New Publication: ‘Digital Codicology: Medieval Books and Modern Labor’ by Bridget Whearty

Medieval manuscripts are our shared inheritance, and today they are more accessible than ever—thanks to digital copies online. Yet for all that widespread digitization has fundamentally transformed how we connect with the medieval past, we understand very little about what these digital objects really are. We rarely consider how they are made or who makes them. This case study-rich book demystifies digitization, revealing what it’s like to remake medieval books online and connecting modern digital manuscripts to their much longer media history, from print, to photography, to the rise of the internet. 

Examining classic late-1990s projects like Digital Scriptorium 1.0 alongside late-2010s initiatives like Bibliotheca Philadelphiensis, and world-famous projects created by the British Library, Corpus Christi College Cambridge, Stanford University, and the Walters Art Museum against in-house digitizations performed in lesser-studied libraries, Whearty tells never-before-published narratives about globally important digital manuscript archives. Drawing together medieval literature, manuscript studies, digital humanities, and imaging sciences, Whearty shines a spotlight on the hidden expert labor responsible for today’s revolutionary digital access to medieval culture. Ultimately, this book argues that centering the modern labor and laborers at the heart of digital cultural heritage fosters a more just and more rigorous future for medieval, manuscript, and media studies.

Bridget Whearty is an Assistant Professor at Binghamton University and a former Council on Libraries and Information Resources (CLIR) Postdoctoral Fellow in Data Curation for Medieval Studies.

Contents:

Introduction: “Embodied Books, Disembodied Labor”


1. “Scriptorium 2.0”


2. “Value and Visibility: Copying San Marino, Huntington Library, MS HM 111”


3. “Digital Incunables: Copying Lydgate’s Fall of Princes, ca. 1997–2017”


4.  “Interoperable Metadata and Failing toward the Future”


Coda: “Glitch”


Appendix: “Doing Digital Codicology: A Manifesto.”

Buy this book from Stanford University Press

CFP: Renaissance Architecture and Theory Scholars Annual Conference 2023, 24 March 2023, Edinburgh / Online. Deadline: 13 January 2023

The next conference of the Renaissance Architecture and Theory Scholars (RATS) will take place on Friday, 24 March 2023 from 8:30 to 17:30 UK time at the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, in hybrid format. 

The conference co-convenors seek proposals for 20-minute papers on topics in the history of Renaissance architecture and theory, broadly defined. We welcome research on all chronologies of Renaissance architectural culture, including its reception in other periods, as well as all geographies implicated in Renaissance architectural culture. We are open to emerging research as well as work that is nearing publication. We encourage any postgraduate student or early career researcher who would like to present original research to submit a paper proposal.

Because the conference will occur in hybrid format, anyone with an internet connection can present research or participate as an audience member from anywhere in the world. A key goal of the upcoming meeting is to expand accessibility to RATS and widen participation among scholars who may not have previously enjoyed the benefits of the RATS community. To that end, the upcoming meeting will also include time for a group discussion on future plans for RATS.

If you would like to present a paper in the conference, please send a title and an abstract of c. 250 words or less, as well as a brief, c. 150-word bio or CV of no more than 2 pages to RenArchandTheoryScholars@gmail.com by Friday, 13 January 2023 at 12 noon UK time.

Call for applications: Mary Jaharis Center Grants 2023-2024. Deadline 1 February 2023

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture is pleased to announce its 2023–2024 grant competition. 

Mary Jaharis Center Co-Funding Grants promote Byzantine studies in North America. These grants provide co-funding to organize scholarly gatherings (e.g., workshops, seminars, small conferences) in North America that advance scholarship in Byzantine studies broadly conceived. We are particularly interested in supporting convenings that build diverse professional networks that cross the boundaries of traditional academic disciplines, propose creative approaches to fundamental topics in Byzantine studies, or explore new areas of research or methodologies.

Mary Jaharis Center Dissertation Grants are awarded to advanced graduate students working on Ph.D. dissertations in the field of Byzantine studies broadly conceived. These grants are meant to help defray the costs of research-related expenses, e.g., travel, photography/digital images, microfilm.

Mary Jaharis Center Project Grants support discrete and highly focused professional projects aimed at the conservation, preservation, and documentation of Byzantine archaeological sites and monuments dated from 300 CE to 1500 CE primarily in Greece and Turkey. Projects may be small stand-alone projects or discrete components of larger projects. Eligible projects might include archeological investigation, excavation, or survey; documentation, recovery, and analysis of at risk materials (e.g., architecture, mosaics, paintings in situ); and preservation (i.e., preventive measures, e.g., shelters, fences, walkways, water management) or conservation (i.e., physical hands-on treatments) of sites, buildings, or objects.

Mary Jaharis Center Publication Grants support book-length publications or major articles in the field of Byzantine studies broadly conceived. Grants are aimed at early career academics. Preference will be given to postdocs and assistant professors, though applications from non-tenure track faculty and associate and full professors will be considered. We encourage the submission of first-book projects.

The application deadline for all grants is February 1, 2023. For further information, please visit the Mary Jaharis Center website (https://maryjahariscenter.org/grants).

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center, with any questions.

CFP: EMSE 2023: Early Modern Sensory Encounters, Kellogg College, University of Oxford, 8-9 June 2023. Deadline: 15 January 2023

The University of Oxford and the Open University invite papers for our annual interdisciplinary Early Modern Sensory Experiences (EMSE) conference.

Interest in sensory experiences of the past has grown in recent years, with scholars engaging with both interdisciplinary and anthropological approaches in order to better understand historical lived experiences. This annual conference explores the visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory and/or olfactory elements of particular experiences across the globe between c.1400 and c.1700.

This year’s conference, ‘Sensory Encounters’, welcomes papers that consider sensory experiences as instances or reflections of cultural exchange and which discuss possible methodologies and approaches to this particular subject. Papers may engage with the following themes, amongst others:

  • Transcultural Sensory Experiences: how sensory experiences were integral to encounters and entanglements, with both productive and destructive results.
  • Senses and the City: how sensory experiences were encountered in the city, and how they may have contributed to cities as sites of cosmopolitanism.
  • Mobility and Circulation: How the movement of people, objects, practices and their associated sensorial experiences gave rise to the transfer of similar, or the development of new, sensory experiences. 
  • Subjectivity: How sensory experiences varied according to gender, social class, race or other perceptions of difference.

Papers are invited from scholars working in any discipline, including musicology, art history, cultural and/or social history, religious studies, and book history, on any geographic region between c.1400 and c.1700.

While we understand that scholars may naturally place emphasis on a particular sense or source as a reflection of their own disciplinary background, we encourage speakers to work across senses, sources and disciplines.

Speakers are encouraged to present work in progress and/or address methodological challenges faced in their research.

Please send a 150-word abstract along with a short biography to Leah Clark (leah.clark@conted.ox.ac.uk) and Helen Coffey (helen.coffey@open.ac.uk) by 15 January 2023.

The conference will take place at Kellogg College, University of Oxford, on 8-9 June 2023.

This will be a face-to-face conference. Speakers should therefore ensure that they can attend in person.

Please note that we will not be able to cover travel or accommodation costs for speakers.

Call for Papers: Tenth Annual Symposium on Medieval & Renaissance Studies (SMRS), St. Louis University 12-14 June, 2023 (Deadline 31 December 2022)

The Tenth Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies (June 12-14, 2023) is a convenient summer venue in North America for scholars to present papers, organize sessions, participate in roundtables, and engage in interdisciplinary discussion. The goal of the Symposium is to promote serious scholarly investigation into all topics and in all disciplines of medieval and Renaissance studies.

The Tenth Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies (SMRS) invites proposals for papers, complete sessions, and roundtables. Any topics regarding the scholarly investigation of the medieval and early modern world are welcome. Papers are normally twenty minutes each and sessions are scheduled for ninety minutes. Scholarly organizations are especially encouraged to sponsor proposals for complete sessions, and organizing at least two sessions in coordination with each other is highly recommended.

The plenary speakers for this year will be Uta-Renate Blumenthal, of the Catholic University of America, and Lia Markey, of the Newberry Library, Chicago.

Submissions are currently open and the deadline for all proposals is December 31, 2022. Late submissions will be considered if space is available. Decisions will be made by the end of January and the final program will be published in March.

For more information or to submit your proposal online go to: https://www.smrs-slu.org/.

Call for Applicants: Juan Facundo Riano Essay Prize and ARTES-CEEH Scholarships (Deadline 31st January 2023)

Please consider applying for yourself, encourage friends/students to apply, and/or circulate via group/departmental email lists or social media. 

** TheJuan Facundo Riaño Essay Prizeis awarded to students and early career scholars for the best art-historical essay on a Spanish theme, kindly supported by the Office for Cultural & Scientific Affairs of the Spanish Embassy in London. Full details are available here

** ARTES also awards a number of scholarships to students working on any aspect of Spanish visual culture before 1900. The awards are made possible by the generous support of CEEH (Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica), and further guidelines are below: 

Travel scholarships 

Final year undergraduates and postgraduate students registered for a full or part-time degree course at a UK university may apply for up to £1000 towards the costs of travel to Spain for research purposes (which may include field work, attendance at a conference, or other recognised forms of research). 

£3000 scholarship for PhD students at a UK university 

ARTES offers one scholarship each year to a student registered for a full- or part-time doctoral degree at a UK university. The scholarship is intended to contribute towards the costs of tuition, living and/or research, and therefore students with full funding are not eligible. 

£3000 scholarship for PhD students or post-doctoral scholars who wish to conduct research in the UK 

Doctoral students or those who received their doctorate less than four years before the application deadline may apply for this scholarship provided that they were or are registered for doctoral study at a university in Spain. 

Conference: ‘Trans-National Connections: Vernacular Architecture in Britain & Beyond’, 7th-8th January 2023 (Deadline 15 December 2022)

The Vernacular Architecture Group’s winter conference, normally open to members and their guests only, is this year open to all. 

The conference will explore ‘Trans-National Connections – Vernacular Architecture in Britain & Beyond’ and will be held at College Court, University of Leicester, on 7-8 January 2023. Vernacular architecture studies in the UK have often focused on local places and regions within the nations of England, Scotland and Wales. This conference aims to widen our horizons and look at the connections between architecture in Britain and patterns of building in Europe, Scandinavia and across the Atlantic. Speakers will address the theme of building traditions in Britain and their relationship to patterns elsewhere. Papers focusing on Sweden, Dutch houses, France, and the Channel Islands, sit alongside investigations into roof and wall construction in Britain and Europe, and ‘trans-national’ connections within Britain on the Anglo-Welsh and Anglo-Scottish Borders, as well as around the Irish Sea, and in Shetland and the North Atlantic Isles.

We have a packed programme, with 16 talks over two days, including the keynote speech, ‘English’ Building & Landscape in the Northern Atlantic by Matthew Johnson  (Northwestern University), author of English houses 1300-1800: Vernacular Architecture, Social Life who will discuss ‘English’ Building & Landscape in the Northern Atlantic. 

The full brochure and booking form can be found on the VAG website at https://www.vag.org.uk. The closing date for bookings is 15 December 2022. 

Call for Papers: ‘Encounters: Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Medieval and Early Modern Art’, 16th Annual IMAGO Conference, 2nd March 2023 (Deadline 1st January 2023)

Encounters between Christians, Muslims, and Jews were manifold in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. In recent decades scholarship has increasingly begun to acknowledge the significance of such encounters for the development of artistic production and visual culture in each of these societies. For example, a shared culture of luxury goods common to the elite of both Christian and Muslim principalities, and the rich dialogue between Jews and Christians pertaining to the production of illuminated manuscripts, have been comprehensively studied. The 16th Annual IMAGO conference consequently aspires to examine the impact of encounters between Jews, Muslims, and Christians on the visual culture and art of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. We hope that the resulting papers will not only shed new light on the artistic, social, religious, and political mechanisms involved in such encounters throughout this period, but will also produce fresh insights into the cultural and artistic outcomes of these encounters.

We invite papers in English from diverse points of view: case studies of iconographies resulting from such encounters; studies of the artistic responses to specific conditions of encounters and dialogues; comparative studies on the connections between the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic worlds, etc. Interdisciplinary studies and those engaging with the production, reception, and interpretation of art produced through such encounters are of particular interest. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

• Artists, artisans, and workshops
• Luxury goods, portable objects, and trade
• Manuscript illumination
• Visual elements in everyday life and the domestic sphere
• Visual agency in acculturation, mission, conversion,
interfaith debates, and polemics
• Images of Jews, Muslims, and Christians
• Use, reuse, misuse, and appropriation of objects
• Quotation, citation, and the migration of pictorial and
architectural motifs

The conference will take place on Thursday, March 2, 2023, at Bar-Ilan University.

Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be sent to Dr. Gil Fishhof (gfishhof@staff.haifa.ac.il) no later than January 1, 2023. Abstracts should include the applicant’s name, professional affiliation, contact details, and a short CV. Each paper should be limited to a 20-minute presentation, to
be followed by a discussion and questions. All applicants will be notified by January 20, 2023, regarding the acceptance of their proposal. For additional information or further inquiries, please contact Dr. Fishhof.

Organizing committee: Dr. Gil Fishhof, Dr. Zvi Orgad, Prof. Jochai Rosen, Ms. Mazi Kuzi, Ms. Masha Goldin

Seminar: ‘Gilded Suns and Peacock Angels: Theatrical Materiality and Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence’ by Laura Stefanescu, Murray Seminar Birkbeck, 13th December 2022, 17:00 GMT

In fifteenth-century Florence, the phenomenon of religious theatre and ritual performance, promoted by adult and youth confraternities throughout the city, reached an unparalleled popularity, transitioning from the realm of devotion to that of the spectacular. The highlight of these performances was the materialisation of a multi-sensory heaven on stage and the appearance of its living angels (young Florentine boys) in their dazzling costumes. Painters living in the Santo Spirito quarter, where most of these activities took place, were actively involved in the creation of the apparatus for sacred plays. They were sometimes even members of the confraternities that produced the plays, as was, for example, Neri di Bicci, one of the most successful Florentine painters of the period. This talk aims to explore the connections between painting and the theatrical experience of heaven which shaped the visual culture of fifteenth-century Florence.

The seminar will be delivered before an audience and livestreamed. Separate booking links are  posted on Eventbrite for each form of attendance.

Booking link for Laura Stefanescu’s livestreamed seminar

Booking link for in-person attendance at Laura Stefanescu’s seminar

Call for Papers: ‘Easter in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages’, 1st April 2023 (Deadline 31st December 2022)

We at Medievalists.net are teaming up with the journal After Constantine and the Orthodox Academy of Crete to host a one-day conference on Easter in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.

The conference will take place online through Zoom on April 1, 2023. The conference will examine how Easter was celebrated and viewed from Late Antiquity throughout the medieval period. Every year this would be a high point of Christian life, and medieval people were keenly interested in many aspects of this event.

We are looking for papers on a wide variety of topics, including:

  • The origins of its rituals
  • How different traditions developed throughout the world
  • How it impacted relations with other religious groups
  • How determining the date of Easter spurred learning in various subjects

Candidates are welcome to send their abstracts accompanied by a brief biographical note in English to the journal’s email (afterconstantine@gmail.com) or to Medievalists.net (medievalists.net@gmail.com)

Deadline: December 31, 2022

Click here to visit After Constantine‘s website