2013 Symposium on “Identity & Authenticity”

January 1, 2014 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, Conference Announcement, Events, Exhibition

Identity & Authenticity

Creating, Recreating, Transmitting & Preserving Identities Across Time & Place

We held a Symposium at Princeton University on 22 & 23 March 2013 with the theme of “Identity & Authenticity: Creating, Recreating, Transmitting & Preserving Identities Across Time & Place”. Here we publish the Symposium Posters, Program, and Abstracts of the Papers, with thanks to all our Sponsors, Contributors, and Participants.

Symposium

Friday & Saturday 22 & 23 March 2013
McCormick 106, Princeton University

Poster 1

Poster 2

The challenges of shaping, reshaping, maintaining, conveying, and validating identity, both personal and collective, are perennial human concerns. Our symposium explored subjects, regions, and materials from the early medieval period to the present day. Presentations considered, for example, Western European and Syriac manuscript discoveries, Byzantine liturgical textiles, medieval seal-matrices and “forgeries,” Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic magical recipes from the Cairo Genizah, the transmission of Islamic paper, the reliquary of John the Baptist owned by the Knights of Malta and the Tzars, the medieval-style Hammond Castle in Massachusetts, the challenges and opportunities of collecting medieval manuscripts nowadays, and digitization projects dedicated to manuscripts and archives for teaching and research.

Sponsors:

James Marrow and Emily Rose

John H. Rassweiler

Index of Christian Art

Barbara A. Shailor

The Samuel H. Kress Foundation

De Brailles Medieval Art (LLC)

Committee for the Study of Late Antiquity, Princeton University

We also thank the Department of Art & Archaeology of Princeton University for the rooms, media services, and facilities for the event.

Speakers and Moderators:

James Marrow at the "Identity & Authenticity" Symposium (2013), with photography by James Heidere

Having a Look

Opening Remarks

James H. Marrow (Department of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University)

Session 1. Investigating the Archives: Detecting Spheres of Influence

Moderator: Celia Chazelle (Department of History, The College of New Jersey)

Alan M. Stahl (Firestone Library, Princeton University), “The Virgin in the Garden: The Making of a Pilgrimage Site in Medieval Venice”

Eleanor A. Congdon (Department of History, Youngstown State University), “Who was Antonio Contarini? Solving the Prosopographical Riddle of a Venetian Merchant in the Datini Archives”

Ortal-Paz Saar (School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study / Tel Aviv University), “A Genizah Magical Fragment and Its European Parallels”

[Note: Now published as “A Genizah Magical Fragment and Its European Parallels”, Journal of Jewish Studies, 65:2 (2014), 237–262, described here]

Session 2. Imaging or Imagining Identity: Recreating a Medieval Legacy

Moderator: Colum Hourihane (Index of Christian Art, Princeton University)

Karl F. Morrison (Department of History, Rutgers University), “Assimilating the Libri Carolini in the Seventeenth Century”

John H. Rassweiler (The Rassweiler Collection, Princeton), “Some Experiences with the Validation of Medieval Seal-Matrices of the Common People”

Martha E. Easton (Department of Communication and the Arts, Seton Hall University), “Authenticity, Anachronism, and the Experience of the Past at Hammond Castle”

Session 3. Shaping and Preserving Identity in the Syriac Church

Moderator: Kathleen E. McVey (Department of History, Princeton Theological Seminary)

Philip Michael Forness (Department of History, Princeton Theological Seminary), “The Identities of a Saint: An Initial Inquiry into the Manuscript Tradition of the Homilies by Jacob of Sarug”

Jack B. Tannous (Department of History, Princeton University), “Syril of Scythopolis in Syriac: Observations on a Manuscript from the Sinai New Finds”

George Kiraz (Editor in Chief, Gorgias Press / Department of Middle Eastern and South-East Asian Languages & Literature, Rutgers University), “The Syriac Orthodox Patriarchal Archive of Mardin: Digitization and Challenges”

Session 4. Creating Digitally-Enabled Manuscript Resources for Research & Teaching

Moderator: James H. Marrow (Department of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University)

Thomas A. Carlson (Department of History, Princeton University / Beth Marduthuo Research Library, Piscataway), “Identity and Identification in the Digital Humanities: The Challenges and Experience of Syriaca.org”

Barbara A. Shailor (Department of Classics, Yale University), “A Mellon Foundation Project at Yale University: The World of Digitally-Enabled Scholarship for Research and Teaching”

Session 5. Discovering, Recovering, and Evaluating the Source Materials

Moderator: Colum Hourihane

David W. Sorenson (Quincy, Massachusetts), “Recent Studies in Islamic Paper and What They Can Tell Us About Texts (and Images)”

Mildred Budny (Research Group on Manuscript Evidence), “A New Fragment of the Vitas Patrum from the Covers of an Early Printed Postille: An Early Case of Western Paper?”

Scott Gwara (Department of English, University of South Carolina – Columbia / King Alfred’s Notebook, LLC & De Brailes Medieval Art LLC), “Medieval Manuscripts in the Strangest Places”

Rossitza and Ida at the Day 1 Reception of the 2013 Symposium, with photography by James Heidere

Enjoying the Company

Session 6. Establishing or Re-Establishing Identities in the Byzantine World and Beyond

Moderator: Mildred Budny

Henry D. Schilb (Index of Christian Art, Princeton University), “Serbian and Christian Identity in the Embroideries of the Nun Jefimija”

Rossitza B. Schroeder (Visiting Fellow in Hellenic Studies, Princeton University / Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California), “The New Chosen People: The Old Testament in Late Byzantium”

Ida Sinkevič (Department of Art, Lafayette College), “The Afterlife of the Rhodes Hand of St. John the Baptist”

[Note: This has been published here]

Demonstration: Demonstrating Original Sources and Database Resources

Displays by:

Demonstration Session on 23 Mar 2013 at the "Identity & Authenticity" Symposium, with manuscripts on the table

Examining the Originals

Scott Gwara (De Brailes Medieval Art LLC)
David Sorenson (Specimens of Islamic Paper)
Eleanor Congdon (Specimens from the Datini Archive)
Thomas A. Carlson (The Syriac Reference Portal)

*****

The Symposium Booklet, edited by Mildred Budny and laid out in RGME Bembino, contains the
2013 Symposium Program & Abstracts of the Papers.

[The version uploaded on 29 September 2014 corrects a couple of typographical mistakes in the version circulated at the event.]

*****

Circulated online before the Symposium, the Program and Poster 2 are also available here on the online Calendar of the Program in Medieval Studies of Princeton University:

Medieval Studies Calendar Archive Princeton University

[Formerly here: “http://web.princeton.edu/sites/medieval/images/RGME%20Symposium%20Program.pdf”]

RGME Symposium Poster

*****

Photographs by James Heidere

*****

Tags: Antonio Contarini, Cairo Genizah, Church of San Cristoforo in Venice, Committee for the Study of Late Antiquity, cult of images, Datini Archives, De Brailles Medieval Art (LLC), Department of Art & Archaeology, digitally-enabled scholarship, digitization of manuscripts, Domenico Calvaca, embroideries of Jefimija, Hammond Castle, history of Islamic paper, History of Paper Manufacture, history of textiles, Index of Christian Art, Jacob of Sarug, late Byzantine monumental Old Testament cycles, Libri Carolini, magical recipes, medieval manuscripts in North America, medieval seal-matrices, medieval-style architecture, Mellon Foundation project, Patriarchal Archive in Mardin, Postille printed in Lyons 1527, Princeton University, Rassweiler Collection, Rhodes Hand of John the Baptist, seventeenth-century religious polemics, Sinai Syriac New Finds, Syriac Christianity, Syriac manuscript studies, Syriac Reference Portal, Syriac studies, Syriaca.org, Syril of Scythopolis, The Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Transmission of the Vitas Patrum, Virgin in the Garden, Vita Sanctae Marinae, Yale University
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2012 Congress

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

47th International Congress on Medieval Studies

10–13 May 2012

[First published on our first website on *15 December 2011, with updates there and here]

Our four Sponsored and Co-Sponsored Sessions at the 2012 Congress examined the material culture and production of written records in Western Europe and beyond, and the dispersal, recovery, and preservation of those works in various forms and widespread locations. Besides these interlinked subjects, our highlighted genre was “Dream Books”, appearing in multiple manifestations in both manuscript and print.

One Session was the second in our series at the Congress on “Medieval Writing Materials”. Its series (2011–2014 and, intended, 2016) is listed in our Sponsored Conference Sessions.

This year, for the first time, after the debut of a single illustrated Poster for one of our sponsored Sessions at the 2011 Congress, an illustrated Posters accompanied both of our own Sponsored Sessions. Since 2015, the full series of illustrated Posters for Congress Sessions and other Events appear in our Gallery of Posters on Display. Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Alchemy, Archaeology, Bembino Digital Font, Books of Hours, British Library, Chinese Manuscripts, Codicology, Datini Archives, Dream Books, Dream Divination, Ethiopic Manuscripts, History of Paper, History of Scotland, Islamic Manuscripts, Manuscript Illumination, Manuscripts & Early Printed Books, Medieval & Modern Scribal Practices, Medieval China, Medieval Italian Studies, Medieval Manuscript Collecting, Medieval manuscripts, Medieval Writing Materials, Mediterranean Trade, Middle English, Multi-spectral Imaging, North American Library History, Oneirocritical Manuscripts, Parc Abbey Bible, Pigment Analysis, Societas Magica, Somniale Danielis, Venice
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2011 Congress

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

46th International Congress on Medieval Studies

12–15 May 2011

[First published on our first website on *20 January 2011, with updates]

At this Congress, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence held two sessions, respectively sponsored and co-sponsored, in the fifth year of co-sponsorship with the Societas Magica. As customary, Trustees and Associates of the Research Group participated in the Congress in various capacities.

Here we list the Programs of the sessions, along with Abstracts of Papers, and we publish the first of our Posters ever for such sessions.

The inspiration for the poster came from the generous offer by our session participant David W. Sorenson to give images of manuscripts free of charge for reproduction for such purposes. Thus the poster includes donated images and design, with images courtesy of David Sorenson and with layout in our copyright digital font Bembino, described and downloadable for FREE here: Bembino.

[Update: This ‘first edition’ inaugurated a tradition of illustrated Posters for our Congress Sessions in following years, as recorded in our Congress Activities, as well as for our other Events elsewhere, including Colloquia & Symposia. Since 2014, they are exhibited in our Gallery of Posters on Display.]

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Archaeology of Manuscripts, Bembino Digital Font, Blythburgh Tablet, Carrara Herbal, Catacombs in Rome, Cyphers, Epigraphs, Ethiopic Manuscripts, History of Paper, Manuscript studies, Medieval manuscripts, Medieval Writing Materials, Mediterrnanean Commerce, Middle English Studies, Monumental Inscriptions, Near Eastern Studies, Oxford MS Bodleian Hatton 56, Sobieski Hours, Societas Magica, Writing materials, Writing Tablets
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2010 Congress

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

45th International Congress on Medieval Studies

13–16 May 2010

[First published on our first website on *10 December 2009, with updates there and here]

For the 2010 Congress, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence co-sponsored two sessions with the Societas Magica, in the fifth year of this co-sponsorship. As customary, various Trustees and Associates of the Research Group participated in the Congress in various capacities. Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Angelic Alphabets, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Clm 671, Ciphers, Conrad Buitzruss, History of Daily Life, History of Magic, Liber Florum, Magic Texts, Magical Charms, Manuscript studies, Oxford Bodleian Library MS liturg. 160, Societas Magica, Trinity College Cambridge MS 1081, Virgilius Maro Grammaticus
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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.
Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: al-Bun, Blonde Esmerée, Books of Hours, Ellesmere Manuscript, Francesco da Barberino, Grendelkin, Historyof Magic, Hortus Deliciarum, Incantations, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Magical Spells, Manuscript Illumination, Manuscript studies, Marginalia, MEARCSTAPA, Medieval Muslim Magician, Medieval Studies, Munich Manual of Demonic Magic, Nun's Priest Tale, Papyri Graecae Magicae, Piccatrix, Sarah Celentano Parker, Shams al-ma'aris, Societas Magica, Solomon and Saturn II, Voyerism, Weapons in Magic
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2008 Congress

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

43rd International Congress on Medieval Studies

8–11 May 2008

[First published on our first website on *20 December 2007, with updates there and here]

At the 2008 Congress, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence sponsored two Sessions and co-sponsored one Session with the Societas Magica, in the third year of this co-sponsorship. As customary, various Trustees and Associates of the Research Group participated at the Congress in various capacities. Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Boccaccio's Romances, Books as Relics, Classical & Medieval Studies, Consecrated Books, Decapitation Motifs, Guillaume de Palerne, History of Music, Hymphrey Gilbert, Imagery of Beheadings, Insular Celtic Hagiography, Liber Florum, Medieval Romance, Medieval Werewolves, Musical Ligatures, Salzburg UB M 1 24, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Societas Magica, The Art of the Book
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2007 Congress

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

42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies

10‒13 May 2007

[First published on our first website on *10 Jan 2007, with updates here
Updates include photographs supplied by Larissa Tracy, whom we thank.]

At the 2007 Congress, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence sponsored one Session, and co-sponsored one Session with the Societas Magica, in the second consecutive year of this co-sponsorship.

For this Congress, moreover, the Research Group began the tradition of publishing the Abstracts for its Sponsored Sessions on its official website, which appeared online in this year. And so began the possibility of posting online announcements and updates for the programs of our Sessions and other Events at the Congresses from this year onward. The series appears in the list of our Congress Activities and our blog about the International Congress on Medieval Studies.

[Updates: By 2015, with our updated website, it has become possible to access the Abstracts of Papers for our Sessions, listed both By Author and By Year. In reporting the program, we cite the published Abstracts as they have appeared on both our first website and our current website.

In 2017, while sorting through her photographic files, our Associate Larissa Tracy generously supplied the images from the 2007 Congress, now added here, with her permission.] Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Ahmad Ibn 'Ali Al-Buni, Asa Mittman, Biblical Magic, David Porreca, De magica naturali, Edgar Francis IV, History of Magic, Holy Books, Jacques LeFèvre d'Étaples, Jennifer A.T. Smith, Kabbalah, Larissa Tracy, Lycanthropy, Malleus maleficiarum, Medieval manuscripts, Medieval Monsters, Medieval Studies, Medieval Torture, Quintuplex psalterium, Qur'anic Symbols, Societas Magica, Teratology, Walter Benjamin
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2005 Congress

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

“Wonders of the East”
at the

40th International Congress on Medieval Studies

5‒8 May 2005

[First published on our first website on *19 April 2006, with updates here]

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

Tags: Beauty or Beast, Beowulf Manuscript, British Library, Cotton MS Vitellius A.xv, Female Wonders, History of Monsters, History of the Freak, Illuminated Manuscripts, Medieval manuscripts, Medieval Studies, Old English Newsletter, ShelfLife: Bulletin of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, Wonders of the East
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1995‒2000 Symposia on “The Transmission of the Bible”

January 1, 2014 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, Conference Announcement, Events

“The Transmission of the Bible”
A Series of Annual Symposia (1995‒2000)

[First published on our first website on 19 April 2006, with updates]

Beginning in 1995, the Research Group jointly sponsored a series of Annual Symposia on “The Transmission of the Bible,” organized by Mildred Budny and held at various centers in turn. The series began with the invitation by our Associate Jane Rosenthal to hold a symposium soon after the Research Group moved its principal base to the United States in the autumn of 1994. Both Princeton University and Douglass College of Rutgers University hosted two symposia in the rotation.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Barnard College, Columbia University, Department of Art & Archaeology, Fordham University, H.P. Kraus, Inc., Index of Christian Art, Late-Antique Studies, Princeton University, Rutgers University, Scriptorium: Center for Christian Antiquities, Transmission of the Bible
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2013 Symposium on “Identity & Authenticity”

Identity & Authenticity