Medieval Art Research

Call for participants: Koç University RCAC’s Summer Programs 2014

1. Being the center of magnificent empires through time, İstanbul is calling you to discover its rich cultural heritage by following the footmarks of saints, sultans and angels in this enriching summer seminar. Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations is excited to invite you to have a taste of İstanbul with its intellectual, in-depth program developed by world renowned Ottoman and Byzantine academicians.

2. Prof. Robert Ousterhout (University of Pennsylvania) and Dr. Tolga Uyar (University of Paris I), with the contribution of some esteemed faculty members from Koç University, will present Cappadocia through a combination of lectures, seminar discussions, site visits and field trips. A camera, sturdy walking shoes and a taste of exploration are essential!

3. “Introduction to Ottoman Epigraphy” focuses on surveying the development of the Ottoman inscriptions from a chronological standpoint starting with the earliest examples in Anatolia. The program will take place in Istanbul and there will be a field trip to Bursa to study inscriptions of critical historical importance in situ. The program will be leaded by experts in the field from University of Chicago.

http://rcac.ku.edu.tr/summerprograms

Call for papers: Material culture and diplomatic relations between the Latin West, Byzantium, and the Islamic East, Liege

Material culture and diplomatic relations between the Latin West, Byzantium, and the Islamic East (11th-16th c.) / Culture matérielle et contacts diplomatiques entre l’Occident latin, Byzance et l’Orient islamique (XIe-XVIe siècle). Submissions are invited for this international conference to be held at the University of Liege (Belgium) on 27-28 April 2015. The deadline for submissions is 30 June. The call for papers may be downloaded at the following address: http://www.islam-medieval.cnrs.fr/actus_colloques.php. Papers may be submitted either in French or in English.

Conference: Symposium on Byzantine Law, Groningen

On 24 June 2014, Prof. Giuseppe Falcone will give his solemn address marking his acceptance of the H.J. Scheltema-chair of Byzantine Law at the University of Groningen. Preceding this festive occasion, the Department of Legal History in cooperation with the University of Palermo (Italy) will host a Symposium on Byzantine Law in Groningen, the Netherlands, on Monday 23rd and Tuesday 24th of June 2014. The symposium will be held in the Senaatskamer, Academy Building (Broerstraat 5), Groningen.

The aim of the symposium is to present the results of the two year cooperation between Groningen and Palermo following the establishment of the H.J. Scheltema-chair. All those with an interest in Byzantine Law are invited to attend the lectures. For the provisional programme, see below.

The results will also be published in the Subseciva Groningana, scheduled to appear in June 2014.

http://www.rug.nl/rechten/organization/vakgroepen/rg/h.j.-scheltema-symposium-on-byzantine-law

Conference: Anti-Judaism and Its Implications, Waterville, ME

In Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition (Norton, 2013), David Nirenberg seeks “to demonstrate how different people put old ideas about Judaism to new kinds of work in thinking about their world; to show how this work engaged the past and transformed it; and to ask how that work reshaped the possibilities of thought in the future.” This discussion-oriented symposium will explore implications of Nirenberg’s work through a series of roundtable conversations. Panelists will circulate short papers in advance to fellow participants and registered attendees. To register, please contact David Freidenreich (david.freidenreich@colby.edu); the event is free and all are welcome.

Anti-Judaism and Its Implications: A Symposium

Conference: The Mediterranean City and Its Rulers, Princeton

The Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies presents “The Mediterranean City and Its Rulers: A Comparison of Byzantium, Islam, and Western Christendom in the High Middle Ages,” a conference, directed by Teresa Shawcross, Assistant Professor of History, to held on 26–27 April at 216 Aaron Burr Hall.

The High Middle Ages were a period of profound transformation for the Christian cities of the central and western Mediterranean. However, it has generally been thought that the urban centers of the Islamic and Byzantine worlds to the south and east did not share in the same economic, political, and cultural developments. Most interregional studies carried out so far have promoted this understanding of the period by considering the “classic example” of the cities of northern Italy solely in the context of the situation on the other side of the Alps. Otherwise, attention has tended to be focused on specific polities within each of the three Mediterranean macro-regions, to the neglect of the picture across macro-regions. There has been no in-depth comparison of how cities were ruled in the various lands encircling the Great Sea, despite the existence of a strong common Roman heritage, as well as evidence for extensive interaction through long-distance trade, pilgrimage, diplomacy, and warfare. This conference will begin to undertake such an analysis, highlighting similarities and differences in governmental institutions, civic identity, and revolutionary activity throughout the Mediterranean. The event is intended as a pilot establishing a network of scholars. The next meeting will be held at the University of Edinburgh in 2015 and is being organized by Dr. Gianluca Raccagni, Chancellor’s Fellow in History.

http://www.princeton.edu/piirs/research/piirs-conferences-and-wor/mediterraneanconf/

Re-opening: National Archaeological Museum, Madrid

The important medieval collections of the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid are finally accessible again after the museum re-opened after six years of restoration.

http://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/IDIOMAS/9/Presidente/News/2014/20140331_Archaeological_Museum_reopening.htm

CFP: Art Out of Time, deadline 30 April 2014

Art Out Of Time invites academics, curators and artists to challenge periodization anxiety apparent in the recent trend for inviting contemporary artists into museums to create interventions in early modern displays; or for juxtaposing medieval and modern art in current publications. This symposium starts from questions as to whether distinctions between pre-, early-, and post- modern are disciplinary fictions, what exactly is gained and what is lost in this dialogue—or clash—between old and new objects, and if museums perhaps want to get rid of a ‘stuffy’ reputation to take on some of the lustre and prestige of contemporary art. Speakers include Whitney Davis, Karen Lang, Tamar Garb, Ian Kiaer, Amy Powell, Elizabeth Price, and Alexander Sturgis.

We invite abstracts for presentations in one of the four workshops organized around specific themes (see below). Selected papers will be included in the conference publication.

Please send a 300-word abstract, a short cv, and an indication in which workshop you would like to participate to visualresearch@torch.ox.ac.uk. Deadline: April 30, 2014. For more info: www.visualresearchoxford.org

Replacement speaker: English and Scottish Art Patronage in Late Medieval France

A replacement speaker is sought for the following panel at Leeds
International Medieval Congress this July:

“English and Scottish Art Patronage in Late Medieval France: Book
Illumination in Times of War” (July 8, 9am-10.30am)

Late Medieval book production was characterised by a high degree of
cultural and artistic exchange between England, Scotland, and the
Continent, due to numerous military conflicts as well as economic,
ecclesiastical, dynastic, and diplomatic links. Patrons and artists
travelled a great deal across the Channel, contributing to the transfer
of ideas, style, and content, as well as devotional and liturgical
practice. Illuminated books served diverse purposes, from diplomatic
gifts and the representation of political ideas, to means of private
devotion and liturgy.

Papers for this session can focus on the production and use of these
books as well as their makers and patrons. Attention can be given to
the reciprocal transfer of stylistic, iconographic, and liturgical
orientation and influences, in the political context.

Abstracts for suggested twenty-minute papers should be submitted before
the 18 April to Julia Crispin (juliacrispin1982@gmail.com) and Alex
Collins (alexanderjarviscollins@gmail.com).

Exhibition: Les Enluminures (New York & Paris)

This exhibition will seek to reveal a “new” history of medieval French literature by presenting a group of 15 very rare, previously unpublished, mostly illuminated manuscripts written in French between c. 1300 and c. 1550. The manuscripts encompass a wide variety of subjects ranging from literature and science, philosophy and theology, to history and government.

Of special interest will be a section within the exhibition devoted to the often overlooked but critically important role played by French medieval women in advancing the “mother tongue”. As authors, subjects, patrons, and collectors, French women like the 16th- century patron and poet Catherine d’Amboise were important champions of the vernacular. Their advocacy helped ensure that French would overtake Latin in less than two centuries to become the national language of literature.

The exhibition will be on view at Les Enluminures New York, from April 2- 26, and Les Enluminures Paris, from May 13 – May 20. The INHA Paris Colloquium will take place on May 17.

For more information, please visit. http://www.lesenluminures.com/expodetail.php?cat=coming&expoid=47&

Call for papers: Mediterranean Visions/ Mediterranean Frame

On 13-15 June 2014, the Sant’Anna Institute in Sorrento will host two events: a conference “Mediterranean Visions: Journeys, Itineraries and Cultural Migrations/ Visioni Mediterranee: Viaggi, Itinerari e Migrazioni Culturali” and a symposium, “History, Literature and Culture in a Mediterranean Frame.”

Paper proposals are being accepted for “Mediterranean Visions” (13 & 14 June), organized by Giovanni Spani (College of Holy Cross) and Marco Marino (Sant’Anna Institute). This conference will focus on the perceptions of the journey to/from/around the Mediterranean Sea, moving from Italian, European and extra-European perspectives (and with specific reference to the Americas), and concentrating on the theme of immigration/emigration to/from the Mediterranean Basin), the intercultural exchanges occurring between its shores, as well as new challenges (social and economic) facing the region from the globalized society and from the increasingly urgent democratic imperatives of the populations inhabiting it.

Selected conference papers will published in a volume of proceedings.

In conjunction with the conference, the symposium, “History, Literature and Culture in a Mediterranean Frame,” co-organized by Wake Forest University and the Mediterranean Seminar with the sponsorship of Centro di Cultura e Storia Amalfitana, will be held on 15 June, and is open to all.
Confirmed speakers include:
Brian A. Catlos (University of Colorado Boulder/University of California Santa Cruz)
John Dagenais (University of California at Los Angeles)
Sharon Kinoshita (University of California Santa Cruz)
Roberta Morosini (Wake Forest University)
Pasquale Sabbatino (Universita’ degli studi “Federico II’ di Napoli)
Carlo Saccone (Universita’ di Bologna)
Roberto Tottoli (Universita’ degli studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”)
and
Prof. Giuseppe Gargano (Honorary President, Centro di Cultura e Storia Amalfitana)

For information regarding the symposium, please contact: mailbox@mediterraneanseminar.org

Conference Proposals
Please send your proposal (2 paragraph maximum) in Italian, English, Spanish, or French, along with a brief CV, to the conference Organizing Committee at mediterraneanvisions@gmail.com by April 10, 2014.

Please visit http://santannainstitute.com/en/conference-at-sant-anna-institute.php for more details and the list of topics.