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      • Abstracts of Congress Papers
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    • Mission
    • Who We Are
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      • Friends of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
    • Policies & Statements
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      • RGME Intellectual Property Statement & Agreements
    • People
      • Mildred Budny — Her Page
      • Adelaide Bennett Hagens
    • Activities
      • Events
      • Congress Activities
        • Sponsored Conference Sessions (1993‒)
          • Panels at the M-MLA Convention (from 2016)
        • Co-sponsored Conference Sessions (2006‒)
    • History
      • Seals, Matrices & Documents
      • Genealogies & Archives
    • Contact Us
  • Bembino
    • Multi-Lingual Bembino
  • Congress
    • Sponsored Conference Sessions (1993‒)
    • Co-sponsored Conference Sessions (2006‒)
    • Abstracts of Congress Papers
      • Abstracts Listed by Author
      • Abstracts Listed by Year
    • Kalamazoo Archive
    • Panels at the M-MLA Convention (2016-2019)
      • Abstracts of Papers for the M-MLA Convention
      • Panels at the M-MLA Convention (from 2016)
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      • Seminars on ‘The Evidence of Manuscripts’
      • Symposia on ‘The Transmission of the Bible’
      • The New Series (2001-)
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Program: The Roads Taken
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Registration
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Registration Open
      • RGME Symposia: The Various Series
      • The Research Group Speaks: The Series
      • Meetings of the Friends of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
      • RGME Online Events
    • Abstracts of Papers for Events
      • Abstracts of Papers for Seminars on ‘The Evidence of Manuscripts’
      • Abstracts of Papers for Symposia, Workshops & Colloquia
    • Receptions & Parties
    • Business Meetings
    • Photographic Exhibitions & Master Classes
    • Events Archive
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    • Journal Description
    • ShelfMarks: The RGME-Newsletter
    • Publications
      • “Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and Early Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge” (1997)
        • Mildred Budny, ‘Catalogue’
        • The Illustrated Catalogue (1997)
      • The Illustrated Handlist
      • Semi-Official Counterfeiting in France 1380-1422
      • No Snap Decisions: Challenges of Manuscript Photography
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    • Watermarks & the History of Paper
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2025 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program

April 16, 2025 in Conference, Conference Announcement, ICMS, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Manuscript Studies, POMONA, Postal History at Kalamazoo, Societas Magica

2025 International Congress
on Medieval Studies:
Program of RGME Activities

60th ICMS
Thursday through Saturday, 8–10 May 2025
(with Sessions variously
in Person, Online, or Hybrid)

[Posted on 16 January 2025, with updates]

With the shaping of the Program as a whole for the 2025 International Congress on Medieval Studies (ICMS), we announce the Program for the Activities sponsored and co-sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence. They comprise sponsored and co-sponsored Sessions of Papers; and our Annual Open Business Meeting at the Congress.

For information about the 2025 Congress overall, see its website.

Los Angeles, Getty Center, Ms. Ludwig XV 7 (83.MR.177), fol. 1. Scipio and Guillaume de Loris Lying in Their Beds Dreaming. Image Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Building upon our successful activities at the 2024 ICMS (see our 2024 International Congress on Medieval Studies Report), we prepared for the 2025 ICMS. First we proposed a set of sessions, sponsored and co-sponsored. Then, when they had been accepted by the Congress Committee, we issued the Call for Papers (CFP) for our proposed Sessions. The strength and number of the responses by the due date (15 September 2024) led us to seek, in some cases, two sessions in place of the one which we had proposed.

Now that the Congress Program itself has been scheduled, we can present the Program of our activities, both sponsored and co-sponsored.

We give thanks to our organizers, co-organizers, presenters, respondents, advisors, and the Congress.

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Tags: Almandal, Apocalypse Commentaries, Authorship, Beatus Manuscripts, Beatus of Saint-Sever, Divination, Dream Books, Grimoires, History of Magic, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Lapidario, Ludic Marginalia, Magic, Mail Delivery Networks, Manuscript studies, Old English Psychomacnia, Papal Prophecies, Petites Heures de Jean de Berry, Picatrix, Postal History, Postal History at Kalamazoo, Psychomachia, René d'Anjou, Sanas Cormaic, Societas Magica, Solomonic Magic, Women in Manuscripts
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2024 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Report

May 15, 2024 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, Anniversary, Announcements, Conference, Conference Announcement, Events, ICMS, Illustrated Handlist, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, POMONA, Postal History at Kalamazoo, Societas Magica

2024 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Report

59th ICMS (9–11 May 2024)

Held in a transitional ‘hybrid’ form
with RGME Co-Sponsored Sessions,
an Open Business Meeting,
and Co-Sponsored Reception

In a Nutshell:
Mission Accomplished!

With Thanks to our Participants,
Co-Sponsors, Audience, and Friends

[Posted on 14 May 2024]

Western Michigan University, Valley III from the side. Photograph: David W. Sorenson.

Western Michigan University, Valley III from the side. Photograph: David W. Sorenson.

After the successful completion of all our activities at the 59th Annual 2024 International Congress on Medieval Studies International Congress on Medieval Studies (ICMS), we report our accomplishments and give updates about changes to the Program which we announced (with updates as appropriate) for its items. See the full ICMS Program issued by its organizing Committee:

  • 2024 Congress Program, with Corrigenda.

The Journey

Already from our first preparations toward the 2024 Congress,

  • starting with the 2023 Congress and our Open Business Meeting there to invite proposals,
  • moving on to our proposals for Sessions for 2024 submitted to the Congress Committee by 1 June 2023,
  • progressing with the approved Call for Papers for the 2024 ICMS,
  • reaching the firm conclusion of that Call on 15 September 2024, and
  • selecting the Program for our Sessions according to responses to that Call and related developments,

we have made revisions and provided updates for our plan.

They gave rise to our announcement for our own (and co-sponsored) Program (including the details of Sessions, their speakers, titles of papers, order of presentation, and so on; as well as ancillary events such as the Anniversary Reception), its updates throughout the months from October to May and the start of the Congress.  Now we follow up with the Report.

The proposals received not only yielded Programs for which the order of Papers and the follow-up invitation to Presiders and Panelists, but also encouraged us to combine resources within the Research Group, with our frequent co-sponsor, the Societas Magica, and with others.  Thus we collaboratively created a strong program of activities for the 2024 Congress.

Along the way, between

  • the submission of our selected Program to the Congress Committee by 15 October 2023,
  • its acceptance,
  • the assignment of dates, times, and venues for the individual activities for the 2024 Congress Program as officially published (with a series of Corrigenda, not affecting us, as the date of the Congress approached), and
  • the start of the Congress itself on Thursday 9 May 2024, with events variously in online and/or in-person formats,

our own 2024 Congress Program has had a few minor revisions, as people and technological arrangements permitted.

These changes did not interfere with the overall success of our activities.  Our 2024 Congress Program reported various changes up to the Congress; this Report describes those effected at or around the Congress.

Access Included

As in 2023, the RGME responded to the partly ‘hybrid’ conditions of the Congress by providing its Zoom Meetings for two scheduled solely ‘In Person’ Sessions, as well as for our In-Person catered lunchtime Open Business Meeting, and by reserving an onsite Remote Participation Room on campus for those participants for a scheduled ‘Virtual’ Session who were present at the Congress to be able to gather to sign on to the online Session hosted by the Congress Confex Portal. The RGME managed all these extra Zoom provisions and reservations, as part of its contribution to sponsoring or co-sponsoring Sessions at the ICMS over the years.

It can be worth noting that those donations — at the cost of the RGME, are made possible by donations to enable its Zoom Subscription, by our own provisions for technical backup, and principally by the many pro-bono donations by its Director as overall organizer and co-ordinator of the RGME activities at the Congress and elsewhere — are not covered within the costs to produce the Congress, which registration fees by attendees online and in-person work to subsidize. The extra efforts by the RGME to provide features or facilities for the contributors, participants, and attendees of its activities at the Congress, whether online or onsite, correspond with our approach to our activities of many kinds.

In this spirit, the RGME has consistently stepped up to the plate in response to changes in the facilities for the ICMS before and after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the Congress was successively

  • 1) cancelled outright (2020),
  • 2) rescheduled in online format only (2021), and
  • 3) re-introduced in a partly in-person, partly virtual, ‘hybrid’ format (2022, 2o23, 2024, and more).

Throughout these developments, responding to their changing requirements, the RGME has continued to seek, insofar as possible with our own limited resources, to provide access to our sponsored and co-sponsored Congress activities to as wide an audience as possible, including those with disablilities, health issues, and difficulties in finding resources to travel and cover expenses to attend the Congress in person.

These ‘extras’ which we provide stand alongside the RGME tradition for many years of promoting our authors and the contributions of their work to our Congress Programs (see our Congress Activities) by the series of RGME promotional notices for the year’s Congress (with updates):

  • on our official Website (You are Here),
  • on our Social Media (listed Below),
  • in the Posters for each of our Congress activities, and
  • in the Congress Abstracts which we publish for the Authors’ presentations.

The Posters normally are displayed in printed form at the Congress — where permitted, such as on cork boards in the different buildings and in the rooms where our events take place — and on the RGME website, with printed copies also sent to presenters as souvenirs to display in their offices or studies and to give to their mothers.  For example for the 2015 Congress:

Derek Shank stands beside the RGME Poster Display for the 2025 ICMS. Photography by Mildred Budny.

The Abstracts appear in their own individual webpages — which can 1) extend for a longer span than the assigned limit (100 words) for the submission of a proposal for a Congress Paper; 2) add notes, links, and bibliography; and 3) include images — as publications in their own right.

Moreover, we take care to index all the Authors’ Abstracts for a given Congress to grant wider access both:

  • Alphabetically by Author’s Surname and
  • Chronologically by Year of Author’s Presentation.

The Arrival

After the Journey to arrive, there remained some bumps in the road at the destination.  The RGME Director was unable to travel for health reasons, and so had to attend online.

Program

One person on the Program for one Session decided not to attend.  Technical issues with one Speaker’s PowerPoint Presentation and its Zoom projection interrupted a short span of the flow of slides in an expertly crafted presentation in another Session, but this interruption could smoothly be kept to a brief minimum through co-ordination prepared ahead of time between the Speaker and the RGME Zoom Host, together with the Session Organizer.  The prepared co-ordination ahead of time for hybrid access dropped the ball between one scheduled in-person Session and the RGME-hosted Zoom online facility, required, it turned out, not as an extra, but as an essential, so as to enable the Presider and two of the Speakers unable to travel to the Congress to participate in the Session.

Audience Participation

At the last minute, an audience member generously offered to lend his computer so that the Organizer / Second Speaker could connect the Zoom Meeting for the Session and the In-Person Room.  We give thanks to collegiality and generous resourcefulness.

Posters

Another surprise came for the RGME Posters for our Congress Activities when the eve of the Congress arrived and participants came on site.  We suddenly discovered that the 2024 Congress prohibited the display of posters anywhere in a printed form, apart from selected tables requiring horizontal piles, rather than enabling vertical display for which our Posters are designed.

This change meant that the extra efforts by our Trustee and Co-Organizer David Porreca in the days before the Congress to produced printed Posters for display and distribution there — while our Director could not travel to the Congress to bring them as usual — were thwarted.  Henceforth, we will plan accordingly and distribute our Posters outside the Congress walls, both in digital and printed formats.

By fortunate choice, without knowing about the Congress’s redirections, the Director had posted the newly-designed Posters in a Web Gallery of their own on our website just a couple of days before the Congress, in a new departure for our tradition of sponsorship and co-sponsorship. Customarily, she would post them in the RGME webpost for the year’s Congress shortly after it had been accomplished, as part of its Report. (See 2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Report.)

Now, see the special Pop-Up Exhibition!

  • RGME Pop-Up Poster Exhibition for the 2024 ICMS
2024 ICMS Alchemical Session Poster 2

2024 ICMS Alchemical Session Poster 2

The Program as Accomplished

Our Program comprised:

  • three Co-sponsored Sessions 
  • our Open Business Meeting and
  • a co-sponsored Anniversary Reception.

In stages, first (in November 2023) we announced the Sessions, and reported the sequence of papers for them.  Next (January 2024), with information from the ICMS, we could report their assigned times, days, and locations on campus in cases of the in-person events, along with our other activities at the Congress.  Then we began to publish the abstracts for them; that process is now completed. Soon we will complete the Indexes for them.

For the In-Person Sessions and the Open Business Meeting, the RGME provided an online option for Congress Registrants through our Zoom Subscription and our Eventbrite Registration Portal:

  • Eventbrite: Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

‘Hybrid’ Facilities

Like last year (see 2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Report), the RGME offered Registration (without charge) for Online access through our Zoom Subscription to some of our In-Person events this year.  Likewise we offered registration for our two In-Person events to help us to learn how many to expect to attend for our planning and the catering for our Open Business Meeting and Co-Sponsored Reception.

For one Online Session, a remote-participation conference room was reserved so that participants and attendees on campus for the Congress might gather to join the online format while in company.

At ICMS for the RGME Anniversary Year

In 2024, the RGME celebrates its Anniversary Year to mark 25 years as a nonprofit educational corporation based in Princeton, New Jersey, and 25 years as an international scholarly society founded out of a major research project at Corpus Christi College in the University of Cambridge.

For our Anniversary Year, the theme is “Bridges”.

  • “Bridges” for our 2024 Anniversary Year
Ada Bridge pylon, Belgrade, Serbia

Ada Bridge pylon, Belgrade, Serbia. Photograph Petar Milošević (1 August 2021). Image via Wikimedia Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

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Tags: Abstracts of Congress Papers, Bridges, Early Printed Books, History of Alchemy, ICMS, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Manuscript studies, P.-O.M.o.N.A., Postal History at Kalamazoo, RGME Anniversary, RGME Anniversary Reception, RGME Business Meeting, RGME Posters, Societas Magica
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RGME Pop-UP Poster Exhibition for the 2024 ICMS

May 4, 2024 in Bembino, Business Meeting, Conference, Conference Announcement, Events, Exhibition, ICMS, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, POMONA, Postal History at Kalamazoo, Reception

RGME Posters on Display
for the
2024 International Congress on Medieval Studies (ICMS)

9–11 May in hybrid format

[Posted on 3 May 2024]

Our Pop-Up Poster Display for the 2024 ICMS

As the 2024 International Congress on Medieval Studies approaches (9–11 May in partly hybrid format), we unveil our Posters for all our events at this Congress. Our Congress activities form part of our Anniversary Year, celebrating 25 years as a nonprofit educational corporation and 35 years as an international scholarly society. For this year, our Theme is Bridges. Besides considering the nature of bridges, both natural and man-made, and exploring their challenges and opportunities, we take the liberty of creating some new ones — as with this Pop-Up Poster Session or Exhibition for the 2024 Congress.

Natural Owachomo Bridge, Natural Bridges Natural Monument, San Juan County, Utah. Image via Laban712 on en, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

This Virtual Exhibition marks a new development for our evolving tradition of Posters for our different Events, comprising Conference Sessions, Symposia, Colloquia, Seminars, Workshops, Receptions, and more. Here, by bringing the set of Posters into an exhibition of their own, we offer a bridge between our webpost for the Congress; our printed Posters for the in-person event and for souvenirs afterward; and for download in digital form from our website.

Our website Home Page for our 2024 ICMS Activities describes each of these events in turn, with descriptions about their scope and aims, instructions for directions to them, and information about the programs of the individual sessions, also with the speakers’ abstracts for their presentations.

The directions include options to register for online access to scheduled in-person events — some Sessions and our Open Business Meeting — through our RGME Eventbrite Collection (at no charge), so as to provide a fully hybrid approach to the Congress.  Similarly, for a scheduled online Session, we have arranged for an in-person approach by reserving a room on campus for in-person attendees of the Congress.

See:

  • 2024 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program

In a Nutshell

Now, the Posters present, in a nutshell, information about each session of papers or meeting, including updated details which did not emerge in time for the published Congress Program, but which our 2024 RGME @ ICMS HomePage has been able to report through revisions as the news reached us.

The RGME tradition for its sessions and other events at the ICMS has been to prepare Posters announcing, promoting, and celebrating the people participating in creating them; providing evocative illustrations encapsulating or, as it were, commenting upon them; and given concise information about the event and its logistics of time, place, and modes of arrival.

Over the years, the RGME Director, Mildred Budny (also Editor-in-Chief of Publications), has prepared the Posters for our ICMS activities (as for other Events), with the inspiration of images generously provided by our Associates and others, notably including David W. Sorenson, and with the help of the RGME Font and Layout Designer, using the RGME copyright digital font Bembino and RGME principles for our Publications, set out according to our Style Manifesto and our specifications for Designing Academic Posters.

Usually, the Director would bring the Posters to the ICMS for unveiling at the Congress, in printed copies displayed in various places (as a group upon general poster boards or individually at the door or on the wall of the session or meeting itself.

2014 ICMS

Adelaide Bennett stands beside the RGME Posters on display for the 2014 ICMS. Photography by Mildred Budny.

2015 ICMS

Derek Shank stands beside the RGME Poster Display for the 2025 ICMS. Photography by Mildred Budny.

Fit to Print, Free to Keep

Each year, we bring printed copies to display on walls, doors, and boards, where permitted, and also to give to speakers, contributors, and others wishing souvenirs.  We offer them also in digital form, to be downloaded free of charge on our website.  The links for these downloads are indicated in the HomePage for the event (or in other locations on our website).

Online Exhibition

Until now, our habit has been to place the Posters, once they are ready, within the HomePage for the event.  Thus usually occurs at a late stage in the preparations for the year’s Congress, once the final details have settled into place and most of our other tasks of preparation have taken precedence.

This year, in order to allow the Posters to stand alongside each other to tell their stories in unison, we present a curated Gallery or Pop-Up Poster Exhibition for your enjoyment.

The Posters tell in a nutshell the information you might need and wish to know about the event itself, how and where to find it, who is featured in its presentation, and what feature image or images might evoke its essence.

The information includes updated information which the Congress Program does not have, as some logistics evolved after the publication of the Congress Program, and as some details do not have a place in its structure.

Two-By-Two as Pairs or Diptychs

Paris, Louvre Museum, Ivory consular diptych of Areobindus, Byzantium, 506 AD. Image Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Paris, Louvre Museum, Ivory consular diptych of Areobindus, Byzantium, 506 AD. Image Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.s

Note that, in recent years, we design the posters for individual Sessions as Pairs, to be viewed as Diptychs, in matching sets similar to the facing pages of an opened book.

In a given Pair, one Poster displays the names of the people responsible for the Session or Roundtable. The other exhibits a feature image or two.

While they share identifying elements, each poster in the pair reports information unique to it, so that the two posters provide more information than can one alone. Together they report a concise comprehensive indication of the ensemble which the event represents, encompassing people, a place, a time, and a focus for consideration.

Meetings

Anniversary Reception

2024 Anniversary Reception at the ICMS: Poster.

Open Business Meeting

2024 RGME Business Meeting Poster

2024 RGME Business Meeting Poster

Sessions and a Roundtable

“Alchemical Manuscripts, Printed Books, and Materials”

Poster 1

2024 ICMS Alchemical Session Poster 1

2024 ICMS Alchemical Session Poster 1

Poster 2

2024 ICMS Alchemical Session Poster 2

2024 ICMS Alchemical Session Poster 2

2. “Retrospect and Prospect”

Poster 1

2024 ICMS "Retrospect and Prospects" Session: Poster 1

2024 ICMS “Retrospect and Prospects” Session: Poster 1

Poster 2

2024 ICMS "Retrospect and Prospects" Session: Poster 2

2024 ICMS “Retrospect and Prospects” Session: Poster 2

3. “Letters, Couriers, and Post Offices:
Mail in the Medieval World”

Poster 1

2024 ICMS Postal Session: Poster 1

2024 ICMS Postal Session: Poster 1

Poster 2

2024 ICMS Postal Session: Poster 2

2024 ICMS Postal Session: Poster 2

*****

Suggestion Box

Do you like this Pop-Up Exhibition? Would you like to see more of them?

Please Contact Us or visit

  • our FaceBook Page
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Donations and contributions, in funds or in kind, are welcome and easy to give.  Given our low overheads, your donations have direct impact on our work and the furtherance of our mission.  For our Section 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization, your donations may be tax-deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law.  Thank you for your support!

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We look forward to hearing from you.

*****

 

Tags: 2024 ICMS, 2024 International Congress on Medieval Studies, Anniversary Reception, Bembino, Bembino Digital Font, Business Meeting, Designing Academic Posters, POMONA, Pop-Up Exhibition, Postal History at Kalamazoo, Poster Exhibition, RGME Posters, RGME Publications, Societas Magica, Style Manifesto
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2024 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program

November 24, 2023 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, Announcements, Business Meeting, Conference Announcement, ICMS, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, POMONA, Postal History at Kalamazoo, Reception, Societas Magica

2024 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program

59th ICMS (9–11 May 2024)

To be held in a transitional ‘hybrid’ form
with RGME Co-Sponsored Sessions,
an Open Business Meeting,
and Co-Sponsored Reception

[Posted on 23 November 2023, with updates]

Ravenna, Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, Mosaic. Artwork in the public domain; photograph provided by The Yorck Project / Wikimedia Commons (GFDL).

After the successful completion of our Call for Papers for the 2024 International Congress on Medieval Studies (ICMS), we announce the Program for our activities, with:

  • three Co-sponsored Sessions 
  • our Open Business Meeting and
  • a co-sponsored Anniversary Reception.

In stages, first (in November 2023) we announced the Sessions. Next (4 January 2024), with information from the ICMS, we could report their assigned times, days, and locations on campus in cases of the in-person events, along with our other activities at the Congress.

Now we can report the sequence of papers for the sessions; we also begin to publish the abstracts for them.

Note that for the In-Person Sessions and the Open Business Meeting, the RGME provides an online option for Congress Registrants through our Zoom Subscription and our Eventbrite Registration Portal.  See below and

  • Eventbrite: Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Congress Information

  • 2024 Congress Program for the full ICMS

Registration (required) for the Congress has opened in February:

  • Registration via ICMS website

‘Hybrid’ Facilities

Like last year (see 2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Report), the RGME offers Registration (without charge) for Online access through our Zoom Subscription to some of our In-Person events this year.  Likewise we offer registration for two of our In-Person events to help us to learn how many to expect to attend for our planning and the catering:

  • Open Business Meeting (In Person)
    and
  • Co-Sponsored Reception (In Person)

For an Online Session, a remote-participation conference room has been reserved so that participants and attendees on campus for the Congress might gather to join the online format while in company.

(For information, see below.)

At ICMS for the RGME Anniversary Year

In 2024, the RGME celebrates its Anniversary Year to mark 25 years as a nonprofit educational corporation based in Princeton, New Jersey, and 25 years as an international scholarly society founded out of a major research project at Corpus Christi College in the University of Cambridge.

For our Anniversary Year, the theme is “Bridges”.

  • “Bridges” for our 2024 Anniversary Year
Ada Bridge pylon, Belgrade, Serbia

Ada Bridge pylon, Belgrade, Serbia. Photograph Petar Milošević (1 August 2021). Image via Wikimedia Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

RGME Sessions (1–3) at the 2024 ICMS

For the 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies in 2024, with responses to our Call for Papers, the RGME co-sponsors these three Sessions.  Two of three are scheduled to take place in person, with the other online.

Arrangements have been made so that all three can be accessed both in person (whether as scheduled in the Congress Program or as arranged by especially reserving a room on campus) and online (whether as scheduled or as arranged for a Zoom Meeting hosted by the RGME).  Thus their access can constitute a truly hybrid approach to the conference.

We begin (2 May) to post the Abstracts of the Papers for the Sessions.

Locations on Campus

For the locations on campus, see these campus maps:

  • WMU Visitors’ Map
  • Parking Combined
  • Interactive Map with Building, Parking, Accessibility Information.

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Tags: Alchemical Books, Curtains, Early Printed Books, Hermes Trismegistus, Hieronmus Brunschwig, History of Magic, Manuscript studies, Medieval History, Medieval Studiies, Merchant Letters, Postal Couriers, Postal History, Postal History at Kalamazoo, RGME Anniversary Reception, RGME Open Business Meeting, Societas Magica
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2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Report

October 23, 2023 in Events, ICMS, Index of Medieval Art, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Manuscript Studies, POMONA, Societas Magica, Uncategorized

2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Report

58th ICMS (11–13 May 2023)

Held in a transitional ‘hybrid’ form
with Sponsored and Co-Sponsored Sessions
an Open Business Meeting
and Co-Sponsored Reception

[Posted on 22 October 2023]

After the successful completion of our activities at the 2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies (ICMS), we offer a Report about them.  For their programs and the abstracts of their presentations, see 2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program.

Note that Abstracts for Papers published on our website appear in the Indexes of the Abstracts for Papers, listed both by Alphabetical order of Author’s Surname and by Year.

Logistics

2023 ICMS: Pedagogy II viewed online. Michael Allman presents. Photography by Mildred Budny.

This year’s Congress presented more logistical challenges than ever before, in our experience of attending the annual ICMS.  They were due to the complex and incompletely or perplexingly described conditions for holding the Congress in a nominal ‘hybrid’ format, with few fully hybrid events and the necessity for organizers mostly to choose either in-person or online formats — or to provide the alternative through their own resources.

In that way, for example, once the rules were clarified (within only a fortnight of the Congress), the RGME was able resourcefully to provide (through its own Zoom subscription) for online access to events assigned as in-person and to arrange (sometimes with payment) for a room to be made available for registrants on site at the Congress to gather for participating in sessions assigned as online.  We thank the Congress staff for enabling those arrangements once we learned that they might be permitted.

Our activities comprised five co-sponsored scholarly Sessions, our annual Open Business Meeting at the Congress, and a co-sponsored Reception.

The extra arrangements for in-person facilities for the online sessions and online access for in-person sessions were designed also for the convenience of participants for our events on the first day of the Congress, which had a consecutive series of Morning Session / Lunchtime Business Meeting / two Afternoon Sessions / Reception.  With the Morning Session in a nearby building, the other events that day, by design, took place on one building.

Co-Sponsorship

  • Societas Magica:  2 Sessions and the Reception
  • Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies (SIMS): 2 Sessions
  • Polytheism-Oriented Medievalists of North America (P.-O.M.o.N.A.): 1 Session
  • Index of Medieval Art at Princeton University: Reception

This year marked Year 19 of our co-sponsorship with the Societas Magica; the second (non-consecutive) year of co-sponsorship with POMONA, the third of co-sponsorship with the Index of Medieval Art, and the first year of co-sponsorship with SIMS.

As always, we thank the host, organizers, co-sponsors, presiders, speakers, respondents, advisers, and participants for our activities at the Congress, along with the Congress staff and support staff.

The Sequence of Events

Day 1 of the Congress (Thursday 11 May) had a full set of events. They opened with the Morning Session, led to the RGME Open Business Meeting (with lunch provided), followed with a pair of Afternoon Sessions, and rounded out with the co-hosted Reception.

Day 3 (Saturday 13 May) had a pair of Afternoon Sessions.

The shortness of the notice and the complexity of the RGME’s extra preparations for an ad-hoc fully hybrid format imposed further problems in communicating updated information which, in the rush of last-minute preparations and conflicting information, meant that not all participants received the relevant information in time. Notably this affected the extra online arrangements for the in-person sessions on Saturday afternoon, so that the first one did not have an on-site log-in for the online component.

Informal “Evening Sessions”. Outside the Program, a set of traditional informal gatherings offered the occasion to revive the in-person tradition of meetings in an ad-hoc ‘Board Room’ where board games, brought to the table for the occasion, formed a focus of activity and conversation.  As usual, they included some elements of RGME planning.  This year, they  included an ad-hoc hybrid component for participation at a distance as well.

Our Report of all our activities at the 2023 Congress relates their accomplishment, celebrates the presentations, praises the work of organization, notes a few changes in the program and accessibility for the sessions, displays the full set of posters for our events, and illustrates some memorable moments.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Albert the Great, Binding Archaeology, Binding Spines and Fastenings, Board Games, Board Room, Corpus Christi College Cambridge MS 286, Datini Collection, Ephesia Grammata, Gospels of Saint Augustine of Canterbury, Gutenberg Biblt, History of Bindings, History of Pedagogy, Index of Medieval Art, International Congress on Medieval Studiesieval Studies, Islamic Bookbindings, Manuscript studies, Open Business Meeting, Otto Ege Fragments, Reception, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, Societas Magica, William Fulke, Words as Agents
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2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program

January 15, 2023 in Conference, Conference Announcement, International Congress on Medieval Studies

2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program

58th ICMS (11–13 May 2023)

To occur in a transitional ‘hybrid’ form
with Sponsored and Co-Sponsored Sessions
—  to be held either in person or online (with some options) —
and with an Open Business Meeting
and Co-Sponsored Reception

[Posted on 17 January 2023, with updates]

Façade of the Celsus library, in Ephesus, near Selçuk, west Turkey. Photograph (1910): Benh LIEU SONG, via Creative Commons.

Façade of the Celsus library, in Ephesus, near Selçuk, west Turkey. Photograph (1910): Benh LIEU SONG, via Creative Commons.

Building upon the successful completion of our activities at the 2022 ICMS (see our 2022 International Congress on Medieval Studies Program), we announce our Activities for the 2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies, following our Preparations for them, with the completion of the Call for Papers (15 September 2022) and the selection and submission of the Programs for our Sessions (by 15 October 2022).

For information about the Congress, registration for it, and the current version of the 2023 Congress Program (plus the extra Corrigenda), see the Congress website.

With the turn of the calendar year toward the year of the Congress, we published the selected Programs for our Sessions and announced our other Activities, while we awaited the promulgation of the official Schedule for the 2023 Congress as a whole.  With the publication of a Sneek Peak for the Congress Program, we can add the times and venues for our Sessions.  As the Congress approaches, new information guides additional features of our planning, with Virtual options now possible for some of our In-Person events, through extra arrangements by the RGME.

This year, with some Sessions on line and some in person in a transitional ICMS, we prepare six Sessions, an Open Business Meeting, and a Reception. Our co-sponsors:

  • Societas Magica:  2 Sessions and the Reception
  • Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies (SIMS): 2 Sessions
  • Polytheism-Oriented Medievalists of North America (P.-O.M.o.N.A.): 1 Session
  • Index of Medieval Art at Princeton University: Reception

This year marks Year 19 of our co-sponsorship with the Societas Magica; the second (non-consecutive) year of co-sponsorship with POMONA, the third of co-sponsorship with the Index of Medieval Art, and the first year of co-sponsorship with SIMS.

As always, we thank the host, organizers, co-sponsors, presiders, speakers, respondents, advisers, and participants for our activities at the Congress, along with the Congress staff and support staff.

Here we list our Sessions (arranged in the order in which they are scheduled for the Congress), with the Links to the Abstracts for the individual Papers, then turn to our other Activities (Open Business Meeting and Reception).  A Note on our Congress Sessions describes the Indexes of the Abstracts for Papers as published on our website, listed both by Alphabetical order of Author’s Surname and by Year.

Logistics

This year, the partly in-person, virtual, and hybrid modalities to the Congress add to the complexity, tasks, resources, and expenses for preparing for our events there.  The complexity encourages us to create more flexible and resourceful our arrangements for some events held in person or virtually, so as to accommodate attendance in these different modalities directed by the Congress, while any fully hybrid event is not permitted for us in the arrangements by this online/offline Congress.

1) Optional RGME Zoom Meeting Room in live time for some In-Person events.  For Congress participants unable to travel to the place, but registered for the Congress, we offer an optional Virtual Meeting Room by RGME Zoom subscription.  In this way, an In Person Congress event might be accessed virtually — with registration for each of them through our RGME Eventbrite Collection.

We provide the RGME Zoom option (by specific registration, without charge) for

  • our In Person Open Business Meeting on Thursday lunchtime and
  • our pair of co-sponsored In-Person Sessions on Saturday afternoon.

2) Especially Reserved In-Person Room for In-Person Attendees of the Congress who will log-on to our Virtual Sessions.  These reserved rooms are prepared (in different, but adjacent, buildings) for:

  • our first, Virtual Session on Thursday morning, with an In-Person option (Session 50 / Schneider 1220)
  • the pair of our co-sponsored Virtual Sessions on Thursday afternoon, with In-Person option (Sessions 87 + 137 / Fetzer 1030)The second dedicated room is located a few steps away, on the same floor, in the same building, from the two In-Person events before and after that pair of Sessions, namely the Open Business Meeting and the Reception.

Details below, including information about how to register with us for the access by Zoom for the In-Person events.

In brief:

Day 1 of the Congress (Thursday 11 May) has a full set of events. They open with the Morning Session, lead to the RGME Open Business Meeting (with lunch provided), follow with a pair of Sessions, and round out with the co-hosted Reception.

  1. Session 50 on “Words as Agents”
    held Virtually
    from 10:00-11:30 am EDT (GMT-4)
    — with In-Person option:  By arrangement, Schneider 1220 is reserved for us for that time period for those attending the Congress in person, to be able to gather for accessing the online Sessions with their own computers
  2. RGME Open Business Meeting
    held In Person
    in Fetzer 1035 from 12:00-1:00 pm EDT, with catered lunch (donations are welcome)
    — We recommend registering if you plan to attend in person, so that we could know how many to expect.
    In Person Reservation for RGME Open Business Meeting
    — We also offer the option to attend virtually through the RGME (not via the Congress), for Congress participants unable to travel.  With your registration for the event itself, we will send the Zoom link ahead of time.
    Virtual Registration Option for RGME Open Business Meeting
  3. Sessions 87 and 137 on “The Eloquence of Medieval Book Bindings”, Parts 1-2
    (“Bindings from German Lands” and “Diverse Regional Techniques”)
    held Virtually from 1:30-3:00 pm and 3:30-5:00 pm EDT (GMT-4)
    — with In-Person option:  Fetzer 1030 is reserved for us for the afternoon for those attending the Congress in person, to gather for accessing the online Sessions with their own computers
    Update on 7 May: The order of the three Papers in Session 87 is changed from that advertised in the Congress Program Booklet. The Paper by William H. Campbell, formerly in first position, has moved to third, as indicated below.
  4. Co-hosted Reception
    held in Person
    in Fetzer 1035-1045 from 5:30-7:00 pm EDT (GMT-4).

For the RGME Open Business Meeting held In Person, open to to Congress attendees, it would help us to know how many to expect if you would please register for it through the RGME Eventbrite collection.  See below.

Day 3 of the Congress (Saturday 13 May) has a pair of Sessions.

  1. Sessions 369 and 419 on”Moving Parts and Pedagogy”, Parts I–II (“Teaching Magic and Other Occult Arts” and “Teaching Astrology and Other Liberal Arts”)
    held In Person in Fetzer 2040 from 1:30-3:00 pm and 3:30-5:00 pm EDT (GMT-4)
    (If requested, we will set up an RGME Zoom Room for these Sessions.)

Note:  If you have questions about these arrangements, we apologize for the complexity, and ask that you contact [email protected].  Safe travels!

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Tags: Albert the Great, Archaeology of Bindings, Astrology, Board Games, Catalogues & Metadata & Databases, Chieromancy, Datini Collection, Ephesia Grammata, Ephesus, Fairy Summoning, Fragmentology, Gutenberg Bible, History of Games, History of Magic, Index of Medieval Art, Islamic Bookbindings, Liberal Arts Curriculum, Ludwig Millich, Manuscript studies, Medieval Writing Materials, Otto Ege Fragments, Pedagogy, POMONA, Quadrivium, Quire Signatures, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, Seven Liberal Arts, Societas Magica, Trivium, William Fulke, Witchcraft
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2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Preparations

July 7, 2022 in International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Uncategorized

2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Preparations

58th ICMS (11–13 May 2023)

To occur in a transitional ‘hybrid’ form
with Sponsored and Co-Sponsored Sessions
To be held either in person or online

(Note:  Only, by special permission,
do some Sessions occur in ‘blended’ and verily ‘hybrid’ form)

Call for Papers

Proposals due by 15 September 2022

[Posted on 7 July 2022, with updates]

With the successful completion of our activities at the 2022 ICMS in May (see our 2022 International Congress on Medieval Studies Program), we begin preparations for the 2023 ICMS.

First, we thank the organizers, sponsor and co-sponsor, presiders, speakers, respondents, and participants of those activities, which included four Sessions and an Open Business Meeting.  Sessions co-sponsored with the Societas Magica marked Year 18 of our co-sponsorship with that organization; one Session was co-sponsored for the first time with the Ibero-Medieval Association of North America (IMANA).

Next, we assemble proposed Sessions to be sponsored or co-sponsored for next year’s Congress.  With proposals to be submitted by 1 June 2022, we would expect to hear decisions from the Congress Committee in July for sessions approved for the general Call for Papers, with a deadline for submissions of proposals for papers, via the Congress website, by 15 September.

On 1 June, the proposals were successfully submitted.  We waited, hopefully, for the acceptance of these proposals.  Today we learn that they are.  And so, we announce them and their plans.

They are these, both sponsored and co-sponsored.

For the Congress, the listings of Sessions site the Sponsor and then any Co-Sponsor, so that finding specific Sessions among the groups of offerings on the Congress website would progress through the name of the organization, grouped primarily by the Sponsor, then the Co-Sponsor.

For information about how to propose papers for these sessions, see below.  First:  the sessions we prepare.  Then the instructions.

I.  Session Co-Sponsored with the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies

This session represents a new co-sponsorship with the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies at the Congress.  The proposal is designed to continue the series of RGME Sessions at the Congress on “Medieval Writing Materials”.

Front cover and ties of French notebook for 'Recettes' reusing a vellum bifolium from a medieval Latin Psalter. Photography © Mildred Budny

Front cover and ties of French notebook for ‘Recettes’ reusing a vellum bifolium from a medieval Latin Psalter. Photography © Mildred Budny

1. “Bound but not Gagged:
The Eloquence of Medieval Book Bindings”

Sponsor:  Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
Co-sponsor:  Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies

Organizer:  William H. Campbell (University of Pittsburgh — Greensburg) and
Co-Organizer:  Mildred Budny (Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)

Modality: Online

Medieval books communicate far more than the words on their pages.  They were frequently subjected to damage and repair, to loss and addition, to division and recombination. Their bindings bear witness to the moments in their history that altered and shaped them, or — in the case of still older books recycled into binding material — destroyed them. This session is dedicated to everything about the codex that is not its text, to what J. A. Szirmai called The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding.

[Note:  On the image shown here, see our blog:

  • A Reused Medieval Psalter Bifolium and its French Notebook.]

II.  Sessions Co-Sponsored with the Societas Magica

Logo of the Societas Magica, reproduced by permission

Societas Magica logo

In Year 19 of our Sessions co-sponsored with the Societas Magica, we prepare for three Sessions.

2. “Ars magica sub philosophia”?
The Rise of Learned Magic in the Late Middle Ages

Sponsor:  Societas Magica
Co-sponsor:
Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
Contact: Vajra Regan (University of Toronto, Centre for Medieval Studies)
([email protected])

Modality: In person

The Late Middle Ages saw the rise of increasingly sophisticated and intellectual forms of magic. Inevitably, this prompted a number of important thinkers to situate certain types of magic under philosophy. This session aims to bring together papers from scholars in diverse disciplines so as to better understand the various cultural, intellectual, and institutional causes responsible for the construction of medieval learned magic.

3–4. “Moving Parts and Pedagogy, Parts I–II”

Sponsor:  Societas Magica
Co-Sponsor:  Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Organizer:  David Porreca (University of Waterloo)

Modality:  In person

Part I: Teaching Magic and Other Occult Arts

Poster for "Astrology and Magic" Congress Session (7 May 2013)

Poster for “Astrology and Magic” Congress Session (7 May 2013)

Magic, alchemy, geomancy, and other occult arts were never part of the official curriculum in any medieval university faculty. Moreover, magical treatises abound in claims of legitimacy in terms of belonging alongside other more overtly recognized sciences. Nevertheless, the abundance of surviving treatises, manuals, and commentaries suggests that there must have been some means outside the bounds of officially recognized institutions for these bodies of knowledge and practices to have been taught, learned, and transmitted, despite the negative light often cast upon them in ‘mainstream’ circles. This session aims to investigate the pedagogy of such arts and practices.

Part II:  Teaching Astrology and other Liberal Arts

During the later Middle Ages, astrology began to play an ever more prominent role in university curricula. It was frequently merged with astronomy as one of the Seven Liberal Arts, and it became required knowledge for the practice of medicine. These developments created a need for new masters capable of rendering its intricacies intelligible to the next generation of doctors and other practitioners.  This session aims to examine how the pedagogy of astrology functioned, and how the teaching of that discipline fits alongside the rest of the Liberal Arts curriculum.

III: Session Co-Sponsored with Polytheism-Oriented Medievalists of North America (P.-O.M.o.N.A.)

This session would be the second (non-consecutive) year of co-sponsorship with this organization.

Poster for 'Classical Deities' Session co-cponsored with Pomona at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo 2019.

Pomona Session Kzoo 2019

5) “Words as Agents”

Sponsor:  Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
Co-sponsor
: Polytheism-Oriented Medievalists of North America (P-OMoNA)

Organizer:  Phillip Bernhardt-House
Co-Organizer
:   Mildred Budny

Modality:  Online

The idea of words as agents of specific actions, changes of status, or as means via which changes occur in the wider world is inherent in many forms of literate and verbal communication, underlying human social phenomena as diverse as legal systems, religious community formation and practices, and the practice of magic, amongst others.  Textual amulets, deeds, dedicatory inscriptions, and other written matter (even entire alphabets!) can convey notions of words’ agency.

This session explores a variety of these, reflected in specific examples from pre-modern periods and cultures, from the Iron Age to the Renaissance and across wide geographic ranges.

*****

Watch this space for developments in the progress of preparations for the 2023 Congress.

Presenting Submissions for Papers

You can submit your proposal for any one of these Sessions on the official Congress website through its submission portal.  The deadline for proposals is before or by 15 September 2022.  Then the choice of the program for each Session, with the Presenters and the Presider, will be submitted to the Congress Committee by 1 October 2022.

According to the Congress website (as of 20 July 2022):

A full list of all sessions of papers and roundtables (including their delivery modalities) can be viewed on our website (wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call)

You are welcome to correspond with potential session participants through other channels, but an official proposal can only be made and accepted through the Confex proposal portal (icms.confex.com/icms/2023/cfp.cgi)

This portal is also linked from our website. The deadline for submission is Thursday, Sept. 15.

2023 Congress Sessions

We hope for strong responses to the Call for Papers, in a suite of sessions co-sponsored by the Research Group, in accordance with our many years of participation in the Congress, both in person and online.  That tradition is described in our ‘archive’ of Events and Congress Sessions.

  • Congress Activities
  • Sponsored Sessions at the International Congress on Medieval Studies
  • Co-Sponsored Sessions at the International Congress on Medieval Studies

Our tradition includes the publication of Abstracts, as their authors allow, for the Papers and Responses of Sessions sponsored and co-sponsored by the RGME.

  • Abstracts of Congress Papers

As they appear, you may find individual Abstracts by Name and/or by Year of Presentation in our Lists of

  • Abstracts arranged alphabetically by Author
  • By Year.

*****

Post Script:
The Stories that Bindings Can Tell

Verso of Leaf from the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, Book III, chapter 7. Photography by Mildred Budny

Reused Bifolium, Verso, turned Sideways, as the Cover for a missing volume of Euthymius on the Psalms. Photography Mildred Budny.

[Note:  For information about this image, see our blog:

  • A Leaf from Gregory’s Dialogues reused to bind Euthymius.]

More stories to tell. Watch this space!

*****

Tags: History of Bindings, History of Magic, International Congress on Medieval Studies, POMONA, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, Societas Magica
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2022 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program

November 23, 2021 in Ibero-Medieval Association of North America, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Societas Magica, Uncategorized

2022 Congress Activities
Sponsored and Co-Sponsored by the RGME

at the 57th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Online
Monday, May 9 – Saturday, May 14, 2022

Le Parc Abbey, Theological Volume, Part B: Detail of Vellum Leaf.

Private Collection, Le Parc Abbey, Theological Volume, Part B: Detail of Vellum Leaf. Photography Mildred Budny.

Posted on 22 November 2021, with updates

Following the close of the 2022 Congress Preparations: Call for Papers, then the selection of proposals and arrangement of sequence of papers within the sessions, for the submission of their programs to the Congress Committee, we announce the Programs for our Sessions at the 2022 ICMS online in May 2021. As in previous years, we plan to hold a Business Meeting at the Congress.

All activities are to take place online, like 2021. See our 2021 Congress Report.

When appropriate, we can report the assignment of the scheduling of Sessions within the Congress Program overall.  Meanwhile, we publish the Abstracts of the Papers and Responses, as the authors might be willing. Note that the Abstracts for Congress Sessions are Indexed on our website by Author (in progress for 2022) and by Year (2022 included).

Now that [4 February 2022] the Congress Program has become available (see its website), we can post the assigned days and times for our activities, along with the assigned Numbers for the Sessions.  All our activities are scheduled for Wednesday and Friday, 11 and 13 May 2022.  Times are in Eastern Daylight Time.

Wednesday 11 May 2022

  • Session 173 (1 pm).  Medieval Writing Materials:   Processes, Products, and Case-Studies
  • Open Business Meeting (3 pm).  All are welcome.
  • Session 193 (7 pm).  Alter(n)ative Alphabets in the Iberian Middle Ages (co-sponsored with IMANA)|

Friday 13 May 2022

  • Session 310 (1 pm).  The Iconography of Medieval Magic (co-sponsored with the Societas Magica)
  • Session 324 (3 pm).  Pressing Politics:
         Interactions between Authors and Printers in the 15th and 16th Centuries

In due course, sometime in March, registration for the online Congress will commence.  After the close of the Congress, recorded content will be available to registrants from Monday, May 16, through Saturday, May 28.

Watch this space for updates. Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Aljamiado, Business Meeting, Divinatory Games, Hernán Núñez, History of Divination, History of Documents, History of Magic, History of Paper, Ibero-Medieval Association of North America, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Italian Paper, Libro del juego delas suertes, Manuscript studies, Marsilio Ficino, Medieval Writing Materials, Merchants of Venice, Morisco Manuscripts, Morisco Spells, Polish Coronation Sword, Societas Magica, Szczerbiec, The Lay of the Mantle, Venetian Documents
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2021 Congress Program in Progress

October 14, 2020 in Announcements, Business Meeting, Conference, Conference Announcement, Index of Medieval Art, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Societas Magica, Uncategorized

Activities of the
Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
Planned for the
56th International Congress on Medieval Studies
(13–16 > 10–15 May 2021)

Preparations

Following the Call for Papers due by 15 September 2020
and now the Announcement by the Medieval Institute on 16 October 2020

[Posted on 15 October 2020, with updates]

Update on 16 October 2020:

Today the Medieval Institute announced on its Congress page these changes for the 2021 Congress, which affect both the date-span and the activities, to occur only “virtually”:

Due to the ongoing health crisis, the 2021 International Congress on Medieval Studies hosted by Western Michigan University’s Medieval Institute will be held virtually, Monday to Saturday, May 10 to 15, 2021. More details will be released as they become available.

We will miss the camaraderie of the in-person experience. We look forward to hosting a vibrant and intellectually engaging virtual conference that offers plenty of opportunity for stimulating interaction at a distance. Please mark your calendar for these revised dates.

Watch this space.  We await instructions from the Congress Committee regarding the revised approach to Sessions.

Update on 5 November 2020:

As the plans advance for the now-virtual Congress, we announce that we continue to plan for the Sessions and the Open Business Meeting, but not for a Reception.  We co-sponsors for the Reception agree that it would make sense to wait for such an event under conditions in person.  We look forward to the new stages in preparing for a fully online presentation of the 2021 Congress.

*****

After the cancellation of the 2020 Congress (see our 2020 Congress Program Announced), preparations for the 2021 Congress permitted re-submitting the sessions which had been designed to take place in May 2020.  By popular request, we performed that re-submission for all 5 Sessions.  With approval by the Congress Committee, these Sessions joined the listings of all sessions on call on the Congress website — with additional details on our website, in our own 2021 Congress Call for Papers.  #kzoo2021.

New for this year, all proposals (or re-proposals from 2020) had to be made through a Confex system, as directed on the Congress website.  The new system imposed some teething problems for prospective participants, Session Organizers, and Sponsors.  These challenges emerged in several forms at various stages, including close to the several deadlines for submission of proposals for papers and of the proposed programs of the Sessions.

Especially under such conditions, it was helpful to have the benefit of collaborative consultations, among all our Organizers, and with our Sessions Co-Sponsor.  We thank Dr. Elizabeth Teviotdale of the Medieval Institute especially for her swift responses directly along the way, when our Director had to turn to her repeatedly for help, information, and advice.

In time, we will announce the Programs which we have chosen for the Sessions, now that the Call for Papers has completed on 15 September 2020, and following our choices for those Programs by 1 October 2020.  Before announcing our plans in detail, we await their Confirmation or adaptation by the Congress Committee.  We thank our Participants and Organizers for their contributions.

Adèle Kindt (1804–1884), The Fortune Teller (circa 1835). Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten. Image via Wikimedia Commons. A young lady, brightly lit and beautifully dressed, looks outward as an older woman, beneath a dark hood, holds a set of cards and stares at them with intent.

Adèle Kindt (1804–1884), The Fortune Teller (circa 1835). Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

The Plan We Had for the 2020 Congress

The Announcement for our Sessions and other Activities at the 2020 Congress describes what we planned.  As customary, we published the Abstracts of Papers, so as to record the intentions of speakers for their presentations. The Abstracts are accessible both through that Announcement and through the Indexes of published Abstracts by Year and by Author.

The Sessions included 3 Sessions sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence and 2 Sessions co-sponsored with the Societas Magica, in the 16th year of this co-sponsorship at the International Congress on Medieval Studies.

Like the 2015–2019 Congresses, we also planned for

  • an Open Business Meeting and
  • a co-sponsored Reception.

Even so, the Agenda for the postponed 2020 Business Meeting is available.  It takes into account the changes for Spring 2020:

  • 2020 Agenda.

The Plan We Have for 2021

We contemplate a similar approach to the 2021 Congress, conditions permitting.  [See Update above.]

For the 2021 Congress, we present the same Sessions, with a few changes.  Our pair of Sponsored Sessions dedicated to “Seal the Real I–II” remain as before.  The pair of co-sponsored Sessions dedicated to “Revealing the Unknown I–II” have some changes in the line-up.  One Session has a revised title (“Medieval Magic in Theory:  Prologues in Medieval Texts of Magic, Astrology, and Prophecy”).  For 2021, the Societas Magica has agreed also to co-sponsor this Session, so that the alignment of sponsorship has adapted to changing opportunities.

The 2021 Congress will be the 17th year of our co-sponsorship with the Societas Magica, in a constantly constructive partnership of friends, students, and colleagues.

As before, we have planned for an Open Business Meeting and a Co-Sponsored Reception.

For 2021, the co-sponsorship for a Reception joins the Research Group with the Societas Magica and The Index of Medieval Art, combining all 3 Sponsors in recent years.

[The virtual presentation of the Congress may allow for some form of Business Meeting and Reception.  Watch this Space.]

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Tags: Divination, History of Documents, History of Magic, Index of Medieval Art, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Manuscript studies, Medieval Seals, Skrying, Societas Magica
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2019 International Congress on Medieval Studies Report

September 14, 2019 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, Anniversary, Announcements, Bembino, Business Meeting, Conference, Events, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, POMONA, Reception, Reports, Societas Magica, Uncategorized

Report:  Events Sponsored and Co-Sponsored
by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
at the 54th International Congress on Medieval Studies
9–12 May 2019

[Published on 2 June 2019. With the achievement of our Activities at the 2019 Congress, we offer this Report (Abstracts of Papers Included), while we advance with preparations for the 2020 Congress. For updates, as they evolve, please watch this space and our Facebook Page.]

Central Rock Garden at WMU International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo May 2019. Photograph Mildred Budny.

Central Rock Garden. Photograph Mildred Budny.

In 2019, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence celebrates its 20th year as a nonprofit educational corporation and its 30th year as an international scholarly organization. Accordingly, we hold both customary and extra-special events, both at the Congress and elsewhere. For example, shortly before the 2019 Congress, we

We have a tradition of celebrating landmark Anniversaries, both for our organization, with organizations which which we share anniversaries, and for other events. As described, for example, in our 2014 Anniversary Reflections. For 2019, our events aim to represent, to explore, to promote, to celebrate, and to advance aspects of our shared range of interests, fields of study, subject matter, and collaboration between younger and established scholars, teachers, and others, in multiple centers.

Now we Report the successful accomplishment of our Activities at the 2019 Congress.

Who, What, Why Not

Logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (colour version)As in recent years, we co-sponsored Sessions with the Societas Magica (2 Sessions). It is the 14th year of this co-sponsorship, and the first year of co-sponsorship with the newly-founded organization Polytheism-Oriented Medievalists of North America (P.-O.M.O.N.A).

Also, like the 2015–2018 Congresses, we held

  • an Open Business Meeting, with a convenient downloadable 2019 Agenda, and
  • a co-sponsored Reception.

As usual, we publish the Program for the accepted Papers, as their Authors permit. Abstracts for previous Congresses appear in our Congress Abstracts, conveniently Indexed both by Year and by Author.

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Tags: Animals in Celtic Magical Texts, Beinecke Takamiya MS 23, Business Meeting, Celtic Magical Texts, Classical Deities, Classical Deities in Medieval Northern European Contexts, Dionysus, Ecstasy Defense, Grettisfærsla, Hêliand, History of Magic, Lapidaries, Mary Moody Emerson, Medieval manuscripts, Medieval Studies, P.-O.M.o.N.A., Reception, Societas Magica
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