New Publication: ‘Silver Saints: Prayers and Badges in Late Medieval Books’ by Hanneke van Asperen

Late medieval books served as treasure chests for all kinds of religious keepsakes, notably small metal badges. Devotees sewed these religious badges and pilgrimage souvenirs to the parchment of their treasured devotional books and manuscript illuminators depicted silver en gilt badges in the margins as if they are sewn to the pages. Medieval manuscripts are often admired for their esthetic qualities, but many of them also served a practical use as instruments for the physical and mental wellbeing of the owners and their families. Manuscripts and incunabula containing metal badges illustrate how the owners used their books, which texts they favored, but also who collected badges and why. The depicted badges that only appear in richly illuminated and expensive manuscripts expand the knowledge of these metal objects that have been passed down in small numbers only. The painted motifs that have a more decorative and structuring role in the book fulfilled different functions than the original badges. ‘Silver Saints’ discusses the religious life of lay people in the late Middle Ages and the meaning of badges in books, both the painted motifs in beautifully decorated manuscripts and many traces of original badges.

Hanneke van Asperen is affiliated with the department of Art History at Radboud University Nijmegen. Her fields of interests are metal badges, manuscripts, devotional practices and images of charity. She is co-author of the book series ‘Heilig en Profaan’ on badge finds in the Dutch-speaking regions of medieval Europe and works on Kunera, an online searchable database  of medieval badges and ampullae.

Find out more about the book here.

Online Lecture: ‘The Medieval World with the Women Written Back In’ with Dr Janina Ramirez, Art History Festival, 20 September 2021, 8-9pm (BST)

Janina Ramirez will discuss her forthcoming book, Femina, and introduce the audience to the important women that have been written out of history. By bringing them back into the buildings they inhabited, the landscapes they walked across, and alongside the objects they handled, Janina will present new insights into the medieval period. Part of intricate medieval societies, these women show us places and times as complex and fascinating as our own.

Janina Ramirez is a cultural historian, broadcaster and author based at the University of Oxford.

Book your tickets here.

The full Art History Festival programme is available here: https://forarthistory.org.uk/art-history-festival-programme/

About the Association for Art History

The Association for Art History shapes the future for art history. Through advocacy, events, networks, membership, grants and publications, we celebrate and promote the value of art history and visual culture today.

Exhibition: ‘Fragmented Illuminations: Medieval & Renaissance Manuscript Cuttings at the V&A’, V&A Museum, 8 May 2022

Featuring highlights from the museum’s collection of over 2,000 cuttings from medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, this display explores the types of books these pieces came from and the 19th-century context in which they were cut up and collected.

Find out more here.

More about the display:

The secularisation of Catholic Church property that swept Europe in the late 18th and early 19th century brought numerous medieval and Renaissance books from cathedral treasuries and monastic libraries into private hands.

From the mid-1820s, a market developed for miniatures, pages, initials and border decorations cut out of illuminated manuscripts, especially large volumes that had been used for daily worship and celebrations in church. While their text was outdated or no longer understood, their pictorial and decorative elements were increasingly recognised as of antiquarian interest and relevant to the history of painting.

From its foundation in 1852, the V&A acquired specimens of illumination, sometimes as artworks in their own right, but more often to serve as models and inspiration for British art workers. With over 2,000 manuscript cuttings, mainly purchased before 1900, the V&A now holds one of the largest collections of this kind in the world.

Featuring cuttings dating from the 12th to the 16th century and originating from Italy, the Netherlands, present-day Belgium, Germany and France, this display explores two key aspects: the 19th-century context in which these pieces were cut up, collected and even copied, and the types of books they came from and their original context of production.

Cut-out border ornaments
Cut-out border ornaments attributed to Domenico Morone, from a Franciscan choirbook, about 1500, Verona, Italy. Museum nos. 4918:1-9 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The 19th-century context

This section of the display focuses on individuals who played a part in the 19th-century journeys of these cuttings. These are collectors, such as Abbot Luigi Celotti, John Ruskin and George Salting, the V&A’s first curator John Charles Robinson, and a scholar called Guglielmo Libri, infamous for stealing leaves from manuscripts in French public libraries.

Alongside medieval and Renaissance pieces, 19th-century copies and books testify to the Victorians’ infatuation with illumination. Facsimiles were purchased by the V&A to fill in the gaps in its collection and to showcase the skill of 19th-century illuminators. Works by Henry Shaw, Lord Charles Thynne, Ernesto Sprega and Caleb Wing feature in this section where the boundaries between copying, restoring and forging were at times fluid.

Initial 'A' and border decoration
Initial ‘A’ and border decoration, copied by Ernesto Sprega after a 15th-century Italian choirbook, before 1862, Siena, Italy. Museum no. E.126-1996 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The original context

In this section, the focus moves to the original context of the cuttings: what kinds of books did they come from? For whom were these books made and by whom?

Liturgical books, especially choirbooks are best represented in the collection, as many of them went under the knife. Choirbooks had to be large because whole choirs needed to sing from them in church. They were often beautifully decorated, so painted sections cut from their pages still had generous proportions and could be framed like small panel paintings.

The collection also includes leaves from bibles and biblical commentaries. Among the former, feature over 80 leaves from a bible made in Liège around 1300 for the house of the Teutonic Knights in Maastricht. In the 13th century, this powerful German military order had overseen the imposition of Christianity in present-day Poland and Lithuania.

Small cuttings from books of hours are also present in the collection, reflecting the popularity of this type of prayer book, especially in the 15th century. Books with a non-religious content are few, but of great interest. Providing a glimpse into the range of secular subjects covered by a medieval library, they include legal and medical texts, but also literary works. One of the major discoveries made during research for this display was to uncover a previously unpublished miniature missing from a manuscript of Boccacio’s Des cleres et nobles femmes now in New York. Painted in vibrant colours, it shows the Greek artist Irene as a 15th-century painter in her studio.

Irene, from Giovanni Boccaccio
Irene, from Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 – 75), Des cleres et nobles femmes (New York, New York Public Library, Spencer MS 33), attributed to the circle of François Le Barbier (documented 1455 – 1512), about 1460 – 70, Paris, France. Museum no. 4280 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Text from here.

Call for Journal Submissions: ‘Imago, ius, religio. Religious Iconographies in Illustrated Legal Manuscripts & Printed Books (9th -20th Centuries)’, Eikón Imago Journal 2023, deadline 1 February 2022

Special Guest Editors: Maria Alessandra Bilotta & Gianluca del Monaco

It is not unusual to come across religious iconographies in miniatures as well as borders and based-page scenes in illustrated legal manuscripts and printed books (9th-20th centuries) containing canon, civil or local law texts, like the Livres juratoires or municipal and professional statutes. Some of these iconographies, for instance those in the Decretum Gratiani or the Liber Extra, Gregory IX’s decretals, have been accurately examined. However, a comprehensive survey providing a global and chronological investigation of these depictions is still wanting. Therefore, the journal “Eikon-Imago”, alongside the research team IUS ILLUMINATUM of Institute of Medieval Studies (IEM) of the Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas at the Universidade NOVA in Lisbon, has decided to devote the 2023 special issue to the study and examination of religious iconographies in legal manuscripts and printed books, so as to create a place for discussion and exchange on the diverse artistic, historical and social aspects of these iconographies.

Proposals can concentrate on the following as well as further related themes:
– The depiction of liturgical space in illustrated legal manuscripts and printed books.
– Text-image relation in legal books (manuscripts and printed volumes).
– The Holy Trinity in legal books (manuscripts and printed volumes).
– The depiction of liturgical rites (Marriage, Eucharist, Benedictions).
– The pope in legal books (manuscripts and printed volumes).
– The bishop in legal books (manuscripts and printed volumes).
– Saints in legal books (manuscripts and printed volumes).
– Monks in legal books (manuscripts and printed volumes).
– Between sacred and profane: religious drolleries in legal manuscripts.
– Mendicant friars in legal books (manuscripts and printed volumes).
– The depiction of religious buildings in legal books (manuscripts and printed volumes).
– The depiction of religious authority in legal books (manuscripts and printed volumes).

Send Papers Deadline: 01/02/2022

More information can be found here.

CFP: ‘Arms and Armour of Romance’, Sponsored by the Medieval Romance Society, International Congress on Medieval Studies 2022, deadline 15 September 2021

Arms and Armour of Romance I: Race and Romance

This session will investigate the depiction of race and ethnicity through arms and armour in romance. Topics could include, but are not limited to, depictions of Middle-Eastern people and their arms in crusading romance, or arms and armour in romance traditions beyond Western Europe.

Arms and Armour of Romance II: Religion and Romance

This session will investigate religious arms and armour in romance. Topics could discuss romance arms bearing by clerics or gifts of weapons and armour from God. Papers that consider the ways in which romance arms and armour draw significance from religions other than Christianity (Norse mythology, Islam, etc.) are also particularly welcome.

Arms and Armour of Romance III: Anyone but Knights

This session will investigate arms bearing by “anyone but knights” in romance. Topics could discuss romance arms bearing by women or diverse socio-economic groups, such as craftspeople or merchants.

Instructions:

  • All proposals should be up to 300 words for a 20-minute paper
  • We strongly encourage researchers from different academic disciplines to apply, and researchers at all stages of their career, including unaffiliated researchers.
  • We welcome papers from all forms of the romance tradition, and which engage with critical frameworks including feminism and postcolonialism, or use interdisciplinary methodologies.
  • Deadline: 15th September 2021.
  • All submissions should be through the ICMS Confex.

Any questions please email Katie Vernon: kv522@york.ac.uk

CFP: Vagantes Conference on Medieval Studies at Cleveland Museum of Art & Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, 24-26 March 2022, deadline 29 November 2021

The 21st annual Vagantes Conference on Medieval Studies invites abstracts from current graduate students and recently graduated Masters students from all disciplines on any topic related to the long Middle Ages. We encourage proposals for innovative presentations (20 minutes) and lecture-performances (25 minutes) on the global medieval, non-Eurocentric geographies, and medievalism(s).

Vagantes is a multidisciplinary conference, therefore please provide a clear summary of your proposed paper using language that is accessible to non-specialists. Anonymized submissions will be reviewed by a panel of graduate students.

An award(s) will be given for the best paper(s)! Papers must be submitted in advance to be considered for the prize. For more information see: http://vagantesconference.org/conference-information-2021/paper-prize/

Submission Requirements
Abstracts of 300 words with paper title and a 1–2 page CV (including applicant’s preferred name and pronouns) in one PDF are due Monday, November 29th, 2021 to vagantesboard@gmail.com.

Location
The conference will take place in person at the Cleveland Museum of Art and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio from March 24th–26th, 2022. The event will be moved online pending Covid-19 pandemic conditions.

ADA Accommodations
Vagantes is committed to providing equal access to all conference activities in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and CWRU policy. Please contact us if you require specific accommodations.

Find out more information here.

Fellowship: Helen Ann Mins Robbins Fellowship in Medieval Studies 2022-2023, The Rossell Hope Robbins Library at the University of Rochester, deadline 15 January 2022

The Rossell Hope Robbins Library at the University of Rochester is pleased to invite applications for the Helen Ann Mins Robbins Fellowship in Medieval Studies. The fellowship is open to women and gender minorities with dissertation projects in any field of medieval studies. Its intent is to provide fellows with a year of research supported by the resources of the Robbins Library. Past fellows have worked on animal studies, manuscript studies and reading practices, translation and textual transmission, medieval clothing, Jews in medieval England, the Arthurian legend, courtesy books and manners, female advice figures, and more. They have led reading groups, curated exhibits, and organized movie screenings, lectures and symposia, and other programming.

The recipient must be in residence in Rochester and make use of the Robbins Library for the academic year (up to twelve months). They must provide for their own living and travel expenses from the award, and provide their own health insurance. They are expected to engage in the academic life of the University, and to give a presentation on their research near the end of their residency. [NB: The residency requirement assumes that travel and relocation will be possible in 2022-23, but we will carefully monitor the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying public health restrictions and make adjustments accordingly.]

The Robbins Library has outstanding holdings across medieval studies, with particular strengths in manuscript studies, the history of the book, high and late medieval history, literary studies, and medievalism, particularly Arthuriana. Our focus is on building and maintaining a global medieval studies collection and community. We sponsor and support a wide range of scholarly projects: the Middle English Text Series, the Camelot Project, and other digital projects. Together, the Robbins Library and the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation boast a growing collection of medieval and early modern manuscripts and print. The Sibley Library at the Eastman School of Music maintains an excellent manuscript collection, and the Miner Library offers an outstanding special collection dedicated to the history of medicine.

The University of Rochester boasts a vibrant community of medievalists and early modernists across disciplines and departments, including History, English, Art History, Music, Modern Languages, and Religion and Classics, alongside a variety of working and reading groups, lectures, workshops, and other events. Rochester offers numerous resources and opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and research, including the Digital Scholarship Lab, the Lazarus Project, Eastman School of Music, the Memorial Art Gallery, the Cary Graphic Arts Collection at RIT, R-CHIVE, and the Central New York Humanities Corridor, to name only a few.

Eligibility: The Fellow must be an advanced graduate student (ABD) in good standing, who is engaged full-time in researching and writing the dissertation. Ideally, they should have no more than one full year of dissertation work remaining at the start of the fellowship year.

Stipend: $30,000

Applications for the 2022-2023 Fellow are open.

Application Procedure: Applicants should submit in one PDF the following: a cover sheet including the information below, a current CV, and a project proposal of 750-1000 words describing their dissertation and the appropriateness of the Robbins Library to the project. Please send the application to the library director, Anna Siebach-Larsen <annasiebachlarsen@rochester.edu>, and arrange for two letters of recommendation to be sent to the same by January 15, 2022.

Name:
Institutional Affiliation:
Address:
Phone No.:
Email address:
Dissertation Title:
Dissertation Director:
Expected date of completion of dissertation:
Names of Recommenders:
Desired period of residence in Rochester – Arrival (mo./yr.); Departure (mo./yr.)

Helen Ann Mins Robbins Fellows:

2020-2021 Margaret Sheble (Purdue University)
2018-2019  Julie K. Chamberlin (Indiana University, Bloomington)
2016-2017  Marjorie Harrington  (University of Notre Dame)
2014-2015  Lindsay Irvin  (University of Toronto)
2012-2013  Cynthia Rogers  (Indiana University, Bloomington)
2010-2011  Jess Fenn  (Columbia University)
2008-2009  Andrea Lankin  (University of California, Berkeley)
2006-2007  Misty Schieberle  (University of Notre Dame)
2004-2005  Cathryn Meyer  (University of Texas, Austin)
2002-2003  Juliet Sloger  (University of Rochester)
2000-2001  Miriamne Krummel  (Lehigh University)
1999-2000  Nicole Dentzien  (Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel)
1997-1998  Suzanne Craymer  (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)

Find out more information here.

CFP: ‘Encountering the Sacred in Medieval Italian Spaces’, Italian Art Society, International Congress on Medieval Studies 2022, deadline 15 September 2021

Recent scholarship has increasingly attended to the spatiality of material objects, considering how paintings, sculpture, and manuscripts impact the viewer through both formal and ritual means. Moreover, the potential of objects to convey the sacred presence – whether that of a saint or of God – has been given a renewed emphasis through the anthropological turn in art history. Taken together, these approaches prompt a series of questions addressing broader spatial awareness for the localized relationships between places, objects, and the divine.

This session seeks papers which investigate how medieval Italian spaces impacted experiences of the sacred. How did Christians, Jews, and Muslims experience the sacred in the spaces of medieval Italy? In what ways did navigating through medieval religious spaces, homes, governmental spaces, streets and squares, or the countryside inform encounters with the sacred? Did the spatial setting carry ramifications for how different media manifested sacrality? Could space itself articulate a sense of the divine, either through architecture, the presence of sacred objects, or the wilds of nature? In what ways did gender, class, or wealth impact audiences’ ability to engage in different spaces?

Please submit a 300 word proposal by September 15, 2021 through the online portal at: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2022am/cfp.cgi

For any questions, please contact mfluke@holycross.edu and egustafson.phd@gmail.com.

More information can be found here:

call-for-papers_encountering-the-sacred-in-medieval-italian-spaces_italian-art-societyDownload

CFP: ‘Byzantium Bizarre: Storytelling through Sacred Spaces’, deadline 15 September 2021, International Congress on Medieval Studies 2022

Byzantium Bizarre: Storytelling through Sacred Spaces, sessions at 57th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University Online, May 9–14, 2022

We cordially invite the submission of abstracts for our session “Byzantium Bizarre: Storytelling through sacred spaces” at the 2022 International Congress on Medieval Studies, taking place online from May 9-14, 2022.

Church architecture, sacred locations and legend can produce a bizarre interplay in the late antique and Byzantine Mediterranean. Particularly interesting are extraordinary churches that tell a story or have a legend, tradition, or mythology attached to them, revealing the human fascination toward the bizarre. In our panel, the we look forward to discussing these sociocultural aspects of Byzantine churches, particularly those linking material to the sacred spaces, architecture, and archaeology.

The role of storytelling is manifest in creating or reframing tradition and mythology, for example the Church of St. Symeon Stylites, or the repurposing of natural formations (e.g., Constantinian-period caves in Jerusalem). The attitudes and understandings of the monuments, both contemporary and modern, inform the knowledge of what makes their setting and architecture important. Through an archaeological and architectural analysis, we can understand sociocultural aspects of such monuments and their meanings. Our panel will examine examples of this relationship between legend and monument and their influences on each other to create a holy place throughout the Byzantine empire. Following the themes of mythology, legend, and storytelling, we invite papers discussing archaeological and architectural materiality and art historical objects, but also historical perspectives and liturgical specialties.

Please submit the abstract for your paper (300 words abstract plus a short description of 50 words) by September 15, 2021, through the conference portal at wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call.

Session organizers
Dr. Catherine Keane
Dr. Katharina Palmberger 

CFP: ‘Senses and Affects in the Middle Ages’, International Congress on Medieval Studies 2022, deadline 15 September 2021

Panel 1: Senses and Affects in the Middle Ages I: Synaesthesia and Multisensory Perception

Contact: Aistė Kiltinavičiūtė (ak914@cam.ac.uk), University of Cambridge

This session invites papers examining the representation of experiences that blur the boundaries between sensory modalities that the modern West usually prefers to keep distinct, namely, colour, light, movement, texture, smell, taste, and hearing. We welcome contributions analysing medieval visual, literary, and theoretical works that embrace the possibilities of sensory-cognitive integration, challenge scholarly paradigms that rely on the Cartesian mind-body dualism, and/or reflect on how art might produce multisensory impressions in the people experiencing it.

Panel 2: Senses and Affects in the Middle Ages II: Emotions and Affective Experience

Contact: Jack Ford (jack.ford.13@ucl.ac.uk), University College London

This session invites papers examining the blurred boundaries between perceptive and affective experience in the medieval Latin West. As such, we seek contributions that explore how psychological categories such as ‘mind’, ‘rationality’, ‘imagination’, ‘perception’, ‘affection’, and ‘affectivity’ were understood as interconnected aspects of medieval experience. Papers may include (but are not limited to) studies of medieval literary, theoretical, medical, or visual works in addition to material culture (writ large). Papers should seek to engage with ongoing research in the fields of emotion, sensation, affect and the sciences and/or engage with current debates on medieval affective experience.

Abstracts of 200-300 words should be submitted to the ICMS 2022 Confex page by Wednesday, 15 September.

Submission link: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2022am/cfp.cgi

Researchers of all career stages can apply. ECRs and Ph.D. students are particularly encouraged to participate.

Find out more information in this PDF.Download