secular Drama in Medieval Europe: Text, Music, Image (c. 1000-1500), deadline 31 December 2014

Call for Papers
Liturgical and Secular Drama in Medieval Europe: Text, Music, Image (c. 1000-1500)
Green College, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 9-11 October 2015
Deadline: 31 December 2014

The Gregorian Institute of Canada and The University of British Columbia’s Medieval Studies Committee invite paper and session proposals for THE 43rd UBC MEDIEVAL WORKSHOP / THE 10th GIC COLLOQUIUM, a joint interdisciplinary research conference:

Liturgical and Secular Drama in Medieval Europe: Text, Music, Image (c. 1000-1500)
Taking place at Green College, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, on October 9-11, 2015.

This conference will focus on the Medieval segment of the long history of European theatre. One objective will be to analyse aspects of the great repertoire of liturgical drama, from its supposed modest beginnings in the Gregorian liturgy of Easter, through its various
developments in Latin and the vernaculars, into liturgical, semi-liturgical and secular plays. Just as importantly we recognize the fact that European drama did not begin in the Medieval church. When one considers the secular themes appearing in semi-religious plays then in comic genres of the late Middle Ages, such as the farce, it often becomes necessary to study the direct or indirect influence of secular sources such as Latin comedies, Medieval French fabliaux, or
the troubadours’ satirical dialogues. Beyond this intertextuality, combined in many cases with musical exchanges, Medieval drama gradually acquired visual components including manuscript illuminations, props, theatrical machines, sets, and different approaches to spatial organization in relation to the audience. The transformations in drama over the period 1000-1500 are connected to evolving attitudes toward music in the church, music in theatre, spoken vs. sung plays, the place of the actor in society, religious and secular themes, interactions with other genres, and the manuscript tradition (notations, text transmission, stage directions and commentaries).

Given the diverse aspects of this conference theme, we hope to receive paper and session proposals in: historical musicology, theatre studies, history, performance studies, philosophy, religious studies, translation studies, palaeography and edition. We particularly invite contributions involving two or more of these disciplines.

Proposals for 20-minute papers or 3-paper sessions, in English or in French, should be submitted by December 31, 2014, addressed to James Blasina and Chantal Phan 2015 GIC/UBCMW, and sent by email to:
jblasina@fas.harvard.edu and chantal.phan@ubc.ca

or by mail or fax to:
Prof. Chantal Phan (Medieval Studies), FHIS, 797-1873 East Mall, VANCOUVER, BC V6T 1Z1, CANADA. Fax: (1)-604- 822-6675

Source: http://www.gregorian.ca/publicus/GIC_UBCMW%202015.pdf

CFP: Figurations of Male Beauty in Medieval Culture (Kalamazoo 2015)

Call for Papers:
Figurations of Male Beauty in Medieval Culture
Special session, 50^th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Kalamazoo, 14-17May 2015
Deadline: 15 September 2015

During the central and later Middle Ages, there existed a complex set of typologies for understanding male beauty. Although often problematized, physical beauty could be seen as a positive trait in men. Thus, male saints could be described as physically beautifully, their outward appearance reflecting their inner sanctity. Knights might be described as beautiful, either in their physical proportions or for their glittering, colorful armor and accoutrements. Youthful male beauty was seen in still other ways. Elsewhere, male beauty could be also be seen as being intertwined with pride and other sins. Despite this provocative diversity of attitudes, little has been published on the ways in which medieval people understood the complex intersection of masculinity and beauty at this time. This session hopes to offer a start toward remedying that gap. A diversity of approaches and topics is hoped for.

Please send one-page proposals to Gerry Guest (gguest@jcu.edu)

CFP: Multidisciplinary Saint Bridget: In Honor of Syon Abbey’s 600th Anniversary (Kalamazoo 2015)

Call for Papers:
Multidisciplinary Saint Bridget: In Honor of Syon Abbey’s 600th Anniversary
Co-sponsored by the Syon Abbey Society and the Hagiography Society
50th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, 14–17 May 2015
Deadline: 15 September 2014

St Bridget giving her rule to her order — Photo: The British Museum

This year, the Syon Abbey Society and the Hagiography Society are teaming up to offer a multidisciplinary panel devoted to Saint Birgitta of Sweden (c. 1303-1373), or Saint Bridget as she was known in England. Bridget became famous during her lifetime for her divine visions, her campaigns to bring the papacy back to Rome, her political activism, and her foundation of the Order of St. Saviour (or the Bridgettine Order as it is often called). The only British Bridgettine house, Syon Abbey, was founded in 1415 and flourished alongside the growing devotional cult surrounding Bridget and her texts in England. Syon Abbey is now recognized as one of the most vibrant literary and cultural monastic centers of late medieval England, and this panel will be one of several events in the US and UK to mark the sexcentenary of its foundation.

We invite abstracts for papers exploring any aspect of Saint Bridget and her cult in England or the Continent. Papers addressing connections to Syon’s sisters, brothers, texts, history, or influence are welcome but not required. We hope to form a panel that reflects a variety of disciplinary standpoints: e.g., music, liturgy, art, iconography, architecture, theology, textuality, manuscripts, textual transmission, early print, monasticism, gender issues, socio-politico-economic contexts.

Please email short abstracts to Laura Saetveit Miles, University of Bergen (laura.miles@gmail.com) by September 15.

CFP: The Myth of Origins. The (Re-)Making of Medieval Sacral Space through Liturgical Reform (Leeds 2015)

Call for Papers for three joint sessions to be submitted for the
International Medieval Congress, Institute of Medieval Studies, Leeds 6-9 July 2015
(special thematic strand: Reform & Renewal)
The Myth of Origins. The (Re-)Making of Medieval Sacral Space through Liturgical Reform
Deadline: 10 September 2014

Organizers:
Ivan Foletti, Universities of Brno and Lausanne
Elisabetta Scirocco, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz–Max-Planck-Institut
Sponsor: Center for Early Medieval Studies, University of Brno

The Myth of Origins. The (Re-)Making of Medieval Sacral Space through Liturgical Reform
i. The Second Vatican Council and Twentieth-Century Historiography
ii. Reformation and Counter-Reformation
iii. Gregorian Reform

Divided into three sections, this proposal aims to reflect the ways in which the sacred space of late antiquity is constructed in a retrospective manner, through the most important reforms in the two millennia of the Western Church. Following a diachronic process in reverse, from the twentieth century to the Middle Ages, the stages identified are: The Second Vatican Council; The Council of Trent and the Protestant Reformation; the so-called Gregorian Reform. All coincide with significant moments of crisis for the Latin Church. In each of these historical phases, the answer to the crisis is found in the mythical past, in the origins of the Early Church. In the liturgical field, this is realized in an attempt to restore some of the distinctive elements of the old liturgy, or elements that were presumed to be so. The changes are associated with a critical rhetorical frame, which legitimized the process by virtue of emphasizing the importance of its supposed “authentic” origins. Thus, the innovative dimension of the reform was often denied: in the words of the reformers, what was being done was not to create a new solution, but going back to original ideals, to a Church fair and immaculate.

The search for “antique” elements and the discourse that accompanied their introduction inevitably ended up building a new past, which is reflected heavily in objects and spaces of the sacred, and in the following historiography.

The proposed sessions focus on the manner in which these “denied” reforms actually build history. The sessions will follow a reverse chronology: (i.) the Second Vatican Council and its historiographical premises, which have their roots in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; (ii.) the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation; and (iii.) the so-called Gregorian Reform of the eleventh century.

Participants are invited to reflect on such issues as: the methods used by the reformers to learn about the past; the manner in which the past is reconstructed and modified (consciously and unconsciously) in the texts and monuments; the impact of the “new past” on studies and on the perception of the ancient liturgy.

Papers from a historiographical and a diachronic art historical perspective are especially welcome.

Paper proposals of no more than one page, accompanied by a short CV, can be submitted by 10 September 2014 to: ivan.foletti@gmail.com and escirocco@gmail.com.

CFP: Approaching Portraiture Across Medieval Art (Kalamazoo 2015)

Call for Papers:
Approaching Portraiture Across Medieval Art
Special Session at the 50th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Kalamazoo, 14–17 May 2015
Deadline: 15 September 2014

Organizer: Maeve Doyle, Bryn Mawr College, mkdoyle@brynmawr.edu

Figural representations of specific, contemporary people served numerous purposes in medieval societies, from commemorative and memorial functions to assertions of political power or social status, markers of ownership and use, and enactments of piety. Portraits, furthermore, proliferate across media, in stained glass, manuscript, and sculpture both monumental and miniature. This variety of historical, religious, and material contexts inflects the function of medieval portraits and their reception. While portraiture had long been considered an essentially modern genre, recent scholarship has worked to establish terms for considering portrait forms within the social, artistic,and theological contexts of the Middle Ages. In his book on royal representations in late medieval France, Stephen Perkinson situated the rise of veristic portraiture within the social and artistic concerns of the Valois court. Scholars such as Brigitte Bedos-Rezak and Alexa Sand, on the other hand, have approached the question of portraiture through medium-specific studies of personal seals and illuminated manuscripts, respectively. These studies emphasize the extent to which the creation and reception of a portrait depends upon its specific historical and material contexts. This panel seeks to explore the degree to which such focused studies can inform one another. In order to further investigation into medieval portraiture (or portraitures), this panel seeks to spotlight studies of portraiture across contexts and across media and to place them into dialog. This panel invites proposals for papers treating portraiture, loosely defined, from across medieval cultures and in any area of representation. To propose a paper for this panel, please send an abstract of no more than 300 words and the completed Participant Information Form (available online at http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/#PIF ) to Maeve Doyle (mkdoyle@brynmawr.edu ) by Monday, September 15, 2014.