New Publication: ‘Paris: The Powers that Shaped the Medieval City’, edited By Alexandra Gajewski, John McNeill

Paris: The Powers that Shaped the Medieval City considers the various forces – royal, monastic and secular – that shaped the art, architecture and topography of Paris between c. 1100 and c. 1500, a period in which Paris became one of the foremost metropolises in the West.

The individual contributions, written by an international group of scholars, cover the subject from many different angles. They encompass wide-ranging case studies that address architecture, manuscript illumination and stained glass, as well as questions of liturgy, religion and social life. Topics include the early medieval churches that preceded the current cathedral church of Notre-Dame and cultural production in the Paris area in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, as well as Paris’s chapels and bridges. There is new evidence for the source of the c. 1240 design for a celebrated window in the Sainte-Chapelle, an evaluation of the liturgical arrangements in the new shrine-choir of Saint-Denis, built 1140–44, and a valuable assessment of the properties held by the Cistercian Order in Paris in the Middle Ages. Also, the book investigates the relationships between manuscript illuminators in the 14th century and representations of Paris in manuscripts and other media up to the late 15th century.

Paris: The Powers that Shaped the Medieval City updates and enlarges our knowledge of this key city in the Middle Ages.

This book is part of the British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions. Find out more about the book here.

Contents

Preface

  1. Notre-Dame in Paris before the Gothic Period, by Dany Sandron
  2. Abbot Suger’s Paris, by Lindy Grant
  3. The Power of the Saints: Architecture and Liturgy in Abbot Suger’s Shrine-Choir at Saint-Denis in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, by Alexandra Gajewski
  4. The King’s City: The Disciplinary ‘Sense-scape’ of Paris in the Thirteenth Century, by William Chester Jordan
  5. The Great Thirteenth-Century Chapels of Paris, by Meredith Cohen
  6. City of light: Picturing the translation of the Crown of Thorns to Paris in the Gothic glass of the Sainte-Chapelle, by Emily Guerry
  7. Jean Pucelle, Mahiet, and the Fauvel Master: Relationships between Manuscript Illuminators in Fourteenth-Century Paris, by Anna Russakoff
  8. Building Paris on its Bridges, by Jana Gajdošová
  9. Not so vast a Solitude: Cistercians in Medieval Paris, by Terryl Kinder
  10. Images of Paris in the late Middle Ages: The Great Monuments, by Raphaële Skupien

Editors Biography

Alexandra Gajewski is Reviews Editor of The Burlington Magazine and an Associate Fellow of the Institute of Historical Research, London. Her research focuses on Gothic architecture, especially in relation to the cult of relics, liturgy and questions of function. She has published on Cistercian architecture in medieval Europe, religious architecture in Burgundy, the historiography of regional architecture as well as medieval women as patrons, embroidery and the Castle of Love in ivory.

John McNeill is Secretary of the British Archaeological Association, wherein he was instrumental in establishing the Association’s International Romanesque conference series. He has published widely on Romanesque architecture and architectural sculpture in England, France and Italy.

Prize: Haboldt-Mutters Prize, Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, Deadline 31 December 2023

Simiolus is now accepting submissions for the annual Haboldt-Mutters Prize for young art historians.

REQUIREMENTS Scholars who wish to compete for this award for the best original contribution on European art prior to 1950 should be younger than 35 at the time of submission and their paper should be limited to a maximum of 20,000 words (including notes, excluding possible appendices). Their manuscripts may be written in English, Dutch, German or French. The editors of Simiolus, who form the jury, will bear the cost of translation if necessary, and publish the article in Simiolus within a year.

DEADLINE AND PRIZE The author of the winning paper, which should be handed in before the end of the year, will receive 2,000 euros.

ABOUT SIMIOLUS Simiolus is an English-language journal devoted to the history of Dutch and Flemish art of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, with occasional forays into more recent periods and other schools. Founded in 1966, it has grown to become an internationally recognized journal of record in its field, publishing contributions by many renowned scholars and promising young art historians. Simiolus has a broad range, featuring articles on iconography and iconology, art theory and historiography, the history of the art market and the history of collecting. Many of them have become classics of their kind.

All volumes are made available via JSTOR. The moving wall is fixed at three volumes.

WEBSITE Visit https://simiolus.nl for the style guide and additional information.

CONTACT info@simiolus.nl

Colloquium: “Secular Knowledge in Medieval Art,” XIII ARS MEDIAEVALIS COLLOQUIUM, Aguilar de Campoo (Palencia), 6-8 October 2023

A substantial part of the scientific knowledge developed in the Middle Ages was inherited from Roman (in Western Europe) and Greek (in the Byzantine and Islamic domains) culture. However, new cognitive procedures were also developed in medieval societies, among them some related to vision, astronomy or zoology. Knowledge of the secular world was translated and codified in the three domains of the Middle Ages (Latin, Greek and Arabic) through complex and varied visual devices. These ingenious images allow us to understand how the procedures of thought and memory were established. With these iconic creations, the most dynamic cultural centres sought to provide themselves with didactic and mnemonic tools to say, think or remember the universe, earthly creatures or celestial realities more efficiently. Both the European continent and the Mediterranean shores witnessed the fluid communication between different domains in order to advance in the knowledge of the created and populated space, translating, codifying or reinterpreting what others had proposed before, or else enlightening new formulas and channels to solve the questions of people who intensified their self-awareness.

PROGRAM

6 de octubre (Aguilar de Campoo: Sede Fundación Sta. Mª la Real)

Presidencia de sesión: Alejandro García Avilés (Universidad de Murcia)  

08.45 h.: Recepción de asistentes

09.15 h.: Presentación e inauguración del Coloquio

09.45 h.: Kathrin Müller (Humboldt-Universität, Berlin): Fundamental Knowledge. Personifications of the artes liberales on High Medieval Liturgical Objects

10.30 h.: Debate

10.45 h.: Pausa-café

11.15 h.: Anna Caiozzo (Université d’Orleans): Entre images scientifiques, merveilles (terrestres) de la Création et imaginaires religieux

12.00 h.: Martin Schwarz (Universität Basel): The Crucifixion Eclipse and the Illumination of Philosophy in the Vie de Saint Denis (BnF, fr. 2090)

12.45 h: Debate  

Sesión de tarde (Aguilar de Campoo: Sede Fundación Sta. Mª la Real)

Presidencia de sesión: Mª Teresa López de Guereño (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)  

16.00 h.: Laura Fernández Fernández (Universidad Complutense de Madrid): Entre fábulas y estrellas errantes. La luna en el imaginario alfonsí

16.45 h.: Debate

17.30 h.: Visita al monasterio de Santa María la Real  

7 de octubre (Saldaña. Villa romana La Olmeda)

Presidencia de sesión: Susana Clavo Capilla (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)  

09.15 h: Desplazamiento en autobús a la villa romana La Olmeda

10.30 h.: Licia Buttà (Universitat Rovira i Virgili): La danza en los tratados morales y de cortesía y su visualización en el relato poético narrativo en la Edad Media

11.15 h.: Begoña Cayuela (Universitat de Barcelona): Del stemma al grafo y viceversa. Los diagramas de las llamadas Tablas genealógicas en la miniatura hispana medieval: origen y pervivencias.

11.35 h.: Nerea Maestu Fonseca (Universidad Complutense de Madrid): Vislumbres de cometas entre rayos y truenos: astrometeorología y teoría cometaria en la Edad Media.

11.55 h.: Debate

12.30 h.: Visita a la villa romana de La Olmeda

14.00 h.: Comida (a cargo de la organización)

16.00 h.: Visita al arte medieval de Cisneros  

8 de octubre (Aguilar de Campoo: Monasterio Sta. Mª la Real)

Presidencia de Sesión: Fernando Gutiérrez Baños (Universidad de Valladolid)  

09.30 h.: Marius Hauknes (University of Notre Dame): Representing the Origins of Human Knowledge

10.15 h.: Hanna Wimmer (Universität Hamburg): Visualising Logic in the Middle Ages

11.00 h.: Debate

11.30 h.: Descanso

12.00 h.: Rosa Rodríguez Porto (Universidad de Santiago de Compostela): Incidentiae: Tiempo, espacio y sincronía en la historiografía medieval

12.45 h.: Debate

13.00 h:  Conclusiones y perspectivas

13.15 h.: Clausura y entrega de certificados a los asistentes  

Register here: https://tienda.santamarialareal.org/es/productos/detalles/xiii-coloquio-ars-mediaevalis-saberes-seculares-en-el-arte-medieval/761

CFP: “Monastic libraries and book collections in times of crisis, c. 1000-c. 1600,” International Medieval Congress, Leeds, Deadline 12 September 2023

The proposed session(s) focuses on religious communities’ responses to crisis in relation to convent libraries and book collections. We aim to investigate what happened to medieval convent libraries and book collections in times of peril during the Middle Ages, but also the early modern period and up until our time. At certain times, these changes were detrimental and meant the original context of collections was lost. On other occasions, crises’ effects were incremental in book collections of various religious institutions.


Written documents and book collections were used to address the economic, social, political, and cultural crises that affected religious communities. The organizers aim to discuss how manuscripts and book collections were used to mitigate or reject the impact of external or internal crises, to create a narrative about these upheavals and to foster renewal. The organizers also aim to establish a broader comparative and geographical approach opening new perspectives, provoking new questions, and reformulating questions widely debated in the historiography.


Suggested topics on book collections in times of crisis from any geographic area and encompassing a wide chronological framework may include, but are not limited to:
• Dismembering and dispersion of manuscripts in times of peril. How could these collections be interpreted anew? What happened to the identity of these collections in their new surroundings? How were these ‘orphan’ collections used by their, potentially, new owners? Was there re-assembly?
• The post-medieval life and Nachleben of book collections. Dispersion and loss as a result of wars, turmoil, and ecclesiastical suppression during the modern times.
• Assembling of manuscripts as a result of crisis. Medieval and early modern recycling history of manuscripts, and how these processes inform not only medieval book culture but also religious communities’ identities and religious and cultural networks more broadly.
• Assembling versus dismembering manuscripts as a result of crisis. Analysis of the factors that led to one or the other option. Did these occur at the same time in the same community?
• Crisis, continuities, and disruptions in production of manuscripts, re-use, and function of books within religious communities.
• Interplay between manuscript production and the making of other ornamenta sacra in times of crisis.
• The role of manuscripts and book collections in the creation of crisis narratives among religious communities. Who is to blame during crisis? Entangled scales and agents involved at micro and macro levels.
• Explicitly gendered approaches to crises in religious communities. In what way religious women, including nuns and mulieres religiosae, used manuscripts and book collections.
We welcome papers from a variety of disciplines including but not limited to history, art history, material culture, codicology, cultural history, musicology, history of liturgy, anthropology, literature, gender studies with a focus on religious communities from different orders/religions, different territories, and geographical regions exploring what happened to medieval book collections (c. 1000-c. 1600) during and beyond the Middle Ages. We invite speakers to explore the impact of crisis in book collections from religious communities and these communities’ management of their libraries in times of peril.

Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words and a short bio to Julie Beckers (julie.beckers@kuleuven.be) and Mercedes Pérez Vidal (mercedes.pvidal@uam.es) by 12 September 2023. All proposals should include your name, email address and academic affiliation, and your preferred format (in-person or virtual).

Call for Participants: “Studying East of Byzantium X: Communities” Workshop, Deadline 13 September 2023

The Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University and the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture at Hellenic College Holy Cross in Brookline, MA, are pleased to invite abstracts for the next Studying East of Byzantium workshop: Studying East of Byzantium IX: Communities.

Studying East of Byzantium IX: Communities is a three-part workshop that intends to bring together doctoral students and very recent PhDs studying the Christian East to reflect on how to reflect on the usefulness of the concept of “Community” in studying the Christian East, to share methodologies, and to discuss their research with workshop respondents, Michael Pifer, University of Michigan, and Salam Rassi, University of Edinburgh. The workshop will meet on November 17, 2023, February 9, 2024, and June 6–7, 2024, on Zoom. The timing of the workshop meetings will be determined when the participant list is finalized.

We invite all graduate students and recent PhDs working in the Christian East whose work considers, or hopes to consider, the theme of communities in their own research to apply.

Participation is limited to 10 students. The full workshop description is available on the East of Byzantium website (https://eastofbyzantium.org/upcoming-events/). Those interested in attending should submit a C.V. and 200-word abstract through the East of Byzantium website no later than September 13, 2023.

For questions, please contact East of Byzantium organizers, Christina Maranci, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies, Harvard University, and Brandie Ratliff, Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture at contact@eastofbyzantium.org.

EAST OF BYZANTIUM is a partnership between the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University and the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture at Hellenic College Holy Cross in Brookline, MA. It explores the cultures of the eastern frontier of the Byzantine Empire in the late antique and medieval periods.

CFP: “Virgin Mary’s relics – Prestige, Rivalry, Forgery and Reproducibility,” International Congress on Medieval Studies (Online Session), Deadline 15 September 2023

This special online session wishes to analyze the power of the Virgin Mary’s relics as triggers not only to processions and pilgrimages but also to Marian cults competition. The scientific importance of the session lies in understanding how these devotional objects could be perceived as activators of civic prestige. The possession of these relics encouraged a deep local cohesion outside the church. Therefore, how did the custody of a Marian relic interact and enhance rivalry between cities? And finally, how did the forgery and reproducibility of these relics contribute to developing the Marian cult by enhancing the creation of sacred topographies?

The session will encourage an interdisciplinary approach. Civic, political, and religious powers were deeply interconnected to control devotion to Marian relics. For this reason, these aspects will be examined in relation to the instauration of civic identity and religious authority to understand the adaptation of the Virgin’s cult to the local needs. This approach provides the groundwork for new perspectives on Medieval relics’ devotion in general. Moreover, the analysis of case studies will not only aim to highlight specific aspects and general phenomena in Late Medieval Europe but also to define identities and devotees’ experiences about relics.

Scholars are invited to submit a 300-word abstract, excluding references. Proposals should also include name, affiliation, email address, the title of the presentation, 6 keywords, a selective bibliography, and a short CV. Please send the documents to maryandthecity.imc2022@gmail.com by 15 September 2023.

CFP: “Saints in Crisis: Emotional Responses to Sanctity in the Middle Ages,” International Medieval Congress (IMC 2024), University of Leeds, Deadline 12 September 2023

They were frightened and they hit in great pain their heads and hearts– How do people react when they encounter the sanctity of saints? How do they feel? Are they in crisis – crisis for whom? Does crisis change individuals?

The proposed session focuses on the emotional responses of individuals/communities in relation to sanctity. Suggested topics on the emotional reactions of individuals/communities, from any geographic area or time period (between 300-1500), may include, but are not limited to:

  • Visual representations of emotions (behavior of the body, gestures, looks); 
  • Textual sources on emotional reactions (hagiographies, miracle stories, narratives in relation to crisis and sanctity);
  • Medical (psychological, neurological, physical, and mental) responses;
  • Liturgy and music culture;
  • Regions/areas of communities (rural, urban, monastic, ecclesiastic), emotions, and sanctity;
  • Living saints, discoveries of saints, relics – reliquaries, icons, and viewership reactions;
  • Performance, sanctity, and emotions;
  • External crisis/internal crisis, positive/negative emotional reactions, and sanctity;
  • Conversion stories/lack of conversion/otherness and emotional reactions;

Submissions from a variety of disciplines are accepted including but not limited to: history, art history, visual culture, social history, cultural history, hagiography, religious studies, cultural studies, textual studies in a transdisciplinary perspective. 

Please submit a 250- 400 word proposal (in English) for a 15-20 minute paper. Proposals should have an abstract format and be accompanied by a short CV, of no more than 800 words, including e-mail, institution, and profession. The session is planned to be in-presence. Please submit all relevant documents by 12 September 2023 to the e-mail address: znorovszkyandrea@usal.es

Contact information: Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain (znorovszkyandrea@usal.es)

CFP: New Perspectives on Personifications in Roman, Late Antique and Early Byzantine Art (200-800 AD), deadline 15 September 2023


Paper proposals are invited for the international workshop “New Perspectives on Personifications in Roman, Late Antique and Early Byzantine Art (200-800 AD)” with keynote lecture by Professor Emma Stafford, University of Leeds, School of Languages, Cultures and Societies.

Personifications are some of the most geographically and chronologically widespread phenomena in Art History. From monumental sculpture or floor mosaics to textiles, coins or everyday objects, personifications were represented in all visual media to express and communicate a variety of different ideas, such as natural phenomena, months, seasons or geographical regions, personal qualities or intangible abstractions. While some are easily identifiable via specific attributes, others can only be recognized through name labels; some occur as isolated figures, others as active participants in complex scenes; some exist in countless examples, others survive in a singular image. They may have counterparts in contemporary written sources, or may be purely visual inventions. In addition, a single personification can carry multivalent meanings, which may allow for several layers of interpretation. Over time their ontological status, functions and meanings have undergone various changes. A significant period of transformation is the transition from the ancient to the mediaeval world. While personifications were seen as numinous figures in ancient Mediterranean societies, they may have been rather symbolic or allegorical in mediaeval visual cultures.

The aim of this workshop is to explore the formal patterns, roles and meanings, continuities and innovations in the depictions of personifications of this period to better understand their functions, their relationship to one another and to other iconographic tools, as well as the changes that occur between the second and ninth centuries in the Mediterranean world.

The organizers invite proposals for individual papers from the fields of classics, archaeology, art history, visual studies, numismatics, sigillography and related fields addressing especially, but not exclusively, the following topics:
– New research on individual personifications in all Roman, Late Antique and Byzantine visual media (sculpture, painting, mosaic, coins, seals, textiles, book illumination, jewellery, everyday and/or luxury objects, etc.)
– Methodological and theoretical approaches towards personifications (ontology, polysemy, etc.)
– Reflections on the relationship between text and image in the analysis of personifications
– Functional comparisons between different formats (stand-alone personifications, personifications in groups and/or narrative scenes)
– Chronological and geographical comparisons and iconographical developments in the depictions of personifications
– Relationship between the pictorial representation of personifications and their spatial and/or cultural context
– Relationship between personifications and the patrons, recipients and viewers of objects and works of art that include them

Please submit an abstract of 300 words and a bio of 100 words by 15 September 2023. All proposals should include your name, email address and academic affiliation (if applicable). Please also include a main subject field plus secondary subject field in the application. The participants are expected to deliver a 20-minute talk, followed by a Q&A session. The workshop will take place in-person at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and the Museum für Abgüsse Klassischer Bildwerke in Munich on Friday and Saturday, 26-27 January 2024 and will be held in English. For the planned publication German, French and Italian will also be accepted.

The workshop is organized by Institut für Byzantinistik, Byzantinische Kunstgeschichte und Neogräzistik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München with the kind support of Spätantike Archäologie und Byzantinische Kunstgeschichte e.V.

Please send any questions, abstracts, and bios to both:

Charles Wastiau
Cwastiau@uliege.be
Université de Liège
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn

Prolet Decheva
prolet.decheva@ucdconnect.ie
University College Dublin
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Virtual Conversation: Exhibitions, Museum Collections, and Environment, 27 July 2023

Join Heather Alexis Smith, Assistant Curator at the Pulitzer, and Dr. Julia Perratore, Assistant Curator at The Met Cloisters on Thursday, 27 July 2023 for a conversation about ecology-centered museum practices. Smith will describe the process of organizing the Pulitzer’s spring show The Nature of Things: Medieval Art and Ecology, 1100-1550 and will discuss how exhibitions can help us think differently about environments—both past and present. Perratore will detail efforts underway at the Met Cloisters—one of the most comprehensive collections of medieval art in the world—to build more climate-friendly installations and exhibitions.

This program will be hosted on Zoom; Registration is required.

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Of3jrjg_RaSn3dYzhXjoyg#/registration

Questions? Contact programs@pulitzerarts.org.

New Publication: L’abbazia di San Leone a Bitonto. Un monumento nel tempo. by Marcello Mignozzi

This volume traces the history of the Abbey of San Leone in Bitonto, from its medieval origins to the current days. The fortunes of the monastery, first Benedictine, then Olivetan and finally Franciscan, are linked to those of its famous fair, even mentioned in Boccaccio’s Decameron. In-depth documentary analyses allow critical gaps to be filled, and then intertwine with the reading of artworks. The different building phases, the sculptural repertoire, restorative interventions and pictorial evidence are examined with extreme care. The most substantial part of the work is dedicated to the fourteenth-century frescoes in the choir, analyzed wall by wall and investigated under the stylistic-formal and iconographic-iconological aspects. Great attention is then given to bitontine monumental attestations from the Angevin period and to the numerous pictorial testimonies preserved, the examination of which allows us to draw valuable information on Apulian art between the 13th and 15th centuries. A fundamental scholarly text for the study of Art History in Apulia between the Middle Ages and the contemporary age.