Medieval Art Research

Call For Papers: Magic, Religion, Science

Call For Papers: Magic | Religion | Science
Indiana University, Bloomington. March 7-8, 2014
Deadline: 10 January 2014

26th Annual Indiana University Medieval Studies Symposium

In his famous work, The Golden Bough, James Frazer proposed that human societies evolved from cultures dependent on magic to ones subject to religion and finally to ones guided by science. Scholarship since Frazer has worked to destabilize and expand upon this tidy theory, pointing out that the distinctions between these three categories of belief are not always clear and that, in fact, all three tend to exist simultaneously within the same societies, schools, and even individuals. Nonetheless, Frazer’s division of belief into magical, religious, and scientific modes of thought provides a useful lens for examining the ways that truth can be legitimated, and offers us a clear heuristic paradigm for exploration into human thought and behavior throughout history. Asking questions about magic, religion, and science offers us avenues into different epistemes and windows into the habitus of a group or society.

It is particularly useful for exploring the Middle Ages, which presents a wealth of examples in which the boundaries between magic, religion, and science are blurred, re-drawn, or entirely confounded. Indeed, the designation “medieval” across cultures often signifies a perceived interim period, between classical and modern thinking, in which multiple paradigms–magic and superstition, the hegemony of religion, and scientific exploration–coexist and compete for dominance. Investigating magic, religion, and science further within the context of the Middle Ages helps us not only to understand medieval thinking and culture more accurately and to see how the boundaries of magic, religion, and science were policed at the time, but to disturb modern assumptions about the operation of knowledge in these time periods.

Questions may include (but are not limited to):
– What role did “magical” items/practices (such as amulets, oaths, and curses) play in medieval life, and on what principles were they thought to operate? How, if at all, were they distinguished from religious or scientific practices?
– How does the examination of epistemology help undermine or reinforce distinctions between elite and popular culture?
– How (and how effectively) did medieval religious authorities police the boundaries of religious thought?
– What pursuits were seen as “science” and what distinguished them from other forms of inquiry?
– How did knowledge, obtained through magic, religion, science, or any combination of the three, affect life in the Middle Ages?
– How is scientia used and defined in the Middle Ages, considering that the modern word “science” in modern parlance often denotes an exit from the medieval world and into the Renaissance?
– How do epistemologies vary between genres? For example, how do the views of a culture’s technical texts vary from its literary texts?

Please submit 300-word abstracts to Diane Fruchtman (dsfrucht@indiana.edu) by 10 January, 2013.

Call For Papers: Art on the Move in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean

Call For Papers: Seminar Series, Art on the Move in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean (2014-15)
Deadline: Jan 10, 2014

A Harvard University Research Seminar organized as part of the Getty Foundation’s Connecting Art Histories initiative, led by Alina Payne (Harvard University).

This research seminar zeroes in on rivers as the cultural infrastructure of the Mediterranean world in the early modern period, as carriers of people, things, and ideas tying geographies and cultures together. The king of such rivers was undoubtedly the Danube, running a parallel
course to the Mediterranean and cutting across Europe from West to East. Flowing into the Black Sea, it entered the system of communicating vessels of the Mediterranean—the old Roman mare nostrum itself, the Sea of Marmara, the Black Sea, and, the last ripple that separates and unites three continents, the Sea of Azov.

But the Danube was not alone in swelling the Mediterranean world with the cultures along its shores. The Sava, the Adige, the Neretva, the Pruth, the Dniester and Dnieper, and the Don (which flows into the Sea of Azov) etc. connect the “traditional” Mediterranean cultures—the
Italian, the Ottoman, the Greek/Byzantine, the French and Spanish—with the world of the Balkans and beyond. Starting from this perspective, this seminar seeks to develop a framework for understanding how the Balkans and its northern neighbors mediated between East and West, as well as the region’s contribution to the larger Mediterranean cultural melting pot in the early modern period.

The premises underlying this seminar are twofold: 1) that the contours of the Mediterranean Renaissance need to be re-drawn to include a larger territory that reflects this connectedness; and 2) that the eastern frontier of Europe extending from the Mediterranean deep into the
interior played a pivotal role in negotiating the dialogue between western Europe, Central Asia and Ottoman Turkey. On the cusp between cultures and religions, Balkan principalities, kingdoms, and fiefdoms came to embody hybridity, to act as a form of buffer or cultural “switching” system that assimilated, translated, and linked the cultures of near and Central Asia with those of Western Europe. Taking a trans-regional approach, this project aims to reconstruct the fluid ties that linked territories in a period in which hegemonies were short-lived and unstable, and in which contact nebulas generated artistic nebulas that challenge traditional historical categories of regional identities, East/West and center/periphery.

The seminar will run from spring of 2014 to summer of 2015 and will be guided by a distinguished group of scholars. Participants are invited to propose their own projects related to these themes on which they will work during this period. We seek contributions on building types (eg. carvanserais/ hans), infrastructure (bridges, fortifications and roads), domestic architecture (villas/palaces), religious and domed structures, etc., building practices, materials and artisans, on Kleinarchitektur and portable architectural objects. Proposals are also invited from participants working on spolia, on “minor” arts—cloth/silks, goldsmithry, sculpture, leather, gems and books—as well as on collecting and treasuries, that is, on artworks and luxury items that allowed ornamental forms and formal ideas to circulate and created a taste for a hybrid aesthetic, as well as on historiography.

The countries under consideration here are: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, and Ukraine.

The seminar involves three stages: 1) a two-week “mobile” workshop traveling along the Dalmatian coast and using this region as case study of the issues, historiography and methodologies that this project seeks to foreground (May/June 2014); 2) a two and a half week stay at Harvard University (2 day workshop focusing on interim presentation of participants’ findings and 2 week library access in January/February 2015); and 3) a final conference (presentation of developed individual projects) and short trip to key sites on the Black Sea. On-going participation in the seminar will be based on the quality of scholarly contribution and on the level of engagement with the group.

Applicants should be post-doctoral scholars working in the Eastern European countries on which the project focuses (maximum 10 years from a doctoral degree; doctoral degree must be in hand at time of application). Travel expenses are covered. The seminar language is English: participants will need to demonstrate a strong command of the language to enable wide-ranging discussion with the other members of the seminar. Facility with languages of the region is an asset.

Applications must include: CV, personal statement, description of proposed project (500 words + one page bibliography), one published writing sample and three letters of reference are due no later than January 10, 2014. Finalists will be interviewed; participants will be notified by early
February.

Please send applications to the attention of Elizabeth Kassler-Taub, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University: ekassler@fas.harvard.edu

CFP & Workshop Proposals: Minorities in the Pre-Modern Mediterranean, San Francisco State University, (7-8 March 2014), deadline 1 January 2014

Proposals are being accepted for the one-day symposium “Minorities in the Pre-Modern Mediterranean” to be held in conjunction with the Mediterranean Seminar/UCMRP Winter Workshop on “Minorities” to be held at San Francisco State University on 7-8 March, 2014.

On 7 March, three round-table sessions, “Opportunity,” “Assimilation and Exchange,” and “Vulnerability” will be held, each for discussing the status and circumstances of minorities. Minorities may include religious minorities, for example, Jews and Christians living in Muslim lands, Muslims and Jews in Christian lands, but also relations of heterodox groups within these three broad religious categories (e.g. Isma’ilis or Nusayris with Sunni Muslims, Karaites and Rabbinic Jews, Eastern or Byzantine and Latin Christians, etc.). The theme may also include ethnic minorities, such as Berbers in predominantly Arab locales or Slavs in predominantly Greek environments. “Opportunity,” will look at situations in which minorities exceeded formal bounds to which they were subject and potentially transgressed existing social norms; “Assimilation and Exchange,” will look at situations of social, cultural, intellectual, religious, and economic interchange and integration; and “Vulnerability” will look at scenarios in which minority relations broke down, whether in terms of official or popular violence or repression.

To apply to one of the round tables, please submit a CV and a 300-word abstract relating to a theoretical or methodological position on one of the above themes (indicating clearly which panel you are applying to). Case studies may also be referred to. Round-table participants will submit a short (5-page) position paper prior to the meeting, and will make a brief (7-minute) presentation as an opener to discussion.

The deadline for submission is January 1, 2014
Please reply to mailbox@mediterraneanseminar.org with the subject line “Winter Symposium Proposal.” Presenters who also attend the Workshop will be eligible to apply for limited travel support.

Presenters are also being sought for the Workshop on “Minorities” on 8 March:

The Workshop will consist of discussion of three pre-circulated papers and a keynote presentation by our featured scholar, Stephen Humphreys (History, University of California-Santa Barbara), “Adapting to the Infidel: the Christian Communities of Syria in the Early Islamic Period.”

The Mediterranean Studies MRP invites proposals for workshop papers (articles or chapters in-progress, approx. 35 double-spaced pages) on the topic “Minorities,” which may include works on Mediterranean methodologies or perspectives, or studies strongly informed by such. We seek papers in any relevant discipline, especially comparative or interdisciplinary work that uses the Mediterranean as a frame of analysis. Priority is given to faculty and graduate students from the UC system and collaborating institutions, but any North American-based scholars working on relevant material are encouraged to apply. (Scholars from further abroad are welcome to apply, but we cannot guarantee full travel support.) The Mediterranean Seminar/UCMRP will cover travel and lodging expenses for presenters.

The deadline for workshop proposals is 15 January 2014.
Please submit an abstract (250-500 words) and two-page CV by this date to mailbox@mediterraneanseminar.org (subject line: Winter 2014 Workshop Abstract). Please clearly indicate that the event you are applying to is the “Winter 2014 Workshop.” Successful applicants are expected to submit a 35-page (maximum) double-spaced paper-in-progress for pre-circulation by 15 February.

A separate call for symposium and workshop registration will be sent out on January 21.

Call for Papers: Writing Britain, 500-1500, (University of Cambridge, 30 June-2 July 2014), deadline 20 February 2014

Writing Britain is a biennial event which aims to draw on a range of approaches and perspectives to exchange ideas about manuscript studies, material culture, multilingualism in texts and books, book history, readers, audience and scribes across the medieval period. The 2014 iteration of the Writing Britain Conference will take place in the English Faculty at the University of Cambridge under the auspices of the Centre for Material Texts. Some of the topics which we are keen to explore are literary and non-literary agencies and their significance and/or relevance in the medieval period across British medieval written culture in English, French, Latin, Norse and the Celtic languages. More broadly, we are interested in other questions such as: How did local writers, compilers and readers use writing to inscribe regional identity within broader conventions or, on the other hand, impress ‘universal’ practices and constructs on local populations? What were the different markets for books? Can we characterize their developments and differences? What new or existing methodologies can be employed to localise texts and books across Britain? What is the role of the Digital Humanities in the study of medieval book culture?

Plenary speakers: Jonathan Wilcox (University of Iowa), Richard Beadle (University of Cambridge) and Simon Horobin (University of Oxford)

We welcome proposals from scholars working on any aspects of British medieval written culture up to 1500. Please visit our conference web site in order to submit an abstract (300 words or fewer) for a twenty-minute paper. Please send your abstract by 20 February 2014. Abstracts from postgraduate students are welcome and graduate rates will be provided. For further information please visit the website where contact details of the organisers will also be available.

Conference website here.

New Issue of Speculum

Publication News: New Issue of Speculum

The latest issue of Speculum is now available online, including articles by Christian C. Sahner on translation and history in Orosius and Augustine, Lisa Perfetti on the eroticizing poetics of medieval French crusaders, Andrew G. Miller on equestrian mutilation and masculinity in medieval England, Filip Van Tricht on Robert of Courtenay’s rule as emperor of Constantinople, and Michael Penman on the personal piety and devotions to Scottish saints and relics of Robert Bruce.

Also reviewed in the journal are:
– Janet Burton and Julie Kerr, The Cistercians in the Middle Ages (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2011)
– Emma Dillon, The Sense of Sound: Musical Meaning in France, 1260–1330 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012)
– Kavita Mudan Finn, The Last Plantagenet Consorts: Gender, Genre, and Historiography, 1440–1627 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)
– Michelle Karnes, Imagination, Meditation, and Cognition in the Middle Ages. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011)
– Sherry C. M. Lindquist, ed., The Meanings of Nudity in Medieval Art. (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012)
– Henry Maguire, Nectar and Illusion: Nature in Byzantine Art and Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012)
– Nina Rowe, The Jew, the Cathedral, and the Medieval City: Synagoga and Ecclesia in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011)
– Christine Sciacca, ed., Florence at the Dawn of the Renaissance: Painting and Illumination, 1300–1350 (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2012)

See the journal at Cambridge Journals Online here.

Call For Participants: Liturgy in History Study Day

Call For Participants: Liturgy in History Study Day

Queen Mary’s Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies have announced a call for participants for ‘Liturgy in History’, an international study day for graduate students and early career researchers.

When: Tuesday 19th November, 9:30 – 17:00 (lunch provided)
Where: Queen Mary, Mile End Campus, room tbc

Three speakers – Professor Nils Holger Petersen (University of Copenhagen), Professor Emma Dillon (King’s College London) and Dr Beth Williamson (University of Bristol) – will guideparticipants through the structure and formulae of liturgical sources. The musical, visual, architectural and performative aspects of the liturgy will all be carefully considered and approaches to liturgy re-interrogated. The presentations will be followed by a roundtable discussion with Professor Miri Rubin (QMUL) and Professor Sara Lipton (SUNY).

The day will culminate in a trip to a nearby renaissance church which will help situate them in their context. We would be delighted to welcome international participants and students from diverse disciplines, to reflect the multidisciplinary focus of the day itself.

If you would like to join us please email Hetta Howes (h.howes@qmul.ac.uk) Attendance will be free of charge, but places are limited to ensure discussion and participation, so it is essential that you book your place.

You will find more information and a provisional schedule here.

Call for Stahl and Forsyth Lecture Nominations

Call for Stahl and Forsyth Lecture Nominations

The International Center of Medieval Art (ICMA) seeks proposals for Stahl and Forsyth Lectures to be held under the sponsorship of the organization in 2014-2015. Please suggest the name(s) of appropriate speakers and indicate your willingness to host the event at your institution; joint proposals are welcome, as lecturers are expected to speak at more than one institution.

As a reminder, Stahl Lectures are to be held in what might be termed the greater southwest, while Forsyth lectures, as a rule, take place in the institutions located east of the Mississippi River, especially in what might be termed the greater Midwest.

Please direct all nominations and inquiries, accompanied by your CV and the CV of the proposed speaker, to the Chair of the Programs Committee: Elina Gertsman, Department of Art History and Art, Case Western Reserve University; email: elina.gertsman@case.edu.

The deadline for the nominations is February 15, 2014, for the lectures to be planned for the late fall of the same year or the following spring.

Kings Launch “Sharing Ancient Wisdoms” Project

Kings College London have launched their Sharing Ancient Wisdoms project, which is publishing several texts of interest to Medievalists/Byzantinists.

For more details see: http://www.ancientwisdoms.ac.uk

Included in the collection:
– Gnomological Material in Arabic and in Arabic-Spanish transmission
Texts established by Ines Dallaji, Lorenz Nigst, Christoph Storz, Elvira Wakelnig

– Arabic Philosophical Compendia and Excerpts of Arabic and Latin Philosophical Texts
Texts established by Christoph Storz and Elvira Wakelnig

– Apophthegmata et gnomae secundum alphabetum
Annotated edition of Greek Gnomologia by Denis Searby, Måns Bylund, Pontus Österdahl, with English translation by Denis Searby

– Kekaumenos, Consilia et Narrationes
Greek text, English translation and commentary by Charlotte Roueché, with further translations by H.G. Beck, J. Signes Codoner, G.G. Litavrin, M.D. Spadaro

Call For Papers: Heraldic Artists and Painters in the Middle Ages

Call For Papers: Heraldic Artists and Painters in the Middle Ages
(Poitiers, 10-11 Apr 2014)

The big names of art history such as the Limbourg brothers, Donatello, Pisanello, Barthélemy d’Eyck, Jean Fouquet or Albrecht Dürer have left important traces of their preoccupation with heraldic and emblematic depictions, whether in preserved artwork or by being mentioned in financial sources. Besides them, a huge number of other, less well known artists have also contributed to shape the medieval heraldic heritage.

Many questions need to be asked here: about the formation of those artists and their heraldic culture, about the extent of their intervention in the conception of heraldic and emblematic programs, and about their relationship to the patron. On what basis did they work, did they have textual descriptions or already any drawn models to start from? Which liberties did they take in dealing with the heraldic rules of depiction? What was their eventual contribution to the evolution of heraldry in the late Middle Ages and did artistic creation contribute to the spreading of heraldry as a mean of symbolical and political communication as well as prestige? How have art historians treated this part of medieval artistic creation so far? And which role did the heralds play in this matter? Could it be possible that they did execute heraldic depictions as well and if so, which artistic skills did they need to do so? Finally, how do we have to imagine the creation of heraldic depictions such as mural paintings, painted roll of arms or the illustrated charters of concessions of arms?

Papers can be presented in English or French.

Proposals should be sent by 5th January 2014 together with an abstract
(200 words) in English or French to hiltmann@uni-muenster.de

Workshop organised by the research programme Héraldique, emblématique et signes d’identité au Moyen Age (Laurent Hablot, CESCM, University of Poitiers) and the research project The performance of coats of arms – Die Performanz der Wappen. Zur Entwicklung von Funktion und Bedeutung heraldischer Kommunikation in der spätmittelalterlichen Kultur,
Dilthey-Fellowship of the Volkswagen Foundattion (Torsten Hiltmann, Historisches Seminar, University of Münster)

London Medieval Graduate Network, Courtauld Institute, 6th December

The London Medieval Graduate Network holds seminars at different institutions a number of times each term, which allow for students to give short papers on aspects of their research. All are very welcome.

The next meeting will be held in seminar room 4 at the Courtauld Institute of Art: Somerset House on the Strand.

The setup is that there will be three papers of around 15 minutes with some time for immediate questions, and then the second hour a round table of the issues raised over some wine and nibbles, and we would be very appreciative if people could bring crisps or other snacks, or a bottle.

If you would like to give a paper there is still space. Please contact James Alexander Cameron at james.cameron@courtauld.ac.uk with your name, paper title, institution and level of study. Other enquires are also welcome.