Conference: Encountering Other People: Material Religion and Cultural Exchanges in Medieval Accounts of Asia, University of Fribourg, 3rd May 2023

During the thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries, Christian missionaries and merchants travelled from Latin Europe to the Mongol Empire and India. They recorded what they had experienced in letters, treatises, and reports. These travelogues offer an insight on the mobility of both men and objects during the global Middle Ages. The conference deals with this historical conjuncture, focusing on three main aspects. First, it examines the travellers’ attitude towards religious otherness. Western Missionaries and merchants conceptualized the plurality of Eastern religions according to Latin categories (cultus, lex, fides or secta), and they framed them within their cultural patterns and stereotypes, such as those of idolatry and monstrosity. Second, the conference contextualizes the experiences of the travellers within the religious landscape of Medieval Asia. In fact, they witnessed and described religious habits that actually took place in the East: rituals associated with images and relics, bloody sacrifices and self-immolations, as well as shamanic practices. Third, the conference aims to shed light on the consequences that these contacts provoked on the life of both men and objects, focusing on the experiences of Christians that were martyrized in the East (Thane, 1321). Furthermore, a great variety of objects was recorded by the sources: misplaced, re-functionalized, migrated, and misunderstood, they often compensated the communication difficulties between the travellers and the indigenous people, overcoming linguistic and cultural barriers.

Click here for complete conference information.

Please find the conference schedule below:

09:00 Greetings and introduction (Michele Bacci)


FIRST SESSION, CHAIR: MICHELE BACCI


09:15 Jana Valtrová (Masaryk University)
‘In istis partibus sunt multe septe ydolatrarum diversa credentium…’
Conceptualization of religious plurality in the medieval Latin travel accounts of Asia


09:45 Jennifer Purtle (University of Toronto)
Spaces of Enunciation: Franciscan Narratives of the Sino-Mongol City


10:15 Coffee break


10:30 李文丹 Li Wendan (Peking University)
Encounters of European travellers with Buddhists in the Far East in the 13th
and 14th century *[online]


11:00 马晓林 Ma Xiaolin (Nankai University)
Marco Polo and Yuan China: rituals and religions *[online]


11:30 Discussion


12:00 Lunch


SECOND SESSION, CHAIR: ELEONORA TIOLI


13:30 Partha Mitter (University of Sussex) Early Representations of Hinduism in the West (13th to 17th centuries)


14.00 Pier Giorgio Borbone (Università di Pisa) Rabban Sauma in the Land of the Franks *[online]


14:30 Agnes Birtalan (Eötvös Loránd University) The Mongols’ Pre-Buddhist Religious Views.
The Etic Understanding (Some Examples from the 13th – 14th century sources)


15:00 Discussion


15:30 Coffee break


THIRD SESSION, CHAIR: VESNA SCEPANOVIC


16:00 Michele Bacci (University of Fribourg) Image Worship in Medieval Eurasia. Comparative Perspectives


16:30 Alexandre Varela (University of Fribourg) “Ele lhe disse que yão buscar Christãos e especearia”. Encountering Christians in India: Cheryia Pally (Kottayam) wall paintings as a study case


17:00 Anne Dunlop (University of Melbourne) From martyrdom to mirabilia. The Franciscans, Odoric, and the deaths at Thane


17:30 Eleonora Tioli (University of Fribourg, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa) The Perception of Religious Otherness in Medieval Texts and Images


18:00 Conclusion and final discussion


18:30 End of the conference

Symposium: ‘Medieval Matters: A Symposium in honour of Professor Miri Rubin’, 29-30 June 2023, QMUL School of History, London

Register for tickets here. Please see the full agenda for both days below. You are welcome to attend one of the days, or both – please book your tickets accordingly.

Organising committee: Matthew Champion (Melbourne), Kati Ihnat (Nijmegen), Eyal Poleg (QMUL), Milan Žonca (Prague)

Thursday 29 June 2023

9:00 AM – 9:30 AM

Registration and Coffee

9:30 AM – 10:00 AM

Opening Remarks

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM

The City (chair: Ian Wei, Bristol)

Katalin Szende (CEU) Mario Ascheri (Rome) Jan Dumolyn (Ghent) Étienne Anheim (EHESS)

11:30 AM – 11:45 AM

Coffee break

11:45 AM – 1:15 PM

Women, Gender and the Body (chair: Bronach Kane, Cardiff)

Ruth Mazo Karras (Trinity College, Dublin) Walter Simons (Dartmouth) Delfi Nieto Isabel (QMUL)

1:15 PM – 2:30 PM

Lunch

2:30 PM – 4:00 PM

Jews and Christians (chair: Rosa Vidal, QMUL)

Deeana Klepper (Boston) Ephraim Shoham-Steiner (Ben Gurion) Elisheva Baumgarten (Jerusalem)

4:00 PM – 4:30 PM

Coffee break

4:30 PM – 6:00 PM

Visual and Material Culture (chair: Paul Binski, Cambridge)

Sara Lipton (Stony Brook) Anne E. Lester (Johns Hopkins) Verena Krebs (Bochum)

Friday 30 June 2023

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM

Music, Ritual and Liturgy (chair: Emma Dillon, KCL)

Iris Shagrir (Open University, Israel) Susan Boynton (Columbia) Cecilia Gaposchkin (Dartmouth) Nils Holger Petersen (Copenhagen)

11:30 AM – 11:45 AM

Coffee break

11:45 AM – 1:15 PM

Literature (chair: Julia Boffey, QMUL)

David Wallace (UPenn) Rita Copeland (UPenn) Paul Strohm (Columbia)

1:15 PM – 2:30 PM

Lunch

2:30 PM – 4:00 PM

Reform and Resistance (chair: Mishtooni Bose, Oxford)

Tamar Herzig (Tel Aviv) Sylvain Piron (EHESS) Gabor Klaniczay (CEU) Lyndal Roper (Oxford)

4:00 PM – 4:30 PM

Coffee break

4:30 PM – 6:00 PM

Reflections and final discussion (chair: John Arnold, Cambridge)

Marek Tamm (Tallinn) Ora Limor (Open University, Israel) Daniel Lord Smail (Harvard) Virginia Reinburg (Boston)

New Publication: “Revivals or Survival? Resurgences of the Icon from the 15th Century to the Present Day”, ed. Ralph Dekoninck and Ingrid Falque

The art of the icon, a visual idiom born in the Eastern Church, has deeply influenced the visual creations of Western Christianity from the Middle Ages onward, despite the adoption of a different aesthetic that was created in opposition to this maniera greca during the Renaissance. Even though artistic modernity was built against this art considered ‘awkward’, it did not prevent the ‘Byzantine’ style to come back to surface several times in the West. This volume aims to question the reasons of these revivals of the art of the icon in distinct Western artistic and religious contexts. It will highlight in particular the issues underlying the meeting, and sometimes the merging, of the two visual cultures, but also the complex and often conflicting relationships between art and religion.

Purchase here.

Lecture series: Oxford Medieval Visual Culture Seminar (Trinity Term 2023), St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, Thursdays 5.15 p.m (BST)

The Smiling Pages: Illuminated Manuscripts

Week 2, 4 May

Richard Gameson Durham University: ‘British Medieval Illuminators’ Blues‘

Week 4, 18 May

Hanna Vorholt University of York: ‘Ruled Lines and the Making of Manuscript Images‘

Week 6, 1 June

Michelle Brown University of London: ‘Visual Exegesis and its Deployment in Insular Illumination‘

Week 8, 15 June

Sara Lipton Stony Brook University: ‘Blood Piety and Anti-Judaism in an Early Fourteenth-century Illuminated Prayer Book from Liège‘

Convenors: Elena Lichmanova (elena.lichmanova@merton.ox.ac.uk) and Gervase Rosser

Talks are open to everyone and will be followed by a drinks reception. 

Location: St Catherine’s College, Arumugam Building

Deadline Reminder: Dumbarton Oaks Mentorship Program for Scholars Affected by the Conflict in Ukraine (Deadline 30th April 2023)

In response to the current conflict in Ukraine, Dumbarton Oaks is offering two initiatives to support scholars at risk. The newest initiative—a four-session remote mentorship program co-organized with scholars at Boise State University, University of Kent, Princeton University, and Tufts University—will offer professional development and workshop opportunities around a variety of topics.

Mentorship Program: Dumbarton Oaks | North of Byzantium | Connected Central European Worlds, 1500-1700

Apply now

Co-organizers: Tomasz Grusiecki (Boise State University), Suzanna Ivanič (University of Kent), Nikos D. Kontogiannis (Dumbarton Oaks), Maria Alessia Rossi (Princeton University), Alice Isabella Sullivan (Tufts University)

We invite applications for a remote four-session mentorship program tailored to early-career scholars affected by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. This program is meant to offer professional development and workshop opportunities around the following topics:

  • Publishing in top academic journals and books
  • Writing successful grant applications
  • Preparing successful job documents
  • Disseminating research in different contexts

Each professional development event will include presentations from experts and opportunities for Q&A and feedback. These events will be followed by one-on-one mentoring sessions, which are intended to expand on the feedback received, while offering additional tailored guidance for each participant. There might be the possibility for an in-person gathering of all participants upon the completion of the program.

The four sessions will take place in June, July, September, and October 2023. All participants will need to attend all workshops and mentoring sessions to complete the program successfully. Upon completion, each participant will receive a certificate, and may receive an honorarium of $500 (minus any applicable taxes). It is the responsibility of foreign national participants to verify their ability to receive an honorarium.

Eligibility

The successful applicants should be advanced PhD candidates (within 1 year of completion of their degrees) or junior-level scholars (up to 5 years since graduation with a doctoral degree).

We encourage historians and art historians with a specialty in the medieval or early modern visual culture of Eastern Europe to apply to this program. This opportunity is open to all, but preference will be given to scholars whose work has been disrupted by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. We anticipate selecting 6-8 participants for this program.

Applications

To apply, please use the online Embark portal to upload a one-page letter of interest with details about your research, skills, and reasons for participating; a CV; and the names and contact details of two referees who may be contacted to provide support letters, if needed, by April 30, 2023.

New Publication: ‘Dans le manuscrit et en dehors: Échanges entre l’enluminure et les autres arts (IX e -XVI e siècles)’, edited by Michele Tomasi

L’enluminure occupe une place centrale dans le système des arts du Moyen Âge et de la première époque moderne. Dotée de caractères propres par son intégration dans cet organisme complexe qu’est le codex, elle dialogue néanmoins avec les autres domaines de la création.

Cet ouvrage explore justement les rapports entre l’enluminure et d’autres arts – que ce soient les textiles, l’orfèvrerie, la sculpture, la gravure ou encore la peinture sur panneau et la peinture monumentale – en considérant des cas significatifs de l’époque carolingienne à la Renaissance, passant de Paris à Bologne, des Alpes à la Méditerranée. Une vingtaine d’autrices et d’auteurs d’Allemagne, de France, d’Italie et de Suisse interrogent les conditions institutionnelles, les formes et les significations des échanges entre les techniques dans et en dehors du manuscrit, entre polyvalence des artistes, collaboration entre les métiers, circulation de modèles, stratégies représentatives.

Find out more here.

  • Michele Tomasi , Avant-propos
  • I. Polyvalence d’artistes à la fin du Moyen Âge, entre la France et l’Italie (avec une escapade helvétique)
    • Inès Villela-Petit , Les frères de Limbourg hors du livre
    • Nicolas Oget , Le Maître de Coëtivy: un cheminement dans la polyvalence du métier de peintre à la fin du Moyen Âge
    • Mireia Castaño , Quelques réflexions sur les rapports entre enluminure et broderie en France au XV e siècle
    • Aurélia Cohendy , Les enlumineurs toulousains à la fin du XV e siècle d’après les statuts de leur corporation
    • Fabio Massaccesi , Between painting and miniature: the Bolognese case of Jacopo di Paolo and Giovanni da Modena
    • Pier Luigi Mulas , Around a forgotten Milanese glyptic illuminator: Giovanni Antonio Decio
    • Cristina Quattrini , Illuminators and painters in Milan at the end of the fifteenth century: the case of Princivalle Negri
    • Adeline Favre , Autour de Pierre Maggenberg et d’un missel à l’usage de Lausanne: peinture et enluminure à Friborg au début du XV e siècle
  • II. Échanges entre l’enluminure et d’autres techniques. Manuscrits et arts sumptuaires
    • Fabrizio Crivello , More precious than precious. Miniature and sumptuary arts at the court of Charlemagne
    • Ilka Mestemacher , Expanding Illumination Techniques: Paint Splashes and Gold Relief in the Carolingian Aachen Gospels
    • Alessia Marzo , At the origins of miniature under crystal. First reflections
    • Marina Bernasconi Reusser, Christine Jakobi-Mirwald , Darnings, miniatures, fabrics. Nuns jobs in Engelberg
  • III. Sculpture, monumental peinture, architecture, estampe
    • Loretta Vandi , A Long Foliate Reform. Acanthus in Romanesque Tuscany between Illumination and Sculpture
    • Chiara Paniccia , Rome and the Tuscan figurative area in the 12th century. Contaminations between mural painting and book painting
    • Melissa Nieto , De la sculpture à l’enluminure et vice versa. Échanges entre techniques dans la région du Haut-Rhin autour de 1200
    • Denise Zaru , Entre enluminure et peinture en Emilie-Romagne à la fin du XV e siècle. Les architectures fictives d’Ercole de’ Roberti: un tool devotionnel
    • Nastasia Gallian , Giulio Clovio (1498-1578) et l’estampe
  • Index of names
  • Index des manuscripts
  • The authors and the authors

Call for Session Proposals: Mary Jaharis Center Sponsored Panel, 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies, May 9-11, 2024 (Deadline 15 May 2023)

To encourage the integration of Byzantine studies within the scholarly community and medieval studies in particular, the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture seeks proposals for a Mary Jaharis Center sponsored session at the 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, May 9–11, 2024. We invite session proposals on any topic relevant to Byzantine studies.

Session proposals must be submitted through the Mary Jaharis Center website. The deadline for submission is May 15, 2023.

If the proposed session is approved, the Mary Jaharis Center will reimburse a maximum of 4 session participants (presenters and moderator) up to $800 maximum for scholars traveling from North America and up to $1400 maximum for those traveling from outside North America. Funding is through reimbursement only; advance funding cannot be provided. Eligible expenses include conference registration, transportation, and food and lodging. Receipts are required for reimbursement. Participants must participant in the conference in-person to receive funding. The Mary Jaharis Center regrets that it cannot reimburse participants who have last-minute cancellations and are unable to attend the conference.

For further details and submission instructions, please visit https://maryjahariscenter.org/sponsored-sessions/59th-icms.

Please contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.

New Publication: ‘Imágenes de la liturgia medieval: Planteamientos teóricos, temas visuales y programas iconográficos’, by Ángel Pazos López

The Christian liturgy during the Middle Ages was surrounded by complex signs, ceremonies and gestures that have been formally diluted in today’s rites themselves, as well as in numerous objects of material culture preserved in museums and collections. This book studies the world of images of medieval liturgical ceremonies, preserved mainly in the figurative programmes of more complex works of art (manuscripts, sacred artefacts, liturgical textiles, sculptures, etc.) from the methodological paradigms of art history and visual studies. Approaches are presented that allow us to approach the Christian ritual of the Middle Ages within the framework of the iconological method, as well as monographic studies with proposals for how to read today the images of the Eucharist and the other sacraments that are preserved in the rich medieval plastic arts. The monograph includes some colour illustrations, many of which have not been studied before.

La liturgia cristiana durante la Edad Media estaba rodeada de complejos signos, ceremonias y gestos que llegan hasta nuestros días diluidos formalmente en los propios ritos actuales, así como en numerosos objetos de la cultura material conservados en museos y colecciones. Este libro estudia el mundo de las imágenes sobre ceremonias litúrgicas medievales, conservadas principalmente en programas figurativos de obras de arte más complejas (manuscritos, artefactos sagrados, textiles litúrgicos, esculturas, etc.) desde los paradigmas metodológicos de la historia del arte y los estudios visuales. Se presentan planteamientos que nos permiten abordar el ritual cristiano de la Edad Media en el marco del método iconológico, así como estudios monográficos con propuestas para poder leer hoy en día las imágenes que de la eucaristía y de los restantes sacramentos se conservan en la rica plástica medieval. La monografía incluye algunas ilustraciones a color, muchas de ellas no estudiadas con anterioridad.

Click here to purchase.

New Publication: ‘Eikón/Imago: Imago, ius, religio: Religious Images in Illustrated Legal Manuscripts and Printed Books (9th-20th Centuries)’, ed. Maria Alessandra Bilotta and Gianluca del Monaco

The IUS ILLUMINATUM research team is pleased to announce the publication of the monographic number 12 (2023) of the open access journal “Eikon/Imago” published by the Complutense University of Madrid, on the theme: “Imago, ius, religio. Religious Images in Illustrated Legal Manuscripts and Printed Books (9th-20th Centuries)”, edited by Maria Alessandra Bilotta (IEM-NOVA/FCSH) and Gianluca del Monaco (Alma mater studiorum – Università di Bologna) as “Special Guest Editors”.


The monographic issue is the result of a collaboration of the IUS ILLUMINATUM research team (https://iusilluminata.fcsh.unl.pt) of the Institute for Medieval Studies (IEM) of the NOVA University of Lisbon with the CAPIRE Research Group (Collective for Multidisciplinary Analysis of European religious iconography) of the Complutense University of Madrid.


Some of the scientific results of the research conducted by the IUS ILLUMINATUM research team are published in the monographic issue.


Here is the link from where to download all the contributions published in the journal: https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/EIKO/issue/view/4005

Job: Special Projects Assistant, Medieval Academy of America, deadline 15 May 2023

Special Projects Assistant
Medieval Academy of America
15 hours/wk (hybrid)
$30/hr (no benefits)

The Medieval Academy of America, an educational non-profit organization incorporated as a 501(c)3 in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, seeks a Special Projects Assistant to work with the Executive Director, the Editor of Speculum, and other administrative and Speculum staff on various projects, both in the Boston office and remotely. The position is offered for 15 hours per week at $30 per hour, without medical or retirement benefits. Interest in and knowledge about the Middle Ages is ideal, but there are no degree or foreign-language requirements. While many of the position’s responsibilities can be accomplished remotely, easy access to the MAA’s downtown Boston office is necessary as the job will often entail working onsite in collaboration with other staff members.

Responsibilities will include (but will not be limited to):

Remote:

  • processing and assembling grant application dossiers (throughout the year) using the MAA’s backend content management system (YourMembership) as well as Adobe, Excel, and Word;
  • assisting with logistical support for the Annual Meeting and the International Congress on Medieval Studies (as necessary);
  • other administrative tasks as assigned by the Executive

Onsite:

  • processing and shipping books submitted for prize consideration (annually in November);
  • managing mass mailings (approximately four times per year);
  • Digitizing MAA archival material (on an ad hoc basis);
  • Assisting the Speculum mailing operation by recording and organizing incoming books submitted for review and mailing copies to reviewers (approx. 1.5 hours/wk).

To apply, please forward a CV and cover letter stating experience, qualifications, and interest to Executive Director Lisa Fagin Davis LFD@TheMedievalAcademy.org by MAY 15. Position to begin on or around June 15.

Find out more here.