Podcast Episodes: Les Enluminures, Sacred Measurements (Episode 33) and Feasts (Episode 34)

Episode 33 – Sacred Measurements
Medieval measurement developed as a bodily reference tool, often relying on an object’s relationship to the human body to determine its size, scale or weight. Today, measurement may seem like a natural part of our lives, but have you ever wondered how a unit of space or volume was developed? What made medieval measurement so different from the way we conceive of measurement today? And what made measurement sacred to medieval people?


Listen to Episode 33

Episode 34 – Feasts
Winter is a time for holiday celebrations, family, and food. As the winter fast approaches in this last November episode we consider feasts and feasting. This was an important topic for medieval people that was frequently the subject of manuscript illumination. What is the origin of the term “feast,” and who could host a feast? What makes ‘feast days’ so important to understanding medieval life? And why did Jesus turn water into wine? Find out today, on the Les Enluminures podcast.


Listen to Episode 34

New Publication: The Ghent Altarpiece, Research and Conservation of the Interior: The Lower Register

Written by:
G. Steyaert, M. Postec, J. Sanyova, H. Dubois

With observations, research and documents by:
Painting Conservators-Restorers: K. Froyen, N. Laquière, L. Mortiaux, F. Rosier, B. Devolder, C. de Boulard
Chemical Research Scientists: G. Van der Snickt, F. Mederos-Henry, C. Glaude, F. Vanmeert, S. De Meyer, S. Legrand, A.　 Coudray, S. Kuckova, K. Janssens
Specialists in Scientific Imagery and Photography: C. Currie, S. De Potter, K. Van Acker, C. Fondaire, S. Bazzo, H. Pigeolet

The Ghent Altarpiece by Hubert and Jan van Eyck has always attracted both admiration and curiosity. Following the treatment of the closed polyptych, we turned to the paintings of the lower register of the open altarpiece, which includes the famous Adoration of the Lamb. A major research and restoration campaign by the KIK was carried out between 2016 and 2020.
The findings reflect those from the treatment of the closed altarpiece: large areas of the panels were covered with overpaints, the vast majority dating from the 16th century. Their removal allows the Van Eycks brothers’ paintings to be truly appreciated again.

The three years that the conservators spent working on the panels enabled them to examine the paintings down to the smallest detail. Interdisciplinary collaboration with laboratory scientists, art historians and experts in scientific imagery led to a series of discoveries – some anticipated in light of earlier research, others completely unexpected.

The authenticity of the quatrain stating that Hubert had begun the work, that his brother Jan completed it and that it was presented in 1432, has been firmly established by the KIK in the previous volume on the Ghent Altarpiece (2020). In this second volume, new hypotheses are proposed here regarding the division of labour between the two Van Eyck brothers. The contribution of Hubert, who died in 1426, can finally be seen more clearly and turns out to be far from negligible. But the removal of overpaints has revealed non-Eyckian interventions too…

For a table of contents, or to purchase, click here.

Job Opportunity: Project Cataloguer, Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries Project (Deadline: 2 January 2022)

Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries is a two-year project funded by the Wellcome Trust that will make approximately 8,000 unedited medical recipes in over 180 medieval manuscripts discoverable to researchers worldwide.  We are looking for three Project cataloguers (two full time, one part time) to work to develop a groundbreaking resource that will transform the ability of health researchers and historians to access and analyse a corpus of texts that document and reveal the daily practice of medicine in the medieval period. The Project cataloguers will situate the manuscripts in their intellectual, cultural and material contexts through the preparation of detailed catalogue descriptions and transcriptions, which will accompany cover-to-cover digitisation.

The project will be led by and based at Cambridge University Library, capitalising on the Library’s world-class infrastructure and expertise, and building on the success of recent large-scale cross-collection digitisation projects.

Three Project Cataloguer posts are available (two full-time, one part tim  e), with responsibility for researching, cataloguing and transcribing manuscripts at Cambridge University Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum and twelve college libraries in Cambridge. They will produce catalogue descriptions in TEI format and following guidelines drawn up in collaboration with the Bodleian Library ( https://msdesc.github.io/consolidated-tei-schema/msdesc.html), and prepare them for publication on the Cambridge Digital Library ( https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/). The Project Cataloguers will use Transkribus ( https://readcoop.eu/transkribus/)to produce hyperdiplomatic transcriptions of the recipe texts in TEI/XML. There will also be the opportunity to experiment with Transkribus’s Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) capabilities for selected manuscripts. In addition, the Project Cataloguers will be responsible for disseminating project results  via a range of outreach initiatives. 

Applicants should hold a post-graduate qualification in a relevant field, preferably a doctorate, and have a proven ability to read and catalogue manuscripts in Latin and Middle English. Knowledge of palaeography and codicology is essential. Research skills in the History of Science or Medicine and familiarity with medieval recipes and medical culture would be an advantage. Applicants must possess excellent written and verbal communication skills, IT skills, and have the ability to work both on their own and as part of a team. Experience in using TEI to create catalogue records would be an advantage, though training in TEI, XML and Transkribus will be provided.

We welcome applications from individuals who wish to be considered for part-time working or other flexible working arrangements.

We particularly welcome applications from candidates from a BAME background for this vacancy as they are currently under-represented at this level in our institution.

To apply online for this vacancy and to view further information about the role, please visit:

http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/32395.

Informal enquiries are welcomed by Dr James Freeman, Principal Investigator and Medieval Manuscripts Specialist, 01223 333140, e-mail: jaf50@cam.ac.uk.

The closing date for applications is 2nd January 2022.

These posts are available from March 2022 for two years from the date of appointment. Working patterns for the full time and part time positions can be discussed at interview stage.  

Interviews are scheduled for the week commencing 17th January 2022.

Please quote reference VE29025 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.

The University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion and encourages applications from all sections of society.

The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.

New Publication: The Corpse in the Middle Ages: Embalming, Cremating, and the Cultural Construction of the Dead Body by Romedio Schmitz-Esser

To what extent are the dead truly dead? In medieval society, corpses were assigned special functions and meanings in several different ways. They were still present in the daily life of the family of the deceased, and could even play active roles in the life of the community. Taking the materiality of death as a point of departure, this book comprehensively examines the conservation, burial and destruction of the corpse in its specific historical context. A complex and ambivalent treatment of the dead body emerges, one which necessarily confronts established modern perspectives on death. New scientific methods have enabled archaeologists to understand the remains of the dead as valuable source material. This book contextualizes the resulting insights for the first time in an interdisciplinary framework, considering their place in the broader picture drawn by the written sources of this period, ranging from canon law and hagiography to medieval literature and historiography. It soon becomes obvious that the dead body is more than a physical object, since its existence only becomes relevant in the cultural setting it is perceived in. In analogy to the findings for the living body in gender studies, the corpse too, can best be understood as constructed. Ultimately, the dead body is shaped by society, i.e. the living. This book examines the mechanisms by which this cultural construction of the body took place in medieval Europe. The result is a fascinating story that leads deep into medieval theories and social practices, into the discourses of the time and the daily life experiences during this epoch.

For a detailed table of contents or to purchase, click here.

Online Lecture: ‘Medieval Fabergé: African Ostrich Eggs, Global Currency’, with Krisztina Ilko, The Murray Seminars at Birkbeck, 14 December 2021 5:00-6:30pm (GMT)

This talk examines the ostrich eggs suspended above Duccio’s Maestà at the late medieval main altar of Siena cathedral, through the lens of cultural exchange. In doing so, it sheds new light on such eggs, which it suggests were a material currency from Africa which served ritual purposes and which traversed expanding global arenas. By drawing on wide-ranging interdisciplinary evidence, extending from pre-Islamic Bedouin astronomical traditions to Sufi shrines in India, it maps the place of ostriches in the medieval imagination and explores how their perception was connected to pre-modern Afro-Eurasian concepts of vision, sanctity, and cosmology. This talk proposes that ostrich egg pendants ultimately operated as “spiritual beacons”, meditational devices which illuminated a passage towards salvation in places of worship across Christianity, Islam, and Judaism alike.

Dr Krisztina Ilko is an Affiliated Lecturer at the University of Cambridge and Academic Associate at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Her research has been supported by awards and fellowships from the Royal Historical Society, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the International Center of Medieval Art, the Italian Art Society, and the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies at the University of Toronto.

Click here to register.

Exhibition: North Sea Crossings: Anglo-Dutch Books and the Adventures of Reynard the Fox, The Weston Library, Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, 3 December 2021–18 April 2022

About the exhibition

North Sea Crossings tells the story of Anglo-Dutch exchanges through beautiful medieval manuscripts, early prints, maps, animal stories and other treasures from the Bodleian’s collections.

For centuries the North Sea has been a highway connecting Britain with its Dutch neighbours, a mere 33 kilometres away at its closest point.

Focusing on the period from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, this exhibition will explore how exchanges between England and the Netherlands have shaped literature, book production and institutions such as the Bodleian itself, on either side of the North Sea. It also tells the story of a very crafty Dutch visitor, Reynard the Fox.

In the aftermath of Britain’s exit from the European Union, this exhibition on the long history of Anglo-Dutch relations has much to tell us about the benefits of international collaboration today.

Curators

Sjoerd Levelt, Senior Research Associate, University of Bristol

Ad Putter, Professor of Medieval English, University of Bristol

Anne-Louise Avery, writer and director of the children’s educational outreach organisation Flash of Splendour

Acknowledgements

North Sea Crossings is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund

An outline of crossed fingers

A collaborative project with the University of Bristol.

Click here for more information.

Conference: The Literature and History of Anglo-Dutch Relations, Medieval to Early Modern,  Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, January 6-8 2022

Contacts between English and Dutch speakers had a profound impact on the literary landscape and book culture of England and the Low Countries. This British Academy funded conference crosses conventional chronological, linguistic, geographical and disciplinary boundaries to explore the cultural history of relations between English and Dutch speakers, from the Norman Conquest through to the Reformation. Bringing together literary scholars and historians, it aims to join up evidence of literary exchange with new insights into the experiences of migration, conflict, political alliances, and trade that made this literary exchange possible. The conference will reinvigorate traditional approaches to literary influence by contextualising it in the historical conditions that brought speakers of Dutch and English into contact with each other and by taking into account the range of languages (Dutch, English, French, and Latin) in which their communications and literary production in manuscript and early print took shape over this period.

For full conference programme and to register, click here.

Call For Papers: Medieval Art, Modern Politics, Deadline: 15 December 2021

Historians of medieval art know that the buildings, objects, and images they study were often created for purposes that were overtly political. They have devoted less scholarly attention to a corollary: the political uses and misuses of medieval art after the Middle Ages. In some cases, the same objects and sites that accrued ideological meanings during the Middle Ages did so again, if differently, in modern times (better known examples include the Bayeux Embroidery, the Horses of San Marco, the Bamberg Rider, the insignia of the Holy Roman Empire, the Crown of St. Stephen, and Dome of the Rock).
This is a call for papers for a volume of essays that seeks to complicate our understanding of the afterlives of medieval art by concentrating on the politics of its reception. While the ideological instrumentalization of the Greco-Roman artistic legacy has been recounted many times and stories of the rediscovery of national antiquities in eighteenth-century Europe and the revival of Gothic art in the subsequent century are familiar, the use of the medieval legacy has tended to be framed as either an affair of taste or of intellectual and cultural histories. The way in which post-medieval regimes (whether monarchic, imperial, totalitarian, or progressive) or individuals have reframed specific medieval sites, artefacts, and iconographies still await detailed examination.
We invite papers that unpack instances of the uses and misuses of medieval art in various post-medieval contexts and directed towards different political goals. We encourage submissions that represent the full geographic and temporal scope of the medieval period. Possible questions to be addressed include: What messages were extracted from “Gothic” and “barbarian” antiquities that differed from the discourses retrojected into ancient or early modern art? How were medieval visual creations literally and figuratively repositioned to serve modern political ends? What were the impulses—aesthetic and ideological—that explain why modern regimes have found it useful, even necessary, to reinvest in the visual legacy of the Middle Ages?

Volume editors: Brigitte Buettner and William Diebold
Deadline for submitting proposals (500-word abstract and a CV): December 15, 2021
Anticipated submission of final texts: End of 2022

Please direct all inquiries and submissions to Brigitte Buettner (bbuettne@smith.edu) and William Diebold (wdiebold@reed.edu). We will notify authors of the status of their proposal by January 15, 2022. We anticipate c. 8000-word essays and peer review. We are also planning a workshop-type gathering to comment on the papers before publication.

New Publication: Marian Devotion in the Late Middle Ages. Image and Performance, Edited By Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky, and Gerhard Jaritz

By the late Middle Ages, manifestations of Marian devotion had become multifaceted and
covered all aspects of religious, private and personal life. Mary becomes a universal presence
that accompanies the faithful on pilgrimage, in dreams, as holy visions, and as pictorial
representations in church space and domestic interiors. The first part of the volume traces the
development of Marian iconography in sculpture, panel paintings, and objects, such as seals,
with particular emphasis on Italy, Slovenia and the Hungarian Kingdom. The second section
traces the use of Marian devotion in relation to space, be that a country or territory, a monastery
or church or personal space, and explores the use of space in shaping new liturgical practices,
new Marian feasts and performances, and the bodily performance of ritual objects.

Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Throne of Gold and Dress of Stars: On the Meaning of Polychromy in High Medieval
Marian Sculpture, Elisabeth Sobieczky
Chapter 2. Seeing God in the Image of Mary: Cross Readings of the Medievaal Benedictine
Convent Seal, Mija Oter Gorenčič
Chapter 3. Devotion, Gold, and the Virgin: Visualizing Mary in Three Fourteenth-Century
Tuscan Panels in the National Gallery of Denmark, Marina Vidas
Chapter 4. Diagrammatic Devotion and the Defensorium Mariae in the Funerary Chapel of
Hărman Parish Church, Mihnea A. Mihail
Chapter 5. Veil and Signature: Giambono’s Madonna Barberini, Sabine Engel
Chapter 6. Salve regina in late medieval Dominican communities, Kristin Hoefner
Chapter 7. Developments in Servite Marian Spirituality and the Use of Saint Filippo Benizi in
Promoting Servite Miraculous Madonnas, Alana O’Brien
Chapter 8. Mary, Michael, and the Devil. An Eschatological-Iconographic Perspective on the
Liturgical Drama of Philippe de Mézières, Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky
Chapter 9. “Mulier amicta sole”: Transformations of a devotional image between the 15th and
the 16th centuries, Ferenc Veress
Chapter 10. Mobile Shrine and Magical Bodies: Modern Afterlives of Medieval Shrine
Madonnas, Juliet Simpson

Click here to purchase.

Grants: Mary Jaharis Center Grants 2022–2023, deadline: February 1, 2022

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture is pleased to announce its 2022–2023 grant competition. 

*** NEW *** 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 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.

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.

The application deadline for all grants is February 1, 2022. For further information, please visit the Mary Jaharis Center website.

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