2009 Congress

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

Research Group Activities at the

44th International Congress on Medieval Studies

7–10 May 2009

[First published on our first website on *20 December 2008, with updates]

For the 2009 Congress, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence sponsored one Session.

It also co-sponsored

  • one Session with the Societas Magica, in the fourth year of this co-sponsorship, and
  • one inaugural session with the new organization MEARCSTAPA (Monsters: the Experimental Association for the Research of Cryptozoology through Scholarly Theory And Practical Application), supporting its formation which followed our session at the 2008 Congress.

I. Session Sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (colour version)“Margins of Error: On the Self-Correcting Medieval Manuscript”

In keeping with the Group’s mission to “apply an integrated, holistic approach to manuscripts and texts in other forms”, our Session gathered papers closely examining the materials in the margins of manuscripts, especially those that not only comment upon the texts which they surround, but which may offer alternative or even “corrective” readings to a manuscript’s central text.  That is, while some marginal images exist to support a text (by providing mnemonic aid, or by illustrating a scene in a “central” story), others seem to exist at a disjoint to their neighboring text (as with the rude grylles and shitten monkeys that pepper so many holy works) and so may offer counterpoint or even contradiction to an otherwise uncontested central text.  Our papers considered such potentially “self-correcting” marginalia in medieval manuscripts:  the images that, while often subordinate to the text, still find a rebelliously self-reflexive voice.

Organizer: Jeff Massey (Molloy College)

Presider: Mildred Budny (Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)

Presenters:

Respondent:

  • Jeff Massey (Molloy College)
Philosophy and the Seven Liberal Arts, as depicted in the "Hortus Deliciarum". Via Wikipedia Commons, License, License CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Philosophy and the Seven Liberal Arts, as depicted in the “Hortus Deliciarum”. Via Wikipedia Commons, License, License CC-BY-SA 3.0.

[Note: Sarah Parker’s Abstract for her paper at our 2016 Symposium at Princeton University on “Words & Deeds” is published in its downloadable Program Booklet.]

II.  Inaugural Session
Co-Sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence and MEARCSTAPA

The omission of one sponsor’s name in the Congress Program is corrected both in the Congress Corrigenda and here.  The Abstracts of the papers are published on the MEARCSTAPA website, for which we cite the links.

“Monstrous Production and Reproduction”

Organizer:  Asa Mittman (California State University – Chico)

Presider:  Mildred Budny (Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)

Presenters:

  • Marcus Hensel (University of Oregon)
    Nat He Þara Goda:  Weapons and the Grendelkin’s Status as Monsters”
    Kzoo Abstracts for 2009
  • Karma de Gruy (Emory University)
    “Unnatural Births:  Statan’s Insceafte in Solomon and Saturn II
    Kzoo Abstracts for 2009
  • Carola Dwyer (University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign)
    “Kissed by a Monster:  Blonde Esmerée as a Grotesque Woman of Power”
    Kzoo Abstracts for 2009

Abstracts for these papers appear on the MEARCSTAPA website; and now Kzoo Abstracts.

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III. Session
Co-Sponsored by the Societas Magica
and the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Societas Magica logo“Medieval Magic Manuscripts in Use”

Organizer: Amelia Carr (Allegheny College)

Presider: Mildred Budny (Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)

Presenters:

  • John Haines (University of Toronto), “Incantations: Singing off the Page”
  • Edgar Francis IV (University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point), “The Printed, Popular, and Problematic Manuscripts of a Medieval Muslim Magician: Issues in the Study of Shams al-ma’arif and Other Writings Attributed to al-Buni”
  • David Porreca (University of Waterloo), “At the Cutting Edge: The Use of Weapons in Magical Spells: A Comparison of the PGM (Papyri Graecae Magicae),the Picatrix, and the Munich Handbook
Trio in the Lobby at the 2009 Congress. Photography © Mildred Budny

Trio in the Lobby at the 2009 Congress. Photography © Mildred Budny

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The full 2009 Congress program is archived as Printed Program of the 44th International Congress on Medieval Studies, including the Corrigenda.

The Societas Magica sessions are listed as Sessions Sponsored by the Societas Magica at the Forty-Fourth International Congress on Medieval Studies May 7–10, 2009.

The MEARCSTAPA website cites its activities at this Congress, but does not mention us.  We remember our participation in and co-sponsorship for them. Also, we recall that the organization itself arose out of the session which the Research Group sponsored in the 2008 Congress.

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That the historical and documentary record for actual events, medieval and other, might be partial, limited, and variable is a subject explored in some of our blogposts on Manuscript Studies and the reports of our early Seminars on “The Evidence of Manuscripts”.

The full list of Research Group Activities at the Congress appears in our Congress Archive.

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