2005 Congress

January 1, 2014 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, Conference Announcement, ICMS, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo

“Wonders of the East”
at the

40th International Congress on Medieval Studies

5‒8 May 2005

Logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (colour version)[First published on our first website on *19 April 2006, with updates here]

At the 2005 Congress, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence sponsored one session.  This occasion marked the continuation of our return to the Congress.  As customary, various Trustees and Associates participated in diverse ways at the Congress. 

Session sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

“Under-Appreciated Masterpieces:
Illuminating The Wonders of the East in the Beowulf Manuscript”

Some of 'The Marvels of the East' in the 'Beowulf Manuscript'. ©The British Library Board, Cotton MS Vitellius A. XIV, folio 102v. Reproduced by permission.

©The British Library Board, Cotton MS Vitellius A. XIV, folio 102v. Reproduced by permission.

Organizers:  Asa Simon Mittman (Bucknell University) and Susan M. Kim (Illinois State University)

Presider: Kathryn Powell (University of Manchester)

Presenters:

  • Asa Simon Mittman
    “Art-Historian-Eating Monsters?  Why We Shouldn’t Fear the Vitellius Wonders of the East
  • Mildred Budny (Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)
    “Beauty or Beast?  Discerning Neglected Marvels through Manuscript Studies”
  • Carol Lind (Illinois University) and D. Edwin Lind (Illinois University)
    “Step Right Up:  The Cultural Construction of the Freak in The Wonders of the East
  • Susan Kim (Illinois State University)
    “Unworthy Bodies:  the Female Wonders of Cotton Vitelliius A.xv”

Front Cover of ShelfLife, The Bulletin of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, Number 1 (Winter 2006), including a photograph of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 197B, folio 1 recto. Photograph joint copyright of the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College and Mildred Budny.The Abstracts of the Papers in this Session by Mittman, Lind & Lind, and Kim are published,
and now available on line, in the Old English Newsletter, Spring 2005, Reports of Papers, page 122.

A report of this Session and its place in the progress towards a book of essays on the subject appears in the Bulletin of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, ShelfLife, 1 (Winter 2006), page 22.  Further fruits of the work appear, for example, in the Mittman Essay.

The manuscript as a whole is now viewable online in full digital facsimile:  London, British Library, Cotton MS Vitellius A XV.  The Marvels of the East occupy its folios 98v-106v.  Packing an impact in a few pages.

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The full 2005 Congress program is archived as 40th International Congress on Medieval Studies.

The full set of Research Group Activities at the Congress is reported in our Congress Archive.

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