Editor: Dr. Mirko Vagnoni
Publisher: MDPI (Basel)

The Encyclopedia of Medieval Royal Iconography sets out to do the first extensive collection of information on royal iconography covering the whole Middle Ages (476–1492). In particular, this book would like to collect entries about every medieval kingdom from Portugal to the Caucasus and from Iceland to North Africa following the different dynasties and with a particular emphasis on the most important kings who ruled during this period (please see the planned entries at the following link: https://encyclopedia.pub/book/detail/7). Every entry (more or less 4000 words for the main body text and approximately five pictures) should answer the following questions:

• Did the kings make use of royal images? Was it them, some members of their court, or other subjects that commissioned them?
• Which medium did the kings preferably use for their images (seals, coins, manuscripts, mosaics, frescoes, paintings, and sculptures)?
• In which context did the kings preferably place their images (in religious places as churches or monasteries or in lay places as palace, squares, or city-gates)?
• Which visibility did these images have? Who were they addressed to?
• Which iconographic themes did these images use?
• In which way did the royal images render symbols of power, attire, and the physical appearance of the king? Did they follow specific patterns or create new iconographies?

If you are interested in submitting an entry, please contact the following email address (mirkovagnoni@libero.it) by 31 October 2021 for more details.

Since the 11th century remarkable people flows, from Latin, Byzantine, Jewish and Muslim cultural circles, continuously shaped and reshaped the political, social, and cultural landscape of the eastern Mediterranean. Their travels, for political, military, economic, religious, or intellectual purposes, established contacts but also produced knowledge about both the travelers and the visited people and places, thus contributing to the negotiation of identities and alterities. The panel sessions will focus on the period ca. 1300 to ca. 1500 which witnessed both the continuity of the contacts between the aforementioned worlds, as well as important changes, such as the Mamluk and the Ottoman expansion and the Renaissance movement, which caused interruptions and disruptions in cultural encounters in the eastern Mediterranean.

The conference is interested in the production of historical knowledge and space through the interaction of politics and agency. The focus will be mainly on narrative texts which record the experience of travel (in the broader sense, including pilgrimage, trade, crusading, etc.) and relate the encounters with the Other in foreign places, while also illuminating the travelers’ perception of the past. The conference is also interested in investigating how the travelers documented and disseminated their experiences and how they tried to shape the mental horizons of the groups to which they belonged.

The organisers welcome case studies dealing with the Latin, Byzantine, Muslim and Jewish worlds. Contributions can range from historiography, literature, works of art etc. Interdisciplinary approaches will be highly appreciated. Through such case studies, the session would like to discuss broader questions, such as:

• How did medieval people shape themselves as travelers and authors? How did they define their travel experiences and perceive the act of their narration?
• Were there any politics of producing space among the Latin, Byzantine and Muslim political entities?
• Did interactions between different localities lead to the shaping of a “global” eastern Mediterranean and, if so, how were various local spaces integrated into the latter?
• How did the processes of historical knowledge and space production affect the formulation of normative concepts such as “Europe”, “West”, “East” and “Greece”?
• What is the value of the aforementioned spatial concepts as analytical categories for the study of the late medieval period? In this vein, the discussion of modern analytical concepts, such as “global middle ages” and “proto-orientalism” are strongly encouraged.
• How were historical discourses (selection of events, vocabulary, interpretive schemes, rhetorical conventions) shaped in this period?

It the organisers’ intention to publish contributions to the panel sessions, either as a self-standing volume or in the context of an appropriate journal.

Those interested in participating should provide a title and a brief abstract (ca. 150 words) by 7 November 2021 to the session organizers:
Dr. Eleni Tounta (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) – tounta@hist.auth.gr
Dr. Nikolaos G. Chrissis (Democritus University of Thrace) – nchrysis@he.duth.gr

This panel sets out to examine and compare the impact of royal patronage on the visual, material, and textual features of manuscripts produced across Africa, Asia, Mesoamerica and Europe during the ‘Global Middle Ages.’ As polysemic and multi-technological objects, royal manuscripts were produced in different forms and sizes, and from a variety of materials that could vary according to the taste, wealth, ideology, religion, and connections of their patrons and makers. Their visual and textual content could conform or deviate from existing traditions to satisfy the needs and ambitions of those involved in their production and consumption. Finally, pre-existing manuscripts could be appropriated, restored, enhanced, gifted, and even worshipped by ruling elites for reasons connected with legitimacy and self-preservation, becoming powerful instruments of hegemony, or symbols of prestige and piety. Because of this semiotic versatility, written artifacts provide ideal vantage points for understanding the agency of material culture in the creation and perpetuation of political power.

To what extent do the materials, texts, and images of royal manuscripts reflect the integration of pre-modern courts in networks of patronage and exchange? In which ways were these features adapted for different audiences and for female, male, or genderqueer patrons? How did they inform local and transregional notions of power and authority? How did communities that opposed royal authority situate themselves in relation to the political agency of written texts and their illustrations? When and how did such artifacts become imperial relics to be displayed, or symbols of a contentious past to be concealed or destroyed? What can manuscripts tell us about the royal patronage of other artistic media, dynastic rivalries, political alliances, and state-endorsed religious phenomena?

In pursuing similar questions, we are particularly interested in multidisciplinary papers that move beyond a Eurocentric reading of material culture by considering royal manuscripts from pre-modern polities traditionally seen as ‘peripheral.’ We welcome proposals that apply innovative methodologies to the study of handwritten material and its circulation, questioning conventional assumptions about politics, culture, and religion, and privileging comparative approaches and transcultural artistic phenomena.

Please submit your paper proposal to the convenors.

Convenors
Jacopo Gnisci, University College London j.gnisci@ucl.ac.uk
Umberto Bongianino, University of Oxford umberto.bongianino@orinst.ox.ac.uk