Workshop 11. “Manuscripts at Play, Continued: Figured Texts”

October 2, 2026 in Announcements, Event Registration, Manuscript Studies, Research Group Workshops, Workshops on "The Evidence of Manuscripts"

RGME Workshops on
“The Evidence of Manuscripts, Etc.”

Workshop 11
(Sunday 25 October 2026 online)

“Manuscripts at Play, Continued:
Figured Texts”

[Posted on 1 October 2026, with updates]

We continue our series of workshops on “The Evidence of Manuscripts Etc.” It comprises a range of styles including presentations, interviews, roundtables, and other forms of conversations. For information about the series:

RGME Workshops on “The Evidence of Manuscripts, Etc.”

This time, by request, we revisit, expand upon, and follow forward on the subjects which we presented for the RGME sponsored session at the 2026 International Medieval Congress in July 2026. See

‘Manuscripts at Play and as Play: Temporalities and (Re)Configurations as Reading Methods’.

2026 IMC Poster 2 (Image)

The Purpose

For our Workshop, we gather panelists, respondents, and participants of that session to develop more aspects of the subject, report further work, and contribute to the conversation for a wider audience, also the view for a recording to ensure a longer-lasting record.

Presenters and Respondents from that session return to expand upon their contributions and/or to present variations upon them or new subjects responding to the theme of “Figured Texts”. We also welcome an in-person attendee from that session, Mark Saltviet, who contributed questions and comments during the Q&A for the session and then contacted the RGME Director with the interest of participating in our activities.

It was Mark’s expression of interest which inspired the preparation of our new guide about joining the RGME:

How to Join the RGME: Guide for Newcomers

Contributors at the 2026 Leeds Session:

2026 IMC Poster 1 (Text)

The Plan

The subjects of manuscripts (and other written records) in terms of their figural and figured approaches to the words as laid out on the writing surfaces, and as intended to be construed or parsed or puzzled out, have many directions. Some we have touched upon in the 2026 session on “Manuscripts at Play and as Play” at Leeds. Some we will continue to explore or broach afresh.

For Workshop 11, we focus on selected aspects of those functions. Presenters and Respondents from that Leeds session return for one of our RGME series, to expand upon those contributions. We present variations upon them, or to visit new subjects, all responding to the theme of “Figured Texts.” Especially, we consider cases where the texts themselves assume shapes or forms – such as geometric or other figures and illustrations – so as to illuminate both Figure and Ground as an embodied Whole.

We welcome you to bring your interests, questions, and suggestions.

Read the rest of this entry →

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Episode 29. “The Life and Inquest of Jeanne-Marie de Maillé”

October 1, 2026 in Announcements, Event Registration, Manuscript Studies, Research Group Speaks (The Series)

“The Research Group Speaks”:
The Series

Episode 29 [formerly Episode 26]
(Saturday 17 October 2026)
“The Life and Inquest of Jeanne-Marie de Maillé”

• Renate Blumenfeld–Kosinski,
• Bruce Venarde, and
• Edmund Van der Molen

Part 2 of our Series on “Local Saints and Their Cults”

[Posted on 23 September 2026, with updates]

We continue our series of episodes for “The Research Group Speaks.” It comprises a range of styles including presentations, interviews, roundtables, and other forms of conversations. For information about the series:

“The Research Group Speaks”: The Series

Following by request from Part 1 in our series on “Local Saints and Their Cults” (Episode 22. Encounters with Local Saints and Their Cults on 13 December 2025), our Associate Renate Blumenfeld–Kosinski (who presided for Part 1) returns to bring the team finishing a translation/commentary of the Life and Inquest of Jeanne-Marie de Maillé (d. 1414).

Basilique Notre Dame des Enfants de Châteauneuf sur Cher. Statue of the Blessed Jeanne-Marie de Maillé dressed in the habit of the Third Order of Franciscans. Photograph 30 September 2024 by Ideefixe, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Team

Members of the team are:

Renate Blumenfeld–Kosinski, University of Pittsburgh, Emerita
Bruce L. Venarde, University of Pittsburgh, History Department, Emeritus
Edmund Van der Molen, recently completed the PhD from the University of Nottingham

The Project

Together they would describe the progress of their collaborative work as they finish a translation/commentary of the Life and Inquest of Jeanne-Marie de Maillé (died 1414). Although the manuscript of her Life (Latin Vita) is lost, the manuscript of the Inquest survives. The team will relate how they used this witness in relation to the seventeenth-century edition in the Acta Sanctorum and expound upon the life of the would-be saint aided by the diverse group of witnesses at the Inquest, which began a mere two weeks after Jeanne-Marie’s death. The Episode offers the opportunity for a preview of the publication.

The Proposed Saint

Beatified on 27 April 1871 by Pope Pius IX, Jeanne-Marie de Maillé or Jane Mary de Maille (see for example Giovanna Maria della Maillé) was born at the Castle of La Roche (Roche-Saint-Quentin, near Tours) on 14 April 1331 and died on 28 March 1414 at Tours. As saintly patron, with Feast Day of 28 March, her special spheres of patronages include victims of abuse, exiles, people ridiculed for their piety, and widows.

The

Some References

Note that these sources are, for now, untrustworthy or out-of-date:

The team’s work toward the new edition and translation, in conjunction with their contextual research and experience, sets the stage for fuller knowledge of the person, evidence for her life, and the history of her cult. We look forward to hearing more from this team of dedicated scholars.

Background:

Edmund Van der Molen, “Making Saints, Making Selves: Narrative, Rhetoric, and Agency in the Diocesan Inquest into Jeanne-Marie de Maillé (1414–1415),” Church History , Volume 93, Issue 1, March 2026, pp. 1–20.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009640724000052
Acta Sanctorum (for access to which see Acta Sanctorum Product Services), Mar. 3:733–762
Jean Barbier, Jeanne-Marie de Maillé (Vendée: Editions Castel, 1993)
Maria de Crisenoy, Bienheureuse Jeanne-Marie de Maillé, La Mystique des Temps de Misère (Paris: Editions Franciscaines, collection “Profils Franciscains”, 1948)

Also:

Renate Blumenfeld–Kosinski with Bruce L. Venarde in: de Sabanac, R. and Zanacchi, S., 2010. Two Women of the Great Schism: The Revelations of Constance de Rabastens by Raymond de Sabanac and the Life of Ursulina of Parma by Simone Zanacchi. Toronto: Center for Reformation and Renaissance Studies. (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe, Toronto Series 3).
De Vaux, P. and De Baume, S.P., 2022. Two Lives of Saint Colette: With a Selection of Letters By, To, and about Colette (Vol. 94). Iter Press.

Registration

See you there!

Lisbon, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga: The mid 15th-century Saint Vincent Panels, attributed to Nuno Gonçalves. Image (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Nuno_Gon%C3%A7alves._Paineis_de_S%C3%A3o_Vicente_de_Fora.jpg) via Creative Commons.

Tags: Jeanne-Marie de Maillé, Local Saints, Manuscript studies, Saints and their Cults
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How to Join the RGME: Guide for Newcomers

October 1, 2026 in Announcements, Events, Friends of the Research Group on Manuscript Evience, Manuscript Studies, Research Group Speaks (The Series), Research Group Workshops, RGME Annual Appeal, RGME Friends' Meetings, RGME Library & Archives, Theme of the Year, Workshops on "The Evidence of Manuscripts"

Interested in the RGME?

Wondering how to join our group?

We offer a Guide
for people interested in our group but uncertain about how it works.

[Posted on 10 August 2026, in response to requests]

Would you like to participate in the RGME and our activities, but you’re not sure how to join?

As a nonprofit educational corporation, we do not have Members as such, with annual dues and membership obligations.

Instead, we gladly gather Officers, Associates, and Volunteers. They are listed on our website:

Officers, Associates, and Volunteers

We also have Friends of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence.

Friends of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

The RGME has no employees as such. Sometimes, when funds permit, we engage contractors or vendors.

Logo (2024) of the Friends of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

People

Anyone can volunteer.

Our nonprofit corporation, incorporated in the State of New Jersey on 4 November 1999, has a Board of Trustees.

1. Trustees and Officers

Officers for our corporation are elected by the Board of Trustees. Among them are the Trustees, the Secretary and Treasurer for the Corporation, the Editor-in-Chief of Publications, and other responsible functionaries.

2. Honorary Invited Associates (“Associates”)

From our beginnings in 1989 as part of a major research project in the University of Cambridge, when we established the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence as an international scholarly society, and reinforced our stature as a nonprofit educational corporation based in the State of New Jersey, we have held the tradition of inviting selected volunteers who have been involved in activities of the RGME to become our Honorary Invited Associates.

For this honorary position there are no dues nor duties; it is our traditional way of expressing formal thanks to people who have contributed to our work and mission in a variety of ways.

3. Volunteers

Volunteers join activities, background organizational work, and celebrations. Some Volunteers, over time, become Honorary Invited Associates.

4. Friends of the RGME

We also welcome all members of our community to join the Friends of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence.

https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/friends-of-the-research-group-on-manuscript-evidence/

For this position there are no dues nor duties, but, as always, we welcome donations of funds and contributions in kind (materials, time, expertise).

5. Donors and Sponsors

Donations in funds and in kind, including materials, books or manuscripts, and pro-bono contributions, are welcome. Sponsors include individuals, organizations, and institutions.

How You Can Participate

There are many ways to participate, whether by attending or contributing to our activities:

helping to organize the event, its production, and its follow-up
speaking, offering a response, moderating, or talking as panelist for a roundtable
joining the conversation in the discussion or roundtable
joining the Friends of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence — it’s free and open to all!
joining one of our Committees to participate in the planning and running of aspects of our work
giving time, expertise, materials, and/or funding for our work and our mission, including our RGME Office, our RGME Production Team, and our RGME Library & Archives
sharing access to original materials for our research and teaching, whether through photographs or by lending or giving original works to the RGME ‘Lending Library’ and the RGME Library & Archives
giving Donations of funds (as much as you can) or Contributions in Kind
offering suggestions and requests for our activities, projects, and publications

The RGME runs a variety of events and social gatherings throughout the year. We also engage in research projects, training seminars or masterclasses, and publications of various kinds, often by request.

RGME Activities, Projects, and Publications

I. Activities: Events

“The Research Group Speaks” series of stand-alone episodes featuring interviews, roundtables, and individual presentations. Suggestions for future episodes are always welcome! For a list of Episodes, see https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/the-research-group-speaks-the-series/
RGME Workshops on the “Evidence of Manuscripts, Etc.” a series of online gatherings to focus on a original materials (a single object, group of objects, or cases-in-point) in order to observe, analyse, and discuss with a like-minded community their various features and historical context(s). Past workshops themes can be browsed at https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/rgme-workshops-on-the-evidence-of-manuscripts-etc/
Symposia and, where appropriate, Colloquia. Sometimes the Symposia occur annually or, as in the past several years, run as a joint pair of symposiums in the Spring and Autumn. Colloquia stand alongside symposia in some years, as we focus upon a particular theme or place. Several of these types of events are also hybrid, taking place jointly online as well as at a participating university. For example: 2025 RGME Spring and Autumn Symposia, 2025 RGME Colloquium on Fragments, and 2026 RGME Colloquium at the Grolier Club
Visits to Collections, both private and institutional. In the past year, we have visited collections in New Jersey (the Steven Lamazow Collection and Special Collections of Princeton University) and New York (The Grolier Club of the City of New York and Special Collections and the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College).
Sponsored and co-sponsored Conference sessions: the RGME issues Calls for Papers (CFPs) for IMC Leeds (July) and ICMS Kalamazoo (May) each year.

Poster 3 for 2025 Autumn Colloquium. Workshops on “Fragments at Princeton”

The Annual Open Business Meeting, taking place during the ICMS at Kalamazoo
Meetings of the Friends of the RGME. We meet informally online for monthly meetings to talk about subjects of interest, including books and related materials, ranging from childrens’ books and recipe books to celebrations of many kinds. See: https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/meetings-of-the-friends-of-the-research-group-on-manscript-evidence/

2. Activities: Projects and Publications

Publications often result from our events, as with their papers, abstracts, or reports. They include both traditional (printed) and digital publications, from books and booklets to newsletters, blogposts, posters, and invitations.
Our Website. All our public events are reported on our official website, which comprises our principal publication with outreach to our community worldwide.
https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/

© MSK Ghent. Museum of Fine Arts Ghent. Cornelius Albertus Gijsbrects. Trompe-l’œil: Letter Rack with an Hourglass, Razor and Scissors, circa 1664. Image via https://www.mskgent.be/en/collection/1911-hj.

Our Blogs. Subjects, Specimens, Discoveries, Reports, and News are shared in our blogs, for which we welcome GuestBloggers. See Manuscript Studies and its Manuscript Studies: Contents List
Our Style Manifesto. All our Publications conform with our RGME Style Manifesto
Our Official, bespoke, Multi-Lingual Digital Font Bembino. Our Publications use our very own font Bembino, which is freely available for all to use
Our Eventbrite Registration Portal. Our activities are often listed in the RGME Eventbrite Collection, where you can register to attend in person or online (as suitable) and you can add a voluntary donation. Most of our events are free-of-charge, and your donations are most welcome to help sustain our work and mission.
https://www.eventbrite.com/o/research-group-on-manuscript-evidence-54727558903
RGME Friends’ Favorite Recipes Competition and Cookbook. The Friends of the RGME prepare a community cookbook of Favorite Recipes. Competitions for recipes on selected courses or themes (such as Salads, Cookies and Cakes, or Starters) gather entries, with award certificates and prizes.

Join Us!

To join our group and activities, please get in touch with us by contacting

Donations Please, with Our Thanks

To keep our organization running, we count on volunteers, pro-bono contributions, and donations in funds. We ask you to give what you can. Visit:

********

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2026 RGME Symposium: “Teaching for the Future”

September 28, 2026 in Announcements, Manuscript Studies, RGME Symposia

SAVE THE DATE
2026 RGME Symposium

“Teaching for the Future:
Transformations and Renewals
in the Transmission of Learning”

online by Zoom and partly hybrid

Date Range (TBD)
between Wednesday 2 December through 7 December 2026
not necessarily consecutive

Sessions of 1 ½ hours (including scope for Q&A)
between 10:00 am and 5:00 pm EST (GMT-5)
with breaks

Sessions of Presentations, Interviews, Roundtable Discussions, Workshops

[Posted on 24 September 2026, with updates]

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France. Département des Manuscrits. Latin 10532, page 2, detail. Horæ ad usum Fratrum Prædicatorum, dites Heures de Frédéric d’Aragon. Image Public Domain via https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8427228j/f6.item.

In keeping with our 2026 Theme of “Transformations and Renewals,” for our 2026 RGME Symposium we explore perspectives and experiences in learning and teaching (and vice versa), considered across generations, subjects, and methods. At the center are observations about the challenges and opportunities for the transmission of the past in the hands of the present, notably considering that process through written records, and taking into account our responsibilities for the future. We focus on experiences, at various stages across lifespans, and what they teach us.

In a nutshell: we reflect about “Manuscripts, Books, Written Materials, and their Powers as Teachers.” We also attend to processes by which we might learn, be taught, and embark upon teaching, in cycles that might interlink in response to inspiration, encouragement, cautions, discoveries, serendipity, and choices made or revised as experience or evidence might direct.

The scope for subjects of teaching and learning can range across a multitude of periods, genres, methods, processes, purposes, and results. They span manuscripts and beyond, medieval and more, including documents, prints, arts, crafts, skills, sciences, and a multitude of approaches to the transmission of learning.

We wish to gather stories and compare notes. We will hear from young students, practicing teachers, scholars, retirees, and others in the worlds of learning and practice, whether in the classroom or beyond. We recognize that these worlds can have wide horizons and that the learning experiences and the agencies for learning can extend across a given lifetime as well as move across lifetimes.

We take into account a wide range of approaches in both Arts and Sciences. We attend to the experiences of people where they stand in their journey. Although the state of education in the present climate encounters challenges aplenty, the individual and collective dedication to teaching and its transmission from person to person and generation to generation, as well as across the ages, calls for celebration of the joys of learning, along with the processes of sharing and mentoring them.

Some questions to examine might include:

Experiences in learning and teaching (or vice versa), whether for career choices or life-training
Teaching in the classroom, teaching outside the classroom
Recollections of teachers and their impact(s), good or bad
Life-lessons learned through experience and hindsight
Where do we go from here, from this point in time, to move forward?

Generally we seek presentations of some 20 to 25 minutes, longer presentations of some 40 to 45 minutes, responses of some 10 to 15 minutes, and comments of varied lengths — impromptu included — for roundtable discussions and conversations. They will occupy sessions of 1 ½ hours, which include scope for Q&A. We begin to draw up the program, with sessions settling into place.

Participation is welcome and flexible: Advise, Attend, Preside, Talk, Present, Respond, Ask Questions, Give Feedback, Compare Notes. Join the Celebration!

Please let us know if you wish to participate.
Contact: director@manuscriptevidence.org or mildredbudny@gmail.com

We look forward to comparing notes, learning, and learning anew.

People

We continue to assemble the program. The symposium is organized by Mildred Budny and Ann Jianxue Chen.

People who will participate, whether as Advisers, Presiders, Moderators, Presenters, Respondents, Panelists, Commentators, and Behind-the-Scene Supporters, whether in-person or online, include (in alphabetical order):

Cortney Anne Berg (City University of New York Graduate Center)
Phillip Bernhardt–House (RGME)
Mildred Budny (Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)
Ann Jianxue Chen (Princeton University)
Zenon Donaldson (University of Waterloo)
Augustine Dickinson (Universität Münster)
Daria Elagina (Universität Münster)
Robert Martin Kerr (Universität des Saarlandes)
Hannah Goeselt (Massachusetts Historical Society Library)
Justin Hastings (Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)
Antony R. Henk (Medievalisms – Ruhr-Universität Bohum)
Thomas E. Hill (Art Library, Vassar College)
Kevin Maringer (The Pirbright Institute, Surrey)
Beppy Landrum Owen
Zoe Langer (Rare Book School)
David Porreca (University of Waterloo)
Mark Saltviet (Independent Scholar)
Anna Siebach–Larson (Colgate University)
David W. Sorenson (Allen G. Berman, Numismatist)
N. Kivilcim Yavuz (University of Leeds)
And more!

As we shape the Program and possible Venues for parts of the event, we invite more Contributions.

Venues

As we shape the Program and its cast of Participants, we explore possible venues for some of its parts to take place in-person. We aim for all sessions to be accessible online. Recordings for some of them might become available, with permissions.

Subjects and Sessions

Sessions in preparation include:

“Manuscripts as Pedagogy”
“Learning to Read, From the Ground Up: Mothers, Teachers, Schooling”
“Experiments in Teaching: Reports from the Classroom”
“Books as Teachers”
“Students as Teachers, Teachers as Students”
“Notes from the Fieldwork”
“Insights from Lessons Learned and In Progress: Hindsight and Foresight”
“Learning for Life”
And more!

Subjects include practices in pedagogy across time, the transmission of literary cultures, the rôles of women in that transmission, the nature of written sources as witnesses, case-studies centering on specific manuscripts or printed books (or fragments thereof), and interviews or conversations with teachers, students, and practitioners in a wide range of fields of activity and agency.

Support and Hospitality

In shaping the event, we look for Venues and Sponsors. As we work to gather the delicious and nutritious Food for Thought, we also think about sustenance in the forms of Food and Drink, back-up operations online and in-person by the RGME Production Team, and other components to enable a vibrant accomplishment of this eagerly collaborative event.

Please get in touch.

Registration

As the program takes shape, you may register through our Eventbrite Portal:

RGME Evemtbrite Collection

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France. Département des Manuscrits. Latin 10532, page 2. Horæ ad usum Fratrum Prædicatorum, dites Heures de Frédéric d’Aragon. Image Public Domain via https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8427228j/f6.item.

Note on the Image

Full-page frontispiece image of the Evangelist Matthew at work on writing his sacred text, accompanied by a youthful angel who holds open a completed, bound, book with double-columns of text and opened clasps, whilst the old man inspects his quill pen. The image comes from the Book of Hours of Frederick of Aragon, King of Naples: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France. Département des Manuscrits. Latin 10532, page 2. Image via gallica.bnf.fr. On the manuscript, see:

https://archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cc72250h

We choose this image in recognition of the rôles which inspiration can play in the creation, transformation, and renewal of texts and other forms of representation or communication across the ages.

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2026 RGME Appeal to Save our Website

September 27, 2026 in Announcements, Manuscript Studies, RGME Annual Appeal

2026 RGME Appeal
to Save our Website

As we work to restore our intellectual property, its publication, and your access, the RGME faces an urgent need to secure, preserve, and maintain its official website as its principal lifeline to its community and the world at large.

Challenges for our volunteer organization

As one of our principal publications and as the repository of many of our freely-available publications, our website was subjected this year to hijacking and ransomware. With access restored and the move to a different subscription service, 0ur response to these issues is a set of informed steps for improved management, hosting, and archiving, as part of the overall program for RGME Records Management, preservation, and access; however, we require financial support and expertise to effect these steps.

Our total goal for this need is $22,000 for the coming year. We invite you to contribute as much as you can to this worthy cause. Every donation brings us closer to this accomplishment, step by informed step. We are grateful for all support, including donations in funds and in kind.

Donations

$50 would afford 2 hours of Intern assistance
$50 would allow an archival-quality storage box (with book-plate recording the donation)

$100 would aid image permissions for publications
$100 would cover signage for in-person events

$200 would cover the Zoom annual subscription add-ons
$200 would give the name-tags and lanyards for our in-person events

$500 would provide the annual premium for the liability insurance for our in-person events
$500 would cover the lunch for the annual Open Business Meeting

$1000 would give a set of subventions for graduate and unaffiliated speakers
$1000 would buy an iPad to facilitate in-person site visits and recordings

$1500 would provide on-call technical support for symposia
$1500 would assist the costs for conservation and preservation of original materials in the RGME Library & Archives

$2500 would remediate website deficiencies
$2500 would support printing and distribution of our booklets for events and research discoveries

Please give what you can to support this cause.

Please visit our portal:

Donations

We thank you for your contributions.

*************

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Episode 28. Preview of Medieval “Printing on Fabric”

August 26, 2026 in Announcements, Event Registration, Events, Interview, Manuscript Studies, Research Group Speaks (The Series)

Episode 28
Special Preview of an Exhibition

Medieval Materials:
“Printing on Fabric”
at the Newberry Library
with Suzanne Karr Schmidt

Saturday 19 September 2026
1:00–2:30 pm EST (GMT-5) by Zoom

[Posted on 26 August 2026, with updates]

Episode 28 of our online series “The Research Group Speaks” features an informal Conversation/Interview with Suzanne Karr Schmidt, George Amos Poole III Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at the Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois.

Postcard view circa 1910 of the Newberry Library, Chicago. Image Public Domain via http://www.chicagopostcardmuseum.org/images/i_will/I_Will_149C_Newberry_Library_Chicago_F.png

Suzanne offers a medieval-focused preview for the exhibition of “Impressive Textiles: Printing on Fabric,” which opens at the Newberry on December 10. See:

Impressive Textiles: Printing on Fabric

Dec 10, 2026 – Apr 03, 2027
At the Newberry – Trienens Galleries

The scope, as described by the Newberry Library:

This exhibition takes a groundbreaking look at the little-known history of printing on fabric from the fifteenth century to the present. Some of the earliest examples were devotional images tied to the Catholic relics known as the Shroud of Turin and Veronica’s Veil. Traditionally interpreted as a metaphor for printmaking, these contact prints inspired countless fabric impressions.

Bayerisches Staatsbibliothek, Munich, Clm 5897

The objects gather artworks, books, broadsides, and maps produced and “prized as unique luxury editions of works normally printed on paper”. The substitution of fabrics for the customary paper involved great cost, often with the use of imported materials. “Impressive Textiles: Printing on Fabric also investigates the intentional choices of the printers and commissioners, some of whom were female, and shows how the origins of these lavish materials reflected the global world of the early modern textile economy.”

For our Episode, Suzanne will describe the origins of the earliest printmaking on fabric and how these extraordinary examples of devotional imagery and contact relics influenced the development of the plan for the exhibition and its global scope for a subject of worldwide interest.

The opportunity for Questions & Answers allows for feedback and discussion. The Episode will be recorded.

Another Opportunity for a Preview

Note that Suzanne will present a lecture on the subject of her exhibition in November for The Grolier Club, with
1) a book-signing for her catalogue and
2) the temporary display of printed textiles in the collection of The Grolier Club.

Lecture | Impressive Textiles: Premodern Printing on Fabric (hybrid)
With Suzanne Karr Schmidt

Tuesday, November 10 | 6:30 PM

The Grolier Club
47 East 60th Street
New York, New York 10022

First Floor Exhibition Gallery

This event is open to the public. For information and registration, see:

- The Grolier Club

Special Focus on the Medieval for the RGME

We well remember that the idea for Episode 28 arose in conversation at The Grolier Club itself, in January 2026, when Suzanne and the RGME Director, Mildred Budny, met in person, after having worked together several years before on an online transcription project for students.

For our episode, Suzanne concentrates on the medieval background for the genre.

Information about the Episode (You Are Here)

https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/episode-28-preview-of-printing-on-fabric

Registration

See the RGME Eventbrite Collection and the Registration Portal for Episode 28

Registration is free. After registration, the Zoom link will be sent to you by email a few days before the event by the RGME (not by Zoom or Eventbrite).

Voluntary Donations

We offer the option for Registration with a Voluntary Donation. Donations, which may be tax-deductible, help us to continue with our activities and sustain our mission for an organization principally powered by volunteers. Our 2026 Appeal offers cause for collective celebration.

Future Events

https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/rgme-workshops-on-the-evidence-of-manuscripts-etc

Registration for RGME Events

Eventbrite Portal for RGME

Our 2026 Theme “Transformations and Renewals”

https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/2026-theme-of-the-year-transformations-and-renewals/

We look forward to welcoming you online at Episode 28 on Saturday 19th September 2026 and other events in the future!

Note on the Image

South German (Nuremberg?). Christ on the Cross with Five Saints and Two Angels Collecting the Blood, in Petride Crescentiis Libri Ruralium Commodorum, Burghausen, 1444, hand-colored woodcut on linen pasted into the manuscript, Bayerisches Staatsbibliothek, Munich, Clm 5897

Tags: history of printing, history of textiles, The Research Group Speaks
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Episode 27. “Catalog(u)ing Collections and Materials”

July 10, 2026 in Announcements, Early-Printed Books, History of Printing, Manuscript Studies, Research Group Episodes for The Research Group Speaks, Research Group Speaks (The Series)

“The Research Group Speaks”
Episode 27
Saturday 25 July 2026

“Catalog(u)ing Collections and Materials:
Processes, Challenges, Requests, and Opportunities”

Featuring a Report on Work
by David L. DiLaura

Part 1 in a series on
“Catalog(u)ing for Everyone”

Part 1 of a Series

[Posted on 11 July 2026]

By request, we explore the subject of catalogues and cataloguing (or catalogs and cataloging). Those of us with experience with making or using catalogues (traditional, digital) of original materials, of whatever kind (languages, genres, etc.), might wish to learn from each other’s perspectives. For example, we in the RGME continue to respond to conversations about descriptive catalogues of manuscripts, documents, printed materials, as we reflect upon “best practices,” wishes, and projects (individual, institutional, and collective).

The formats and long-term results for ‘catalogues’ and ‘catalogs’ differ, and deserve attention and respect in their own terms and for their different purposes. ‘Catalogues’ are works of scholarship by individuals, published in printed form. ‘Catalogs’ are digital items, as the work of many individuals, and can be updated as more information becomes available. The latter can have a fragility, as with the disruptions to the British Library database.

The Plan

An informal roundtable gathers participants who engage in cataloguing materials (such as their own or others’ collections), in consulting catalogues (online, in print) and metadata describing those materials or indicating features thereof, and in pursuing research about them.

We’ll compare notes.

The Prospects

As with our series of Episodes and Symposium Sessions on “Catalogues, Metadata, and Databases,” this roundtable may well lead to a series of Episodes and Sessions. For a precedent:

“Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases: Part I
Session on “Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases, Part II” in the 2024 Spring Symposium on “Structures of Knowledge”
Session on “Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases, Part III” in the 2024 Autumn Symposium on “Supports for Knowledge”
Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases: A Handlist of Links

Card Division in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Photograph circa 1900-1920. Image Public Domain.

Renewing our attention and explorations, we launch a Series on Catalog(u)es and Catalog(u)ing. It is dedicated to a subject of perennial interest — which inevitably has evolving approaches, not least as some goalposts have a habit of moving, as conditions or constraints of digital resources move forward or backward, and as research methods, approaches, and requirements might change or expand. For our series, panelists and speakers may include:

Mildred Budny, David DiLaura, Hannah Goeselt, Beppy Landrum Owen, and others

For the plan, we quote our Associate, Jennifer Larson:

I love the concept of “Catalog(u)ing for Anyone.” It strikes me that a key difference between institutional cataloging and individual is that the institutional kind strives to meet a set of external criteria, formats and goals, while the individual kind is by nature flexible and the goal is to meet the needs of the collector. So it is an interesting question where they connect and cross-fertilize.

Do you wish to join us and contribute your observations, perspectives, questions, and requests? Please let us know.

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Tags: Digital Catalogs, History of Catalogues
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2027 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Call for Papers

July 9, 2026 in Announcements, Call for Papers, Co-Sponsorships with the RGME, Conference Announcement, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Postal History at Kalamazoo

Call for Papers

Sessions Sponsored and Co-Sponsored by the RGME
at the
62nd International Congress on Medieval Studies
May 13–15, 2027

(Hybrid sessions)

Proposals due by 15 September 2026

[Posted on 10 July 2026, with updates]

Following the successful accomplishment of RGME activities at the 2026 ICMS, we announce the Call for Papers for the Sessions (Panels of Papers) to be sponsored and co-sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence for next year’s International Congress on Medieval Studies (ICMS).

RGME Flyer: CFP for 2027 ICMS. Flyer Design: Cortney A. Berg.

The general Call for Papers for 2027 appears on the Congress website.

Confex proposal portal

To find our Sessions there, search under Sponsoring Organization for RGME:

Now we present our two sessions and invite you to send your proposals for papers for them. Remember, these proposals are due by 15 September 2026, with submissions to the 2027 ICMS Confex proposal portal.

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Tags: #2026Kazoo, #2027icms, #ecologies, #ecologies_of_the_book, #manuscriptstudies, #postal_history, 2027 International Congress on Medieval Studies
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2026 International Medieval Congress at Leeds: Program

July 1, 2026 in Announcements, Conference, Conference Announcement, International Medieval Congress, Manuscript Studies

“Manuscripts at Play and as Play:
Temporalities and (Re)Configurations
as Reading Methods”

Session Sponsored
by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
at the 2026 International Medieval Congress
(In person or Hybrid)
6–9 July 2026

Organisers:
Michael Allman Conrad
and Mildred Budny

Session 609
Tuesday, 7 July 2026
11:15 am –12:45 pm British Summer Time (= GMT+1)

Hybrid:
Laidlaw Library, Teaching Room 2
and online for Congress Registrants

The Name of the Game

For 2026 the RGME proposes to explore the nature of play in manuscripts across time and place. We think of manuscripts at play, as play, and in play.

With the success of our activities at the International Medieval Congress (IMC) at Leeds in 2024 and 2025, we prepare for another year responding to the “Special Thematic Strand” selected for the 2026 IMC:

Temporalities

Our choice of session addresses

“Manuscripts at Play and as Play:
Temporalities and (Re)Configurations
as Reading Methods”

After announcing and successfully completing our 2026 Call for Papers, we selected the programme for our session, announced here and in the

2026 IMC Programme (page 160).

For information about the IMC:

International Medieval Congress at Leeds
2026 IMC Programme
Call for Papers for the 2026 IMC, with the Special Thematic Strand of “Temporalities”.
IMC 2026 Padlet, with poster-like announcements of Calls for Papers

The Plan:
Locating Manuscripts in Their (Mobile) Temporalities

For the 2026 IMC and its Special Theme, we explore manuscripts in terms of the essence of their ‘temporalities’ (also see Temporalities) — that is, in a nutshell, “the state of existing within or having some relationship with time”, which pertains intrinsically to any physical object, just like its “spatial position”. That essence or condition, combining location with points in time, forms both centerpiece and focus-point going forward in our continuing studies of Manuscript Evidence.

Building upon the success of our activities at the annual IMC in 2024 and 2025, we extend the subject of one of our Sessions at the 2025 Congress, namely:

“Knowledge Games and Games of Knowledge”, organised by Michael Allman Conrad (see RGME @ 2025 IMC: Program)

2025 Leeds: “Knowledge Games and Games of Knowledge” Poster 1. Set in RGME Bembino.

For the 2026 ICMS, we seek to examine games and playful approaches of multiple kinds with regard to manuscripts. The opportunities across time range from the creation of a book to its use in the world. We observe, for example, habits of entering scribbles and sketches as spontaneous or imaginative playtime on the one hand to creating and transmitting texts about games or gaming strategies.

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Sanskrit and Prakrit Manuscripts, Continued: More Leaves for Manuscript Sample XII

June 23, 2026 in Manuscript Fragments, Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

Continuing to explore the dispersal and find-places for manuscript fragments of many kinds, on parchment or paper and in a wide range of languages and genres, we note with pleasure the discoveries which may await the attention, observation, and recognition by scholars and researchers worldwide, given the opportunity to see postings online of materials of interest.

Responding to a message from a visitor to this RGME blog on Manuscript Studies, we have asked the private owner of the item in question for further information about the page (or single side of a leaf) which we posted as Manuscript Sample XII (in our own numbering, for convenience in the blogpost).

First, we reprise that posting, extracted from the set of specimens in the blogpost on

Sanskrit and Prakrit Manuscripts

To whit:

XII. Manuscript Leaf on Paper
with a Bordered Rectangular Frame and Polychrome Lines of Text

The column of 6 long lines of text stands within a bordered rectangular frame comprising a nested series of bands. The broadest band is filled with a pale reddish or orange pigment. The lines of text alternate in color regularly between red pigment, black ink, and gold leaf laid within ink outlines.

Purchased from an online seller.

Next, with thanks to the collector for responding so swiftly, we report more information.

Measurements

Measurements: leaf, 9.5 × 14.4 cm; border, 6.0 × 10.3 cm.

Structure and Companion Pages

The page is part of a bifolium.

We are permitted to reproduce it, front and back. The polychrome sample page used for “Manuscript XII,” with gold pigment as well as red and black for the other pages, stands as the recto of Side 1 of the bifolium.

Private Collection, “Manuscript Sample XII”, bifolium: both sides. Top: Side 1. Bottom Side 2. Photograph by the Owner, Reproduced by Permission.

Do you know of other leaves from this manuscript or by the same scribal artist? Do you have information about the text, original manuscript, pattern of distribution after fragmentation, or other features?

We would be glad to learn.

Please contact us.

***********

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“Teaching for the Future: Transformations and Renewals in the Transmission of Learning”

online by Zoom and partly hybrid

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Featuring a Report on Work by David L. DiLaura

Part 1 in a series on “Catalog(u)ing for Everyone”

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The Prospects

Call for Papers

Sessions Sponsored and Co-Sponsored by the RGME at the 62nd International Congress on Medieval Studies May 13–15, 2027

(Hybrid sessions)

Proposals due by 15 September 2026

“Manuscripts at Play and as Play: Temporalities and (Re)Configurations as Reading Methods”

Session Sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence at the 2026 International Medieval Congress (In person or Hybrid) 6–9 July 2026

Organisers: Michael Allman Conrad and Mildred Budny

Session 609 Tuesday, 7 July 2026 11:15 am –12:45 pm British Summer Time (= GMT+1)

Hybrid: Laidlaw Library, Teaching Room 2 and online for Congress Registrants

The Name of the Game

“Manuscripts at Play and as Play: Temporalities and (Re)Configurations as Reading Methods”

The Plan: Locating Manuscripts in Their (Mobile) Temporalities

XII. Manuscript Leaf on Paper with a Bordered Rectangular Frame and Polychrome Lines of Text

Measurements

Structure and Companion Pages

RGME Workshops on
“The Evidence of Manuscripts, Etc.”

Workshop 11
(Sunday 25 October 2026 online)

“Manuscripts at Play, Continued:
Figured Texts”

“The Research Group Speaks”:
The Series

Episode 29 [formerly Episode 26]
(Saturday 17 October 2026)
“The Life and Inquest of Jeanne-Marie de Maillé”

• Renate Blumenfeld–Kosinski,
• Bruce Venarde, and
• Edmund Van der Molen

We offer a Guide
for people interested in our group but uncertain about how it works.

SAVE THE DATE
2026 RGME Symposium

“Teaching for the Future:
Transformations and Renewals
in the Transmission of Learning”

Date Range (TBD)
between Wednesday 2 December through 7 December 2026
not necessarily consecutive

Sessions of 1 ½ hours (including scope for Q&A)
between 10:00 am and 5:00 pm EST (GMT-5)
with breaks

2026 RGME Appeal
to Save our Website

Episode 28
Special Preview of an Exhibition

Medieval Materials:
“Printing on Fabric”
at the Newberry Library
with Suzanne Karr Schmidt

Saturday 19 September 2026
1:00–2:30 pm EST (GMT-5) by Zoom

“The Research Group Speaks”
Episode 27
Saturday 25 July 2026

“Catalog(u)ing Collections and Materials:
Processes, Challenges, Requests, and Opportunities”

Featuring a Report on Work
by David L. DiLaura

Part 1 in a series on
“Catalog(u)ing for Everyone”

Sessions Sponsored and Co-Sponsored by the RGME
at the
62nd International Congress on Medieval Studies
May 13–15, 2027

“Manuscripts at Play and as Play:
Temporalities and (Re)Configurations
as Reading Methods”

Session Sponsored
by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
at the 2026 International Medieval Congress
(In person or Hybrid)
6–9 July 2026

Organisers:
Michael Allman Conrad
and Mildred Budny

Session 609
Tuesday, 7 July 2026
11:15 am –12:45 pm British Summer Time (= GMT+1)

Hybrid:
Laidlaw Library, Teaching Room 2
and online for Congress Registrants

“Manuscripts at Play and as Play:
Temporalities and (Re)Configurations
as Reading Methods”

The Plan:
Locating Manuscripts in Their (Mobile) Temporalities

XII. Manuscript Leaf on Paper
with a Bordered Rectangular Frame and Polychrome Lines of Text