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      • Abstracts of Congress Papers
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    • Mission
    • Who We Are
      • Officers, Associates & Volunteers
      • RGME Committees
      • Friends of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
    • Policies & Statements
      • RGME Privacy Policy Statement
      • 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)
  • Events
    • RGME Activities for 2024 and 2025
      • 2023 Activities and 2024 Planned Activities
    • Seminars, Workshops, Colloquia & Symposia (1989–)
      • 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
  • ShelfLife
    • 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
    • History and Design of Our Website
  • Galleries
    • Watermarks & the History of Paper
    • Galleries: Contents List
    • Scripts on Parade
    • Texts on Parade
      • Latin Documents & Cartularies
      • New Testament Leaves in Old Armenian
    • Posters on Display
    • Layout Designs
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    • 2023 End-of-Year Fundraiser for our 2024 Anniversary Year
    • 2019 Anniversary Appeal
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A “Beatus Manuscripts” Project
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Two Leaves in the Book of Numbers from the Chudleigh Bible
Delibovi on Glassgold on Boethius: A Blogpost
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2025 Annual Appeal
Favorite Recipes for Lemonade, Etc.
RGME Visit to the Lomazow Collection: Report
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A Latin Vulgate Leaf of the Book of Numbers
The RGME ‘Lending Library’
Florence, Italy, Ponte Vecchio from Ponte alle Grazie. Photo: Ingo Mehling, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Episode 17. “RGME Retrospect and Prospects: Anniversary Reflections”
2024 Anniversary Symposium: The Booklet
2024 International Medieval Congress at Leeds: Program
Jesse Hurlbut at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah. Photograph Jesse Hurlbut.
Episode 16: An Interview with Jesse D. Hurlbut
To Whom Do Manuscripts Belong?
Kalamazoo, MI Western Michigan University, Valley III from the side. Photograph: David W. Sorenson.
2024 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Report
2024 Spring Symposium at Vassar College
Puente de San Martín: Bridge with reflection over the River Targus, Toledo, Spain.
2024 Grant for “Between Past and Future” Project from The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation Research Libraries Program
2024 Anniversary Symposium in Thanks to Jesse Hurlbut: Program

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2024 Landmarks

March 3, 2025 in 2024 Grant, Anniversary, Events, Manuscript Studies, RGME Recollections, RGME Symposia, Student Friends of Princeton University Library, Visits to Collections, Workshops on "The Evidence of Manuscripts"

Landmarks

Achievements for the RGME Anniversary Year

Reflections on the Year’s RGME Visits
(In Person, Virtual, and Hybrid)
to Special Collections

2024 Spring and Autumn Symposia
2024 Spring Symposium at Vassar College
2024 Autumn Symposium “At The Helm”
RGME Visit to the Collection of Steven M. Lomazow: Report

[Posted on 2 March 2025]

Private Collection, Photograph of Bridges in Paris, 1850s (enhanced). Image courtesy of David W. Sorenson.

Reflecting upon the many achievements of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence in its 2024 Anniversary Year, we celebrate the Landmarks in the journey, as well as the individual and collective steps of its full course.

For the Anniversary Year, our Theme was “Bridges”. Our funded Project for a major part of its accomplishments was “Between Past and Future”. See:

  • 2024 Grant for “Between Past and Future” Project from The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation Research Libraries Program

With the completion of the year’s work for 2024, we observe that it brought many developments for the RGME, as we responded to the momentum of the events as they unfolded. Learning from them and gathering their momentum with follow-up events, we discovered that it was possible to create fresh approaches, returning participation, and new collaborations.

Let us focus on one of those sets of landmarks, to show how both the planned activities and their unexpected expansions could produce a remarkable series of visits to Special Collections of various kinds, whether in person, online, or both in hybrid format.

RGME Visits to Special Collections in 2024

The story unfolded in a series of steps, leading to specific events.

Spring and Autumn Symposium as a Pair,
with Follow-Up

Poster 2 has two manuscript images at the center, with the RGME logo at top left and the Vassar College logo at top right.

Poster 2: Program for 2024 Spring Symposium at Vassar.

They centered upon the pair of 2024 Spring and Autumn Symposia, designed for the Project as an invited, hybrid, 3-day event in the Spring at Vassar College, and an online 1-day event in the Autumn as its follow-up.

  • 2024 Spring Symposium at Vassar College
  • 2024 Autumn Symposium “At the Helm”

The Spring Symposium took place as planned, while a few updates in the program adapted to circumstances, such as when a few speakers as short notice had to change travel plans and present in online format rather than in person. Our dedication to a hybrid format for the event maintained our commitment to our wider audience from the need to create online events in recent years, while we waited for the return of in-person events.

Spring Symposium “Between Past and Future”
April (hybrid)

That opportunity came in 2024, with the invitation to hold our Spring Symposium at Vassar College in April. The focus of the Symposium is manifested in its title,

“Between Past and Future:
Building Bridges between Special Collections
and Teaching for the Liberal Arts”
.

Speakers from Vassar and other centers in the United States and the United Kingdom reported projects and initiatives for Special Collections dedicated to teaching with original sources in manuscript and other forms.

Our subjects were primarily medieval and early modern, in keeping with the new catalogue of such materials and the special exhibition on “Books of the Middle Ages & Renaissance” at the college. Thus collectively, with the Spring Symposium, were celebrated the acquisition of the Nicholas B. Scheetz Collection of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts.

Autumn Symposium “At The Helm”
October (online)

Enthusiasm for the Spring Symposium led, by participants’ requests, to extend the Autumn Symposium to 2 days instead. This symposium featured a set of curated virtual visits to Special Collections, both private and public.

Poster 2 for RGME 2024 Autumn Symposium. Set in RGME Bembino. Image: Coventry Patmore, Amelia: An iIyll (1878), title page, illuminated by Bertha Patmore. Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, University of Delaware Library, Musuems and Press.

Expanding the time-frame of the Spring Symposium, the Autumn Symposium considered materials from antiquity to the present day, medieval and early modern still included. The materials under consideration included manuscripts, printed books, and coins.

The virtual visits examined highlights of collections at Vassar College (both Special Collections and the Art Center) and the Universities of Delaware, Missouri, Rochester, and Waterloo, as well as private collections. Manuscripts showcased in the presentations included examples not only from them, but also, for example, from the Biblioteca Capitolare in Vercelli, Princeton University, and the RGME’s own Library & Archives.

Collectors speaking about their collections and the inspiration for them included our RGME Associates, Mark Samuels Lasner, Beppy Owen, and Reid Byers, who previewed his exhibition on “Imaginary Books” about to open at The Grolier Club. Its catalogue, we note with delight, is set in our own RGME Bembino (like our website), Reid’s choice for its font.

The enthusiasm for that event was remarkable. It had vivid presentations and discussions about them by curators, teachers, students (undergraduate and graduate), independent scholars, and others. We can sum up the atmosphere with the words of one presider, Librarian at the University of Missouri, that the Symposium celebrated, and brought home and alive, “the joy of education”.

This momentum called for its own follow-up. Accordingly, we turned to an invitation (since January) to visit a private collection. The nature of our year’s Project encouraged us to prepare the visit, if possible, before the end of our Anniversary Year.

In-Person/Online Visit
November (hybrid)

In November, the RGME visited the Collection of Dr. Steven M. Lomazow both in person and online. The scope of the collection and our visit to it, with thanks to the generosity of Dr. Lomazow and his wife Suze Bienaimee, are described in our announcement and report:

  • RGME Visit to the Collection of Steven M. Lomazow, M.D.
  • RGME Visit to the Lomazow Collection: Report

This visit in hybrid format represents a significant landmark for the RGME. With it, we return to our tradition of In-Person Visits to collections, such as Firestone Library and the Princeton University Art Museum for our 2019 Spring Symposium “The Roads Taken”.

Poster 1 2024 Autumn Symposium

With the invited 2024 Spring Symposium at Vassar College, we have returned to In-Person Events, after having developed our multiple forms of Online Events in response to the Covid-19 Pandemic beginning in 2020.

The online 2024 Autumn Symposium “At the Helm” followed up the wonderfully successful Spring Symposium and carried forward its momentum by a set of curated virtual visits to Special Collections of various kinds, extending its range and covering many periods.

With the invited Visit to the Lomazow Collection, as a further follow-up for the curated visits of the 2024 Autumn Symposium “At the Helm”, we bring to the table the tradition of our online commitment to our wider audience.

Also, with this event came a new collaboration with the Student Friends of the Princeton University Library (SFPUL). We hope that it may continue into the future.

Culmination and Achievements

In certain ways, this hybrid visit in November represents a culmination for our 2024 Year of visits and virtual visits to see original materials attesting to the transmission of the written word across time and place. The inspiration and accomplishment of these goals formed the centerpiece for our 2024 Project “Between Past and Future”, designed to focus upon the strengths of Special Collections of many kinds for teaching and research in the Liberal Arts and other realms.

We give thanks to all our hosts, sponsors, contributors, participants, and audience for such instructive, illuminating, and enjoyable experiences.

The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, as seen from Battery East. Photograph © Frank Schulenburg / CC BY-SA 4.0 via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Golden_Gate_Bridge_as_seen_from_Battery_East.jpg

Tags: 2024 Anniversary Year, 2024 Autumn Symposium, 2024 Project "Between Past and Future", 2024 Spring Symposium, Collection of Steven M. Lomazow, Vassar College, Visits to Special Collections
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Recollections for the 2024 RGME Anniversary, Part 1: Giles Constable

May 20, 2024 in Anniversary, Manuscript Studies, Research Group Episodes for The Research Group Speaks, RGME Recollections

2024 RGME Anniversary Recollections
Part 1

Giles Constable

[Posted on 20 May 2024, with updates]

During this 2024 Anniversary Year for the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (RGME), with our year’s theme of Bridges, we gather recollections and tributes for people who have contributed to our formation, history, progress, legacy, and the pursuit of our mission across the years. This year, we celebrate

  • 25 years as a nonprofit educational organization incorporated in Princeton, New Jersey, and
  • 35 years as an international scholarly organization founded as part of a major research project on “Anglo-Saxon and Related Manuscripts” at The Parker Library of Corpus Christi College in the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

As part of our anniversary celebrations, the RGME prepares an Episode in our online series “The Research Group Speaks” to consider

  • Episode 17. “RGME Retrospect and Prospects: Anniversary Reflections”

To register:

  • Episode 17. Retrospect and Prospects: Anniversary Reflections
    Saturday 21 September 2024, 1:00–2:30 EDT (GMT-4) online via Zoom

We begin a series of Anniversary Reflections in our blog on Manuscript Studies by focusing upon a RGME Associate, Honorary Trustee, Mentor, and Friend whose advice and encouragement loomed larger than life in the course of our organization and its journey across time. Mildred Budny contributes this set of reflections, illustrated with some photographs.

Anniversary Reflections, Part 1:
Giles Constable, Honorary Trustee and Mentor

With admiration, I describe some recollections of Giles Constable (1 June 1929 — 17 January 2021), our long-time Associate, Honorary Trustee, colleague, mentor, and friend.

Giles Reading at the Window in his Office at the IAS. Spring 2014. Photography Mildred Budny.

Giles Reading at the Window in his Office at the IAS. Spring 2014. Photography Mildred Budny.

Achievements

Giles’s achievements are many. Institutions to which he belonged, and to which he contributed, record the structure and components of his scholarly and administrative activities. For example, in these accounts:

  • Brief CV and Bibliography
  • Complete List of Publications
  • Past Professor
  • In Memoriam: Giles Constable
  • Oral History Project: Giles Constable

With the A. B. (1950) and Ph. D. (1957) from Harvard University, Giles taught at the University of Iowa (1955 to 1958) and at Harvard (1958 to 1984), for which he served as Director of the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library in Washington, D. C.  At the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, he was Medieval History Professor in the School of Historical Studies (1985 to 2003) and then Professor Emeritus until his death.

His participation in the life of his family, as brother, husband, in-law, father, and grandfather belongs among his merits.  He enriched the lives of many colleagues, students, and friends by words, advice, encouragement, and example.

Some of his former students are Research Group Trustees and Associates, and their descriptions of him over the years have been moving and inspiring.

Here we begin to gather some of these recollections.  Their gathering began with our report of Giles’s passing on the day itself, in a posting on our Research Group Facebook Page.

Colleague, Mentor, and Friend

Some photographs from our RGME Archive record moments in our collaboration.  Above, we see Giles still at work, reading, in his post-retirement office at the Institute for Advanced Study.  The photograph made its debut in public on our Facebook Page, on 17 January 2021.

About that photograph, our Associate Karl F. Morrison observed:

Thank you very much for capturing this image of Giles, no doubt in the act of reading something for somebody else.  It reminded me that, for Giles, the center always held, and his gifts of mind and heart for encouraging companions on the way were the same as the definition of infinity:  the center was everywhere and the borders nowhere.

We offer some other images, from other occasions.

As Honorary Trustee of the Research Group

Regularly, Giles hosted annual meetings of the Princeton Trustees of the RGME, after the first such meeting hosted by James Marrow, Honorary Trustee.

Giles Constable and James Marrow at the Meeting of the Honorary Trustees of the Research Group on 13 December 2013. Photography Mildred Budny.

Giles Constable and James Marrow at the Meeting of the Honorary Trustees of the Research Group on 13 December 2013. Photography Mildred Budny.

These meetings gathered Trustees and Honorary Trustees resident in Princeton, including Giles, James, Mildred Budny, and Adelaide Bennett.

Giles Constable and Adelaide Bennett at the 2016 RGME Symposium. Photograph by Mildred Budny.

Giles Constable and Adelaide Bennett at the 2016 RGME Symposium. Photograph by Mildred Budny.

As Contributor to our Symposia, Colloquia, Seminars, and Workshops

At the 2002 British Museum Colloquium

Coffee Break at our 2002 British Museum Colloquium. Our Director, Dáibhí Ó Cróinin, and Giles Constable. Photograph by our Associate, Geoffrey R. Russom.

Coffee Break at our 2002 British Museum Colloquium. Our Director, Dáibhí Ó Cróinin, and Giles Constable. Photograph by our Associate, Geoffrey R. Russom.

At the 2002 ‘Investiture’ of our Associate, James P. Heidere

The 'Investiture' of our Research Group Associate, James P. Heidere, by Roger Reynolds and Giles Constable.

The ‘Investiture’ of our Research Group Associate, James P. Heidere, by Roger Reynolds and Giles Constable.

See also, among others, the 2014 Seminar on Manuscripts and Photography.

As Mentor, Colleague, and Friend

In his IAS office, with Alison Beach (2014)

Giles Constable with Alison Beach at his office in Spring 2014. Photography Mildred Budny.

Giles Constable with Alison Beach at his office in Spring 2014. Photography Mildred Budny.

About this photograph, Alison — who had been Postdoctoral Research Assistant to Professor Giles Constable during the period 1998—2000 — commented:

[The photograph shows me] With Giles at the Institute for Advanced Study consulting about the translation of the Chronicle of Petershausen in 2014. Giles encouraged Sam [Sutherland], Shannon [Li], and me to push on with and publish the translation.  What a privilege it was. . . . he seemed immortal to me.

Mildred Budny, author of this post, offered remarks about Giles’s mentorship for her and the RGME over years after the RGME moved its principal base to Princeton and became incorporated as a nonprofit educational organization, in her contribution to a Roundtable co-sponsored by the RGME at the 2024 International Congress on Medieval Studies. (See 2024 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Report.)

More recollections will form part of the program for Episode 17 of “The Research Group Speaks” on 21 September 2024. Please let us know if you wish to participate.

  • Episode 17. “RGME Retrospect and Prospects: Anniversary Reflections”

To register:

  • Episode 17. Retrospect and Prospects: Anniversary Reflections
    Saturday 21 September 2024, 1:00–2:30 EDT (GMT-4) online via Zoom

*****

In Giles’s Honor

A fund for the Research Group has been established to honor Giles Constable: The Constable Fund. See

  • Contributions and Donations
  • 2024 Anniversary Appeal

Do you have recollections, souvenirs, and photographs of Giles Constable that you would like to share?

Please, if you wish,

  • add your Comments here,
  • send us a message (Contact Us),
  • visit our Facebook Page, and
  • join our Episode 17. “RGME Retrospect and Prospects: Anniversary Reflections”
    To register:
    Episode 17. Retrospect and Prospects: Anniversary Reflections
    Saturday 21 September 2024, 1:00–2:30 EDT (GMT-4) online via Zoom

We look forward to hearing from you.

*****

Update (12 August 2024):  Now see Part 2.

  • Patrick Wormald (1947-2004): A Memoir by David Ganz

Introduced by a blogpost, this Memoir appears as an 8-page Booklet published by the RGME.

See also the varied series of recollections and memoirs in various formats, digital and printed:

  • Memoirs.

*****

Tags: Alison Beach, Giles Constable, James Marrow, Patrick Wormald, RGME Anniversary, RGME Associates, RGME Honorary Trustees, RGME Mentors, RGME Recollections, RGME Retrospect and Prospects, The Constable Fund
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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.

Read the rest of this entry →

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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Episode 18. “Women as Makers of Books”

May 5, 2024 in Anniversary, Book, Design, Manuscript Studies, Research Group Episodes for The Research Group Speaks, Research Group Speaks (The Series)

“The Research Group Speaks”
Episode 18
“Women as Makers of Books”

Saturday 14 December 2024
1:00–2:30 pm EST (GMT-5) by Zoom

Jaclyn Reed, Hannah Goeselt, Linda Civitello,
Mildred Budny, and Others

[Posted on 3 May 2024, with updates]

London, British Library, Harley MS 4431, fol. 4r.Christine de Pisan sits at work writing in an interior accompanied by a dog. France (Paris), c. 1410 – c. 1414. Image via https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2013/06/christine-de-pizan-and-the-book-of-the-queen.html.

London, British Library, Harley MS 4431, fol. 4r.Christine de Pisan sits at work writing in an interior accompanied by a dog. France (Paris), c. 1410 – c. 1414. Image via https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2013/06/christine-de-pizan-and-the-book-of-the-queen.html.

By its focus upon the agency of women in and for books, this Episode offers a pendant at the end of our 2024 Anniversary Year for the Episode which opened the year.

  • See Episode 15. Women Writers from the Medieval to Post-Modern Periods

Then, in January, scholars, teachers, and writers spoke about their interests, long-term work , and current projects concerned with the writings of women authors across a long span of time. Reflecting women’s roles, opportunities, constraints, and resourcefulness, the writings cover a wide range of spheres, subjects, approaches, and styles. The works range from literary creations to recipes for cookery.

Now, in December, the same speakers from that Episode return to offer reflections, presentations, or responses on the subject of women who contributed in one or more ways to the production of books in various forms during a range of periods across history. Other speakers and respondents join them, along with our audience engaging in the discussion with questions, comments, and observations.

For the January Episode, Mildred Budny was the presider. For the December Episode, Justin Hastings will preside.

We thank all our contributors, presiders, and attendees.

Lewistown, Pennsylvania, Old Stone Arch Bridge spanning Jack’s Creek. Built by Philip Diehl in 1815. Photograph by KAATMAAN (August 2011) via Wikimedia Commons via CC BY-SA 3.0 License.

A Bridge for, or across,
Our 2024 Anniversary Year

In keeping with the Theme of our Anniversary Year, Bridges, this Episode brings the opportunity to round out the year by means of a bridge across the RGME’s year with a return or expansion upon the theme of women responsible for contributions to the making of books. Now, we think of them not only as writers of texts, as at the beginning of the year in Episode 15, but also, or instead, as makers of the images, scripts, bindings, and/or other materials which make up books themselves as carriers of knowledge, art, expressions,  explorations, and manifestations of human aspirations.

Genres and Styles

Womens’ contributions to the “making of books” also extend to manuscripts or other forms of presenting the written word in material form. These makers chose to work in spheres ranging from calligraphy to illustrations and the designs which governed the layout or production of the works themselves.

Periods under consideration might range widely across centuries and cultures.  Examples include the Arts and Crafts Movement which flourished in Europe and North America circa 1880–1920, the Art Nouveau Movement of circa 1890–1910, and the Art Deco Style of the 1910s to 1930s.

Update:
Since we began to plan this Episode, more of our events in our 2024 Anniversary Year address the subject.

For example, in October, online by Zoom:

  • the co-sponsored set of webinars on Medieval Women’s Networks” on Thursday and Friday 17–18 October by Zoom
  • and the Autumn Symposium 2024 Autumn Symposium “At the Helm: Spotlight on Special Collections as Teaching Events”
    on Friday and Saturday 25–26 October by Zoom; its first session showcases contributions to book-production in the Victorian period Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Ali Smith, Art Nouveau, Arts & Crafts Movement, Calligraphers, Cheap Repository Tracts, Cookbooks, Élisabeth Sonrel, Hannah More, History of Book Production, Illustrators, Lucy Maynard Salmon, Mary Mape Dodge, Muriel Spark, Recipes, RGME Publications, Saint Nicholas Magazine, Seasons Personnified as Women, The Little Red Hen, Women as Makers, Women in Books, Women Printers, Women Writers
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2024 Anniversary Symposium: The Booklet

February 28, 2024 in Anniversary, Announcements, Manuscript Studies, RGME Symposia

“Manuscript (HE)ART”
Symposium Booklet

for the
2024 Anniversary Symposium
in Thanks to Jesse Hurlbut
(24 February 2024)

Co-Organized
by Katharine C. Chandler and Jessica L. Savage

[Posted on 27 February 2024]

The 64-page illustrated 2024 Anniversary Symposium Booklet is now available for our 2024 Anniversary Symposium “Manuscript (HE)ART” held online on 24 February 2024.

  • 2024 Anniversary Symposium in Thanks to Jesse Hurlbut: Program
  • 2024 Anniversary Symposium in Thanks to Jesse Hurlbut: Plan

You may download it as a pdf in two versions, depending upon your printer, paper stock, and preferences.

1) as consecutive pages for 8 1/2 in. x 11 in. sheets (quarto or letter)

2) as a foldable booklet for 11 in. x 17 in. sheets (tabloid, ledger, or B size) to fold in half

If you wish a copy of the printed version, please contact [email protected].

For the event, on the day, we circulated a Preview of the Booklet, with Authors’ Corrections, as a pdf.

Now we issue the Booklet, with a few more corrections, both in print and pdf, for wider circulation. It offers a souvenir of the occasion, with the Program, Abstracts for the presentations, companion Illustrations, the Speakers’ Bios, and a few Notices, including a list of “Contributions to Digital Humanities” by Jesse D. Hurlbut.

2024 Anniversary Symposium Booklet: Front Cover

*****

Coming Attractions

Watch for our next events.

2023 and 2024 Activities

2024 Spring Symposium at Vassar College

2024 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program

And more!

For updates, please visit

  • News
  • our FaceBook Page
  • our Facebook Group
  • our Twitter Feed (@rgme_mss)
  • our Bluesky nest @rgmesocial.bluesky.social)
  • our Blog on Manuscript Studies and its Contents List

Donations and contributions, in funds or in kind, are welcome and easy to give.

  • See Contributions and Donations.

We look forward to hearing from you.

*****

Tags: RGME Anniversary, RGME Anniversary Symposium, RGME Symposia
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2024 Autumn Symposium: “At the Helm”

February 19, 2024 in Anniversary, Conference, Conference Announcement, RGME Symposia

2024 Autumn Symposium
“At the Helm:
Spotlight on Special Collections
as Teaching Events”

Friday and Saturday, 25–26 October 2024 by Zoom

[Posted on 19 February 2024, with updates first including the Symposium Program, Posters, and Symposium Booklet with Program, Abstracts, and Images, and then reporting the issue of the corrected Symposium Booklet after the event, in more than one stage, as refinements came forward]

London, The British Library , Yates Thompson MS 36, fol. 65r, detail. Dante Alighieri, Divina Comedia, Canto 1, Purgatorio. Northern Italy, 15th century.

Part 2 (of 2) in the series of

2024 Spring and Autumn Symposia
on “Bridges”

To follow up from

Part 1 (of 2)
2024 Spring Symposium at Vassar College

“Between Past and Future:
Building Bridges between Special Collections and
Teaching for the Liberal Arts”

“Study on a Medieval Bridge” at Amares , Braga District, Portugal. Image by Pedro Nuno Caetano (2019) via Wikimedia Commons via Creative Commons 2.0 Generic.

[Posted on 18 February 2024, with updates]

This event forms a pair with the Spring Symposium (Part 1) in the 2024 RGME Anniversary Year, for which our Theme is “Bridges”.

  • “Bridges” for our 2024 Anniversary Year

By request, as its momentum and enthusiasm develops, this Symposium has extended its span, from one day to two full days.

Part 1 in April

Part 1 is planned in hybrid format, with access in person and online.  It was held over three days in April, from 18 Friday to 22 Sunday 2024.  Its Title tells its purpose, focus, and mission:

“Between Past and Future:
Building Bridges between Special Collections
and Teaching for the Liberal Arts”

  • Spring Symposium ‘Home Page’
    2024 Spring Symposium at Vassar College
  • Report
    2024 Spring Symposium at Vassar College: Report

Part 2 in October

Part 2, to be held online for two full days in October, provides an integrated follow-up for the Spring Symposium centered upon Vassar.

This time, taking charge on the Bridge of a nautical vessel of passage (Bridge, Wheelhouse, or Pilothouse; Bridge or Pilothouse), we focus on selected cases to examine such teaching practices and resources at work.

“At the Helm:
Spotlight on Special Collections as Teaching Events”

Friday and Saturday 24–25 October 2024
by Zoom

Friday 9:45 am – 5:00 pm EDT (GMT-4)
Saturday 9:00 am – 5:15 pm EDT

In keeping with our tradition – informal, but structured – for our RGME Symposia (as with our 2023 Spring and Autumn Symposia), we offer presenters the opportunity, with minimal preparation, to showcase collections (private and public) in virtual visits guided by curators or collectors, in the company of teachers and students on-site and online.

Our goal here is to channel the purposeful momentum for the 2024 Spring Symposium at Vassar College in a simpler follow-up demonstrating the mission in action of teaching with the material evidence in Special Collections.  Whilst the Spring Symposium focuses (but not exclusively) on the Medieval and Renaissance periods, the Autumn Symposium welcomes a wide variety of periods, cultures, and genres of material.

Poster 2 for RGME 2024 Autumn Symposium. Set in RGME Bembino. Image: Coventry Patmore, Amelia: an idyll (1878), title page, illuminated by Bertha Patmore. Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press.

The poster is available to download. Please circulate and display it, if you wish.

  • Poster 2 for RGME 2024 Autumn Symposium

For more information and to register, see below.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Archives and Special Collections Library of Vassar College, Edgar William Pyke Collection of Coins, History of Bridges, Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, RGME Anniversary Year, RGME Library & Archives, RGME Symposia, Special Collections, Special Collections of Ellis Library University of Missouri, Teaching Events, Virtual Visits to Collections
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2019 Congress Behind the Scenes Report

May 6, 2020 in Anniversary, Conference, Events, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Reception, Societas Magica, Uncategorized

Light at the End of the Corridor

Behind the Scenes

RGME Activities
at the 2019 International Congress on Medieval Studies

[Posted on 6 May 2020]

At the End of the 2019 Congress. A view down the dorm corridor, with Light at the End of the Tunnel.

At the End of the 2019 Congress: “Light at the End of the Corridor”.

Following the successful completion of our activities at the 2019 Congress, we offer an informal glimpse Behind the Scenes.  Customarily, the completion of the Congress is followed by its Report.  Occasionally, there also follows a Behind-the-Scenes Report.  For the 2019 Congress, we planned already then to offer such an additional, informal Report, but events and tasks arising along the way back from the Congress pushed back its timetable for completion.  Then, in steady succession, other tasks and activities occupied attention.

Some are reported in our blog about our Congress Activities, as we prepared for the 2020 Congress, while others have their say in our blog about Manuscript Studies, and in our reports about other Events, including the 2020 Spring Symposium. The required cancellation in March and April 2020 of that Symposium and the 2020 Congress as a whole led to further re-arrangements. Among other things, we attended to publishing the 2020 Symposium Booklet and the Abstracts for all our 2020 Congress Sessions as “souvenirs” of what had been planned.  Research Group plans and adaptations, including possible rescheduling of parts of those events, are reported in the announcement about Keeping Up: Updates for Spring 2020. Now, as the appointed time would have come to travel to the 2020 Congress as formerly intended, we revisit the 2019 Congress with its Behind-the-Scenes Report, including some hindsight.

Earlier Reports from Behind-the-Scenes

Tardis2 via Wikipedia Commons

Tardis

For the 2016 Congress Report, its Follow-Up Report took shape under the title of Doctor Who-Done-It.  That term had its inspiration from a conversation on the way from one of the Research Group co-sponsored Sessions to our Reception, likewise co-sponsored with the Societas Magica.  Then it was revealed that our Director, Dr. Mildred Budny, drives an equivalent of the  Tardis (a conveyance for “Time and Relative Dimension in Space”).  

As described on the official website for Doctor Who (see also Doctor Who), the Tardis is the “Doctor’s method of travel through both time and space — all Gallifreyan Time Lords use TARDISes for getting from A to B — and from then to now.”  Who knew that this conveyance would also figure among the activities behind the scenes at the 2019 Congress?

The conversation at the 2016 Congress had to do with transporting some copies of the Illustrated Catalogue to the Reception for collection by their new owners.  2016 was the first year that our Director elected to drive, rather than to fly, to Kalamazoo for the Congress — because of the new arrangements by which the Research Group, as its co-publisher, took over the distribution of that Publication, and through which our Director had identified prospective owners, who wished to collect their copies at the Congress (rather than, say, to have to cover the international shipping costs).  At that Congress, our Director could be seen with some of these copies in tow, on a wheeled luggage cart, on the way from one Session or Meeting to another.  On the way to the Reception, there came the question if the ones that time were the only ones that had been brought.  “Oh, no!  These are not the same ones that you have seen on earlier days of the Congress.  These are new, and there are more where they came from, for tomorrow.””

“Ah”, said Collin.  “Where do they [meaning the new ones] come from?”
“Ah”, said our Director, “They come from the back of my car.  There are the refills.”
“Oh!  So your car is the Tardis”.

And so came the title Doctor Who-Done-It.

At the next Congress, the 2017 Congress Report included an image of that conveyance, again in the company of the Illustrated Catalogue and one of its new owners.

Book Signing for Mildred Budny's Illustrated Catalogue, on a Sunny Afternoon outside Fetzer at the 2017 International Congress on Medieval Studies, Tardis Included.

Book Signing Scene outside Fetzer at the 2017 Congress. Photograph by Mildred Budny.

Gathering

Arriving at the Congress base to register on the Eve of the Congress, some of us gathered, as customary, at Bilbos Pizza.  Then it was time to place the Research Group Posters on billboards, where permitted and where space allowed.

RGME and Other Posters at the 2019 Congress.

RGME and Other Posters at the 2019 Congress.

The landscapes also await Arrivals.  Here, outside one of the Dorms — inside which, on occasions, we visit the Board Room (see below).

Plant Life to Greet the Congress Attendees. Row of Hostas alongside the Walkway. Photograph Mildred Budny.

Plant Life to Greet the Congress Attendees. Photograph Mildred Budny.

Setting the Stage

Preparing to start the Sessions and to engage in their Question-and-Answer discussions, our participants engaged in arranging the projection and other aims. The official Report for this Congress includes some Group Portraits of contributors to the different Sessions.  Here, two Speakers set up the projection for their joint paper at our first Session of the Congress, the Organizer of one of our co-sponsored Sessions participates in its discussion, and the Respondent for that Session strokes his beard as he delivers his paper.

Ian Cornelius and James Eric Ensley prepare to tell us about “The Lost Medieval Exemplar of Beinecke Library, Takamiya MS 23”

Eric and Ian Check the Projection for their Joint Paper at the 2019 Congress.

Eric and Ian Check the Projection for their Joint Paper at the 2019 Congress.

Vajra Regan listens to the progress of his Session on “Embedded in the Mainstream: Ritual Magic Incorporated in ‘Legitimate’ Texts”, one of the 2 Sessions co-sponsored by the Research Group and the Societas Magica .

Vajra at his Session at the 2019 Congress.

Vajra at his Session at the 2019 Congress.

Michael A. Conrad offers an erudite Response to Vajra’s Session by his observations “In Plain Sight:  The Promotion of Astrology and Magic at Royal Courts in the Thirteenth Century in Transcultural Perspective”.

Michael Presents His Paper at the the 2019 Congress.

Michael Presents His Paper at the the 2019 Congress.

It was then that we learned that often, giving Papers, Michael ponders while he holds his beard — an observation which he readily confirmed.

Michael Presents His Paper at the the 2019 Congress.

Michael Presents His Paper and Beard at the the 2019 Congress.

2019 Reception and Business Meeting Invitations.

2019 Reception and Business Meeting Invitations.

Our Business Meeting

This year’s Open Business Meeting was an outstanding success.  So many attendees — newcomers gladly included — that we had to bring in more chairs.  Our Associate, William H. Campbell, volunteered to find those arrangements.  As customary, Derek Shank recorded the Minutes.  Constructive suggestions abounded.

Scheduled for lunchtime (lunch provided) on the first full day of the Congress, and right after our first Session (only 1 building away), the Meeting offered an excellent way to launch our activities at the Congress and beyond.  Apparently there are no photographs of the occasion, but the 1-page Agenda not only sets the stage, but also provides a concise record of our achievements and aims for 2017–2018 and beyond, with requests for suggestions and contributions in funds and in kind.

The 2019 Agenda is now downloadable.  Please join us!

Our Reception

As in some previous years, our Reception was co-sponsored with the Societas Magica .  Conversation flowed, and some manuscript materials were examined.

Our Reception at the 2019 Congress.

Our Reception at the 2019 Congress.

Dan Attrell heads the table.

Our Reception at the 2019 Congress.

Our Reception at the 2019 Congress.

Groups hold conversations.

Our Reception at the 2019 Congress.

Our Reception at the 2019 Congress.

Greeting the gatherers.

Our Reception at the 2019 Congress.

Our Reception at the 2019 Congress.

Showing some specimens.

Our Reception at the 2019 Congress.

Our Reception at the 2019 Congress.

Pondering.

Our Reception at the 2019 Congress.

Our Reception at the 2019 Congress.

*****

The Board Room

At the end of the day, as in previous years, it was possible to retreat to one of the Student Lounges, where we gathered to talk, relax, and, on occasion, play board games.  Hence my customary term for that Room.  (Never “Bored”.)

In the Board Room at the 2019 Congress.

In the Board Room at the 2019 Congress.

Making a Move.

In the Board Room at the 2019 Congress.

In the Board Room at the 2019 Congress.

Engaging in the Game.

In the Board Room at the 2019 Congress.

Options.

In the Board Room at the 2019 Congress.

In the Board Room at the 2019 Congress.

The customary Shedding of Shoes.

Bare Feet in the Board Room at the 2019 Congress.

Bare Feet in the Board Room at the 2019 Congress.

Conversing in the Board Room.

In the Board Room 2019 Congress.

In the Board Room 2019 Congress.

Telling Stories.

In the Board Room at the 2019 Congress.

In the Board Room at the 2019 Congress.

Not forgetting Refreshments.

In the Board Room at the 2019 Congress.

In the Board Room at the 2019 Congress.

Happy Traditions in Good Company among Colleagues and Friends.

*****

Book Signing

At last, the edition and translation has appeared.  The Picatrix: A Medieval Treatise on Astral Magic, translated with an introduction by Dan Attrell and David Porreca (2019). The authors sign copies.   Hurray!

Congratulating the achievement, we join the company of admirers with the happy awareness that we have heard about the research for this publication over the years, including in some of our Sessions at the Congress.

Dan and David at Their Book-Signing at the 2019 Congress.

Dan and David at Their Book-Signing at the 2019 Congress.

For example, at the 2018 Congress, Abstract of Paper included.

Poster for our Session co-sponsored with the Societas Magica on "Occult Blockbusters of the Islamicate World", Part I: The Piccatrix (A Magical Bestseller)", organized by David Porreca and sponsored by both the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence amd the Societas Magica at the 2018 International Congress on Medieval Studies. Poster set in RGME Bembino.

2018 Poster for “Occult Blockbusters” Session.

Displays, Dragons Included.

Diane in the Display 2019 Congress.

Display at the 2019 Congress.

*****

Sunday Lunch, Plus Some Manuscript Materials

As customary in recent years, some of us gather at the cafeteria for Sunday lunch, as the Congress draws to its close and we prepare for return journeys.  As in recent years, the gathering gives the opportunity to look afresh at some manuscript materials.

Here.

Adelaide, Eleanor, and David at Sunday Lunch at the 2019 Congress.

Sunday Lunch at the 2019 Congress.

With some improvised, reclaimed materials, Michael wraps his newly won Manuscript Facsimile Page for safe transit.

Michael at Sunday Lunch at the 2019 Congress.

Michael at Sunday Lunch at the 2019 Congress.

Travelling T-Shirts as Selected and Modelled by Research Group Associates.

T-Shirts at Sunday Lunch at the 2019 Congress.

Derek and David with T-Shirts at Sunday Lunch at the 2019 Congress.

*****

Heading Home

As the Congress shuts down, participants, exhibitors, staff, and employees, hurry to pack and depart.  Then comes a quiet time, as some await their transport.  Among them is Ilona.

Ilona Awaits at the End of the 2019 Congress. Photograph by Mildred Budny.

Ilona Awaits at the End of the 2019 Congress.

As packing is completed, there is pause to look around the setting and reflect upon the completion of another Congress.

1) Looking out from a ground-floor dorm room toward the Parking Lot as its spaces have cleared.

View from the Dorm at the End of the Congress.

View from the Dorm at the End of the Congress.

2) A view of the Corridor leading to and from that room shows some “Light at the End of the Corridor”.

At the End of the 2019 Congress. A view down the dorm corridor, with Light at the End of the Tunnel.

At the End of the 2019 Congress: Light at the End of the Tunnel.

Now is the time to drive away.

The Empty Parking Lot after the 2019 Congress.

The Empty Parking Lot after the 2019 Congress.

The grey weather following the Congress made a contrast with the sunny days along part of its course. By some of that sunlight might we remember it.

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

Central Rock Garden at WMU Kzoo 2019

*****

“Le Chariot” Hitches a Ride and Comes to the End of the Line

Remember the  Tardis-like conveyance driven by our Director?  See Above and also the Reports for the  2016 Congress and the 2017 Congress .

Our lamented Associate, Michel Huglo, named this selfsame vehicle “Le Chariot de Milly” when he caught first sight of it.  That was when our Director came to collect him for brunch in Princeton following our 1998 Symposium on The Bible and the Liturgy, at which he had spoken.  That name has proved as trusty as, for years, did the car.  With the Director, it has ventured to conferences — including those in which the Research Group participated as organizer and sponsor or co-sponsor — in various states, including MA, CT, PA, OH, and MI.

This time, on the way back from the Kalamazoo Congress, the car gave up with a pop on the Ohio Turnpike.  In the middle lane, at that, but with no traffic, so that it was possible safely to move to the side of the road, where conveniently stood a layby.

Le Chariot at the Side of the Ohio Turnpike Returning from the 2019 Congress.

Le Chariot at the Side of the Road.

It took some time for help to arrive, but then Le Chariot was able to hitch a ride.

Le Chariot Hitches a Ride on the Way Back from the 2019 Congress.

Le Chariot Hitches a Ride on the Way Back from the 2019 Congress.

This car had come to the end of the line, so had to remain in Ohio.  Another means of conveyance could be found for the return to home base, but that car has now passed into history.  Legend, some might say?

*****

With hindsight, it seems somehow fitting that my thoughtful photographs in leaving the Congress rooms and spaces included choices to record them in the absence of people within the frame, but not without their presence, and their presence of mind.

*****

The grey weather following the Congress made a contrast with the sunny days along part of its course. By some of that sunlight might we remember it.

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

Central Rock Garden at WMU Kzoo 2019

Or, as I also wish to think about it, there might be some “Light at the End of the Corridor”.

*****

Now see the 2020 International Congress Program Announced.

Although some of our Sessions planned for the 2020 Congress considered aspects of Divination and other approaches to “Seeing the Unknown” (in Parts I & II), we did not guess that the Congress itself would have to be abandoned.  And so now, on the day which would have been devoted to travel to the 2020 Congress, I reflect on the forms of light which presence and hindsight — perhaps also forethought — might offer for our explorations across time and space, guided by experiences and reflections.

At the End of the 2019 Congress. A view down the dorm corridor, with Light at the End of the Tunnel.

At the End of the 2019 Congress: Light at the End of the Tunnel.

*****

Tags: Board Room, Business Meeting, Reception, Targis
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Preston Charters, Continued

April 7, 2020 in Anniversary, Manuscript Studies, Uncategorized

Preston Charters, Continued

Charters 6 & 9

Preston Charter 7 Seal Face with the name Gilbertus. Photograph Mildred Budny.

Preston Charter 7 Seal.

Following our 2 previous blogposts on a group of single-sheet charters in Latin on vellum from Preston in Suffolk, England, now in a private collection, we advance with further reports about them.

Those first 2 blogposts, Full Court Preston and Preston Take 2, focused upon 2 of the group.  They considered Charters ‘1’ and ‘2’ (as we first called them), or Charters 7 and 5 in the present owner’s numbering system entered upon the dorse of each document.  Those blogposts provided detailed photographs and descriptions of the documents, transcriptions and translations of their texts, and observations about their characteristics and contexts.

Here we focus upon Charters 6 and 9.  (Remember, Charter 8 is lost or mislaid.)

First we survey the Preston group, which comprises a series with modern numbering from 5 to 13.  Then we consider these two documents, one by one.

The Group

Sign for the Portobello Road, W11, London

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Church_at_Preston_St_Mary_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1598436.jpg

Church at Preston St Mary. Photograph by Andrew Hill via Wikimedia Creative Commons

The owner purchased the group in a bag, in the 1980s in London, probably — according to his recollection — in the Portobello Road, a renowned location of markets and shops of many kinds, including used goods, curiousities, and antiquities.  The group has his consecutive series of modern Arabic numbers, running from 5 to 13.  The individual number stands in black ink at the top left corner of the dorse (or back) of each document.

Of that original group of 9, only 8 documents survive in the group, preserved within a notebook for the English charter materials in the collection.  Charter 8 went missing or mislaid after a class some years ago — considerably before the group came into our view.  Consequently, we know only of Charters 5–7 and 9–13, until Charter 8 might return to view.

Our survey of the group progresses in pairs, more-or-less chronologically.  The first 3 documents (Charters 5, 6, and 7) are undated, so that an assessment of their probable dating depends upon stylistic features of the script, orthographic features, and other evidence both internal and contextual.  The others (Charters 9–13) carry their dates, to the regnal year and sometimes to the very day.

The pair under consideration here has one of each, respectively undated and dated.

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Tags: Anglicana Formata, Gwyndon de Mortuomar, History of Documents, King Edward II, Medieval Seals, Norwich, Portobello Road, Preston, Preston Saint Mary, Richard of Otelye, Seal Tags, Symon Purte of Preston
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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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2019 Anniversary Symposium Report: The Roads Taken

July 28, 2019 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, Anniversary, Announcements, Bembino, Conference, Index of Medieval Art, Manuscript Studies, Princeton University, Reception, Reports

The Roads Taken, Or, The Obstacle Course

Challenges & Opportunities for
Assessing the Origins, Travels & Arrivals
of Manuscripts & Early Printed Materials

2019 Anniversary Symposium
of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Princeton University
Friday 26 & Saturday 27 April 2019

Co-Sponsored by The Bibliographical Society of America

Rejoined Pieces of a Leaf from a Book of Hours. Private Collection, reproduced by permission.

Rejoined Pieces of a Leaf from a Book of Hours. Private Collection.

Sponsors

Department of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University

The Index of Medieval Art at Princeton University

James Marrow and Emily Rose

Celia Chazelle

Barbara A. Shailor

The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies

Vassar College

The Plan

In 2019 the Research Group on Manuscript [and Other] Evidence celebrates 20 years as a nonprofit educational corporation based in Princeton, and 30 years as an international scholarly society founded at the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Across the years, we have engaged in multiple events in many places, over multiple manuscripts and other original sources, and on a broad range of subjects. We celebrate our friends, colleagues, hosts, donors, volunteers, and subjects of study.

As part of these celebrations, our Anniversary Symposium took place at Princeton University, host of many of our events over the years, as remembered here.  Sponsorship for this Symposium included Sponsors from earlier years, as well as new sponsorship by The Bibliographical Society of America and by Vassar College .

The Cover Page for the 2019 Anniversary Symposium Booklet displays the name and logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, the title and subtitle of the Symposium, the List of Sponsors, and a description of the scope and aims of the Symposium. Like the rest of the Booklet, the Cover Page is set in RGME Bembino, the copyright multilingual font of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence.

2019 Anniversary Symposium Booklet Cover Page

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Tags: Anniversary Symposium, Early Printing, manuscript fragments
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