Conference: ‘The Many Lives of Medieval Manuscripts Symposium’, The Library of Trinity College Dublin, 30 November to 1 December 2023

‘The Many Lives of Medieval Manuscripts’ Symposium will take place in-person on Thursday 30th November and Friday 1st December 2023 at Trinity College Dublin.

The Symposium will showcase manuscripts digitised as part of the ‘Manuscripts for Medieval Studies’ Project, supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York.

The Symposium aims to highlight the research outputs arising from the digitisation of these manuscripts, including bibles, books of hours, chronicles, histories, and music manuscripts.

Join us in exploring the many lifecycles of the Library’s medieval manuscripts, from their production and use by contemporaries to their present-day conservation, digitisation, and dissemination.

Find out more and get tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/the-many-lives-of-medieval-manuscripts-symposium-tickets-743479195287?aff=oddtdtcreator

Conference programme

Thursday 30th November

Registration

Welcome address

Session 1: The Manuscripts for Medieval Studies Project

Estelle Gittins (Curatorial lead) and Dr Claire McNulty (Postdoctoral Research Fellow): Introduction to the Project and Overview of Manuscripts Digitised.  

Angelica Anchisi: Conservator, TCD. Paper: ‘Conserving Medieval Manuscripts in the Library’s Collection’. 

Caroline Harding: Senior Digital Photographer, TCD. Paper: ‘Digitisation of Medieval Manuscripts: Plans, Challenges and Techniques’.

Tea & Coffee

Keynote – Professor James Clark: Professor of History, Exeter. Paper: ‘Matthew Paris’s Miracle Narratives: TCD MS 177’.  

Friday 1st December

Session 1: Manuscript Lifecycles: From Conservation to Performance 

Welcome and Housekeeping  

Dr Niamh Pattwell: Associate Professor, School of English, Drama, and Film, UCD. Paper: ‘Sixteenth-Century Heralds: Guardians of the Manuscripts’ (TCD MS 505). 

Dr Ann Buckley: Medieval History Research Centre, TCD. Paper: ‘The Many Lives of the Medieval Liturgy: The Relevance of the Carnegie Digitisation Project for Irish and Insular Studies’. 

Fiona Baldwin: PhD Candidate, School of Music, UCD. Paper: ‘Dates, Doodles, and Deaths: Fresh Perspectives on Dublin’s Medieval Literati’ (TCD MS 79). 

Tea & Coffee

Session 2: Psalters & Books of Hours 

Dr Laura Cleaver: Senior Lecturer in Manuscript Studies, School of Advanced Studies, University of London. Paper: ‘TCD MS 93: Digitisation and the Potential of Linked Open Data’. 

Dr Claire McNulty: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, TCD. Paper: ‘Mirrors, Morality, and the Virgin Mary: TCD MS 103’. 

Professor Ruth Karras: Lecky Professor of History, TCD. Paper: ‘Gender, Bodily Performance, and the Beatus in TCD MS 53 Winchcombe Psalter’. 

Lunch

Session 3: Chronicles & Chance Encounters 

Conor McDonough: OP, St Saviour’s Priory, Dublin 1. Paper: ‘TCD MS 667: A Manuscript to Change Lives’. 

Dr David Woodman: Associate Professor of History, Robinson College, Cambridge. Paper: ‘John of Worcester’s Chronicula: An Overview and Poetry’ (TCD MS 503). 

Dr Alison Ray: College Archivist and Records Manager, St Peter’s College, Oxford. Paper: ‘Canterbury Connections: Manuscripts from Christ Church Priory and St Augustine’s Abbey in TCD Library’.

Tea & Coffee 

Session 4: Digital Methods: Beyond 2022, Searobend, & Transkribus  

Dr Peter Crooks: Department of History; Academic Director, Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland (virtualtreasury.ie). Paper: ‘No Good Deed Goes Unpunished? Trinity’s Dublin Deeds and The Case for a Meta-Collection’.

Dr Mark Faulkner: Ussher Assistant Professor in Medieval Literature, TCD and Elisabetta Magnanti: PhD Candidate, University of Vienna. Paper: ‘Using AI to Transcribe Trinity’s Manuscripts’. 

Dr Colleen Curran: Marie Curie Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Galway and Dr Lucy McKenna: Postdoctoral Researcher, TCD. Paper: ‘The Searobend Project: Digitising the Resources’.

CFP: ‘Creating Holiness: Books, Scrolls and Icons as Carriers of Sacredness’, deadline 15 December 2023

Creating Holiness: Books, Scrolls and Icons as Carriers of Sacredness, Mainz, June 17–20, 2024

Every written culture has its sacred texts. Through the regular reading of these texts, which is usually guided by a fixed rite in the same direction, a group of people reassures themselves of their community and constructs a place of cultural identity beyond the profane. The sacred text not only defines the respective beliefs, but also represents the physical expression of divine revelation, and is often itself revered as a representative of the divine in ritual. Such a text has a special quality as a manuscript, since its value can be increased not only by the high quality of the material and decoration, but also by the extraordinary virtues of the scribe and the circumstances of the act of writing itself. There are notions of what requirements such a scribe should fulfill and what rituals writing itself is subject to. The process of writing becomes a sacred act, a divine service, or an ascetic practice.

This conference will address the questions of what turns a book – or an icon of the Eastern churches – into a sacred object in Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist cultures, and how is sacredness connected to the material.

  • Are there material elements – writing surfaces, inks, colors, letterforms – that are preferred in the making of the sacred artifact? What expectations, memories, or theological concepts are associated with the material?
  • Is the manufacturing process subject to ritual rules? What requirements are imposed on the scribe? Is the scribe distinguished by a certain way of living or a special position within society?
  • What does the special handling of the sacred writings and icons, their veneration and performative choreography within the liturgy or prayer tell us about their functions within the religious community?
  • How are the sacred artifacts received? Are there legends about the scribes and the documents they produced? How are narratives about the magical potential of sacred objects to be assessed?

Travel and accommodation costs can be covered by the organizers on behalf of the ToRoll project.

Please send your abstract (150-200 words) to PD Dr Annett Martini by December, 15th 2023: amartini[at]zedat.fu-berlin.de.

Conference: ‘Nicola and Giovanni Pisano in Colour: Art Conservation and History’, 1-2 December 2023, Università di Pisa

The conference ‘Nicola and Giovanni Pisano in Colour: Art Conservation and History’ will be held in Pisa on 1-2 December 2023, organized by Luca Palozzi of the Department of Civilization and Forms of Knowledge of the University of Pisa.

The conference will take place in two locations: on 1 December at the Polo San Rossore 1938 in the SR A1 room (via Risorgimento, 19) and on 2 December at the GiArA – Gipsoteca di Arte Antica e Antiquarium (Piazza San Paolo all’Orto 20 ). You can also remotely participate and watch the conference via MS Teams: https://cfs.unipi.it/c/231201-02-pisano

Papers will be given in Italian, and the discussion will be in both English and Italian. All times are according to CET.

Find out more here: https://www.cfs.unipi.it/eventi/nicola-e-giovanni-pisano-a-colori-conservazione-e-storia-dellarte-nicola-and-giovanni-pisano-in-colour-art-conservation-and-history/

Conference Programme

Friday 1 December 2023

Biblioteca di Storia delle Arti, via Nicola Pisano 40a

12.00 Apertura della mostra bibliografica Pulpiti di carta: Nicola e Giovanni Pisano nelle collezioni della Biblioteca di Storia delle arti dell’Università di Pisa, in collaborazione con la Biblioteca e il Sistema Bibliotecario di Ateneo

Polo San Rossore, via Risorgimento, Aula SRA1

14.00 Benvenuto e registrazione

14.15 Luca Palozzi (Università di Pisa), Guardare (e pensare) a colori: introduzione ai lavori del Convegno

14.45 Marco Collareta (Pisa), Giovanni Pisano, scultore “politecnico”, nella firma del Pulpito del Duomo di Pisa

15.30 Pausa caffè

16.00 Clario di Fabio (Università di Genova), Nicola de Apulia: disciplina, sperimentazione, ricerca e innovazione

16.30 Gianluca Ameri (Università di Genova), Nicola Pisano e gli smalti: la Cintola pisana

17.00 Pausa caffè

17.30 Sarah Guérin (University of Pennsylvania/I Tatti-Harvard University), Gli avori di Giovanni Pisano: successo o fallimento?

Modera: Luca Palozzi (Università di Pisa)

18.00 Discussione

Saturday 2 December 2023

Gipsoteca, Chiesa di San Paolo all’Orto

9.00 Benvenuto

9.15 Giuliano Romalli (Istituto Centrale per il Restauro, Roma), La conquista dello spazio: illusionismo, policromia e dialettica delle arti tra Arnolfo di Cambio e Giovanni Pisano

9.45 Eleonora Gioventù (Istituto Centrale per il Restauro, Roma), Barbara Salvadori e Silvia Vettori (CNR-ISPC), Indagare per conoscere: modalità di approccio scientifico per la conoscenza delle tecniche e dello stato conservativo delle sculture di Giovanni Pisano nella cappella Scrovegni

10.15 Federica Giacomini (Istituto Centrale per il Restauro, Roma), Tecnica ed espressione: note sulle modalità esecutive delle sculture di Giovanni Pisano nella cappella Scrovegni

10.45 Pausa caffè

11.15 Serena Di Gaetano (Istituto Centrale per il Restauro, Roma), Di oro e di azzurro: la policromia delle sculture Scrovegni di Giovanni Pisano

Modera: Roberto Cela (Opera della Primaziale Pisana)

11.45 Discussione

13.00 Pausa pranzo

14.30 Visita ai pulpiti di Nicola e Giovanni Pisano nel Battistero e nel Duomo di Pisa, e visita al Museo dell’Opera del Duomo (per i soli relatori)

17.00 Franca Sorella (Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Firenze), La tecnica dei vetri dipinti e dorati nel pulpito di Giovanni Pisano in Sant’Andrea a Pistoia: alcune osservazioni critiche

17.30 Andrea Cagnini, Monica Galeotti e Simone Porcinai (Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Firenze), Le analisi scientifiche su dorature, cromie ed elementi vitrei del pulpito di Giovanni Pisano in Sant’Andrea a Pistoia

Modera: Marco Collareta (Pisa)

18.00 Discussione

18.30 Chiusura dei lavori

CFP: ‘Archaeology of Colour: The Production of polychromy’, deadline 15 December 2023

The NOVA School of Science and Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, and the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga are organizing the International Symposium Archaeology of Colour – The production of polychromy in sculpture up to the 16th century. 

The symposium aims to engage scholars from different fields to enrich our understanding of the production of polychromy in sculpture up to the 16th century.

This symposium, to be held online, is organized within the scope of the project Archaeology of Colour (PTDC/ART-OUT/5992/2020), a project dedicated to studying the polychromy of medieval and early modern Portuguese sculpture. 

The symposium aims to engage scholars from different fields to enrich our understanding of the production of polychromy in sculpture up to the 16th century. Communications on subjects related to the production of polychromy on different chronologies, geographies, and technologies are welcome: 

  • Materials and Techniques
  • Documentation
  • The meanings of colour
  • Circulation of materials, techniques, artists, and artworks 
  • Experimental Archaeology
  • Knowledge transmission among neighbourhood chronologies, geographies, and technologies
  • Novel techniques and scientific approaches for studying polychromy
  • Material/Digital reconstructions of past appearances – technical challenges, experience on the public’s response, etc. 

Instructions for submission of abstracts

The language of the symposium will be English (special cases in other languages will be considered). Presentations should be 20 minutes maximum length. Please submit an abstract of approximately 400 words, plus a title and 4 keywords. Proposals should include the name and affiliation of the author(s) and a short biography (c. 150 words) of the presenting author. 

Proposals should be submitted to archaeologyofcolour@campus.fct.unl.pt no later than the 15th of December 2023. The symposium is free of charge.

Find out more here.

CFP: Virtual Islamic Art History Seminar Series, deadline 1 December 2023

The Virtual Islamic Art History Seminar Series (VIAHSS) is pleased to announce the launch of our Call for Proposals for the 2024 program of VIAHSS. We are now inviting proposals for paper presentations on topics related to the history of art, architecture, and visual culture of any time period from the Islamic world for spring and fall of 2024. We welcome submissions from current graduate students, faculty, curators, and independent scholars.

The virtual seminar series will take place on Zoom from mid-January onwards. Each session will include a 20-30 minute presentation followed by a 20 minute discussion in a constructive and friendly manner. In addition to individual proposals we are also open to workshop proposals, which might include moderated discussions of pre-circulated papers, roundtables, discussions with practicing architects or artists, or other formats.

If you are interested, please send an abstract detailing your topic (not more than 500 words) and your CV or resume by Friday, December 1, 2023, to Dr. Alexander Brey (alexander.brey@wellesley.edu) and Rachel Winter (winterr6@msu.edu) with the phrase “VIAHSS 2024 proposal” in the subject line. Please include information about your location and time zone in your email as we will have to find a time that works well for most participants. You may also express a preference or dispreference for a specific month based on your anticipated activities in the spring.

About Virtual Islamic Art History Seminar Series (VIAHSS):

Founded at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in May 2020, the Virtual Islamic Art History Seminar Series (VIAHSS) has brought together a diverse community of researchers from around the world through its virtual seminars and workshops, thereby filling a new niche in academic discourse.

While travel has resumed and in-person events have begun again, the need for a forum which brings together international and intergenerational audiences in an inclusive and supportive fashion still continues to exist. We believe that this is the time to encourage researchers to connect in different ways and to include and pay attention to voices that have been heard less.

We hope to expand our understanding of Islamic art history and discuss those geographical areas and time periods that have previously been defined as marginal.

Research Residencies, ERC AGRELITA 2024, University of Lille (France), deadline 1 February 2024

Find out more about the Residency.

The ERC Advanced Grant AGRELITA Project n° 101018777, “The reception of ancient Greece in pre-modern French literature and illustrations of manuscripts and printed books (1320-1550) : how invented memories shaped the identity of European communities”, directed by Prof. Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas (Principal Investigator), opens guest researchers residences.

The Hypotheses academic blog presents the project and its team : https://agrelita.hypotheses.org/

This call for applications is open to anyone, of French or foreign nationality, who holds a PhD in literature, art history, or history, whose work focuses on the history of books, cultural and political history, visual studies, or memory studies, wherein the competence and project are deemed to be complementary to the ones of the AGRELITA team.

These residencies indeed aim to open the reflections carried out by the team, to enhance its scientific activity through interactions with other scholars and other universities. The guest researchers will have the exceptional opportunity to contribute to a major project, to work with a dynamic team that conducts a wide range of activities at the University of Lille and within the research laboratory ALITHILA where many Medieval and Renaissance times specialists work, as well as to publish in a prestigious setting.

The AGRELITA project is based at the University of Lille. Located in the north of France, Lille is a city in the heart of Europe : 35 minutes from Brussels, 1 hour from Paris, 1 hour 20 minutes from London, 2 hours 40 minutes from Amsterdam, and 2 hours 30 minutes from Aachen. Residing in this metropolis offers the chance to discover the rich medieval heritage of Flanders and to carry out research in nearby libraries, museums, and archives, with very rich collections (Lille, Saint-Omer, Valenciennes, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Cambrai, Arras, Brussels).

The ERC Advanced Grant AGRELITA Project

Until now the reception history of ancient Greece in pre-modern Western Europe has focused almost exclusively on the transmission of Greek texts. Yet well before the revival of Greek teaching, numerous vernacular works, often illustrated, contained elaborate representations of ancient Greece. AGRELITA studies a large corpus of French language literary works (historical, fictional, poetic, didactic ones) produced from 1320 to the 1550s in France and Europe, before the first direct translations from Greek to French, as well as the images of their manuscripts and printed books. These works and their illustrations – exploring texts/images interactions as well as the distinctive impact they have – show representations of ancient Greece we can analyze from a perspective that has never been explored until now : how a new cultural memory was elaborated. AGRELITA thus examines this corpus linked with its political, social, and cultural context, but also with the literary and illustrated works of nearby countries from Europe. Situated at the crossroads of literary studies, book history and art history, visual studies, cultural and political history, and memory studies, AGRELITA’s ambition is to explore how the role played by ancient Greece was reassessed in the processes of shaping the identity of European communities. The project also aims to contribute to a general reflection on the formation of memories, heritages, and identities.

Conditions for defraying mission expenses

Visiting researchers will receive, in the form of mission expenses, a maximum fixed amount of 2000 euros per month, based on all necessary receipts of the costs of stay in Lille (accommodation, transport in the North region, and meal costs). A further maximum fixed amount is added to cover their travel expenses from their place of residence to Lille (round trip):

  • travel from a European country (based on proof of expenses) : 400 €
  • travel from a country outside Europe (based on proof of expenses) : 1200 €.

The expenses will be paid following the mission. AGRELITA will not arrange visas.

The University of Lille has a partnership that allows the rental of studios at the Reeflex University Residence : https://reeflex.univ-lille.fr/chercheur ; as well as at the International Research Residence : https://www.crous-lille.fr/se-loger/je-cherche-un-logement/notre-offre-logement-courts-sejours/4883-2/ . Visiting researchers can request this and the AGRELITA team will assist them to complete the reservation, subject to availability.

Lecture: ‘Foreignness and Architecture in late fifteenth-century Castile’ with Dr Costanza Beltrami, The Murray Seminars at Birkbeck, 5 December 2023, 5pm (GMT)

What did it mean to be a foreigner in fifteenth-century Castile? How was local architecture shaped by broader phenomena of migration, and how was international exchange transformed by local contexts? The history of fifteenth-century Spanish architecture has often been told as a history of travelling artists. Following a first ‘wave’ of French ‘pioneers,’ around mid-century, Northern European artists settled in the kingdom of Castile, obtaining leading positions in important cathedral lodges where they trained ‘second-generation’ migrants like Juan Guas (active 1453–1496), the leading architect of his time. In his will, Guas evokes his distant French origins, but also his position as Royal Master Mason. The foreign craftsmen who settled in Castile in the late-fifteenth century have been credited with establishing a new status for architects at the Gothic-to-Renaissance transition. Unusually, their names are recorded next to those of patrons on some contemporary buildings. Exploring the dynamics of artistic migration, this lecture will interrogate the meanings of architecture in fifteenth-century Castile.  

Click here to book the in-person seminar via Eventbrite

Click here to book the livestreamed seminar via Eventbrite

Birkbeck are happy to say that the Murray Seminars on Medieval and Renaissance Art are going to be restarting on December 5th after a longer-than-wished-for absence. The main change that you’ll notice is that the Livestreamed verison will now be using the ‘Microsoft Teams’ platform, as opposed to the glitch-heavy ‘Collaborate’ platform, and we hope you’ll appreciate the difference. You won’t need to download anything new, and access via the link should be straighforward. Of course, if you can attend in person, we’ll be delighted to see you again in our usual haunt of the Keynes Library at 43, Gordon Square, London WCIH 0PD, and we hope you’ll stay for a glass of wine after the seminar.

PhD Funding: ‘Reading and Writing in Medieval Women’s Religious Communities’ University of Cambridge and British Library, deadline 4 January 2024

Applications are invited for an Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC DTP-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award at the University of Cambridge, in partnership with the British Library.

This fully-funded studentship is available from October 2024. Further details about the value of an Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC DTP award are available on the DTP’s studentships page.

Closing date: 4 January 2024.

Project overview

This Collaborative Doctoral Award would give you the opportunity to investigate the culture of female religious communities in the Middle Ages, through a study of their surviving manuscripts. Medieval women living together in monasteries and other kinds of convent communities owned or produced an astonishing number and variety of manuscripts. These include literary works in poetry and prose, archive and record books, music manuscripts, financial and administrative accounts, maps, books for religious services, paintings in the form of manuscript illumination, documents such as charters, and sculpture in the form of seal impressions.

We are inviting applicants to propose a project that explores any aspect of women’s conventual life, with the specific aim of bringing together kinds of sources that have rarely been discussed in combination. The themes and structure of the project are entirely open, provided the proposal is interdisciplinary and combines different types of manuscripts—broadly defined, as above—in novel, creative, and productive ways. At least some element of your research should concern institutions in the British Isles, but the project as a whole may be comparative. In your proposal, you would aim to draw principally on the British Library’s collections (although we understand that some research in other collections will almost certainly be inevitable). Some indication of the BL’s holdings can be found on these sites:

• Manuscripts and Archives Collections Guides
• Digitised Manuscripts
• Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts
• Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue

The British Library has one of the world’s most extensive and diverse collections of manuscripts from medieval women’s communities. In your research for this project, you would work on these collections alongside the BL’s curatorial staff, and undertake specialised training at both the BL and at Cambridge, where you would be part of a large and collegial community of medievalists in a wide range of fields. The British Library is currently developing a major exhibition, Medieval Women, which is due to open in October 2024. Starting your doctoral research just as the exhibition is opening, you will be able to develop a close familiarity with the display, support the programme of private views and visits to the exhibition, and build on its research findings.

Supervision

The Cambridge supervisor is Dr Jessica Berenbeim, University Lecturer in Literature and Visual Culture at the Faculty of English. The British Library supervisor is Dr Eleanor Jackson, Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts in Western Heritage Collections. 

How to apply

  • We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds and ethnicities who have an interest in any field of Medieval Studies. Applicants should meet the eligibility criteria for Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC studentships.
  • Should you have any questions, or for an informal discussion about how you might approach the CDA project, you are welcome to contact Dr Jessica Berenbeim at jb455@cam.ac.uk and Dr Eleanor Jackson at ellie.jackson@bl.uk.

You should apply to the PhD in English by 4 January 2024 (midday, UK time), indicate your interest in being considered for an Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC DTP studentship and submit a completed copy of the OOC DTP Application Form at the same time. Please see the advert on the Cambridge jobs site.

Online Resource: The Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database

The Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database is now housed at the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History

The Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies at Duke University, the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History at the University of Texas at Dallas, and the Dipartimento di Architettura dell’Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II” are pleased to announce the transfer of The Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database to its new home at the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History.

This transfer makes possible the continuation and further development of an invaluable digital resource for the study of the cultural heritage of southern Italy. At the time of its transfer, the database consisted of catalogue entries for over 9,000 historical images (including drawings, prints, paintings, and photographs) that document hundreds of medieval monuments in the former Kingdom of Sicily (c. 1100-1450). The database is accessible through a public website at https://koseodiah.org.

The Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database was developed in 2011 at Duke University with a Collaborative Research Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Its objective was to collect and make available to scholars, students, travelers, and local communities the rich patrimony of historical images scattered throughout Europe and the United States in museums, archives, and libraries. Close study of these images enables researchers to reconstruct the history of a site, monument, or city, as well as to attest to its form prior to renovation, restoration, or destruction (especially as the result of natural disasters and bombardment during World War II). From its inception, the database was conceived as a collaboration between scholars in the United States and Italy.

With the retirement of the project’s founder, Caroline Bruzelius, from Duke University, the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History and Associate Director Sarah K. Kozlowski emerged as the ideal partner to steward the American side of this international collaboration. On the strength of its individual scholars and collaborative research initiatives, the O’Donnell Institute has developed a strong focus on southern Italy and the Mediterranean world, as well as on digital cultural heritage practices. With the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte the O’Donnell Institute founded the Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia”, which will be a Naples-based platform for research for the Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database project. At the Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, Paola Vitolo, who has been involved with the design and development of the database since its beginnings, will continue as co-Director (now with Sarah K. Kozlowski) and will represent Italian scholarship and contributions to the project’s future.

Current work on the database includes a comprehensive georeferencing campaign, the creation of new entries that document Arabic inscriptions from medieval Palermo, and the incorporation of material related to the ongoing projects of the team’s researchers and graduate student researchers.

The project team invites scholars, students, and the interested public to visit the relaunched website at https://koseodiah.org. Learn more about the project, its history, and our team. And follow us on Instagram at @medieval.kosid.

For the latest developments in our research, please subscribe to our email list by writing to arthistory@utdallas.edu.

Il Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database si è trasferito all’Istituto di Storia dell’Arte Edith O’Donnell

Il Dipartimento di Arte, Storia dell’Arte e Visual Studies della Duke University, l’Istituto di Storia dell’Arte Edith O’Donnell dell’Università del Texas a Dallas, e il Dipartimento di Architettura dell’Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II” sono lieti di annunciare il trasferimento del Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database alla sua nuova sede presso l’Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History. Questo trasferimento rende possibile la continuazione e l’ulteriore sviluppo di una preziosa risorsa digitale per lo studio del patrimonio culturale dell’Italia meridionale. Al momento del trasferimento, il database comprende le voci di catalogo di oltre 9.000 immagini storiche (tra cui disegni, stampe, dipinti e fotografie) che documentano centinaia di monumenti medievali dell’ex Regno di Sicilia (1100-1450 circa). Il database è accessibile al pubblico attraverso il sito web https://koseodiah.org.

Il Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database è stato sviluppato nel 2011 alla Duke University con un Collaborative Research Grant del National Endowment for the Humanities. Il suo obiettivo era quello di raccogliere e rendere disponibile, per studiosi, studenti, viaggiatori e comunità locali, il ricco patrimonio di immagini storiche sparse in musei, archivi e biblioteche tra l’Europa e gli Stati Uniti. L’attento studio di queste immagini consente ai ricercatori di ricostruire la storia di un sito, di un monumento o di una città, nonché di attestarne la forma prima di un ammodernamento, un restauro o la sua distruzione (soprattutto in seguito a disastri naturali e ai bombardamenti della Seconda Guerra Mondiale). Fin dall’inizio, il database è stato concepito come una collaborazione tra studiosi degli Stati Uniti e dell’Italia.

Dopo il pensionamento della fondatrice del progetto, Caroline Bruzelius, dalla Duke University, l’Istituto di Storia dell’Arte Edith O’Donnell, con la sua Direttrice Associata Sarah K. Kozlowski, è emerso come partner ideale per gestire la parte americana di questa collaborazione internazionale. Forte dei suoi singoli studiosi e delle collaborazioni in diversi progetti di ricerca, l’Istituto O’Donnell ha sviluppato una forte attenzione per l’Italia meridionale e il mondo mediterraneo, nonché per lo studio del patrimonio culturale digitalizzato. Con il Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, l’O’Donnell Institute ha fondato il Centro per la storia dell’arte e dell’architettura delle città portuali “La Capraia”, che costituirà una postazione di ricerca a Napoli per il progetto del Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database. Presso l’Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, Paola Vitolo, che è stata coinvolta sin dall’inizio nella progettazione e nello sviluppo del database, continuerà a ricoprire il ruolo di co-direttrice (ora insieme a Sarah K. Kozlowski) e rappresenterà lo studio e il contributo italiano al futuro del progetto.

L’attuale lavoro sul database comprende una campagna di georeferenziazione completa, la creazione di nuove voci che documentino le iscrizioni arabe della Palermo medievale e l’aggiunta di materiale relativo ai progetti in corso portati avanti dai ricercatori e dagli studenti del team.

Il team del progetto invita gli studiosi, gli studenti e il pubblico interessato a visitare il sito web all’indirizzo https://koseodiah.org. Si rimanda alle singole pagine per saperne di più sul progetto, sulla sua storia, e sul nostro team. E seguiteci su Instagram su @medieval.kosid.

CFP: ‘Production, Transmission & Interpretation’, University of York, deadline 31 December 2023

An interdisciplinary conference on Islamic Art, Architecture, History and Archaeology on 14th and 15th March, 2024

Islamic time begins with the Hijra; the integral responsibilities of every Muslim include the Hajj; and studies of Islamic history have traditionally followed military marches and commercial/cultural corridors that enabled the creation of the great gunpowder empires. More recently, mobility has also been manifested in the Islamic world in the fall of these empires, movement of their materials through loots and repatriations, and voluntary and forced migrations. Until recently, these themes have been predominantly researched divorced from Islam through incongruous positivist lenses and euro-centric canons, and often with underlying colonial agendas.

It is with the aim to intervene within and disrupt this context that the Department of History of Art and the Department of Archaeology at the University of York present Production, Transmission, & Interpretation, a conference on Islamic Art, Architecture, History, and Archaeology. Foregrounding the voices of the historically marginalised, founded in material cultural narratives, and focussed on new sources and methodologies, this conference will bring together the latest research from scholars – doctoral to emeriti – and draw upon a range of cognate disciplines across the arts, humanities, and social sciences, to consider 1400 years of the Islamic world and society.

Submission Guidelines

We welcome abstract submissions intended to culminate into the standard format of 20-minute in-person academic paper presentations and invite applications from across disciplines, including art and architectural history, archaeology, conservation, heritage management, curation, museum studies and cultural studies, on themes that may include:

  • Islamic heartlands, hinterlands, and frontiers
  • Art and architecture of mobility, routes, travels, and transfers
  • Patronage – imperial, sub-imperial, male, female, and non-binary
  • Agency of architects, artists, and craftspersons
  • Sources – oral histories, local archives, epigraphy, calligraphy, endangered languages Archaeological material, bioarchaeological approaches, and conservation
  • Islamic approaches past and present to nature, culture, environment and sustainability
  • Conflicts, occupations, appropriations and adaptations
  • Islamic art markets – auctions, ethics, legislations

Abstracts should be limited to 250 words, indicate the target thematic cluster, and be accompanied by the researcher’s name, institutional affiliation and stage of study, location, and a brief biography not exceeding 100 words.

Deadline for proposal submission is 31 December, 2023.

All abstracts should be sent as pdf attachments to hist592@york.ac.uk

If you have any questions, please email Parshati Dutta or Nausheen Hoosein.

Conversations are underway with leading university presses to publish a thematic edited volume of papers presented, therefore please declare if the material has been used before, and if not, whether you would be interested in publishing with us.

Photo by kind courtesy of Prof Robert Hillenbrand