Call for Papers

Intrepid Borders:
Marginalia in Medieval and Early Modern Books

A Virtual Lightning Talks / Half-Day Symposium
of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Proposals due by Sunday, 12 February 2023

The Research Group on Manuscript Evidence seeks proposals for lightning talks (between 15–18 minutes each) for a half-day virtual symposium to be held on the afternoon of Friday, 24 March 2023.

This exploratory event about book marginalia and borders (including drolleries, glosses, inscriptions, and annotations) will kick off the Research Group’s virtual Spring Symposium to be held the next day on Saturday, March 25th. As part of the RGME’s Theme for the Year 2023, “Materials & Access”, the pair of 2023 Spring and Autumn Symposia considers interlinked areas “From the Ground Up” (Spring) and “Between Earth and Sky” (Autumn).

The set of Sessions on “Intrepid Borders” for the afternoon Pre-Symposium leading to the Spring Symposium are co-organized by Katharine Chandler, Jennifer Larson, and Jessica L. Savage.

Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, MS. W.148, folio 33v. Detail: Bottom, with fighting creatures. Image via Creative Commons.

Vision for the Lightning Talks

The borders of books are usually narrow places where reader-viewers of manuscripts touched, turned, and lingered on pages. As a space to develop writing and decoration, marginalia, or “things in the margin,” might be integral to the design of a manuscript, or their marks could be extraneous additions to the page.

Papers might explore the interaction of readers with texts through annotations and glosses, and investigate the many varied inscriptions and their purposeful inclusion in book borders. Papers might also zero in on the iconographic programs and decorative surrounds in manuscripts, which evolved over the late Middle Ages and into the early modern period, and which contain compelling visual evidence of the whimsical and fantastic.

Proposals for Talks

We seek short abstracts (~200–250 words) detailing your title and topic as it fits with the above parameters, to reach us by the end of Sunday, 12 February 2023. Speakers will be notified in the following week of their acceptance.

Research works-in-progress and work from emerging scholars in manuscript studies are especially encouraged to submit their ideas for inclusion in the program.

Please send your abstracts through the linked Call for Papers Google Form.

More information about the 2023 Spring and Autumn Symposia can be found at: 2023 Spring and Autumn Symposia.

We look forward to your proposals.

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Fantastic fighters in the lower margin, Douce–Walters Homiliary, Walters Art Museum, MS. W.148, folio 33v.  On the manuscript, see The Digital Walters.

Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, MS. W.148, folio 33v, bottom right, with fighting creatures. Image via Creative Commons.

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