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    • 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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Featured Posts

2023 Pre-Symposium Call for Papers: Intrepid Borders Lightning Talks
Barbara Heritage on Charlotte Brontë’s Fair Copy of “Shirley”
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
2022 Autumn Symposium on “Supports for Knowledge”
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
2021 International Congress on Medieval Studies Report
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
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, FOL Set 3, MS 40, Specimen 1: folio '1'r, Top Left. Photography Mildred Budny.
Specimens of Ege Manuscript 40 in the Ege Family Portfolio
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)
J. S. Wagner Collection, Early-Printed Missal Leaf, Verso. Rubric and Music for Holy Saturday. Reproduced by Permission.
Carmelite Missal Leaf of 1509
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
Opening of the Book of Maccabees in Otto Ege MS 19. Private Collection.
A Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 19’ and Ege’s Workshop Practices
2020 Spring Symposium: Save the Date
At the Exhibition of "Gutenberg and After" at Princeton University in 2019, the Co-Curator Eric White stands before the Scheide Gutenberg Bible displayed at the opening of the Book of I Kings.
“Gutenberg and After” at Princeton University Library
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
J. S. Wagner Collection. Detached Manuscript Leaf with the Opening in Latin of the Penitent Psalm 4 or Psalm 37 (38) and its Illustration of King David.
The Penitent King David from a Book of Hours
Coffee Break at our 2002 British Museum Colloquium. Our Director, Dáibhí Ó Cróinin, and Giles Constable. Photograph by our Associate, Geoffrey R. Russom.
Revisiting Anglo-Saxon Symposia 2002/2018
The red wax seal seen upright, with the male human head facing left. Document on paper issued at Grenoble and dated 13 February 1345 (Old Style). Image reproduced by permission
2020 ICMS Call for Papers: Seal the Real
Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, MS 1183. Photograph courtesy Kristen Herdman.
2019 Anniversary Symposium Report: The Roads Taken
Detail of illustration.
Sanskrit and Prakrit Manuscripts
Thomas E. Hill stands at the entrance to the Vassar College Library. Photography by Mildred Budny
Another Visit to The Library Cafe
Leaf 41, Recto, Top Right, in the Family Album (Set Number 3) of Otto Ege's Portfolio of 'Fifty Original Leaves' (FOL). Otto Ege Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Photograph by Mildred Budny.
More Discoveries for ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 41’
Slice of Brie. Photograph by Coyau via Wikipedia Commons.
Say Cheese
Verso of the Leaf and Interior of the Binding, Detail: Lower Right-Hand Corner, with the Mitered Flap Unfolde
A 12th-Century Fragment of Anselm’s ‘Cur Deus Homo’
Reused Leaf from Gregory's Dialogues Book III viewed from verso (outside of reused book cover) Detail of Spine of Cover with Volume Labels. Photograph © Mildred Budny.
A Leaf from Gregory’s Dialogues Reused for Euthymius
Detail of the top of the verso of the fragmentary leaf from a 13th-century copy of Statutes for the Cistercian Order. Reproduced by permission.
Another Witness to the Cistercian Statutes of 1257
Initial d in woodcut with winged hybrid creature as an inhabitant. Photography © Mildred Budny
The ‘Foundling Hospital’ for Manuscript Fragments
Decorated opening word 'Nuper' of the Dialogues, Book III, Chapter 13, reproduced by permission
A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 41’
Close-Up of The Host of 'The Library Cafe' in the Radio Studio. Photography © Mildred Budny
A Visit to The Library Café

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2023 Pre-Symposium Call for Papers: Intrepid Borders Lightning Talks

January 9, 2023 in Announcements, Manuscript Studies, RGME Symposia

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.

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.

*****

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. Opening of Sermon of St. Augustine on Easter, with Crucifixion illustration and border imagery. 14th-century German Homiliary. Image via Creative Commons.

Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, MS. W.148, folio 33v. Opening of Sermon of St. Augustine on Easter, with Crucifixion illustration and border imagery. 14th-century German Homiliary. Image via Creative Commons.

*****

Tags: Borders, Lightning Talks, Manuscript Illumination, Marginalia, Medieval manuscripts, RGME Symposia
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Lead the People Forward (by Zoey Kambour)

February 13, 2022 in Manuscript Studies, Uncategorized

Lead the People Forward:
The Contemporaneity
of the Medieval Iberian Haggadah

Zoey Kambour, MA

15 February, 2022

Pursuit by the Egyptians. Detail of Figure 4 (see Figure 4b below). Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 18v, lower. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

[Editor’s Note: This blogpost, by GuestBlogger, Zoey Kambour, is published through the process of peer review by three expert reviewers, each of whom we thank. Thanks are due to the owners of the manuscripts and photographers for permission to reproduce the images here of the medieval manuscripts and architectural structures.

About Zoey, see linkedin.com, uoregon.academia.edu/ZoeyK (with CV), and below.  We thank Zoey for proposing to contribute to our blog, preparing this essay from on-going research interests and projects, joining the peer-review process, responding to questions and suggestions, completing the presentation for publication in this format, and obtaining the permissions to reproduce the illustrations here. Congratulations!

Zoey’s essay in the format of a blogpost presents its scholarly structure with Text, interlinked Notes, Acknowledgments, Zoey Kambour’s Biography, and Figures. All the full-size Figures appear in a group at the end, with details along the way.]

“Lead the People Forward”

Passover is a holiday that focuses on the personalized retelling of Exodus — the second book in the Torah, which tells the story of the plight, liberation, and departure of the Israelites under the prophet Moses in Egypt. In this retelling, the participants must see themselves as if they were liberated from Egypt.[1]  In addition, the exercise facilitates reflection on how the story of Jewish liberation applies to the current moment.  During a time of stress and loss, such as the current  pandemic, Passover is a deeply unifying holiday; it reminds the Jewish people of their deep connection to each other, despite the quarantined distance, through their suffering and fight for freedom. Passover conveys a message of hope that applies to any current moment.

The Haggadah (plural Haggadot), the text recited at Seder, is not liturgical, but rather a guide. The participants follow the order of prayers and interactions with the ritual foods displayed on the Seder plate. After the Seder, Exodus is retold in the Maggid portion of the Haggadah.[2]  However, unlike a standard liturgical text, the worshippers are encouraged to ad lib, improvise, and add their own unique spin upon the story of Exodus during the performance.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: British Library Add MS. 27210, Castillo Templario de Ponferrada, Golden Haggadah, Illustrations of Exodus, Manuscript Illumination, Manuscript studies, Medieval Architecture, Medieval Clothing, Medieval Iberian Hagaddah, Medieval manuscripts, Rylands Haggadah, Rylands Hebrew MS. 6, Santa Maria de Léon Cathedral, Visual Anachronism, Zoey Kambour
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2020 Spring Symposium: Save the Date

February 15, 2020 in Announcements, Conference, Conference Announcement, Events, Index of Medieval Art, Princeton University, Reception, Uncategorized

New York, Grolier Club, \*434.14\Aug\1470\Folio. Flavius Josephus, De antiquitate Judiaca and De bello Judaico, translated by Rufinus Aquileinensis, printed in Augsburg on paper by Johannn Schüsseler in 2 Parts, dated respectively 28 June 1470 and 23 August 1470, and bound together with a manuscript copy dated 1462 of Eusebius Caesariensis, Historia ecclesiastica.

New York, Grolier Club, *434.14Aug1470Folio.

“From Cover to Cover”

Activities Devoted to Manuscripts, Early Printed Books & Beyond
From Collecting & Cataloguing to Deciphering & Beholding

2020  Spring Symposium
of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Princeton University
Friday & Saturday 13–14 March 2020

 

Update 5 April 2020

The Symposium Booklet, with illustrations and Abstracts of Papers, is now published and available for download.
See Keeping Up: Updates for Spring 2020.

The Abstract of one paper in the 2020 Symposium Booklet has been expanded to a Draft Paper, available for Feedback:

  • “A Quick Introduction to Indian Manuscripts for the Non-Specialist”, with examples and illustrations,
    downloadable here.

Update 9 March 2020

This event is now cancelled, as Princeton University and other institutions respond to current health concerns, and take precautions regarding travel and meetings of various kinds in person.
The Symposium might be rescheduled, conditions permitting.  

Meanwhile, the Research Group aims to complete the Symposium Booklet and distribute it to contributors, registrants, and others, as a souvenir of our speakers’ good intentions.  Already, as a sign of appreciation, we have adopted the custom of posting on our website the abstracts of contributors who become unable to attend to present in person (as with the 2018 Congress, among others).

This time, under wider — even global — circumstances affecting the ensemble as a whole, we wish to show appreciation for the remarkable enthusiasm and dedication for the collaborative event demonstrated by our hosts, sponsors, speakers, moderators, and others.  This knowledge is something to remember with satisfaction, gratitude, and praise.

The publication could, perhaps, give a token to show for our shared efforts, and to demonstrate something of the spirit of dedication and focus which prepared to assemble for the event itself.

This aim might help to ease some of the disappointment over cancellation, while the cancellation itself might ease some uncertainties about travel at present.

P. S.  Only once before, in more than 30 years of activities in many centers in the United States and elsewhere (see our Events and Congress Activities}, has the Research Group had to cancel an event.  It, however, was only 1 Session among 7 sponsored and co-sponsored Sessions at the 48th International Congress on Medieval Studies in May 2013, when the Session organizer and 2 presenters were unable to travel to the Congress.  We honored their intentions to contribute by continuing to record their abstracts and the statement of purpose of the Session on this  website.

Similar solidarity pertains to our record of this intended 2020 Spring Symposium.  A summary of this Update appears in its own post.

Here we preserve the description of the event in the updated version just before the decision to cancel this Symposium, among many gatherings at Princeton University and elsewhere at the beginning of the week in which the Symposium was planned to take place.

*****

What We Planned

Saint Andrew. Oil on Canvas. Artus Wollfort (1581–1641). Private Collection, Public Domain. Via Wikipedia Commons.

Saint Andrew. Oil on Canvas. Artus Wollfort (1581–1641). Private Collection, Public Domain. Via Wikipedia Commons.

We announce the next Symposium of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, to be held at Princeton University on Friday afternoon and Saturday, 13–14 March 2020. This event follows from, and builds upon, our earlier events, including our 2019 Anniversary Symposium, also held at Princeton University.

Our subject this time: “From Cover to Cover”.   Some say, “That Covers It”.  (We might well agree.)

Such activities include Collecting, Curating, Conserving, Cataloguing, Deciphering, Editing, Reading, Teaching, Translating, Displaying, Accessing, Beholding, Reconsidering, and More.  Cover to Cover.

Naturally, these activities need not necessarily occur in that order, and often they appear in combination.

In addition we consider activities dedicated to manuscripts, early printed books, and beyond, in terms (as is our custom) of both media and chronology.  As often, we consider medieval manuscripts and early printed books from Western Europe, but also— as usual — we examine materials from other cultures, languages, and time-frames.

This recognition of the processes (necessarily integrated) infuses the collection of presentations and conversations which our Symposium aims to gather.  In a nutshell:  Food for Thought, Refreshments included.

For which ability, we have Sponsors, Hosts, Trustees, Associates, Contributors, and Volunteers heartily to thank.

Sponsors

Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Department of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University

The Index of Medieval Art at Princeton University

Program in Medieval Studies, Princeton University

James Marrow and Emily Rose

Barbara A. Shailor

Celia Chazelle

The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies

The Bibliographical Society of America

Vassar College

On the Road

Poster 1 for 2019 Anniversary Symposium, with symposium information with images of manuscript and early printed pages..

Poster 1 for 2019 Symposium

Poster 2 for 219 Anniversary Symposium, with symposium information and 2 images of cropped initials, from 12th-century Latin manuscripts, from the Princeton University Art Museum.

Poster 2 for 2019 Symposium

Following upon, and building upon, the success of our Anniversary Symposium last year, we prepare the 2020 Spring Symposium.  Its date is now set, as is the Schedule.  (See below.)

For our 2019 Anniversary Symposium, see its Report and its freely downloadable 2019 Anniversary Symposium Booklet.  Like the Booklet, the 2 Posters (seen here) illustrate examples of manuscripts (Western and non-Western) showcased in the Symposium, its papers, and its workshops.

All these publications, as customary, are set in our very own copyright multilingual font Bembino , and designed and laid out according with our Style Manifesto.  This font is freely available through our website, for your use – whether individual, nonprofit, or commercial.

Both the font, and its descriptive Booklet, are downloadable here .  We have also prepared a booklet showing its abilities in setting multiple languages, both Western and non-Western.  See Multi-Lingual Bembino . Plus our Style Manifesto .

Cover Story

Now we turn to our 2020 Spring Symposium.  Please register (details below).

Poster 1 for the 2022 Spring Symposium.

Gladly we list the Sponsors, Speakers, and Moderators.

Speakers and Moderators (in alphabetical order)

Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection, MS LJS 101, folio 1v. Opening of Boethius's translation of Aristotle's "Peri erimenias" within a collection of secular and classical texts, France, possibly at the Abbey of Fleury (Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire), 9th–11th centuries. Photograph courtesy OPenn.

Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection, MS LJS 101, folio 1v. Photograph courtesy OPenn.

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS latin 190, folio 1r. Opening page of the Commentarii notarum tironiarum, with an enlarged initial decorated with interlace and foliate ornament. Image via gallica.bnf.fr.

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS latin 190, folio 1r. Photograph via gallica.bnf.fr.

Christine E. Bachman (Art History Department, University of Delaware and Graduate Student Fellow 2019–2020, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, University of Pennsylvania)

Mildred Budny (Director, Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, Princeton)

Raymond Clemens (Curator, Early Books and Manuscripts, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven)

Meghan Constantinou (Librarian, The Grolier Club, New York, New York)

Barbara Williams Ellertson (Books as Symbols in Renaissance Art and Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)

Lynley Anne Herbert (Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland)

Carson Koepke (Program in Medieval Studies, Yale University)

Laura Light (Director and Senior Specialist, Text Manuscripts, Les Enluminures)

John T. McQuillen (Associate Curator, Printed Books & Bindings, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, New York)

Bernard Maisner (Bernard Maisner and Bernard Maisner, Master Calligrapher)

New York, Morgan Library & Museum, PML 7, folio P2r. Blockbook of Apocalypsis Sancti Johannis, printed in Germany circa 1468. Revelation 15:1, with hand-colored illustration.

New York, Morgan Library & Museum, PML 7, folio P2r. Blockbook of Apocalypsis Sancti Johannis, printed in Germany circa 1468. Revelation 15:1, with hand-colored illustration.

Sabrina Minuzzi (Researcher in Early Modern History, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)

Ronald D. Patkus (Associate Director of the Libraries for Special Collections and Vassar Head of Special Collections, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York)

Pamela Patton (Director, Index of Medieval Art at Princeton University)

Lynn Ransom (Curator of Programs, The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, University of Pennsylvania Libraries)

Helmut Reimitz (Professor of History and Director, Program in Medieval Studies, Princeton University)

Jessica L. Savage (Art History Specialist, Index of Medieval Art)

Barbara A. Shailor (Department of Classics, Yale University, and President, Bibliographical Society of America)

       David W. Sorenson (Independent, Quincy, Massachusetts)

Kelly Tuttle (Project Cataloger, Manuscripts of the Muslim World, University of Pennsylvania Libraries)

Eric White (Curator of Rare Books and Acting Curator of Manuscripts, Special Collections, Firestone Library, Princeton University)

Princeton University Library, Rare Books and Special Collections, William H. Scheide Library, 53.8. Latin Bible in double columns of 49 lines, printed in Strasbourg by Johann Mentelin, not after 1460 CE.

Princeton University Library, Rare Books and Special Collections, William H. Scheide Library, 53.8. Latin Bible (printed in Strasbourg by Johann Mentelin, not after 1460 CE.) Photograph courtesy Princeton University Library, Rare Books and Special Collections.

The Aim

In a nutshell.

2020 Spring Symposium Announcement, describing the scope of the event, listing the Sponsors, and citing the link to the registration form.

2020 Spring Symposium Announcement, describing the scope of the event, listing the Sponsors, and citing the link to the registration form.

The Plan

Day 1

Friday 13 March: Classes, Workshops, Discussion, and a Reception

1) 12:00–1:00, 12:00–1:30, or 12:00–2:00pm (By Invitation)
Seminar Room of the Index of Medieval Art

“Comparing Notes about Databases:  Past, Present & Futures”
An Informal Discussion

2–3) 1:00–2:45 pm or 3:00–4:45 pm
Classes on Site at Firestone Library (Registration Required and Space Limited)

For registration for these classes and the symposium, see below.

“Material Evidence: A Workshop with 15th-Century Manuscripts and Incunabules”

Classes given (twice) by Eric White, Curator of Rare Books, Princeton University Library, in the Large Classroom of Floor C (Rare Books and Special Collections) at Firestone Library

Please gather in the Lobby at the entrance to Firestone Library, for special escorted access to Floor C, where there are lockable lockers (free) for your coats and cases, before entry to Special Collections.

2) Class 1:  Meet at 1:00 for 1:15–2:45 pm

3) Class 2 (repeated):  Meet at 3:00 for 3:15–4:45 pm

or

4) Session 3:00–5:00 pm
106 McCormick Hall

“Materials, Processes & Products:  A Workshop”

This workshop offers presentations by Bernard Maisner on “The Materials and Methods of Medieval & Renaissance Manuscript Gold-Illumination Techniques” and by David W. Sorenson on “An Introduction to Indian Manuscripts for the Non-Specialist”, along with curated displays of original materials in private collections and demonstrations of results from their close study.

5) Reception

5:00–7:00 pm
Lobby outside 106 McCormick Hall

Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, Anonymous, Still Life, German school of the XVI century, circa 1510, oil on wood, 70.2 × 65 cm. Opened book with fanned leaves showing pages of text and music set out in double columns and adorned with decorated initials and illustrations. Image via Wikimedia, public domain.

Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, Anonymous, Still Life of an Illuminated Book, German school of the XVI century, circa 1510. Opened book with fanned leaves. Image via Wikimedia, public domain.

Day 2

Saturday 14 March:  Sessions, Refreshments, and Reception

106 McCormick Hall and its Lobby

6) 10:00 am – 5:30 pm

Sessions, Coffee Breaks, Lunch, and Discussion

7) Reception (5:30–7:00 pm)

2020 Symposium "From Cover to Cover" Poster 2

2020 Symposium Poster 2

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The Schedule

The Schedule is available here.

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Registration

Please register for the Symposium.  We offer the Registration form as a downloadable pdf .

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Maps and Directions

Here.

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Please Contact us with questions and suggestions.

Watch this space and visit our FaceBook Page for updates.

Floral Motif as Lower Border in a Book of Hours. Photography Mildred Budny.

We invite you to donate to our nonprofit educational mission. Donations may be tax-deductible. We welcome donations in funds and in kind: Contributions and Donations .

Please join us at the symposium, open to all.  You can register here .

*****

Tags: Early Printing, manuscript fragments, Manuscript Illumination, Manuscript studies, Medieval Manuscript Fragments, Medieval Studies, Medieval Writing Materials, Spring Symposium
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Revisiting Anglo-Saxon Symposia 2002/2018

May 1, 2019 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, British Museum, Conference, Manuscript Studies, The British Library, Uncategorized

Revisiting Beloved Ground

[Published on May 1, 2019]  A personal post by our Director.

A New Look

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio 4r. Reproduced by permission

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio 4r. The Royal Bible of Saint Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury. 

We have returned from a trip to London for multiple views of the exhibition of Anglo-Saxon and related manuscripts at The British Library, and for a visit to its companion set of conferences to showcase work by selected elder and younger scholars.

My review does not have the purpose of providing a purview as such of the exhibition or the conferences.  Other venues have provided more-and-less expert evaluations of the exhibition and its scholarly events.

It was lovely to see the manuscripts — in most cases, again, for I have seen them in person in their current collections.  It took decades of travel, decades of dedication, and worth the view.

#turnedthepages

Suffice it to say that I, for one, can state accurately as well as precisely that, with determination, time, travel funding, part-time work, and perseverence, topped by a deep and abiding love of the subject, along with permission by the custodians, I have been able to examine closely and directly, and to turn the pages of almost all the manuscripts (and many of the documents) on display. A labour of love.

Having the opportunity to view the gathered manuscripts of course demands praise for the organisers of the exhibition and the enlightened donors for its accomplishment. Having the opportunity to attend the conference and to view the exhibition of course commands recognition that I have myself had to pay for that privilege, in travel, housing, conference dues, exhibition entrance, and the like. It is important to record, with thanks, the generous donation of 2 tickets for attendance by a Research Group Associate, which made it possible to continue to view the exhibition in company.

I talk about logistics because these matters, also, matter.

You all who talk, and with reason, about the need to have funding in order to persist and persevere with this and or that field of study, I hear you.  Funding applications, part-time jobs, free-lance work, supposedly ignominious independent scholarly endeavors all must hold their place.  Sometimes hard work.

Center Stage

For me, it was important to see, in person, again, some manuscripts which I love deeply. That comes from close and appreciative knowledge. Did I mention my favorite hashtag. #turnedthepages.  Here, aplenty, in this exhibition, it applies.  And then some.

Plus, the exhibition is nontrivial.  See here:  Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts.

It was a special delight to see as the first images for the concluding plenary lecture such a view, from “my thesis manuscript”, and from such an excellent speaker.

The Thesis is available without charge via British Library Manuscript Royal 1 E.vi: The Anatomy of an Anglo-Saxon Bible Fragment (1985) or ethos.bl.uk (order no. thesis00342356)

Julia Smith introduces The Royal Bible of Saint Augustine's Anbbey Canterbury in her Plenary Lecture December 2018. Photograph by Mildred Budny

Julia Smith introduces The Royal Bible of Saint Augustine’s Abbey Canterbury in her Plenary Lecture December 2018.

Revisiting the Territory

Interesting, isn’t it, that there remain on the scene in this new “international conference” at The British Library so many Anglo-Saxonists that participated in the 2002 British Museum Symposium of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence?

2002 Poster in monochrome for the 'Form and Order' Symposium at The British Museum.The 2002 BM Symposium:

Form and Order in the Anglo-Saxon World

Its Program:

2002 BM Program

Its Program Booklet, with Abstracts of Papers:

British Museum Colloquium Booklet

Reception at the 2002 British Museum Colloquium. Photography © Mildred Budny

Reception at the 2002 British Museum Colloquium.

Instructive, don’t you think, that the speakers and presiders from that Colloquium in 2002 are mostly represented among the speakers, presiders, and attendees of the 2018 British Library International Conference?  Here, in the order in which they appeared on our 2002 Program, they are:

Dáibhí Ó Cróinin
Richard Gameson
Rosamond McKitterick
Andy Orchard
Simon Keynes
Helen Gittos
Alan Thacker
Carol Neuman de Vegvar
Michael Ryan
Susan Youngs
James Graham-Campbell
Jane Hawkes
Carol Farr
Nancy Netzer
Mildred Budny
Michael Wood
Elizabeth M. Tyler
Leslie E. Webster

Coffee Break at the 2002 British Museum Colloquium.

Coffee Break at our 2002 British Museum Colloquium.

Some others on our 2002 Program could not be present in 2018 because they had died. We remember them with esteem.

A few others on our 2002 Program did not, alas, feel included sufficiently in 2018 to attend the British Library event.

We remember both events with appreciation for the conversations, presentations, and collegiality.

Coffee Break at the 2002 British Museum Colloquium.

At our 2002 Colloquium.

Reception at the 2002 British Museum Colloquium.

At our 2002 Colloquium Reception:  Sue Youngs and Joyce Hill.  Photograph by Mildred Budny.

Tags: 2002 British Museum Colloquium, 2018 British Library Symposium, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, British Library MS Royal 1 E. vi, Manuscript Illumination, Manuscript studies, Research Group Symposia
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Design & Layout of “The Illustrated Catalogue”

October 12, 2018 in Bembino, Design, Interviews, Manuscript Studies, Parker Library, Photographic Exhibition, Reports, Uncategorized

Gold stamp on blue cloth of the logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence. Detail from the front cover of Volume II of 'The Illustrated Catalogue'Continuing our series of interviews and reports, we explore the processes by which Mildred Budny’s 2-volume Insular, Angl0-Saxon, and Early Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge:  An Illustrated Catalogue (“The Catalogue” or “The Illustrated Catalogue”) was designed, laid out, and typeset to camera-ready copy for its publication as a set of 2 volumes of “Text” and “Plates”.

Now we present a joint interview with the Author and the Layout Designer of “The Illustrated Catalogue”.

For information about that publication see Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and Early Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge: An Illustrated Catalogue.

Our interview appears in the new Booklet describing “The Design and Layout of ‘The Illustrated Catalogue’ “.  This 16-page booklet is available freely as a pdf for quarto-size pages:

  • As a series of consecutive pages.
  • In foldable booklet form suitable for printing on 11 1/2 in. × 17 in. sheets.

Front Covers for Volumes I & II of 'Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge: An Illustrated Catalogue' by Mildred Budny, with the title of the publication and the gold-stamped logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, co-publisher of the volumes

 

Some of the background for preparing this ground-breaking publication is described in the “Interview with our Font & Layout Designer” (published in print on 25 September 2016 and online on 6 October 2016), with illustrations, and downloadable here.

For the progress and development of our Research Group Publications, please see our Publications. We invite your contributions, suggestions, and feedback.

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Tags: Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, Budny's Illustrated Catalogue, Manuscript Illumination, Medieval manuscripts
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A Leaf from the Office of the Dead

March 15, 2016 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

Verso of Leaf with the Office of the Dead from an unknown Book of Hours, showing its elaborate foliate border in gold and polychrome. Photography © Mildred BudnyA Part of the Office of the Dead

from a 15th-century Book of Hours
made in Flanders
(perhaps at Bruges or Antwerp)
circa 1470

A single leaf, trimmed down in spoliation
to produce a decorated tidbit on its own
Circa 135 mm × 100 mm
< written area circa 66 × 50 mm >
Single column of 17 lines

Budny Handlist 12

Our series of posts by Mildred Budny on Manuscript Studies continues with a somber view of a detached leaf from the Office of the Dead in a gracefully decorated Book of Hours from Flanders.  With this post, given the subject of the manuscript text, we also reflect wistfully on the passing of some friends, colleagues, and others dear to us.  The occasion prompts us to offer a personal recollection of Jennifer O’Reilly (1943–2016).

Text and Layout

Manifestly the text on this detached leaf demonstrates that it forms part of the Office of the Dead.  On its own, it is not exactly clear for which part of that Office this part of the text was intended to serve, mainly because there are no indications upon the leaf, and because the assigned practices for liturgical observance could vary considerably from place to place, custom to custom, and time to time.

Such is the nature of Books of Hours, a widely popular and personal genre of manuscripts or printed books in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance.  At least we know which part of that set of texts, that is, the Office of the Dead, to which this leaf pertained in its original setting, although we cannot be certain of its specifically intended purpose, that is, which part of that particular Office.  Discovery of other parts of the original book might reveal such features more precisely.  Meanwhile, let us see what we can see.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: 2002 British Museum Colloquium, Book of Hours, Detached Leaves, Jennifer O'Reilly, Josephine Edmonds Case, Manuscript Conservation, manuscript fragments, Manuscript Illumination, Office of the Dead, Swimming Lessons, Wedding Present
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Memorials

December 31, 2014 in Anniversary

Remembering

[Published on 31 December 2014, with updates.]

Considering the completion of the calendar year, in our landmark Anniversary Year of 2014, we recollect with sadness the Associates who have departed from this life during the year, and the Trustees and Associates who have thus departed across the years since our foundation both as an international scholarly society in 1990 and a nonprofit educational corporation in 1999. We remember these colleagues and friends with thanks and admiration.

This year is the first year, in the redesign of our official website, that we record those colleagues, sponsors, and friends of the Research Group in a special group honored respectfully ‘In Memoriam’. We aim to gather recollections of their presence, in respect and admiration.

DSCN1561 Stairway to Heaven Accessible If You Dare

‘Ascending’. Photograph © Mildred Budny

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Vivien A. Law

[From Mildred Budny on 26 May 2021]

We continue to lament the passing of a beloved friend, colleague, and Trustee, Vivien A. Law (22 March 1954 – 19 February 2002). After her death, her widower, Sir Nicholas Shackleton (1937–2006), also a friend, asked me to return to Cambridge in 2006 so as to examine her archives, whilst he was preparing for his own rapid demise, and to give advice about their appropriate distribution.

As he put it, he as a scientist knew about the distribution of his own archives (for example to the Royal Society), but he knew “few humanists who had a comparable range and depth of interests as Vivien”.  It wasn’t that she and I had the same interests, because we and they were to some extent different, but we shared an unusual range and depth for them.

It was disgraceful that her former supervisor, getting wind of my visit, took it upon himself to spread the word that I would be coming as a predator intent upon taking advantage of a widower losing control of his faculties and sense.  That this gossiper conceived of, and embarked assiduously upon, this plan probably has more to do with his continuing contention with my former boss in Cambridge (by then dead), and a desire to take them out (still) on me as a handy target, than with Nick’s faculties or susceptibilities.

Vivien and I had been close friends for decades, well before I reached Cambridge in 1986 (her home since 1974), and more frequently afterward.  We talked often about interests and issues well beyond the academic spheres, important as they were and are.  Thus, I knew already about many of her interests and the events of her life — and from her own lips — before the obituaries revealed some (but not all) of them to a wider world.

For exploring her archives, Nick granted me access to all of them (after some appropriately probing questions).  Thus, for example, I could read all her diaries (journals), which stretched across the decades, with very few gaps.

Vivien’s dedication to that journal-writing seems to have been as fervent and as steady as her mother’s, to judge by the mother’s correspondence.  I keep the sole letter to me from Vivien’s mother, after Vivien’s death.  The densely cramped lines of handwriting show that same dedication as in her many, many letters to her sole daughter.  It became clear from that long correspondence that I knew from Vivien some of her own private, familial experiences which remained unknown to her mother.  Because of that knowledge, I could venture to ask Nick about them, with further and poignant insights. Someday, with Nick’s ready encouragement at the time, I might record those insights.

It was a pleasure to read in Vivien’s diary the eloquent entry for the relevant year and date, regarding my move to Cambridge from London, “Milly is coming!”

Well I remember the telephone call, trans-Atlantic, one of many, as I was walking in my sunlit garden, and telling Vivien about the newly incorporated state of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (in 1999) as a nonprofit educational corporation in the United States, to which the Research Group had moved its principal base in 1994 after years in Cambridge. Vivien had been an Associate of the Research Group since soon after its formation at Corpus Christi College. In Cambridge, she contributed to our classes as well as our seminars on the Evidence of Manuscripts, during our work on a major research project on its Anglo-Saxon and Related Manuscripts.  Her guidance for those classes, for directions of the Research Group activities over the years, and for all the grammatical and glossarial manuscripts in the Illustrated Catalogue, remains vivid in memory.

On that telephone call, I asked Vivien, as I had promised, if she would be willing to become a Trustee for the nonprofit educational corporation, founded in November 1999.  She replied that, with the new diagnosis (which would, some years thence, carry her away), she was systematically shedding the commitments to various organisations, but, because she believed in our organisation and its mission, she accepted with alacrity and pleasure.

Over the next few years, I joined Vivien on her last visit to Montréal, intended as a deliberate form of leave-taking of the place where she had fondly attended school and college.  On a couple of return trips to Cambridge, I would stay with Vivien and Nick, with treasured conversations at breakfast, Sunday lunch, and other moments.

It was another Trans-Atlantic telephone call, that Nick took care to telephone and report that she had died the day before.  I moved outside to sit in the same garden, to watch the trees and sky as we talked about her, her death, and her life.  A few months later, the Research Group accomplished its co-sponsored Colloquium at The British Museum (7–9 March 2002) on Form and Order in the Anglo-Saxon World.  I dedicated my presentation to the memory of Vivien and another beloved teacher and friend, Helen Maguire Müller.

Vivien Law in her Garden in Cambridge, England,June 1996 Photograph © Mildred Budny

Vivien Law in her Cambridge Garden in June 1996 (Photograph © Mildred Budny)

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Respectfully we remember those who have gone before us.  It is an honor and a duty to remember them.  So it must be.  So it should be.

We thank you.

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Tags: Manuscript Illumination, Memorials, Passage of Time, People, Recollections, Remembrance
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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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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
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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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