CFP: ‘In viaggio verso l’oriente: Marco Polo e i Frati Mendicanti (Travelling to the East: Marco Polo and the Mendicant Friars)’, deadline 7 April 2024

Istituto di Studi Ecumenici “San Bernardino”, Sestiere Castello 2786 – 30122 Venice
Friday 25 – Saturday 26 October 2024

Marco Polo, whose seven centuries since his death (1254 – 1324) will be celebrated in 2024, can be considered, in his own right, a privileged witness of fruitful intercultural relations between the Western and Eastern worlds. According to St. Augustine, the world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page of it. The Venetian traveller was undoubtedly an extraordinary reader of the book of the world: a man of wonder and curiosity…

His voyage, very long in time and space (three and a half years, between 1271 and 1275, and a distance of some 12,000 kilometres), crosses mythical lands, of different cultures and religions, from Venice to Xanadu (China): through Armenia, the Iranian plateau and the mountains of the Hindu Kush, passing by the territories of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea; between fertile lands, steppes and the inhospitable deserts of the Taklamakan and the Gobi. If the outward journey was almost entirely by land, the return to Venice (24 years after departure) will be mainly by sea: through the South China Sea, the Strait of Malacca, the Bay of Bengal, Ceylon, the Arabian Sea, the Persian Gulf.

Marco Polo with his accounts arouses curiosity, great wonder. Although he is a typical western man and Christian educated, he observes facts and situations without too many prejudices and cultural blocks, even if there is a certain hostility towards Muslims, probably to be found in a historical-political context characterised by the Crusades.

Marco’s voyage, with his father Niccolò and his uncle Matteo Polo, becomes much more than a simple and never-ending commercial voyage: it is an epic in which various actors join in, often by small strokes, including religious and ecclesiastical figures, an expression of the Pope of Rome’s desire to understand the real extent of those ‘borders of the world’, towards which the missionary mandate of evangelical memory was oriented.

Undoubtedly, members of the Order of the Black Friars (Dominican Preachers), already well present in Marco Polo’s Venice, were among these ecclesiastical avant-garde wished by the pontiff. However, Fra Francesco Pipino, a Dominican friar who translated Marco Polo’s Il Milione into Latin between 1302 and 1315, partly condensing it and providing it with a new prologue, was not Venetian. Pippin, for this translation, perhaps the best known of all, did not however use the original text, but had recourse to a Venetian vulgarization. There was probably another Dominican Latin version of Il Milione, as can be deduced from archive documents showing links between the Venetian traveller and the Dominicans of the Serenissima. Members of the Order of Preachers, they advocated the spreading of the text in their preaching and teaching, not only in Italy, but also in France and England, combining approaches based on codicology, diplomatics, history, philology, religion and art history.

During the two days that will take place in Venice on 25 and 26 October 2024, the aim is to celebrate the story of Marco Polo through a multidisciplinary approach that sees Polo as the most famous figure but also covers themes and characters equally worthy of in-depth study. The papers will be divided into three sections: the first will be of a historical-philological nature and the history of thought (The Dominicans and Marco Polo); the second dedicated to the discovery of the literary genre linked to the journey, with particular reference to the missionary one (The Periegetic and the Missions to the East); and finally a third section focusing on artistic aspects and cultural exchanges (The East of Silk and the Arts, Maps and Polo’s Iconographies).

Subjects of specific interest for the thematic sections:

  • Dominican manuscripts and scriptoria between Venice, Padua and Constantinople, locations of Dominican Studiorum
  • Mendicant Friars Narrators, between chronicle and apologetics
  • Travel narratives and geographical knowledge at the end of the Middle Ages
  • The reception and diffusion of travel texts from antiquity, in the medieval period, between fiction and reality
  • Travel and otherness: encounter-clash between cultures and religious traditions
  • Between West and East: exchanges and identity claims among Christian communities in constant interaction
  • Marco Polo’s Iconographies
  • The depiction of the Mendicant Friars and the mediated image of the East
  • Oriental souvenirs: trade between Europe and the Far East (the role of the missions)

Scholars and young academics are invited to send, by 7 April 2024, the title of their contribution and an abstract of at least 1500 characters, with a short CV to the following email address: dosti.marcopolo@gmail.com

Proposals in Italian, English and French are accepted. More information can be found here.

The Scientific Committee reserves the right to allocate some of the contribution proposals directly to the collection of proceedings to be published by the Institutum Historicum Ordinis Praedicatorum.

Conference: ‘L’art roman au XXIe siècle: L’avenir d’un passé à réinventer’, Poitiers, 28-31 May 2024

Poitiers, France – Hôtel Fumé, amphithéâtre Descartes, Faculté des Sciences humaines et arts – 8 rue René Descartes – bâtiment E18

Free entry, subject to availability, upon registration before May 24. Email: secretariat.cescm@univ-poitiers.fr. More information: cescm.labo.univ-poitiers.fr.x

Ce colloque vise à développer un bilan de l’historiographie de ces vingt dernières années et une réflexion épistémologique sur l’étude de ce qu’il est convenu d’appeler « art roman ». Il s’agira dans un premier temps de poursuivre les réflexions déjà amorcées par de nombreux chercheurs sur la définition de l’art roman et d’aborder ensuite les différents questionnements qui lui sont généralement appliqués, tout en envisageant de nouvelles pistes ou en reconsidérant des approches anciennes qui mériteraient d’être réhabilitées et renouvelées. // This conference aims to develop an assessment of the historiography of the last twenty years and an epistemological reflection on the study of what is commonly called “Romanesque art”. It will initially be a question of continuing the reflections already initiated by numerous researchers on the definition of Romanesque art and then of addressing the different questions which are generally applied to it, while considering new avenues or reconsidering old approaches which deserve to be rehabilitated and renewed.

Honorary Doctorate Award Ceremony to Professor Herbert L. Kessler

Thursday May 30 – 6:30 p.m. / Palais de Poitiers – 10 p.m. Alphonse Lepetit

On the occasion of this conference, the University of Poitiers will award the title of Doctor Honoris Causa to Herbert L. Kessler, Professor Emeritus of Johns Hopkins University,

Wednesday, 29 May 2024 – 6:30 p.m. / Espace Mendès France (Planétarium), 1 Place de la Cathédrale, Poitiers

Michel Pastoureau , Honorary Director of Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (IV e Section) will give a lecture: ‘L’art roman : une porte grande ouverte sur les divagations ésotériques’.

Exhibitions

Hôtel Fumé, 8 rue René Descartes & Hôtel Berthelot, 24 rue de la Chaîne, Poitiers

As part of the conference, two exhibitions will be presented to the public, one on Regards sur l’art roman monumental, à travers le fonds de la photothèque du CESCM, and the other on Les restaurations de l’église de la Nativité à Bethléem (UNESCO).

Conference

Tuesday 28 May 2024

9 a.m. – Reception

9:15 a.m. – Introduction

Qu’est-ce que l’art roman? Définitions et limites

Session chair: Christian Sapin, Emeritus Research Director, CNRS

9:30 a.m. – Xavier Barral i Altet, Professor Emeritus of Medieval Art History, National Institute of Art History (Paris): ‘Chronologie et idéologie. Les positions des historiens de l’art français du XXe siècle face à l’art roman’

10 a.m. – Éliane Vergnolle, Honorary Professor of Medieval Art History, University of Besançon: ‘Les débuts de l’architecture romane en Francie occidentale : regards d’hier et d’aujourd’hui’

10:30 a.m. – Quitterie Cazes, Professor of Medieval Art History, University of Toulouse Jean-Jaurès: ‘Retour sur la pratique de la monographie d’édifice’

11 a.m. – Break

Aires culturelles et études de cas

Session chair: Christian Sapin, Emeritus Research Director, CNRS

11:15 a.m. – Justin Kroesen, Professor of Medieval Art History, Bergen University Museum: ‘Nordic Romanesque: some recent developments in research’

11:45 a.m. – John McNeill, Secretary of the British Archaeological Association: ‘Norman, Anglo-Norman, Anglo-Saxon: Recent debates on the Forms of Architecture in 11th-Century England’

12:15 p.m. – Discussion

Aires culturelles et études de cas

Session chair: Éliane Vergnolle, Honorary Professor of Medieval Art History, University of Besançon

1:45 p.m. – Andreas Hartmann-Virnich, Professor of Medieval Art History, University of Aix-en-Provence: ‘La vision de l’art roman dans l’historiographie allemande (XIXe-XXe siècle)’

2:15 p.m. – Saverio Lomartire, Professor of History of Middle Ages Art, Università degli Studi dell’Insubria: ‘L’art « roman » dans le Nord de l’Italie : synthèse historiographique et réflexions sur la validité et l’actualité d’une définition’

2:45 p.m. – Linda Seidel, Professor Emeritus of Medieval Art History, University of Chicago: ‘Seeing the Present through the Past: Arles in the 12th and 20th Centuries’

3:15 p.m. – Valentino Pace, Professor Emeritus of Medieval Art History, Università di Udine: ‘Sant’Angelo in Formis: « romanica o bizantina »? Un caso esemplare di ambiguità storiografica fra cronologia e geografia’

3:45 p.m. – Discussion and break

Questions d’épistémologie 

Session chair: Éliane Vergnolle, Honorary Professor of Medieval Art History, University of Besançon

4:30 p.m. – Nicolas Reveyron, Professor of Medieval Art History, University of Lyon II: ‘De quoi « Art roman » est-il le nom ? Approche épistémologique d’une problématique d’axiologie esthétique’

4:50 p.m. – Christian Gensbeitel, Lecturer in the History of Medieval Mrt, Bordeaux-Montaigne University: ‘L’architecture religieuse du XIe siècle à travers le prisme des édifices « mineurs ». Un autre point de vue sur l’élaboration des formes romanes’

5:20 p.m. – Claude Andrault-Schmitt, Professor Emeritus of Medieval Art History, University of Poitiers: ‘ Ranger donc dater les productions architecturales françaises : tendances historiographiques et rigueur méthodologique’

5:50 p.m. – Gerardo Boto Varela, Professor of Medieval Art History, Universitat di Girona: ‘Épistémologie et historiographie des chantiers de cathédrales espagnoles (ca. 1015-1203) : construire, aménager, décorer. Dialogue entre l’histoire de l’art et les autres disciplines’

6:20 p.m. – Discussion

Wednesday 29 May 2024

Questions d’épistémologie 

Session chair: Vinni Lucherini, Professor of medieval art history, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Napoli

9 a.m. – Laurence Terrier, Assistant Professor in Medieval Art History, University of Neuchâtel: ‘Art roman vs art gothique : historiographie, épistémologie et perspectives’

9:30 a.m. – Philippe Plagnieux, Professor of Medieval Art History, University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne: ‘Revenir sur les derniers feux de la sculpture romane et ses tentatives de renouvellement. Une étude de cas : les sources antiques et byzantines du foyer bourbonno-nivernais dans le second quart du XIIe siècle’

10 a.m. – Manuel Castiñeiras, Professor of Medieval Art History, Universitat Autònoma di Barcelona: ‘L’art roman et les enjeux de l’art 1200 : dynamique, dialogues et transformations’

10:30 a.m. – Lucien-Jean Bord, Librarian, Ligugé Abbey: ‘Le voyage des images’

11 a.m. – Break

11:20 a.m. – Peter K. Klein, Professor Emeritus of Medieval Art History, Universität Tübingen: ‘La reconstruction des traditions iconographiques est-elle obsolète ? L’exemple du Beatus de Saint-Sever’

Manifestations du sacré

Session chair: Daniel Russo, honorary professor of Medieval Art History, University of Burgundy

1:30 p.m. – Marc Sureda, Curator, Museu Episcopal de Vic: ‘L’architecture romane hispanique à l’épreuve de la liturgie : quelques problèmes et cas d’étude’

2 p.m. – Kirk Ambrose, Professor of Medieval Art History, University of Colorado, Boulder: ‘Navigation of Doubt in Romanesque Sculpture’

2:30 p.m. – Estelle Ingrand-Varenne, Researcher, CNRS, CESCM-University of Poitiers: ‘À la recherche d’une épigraphie romane’

3 p.m. – Gerhard Lutz, Curator, Cleveland Museum of Art: ‘BERNVVARDVS PRESVL FECIT HOC – Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim and the Arts around 1000 Revisited.’

3:30 p.m. – Cynthia Hahn, Professor of Medieval Art History, CUNY, Hunter College: ‘Is there such a thing as a « Romanesque » Reliquary?’

4 p.m. – Break

4:20 p.m. – Catherine Fernandez, Researcher in Medieval Art History, Index of Medieval Art, Princeton: ‘Ordering the Cosmos: The Saint-Aubin Maiestas Domini and Romanesque Temporalities’

4:50 p.m. – Charlotte Denoël, Chief Curator, head of the medieval service of the Manuscripts department, Bibliothèque nationale de France: ‘Manuscrits sans frontières : le cas du Sacramentaire de Manassès (Paris, BnF latin 819)’

5:20 p.m. – Discussion

6:30 p.m. – Espace Mendès France (Planetarium)

Michel Pastoureau, Directeur d’Études honoraire à l’École Pratique des Hautes Études (IVe Section): ‘L’art roman : une porte grande ouverte sur les divagations ésotériques‘

Thursday 30 May 2024

Expressions du pouvoir et des idées

Session chair: Xavier Barral i Altet, Professor Emeritus of Medieval Art History, National Institute of Art History (Paris)

9 a.m. – Herbert L. Kessler, Professor Emeritus of Medieval Art History, Johns Hopkins University: “Velut sinuosum acanthi volumen”: Romanesque Ornament’s Meaningful Demeanor 

9:30 a.m. – Yves Christe, Honorary Professor of Medieval Art History, University of Geneva: ‘Orient Oder Rom ? Colonnes et colonnettes jumelées dans l’architecture romane et islamique’

10 a.m. – Jeffrey F. Hamburger, Professor of Medieval Art History, Harvard University: ‘Avatars of Authorship’

10:30 a.m. – Beate Fricke, Professor of Medieval Art History, Universität Bern: ‘4 Elements, 12 Stones’

11 a.m. – Break

11:20 a.m. – Marcia Kupfer, Independent researcher in medieval art history: ‘The contributions of Romanesque art to Western Anti-Judaism’

11:50 a.m. – Discussions

Expressions du pouvoir et des idées

Session chair: Pierre-Alain Mariaux, Professor of Medieval Art History, Institute of art history and museology, University of Neuchâtel

1:45 p.m. – Nicolas Prouteau, Lecturer in medieval archaeology, University of Poitiers: ‘Le palais et la tour-palais à l’époque romane : héritages, emprunts et construction du pouvoir royal’

2:15 p.m. – Vinni Lucherini, Professor of Medieval Art History, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Napoli: ‘Les sceaux des XIIe et XIIIe siècles : une nouvelle manière d’appréhender l’art roman des rois et des orfèvres’

2:45 p.m. – Serena Romano, Professor Emeritus of Medieval Art History, University of Lausanne: ‘Rome et ses environs à l’« âge de la Réforme ». Les approches de l’historiographie et les perspectives d’aujourd’hui’

3:15 p.m. – Discussion and break

Savoirs-faire médiévaux et techniques actuelles

Session chair: Pierre-Alain Mariaux, Professor of Medieval Art History, Institute of Art History and Museology, University of Neuchâtel

3:50 p.m. – Christian Sapin, Emeritus Research Director, CNRS: ‘L’art roman sous le scanner archéologique. Un nouveau regard ?’

4:20 p.m. – Géraldine Mallet, Professor of Medieval Art History, Paul-Valéry University, Montpellier: ‘De la sculpture romane en Catalogne du Nord : marbres locaux ou marbres antiques de remploi ?’

4:50 p.m. – Thierry Gregor, Doctor of History, CESCM-University of Poitiers: ‘L’adaptation des graveurs de l’époque romane à la réalisation des inscriptions sur la pierre’

5:20 p.m. – Discussion

6:30 p.m. – Award ceremony for the title of Doctor Honoris Causa (Palais de Poitiers – 10 place Alphonse Lepetit), The University of Poitiers will award the Doctorate Honoris Causa to Herbert L. Kessler, Professor Emeritus of Johns Hopkins University

Friday 31 May 2024

Savoirs-faire médiévaux et techniques actuelles

Session chair: Serena Romano, Professor Emeritus of Medieval Art History, University of Lausanne

9 a.m. – Amaëlle Marzais, Lecturer in the Medieval Art History, University of Lyon II and Carolina Sarrade , Design engineer, CNRS, CESCM-University of Poitiers: ‘Les apports des nouvelles approches techniques pour l’étude des peintures murales romanes’

9:30 a.m. – Florian Meunier, Curator, Louvre Museum: ‘Les objets d’art romans dans une perspective européenne : l’étude des ivoires, de l’orfèvrerie et des émaux des collections du Louvre’

10 a.m. – Pierre-Alain Mariaux, Professor of Medieval Art History, Institute of art history and museology, University of Neuchâtel: ‘L’orfèvrerie de la période romane : leçons matérielles de chantiers récents’

10:30 a.m. – Discussion and break

Savoirs-faire médiévaux et techniques actuelles

Session chair: Serena Romano, Professor Emeritus of Medieval Art History, University of Lausanne

11:20 a.m. – Eduardo Carrero Santamaría, Professor of Medieval Art History, Universitat Autònoma di Barcelona: ‘Romanesque architecture from virtual reality: what architecture and what reality?’

11:50 a.m. – Francisco Prado Vilar, Professor of Medieval Art History, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela: ‘Romanesque Transformations: Experience, Cognition, Technologies of the Image’

12:20 – Discussion

Savoirs-faire médiévaux et techniques actuelles

Session chair: Valentino Pace, Professor Emeritus of Medieval Art History, Università di Udine

2 p.m. – Pierre-Olivier Dittmar, Lecturer in medieval history, CRH-AHLoMA, EHESS: ‘L’art roman au risque de l’animal’

2:30 p.m. – Robert A. Maxwell, Professor of Medieval Art History, Sherman Fairchild Associate Professor of Fine Arts , The Institute of Fine Arts, New York: ‘L’étrangeté de l’art roman’

3 p.m. – Thomas EA Dale, Professor of Medieval Art History, University of Wisconsin-Madison: ‘Genre, race et l’invalidité : perspectives alternatives sur la sculpture de Vézelay’

3:30 p.m. – Peter Scott Brown, Professor of Medieval Art History, University of North Florida: ‘A Work by the Doña Sancha Master in Northern Italy: On the Monumental Turn in Eleventh Century Sculpture, the Medieval Viewer, and the Modern Eye’

4 p.m. – Discussion

4:30 p.m. – Thanks

Job: Curator of Ancient and Medieval Manuscripts, The British Library, deadline 7 April 2024

Hours: Permanent – Full time

Grade: B

Salary: £33,600

The British Library holds an internationally renowned collection of manuscripts relating to the ancient and medieval world. As Curator of Ancient and Medieval Manuscripts, with a special responsibility for Classical, Biblical and Byzantine manuscripts, you will use innovative and traditional ways of interpreting and presenting these collections through online resources and engagement with academic and general users. You will also use your specialist knowledge to support the development, management and promotion of the ancient and medieval collections.

With a post-graduate degree, or equivalent, in a relevant subject, you will have extensive experience of research in Classical, Biblical and/or Byzantine Studies. Strong knowledge of Classical Latin and Ancient Greek, excellent written and oral communication skills in English, and the ability to promote the collections to a wide range of audiences are essential.

As one of the world’s great libraries, our duty is to preserve the nation’s intellectual memory for the future and make it available to all for research, inspiration and enjoyment. At present, we have well over 170 million items, in most known languages, with three million new items added every year. We have manuscripts, maps, newspapers, magazines, prints and drawings, music scores, and patents. We make our collections and programmes available to all. We operate the world’s largest document delivery service providing millions of items a year to customers all over the world. What matters to us is that we preserve the national memory and enable knowledge to be created both now and in the future by anyone, anywhere.

In return, we offer a competitive salary and a number of excellent benefits. Our pension scheme is one of the most valuable benefits we offer, as our staff can become members of the Alpha Pension Scheme where the Library contributes a minimum of 26.6% (this may be higher dependant on grade. Another significant benefit the Library provides is the provision of a flexible working hours scheme which could allow you to work your hours flexibly over the week and to take up to 5 days flexi leave in a 3 month period. This is on top of 25 days holiday from entry and public and privilege holidays.

Closing date: 7 April 2024

Interview date: 29 April 2024

We are unable to provide sponsorship under the UK Skilled Worker visa for this role, as it does not meet the eligibility criteria required for this immigration route

Find out more here.

New Publication: ‘Staging the Ruler’s Body in Medieval Cultures: A Comparative Perspective’

Edited by Michele Bacci, Gohar Grigoryan, Manuela Studer-Karlen

The fifteen studies gathered in the book reflect on the mise-en-scène and representational devices of medieval rulers’ bodily appearances in Angevin, Aragonese, Armenian, Byzantine, Carolingian, English, Ethiopian, Georgian, Leonese, Sasanian and Sienese traditions.

This book explores the viewing and sensorial contexts in which the bodies of kings and queens were involved in the premodern societies of Europe, Asia, and Africa, relying on a methodology that aims to overcoming the traditional boundaries between material studies, art history, political theory, and Repräsentationsgeschichte. More specifically, it investigates the multiple ways in which the ruler’s physical appearance was apprehended and invested with visual, metaphorical, and emotional associations, as well as the dynamics whereby such mise-en-scène devices either were inspired by or worked as sources of inspiration for textual and pictorial representations of royalty. The outcome is a multifaced analysis of the multiple, imaginative, and terribly ambiguous ways in which, in past societies, the notion of a God-driven, eternal, and transpersonal royal power came to be associated with the material bodies of kings and queens, and of the impressive efforts made, in different cultures, to elude the conundrum of the latter’s weakness, transitoriness, and individual distinctiveness.

Editor Biographies

  • Michele Bacci is Professor of Medieval Art History at Fribourg University, Switzerland, and a member of the Academia Europaea. His research has been focused on artistic interactions in the Medieval Mediterranean and beyond, and the history of cult-objects and holy sites from a phenomenological-comparative viewpoint. He is the author of numerous publications, including Il pennello dell’Evangelista (1998), The Many Faces of Christ (2014), the Mystic Cave (2017), and Veneto-Byzantine Artistic Interactions (2021).
  • Gohar Grigoryan, Ph.D. (2017), University of Fribourg, is currently senior researcher at the same university within an SNSF-funded project. She is the author of over two dozen peer-reviewed articles on medieval Armenian art and history and of an upcoming monograph on royal imagery in Cilician Armenia.
  • Manuela Studer-Karlen, Ph.D. (2010), University of Fribourg, is a SNSF Professor for Medieval Art at the University in Bern. She has published a monograph on late antique sarcophagi and recently her habilitation has been published with the title: “Christus Anapeson. Image and Liturgy”. Her research centres on the history of visual-cultural processes in late antiquity, the interactions among text, image and space in Byzantine churches, medieval Georgian art, and Gothic ivories.

Find out more about the book here.

CFP: ‘Embodied Preaching: Multisensorial Preaching Performances in Medieval Europe’, deadline 5 April 2024

The crucial importance of preaching in medieval Europe has long been acknowledged, not only for religious culture, but also for cultural, political and social history, art history and history of material culture. An interconnected pan-European phenomenon, to be effective preaching needed to be at the same time tailored to local tastes and conventions, shaping the message to the circumstances at hand. With the term “preaching” we understand the public performance of a speech believed to be divinely inspired and meant for religious and moral education. Most importantly, medieval preaching was not the static transfer of a text from preacher to audience: rather, it was an inherently dynamic and interactive activity, involving multiple actors through time and space, communicating religious knowledge within embodied and spatialized networks. The conference will focus on the multisensorial dimension of preaching, which goes beyond the content and style of the textual sermon, to include the personal appearance of the preacher, their voice and gestures (the “embodied” dimension), the material environment in which the preaching took place (the “embedded” dimension) and the use of “special effects” (such as sounds or fire) and objects as an integral part of the performance.

The role played by the material environment in which the preaching took place has received little attention, and mostly with reference to memory (Carruthers 1998, Bolzoni 2002). It has been pointed out that some late medieval religious leaders (such as Bernardino of Siena) referred in their speeches to specific elements of the material environment in which they were preaching (for example, artworks), presumably to help keep awake the attention of the audience and to “anchor” the teaching to material elements which could be seen by individuals on a daily basis. However, much remains to be done to understand whether and to what extent the specific material environment affected the overall experience of preaching (open vs closed space, specific environments such as churches, saint’s tombs, graveyards, squares and so on). Preachers operated amidst a visual network of objects and spaces, against a background of paintings, sculptures, and other images present within the same space where they performed, giving opportunity for the sermon to connect, contrast, or compete for attention. This also raises the question to what extent preachers adapted their preaching to the particular environment and planned the setting in which the preaching had to take place.

A further element that deserves to be considered is that, as an act of communication, preaching was not a one-way interaction: the audience, through their attitude, verbal and non-verbal reactions to the preaching played an active role which affected the experience both of the individuals gathered to listen and of the preacher. Based on this, we propose to approach preaching an interactive performance where multiple actors and multiple elements played a role. For this purpose, we will approach audiences using the notion of “socio-sensory environment”, and assuming the existence of specific sensoria depending on social, cultural and geographical factors. Preaching relied on the various senses to be properly understood and make a lasting impact: the oral and aural performance of the sermon took place within a visually accessible space, with the preacher using both voice and body (gestures, facial expressions) to convey a message. From the sermon text, listeners are often invited to fully employ their senses as well and to imagine themselves present at religiously significant moments: to see the scene before their eyes, to hear what was occurring, to smell, taste, and feel, their internal or imaginary senses giving rise for meditation and devotion. Meanwhile, the experiences of pleasant or unpleasant smells or feelings of cold, heat, or discomfort can also be investigated from a sensory perspective.

With a primary focus on Western Europe from the 12th to the 15th century, this conference aims to explore preaching in an innovative and holistic way, by considering the multisensorial dimension of the transmission and reception of the word of God in whichever form, verbal or non-verbal. By emphasising the range of activities aimed at communicating religious knowledge and devotional practice, and the multisensorial nature of such activities, this conference will explore new aspects of the multifaceted experience of medieval preaching.

We welcome abstracts for 20-minute papers in English. Scholars may address the topic with a broad approach but always considering the role of all the senses in the performance and reception of preaching. Paper topics may include, but are by no means limited to:

  • The role played by objects in the experience of preaching: for example objects and artworks used by preachers, devotional or practical items or other objects, such as hand warmers, used by the audience
  • Unconventional ways of preaching reliant on the senses, for example through music or theatrical performances
  • The role played by the senses in the experience of preaching, including smell, taste, and the interior senses (such as thermoception or proprioception)
  • The link between preaching and art or architecture, including when preaching outside of the church
  • How preaching was experienced differently by different audiences, including audience responses and interactions during preaching
  • Sermons or preaching that encompass discussions of physicality, embodiment, or materiality

Please send a title and abstract of no longer than 300 words, together with a short CV and personal data (max. 300 words), to the following emails: zuleika.murat@unipd.it; pieterhendrik.boonstra@unipd.it; micol.long@unipd.it

The language of the conference is English. More information can be found here.

Deadline: 5 April 2024. Notifications of acceptance will be given by 26 April 2024.

Selected papers will be invited for publication in a collective volume.

This conference is organised by the ERC research project SenSArt – The Sensuous Appeal of the Holy. Sensory Agency of Sacred Art and Somatised Spiritual Experiences in Medieval Europe (12th-15th century), Grant Agreement nr. 950248, PI Zuleika Murat, Università degli Studi di Padova (https://sensartproject.eu/).

Organising Committee:

  • Zuleika Murat (Associate Professor, Università degli Studi di Padova)
  • Pieter Boonstra (Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Università degli Studi di Padova)
  • Micol Long (Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Università degli Studi di Padova)

‘Afterlives: Reusing the Past’ – A Day of Short Papers to celebrate the Life of Jill Franklin, Tuesday 30 April 2024

Hosted by the Society of Antiquaries, BAA, and CRSBI
Location: Society of Antiquaries, Tuesday 30 April 2024
Tickets: £15 (use this link to register)
Places are free to students, but students must first register by sending an email to conferences@thebaa.org

Jill Franklin died in October 2023, after the cancer she had lived with for many years returned. She was responsible for the catalogue of paintings in the collections of the Society of Antiquaries (with Pamela Tudor-Craig and Bernard Nurse), was the Norfolk fieldworker for the CRSBI, and was a council member of the BAA. Jill had a lifelong interest in the architecture and architectural sculpture of the 11th and 12th centuries and a particular interest in Augustinian canons and their churches. This day is in celebration of her life.

10.00-10.30 – Registration and Coffee

SESSION 1: 10.30-12.30

Bob Allies, Something in the air: the poetics and pragmatics of the pre-existing

A reflection on how, over the course of the last forty years, an appreciation of the potential of the pre-existing has consistently informed and shaped the work of our practice, together with some observations on the extent to which the climate emergency is now provoking a fundamental shift in the architectural profession’s attitude towards the recycling of materials and the reuse of buildings.

Eric Fernie, Enlarging English Medieval Great Churches

A common feature of English medieval great churches, especially cathedrals built in the Norman period, is the later rebuilding and enlarging of their eastern parts, with examples ranging from Canterbury to Ely and York. The purpose of the paper is to ask what this tells us about the financial resources needed to pay for the work, whether there was an increase in the power of the patrons or because of a wider increase in the size of the economy.

Nicola Coldstream, A village that moved: the early adventures of Ascott-under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire

A late Romanesque capital built into an eighteenth-century gateway is among the few surviving remains of the early village site of Ascott-under-Wychwood in Oxfordshire. This paper discusses the original location of the capital and considers reasons why the village was moved.

John McNeill, A Norman Doric Cloister in the Aeolian Islands

The abbey of San Bartolommeo on Lipari was founded before 1088 by Roger I, count of Sicily, occupying an ancient Greek walled enclosure above the most important harbour in the Aeolian islands. Despite its replacement in the 16th century, the monastic church can be shown to have been aisleless and cruciform. To its south is the residue of a cloister made up, for the most part, of cut-down Doric columns and capitals. Usually dated to the 1130s, when its abbot was granted the title of bishop and San Bartolommeo became a monastic cathedral, the cloister seems more likely to date from the late 11th century, and to have formed a part of the original monastic complex. As a spolia curiosity off the north coast of Sicily, it is without rival.

David Robinson, The Augustinian Canons in the Twelfth Century: Reflections on an Architectural Identity

Our friend and much-missed colleague, Jill Franklin, devoted considerable energy to the occurrence and meaning of the aisleless cruciform church in Romanesque Europe. Jill’s interest in this particular form of building began in earnest with her contextual study of the Augustinian cathedral priory at Carlisle, delivered at the BAA annual conference held in that city in 2001. From there, Jill went on to write a number of extremely thought-provoking papers considering the twelfth-century churches of the Augustinian canons in general. Indeed, for many years, and almost single-handedly, Jill sought to give the early canons something of an architectural voice. This paper will offer a review of Jill’s important findings, assessing her contribution in a marginally wider overview of Augustinian architecture in England and Wales.

Questions/Discussion

12.30 – 1.30: Lunch

SESSION 2: 1.30 – 3.15

Richard Halsey and Sandy Heslop, The Church of All Saints, West Acre (Norfolk)

The parish church of All Saints West Acre stands immediately east of the ruins of the gatehouse of the adjacent Augustinian priory of St Mary, suppressed at the Dissolution. Existing discussions of its architecture imply that All Saints is a medieval building restored or upgraded in the post-Reformation period. We propose instead that it is a new building of c.1637 constructed at the behest of Sir Edward Barkham in large part out of fragments of moulded stones, freestone rubble and flint taken from the demolished priory, the site of which he owned. Indeed, it is likely to have been designed deliberately to reuse available features. Its Laudian date (Laud was archbishop 1633-45) suggests the possibility that it deliberately harks back to pre-Reformation parish worship located within an aisle of the destroyed monastic church.

Christopher Wilson, Salvage from a Mighty Wreck: A Clearstorey Window from Vale Royal Abbey, Cheshire

Not hitherto recognised as an instance of the post-Suppression salvage of monastic fabric is some incongruously ambitious stonework incorporated into the exterior of the parish church of c. 1500 at Northwich, 4 km from the site of Vale Royal Abbey. Begun in 1277 by Edward I, Vale Royal’s church was by far the largest built for the Cistercian Order in England, and work surged ahead until 1290, when Edward suddenly withdrew his support. In 1353 a new chapter opened under the patronage of Edward Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester (the Black Prince). In June 1359 he and the abbey contracted with a master mason for a French-style circuit of chapels whose plan was partly uncovered by excavation in 1958. Two years later a hurricane blew down the entire central vessel of the nave. What happened after the completion of the radiating chapels has always been unclear, but the evidence of the Northwich stonework indicates that the choir was completed in fine style. The only documented fact about the choir, generated by the famous heraldic dispute between Sir Robert Grosvenor and the Scropes of Masham, is that the Grosvenor arms decorated its interior. Joining up the available dots outlines a collaborative project due to the Prince of Wales (and, from 1363, of Aquitaine) and the Cheshire gentry comrades who played a major role in the dramatic expansion of English territory in south-west France during the 1350s.

Ron Baxter, The Early Days of the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture

Officially the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture began in 1988 when George Zarnecki and Neil Stratford approached the British Academy and asked for a grant to start up a project to record all the stone sculpture produced between 1066 and 1200. In fact, George had clearly been thinking about it for several years, and contacted Jill Franklin much earlier than this, as a kind of pilot study. This talk will give a brief history of the early days of the Corpus with special reference to Jill’s work in Norfolk.

Richard Plant, Anglo-Saxon Roods in Romanesque Contexts

The survival of pre-Conquest sculpture as part of the fabric of later churches in England is peculiar. Apart from attesting the long-standing tradition of stone sculpture in the Atlantic Islands the re-setting of images of the Crucifixion in later walling raises a number of questions about how they would have been understood and used by later viewers. This paper will look at the instance in Langford in Oxfordshire, and especially at Romsey in Hampshire, where the re-used crucifix is placed next to the entrance from the cloister into the church, suggesting a particular devotional focus on this earlier image.

Stephen Heywood, ‘Let’s Pretend!’ The decoration of the north transept and the reused throne at Norwich Cathedral

Jill worked on the architectural sculpture of Norwich Cathedral and successfully analysed the meaning and place of the extraordinarily accomplished sculpture. This short paper touches on the earlier or at least less skilled sculpture and the deliberate archaising in reusing forms believed to be indicative of pre conquest date and the believed actual re use of St Felix’s throne recovered from Elmham which achieved relic status.

Questions/Discussion

3.15 – 3.45 Tea

SESSION 3: 3.45 – 5.00

Lindy Grant, ‘Lapides pretiosi omnes muri tui’: Abbot Suger, buried capitals, and the laying of foundation stones

Recent excavations under the north-west tower at the Abbey of Saint-Denis have brought to light a set of capitals used as rubble in the foundations, adding to the capitals already extracted and now in the town museum. They are figural and narrative, if rustic in handling. Where were these capitals from, and by how long do they predate Suger’s new west front? I will suggest that they have parallels with work in Norman contexts in the late 11th century, including the figured archivolt panels from Montivilliers, so brilliantly discussed by Jill in her paper for the British Archaeological Association Rouen Conference. But how should we read the burial of these capitals in Suger’s west front: as rejection of old-fashioned sculpture, or as precious stones providing a solid foundation – that the house of the lord should be ‘bene fundata…supra firmam petram’, as the liturgy for the consecration of an altar has it? And how widespread were liturgical ceremonies for the laying of foundation stones? Suger appears to have invented his own to lay the foundation stones of his new choir in 1140.

Agata Gomølka, Idolising stone: the case of the Konin pillar

The Roadside Pillar of Konin (Greater Poland) is one of the most original monuments of the Romanesque period. An inscription on the pillar proclaims its date, states it function, and names its patron. The pillar was one of the final commissions of the formidable royal fixer and castellan Piotr Włostowic (d. 1153). Piotr’s life and deeds, along with his extensive patronage of buildings and furnishings, were widely celebrated by contemporaries. The Konin pillar is the only surviving secular monument associated with Włostowic. Yet what is it? Is it a reused pagan monolith? This has been the consensus among most scholars. Or is it something else? Is it a tribute to a very tradition of spolia? This paper will seek to offer some answers.

Tessa Garton and Rose Walker, Andalusi ivories and metalwork re-imagined in the North for female saints

The re-use of Islamic ivory caskets decorated with courtly imagery as containers for the relics of Christian saints in northern Spain has been interpreted both as triumphalist and as a recognition of the aesthetic qualities of Islamic culture. The re-use of similar imagery on capitals in the sanctuaries of Romanesque churches suggests the assimilation and re-interpretation of this imagery for a Christian context. Likewise, metal objects were sometimes repurposed as reliquaries. Within church treasuries, as at Oviedo, they could even inspire the revival of a cult.

Paul Williamson, Late Antique ivory carvings, their reuse and afterlife

The ivory carvings of Late Antiquity and the Early Byzantine period owe their survival to reuse and transformation.  Some secular carvings – including several consular diptychs – were incorporated into Christian settings such as reliquaries and pulpits, while others provided the raw materials for recarving in the Carolingian and later periods.  This paper will explore the phenomenon of ivory reuse with a selection of case studies, some well-known, others less so.

Questions/Discussion

5.00 – Drinks

Lecture: Murray Seminar at Birkbeck: ‘Not Quite 3D: Representing Architecture in the Early Middle Ages’ with Karl Kinsella (Wed 20 March 2024, 5pm-6.30pm GMT)

In this lecture, Dr Karl Kinsella relates how, in 1971 in Bordeaux, a mosaic showing a plan and elevation was uncovered during a flurry of archaeological excavation. The mosaic was likely made in the fifth century and shows the Holy Sepulchre’s rotunda and basilica in stark black tiles set against plain white plaster. We are left with the impression of a diagram writ large (2m in height). The early date of the mosaic is surprising, and suggests that diagrams of the Holy Sepulchre were transmitted around Europe not long after the buildings were completed in the fourth century. This talk considers what the mosaic can tell us about the early development of architectural representation and the strategies needed to understand the complex figures they present to the modern reader. These strategies can offer insights into the evolution of architectural representation over the course of the early Middle Ages.

In-person and live-streamed versions are posted separately on Eventbrite. Please book for one only.

Eventbrite link to Karl Kinsella’s Murray Seminar at Birkbeck

Eventbrite link to LIVESTREAM of Karl Kinsella’s Murray Seminar at Birkbeck

CFP: ‘Scaling Conques – The Frames of Reference in Understanding an ‘Abbey in a Shell’, deadline 31 March 2024

10 October 2024, Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History, Rome
Organized by Tanja Michalsky and Adrian Bremenkamp

This conclusive conference of the project “Conques in the Global World. Transferring Knowledge: From Material to Immaterial Heritage” aims at reviewing the question implicit in the projects main title: How is the knowledge we generate about Conques conditioned by the frames of references we apply and what is the right scale of observation to answer our research questions? How does the choice of scale predetermine the results? Locating medieval Conques within a network of abbeys characterized by administrative, political or artistic relations; understanding Conques’ treasury as a means to manifest claims connecting the abbey to the major centers of Christianity; studying the long durée of Conques’ heritage within the broader framework of 19th century national heritage building as well as that of the 20th century tourism industry; analyzing the architecture of the abbey as a complex organism whose transformations are conditioned by the period eye of each historical phase – these are just four examples of “Scaling Conques”.

In continuity with the last conference highlighting interdisciplinary perspectives we would like to invite participants to reflect on the design of their individual research in order to understand what it means to position Conques in the Global World as well as in a timeframe ranging from the central middle ages until today. The call for papers is directed at researchers both from within the project as well as beyond, in order to present research results and to reflect on this outcome in dialogue with the broader scientific community working on Conques.

The conference will be held at the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History, Rome on 10 October 2024. The project will cover the costs of accommodation, and part of the travel expenses. The conference languages are English, French and Italian.

Researchers wishing to contribute are invited to upload a proposal including a title, an abstract (ca. 300 words) and a short CV (max. 2 pages) as a single PDF on the following platform until March 31, 2024: https://recruitment.biblhertz.it

This workshop is organized as a part of the project “Conques in the Global World. Transferring Knowledge: From Material to Immaterial Heritage” (H2020_ MSCA-RISE 101007770)

Find out more on the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History website.

New Publication: ‘Loci Sepulcrales: Places of memory and burial in the Middle Ages’

Edited by Carla Varela Fernandes, Catarina Fernandes Barreira, João Luís Inglês Fontes, Maria Joao Branco, Mario Farelo

Throughout the Middle Ages, the choice of a particular burial place remains a fundamental question in someone’s live.

Assembling the contributions of twenty-two authors, this volume aims at revisiting the question of the choice of burial sites throughout the Middle Ages, in their political, emotional, and devotional dimensions, across a wide chronology and in a vast palette of different social statuses. The choice of a burial site inevitably reflets very important statements, made by the living persons, not only regarding what they wished the memory of their passage on Earth to be, but equally enlightening us on what their concern for the future of their souls was and how it should be cared for, in the afterlife.

The first part of this volume is devoted to royal pantheons, considering their development and relevance in the construction of royal legitimacy. Kings and Queens were not the only ones considering their lineage and personal memory: noblemen, ecclesiastics, rich tradesmen, and their wives and daughters, were also involved in a world of changing tendencies, which are dealt with in the second part of the book. The third and last part looks at the strategies and interconnection between building a burial site and constructing collective memories, whether in stone or in writing through the performing influence of rituals, images, or symbols.

This book proposes, therefore a whole new set of approaches on the subject, addressed either in interdisciplinary and all-around syntheses or via analysis of specific case-studies, looking at panteons and other burial sites as the important witnesses of the lives, emotions, and devotions of the medieval society they served.

Contributors to this volume are Xavier Barral i Altet, Catarina Fernandes Barreira, Thiago José Borges, Maria Helena Cruz Coelho, Frederica Cosenza, Antonio Pio de Cosmo, Lorenzo Curatella, Mário Farelo, José Romón González de la Cal, Linsy Grant, Laurent Hablot, Orlindo Jorge, Emma Lano Martínez, Christian de Mérindol, Sonia Morales Cano, Jorge Morín Pablos, Pedro Redol, Martina Saltamacchia, Isabel Sánchez Ramos, Lydwine Scordia, Rosa Smurra and Christian Steer.

Find out more about the book here.

Job: Assistant Professor in Global History of Art, Trinity College Dublin, deadline 4 April 2024

The School of Histories and Humanities at Trinity College Dublin seeks to appoint an Assistant Professor in Global History of Art, based in the Department of History of Art and Architecture. Candidates can have expertise in any period from early modern to contemporary but, preferably, their research will encompass global histories of art. Candidates must demonstrate an ability to incorporate collections in Ireland in their teaching and research. It is also desirable that candidates should have experience of working with museum collections. The primary purpose of this post is to contribute to teaching and research in history of art and to undertake administrative activities in the Department and School. The successful applicant will have a proven ability or evidence of potential to establish a strong record of research and publication in the history of art and will be expected to contribute to both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in this field and to interdisciplinary curricular teaching, supervision, and mentoring.

Post status: 5 Year Fixed-Term; Tenure Track Contract

Salary: Appointment will be made on the Lecturer Salary Scale (109BN) commensurate with qualifications / experience and in line with Public Sector Pay Policy [€39,469 –€95,441 per annum] https://www.tcd.ie/hr/assets/pdf/monthly-academic.pdf

Hours of Work: Hours of work for academic staff are those as prescribed under Public Service Agreements.

The successful candidate will be expected to take up post on 1 August 2024 or as soon thereafter as possible.

Applications will only be accepted through e-Recruitment and should include: 

  • Cover Letter (1 x A4 page)
  • Full Curriculum Vitae to include your list of publications and the names and contact details of 3 referees (including email addresses).
  • Research plan (summarising research to be carried out in the next two years – maximum of 2 x A4 pages).
  • Teaching statement (summarising teaching experience and approach – maximum of 2 x A4 pages).
  • Outline of a semester-long research-based module suitable for students at senior undergraduate (4th year) or Masters level (maximum of 2 x A4 pages).

Please Note:

  • Candidates who do not address the application requirements above will not be considered at the short list stage.
  • Candidates should note that the interview process for this appointment will include the delivery of a presentation.

Informal enquiries about this post should be made to  Prof Timothy Stott  stottt@tcd.ie

Application queries about this post, please email Frédérique Roy-Boulet,  Recruitment Partner at E: royboulf@tcd.ie and include the Competition ID number in the subject heading.

More details can be found via the link below. Search under School of Histories and Humanities: https://www.tcd.ie/hr/vacancies/