Prequel to the Research Group Activities

At the Annual International Congress on Medieval Studies

1985‒1992 Congresses leading to the 1993 Congress and Beyond

[First published on our website on 10 September 2016]

Mattei Athena at the Louvre, Paris. Classical Roman copy from a 4th-century BCE Greek original. Via Wikipedia Commons.

Often, from the 1993 Congress onward, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence participates in the International Congress on Medieval Studies (ICMS) held annually at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo. The Research Group activities at the Congress take myriad forms.

Usually, now, we sponsor and co-sponsor Sessions with Papers, Responses, or a Panel Discussion. Sometimes the Session includes a Display of original manuscript and related materials. Occasionally we have provided a Photographic Exhibition of manuscript images and commentary. Some years call for special celebrations, with a Party or Reception, as with our Special Anniversary Year of 2014. Our practice also includes Trustees’ Meetings or Business Meetings, as appropriate; since 2015, our Open Business Meetings are listed in the Congress Schedule, with an assigned room and provided refreshments. The concise Agendas for these Meetings, which report on one page our activities, accomplishments, prospects, requirements, and vision, continue to be downloaded regularly from this website (so far for 2015 and 2016).

Our Congress Archive reports our Congress Activities for each year. Among them are Sponsored Sessions and Co-Sponsored Sessions, highlighting the different organizations in their own right.

These concerted activities did not arise, unlike Athena, fully formed.  They took years of preparations, both in the development of an integrated approach to manuscript studies, and in the cultivation of fields of expertise, experts, scholars, students, and others interested in the study and promotion of better understanding the transmission of written materials through the ages.  Some of this spadework occurred at the International Congress on Medieval Studies.  We review its highlights here.

The “Prequel” in 1992 and Before

Earlier visits to the Annual International Congress on Medieval Studies (1984–1987 and 1989–1992) prepared the way for the participation of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, once the organization had become established as an entity based at the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College in the University of Cambridge, and as an entity of its own. Once the Congress began to feature sessions focused upon Anglo-Saxon Studies, these visits were undertaken by Mildred Budny, now our Director, who regularly (apart from one year’s absence in 1988, despite the plan to attend and to present a paper) presented papers on various subjects — first while she was based at University College London (to 1986), next at Downing College, Cambridge, and then (from 1989) as the outside-funded Senior Research Associate at the Parker Library.  Where relevant, the Abstracts for those Congress papers were published in the annual Spring issues of the Old English Newsletter (OEN), now online.

‘Iconographic Catalogue’ (1986)

1984. “The Illustrated Royal Bible from St. Augustine’s Abbey” and
“Additions and Corrections to the Index to Iconographic Contents”
(Abstracts in OEN 17:2, pages A-38 and A-41–A-42)

1985. “The Image of the Ascension in Anglo-Saxon Art”
(OEN 18:2, page A-16)

1986. ‘Reading’ and ‘Writing’ Interlace” and
“Anglo-Saxon Embroidery: The Origins of Opus Anglicanum”
(OEN 19:2, pages A-31–A-32 and A-48;
The “Interlace” paper was published in 2001)

1987. “The Color Purple in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Late-Antique Legacy”
(OEN 20:2, page C19)

1989. “Keeping Up At (or With) the Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge”

‘Iconographic Catalogue’ Title Page (1986)

1990. “The Portrayal of Authors and Texts in Anglo-Saxon Art”

— with particular reference to Corpus Christi College, MS 23 and MS 197B
(OEN 23:2, page C-19)

1991. “Assembling the Vivian Bible, or, The Guided Tours”

(article published in 1995)

1992.  “New Light on Old English Texts at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge”
(OEN 25:3, page A-13)

(By the way, those were the years when more than one paper per Congress was permitted for a single presenter.)  Also at the 1992 Congress, Mildred Budny joined the panel for the panel discussion on “Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile”.

The record indicates dedicated participation in discourse among colleagues and students across a broad range of interests and fields.  It went hand-in-hand with the pursuit of an integrated approach to manuscript studies.

Preparations for Co-Publications and Sponsored Sessions

By the 1992 Congress, those visits to the Congress also included multiple consultations with the Director and Staff of the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University, host of the conference, “regarding joint publications and related matters,” as reported in the Third Annual Report to the Leverhulme Trust (1991–1992) for the 5-year Research Project on “The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts”. (See our Publications.) By 1993, the first of those joint publications had appeared, in the form of Matthew Parker and His Books.

Already by 1990, through conversations and correspondence, plans were underway to produce a volume of plates from photographs of Anglo-Saxon illustrations in manuscripts at the Parker Library.

And so, following the Congress timetable for proposals of sessions for the next Congress, in early Summer 1992 there was proposed and accepted the Session to be sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence at the 27th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Both it and the other activities of the Research Group at the 1993 Congress are reported in our post for that undertaking.  Similarly, they are described in the Fourth Annual Report for the Leverhulme Trust Research Project (1992–1993).

That Congress was the first (of many) in which the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence figured on the program and in the printed booklet of the Congress at Kalamazoo. The sequence and range of these activities are recorded and illustrated among our Congress Activities.

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Photographic Exhibitions

At the invitation of the Director of the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University, Otto Gründler, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence brought Photographic Exhibitions, with photography by Mildred Budny, to both the 1993 and 1994 Congresses. They followed the form and layout of travelling photographic exhibitions prepared for events in Oxford and Japan in the “First Series” of scholarly meetings organized by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, in the forms of Seminars, Workshops, Visits, and more, exploring aspects on the theme of “The Evidence of Manuscripts” (1989–1995).  These travelling shows are described among our Photographic Exhibitions.

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Links with the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University

As a direct result of the “Early Years of Preparations” before the Research Group came into existence, the Group was able, soon after it formed, also to accomplish some activities not part of the organized and sponsored Sessions as such.

Illustrated Books

‘Iconographic Catalogue’ (1986)

‘CORPUS’ (1994)

Over the years at the Congress, starting with the 1984 Congress, some of the sessions with Mildred Budny’s prsentations were organized by Thomas H. Ohlgren. Already, with contributions, updates, and corrections for numerous entries, she had joined both the collective preparations and the list of named collaborators for his research resource providing “pictorial or iconographic documentation” for the surviving corpus of Insular and Anglo-Saxon Illuminated Manuscripts: An Iconographic Catalogue c. A.D. 625 to 1100 (published in 1986).

The wish to update and expand that reference tool led to computerized versions, edited by Thomas H. Ohlgren and Mildred Budny. They were issued first in 1991 as the Corpus of Insular and Anglo-Saxon Illuminated Manuscripts: Inventory of Manuscripts and then reissued in 1994 — using, with permission, the same title as the one which Mildred Budny had chosen by then for her Illustrated Catalogue (published in 1997) — Corpus of Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and Early Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art: A Hypertext Version. Sometimes the corresponding titles lead to a confusion or conflation between their publications. (See here.)

A Place for Pictures of Pictures

The desire for an illustrated version of the Corpus — not, perhaps, to be confused with the College named Corpus Christi in Cambridge upon the Cam — led Tom Ohlgren to explore its accomplishment, leading to the plan for publication by Medieval Institute Publications at Western Michigan University.  And so, in 1992, there appeared his volume devoted to Anglo-Saxon Textual Illustration: Photographs of Sixteen Manuscripts with Descriptions and Index.  A worthy accomplishment!

At the 1992 Congress. Photograph © Mildred Budny

At the 1992 Congress. Photograph © Mildred Budny

Another Place

But, for copyright reasons, that 1992 volume contained no photographs from manuscripts at Corpus Christi College.  Tom had explained that copyright situation or obstacle in conversations at the 1990 Congress. Even before her arrival as the full-time Research Associate (a new, outside-funded position) at the Parker Library (1989), Mildred Budny had been granted permission to photograph materials there, starting with the colour photography for parts of the large-format facsimile of Corpus MS 144, the Corpus Glossary in the company of 2 related early-medieval glossaries (published in 1988).  Next followed the fulfillment (with her own photographic equipment) of some orders for photographs, both outside and internal, from materials at the Library.  The results led, in turn, to the work as in-house photographer (among other functions) for the Leverhulme Trust Research Project at the Library.

Tom’s introductions to the Director, Managing Editor, and others at the Medieval Institute and Medieval Institute Publications led to the plan to publish a volume of plates solely from Anglo-Saxon illustrated manuscripts at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.  That plan underwent numerous transformations, as the explorations, research, and Research Project advanced.  The contract was signed in September 1990; the transformations led to a larger publication, with many more plates, with an expanded definition of “Manuscript Art”, and with an accompanying catalogue.  The scope and the results are described here and here.

As that plan began to take shape, so also came another book, also with photographs taken expressly for it by Mildred Budny from manuscripts, early printed books, and other materials at the Parker Library — some of them directly within the scope of the Research Project.

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Co-Publications with Medieval Institute Publications

Two publications have appeared in association with Medieval Institute Publications.

1. The Sandars Lectures in Bibliography for 1990 (published in 1993)

Because of the arrangement already with M.I.P. to publish the Illustrated Catalogue (see below), it was agreed also to co-publish the illustrated volume of Matthew Parker and His Books.  It came into print first.  It publishes and illustrates the Sandars Lectures in Bibliography delivered in Cambridge in 1990 by R.I. Page — Parker Librarian and Director of the Research Project.  The format and design of the volume was explicitly modelled upon the first ambitiously illustrated book produced by the New Issues Press of Western Michigan University:  Georgian R. Tashjian et al., Richard Rawlinson: A Tercentenary Memorial (1990).

Medieval Institute Publications created the design and layout for the Sandars Lectures volume.  The Research Group’s name stands on the title page, along with Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and Medieval Institute Publicatons.

1993

The Illustrated Catalogue (2 Volumes, 1997)

Then, after the completion of the Research Project at the Parker Library, it proved possible at length  to complete the work unaided of revising, proof-correcting, indexing, typesetting, and producing the camera-ready copy for the printing, publication, and distribution of the 2-volume Illustrated Catalogue of Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and Early Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

By then, the publication appeared with the logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence stamped in gold on the front cover of both 1997 volumes.  The names on the title pages of both volumes remained as for the 1993 volume, except that the font, design, and layout of all the pages were selected and implemented by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, which prepared the camera-ready pages to deliver to the co-publisher and thence to the chosen printer.

The appearance, at last, of the printed, bound, and delivered volumes in the delivery of the pallets of boxed sets to Medieval Institute Publications at Western Michigan University in April 1997 called for celebrations.

A special promotional pre-publication offer was extended to the Associates of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, to many colleagues who had given help and advice for the research and preparation of the publication, and to others.  At the 1994 Congress in May, some colleagues wished to collect their own copies, some with signatures by the author.  There were also Cast & Crew parties, to celebrate the collective accomplishment. They stand among several such Receptions & Parties across our history, including some which take place with co-sponsorship at the International Congress on Medieval Studies (2004–).

The course of co-sponsorship of Sessions and Receptions with several other organizations at the same Annual Congress (2006–) deserves its telling, but that story mainly belongs to the development of contacts, interests, opportunities, and collaboration which took shape, or clearer shape, after the Preparatory Years leading to the formation of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence. See, for example, the contours of that story in the Co-Sponsored Sessions at the Congress.

Now, with a change in direction at Medieval Institute Publications, the distribution of the 2-volume set has been transferred, along with the volumes themselves, to the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence.  You might wish to find your own copy through the special Promotional Offer.

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And There’s More

The continuing activities of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence at the International Congress on Medieval Studies are reported on our website, among our Congress Activities and News.  We appreciate the opportunity to participate in the Congress and to collaborate there with scholars, teachers, students, friends, and other organizations. Join us there!

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Initial M for ‘Manus’ (= ‘Hand’). Photography © Mildred Budny

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