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  • News
    • News & Views
    • Reviews
    • Highlights
  • Blogs
    • Manuscript Studies
      • Manuscript Studies: Contents List
    • International Congress on Medieval Studies
      • Abstracts of Congress Papers
        • Abstracts of Papers Listed by Author
        • Abstracts of Papers Listed by Year
  • About
    • Mission
    • People
      • Mildred Budny — Her Page
      • Adelaide Bennett Hagens
    • Activities
      • Events
      • Congress Activities
        • Sponsored Conference Sessions (1993‒)
          • Panels at the M-MLA Convention
        • Co-sponsored Conference Sessions (2006‒)
    • History
      • Seals, Matrices & Documents
      • Genealogies & Archives
  • 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
      • Abstracts of Papers for the M-MLA Convention
  • Events
    • The Research Group Speaks: The Series
    • Seminars, Workshops, Colloquia & Symposia (1989–)
      • Seminars on ‘The Evidence of Manuscripts’
      • Symposia on ‘The Transmission of the Bible’
      • The New Series
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Program: The Roads Taken
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Registration
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Registration Open
    • 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
  • Donations and Contributions
    • 2019 Anniversary Appeal
    • Orders
  • Contact Us
  • Links
    • Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases: A Handlist of Links
    • Manuscripts & Rare Books
    • Maps, Plans & Drawings
    • Seals, Seal-Matrices & Documents

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2023 Pre-Symposium on “Intrepid Borders” before the Spring Symposium
Photograph of the stems and white blooms of Snowdrops emerging from a patch of bare ground in the sunlight. Photograph Ⓒ Mildred Budny.
2023 Spring Symposium: “From the Ground Up”
Façade of the Celsus library, in Ephesus, near Selçuk, west Turkey. Photograph (1910): Benh LIEU SONG, via Creative Commons.
2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program
Barbara Heritage on Charlotte Brontë’s Fair Copy of “Shirley”
2023 Pre-Symposium Call for Papers: Intrepid Borders Lightning Talks
ShelfMarks Issue 2 (Volume 2, Number 1 for Winter 2022–2023)
Two Pages from a Roman Breviary in Gothic Script
Donncha MacGabhann at work on his close study of letter forms in the Book of Kells. Photograph via his publisher, Sidestone Press (Leiden 2022)
Donncha MacGabhann on the Making of “The Book of Kells”
2022 Autumn Symposium Program Booklet
How to Be Tarzan in the Catalog, Or, Tarzan-Moves of the Mind
Verso of Leaf from the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, Book III, chapter 7. Photography by Mildred Budny
2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Preparations
The Weber Leaf from “The Warburg Missal” (Otto Ege Manuscript 22)
Folio 4 with Latin Blessings for Holy Water and an Exorcism for Salt
Portfolio 93 of Ege’s “Famous Books in Eight Centuries” in the Collection of Richard Weber
A Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 214’ in the Collection of Richard Weber
Two Ege Leaves and Two Ege Labels in the Collection of Birgitt G. Lopez
2022 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program
2022 Spring Symposium on “Structures of Knowledge”
Two Old Testament Leaves from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’ at Smith College
Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases (Part I)
I Was Here . . .
Lead the People Forward (by Zoey Kambour)
The Curious Printing History of ‘La Science de l’Arpenteur’
A Leaf in Dallas from “Otto Ege Manuscript 14” (Lectern Bible)
How to Be Indiana Jones in the Catalog
Southern Italian Cuisine Before Columbus
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, Anonymous, Still Life of an Illuminated Book, German School, 15th century. Oil on Wood. Opened book with fanned pages. Image via Wikimedia, Public Domain.
Barbara Williams Ellertson and the BASIRA Project, with a Timeline
An Illustrated Leaf from the Shahnameh with a Russian Watermark
J. S. Wagner Collection, Leaf from Ege Manuscript 22, verso, bottom right: Ege's inscription in pencil.
Another Leaf from the Warburg Missal (‘Ege Manuscript 22’)
More Leaves from a Deconstructed Sinhalese Palm-Leaf Manuscript
Otto F. Ege: Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts, Leaf 40, Printed Label, Special Collections and University Archives, Stony Brook University Libraries.
Otto Ege Manuscript 40, Part II: Before and After Ege
rivate Collection, Koran Leaf in Ege's Famous Books in Nine Centuries, Front of Leaf. Reproduced by permission.
Otto Ege’s Portfolio of ‘Famous Books’ and ‘Ege Manuscript 53’ (Quran)
Grapes Watermark in a Selbold Cartulary Fragment.
Selbold Cartulary Fragments
Smeltzer Collection, Subermeyer (1598), Vellum Supports Strip 2 Signature Surname.
Vellum Binding Fragments in a Parisian Printed Book of 1598
Church of Saint Mary, High Ongar, Essex, with 12th-Century Nave. Photograph by John Salmon (8 May 2004), Image via Wikipedia.
A Charter of 1399 from High Ongar in Essex
J. S. Wagner Collection. Leaf from from Prime in a Latin manuscript Breviary. Folio 4 Recto, Initial C for "Confitimini" of Psalm 117 (118), with scrolling foliate decoration.
A Leaf from Prime in a Large-Format Latin Breviary

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Doctor Who-Done-It

June 24, 2016 in Conference, Events, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Reception, Reports

Behind the Scenes
at the 2016 International Congress on Medieval Studies

Who Done It? We Did Good!

(With the Useful Discovery that Our Director Apparently Drives a Tardis)

Our Director continues the Reports for our Activities at the 51st International Congress on Medieval Studies, starting with the 2016 Congress Report.

Now, as a second installment for the Report, for the first time in our history, we tell about some experiences Behind the Scenes.  With Thanks, Naming Names.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Archaeology of Manuscripts, Bembino Digital Font, Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Florida, History of Magic, History of Paper, Index of Christian Art, Manuscript studies, Manuscripts & Early Printed Books, Medieval Writing Materials, Pont Neuf, Societas Magica
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2016 Symposium on ‘Words & Deeds’ Report

June 9, 2016 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, Bembino, Conference, Reception, Reports

Detail of initial from Beinecke leaf from 'Otto Ege Manuscript 35'. Otto Ege Collection, The Beinecke Manuscript and Rare Book Library, Yale University. Photography by Lisa Fagin Davis. Reproduced by permission.

Otto Ege Collection, The Beinecke Manuscript and Rare Book Library, Yale University. Photograph by Lisa Fagin Davis.

‘Words & Deeds’ Symposium Report

With the smooth accomplishment of the Symposium on ‘Words & Deeds’ at Princeton University on 25–26 March 2016, it is time for the Report.

As is our custom, the Save-the-Date Announcement and the Poster(s) for the event, as well as the Program, circulated ahead of time (both in paper and online), in stages as they called for updates.  They did so, for example, as the Sponsors gathered in number, and as the event initially intended for a day’s span extended into one and one-half days, to accommodate the increasing number of Speakers, Panelists, and Sessions.

[Note:  We have now corrected the next link, for the Program Booklet.  It should work correctly.  If not, please let us know.]

The Program Booklet, containing both the Program and the Abstracts of Papers, made its debut, as is customary, on the day itself in print.  In this case, the generous donation of so many images — some of which featured in our post announcing the event — encouraged us to include a greater number and to extend across a larger number of pages than ever before for one of our Symposia.  Extraordinary.

Now we publish those materials online.  In addition, the happy completion of the Symposium calls for a description of its character, account of certain changes in plan, and a celebration of its enthusiastic dedication of expertise and collegial discourse.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Amulets, Book of Hours, Christian Liturgy, Department of Art & Archaeology, Early Modern Studies, Early Printing, Fragmentology, Gutenberg Press, Hortus Deliciarum, Index of Christian Art, Indulgences, Late-Antique Theater, manuscript fragments, Manuscript studies, Mazarine MS 2013, Medieval Documents, Medieval manuscripts, Otto Ege, Otto Ege MS 14, Otto Ege MS 15, Otto Ege MS 35, Otto Ege MS 44, Saint-Denis, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, Wax Seals, Yale University
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2016 Symposium on ‘Words & Deeds’

February 1, 2016 in Bembino, Conference Announcement, Events

Initial C of 'Concede'. Detail from a leaf from 'Otto Ege Manuscript 15', the 'Beauvais Missal'. Otto Ege Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Photograph by Lisa Fagin Davis. Reproduced by Permission

Initial C of Concede. Detail from a leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 15’, the ‘Beauvais Missal’. Otto Ege Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Photograph by Lisa Fagin Davis. Reproduced by Permission

Words & Deeds

Actions Enacted, Re-Enacted & Restored

From Late-Antique Theater to the Legacy of Otto Ege
by way of, inter alia, Saint-Denis and Gutenberg

A Symposium of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Friday & Saturday, 25–26 March 2016
106 McCormick Hall
Princeton University

Sponsors

The Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
The Department of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University
The Index of Christian Art at Princeton University
James Marrow & Emily Rose
Barbara A. Shailor
The Samuel H. Kress Foundation
The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies

We announce a Symposium to be held at Princeton University on 25 & 26 March 2016.  Organized by our Director, Mildred Budny, this event launches our activities for 2016.  Next in line come our Sessions and Activities, both sponsored and co-sponsored, at the 51st International Congress on Medieval Studies in May. Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Archaeology of Manuscripts, Beauvais Missal, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Department of Art & Archaeology, Gutenberg Press, Index of Christian Art, Medieval Manuscript Fragments, Otto Ege MS 14, Otto Ege MS 15, Otto Ege MS 35, Otto Ege MS 41, Otto Ege MS 44, Otto Ege MS 61, Otto Ege MS 8, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Princeton University, Saint-Denis, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies
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2014 Seminar on “Manuscripts & Their Photographs”

December 12, 2014 in Events, Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

Initial P of Prayer in Book of Hours, with Photography © Mildred Budny

Photography © Mildred Budny

Close Up & Up Close

On Tuesday, 9 December 2014, we held a seminar at the Index of Christian Art of Princeton University.  With examples on hand, Giles Constable and Mildred Budny offered reflections on the processes involved in

1) assembling over decades an ‘accumulation’ — not exactly a deliberate ‘collection’ — of medieval manuscripts (or fragments thereof), documents, and early printed materials, and

2) photographing them over several years, in stages and under varied conditions, for the record and for research, sometimes along with conservation work (where called for in certain cases).

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Book of Hours, Index of Christian Art, manuscript fragments, Manuscript Photography, manuscripts reused in bindings, medieval seal, Philip II Count of Savoy, Vitae Patrum
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2014 Colloquium on “When the Dust Has Settled” Accomplished

November 17, 2014 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, Anniversary, Bembino, Book & Exhibition Reviews, Conference, Events, Exhibition

We report successful completion of the Colloquium on Friday, 14 November 2014 at Princeton University.

[This post updates both the Announcement for this event (published as Colloquium Announced), and its Colloquium Program.]

Document of Berengarius, detail, unfolded, with concluding date and gathered dust in the fold. Photography © Mildred Budny

“A Settling of Dust”

When the Dust Has Settled

(or, When Good Scholars Go Back . . . )

A Colloquium
co-sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
and the Index of Christian Art at Princeton University

Sponsors

Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University
John H. Rassweiler
Celia Chazelle

The Aim
“Settled Dust Could Give Clarity of Vision”

What happens when a dedicated specialist returns to a subject of long-term interest after other tasks — other projects, jobs, administrative tasks, life in general — have cleared away? While the world, methods, tools, and aims of research (let alone publication) have changed dramatically, sometimes beyond recognition, a return to the chosen subject might also draw upon experience and reflection gained through the passage of time, an accumulation of experiences, and extended “immersion” both in the subject matter and its wider contexts. Thus, although daunting, the return need not involve a start completely from square one or ground zero.

When the dust has settled, and, it may be, the air has cleared, a return might allow for renewal, which could build upon an available, partly remembered, foundation for direction and refinement in this light. Our colloquium offers informal reflections, questions, and discussions about the challenges and potential of returning now to a variety of subjects, in the arts and letters, from Antiquity to Modernity.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, Apocalypse manuscripts, Architectural Sculpture, Charles Rufus Morey, Deir Sim'an, Department of Art and Archaeology, Early Christian Sculpture, Flemish Psalter Illustration, Günther Haseloff, Illustrated Old English Hexateuch, Index of Christian Art, Interlace Ornament, Manuscript Illumination, Manuscript studies, Psalter Illustration, Qal'at Sim'an, Royal Bible of St. Augustine's Abbey Canterbury
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2014 Colloquium on “When Dust Has Settled” Program Announced

November 6, 2014 in Conference Announcement, Events, Exhibition, Reception

We announce the Program for the Colloquium to take place on Friday, 14 November 2014 at Princeton University.

[This post updates the Announcement for this event, published as Colloquium Announced.] Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Apocalypse manuscripts, British Library Cotton MS Claudius B.iv, British Library Royal MS 1 E.vi, Charles Rufus Morey, Department of Art and Archaeology, Ezra Pound, Flemish Psalter Illustration, Günther Haseloff, Illustrated Old English Hexateuch, Index of Christian Art, Interlace Ornament, Knotwork, Medieval manuscripts, Moses and his attributes, Princeton University
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The Bouquet List: A Gathering of Books

October 31, 2014 in Book & Exhibition Reviews, Index of Christian Art, Manuscript Studies, reviews

 

"The Bouquet List: A Gathering of Books", a review by Mildred Budny with motto: "A Rose by Another Name is a Bouquet of n Circles" (Anonymous)

The first in a series of reviews by Mildred Budny

This review celebrates research by and partly by Trustees and Associates of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (RGME) by showcasing some recent publications in print and online.  The title alludes to the widespread medieval genre of florilegia (“gatherings of flowers”), which collect selected extracts of texts from a larger body or bodies of work. Such compilations, also called “Commonplace Books” or “Miscellanies” — whether deliberate, haphazard, or serendipitous in their assembly — have figured in various RGME workshops and publications, and continue to offer challenges for examination.  The title also takes inspiration from the term bouquet in mathematics, wherein, according to some definitions, a “rose”, also known as a “bouquet of n circles”, yields a “topological space” by “gluing” together a collection of circles (which might take various shapes such as loops) along a single point (Bouquet of circles).  The mathematical term ‘Rose’ is defined at Wolfram MathWorld. Figural examples appear here:  Bouquet of n circles via Tikz.

roses croppedThe group of flowering works selected here represent a sampling of our collective and individual interests, which converge and overlap to various extents.

First I salute the most recent publications in the long series issuing from conferences held by the Index of Christian Art at Princeton University.  This University, through its Departments and Programs, including the Department of Art and Archaeology, the Index, and the Program in Medieval Studies, has been the most frequent host and co-sponsor for symposia of the RGME since our arrival in Princeton in 1994.  The publications are edited by our Honorary Trustee Colum Hourihane, with contributions by some of our Trustees, Officers, and Associates.  They are:

  • Patronage:  Power & Agency in Medieval Art (Princeton, 2013, ISBN 978-0-9837537-4-2), issuing from the 2012 conference celebrating the 95th anniversary of the foundation of the Index, and
  • Index of Christian Art Online Publications (generously available without subscription), starting with the first two, which record the annual conference proceedings devoted to The Digital World of Art History
    [originally [I] (July 12th, 2012), now here] (July 12th, 2012) and
    [originally II: Theory and Practice, now here] (June 26th, 2013).

The fourteen papers in the Patronage volume consider diverse materials, regions, dynamics of creation/commission, patterns of patronage, and issues of interpretation.  Cases poised upon textual evidence — occurring in manuscript, documentary, and monumental forms — are plentiful.  They include Elizabeth Carson Pastan’s nuanced assessment of “The Bayeux Embroidery [not a Tapestry!] & Its Interpretative History” particularly within the sphere of its original creators and audience; Nigel Morgan’s reading of “Patrons & Their Scrolls in Fifteenth-Century English Art” through text- or speech-scrolls in manuscripts, stained glass windows, and monumental brasses; Lucy Freeman Sandler’s sensitive assessment of “The Bohun Women & Manuscript Patronage in Fourteenth-Century England”, as revealed through the stages of “commissioning, conceiving, executing, receiving, and bequeathing”, and our Trustee Adelaide Bennett’s reconsideration of “Issues of Female Patronage: French Books of Hours, 1220–1320”, with an instructive analysis of the traces of women’s reading habits and instruction.  The ensemble offers a series of explorations into both charted and hitherto uncharted waters in the vast ocean of medieval materials which came into being through the aid, impediments, guidance, inspiration, and vision of patronage in many forms.

Among the multiple worthy subjects considered in the two e-volumes of The Digital World of Art History (with twenty-two papers), several are firmly central to RGME research activities.  For example, jointly Maria Oldal, Elizabeth O’Keefe, and William Voelkle (Volume I, chapter 4 = I.4) present a guide to the Corsair database of the Pierpont Morgan Library, which freely provides “unified access to over 250,000 records for medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, rare and reference books, literary and historical manuscripts, music scores, ancient seals and tablets, drawings, prints, and other art objects”.  Gretchen Wagner offers a trenchant survey of the challenges and possible solutions facing the issues of “Copyright and Scholarship in the Arts” (I.5) in a fast-changing world.  In “The ‘Art’ of Digital Art History” (II.7), focusing upon her experiences in assembling a major report on Transitioning to a Digital World for the Kress Foundation, Diane Zorich reflects as a consultant on the nature and potential of digital strategies and issues involving cultural heritage in cultural and educational institutions, principally major museums.  Members of the Staff of the Index of Christian Art – Judith Golden, Jessica Savage, our Associate Henry Schilb, Beatrice Raddan Keefe, and Jon Niola – contribute reports (in I.10–14) of its iconographic and bibliographic work, its collaborative projects accomplished or in preparation, and its other resources.

Kandice Rawlings (II.4) describes the varied history and development of the Oxford Art Online encyclopedia — available through subscription — about anything and everything connected with art, also said to provide “access to the most authoritative, inclusive, and easily searchable online art resources available today”.  As a contributor to the original printed form, that is, the Grove Dictionary of Art (1996), I find the story of this enterprise instructive as a vigorous case of transfer from an earlier age of publication, in book form, to the present internet industry of cumulative and composite forces able and willing to overtake, update, expand, and gain, while offering valuable research resources to privileged subscribers.

ShelfMarks 1 as booklet 23 Oct LJF page 3 really with images as a pair

Anglo-Saxon double-sided seal-matrix of the thegn Godwin (front) and the nun Godgytha (back), made of walrus-ivory in the first half of the 11th century C.E.  The front of the handle depicts the Trinity resting upon a prone human figure.  The coin-like roundels on obverse and reverse depict the part-length male and female figures identified by Latin inscriptions, ready for sealing wax.  Photographs © Genevra Kornbluth, reproduced by permission.  A detail appears here, with more information here.  Original: London, British Museum, M&ME 1881,4-4,1.

The report by our Associate Genevra Kornbluth on “Kornbluth Photography: From Private Research to Private Archive” (II.4) describes the creation, many years in the making, of her expert photographic archive, now available, with honorable copyright conditions, on her website.  Its “Historical Archive” gathers images of objects or monuments arranged by multiple indexes (culture/period, chronology, iconography, medium, object type, location, and artist), including text-based works such as manuscripts, charters, seals and matrices, relic labels, book covers, and inscriptions.

I first met Genevra years ago, when she was conducting research for her Ph.D. dissertation, published as Engraved Gems of the Carolingian Empire (Penn State University Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0-271-01426-5), and I have followed the progress of her work with care, so that I have long been aware of the beauty of her detailed photographs of carved rock-crystal gemstones and many other objects of complexity.  Like her, I have devoted much time to photographing original source materials — in my case mostly manuscripts and other written works — not only for my own study, but also for that of others, already in the age before digital methods paved the way for widespread access, now at least on screen and often in high-definition.

As a practitioner, I can attest that the active photographic process (not only as product) of close study of the works themselves – including manuscripts and other written works – might reveal features otherwise unsuspected.  For the gems, the microscopic traces of carving methods, with tools of distinctly differing points, allowed Genevra to distinguish between Byzantine and Carolingian works, in a valuable contribution to knowledge of their identifying characteristics, with photographs recording the features for all to see.  While Genevra’s contribution to the Index volume freely provides a sampling of her photographs we may illustrate other examples from her website here, generously with her permission.  Thus it can be possible to look through, as it were, the eyes of the expert examining the sources directly and closely.

ShelfMarks 1 page 4 really images as a pair

Rock crystal (quartz stone) intaglio, mid-to-late 9th century, seen from the smooth front and the engraved, incised back of the stone.  The upright, cross-bearing “St. Paul the Apostle”, is identified by Latin inscription.  Photographs © Genevra Kornbluth, reproduced by permission.  An oblique view appears here.  Original: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Cabinet des Médailles, H3416.

Now, to the bouquet I respectfully add the final publications by our RGME Associate Malcolm B. Parkes, who died in 2013 at the age of eighty-three.  A memorial by our Trustee David Ganz appears here:  Malcolm B. Parkes., Palaeographer (1930‒2013.  A collection of Malcolm’s essays in 2012 (complementing an earlier collection in 1991) has now followed the printed version in 2008 of his Lyell Lectures.

  • 3) M. B. Parkes, Their Hands Before Our Eyes:  A Closer Look at Scribes.  The Lyell Lectures Delivered in the University of Oxford, 1999 (Ashgate Publishing, 2008, [formerly “http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754663379” but now] ISBN 978-0-7546-6337-9).
  • 4) M. B. Parkes, Pages from the Past:  Medieval Writing Skills and Manuscript Books, edited by P. R. Robinson and Rivkah Zim (Ashgate Publishing, 2012, [formerly “http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781409438069” but now ISBN 978-1-4094-3806-9).

These works record and preserve multiple fundamental, often ground-breaking, insights into the nature of scripts in relation to the process of writing, the minds at work, and the voices of the languages, authors, and speakers which the scripts transmit.  The plates offer examples for study and instruction.  We are grateful for their presence, while we lament the passing of their author, a kind friend and teacher.

This requirement calls forth the wistful reflection that some florilegia transmitted from the past may represent cherished recollections of previous living voices and vivid moments of instruction — of which only parts of the originally full representations may yet endure, both in memory and in “print”.  We treasure these traces.

For the next issues of the Newsletter, the RGME invites suggestions and donations for books to review.  While this first “Bouquet” centers upon publications by, or with contributions by, contributors to the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, we welcome works by others too.

GenEld_1

Genoels–Elderen openwork ivory diptych made circa 800 C.E. — perhaps formerly the paired covers for a sacred book or a writing tablet.  Framed within geometric and interlace borders and accompanied by Latin inscriptions, the cross-bearing Christ, flanked by angels, stands upon the Beasts (with Bird in the form of Rooster), while His mother Mary experiences both the Annunciation with Gabriel and the Visitation with Elizabeth, all with attendants.   Photograph © Genevra Kornbluth, reproduced by permission.   More views and details here: Genoels Elderen.   Original: Brussels, Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Musée du Cinquantenaire, no. 1474.

Roses according to n=6, n=7, and n=8, laid out by Mildred Budny

*****

This review forms part of the first issue of the Research Group Newsletter, ShelfMarks.
An e-version of this issue, with ShelfTags for ShelfMarks and some extra images, appears here.
The full issue appears here: ShelfMarks, Volume 1, Number 1 (PDF).
You might Subscribe here.

Masthead for ShelfMarks, the newsletter of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, laid out in RGME Bembino

*****

Tags: Florilegia, Index of Christian Art, Manuscript Illumination, Manuscript Photography, Manuscript studies, Palaeography, Photography of Works of Art, Roses in Mathematics
1 Comment »

2014 Colloquium “When the Dust Has Settled” Announced

October 28, 2014 in Conference Announcement, Events

[Updates appear with the Colloquium Program Preview and the Program Accomplished, Program Booklet with Abstracts included.]

We announce a Colloquium, co-sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence and the Index of Christian Art at Princeton University, to take place on Friday, 14 November 2014 at Princeton University. Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Anniversary Celebration, Charles Rufus Morey, Index of Christian Art, Princeton University
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2014 Symposium on “Recollections of the Past”

July 15, 2014 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, Bembino, Conference Announcement, Events

Recollections of the Past:
Editorial & Artistic Workshops
from Late Antiquity to Early Modernity & Beyond

Friday & Saturday 16 & 17 May 2014
138 Lewis Library
Princeton University

Save the Date Announcement for Symposium on "Recollections of the Past" (May 2015) in its completed version with border

“Save the Date” Announcement (complete)

RGME Symposium 2014 Program & Abstracts Page 1 with border

Symposium Program Page 1

Poster for "Recollections of the Past" Symposium (May 2014) with border

Symposium Poster

 

[First published on 15 July 2014, with updates.  And now with the corrected Program Booklet:
RGME Symposium 2014 Program & abstracts corrected]

The “Save the Date” Announcement (Save the Date 16-17 May 2014) set the stage by describing the intentions and scope of the subject.  To sum up:

This symposium explored the workings of workshops, as revealed through the traces of artists, craftsmen, scribes, authors, editors, printers, and patrons, across a wide range of subjects, regions, and materials, in transitions from classical antiquity and early Christianity through the long Middle Ages and thence to the early modern period and beyond. We seek to discern how these editorial agents of whatever kind shaped and reshaped materials — tangible and intangible — in transmitting the legacy of the past, often in the process to form works which perhaps seemed more viable in changing times, expectations, and systems of belief. Memory may hold a significant place among the materials, processes, and forces at work in the processes of collecting, shaping, and, in many cases, transforming complex bodies of evidence in a robust or precarious voyage from the past.

The Research Group on Manuscript Evidence warmly thank the Sponsors, Donors, and Contributors to the Symposium, which formed part of the celebrations for our 2014 Anniversary Year.  Other celebrations have included our Sessions at the 2014 International Congress on Medieval Studies in May, along with an Anniversary Reception. Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: bokes of antiquity, Books of Hours, Caroline Lybbe Powys, Carolingian Studies, Church History, Codex Amiatinus, Courtly Love Ivories, Department of Art & Archaeology, Domestic Grand Tour, Early Modern Studies, Editorial Practices, erasable notebooks, Eusebian Canon Tables, History of Cambridge University, History of Workshops, Iconoclasm studies, Index of Christian Art, John Caius, Manuscript Illumination, Manuscript studies, Matthew Parker, Medieval Studies, Monkwearmouth-Jarrow, periodization of history, Princeton University, Qal'at Sim'an, Romanesque Sculpture, Saint-Sernin of Toulouse, Syriac Cave of Treasures
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2013 Symposium on “Identity & Authenticity”

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

Identity & Authenticity

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

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

Symposium

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

Poster 1 for "Identity & Authenticity" Symposium (22-23 March 2013)

Poster 1

Poster 2 for "Identity & Authenticity" Symposium (22-23 March 2013)

Poster 2

 

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

Sponsors:

  • James Marrow and Emily Rose
  • John H. Rassweiler
  • Index of Christian Art
  • Barbara A. Shailor
  • The Samuel H. Kress Foundation
  • De Brailles Medieval Art (LLC)
  • Committee for the Study of Late Antiquity, Princeton University

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

Speakers and Moderators:

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

Having a Look

Opening Remarks

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

Session 1. Investigating the Archives:  Detecting Spheres of Influence

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Session 3.  Shaping and Preserving Identity in the Syriac Church

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Moderator:  Colum Hourihane

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

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

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

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

Enjoying the Company

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

Moderator:  Mildred Budny

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

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

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

[Note:  This has been published here]

Demonstration:  Demonstrating Original Sources and Database Resources

Displays by:

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

Examining the Originals

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

*****

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

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

*****

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

Medieval Studies Calendar Archive Princeton University

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

RGME Symposium Poster

*****

Photographs by James Heidere

*****

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