[First published on our old website on 16 May 2012, with updates here]

Here we post news about the research, activities, and publications of our Officers, Trustees, Associates, Advisers, and Volunteers. We gladly celebrate their accomplishments with the wider world.

Newest News

Events

The Research Group Speaks: The Series (2021–)

Responding to the need to suspend in-person events, the RGME has begun a series of online episodes in the forms of lectures, interviews, workshops, webinars, roundtables, and the like.

• The Research Group Speaks: The Series

Symposia, Workshops, Masterclasses

• 

  2020 Symposium Poster 1

  2022 Spring and Autumn Symposia on “Structured Knowledge”
  (2 April and 15 October)

• 2022 Spring Symposium
  2 April online
  2022 Spring Symposium on “Structures of Knowledge”
• 2022 Autumn Symposium
  15 October online or hybrid (TBD)
  2022 Autumn Symposium on “Supports for Knowledge”

• 2020 Spring Symposium “From Cover to Cover”
  (intended for 13–14 March at Princeton University, but cancelled)
  2020 Spring Symposium: Save the Date

• 2019 Anniversary Symposium

Our 2019 Anniversary Symposium at Princeton University in April considered “The Roads Taken, Or, The Obstacle Course”.   As part of the Program, Masterclasses were given in Special Collections of Firestone Library and at the Princeton University Art Museum.

For earlier Symposia and other Events, see Seminars, Workshops, Colloquia, and Symposia.

Annual International Congress on Medieval Studies

At this Congress, held each May at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, we hold an Open Business Meeting and sponsor and co-sponsor Sessions, as well as a Reception.  After the cancellation of the 2020 Congress, the Congress in both 2021 and 2022 has been held online.  Whereas the Open Business Meetings can take place online, the Receptions are postponed until they might occur, once again, in person.

• 2022 Congress (online)
  2022 International Congress on Medieval Studies Program

• 2021 Congress (online)
  2021 International Congress on Medieval Studies Report

• 2020 Congress (cancelled)

With the approval of our 4 proposed sponsored and co-sponsored Sessions for the 2020 Congress, we issued the Call for Papers (CFP) and proposed the programs for these Sessions.   As the date approached, the entire Congress had to be cancelled.  See 2020 International Congress on Medieval Studies Program Announced.

• 2019 Congress

Our activities for the 2019 Congress , including 4 sponsored and co-sponsored Sessions as well as the Open Business Meeting and an Anniversary Reception, have been successfully accomplished.  A Report is in progress.

• 2018 Congress

We report the successful accomplishment of the 2018 International Congress on Medieval Studies.  We had 5 Sponsored and C0-Sponsored Sessions, a Co-Sponsored Reception, and an Open Business Meeting.  See our 2018 Congress Report, with illustrations, Posters, and Abstracts of Papers.

Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association (M-MLA)

With the organizational skills of our Associate Justin Hastings, we regularly have a Permanent Panel at the Annual Convention of the M-MLA, which moves from place to place each November.

• 2019 (Chicago)

We prepare for the 2019 Convention in November. See our 2019-M-MLA Call for Papers .

• 2018 (Kansas City)

At the 2018 Convention, our Panel addressed the theme of “Consuming Cultures and Manuscript Evidence”.  See our 2018 M-MLA Call for Papers and 2018 M-MLA.

The Newest Version of Our Multi-Lingual Font Bembino and Its Companion Booklet

We launch the next version of our multi-lingual digital font Bembino:  Following the launch of Version 1.4 (April 2017) and Version 1.5 (April 2018), we progressed to Version 1.6 (January 2019). The accompanying Bembino Booklet, updated for Version 1.6, describes the aims and purposes of the font, with font tables and specimens of texts in various languages.

Responding to requests, the series of Versions of Bembino add more languages and more features.  Version 1.5 includes, for example, Ethiopic by special request.  Thus it extends the usefulness of the font beyond the diacritics for Ethiopic — which, also by special request, Bembino has included from its very first issued Version (1.0).Also by request, Version 1.6 adds Old Rus and more Chinese.

Both the font and its accompanying Bembino Booklet are available for FREE on our Bembino WebPage.

We continue to expand the font, preparing for the next Version.  As always, we welcome suggestions and requests.  Please Contact Us.

A Multi-Lingual Booklet for Bembino

For Bembino, we also offer a booklet (published in March 2018), to stand alongside the “Bembino” Booklet which describes and illustrates the Font.  The newer Booklet, Multi-Lingual Bembino, shows examples of the font typeset in multiple languages.

In 24 pages, this booklet contains examples of some of the wide range of languages that can be typeset using the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence ‘Bembino’ font.  The chosen text is the same for all examples: Exodus chapter 20 verses 1–17, one of the sets of the ‘Ten Commandments’ in the Old Testament.

The exemplified languages appear in alphabetical order by their English name (so ‘Welsh’ rather than ‘Cymraeg’), from ‘Afrikaans’ to ‘Yoruba’.  Many of the languages that use basic Latin are omitted, as are the languages for some of the former Russian Federation countries that use Cyrillic.

More about this booklet, available for FREE, here.  Its versions have, for example, added Old Norse and revised the Hungarian specimen.

Our 2019 Anniversary Year

We held a series of celebrations for our Anniversary Year in 2019, when the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence  celebrated its 20th year as a nonprofit educational corporation, and its 30th year as an international scholarly organization.  The styles of our Anniversary celebrations are worthy of recollection:  As here, here, and here.

We welcome suggestions, requests, and contributions.  Please join us and Contact Us.

End-of-Year Countdowns

As 2017 drew to a close and 2018 approached, we recollected our accomplishments over the year in a “Countdown to 2018”, as a series of posts on our Research Group FaceBook Page, Part I to Part IX. We celebrate these accomplishments and heartily thank our organizers, donors, hosts, sponsors, trustees, associates, contributors, and volunteers.  This progression prepared the groundwork for our next Anniversary Year.

The Annual Appeal

Our Annual Appeals address our needs, activities, and plans, focusing upon the current state of activities and aims.

For example, preparing for 2019, our Appeal focused upon the Anniversary celebrations.  Its approach drew upon the success of our 2018 Appeal.  Preparing for 2018, the end-of-year 2017 Annual Appeal Letter describes our activities, goals, requirements, and wishes for donations in funds and in kind.  In 2019, for the first time, we also held an Appeal online through our Director’s Giving Tuesday Fundraiser.  These Appeals have been renewed each year, along with our Director’s Birthday Fundraiser through the RGME FaceBook Page.

Responding to restrictions on in-person events from 2020 onward, the Appeals of 2021 and 2022 additionally incorporate requests for support for the development of our online events.  These events include the series of episodes for The Research Group Speaks which began in July 2021, the return to our tradition of Symposia with the pair of 2022 Spring and Autumn Symposia on “Structured Knowledge”, and future plans.

We thank all our donors for their contributions.  Both the funds and the encouragement give much inspiration.

You might donate easily though our Contributions and Donations.  Your donations to our nonprofit educational corporation may be tax-deductible.  We thank you for your help!

More Honorary Associates

More Honorary Associates have joined the Research Group.  See the updated list below and the full list among our Officers, Associates, and Volunteers.

*****

The Takamiya Collection of Medieval Manuscripts and Documents now at the Beinecke Library

The Takamiya Collection of Medieval English Manuscripts assembled by our Associate Toshiyuki Takamiya over decades since 1968 has now moved to the Beinecke Library at Yale, where it finds a welcoming home.  In 2017, this transfer yields an impressive series of events and an illustrated catalogue in full color:

• an exhibition at the Library showcases highlights of this collection together with selected manuscripts in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library: Making the Medieval English Book, on display from 1 September to 10 December 2017,
• an associated conference on 6–7 October 2017 focuses on the scope of the collection, with contributions by numerous experts (including some Associates of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, among them Toshiyuki Takamiya himself): Conference, and
• a published catalogue illustrates and describes the collection:  Raymond Clemens, Diane Ducharme, and Emily Ulrich, A Gathering of Medieval English Manuscripts: The Takamiya Collection at the Beinecke Library (Yale University, 2017).

It is a special treat to see both on display at the Beinecke and in the exhibition Catalogue the very Takamiya fragments which, with Toshi’s characteristic generosity, visited the Parker Library and served as focus for our 1994 Seminar on “Medieval Manuscript Fragments”.  For example:  Takamiya MSS 21, 89, and 90 (described and illustrated by Clemens et al., pages 36–37 and 42).

We look forward to learning more from the Takamiya Collection Conference.

*****

People: Officers, Associates & Volunteers

We celebrate transitions, accomplishments, awards, publications.

Retirement

Adelaide Bennett Hagens

Congratulations to our Trustee Adelaide Bennett Hagens upon her retirement on 1 July 2016 from the Index of Christian Art at Princeton University. With thanks for her contributions to the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence as a faithful Trustee, we now present a Page on our website devoted to reporting her list of publications and interests: Adelaide Bennett Hagens. We look forward to the next stages of her research.

Congratulations for the 2 Sessions in Adelaide’s honor, organized by the Index of Christian Art at Princeton University, at the 52nd International Congress on Medieval Studies in May 2017.   Details and some pictures in our 2017 international Congress on Medieval Studies Report.

And now congratulations also for the publication of the collection of essays as Tributes to Adelaide Bennett Hagens:  Manuscripts, Iconography, and the Late Medieval Viewer, edited by Pamela A. Patton and Judith K. Golden (Tournhout, Belgium, 2017), including essays by some Research Group Trustees and Associates.

Congress Sessions in Honor of Scholars, Teachers, Colleagues

Adelaide Bennett Hagens

See above!

Richard K. Emmerson

Congratulations also to our Trustee Richard K. Emmerson for the Sessions in his honor at the 52nd International Congress on Medieval Studies. See, for example, our 2017 International Congress on Medieval Studies Report.

Publications & Awards

       Herbert R. Broderick

Congratulations to Herbert for the award for his publication on Moses the Egyptian in the Illustrated Old English Hexateuch:  London, British Library Cotton MS Claudius B.iv (University of Notre Dame Press, 2017).  (We celebrate the book below.)   Details of the award on the way.

Emily Rose

Congratulations to our Sponsor, Emily Rose, for the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award of The Phi Beta Kappa Society for her first book, The Murder of William of Norwich: The Origins of the Blood Libel in Medieval Europe (Oxford University Press, 2015). The Ralph Waldo Emerson Award honors “scholarly studies that contribute significantly to interpretations of the intellectual and cultural condition of humanity, including works in the fields of history, philosophy and religion as well as such fields as anthropology and the social sciences.” Previous winners include such eminent authors as Richard Hofstadter, Howard Mumford Jones, Peter Gay, Eugen Weber, Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, Peter Brown, Carl N. Degler, Gordon S. Wood, Caroline Walker Bynum, Jill Lepore and David Nirenberg. Currently Emily is Visiting Scholar in the Program in Medieval Studies at Harvard University.

Her generous hospitality and sponsorship for Research Group Events over the years are recorded gladly on many pages of our website. One of the many happy occasions is the 2014 Anniversary Party. We look forward with great interest to the next stages in her research, including her next book.

       Timothy C. Graham

Congratulations to our Associate, Prof. Timothy C. Graham, for his 2016 CARA Excellence in Teaching Award from the Medieval Academy of America!  We first met Tim when he arrived as the Research Assistant for the 5-year Leverhulme Trust Research Project on ‘Anglo-Saxon and Related Manuscripts’ at the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (1989–1994).  As one of the Founder Members of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, which emerged from that Project, Tim generously contributed his dedication and expertise to the intensive research process and its many discoveries.  We admire his progress over the years as scholar, colleague, administrator, and teacher, and express good wishes for his every endeavor.

Interviews

Some People Tell Our Story

       Leslie J. French

The first in a Series of Interviews for our website invites our Associate Leslie J. French to describe the steps through which our distinctive design approach developed.  His designs are responsible for, among many other things since the beginning of our organization, most of our Publications (but not our website, the donation of our Webmaster). They include our Logo, the Illustrated Catalogue of Insular, Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, our Illustrated Bulletin ShelfLife, our Style Manifesto, our Posters and Program Booklets, and our copyright multilingual font Bembino.  That this font, and the other designs, are his donation to the Research Group, is subject for our thanks and celebration.

Responding to a set of questions, Leslie decided to present the responses in printed form, in a booklet set in our font and with our design principles.  The interviewer’s description presents the Interview with Our Font and Layout Designer.  Enjoy!

       Mildred Budny

A radio interview with our Director airs on Wednesday, 12 October, on The Library Café, hosted by Thomas Hill, Art Librarian of Vassar College. The series can be heard live on WVKR FM 91.3 Wednesday afternoons between 12:00 Noon and 1:00 p.m. ET (17.00-18.00 GMT) during the academic year.

Delighted to join Tom’s series, our Director reflects on formative educational experiences, ranging from the Sidwell Friends School and Vassar College, to University College London, the University of Cambridge, and beyond. Names are Named. Including some dedicated teachers, patrons, and friends, and some favorite libraries and manuscripts.  Others, too, but that would be a longer program or a follow-up. Meanwhile, we offer a happy illustrated souvenir of A Visit to the Library Café.

Tom’s invitation has inspired a series of reports and reflections, with the benefit, wisdom, and empathy of Hindsight, from the Research Group Archives recording for our website the remarkable series of Seminars and Workshops on “The Evidence of Manuscripts” which accompanied our first Research Project and launched our long-term program of Events and Conference Activities.  As the series of reports has unfolded over the summer of 2016, some of our Associates have said that they wished that they had known about us then and could have attended.  Here is a way to be there, and without the jetlag.  Enjoy!

   A CopyCat Editor also Volunteers

Just for fun and pun, an interview with our CopyCat Editor In Residence, a lovely Purrsian cat who sometimes, when we have the occasion to house-sit for her, gives expert advice and encouragement for the preparations of our Events.  Naturally, we serve as willing Lap for her as LapCat, while we work at the LapTop, all in LapTipTop Fashion.

As volunteer CopyCat Editor, she often sprawls across our proof-sheets or photographs (with permission).  In this way, she beautifully Lies Down On The Job.

Our first exclusive interview with her — Center Fold in our blog — has led, by popular request, to the opening of her very own Fan Page.

Appointments and Promotions

Clair Fanger

Congratulations to our Associate Claire Fanger for the accomplishment of tenure as Associate Professor in the Religion Department at Rice University! Her interests and publications are many and varied. Following her work over the years, partly through our collaboration in the co-sponsored Sessions with the Societas Magica at the annual International Congress on Medieval Studies, we gladly celebrate this next stage in her teaching and research.

Publications

Judith H. Oliver and Henry D. Schilb

Congratulations to our Associates, Dr. Henry D. Schilb and Prof. Emerita Judith H. Oliver, for the publication of their articles in the collection of essays, edited by Susan Boynton and Diane J. Reilly, on Resounding Images:  Medieval Intersections of Art, Music, and Sound (Brepols, 2016).

Sean M. Winslow

Congratulations to our Associate Sean M. Winslow for the completion in November 2015 of his Ph.D. dissertation for the University of Toronto on Ethiopian Manuscript Culture: Practices and Contexts, now available for download.  A publication we have been waiting for!  For example, as we were preparing to launch our multilingual font Bembino, his request for Ethiopic diacritics expanded its scope fundamentally.  We are glad for these requests.

Jesse D. Hurlbut

We welcome the publication of ‘The Mystic Lamb of Ghent: Aldermen’s Seal, Altarpiece, and Tableau Vivant‘ by our Associate and Webmaster, Jesse D. Hurlbut, in the collection of essays on Medieval Coins and Seals: Constructing Identity, Signifying Power, edited by Susan Solway (Brepols, 2015).  We learned of this paper through a preview, in connection with our own sponsored Research Project on Medieval Seals, Seal Matrices & Documents.   Reading a preview of this paper with admiration, we have looked forward to its publication, now accomplished.  It focuses on an intricate aspect of a complex, dynamic subject, which we find fascinating.  We congratulate him on his move to the Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz in 2017.

Gregory T. Clark

Congratulations to our new Associate, Prof. Gregory T. Clark, for his new publication of Art in a Time of War: The Master of Morgan 453 and Manuscript Illumination in Paris during the English Occupation (1419–1435 (2016). We have eagerly awaited its appearance.  This richly illustrated book, published by the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, grew from Greg’s doctoral dissertation (Princeton, 1988).  The analysis of so rich a range of manuscripts is illuminating indeed.

We thank him for the gift of a copy of the book.  Happily, we show the front cover of its dust jacket.  The image shows the illustration in a Book of Hours of the ‘Angels Calling on Jewish Men to Receive the Holy Spirit’ (corresponding to the Acts of the Apostles 2:43), painted by the ‘Master of Morgan 453’ in Paris circa 1415–1420.

The illustration appears in New York, Morgan Library and Museum, MS M.1000, fol. 148v. We show its full page, and encourage you to visit the full series of illustrations in this book displayed on the Corsair website. The same Master’s work is also on view for Morgan Library and Museum, MS M.453, another Book of Hours in the same collection. Beautiful work.

Paul Corby Finney

Congratulations to Paul Corby Finney for the magnificent set of illustrated volumes which offer a comprehensive guide to the complex, wide-ranging, and endlessly fascinating materials which represent the legacy, and challenges, of Early Christian Art and Archaeology.  A labor of love, pertinacity, resourcefulness, dedication, and generosity, his editorship of The Eerdmans Encyclopedia of Early Christian Art and Archaeology (2017) has resulted, happily, in a substantial publication which graces our shelves in a prominent, and prized place.

We thank Corby for his generous gift of the books, and we happily report that already they have become a regular companion as our researches and conversations about a myriad of subjects guide us to their pages for explanations, descriptions, bibliographical references, and directions for further explorations.  Excellent!

Herbert R. Broderick

Congratulations to Herbert for the publication of his dedicated study of Moses the Egyptian in the Illustrated Old English Hexateuch:  London, British Library Cotton MS Claudius B.iv (University of Notre Dame Press, 2017). Until the online publication of the full digital facsimile of the manuscript in color, it was necessary to study it in person, in photographs, and/or in the full printed facsimile (Copenhagen, 1974, mostly in black-and-white).

It is a manuscript that we know well, from various perspectives, and for some time we have learned from Herbert’s conversations and lectures as this project advanced.  For example, Herbert spoke about his long-term work toward the book for our 2014 Colloquium on When the Dust Has Settled.  Its Booklet includes the Abstract for his paper, entitled “Me and the Man of La Mancha:  Pursuing the Impossible Dream (Considering Moses in the Illustrated Old English Hexateuch)”.

It is a treat to see the accomplished project!

Valerio Cappozzo

Congratulations to Valerio for the publication of the Dizionario dei sogni nel Medioevo. Il Somniale Danielis in manoscritti letterari.  Biblioteca dell’«Archivum Romanicum» – Serie I: Storia, Letteratura, Paleografia, vol. 466 (2018).

Thanks to Valerio’s skills, collegiality, and generosity, we have learned about this project along some stages of its preparation and refinement, through his papers and his session for us and the Societas Magica at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in 2015 and 2012, as well, magically, through his Booklet for his 2015 Session. Gladly we welcome this illustrated Booklet among our Publications. You may find it freely here: 2015 Congress Accomplished. We thank him for his inspiration, vision, expertise, and friendship.

Valerio’s FaceBook Page for the published volume and its ‘appearances’ in various presentations, reviews, and notices allows us to keep up with its progress and its audience even after the printed publication itself: The Medieval Dream Dictionary.

In his words:

The Medieval Dream Dictionary, composed of entries coming from Latin and vernacular Italian versions of the Somniale Danielis – known as The Dreambook of Daniel the Prophet – which range from the ninth century to the first printed editions through 1550. This manual illustrates more than 3200 years of the history of dream interpretation from Ancient Egypt to today’s web pages. The Dictionary, which gathers this material for the first time, provides not only a better understanding of the medieval and Renaissance oneiric imaginary, but will also allow a practical introduction to the study of literary and artistic dream symbolism.

New Associates

With thanks for their contributions and support, we welcomed new Honorary Invited Associates in our Anniversary Year of 2019:

• Diane Ducharme
  Archivist, Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University Diane Ducharme

• Bernard Meisner
  New York, New York Bernard Maisner and bernardmaisner)

• Prof. Éric Palazzo
  University of Poitiers (Eric Palazzo) and Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Eric Palazzo)

• Prof. Ronald D Patus
  Special Colections, Vassar College (Ronald D. Patkus on Vassar College Special Collections, Ronald D. Patkus, and Ronald D. Patkus)

• Vajra Regan
  Centre for Mediaeval Studies, University of Toronto (Vajra Regan)

• Ilona Tuomi
  Department of Early and Medieval Irish, University College Cork (Ilona Tuomi)

With thanks for their contributions and support, we applaud the Honorary Invited Associates of 2016–2018, here in alphabetical order.

• Dr. Benjamin L. Albritton
  Stanford University Libraries, Stanford University (Benjamin Albritton)

• Prof. Alison Altstatt
  Music Department, University of Northern Iowa (Alison Altstatt)

• Daniel Attrell
  Classical Studies, University of Waterloo (Dan Attrell)

• Prof. Charles E. Barber
  Department of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University (Charles Barber, Professor)

• Prof. Gregory T. Clark
  Department of Art and Art History, Sewanee: The University of the South (Greg Clark)

• Dr. Raymond Clemens
  Beinecke Manuscript and Rare Book Library, Yale University (Raymond Clemens and Raymond Clemens)

• Dr. Michael Allman Conrad
  Kunsthistorisches Institut, University of Zurich (Michae Allman Conrad)

• Prof. Emerita Helen Damico
  Department of English, University of New Mexico (Helen Damico)

• Mr. Augustine Dickinson
  Centre for Mediaeval Studies, University of Toronto (Augustine Dickinson)

• Dr. Martha E. Easton
  Princeton (Martha Easton, Ph.D.)

• Prof. Emeritus Paul Corby Finney
  University of Missouri (Paul Corby Finney)

• Prof. Emerita Paula Gerson
  Florida State University (Paula Gerson and Paula Gerson Honored at Columbia Symposium)

• Ms. Marilyn Hansen
  Department of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University (Marilyn Hansen)

• Dr. Justin Hastings
  Department of English, Loyola University Chicago (MAGS Excellence in Teaching Award)

• Dr. Eric Johnston
  Rare Books and Manuscript Library, The Ohio State University (Eric Johnston)

• Dr. Thomas E. Hill
  Art Librarian, Vassar College (Thomas Hill)

• Prof. Robert Kaster
  Department of Classics, Princeton University (Bob Kaster)

• Dr. Debra Cashion
  Digital Humanities Librarian, Saint Louis University (Debra Cashion and Debra Cashion)

• Sally V. Keil
  Staatsburg, New York (Sally V. Keil, Sally V. Keil, and Sally Van Wagenen Keil)

• Dr. Andrew Kraebel, Department of English, Trinity University (Andrew Kraebel and @hermitofhampole)

• Prof. Michael Kuczynski
  Department of English, Tulane University, New Orleans (Michael Kyczynski and Testimonials)

• Dr. Kevin Maringer
  Department of Microbial and Cellular Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford (Kevin Maringer and Dr Kevin Maringer)

• Prof. Outi Merisalo
  Department of Languages, University of Jyväskylä, Finland (Late Medieval and Early Modern Libraries as Knowledge Repositories, Guardians of Tradition and Catalysts of Change (LaMeMoLi), Outi Merisalo, Outi Merisalo, and Outi Merisalo)

• Mr. Jesse Meyer
  Pergamena, Montgomery, New York

• Prof. Alastair Minnis
  Department of English, Yale University (Alastair Minnis)

• Prof. Emerita Lea T. Olsan
  Department of English and Foreign Languages, University of Louisiana at Monroe (Faculty and Administrative Emeriti and Lea T. Olsan)

• Dr. Pamela Patton
  Index of Medieval Art (formerly Index of Christian Art), Princeton University (Pamela Patton)

• Prof. Eric Ramírez-Weaver
  Department of Art, University of Virginia (Eric Ramirez-Weaver)

• Dr. Lynn Ransom
  Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, University of Pennsylvania (SIMS Staff and Lynn Ransom)

• Prof. Michael Ryan
  Department of History, University of New Mexico (Michael Ryan)

• Dr. William M. Voelkle
  Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York (William Voelkle’s Blog)

• Prof. Louis A. Waldman, Department of Art and Art History, University of Texas at Austin
  (Dr. Louis A. Waldman and Louis A. Waldman)

• Prof. Emeritus Thomas Waldman
  Department of History, University of Pennsylvania (Thomas Waldman)

Our Associates are named in full here.  So glad for their help!

Our New Emissary

As part of our Activities at the 2017 International Congress on Medieval Studies, reported partly in the 2017 Congress Report and our Business Meetings, we created a new position and appointed our first Emissary.  Congratulations to Stavros Stavroulias!

(P.S. Our Honorary Trustee, James Marrow, suggests that we might also appoint a Nuncio. Even more than one. Volunteers?)

Our Volunteer CopyCat Editor

An interview with our specially appointed CopyCat Editor describes her traits, habits, and contributions to our activities: Center Fold.

By popular request, following this event, we formed the Mistie Fan Club, with her very own Fan Page.

Reports and Booklets

• December 2017 Annual Appeal Letter
• May 2017 Business Meeting Agenda addressing Activities, Prospects, Needs, Aims
• Updated Booklet (2017) for Bembino Version 1.4, accompanying the Launch of Version 1.4

• December 2016 Annual Appeal Letter
  Celebrating our Progress and our Goals, with a call for help with Contributions and Donations in funds, in pro bono expertise, and in kind
• December 2015 Annual Appeal Letter
  Celebrating our Progress and our Goals, with a call for help with Contributions both in funds and in kind

• Our second Annual Report for the 2016 June CARA Newsletter (page 13), reissued on our website as the
  Annual Report for the 2016 CARA Newsletter with live links and with illustrations: 2016 Report for CARA
• Our first Annual Report for the 2015 CARA Newsletter, in our first year as an Affiliate of CARA, the Committee on Centers and Regional Associations of the Medieval Academy of America; the Report is reissued on our website with live links
  (Activities for 2015 and Plans for 2016)

• The revised version of our Style Manifesto (2015), updated and laid out with our copyright font Bembino

• Program Booklet for our 2015 Congress Session on Predicting the Past
  

  2016 Symposium Program Booklet Cover Page with border.

• May 2016 Business Meeting Agenda addressing Activities, Prospects, Needs, Aims
• May 2015 Business Meeting Agenda

• Program Booklet for our March 2016 Symposium on ‘Words & Deeds’

• Program Booklet for our May 2016 Congress Sessions on ‘Crusading and the Byzantine Legacy in the Northwestern Black Sea Region’ and ‘The Medieval Balkans as Mirror’

• News of our new blog on Manuscript Studies in the September 2015 ‘Manuscripts On My Mind’ Newsletter, where the first 5 posts of the blog debut as a group

• Continuing posts for this blog, now with its own Contents List
  List of the Posts grouped by Subjects, Thumbnails Included

• 

  Cover for the Report on ‘Two Detached Manuscript Leaves containing New Testament Texts in Old Armenian’ by Leslie J. French for the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, with a detail of Leaf I verso, column a lines 10-12, with the opening of Acts 23:12.

  Report on New Testament Leaves in Old Armenian
  A post in our blog on New Testament Leaves in Old Armenian introduces the downloadable Booklet, which identifies the text on a pair of detached leaves and sets them in the context of some other leaves which survive from the same dismembered manuscript
  This report displays Armenian characters designed for the next version of our copyright multilingual font Bembino

For their help in preparing these reports, we thank

• our Associate Lisa Fagin Davis (Editor of the CARA Newsletter)
• our Associate Valerio Cappozzo (Organizer of his 2015 Session and Co-Editor of its Booklet)
• Susan L’Engle (Editor of the ‘Manuscripts On My Mind’ Newsletter)
• our Associate Ioana Georgescu (Co-Editor of the 2015 Business Meeting Agenda)
• our Associates Barbara Shailor, Lisa Fagin Davis, and Genevra Kornbluth, as well as Raymond Clemens, Brigitte Bedoz-Rezak, and Dot Porter (Donors of Images for the Posters and Program Booklet for the ‘Words & Deeds’ Symposium)
• Susan L’Engle (Editor of the ‘Manuscripts On My Mind’ Newsletter)
• our Associate Florin Curta (Co-Organizer of the 2016 Sessions and Adviser for their Booklet)
• our Editor-in-Chief

For their authorship, we thank

• our Associate Leslie J. French (‘New Testament Leaves in Old Armenian’)
• our principal Blogger, our Director Mildred Budny (‘Manuscript Studies’)
• the Authors of Abstracts of Papers for our Booklets (‘Predicting the Past’, ‘Words & Deeds’, ‘Crusading and the Byzantine Legacy’, and ‘The Medieval Balkans as Mirror’)
• the Princeton Trustees of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (Appeal Letters).

For their responses to our Annual Appeals in succession, we thank all our Donors, Sponsors & Contributors.

Events & Congress Activities

I. Seminars, Symposia, Colloquia & Other Events

The Events sponsored and co-sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence include seminars, masterclasses, exhibitions, workshops, colloquia, and symposia, which take place at various centers. These events stand apart from the Congress sessions and other activities (exhibitions, meetings, and receptions) which the Research Group sponsors and co-sponsors at the annual International Congress on Medieval Studies, as reported in our Congress Archive.

Our Events focus upon a wide variety of subjects and approaches, promoting discourse between fields of study and between experts, students, and the wider world.

2016 Symposium on Words & Deeds

Our Symposium at Princeton University took place in March 2016.  It continues the ‘New series’ of Symposia, which followed the Symposia on ‘The Transmission of the Bible’:

• Gathering At the Threshold (November 2009)

• Identity & Authenticity (March 2013)

• Recollections of the Past (May 2014)

• Words & Deeds (March 2016)

Updates and Reports appear in our Events Blog.

Sponsored Panels at the M-MLA Conference in November 2016 and 2017

For the first time, in 2016 the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence sponsored two Panels at the Conference of the Midwest Modern Language Association, held in November at St. Louis, Missouri.  They were organized by Justin Hastings (Department of English, Loyola University College, Chicago).  In keeping with the conference’s theme of “Border States”, it focused upon Marginalia in Manuscripts and Printed Books in North America.

The success of these panels led to a continuation of the new tradition, with another sponsored panel at the 2017 Conference, held in November at Cleveland. Organized by Justin Hastings, this panel focused upon “Artists, Activists, and Manuscript Evidence”.  Its subjects, responses, and venue have an illustrated 2017 M-MLA Panel Report.

News & Views

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II. Activities at the Annual Congress = the International Congress on Medieval Studies

These Congress Activities include Sessions, both Sponsored and Co-Sponsored.

On occasion at the Congresses, we also hold

• Photographic Exhibitions
• Business Meetings and
• Parties or Receptions.
  Illustrated Reports describe the 2014 Anniversary Reception and the 2015 Reception, with an illustrated record of the Reception also at the 2016 Congress.

The full series of activities at the Congress, their preparations, and updates, appears in our Congress Archive.

The Annual Congresses

As each next Congress Program comes into view, we announce the Preparations for our Sessions and Activities, including the Call for Papers (once the proposed Sessions have been accepted by the Congress Committee), and then we announce the Program (once the Call for Papers has completed its span and our selection has concluded).  Updates where appropriate, for example as Room Assignments might change.  Also, as is our custom, we aim to publish the Abstracts for the Papers, once the Program has settled into place, and as the Authors allow.  The Indexes of Authors, both by Year and by Surname, provide a useful — and, dare we say? — impressive cast of contributors.

Publications Online & in Print

We offer a full list (1990–) of our Publications.   Many are available freely for download.

The current version of our high-quality copyright digital multilingual font Bembino is available freely for download and use.  You see it in practice here on our website.  The newest version is 1.4 (April 2017).

Our E-Newsletter

The first issue of the RGME-Newsletter ShelfMarks (Autumn, 2014) contains a review of the series volume on Patronage: Power & Agency in Medieval Art (2012) and the first two volumes ([formerly] available freely) of the series of Index of Christian Art Online Publications, recording the conference proceedings devoted to The Digital World of Art History, I (2012) and II (2013).  The review appears here.

The first issue of the Newsletter ShelfMarks, co-edited by Mildred Budny and our Associate Jim Tigwell, appears in full:
ShelfMarks, Volume 1, Number 1 (PDF).  You might Subscribe here.

Papers From Our Congress Sessions

On our website, we have begun to publish some Papers from our Congress Sessions.

The first is David W. Sorenson’s Paper on ‘Semi-Official Counterfeiting within the French Mints 1380–1422 and What It Tells Us’, presented at the 2015 Congress. The paper is available freely for download.

The second is Mildred Budny’s Paper on ‘No Snap Decisions: Challenges of Manuscript Photography’ at the 1995 Congress. In the form of a webpage, this publication combines the Abstract already published in 1994 with the Paper itself, plus added links, notes, illustrations, observations, and updates.

Some recent Publications are listed above, among the Reports.

Promotional Offer for The Illustrated Catalogue

In a new development (February 2016), we present a
Special Promotional Offer
for our largest publication and co-publication so far.
This is the Illustrated Catalogue of
Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and Early Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art
at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (2 volumes).

See the details of the Promotional Offer.

The ‘Illustrated Handlist’

Several years in the making, our Illustrated Handlist describes and illustrates the items from a cumulative assembly of medieval and early modern manuscripts, documents, and printed materials which have undergone conservation, photography, and detailed research by Mildred Budny.

The unfolding publication of the Handlist, in stages, includes some detailed Reports of individual Items in our Blog on Manuscript Studies, as indicated in its Contents List; in some Papers for our Congress Sessions, as indicated among their Abstracts; and elsewhere.

The overview of the Handlist, in the form of a unified Contents List grouped mainly by category of writing media, language(s), and textual genres, identifies the individual materials, their contents, their dates or probable dates and places of origin, their sources of acquisition, and other elements of interest.  The Handlist subdivides into parts and sub-sections according to the

• writing medium or media (parchment, paper, composite, etc)
• type of text (manuscript or fragment thereof, document, printed material)
• language (Latin and/or vernacular, with 1 addition to a Latin early printed book in Greek).

Within each part or section, the sequence is more-or-less chronological, insofar as dating criteria are available.

Blog on ‘Manuscript Studies’

Our Manuscript Studies blog (2015–) continues to grow, now with its own Contents List.

The posts for each year through 2022 continue to appear.  See the blog and the Contents List.

Examples of the range might be glimpsed in the posts for 2016:

• Three Leaves from a Latin Religious Pocket Handbook with portions of Vulgate Psalm 77, a text on Christian Liturgical Observance, and Eadmer’s Treatise on the Conception of the Blessed Mary

• A Leaf from the Office of the Dead, with a Recollection of the late Jennifer O’Reilly (1943–2016)

• Part-Leaf from a Large-Format Lectionary in Latin with Parts of I Maccabees 10 and Homily 38 on the Gospels by Gregory the Great

• A Part-Leaf from the ‘Life of Saint Blaise’, from a Latin lectionary (February portion, presumably) reused — still — as the cover for an 18th-century paper notebook with French receipts for the area of Plauzat in the Auvergne

• Written in the Stars, with a pair of single, continuous, leaves in Latin from the end of a Roman Breviary rounding up with lections from Patristic sermons emphatically denying the powers of astrology, inspired by the Epiphany and the role of the Star(s) in divine destiny

• Spoonful of Sugar, with a bifolium from a Latin treatise on medical substances, retrieved from its reuse as a binding cover somewhere

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  The CopyCat Editor Lying Down On The Job. Photography © Mildred Budny, reproduced by permission.

  Center Fold, with a light-hearted “interview” with our new CopyCat Editor, who took a paws-on approach to the process of editing the Program Booklet for our 2016 Symposium

• Cover-Up, with a bifolium from a late 13th or early 14th-century Latin Psalter or Breviary still in position, reused on the cover of an 18th-century paper notebook with Receipts in French from Dijon and its region, extending mostly from the French Revolution to the Napoleonic Wars

• Lillian Vail Dymond, with a personal view of the impact of adoption and name changes upon the bureaucratic record of an individual across time and place, with observations for the study of medieval records as well as modern ones, in a post by our new Associate and Guest-Blogger, Linde M. Brocato

• 

  Private collection, Justinian wrapper, Initial I. Reproduced by permission.

  More Leaves from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 51’, with the identification of 2 detached leaves from a Latin manuscript of Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics made at Erfurt by 1365 and dismembered by 1923 at the hands of Otto Ege, like the subjects of some of our other blogposts2016 Symposium and its Booklet

• It’s a Wrap, with the report of a leaf from the Latin Novels of Justinian’s Code, which, made most probably at Bologna or Padua circa 1260-1280 and provided with some glosses as commentary, found reuse as a wrapper, pasted and folded, with added tie, for other stuff of one sort or another

• A Part-Leaf from Bede’s Homilies on the Gospels, with the identification of a fragment from a 14th-century copy, perhaps made in France, of Bede’s Homily II, 6, on Mark 7:31–37 for Holy Saturday, marked for lection, and reused as part of a cover for a land ledger, but now retrieved as a scrap on its own

Watch for more to come.  Follow the blog and see its Contents List.

From the Archives

As the Research Group continues to report its history, sampling the records of its activities for presentation on this website, we notice some highlights among recent posts and pages.

• Our Logo

• Image-Processing and Manuscript Studies (15 January 1994) in the series of Research Group Seminars on the Evidence of Manuscripts (1990‒1995

Indexes of Authors of Abstracts of Papers for Events, including both

• those Seminars and

• the Symposia, Workshops & Colloquia

These Indexes perform similar services for the Events as do those (already in place by 2015) for the Congress Papers.

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Image Credits

P.S.  For information about the image of an opened book shown here at the right,
view our blogpost on The Mass of Saint Gregory, Illustrated.

We thank Joshua O’Driscoll of The Morgan Museum & Library for aiding our exploration of permission to reproduce the image from MS M.1000, shown above.

The image at the top of this post shows three lines from ‘Ege Manuscript 41’ (subject of one of our blogposts), reproduced by permission.  Within the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, in Latin, they open Book III, Chapter 13, which begins Nuper (‘Recently’), and considers things worthy of memory.

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Suggestions Wanted

Do you have news to report?
Awards or promotions to celebrate?
Projects to talk about?
New publications to mention, whether books, articles, reviews, notes, or other forms?

Would you like to send a copy of your publications to us?  For example, we welcome donations to our library, and we look for publications to review or discuss.

We gladly cite the publications which emerge from the Papers for our Conference Sessions, Symposia, and other Events. Examples include the papers by Ortal-Paz Saar and by Ida Sinkevič from the 2013 Symposium on ‘Identity & Authenticity’ and by László Sándor Chardonnens from the 2013 International Congress on Medieval Studies. We add these citations as we come across them or as you provide them.

Please send notices of your publications to let us know when they appear. Acknowledgments are always welcome.

As the Research Group is a recognized nonprofit educational corporation, your Contributions and Donations may be tax-deductible.

Please Contact Us with your suggestions and improvements for the News & Views.

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