Throughout the Middle Ages, Christians were fascinated by stories about saints, who led extraordinary lives full of mystical events and miraculous occurrences. Saints were depicted in manuscripts experiencing revelatory visions and performing wondrous feats such as healing the sick or raising the dead. Even when their tormentors were performing exceptionally brutal acts—shooting them repeatedly with arrows, for example, or violently beheading them—martyr saints were pictured remaining steadfast in their faith. This exhibition, drawn from the Getty Museum’s permanent collection, presents manuscripts that allowed medieval viewers to witness these dramatic narratives and venerate the saints as models of piety.
MIDDLE FRENCH PALEOGRAPHY WORKSHOP
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK
JUNE 9-27, 2014
This paleography workshop will provide intensive training in the accurate reading, editing, and interpretation of a manuscript in Middle French, in this case a complex and intriguing late-Renaissance compilation of a practical and proto-scientific nature. Participants will work on a collaborative transcription and translation of the manuscript using new digital tools and methods.
The manuscript, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 640, written around 1580 by an anonymous French-speaking craftsperson, covers some 170 fols. with detailed instructions, including first-hand observations and illustrations, for a number of processes that we would now classify as part of fine arts and technology, such as drawing-instruction, pigment-making, metal-coloring, counterfeit gem production, cannon-casting, tree-grafting, land-surveying, a practice of taxidermy to manufacture monstrous composite animals (kittens and bats), making paper mâché masks, and much more. The margins are filled with comments on experiments, an indication that the book was most likely a record of practice. The manuscript thus offers exceptional insight into how natural materials and art objects were made, collected, appreciated, and circulated in the late Renaissance. It also provides a rare view into attitudes to nature out of which modern science eventually emerged.
The workshop, directed by Prof. Marc H. Smith (École nationale des chartes/École pratique des hautes études) and Prof. Pamela H. Smith (History, Columbia University) is part of a larger interdisciplinary research and pedagogical initiative that aims to support the transcription, translation, annotation, and experimental reconstruction of the technical processes described in the manuscript, with the final goal being the publication of an electronic critical edition of the manuscript.
The three-week course, held on the campus of Columbia University, will begin with general instruction and bibliographical information concerning the historical context of the manuscript, French Renaissance paleography, Middle French, and principles for transcription and translation, as well as instruction in digital methods, such as collaborative editing, annotation and versioning methods. Then, for five days a week, morning sessions will be devoted to reading, annotating, and translating the text collectively. In the afternoons, students will be able to work in groups on selected sections of the text to be discussed on the following day.
Up to 15 participants will be enrolled from the U.S. and abroad. First consideration is given to PhD students, but applications will also be accepted from professional staff of libraries and museums, and from qualified independent scholars. Advanced French-language skills are required. PhD applicants selected for admission will receive a stipend to help defray the cost of attending the workshop. The workshop is offered tuition free.
Applicants should submit a CV containing names and addresses of two references, a 3-page letter explaining their reason for application, and transcripts showing successful completion of coursework or other evidence of competence in the French language. Experience and interest in the digital humanities will be an advantage.
Applications, along with supporting documents, should be emailed to Claire Sabel (ccs2137@columbia.edu) by February 21, 2014. Inquiries should be directed to the same address. Successful applicants will be notified by the beginning of April.
Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections
October 6 2013- March 2 2014
In 330 Emperor Constantine the Great moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Italy some thousand miles to the east, near the site of the ancient Greek city of Byzantium on the Bosphorus Strait linking the Aegean and Black Seas. Renamed Constantinople (now Istanbul), the city became the largest and wealthiest in the Christian world. It remained the dominant power, especially in the eastern Mediterranean, for more than 1,000 years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. In the first-ever exhibition of Byzantine art at the Gallery, some 170 works of art, many never before lent to the United States, will be on view—among them mosaics, icons, manuscripts, jewelry, and ceramics. The works include newly discovered and unpublished objects and reveal the rich and multifaceted culture of Byzantium. Divided into five thematic sections, the exhibition explores the coexistence of paganism and Christianity, spiritual life in Byzantium, secular works of art used in the home, the intellectual life of Byzantine scholars, and the cross-influences that occurred between Byzantine and Western artists before the fall of Byzantium.
Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections presents life inByzantium through approximately 170 works ofart dating from the inception of the empire to itsclose. Drawn from collections throughout Greece,they include sculpture, mosaics, icons, frescoes,manuscripts, metalwork, jewelry, glass, embroideries,coins, and ceramics. The works are arrangedin five sections: From the Ancient to the Byzantine World, Spiritual Life,Pleasures of Life, Intellectual Life, andThe Last Phase: Crosscurrents.
Organization: The exhibition was organized by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, Athens, with the collaboration of the Benaki Museum, Athens, and in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
Sponsors: The exhibition’s international tour is made possible by major funding from OPAP S.A.
Financial support is also provided by the A.G. Leventis Foundation.
Other Venues: J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, April 9–August 25, 2014
For centuries pilgrimage was one of the greatest adventures on earth, involving epic journeys across the country and around the world. This series sees Simon Reeve retrace the exciting adventures of our ancestors. He learns about the forgotten aspects of pilgrimage, including the vice, thrills and dangers that all awaited travellers. He explores the faith, the hopes, desires, and even the food that helped to keep medieval travellers on the road.
1st Episode Simon Reeve embarks on pilgrimages across Britain, from Holy Island to Canterbury.
2nd Episode Simon Reeve travels from northern France to Spain, then crosses western Europe to Rome.
3rd Episode Simon Reeve travels from Istanbul across the Holy Land to Jerusalem.
Series in which historian Simon Sebag Montefiore traces the sacred history of Istanbul. Known as the ‘city of the world’s desire’, it’s a place that has been the focus of passion for believers of three different faiths – Paganism, Christianity and Islam – and for nearly 3,000 years its streets have been the battleground for some of the fiercest political and religious conflicts in history.
In three episodes Montefiore charts the rise of Istanbul from pagan trading post to capital of three empires and two religions, becoming not only holy but the most coveted city in the world.
Their Transcendence of Time and Space in Pre-Modern Europe
Munich, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, April 11 – 12, 2014
Deadline: Jan 10, 2014
According to Jean-Claude Schmitt, “the dead have no existence other
than that which the living imagine for them” – and sometimes, the
living not only force them to exist in their memory but also to persist
materially. By keeping the mortal remains above the earth, by dividing
them, manipulating them and moving them to different places, the
deceased are assigned a very active role within the world of the
living. The title of this workshop includes, however, also a second
“species” of migrating bodily fragments, namely body parts that are
imagined to be moving by themselves. We are not sure whether the
movement of real, physical body parts can reasonably be linked with the
stories of actively wandering body parts as they can be found in
hagiography, secular badges and popular literature of the time, but
from our perspective it seems worthwhile to think about it, the more so
as for some years now there has been developing a broad area of
research on objects that move and migrate. Within our workshop the
following perspectives on body parts in pre-modern Europe might be
addressed:
– the reasons why body parts were moved
– the way in which they were moved
– how they were visualized
– the nature of the transport media, both visual and material
– the benefits of body parts transcending space and time
– which body parts could be imagined to be moving
Organizers
Romedio Schmitz-Esser (Historisches Seminar der LMU München)
Urte Krass (Institut für Kunstgeschichte der LMU München)
Munich Research Center Foundations of Modernity
We welcome paper proposals from a variety of fields, including art
history, history, archaeology, philosophy, cultural history, visual
culture, and medieval literature.
Please submit an abstract (with a maximum of 2.500 characters) plus a
brief CV along with your contact information in one PDF document by
January 10, 2014 to Romedio Schmitz-Esser (Historisches Seminar,
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1,
80539 München; e-mail: r.schmitz-esser@lmu.de).
The Courtauld has a reputation for getting up close to objects, sometimes to the concern of nearby gallery attendants. However, a number of handling sessions for postgraduate students to indulge in pawing exhibits without rebuke have been arranged at the British Museum with the kind assistance of Lloyd DeBeer and Naomi Speakman, both in progress with individual collaborative PhDs at the Museum. The theme for this December session was objects with apotropaic inscriptions, that is, words that apparently warded off evil, as requested and selected by Dr. Tom Nickson.
As we gathered round the table, putting on our unpleasant plastic gloves, what could not fail to draw attention was the impressive (and perhaps also apotropaic) axe-carved prow ornament under conservation for the forthcoming Viking exhibition. However the objects we were to be handling lay beyond this fearsome monster, and were of a much more manageable weight.
This bell was my first port of call, partly being the second biggest thing on the table after the prow, but also because I had just written about bell-founding through the lost wax method with my post on Courtauld favourite Tudor Monastery Farm. Bells are one of the most common medieval objects to be inscribed with the craftsman’s signature, but this one also had four holy figures inscribed upon it which perhaps were there to protect the bell, while the former maybe acting as a perpetual prayer to the maker. Handling a bell like this immediately gives you the impression that it is far too heavy to ring by hand. Instead, the shape of its upper aperture was suggested as perfect for it to be attached to a wooden frame, and rung by a mechanism. Although there were a few accidental semi-peels, we of course were not going to see if one could bear to have this bell hung low enough to be reminded of its maker while sounding the call to prayer.
One object that proved particularly popular was this French fifteenth-century finger ring, inscribed with an amorous inscription playing on Latin tenses. This blog is possibly not far from the truth in that it represents a particularly nerdy love-token: the image of the squirrel and lady on the inside being a not-so-subtle medieval double-entendré.
However, that ring represented an object that matched our expectations, ideally sized to be placed upon a lady’s finger for her to cringe at the grammar puns forever more. My personal favourite object of the day was the Coventry Ring, both for its content and the puzzles its actual presence made manifest. On the outside, we have an image of Christ, and a prayer that relates to each of His five wounds. This prayer is accompanied by the characteristic disembodied floating sharply-pointed ovoids dripping blood, which, after Caroline Walker Bynum and others’ in-depth investigations of textual and iconographic parallels for the femininity of Christological imagery and devotion, you are allowed to state the obvious resemblance without the risk of getting too Freudian. This prayer is obviously supposed to be read while the ring is turned around the finger, but even this does not explain why it is so conspicuously large when you try it on. Was it made to commission for a particularly big man? Was it designed to be worn over a leather glove? Was it even supposed to be worn other than for prayer? The startling condition of the ring, even the enamelling of lettering inside and out, suggests perhaps so.
These are just a few of the thoughtful fruits that were generated from handling the objects set out for us. But perhaps what never really came out were many opinions about the apotropaic inscriptions which they all had in common. The Coventry Ring was one of many of the objects that had the names of the Three Magi inscribed upon it for instance, clearly from some common mystical significance. Yet so often the more mysterious and magical inscriptions were sidelined in our discussions for other, seemingly more primary functions that the objects embodied. Perhaps it was the same for their users: these were merely conventions that it was proper to have, and even the owner of the Coventry Ring themselves may have been hard-pressed to explain what “ananyzapta tetragrammaton” was all about.
Forthcoming Exhibition: Vikings: life and legend London, 6 March – 22 June 2014
British Museum, the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery
In March 2014 the British Museum will open the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery with a major new exhibition on the Vikings, supported by BP. The exhibition, developed in cooperation with the National Museum of Denmark and the Berlin State Museum, is the first major exhibition in England on this subject for over 30 years, and presents a number of new archaeological discoveries and objects never before seen in the UK alongside important Viking Age artefacts from the British Museum’s own collection and elsewhere in Britain and Ireland. The star of the show will be the remains of a 37-metre-long Viking longship, the longest ever found, and the Vale of York hoard, whose size and quality make it one of the most important finds of its type.
Forthcoming Exhibition: the Council of Constance Konstanz, 27 April 2014 – 21 September 2014
2014 marks the 600th anniversary of the start of the Council of Constance. The Council was a major event in church politics which made Constance the center of European politics and a meeting place of European cultures in the years 1414-1418. Baden-Württemberg commemorates the anniversary of the world event of the late Middle Ages with a Great State Exhibition. The organizational responsibility was assigned to the Badische Landesmuseum in Karlsruhe.
The Exhibition can be viewed from 27 April to 21 September 2014 in the actual building in which events took place in Constance. The Conclave moved into the Merchants Guildhall in 1417 with the intention of not leaving until the church could be united by the successful election of a single Pope. We are in the thick of the historical events in the building now called the Council House, which is a landmark of the city.
President Joachim Gauck has consented to act as patron of the Great State Exhibition
Medieval Art Research 