2023 Pre-Symposium on “Intrepid Borders” before the Spring Symposium
March 9, 2023 in Uncategorized
Intrepid Borders:
Marginalia in Medieval and Early Modern Books
Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, MS. W.148, folio 33v, detail. Image via Creative Commons.
A Virtual Lightning Talks / Half-Day Symposium
of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
co-organized by Katharine Chandler,
Jennifer Larson,
and Jessica L. Savage
Friday, 24 March 2023
2:00 – 5:30 pm E.D.T. (GMT-4) by Zoom
The Research Group on Manuscript Evidence invites you to attend our innovative half-day virtual symposium to be held on the afternoon of Friday, 24 March 2023. It features two sessions of Lightning Talks (between 15–18 minutes each) which have been selected from the Call for Proposals. Here is how we presented the Call:
With strong and plentiful responses, the Program has been selected, filling the afternoon.
This exploratory event about book marginalia and borders (including drolleries, glosses, inscriptions, and annotations) will kick off the Research Group’s virtual Spring Symposium to be held the next day on Saturday, March 25th.
As part of the RGME’s Theme for the Year 2023, “Materials & Access”, the pair of 2023 Spring and Autumn Symposia considers interlinked areas “From the Ground Up” (Spring) and “Between Earth and Sky” (Autumn). For information about the Spring Symposium and registration for it, see:
The set of Sessions on “Intrepid Borders” for the afternoon Pre-Symposium is co-organized by
Katharine Chandler, Jennifer Larson, and Jessica L. Savage.
Registration for “Intrepid Borders” is required, and can be made through its portal:
After you have registered, the Zoom link will be sent out shortly before the event.
Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, MS. W.148, folio 33v. Detail: Bottom, with fighting creatures. Image via Creative Commons.
Vision for the Lightning Talks
The borders of books are usually narrow places where reader-viewers of manuscripts touched, turned, and lingered on pages. As a space to develop writing and decoration, marginalia, or “things in the margin,” might be integral to the design of a manuscript, or their marks could be extraneous additions to the page.
Papers might explore the interaction of readers with texts through annotations and glosses, and investigate the many varied inscriptions and their purposeful inclusion in book borders. Papers might also zero in on the iconographic programs and decorative surrounds in manuscripts, which evolved over the late Middle Ages and into the early modern period, and which contain compelling visual evidence of the whimsical and fantastic.
Program (online by Zoom)
Session 1: 2:00–3:30 pm EDT (GMT-4)
Presider: Jessica L. Savage (Index of Medieval Art, Princeton University)
Speakers
Donncha MacGabhann (Independent Scholar)
“Crunching the Numbers: Marginal Numerals in the Book of Kells”
Gadi Charles Weber (Department of Jewish Philosophy, Bar-Ilan University)
“Two References to Jacob Anatoli’s Malmad ha-Talmidim in 14th-Century Yemen”
Moderator for Questions/Discussion: Jennifer Larson (Department of Classics, Kent State University)
Speakers
Elisabetta Tonello (eCampus University / Università degli Studi eCampus)
“Marginal Traces in the Manuscripts of Dante’s Divine Comedy”
Augustine Dickinson (Graduate School of the Cluster of Excellence “Understanding Written Artefacts,” Universität Hamburg)
“Marginal Notes in Ethiopian Hymn Anthologies”
Moderator: Katharine C. Chandler (Special Collections and Serials Cataloger , University of Arkansas Libraries)
Tea Break 3:40–3:50 pm
Session 2: 3:50–5:25 pm EDT (GMT-4)
Speakers
Kimberly Lifton (Medieval Studies, Yale University)
“A Mistress in the Margins: Clues to Identifying the Patron of the Clumber Park Chartier on the Edge of the Page”
Isabella Weiss (Department of Art History, Rutgers University)
“Meadows and Margins: Flemish ‘Strewn-Flower Borders’ and Flower Collection in the Late-Medieval Low Countries”
Moderator for Questions/Discussion: Jessica L. Savage
Speakers
Kristina Kummerer (Medieval Institute, University of Notre Dame)
“Liturgy in the Margins: Tridentine Reform in Mons, Belgium”
Francesca Pontini (Department of English, SGSAH funded, University of Stirling)
“Unknown Readers in 16th-Century Scotland”
Moderator for Questions/Discussion: Mildred Budny (Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)
Closing Remarks 5:25–5:30 pm
Speaker
Mildred Budny
(with option to remain after for cheers & chat)
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Don’t forget to Register! Attendance is free (optional donations are welcome).
Also, remember to register for the Spring Symposium the next day:
These two events form an interlinked pair, leading from one to the next, and offering a rich menu of Food for Thought. Besides, parts of the Spring Symposium Program directly address the subjects of Glosses and other elements in the margins of books, both manuscript and printed.
There is much to see, and we look forward to questions, discussion, and feedback.
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2023 Spring Pre-Symposium/Symposium Booklet Front Cover.
Program Booklet
The RGME traditionally produces Program Booklets for our Symposia and some other selected events. See our Publications.
For this new form of Pre-Symposium, integrated with the Spring Symposium, we combine both in a single Booklet. This one presents the Programs for the two occasions, over one and one-half days, and publishes the Abstracts for their Presentations, together with representative Illustrations of the materials under consideration.
By request of the Pre-Symposium co-organizers , the Abstracts for “Intrepid Borders” are arranged in the order of presentation (see the Program). The Abstracts for “From the Ground Up” arranges them in alphabetical order by the surnames of the authors, as customary for our Symposium Program Booklets.
As customary, the Booklet is published ‘on the day’ of the event. In this case, the publication is set for 24 March 2023, before the start of the Pre-Symposium “Intrepid Borders”.
For information about the Booklet and how to receive a printed copy or download its pdf, see:
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For questions and suggestions, please Contact Us or visit:
- our FaceBook Page
- our Twitter Feed (@rgme_mss)
- our Blog on Manuscript Studies and its Contents List
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Our ‘mascots’ for this event:
Fantastic fighters in the lower margin, Douce–Walters Homiliary, Walters Art Museum, MS. W.148, folio 33v. On the manuscript, see The Digital Walters.
Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, MS. W.148, folio 33v. Opening of Sermon 160 by Pseudo-Augustine on Easter, with Crucifixion illustration and border imagery. 14th-century German Homiliary. Image via Creative Commons.
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