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    • Seminars, Workshops, Colloquia & Symposia (1989–)
      • Seminars on ‘The Evidence of Manuscripts’
      • Symposia on ‘The Transmission of the Bible’
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        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Program: The Roads Taken
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Registration
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2022 Spring Symposium on “Structures of Knowledge”

March 15, 2022 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, Conference, Conference Announcement, Uncategorized

2022 RGME Spring and Autumn Symposia
on “Structured Knowledge”

1 of 2: Spring Symposium
“Structures of Knowledge”
Saturday, 2 April 2022 (Online)

2020 Spring Symposium "From Cover to Cover" Poster 2

2020 Spring Symposium Poster 2

[Posted on 15 March 2022, with updates]

In 2022, the Research Group returns to our series of Symposia (formerly held in person). The series underwent an interruption with the cancelled 2020 Spring Symposium, “From Cover to Cover”. See its record in the illustrated Program Booklet, with Abstracts of the planned presentations and workshops. Its core and its promise inspire this renewal.

This year, each Symposium in the pair is designed as a one-day event, with sessions and workshops of about 1 and 1/2 hours, giving scope for discussion. The Spring Symposium will be held online by Zoom. (The Autumn Symposium would be held online, but, conditions permitting, it might be hybrid, that is, partly in person, as well as online.) See 2022 Spring and Autumn Symposia.

  1. Structures of Knowledge (Spring)
  2. Structures for Knowledge (Autumn)

These events, by request, flow in addition to — and partly from — our other activities during the year:

1) Continuing Episodes in the online series of The Research Group Speaks (2021–)

  • https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/the-research-group-speaks-the-series/
  • Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases (Part I)

2) Our four sponsored and c0-sponsored Congress Sessions at the 57th International Congress on Medieval Studies (online) in May

  • https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/2022-international-congress-on-medieval-studies-program
    (Abstracts of the Papers are included).

Structured Knowledge (Parts I and II)

The interlinked pair of Spring and Autumn Symposia examine themes of Structured Knowledge.

Some proposed presentations at these Symposia offer refreshed materials which had been planned for the cancelled 2020 Spring Symposium.

  • See https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/2020-spring-symposium-save-the-date, with a published Program Booklet including illustrations and Abstracts.
The Spring Symposium is dedicated to “Structures of Knowledge”. The Autumn Symposium considers “Supports for Knowledge”. Sessions include approaches to databases and library catalogs; specific case studies and projects; issues relating to reproductions and display, research and teaching, and more.

Part I: Spring Symposium (Saturday, 2 April 2022)
on “Structures of Knowledge”

Note: If you wish to register for the Symposium, please contact director@manuscriptevidence.org.

Eugene, Oregon, University of Oregon, Knight Library, MS 027, folio 25r. Manicle as outstretched paw, with cuff. Photography Zoey Kambour.

Presenters, Respondents, and Presiders for the Spring Symposium include (in alphabetical order): Phillip A. Bernhardt-House, Linde M. Brocato, Mildred Budny, Katharine C. Chandler, Barbara Williams Ellertson, Howard German, Hannah Goeselt, Thomas E. Hill, Eric. J. Johnson, Zoey Kambour, David Porreca, Jessica L. Savage, Derek Shank, Ronald Smeltzer, and David W. Sorenson.

As the Program evolves, adapting to changes in some speakers’ plans or requirements, we thank all the speakers who responded willingly to such changes, even at short notice, for example by expanding an intended “Response” to a “Presentation”, or the reverse, so as to keep to the time-allotments of the Sessions. We also thank the Presiders for their help in monitoring each of the Sessions during the course of the Symposium.
We acknowledge, with thanks, the renewed sponsorship of the Symposia this year by Barbara A. Shailor.

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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.

Figure 1. Rylands Haggadah. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 15v. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

During the high and late medieval period in the Iberian Peninsula, many Jewish people lacked literacy in Hebrew.  While the rituals and prayers are written in Hebrew, many surviving medieval Haggadot contain rich illuminations in the Maggid, enabling the illiterate to recite and personalize the story of Exodus, while still faithfully conveying it.[3]  Through reciting, performing, and personalizing the Haggadah, Jews connect the hay-yamim ha-hem (“in those days”) with the z’man ha-zeh (“in this time”).[4]

The performance of the Haggadah is not the only means of tying the contemporary moment to Exodus; the Biblical illuminations and marginalia in medieval Iberian Haggadot additionally aid in this association.  In late thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Haggadot shel Pesaḥ (הגדה של פסח or “Haggadot for Passover”), such as the Rylands Haggadah (Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Hebrew MS 6) and the Golden Haggadah (London, British Library Add. MS 27210), the visual anachronism of contemporaneous clothing and architecture present in the illuminations of a biblical story [5]  The images not only situate it in the current moment, but may also serve as a commentary against Christian rulers through the presence of the heraldic colors of Barcelona and the monarchical clothing of the Pharaoh.

Figure 2. Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329–1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, fol. 11r.

Jews in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century, although segregated to their communally governed communities called aljamas, held prominent places in Christian courts for their financial and intellectual abilities, a practice that began in al-Andalus as early as the Caliphate of Córdoba in the late tenth and eleventh century.[6]  This service to Christian crowns legally protected these elite Jews from persecution, but branded them as property of the crown.[7]  Aside from the privilege of protection awarded to the Jews of the Christian courts, anti-Semitism remained prominent throughout the Christian kingdoms.  However, nothing brought on a wave of persecution quite like the devastation caused by the fourteenth-century plague.[8]

To best demonstrate the contemporaneous application into Exodus, a focus is placed on the visual anachronism of the garments of the biblical figures and the architecture situated within or framing the illuminations.[9]  Almost every figure wears a saya (also known as a gonela in Aragon), which is a gown worn over a base camisa, or chemise. The saya could be worn as either a loose version, fastened at the neck with buttons, or a closely fitted version where there is lacing at either the back or the side of the garment. Sayas could be sleeved or sleeveless and were frequently belted.  Over the sayas, as shown on the depictions of the Pharaoh, is a pellote which is a kind of surcoat.  In addition to the pellote, the Pharaohs wear a medieval European golden crown.  The attendants often wear a hooded garment called a capirote. Another distinguishing costume is the headwear.  The most common is the cofia, a fabric cap that can be worn, for women, with a fillet that covers the ears.  Other common forms of headwear include sombreros (any brimmed hat), capiellos (a cylindrical hat), and boinas (a round hat with no brim).[10]  These styles of clothing are not limited to the fourteenth century — many, if not all, of these types of clothing and hats can be found in the thirteenth-century manuscript of the Cantigas de Santa Maria.[11]

Figure 1a. Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 15v, upper panel. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Figure 2a. Moses’ Staff transforms into a Snake. Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329–1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, fol. 11r, lower right.

The upper panel of Rylands folio 15v demonstrates most of these clothing elements (Figures 1 and 1a).  Kneeling in front of the Pharaoh, who dons a pellote and golden trefoil crown, Moses and Aaron wear sleeved and belted sayas of red and blue.  The Pharaoh’s attendants behind Moses and Aaron wear capirotes.  In a similar scene in folio 11r from the Golden Haggadah, as the staff turns into a snake, Moses and Aaron wear capes over their sayas, the Pharaoh wears the same pellote over a saya in addition to a golden crown (Figures 2 and 2a).  The scene differs from the former only in its presentation of the attendants, one of whom wears a cofia with a felt cap while the other wears a capirote.

Figure 3a. Pursuit of the Egyptians. Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329–1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, 14v, lower right.

The clearest examples of contemporary imagery are present in the scene of Exodus 14:8 — Pursuit of the Egyptians, as seen in folio 14v in the Golden Haggadah and folio 18v in the Rylands Haggadah (Figures 3 and 4).  In the lower panel of folio 18v (Figure 4a) in the Rylands Haggadah, the Pursuit of the Egyptians features a procession of armed equestrian figures led by the crowned figure, all wearing high medieval armor.[12]  One of the shields carried by the equestrian figures bears red and gold stripes, representing the crown of Aragon, while another shield with gold and blue stripes possibly represents the House of Bourbon.[13]  Folio 14v in the Golden Haggadah (Figure 3a) similarly shows a group of equestrian knights led by the crowned Pharaoh.  Another allusion to contemporaneous politics is similarly made in the colors of one of the shields, which bears the symbols of the House of Leon.[14]  The presence of the heraldry and monarchical dress visually conflates Pharaoh and his soldiers with secular leaders.

Pursuit of the Egyptians. Detail of Figure 4. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 18v, lower. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Figure 6. Entrada del Castillo Templario de Ponferrada, El Bierzo, 1178. Picture by Jgaray, Wikipedia, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/legalcode , August, 2006.

Figure 5. Lancet windows in the Santa Maria de Léon Cathedral, Léon, ca. 1205. Photo by Michael Boyles, 2015. Reproduced by permission.

Rather than pyramids and nomadic structures, which one might expect in images of Egypt, the architecture in the folios manifest as late Romanesque and early Gothic architecture.  For example, the Pharaoh in the top right section of folio 11r from the Golden Haggadah (Figure 2) sits underneath a trefoil pointed arch, supported by columns topped with Corinthian capitals.  On the same folio to the left of the aforementioned scene, the Israelites build a structure than includes a double arch trefoil window, such as the window lancets at the Santa Maria de Léon Cathedral (Figure 5). In the Rylands Haggadah, the Israelites flee from a multi-turreted and crenelated military structure, similar to the twelfth-century castle, Castillo de Ponferrada in Leon—Castile (Figure 6).

Through the visually anachronistic depiction of medieval clothing and architecture in the Exodus illuminations, the medieval Iberian Haggadah emphasizes the reflection of the current moment through Exodus.  While the Haggadah, regardless if it is from the fourteenth or twenty-first century, aids in the retelling of Exodus through its personalization, imagery, and guidance, the hope for freedom expressed in Exodus is applicable to any contemporary era of unrest.

*****

Notes

[1] Based upon Maimonides’ compilation of Jewish law in the Mishneh Torah, the text says: “In every generation one is obligated to show oneself (l’harot et atzmo) as if one has, just at that moment, been released from enslavement in Egypt.” Quoted from:  Julie A. Harris, “Making room at the table: Women, Passover and the Sister Haggadah (London British Library, MS Or. 2884)”, in Journal of Medieval History, vol. 42, 1, (2016) 131–153.

[2] A maggid is a person, typically a para-rabbi, who skillfully narrates the Torah and other religious stories. The Maggid portion of a Jewish holiday, today, is the narrative re-telling of a part of the Torah.

[3] Marc Michael Epstein, The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative, and Religious Imagination (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011), 14.

[4] Ibid, 149.

[5] Library online catalogue entries and digital facsimiles:

  • Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Hebrew MS 6;
  • London, British Library Add. MS 27210.

[6] Benjamin R. Gampel, “Jews, Christians and Muslims in Medieval Iberia: Convivencia through the Eyes of Sephardic Jews,” in Convivencia: Jews, Muslims, and Christians in Medieval Spain (New York: The Jewish Museum, 1992), 23. David Nirenberg documents that this practice began as early as Alexandrian Egypt: Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2013), 22–25.

[7] Gampel, “Jews. Christians and Muslims”, 22.

[8] David Nirenberg, “Epilogue: THE BLACK DEATH AND BEYOND” in Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages. (Princeton: Princeton University Press: 1996), 231-250.

[9] Visual anachronism can mean a few different things, especially in regards to the medieval period, but in this context I am using visual anachronism to mean the incongruency between the contemporaneous elements juxtaposed against more historically accurate ancient models. See: Linde Brocato, “Visual anachronism,” Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle, R.G. Dunphy ed. (Brill, Leiden and Boston, 2010), 1483–1485.

[10] Grace M. Morris, “Jessamyn’s Closet — Costume in Medieval and Renaissance Spain and Portugal,” Blog, Jessamyn’s Closet (blog), August 9, 2005; Margaret Scott, Medieval Dress & Fashion (London: British Library, 2007).

[11] Four parts of this manuscript survive in three different libraries in Spain and Italy (with some parts shown online in digitized facsimiles):

  • Códice de Toledo, Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España, MS 10069;
  • San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Biblioteca de El Escorial, MS T.I.1;
  • Códice de Florencia, Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale, MS br 20;
  • Códice de los músicos, Biblioteca de El Escorial, MS B.I.2.

[12] Scott, Medieval Dress & Fashion, 70.

[13] Raphael Loewe, The Rylands Haggadah: A Medieval Sephardi Masterpiece in Facsimile. An Illuminated Passover Compendium from Mid-14th-Century Catalonia in the Collections of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester with a Commentary and a Cycle of Poems. (London: Thames and Hudson, 1988) 13.

[14] Bezalel Narkiss, Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts in the British Isles: A Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982) 43.

*****

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Mildred Budny and the rest of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence for their support and guidance during the stages of this blog post. I would like to thank my reviewers, Linde Brocato, Julie Harris, Maile Hutterer, and Marla Segol, for their helpful and productive comments, and for their constructive criticism in my first peer-review process. I wish to express thanks to the British Library, the Rylands Library, and Michael Boyles at the University of Northern Florida for their permission to use their images.  I thank the University of Oregon ARH 525 class, “Medieval Identity”, for the opportunity to first conduct this research, and for the student and instructor feedback on this project.

Biography

Zoey Kambour is the Post Graduate Fellow in European & American Art at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene, OR. They hold a MA in art history from the University of Oregon, and BAs in art history and music performance from Lewis & Clark College. They will be pursuing their doctoral study this fall (2022) in art history, at a university TBD. They are a specialist in medieval manuscript illumination and medieval Iberia.

Bibliography

Brocato, Linde. “Visual anachronism,” in Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle, 1483–1485. Ed. R.G. Dunphy. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2010.

Epstein, Marc Michael. The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative, and Religious Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011.

Gampel, Benjamin R. “Jews, Christians and Muslims in Medieval Iberia: Convicencia through the Eyes of Sephardic Jews.” In Convivencia: Jews, Muslims, and Christians in Medieval Spain, 11–38. New York: The Jewish Museum, 1992.

Harris, Julie A. “Making room at the table: Women, Passover and the Sister Haggadah, (London British Library, MS Or. 2884)” in Journal of Medieval History, vol. 42, 1, (2016) 131–153.

Loewe, Raphael. The Rylands Haggadah: A Medieval Sephardi Masterpiece in Facsimile. An Illuminated Passover Compendium from Mid-14th-Century Catalonia in the Collections of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester with a Commentary and a Cycle of Poems. London: Thames and Hudson, 1988.

Morris, Grace M. (“Mistress Maddalena Jessamyn di Piemonte”),“Jessamyn’s Closet — Costume in Medieval and Renaissance Spain and Portugal.” Blog: Jessamyn’s Closet (blog), August 9, 2005.

Narkiss, Bezalel. Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts in the British Isles: A Catalogue Raisonné. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.

Nirenberg, David. “Epilogue: THE BLACK DEATH AND BEYOND.” Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996, 231–250.

——— Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2013.

Scott, Margaret. Medieval Dress & Fashion. London: British Library, 2007.

****

Figures

Figure 1. Moses and Aaron tell Pharaoh the Lord’s Message (upper); the Labors of the Israelites (lower).
Rylands Haggadah, Catalonia, Spain, mid-14th century. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands MS Heb. 5, folio 15v. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Figure 1. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 15v. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Fig. 1a: Moses and Aaron tell Pharaoh the Lord’s Message.
Rylands Haggadah, Catalonia, Spain, mid-14th century. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 15v, upper. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 15v, lower. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Figure 2. Labors of the Israelites (upper left and upper right), Plague of Blood (lower left), Moses’ Staff Transforms into a Snake (lower right).
Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329–1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, fol. 11r.

Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329–1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, fol. 11r.

Figure 2a: Moses’ Staff Transforms into a Snake.
Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329-1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, fol. 11r, lower right.

Moses’ Staff. Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329-1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, fol. 11r, lower right.

Figure 3. The Departure of the Israelites (upper) and the Pursuit of the Egyptians (lower).
Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329–1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, 14v.

Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329–1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, 14v.

Figure 3a: The Pursuit of the Egyptians.
Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329-1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, 14v, lower right.

Pursuit by the Egyptians. Golden Haggadah, Catalonia, 1329–1330. © British Library Board, London, British Library, Add MS. 27210, 14v, lower right.

Figure 4. The Departure of the Israelites and the Pursuit of the Egyptians.
Rylands Haggadah, Catalonia, Spain, mid-14th century. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 18v. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Rylands Haggadah, Catalonia, Spain, mid-14th century. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 18v. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Figure 4a: The Pursuit of the Egyptians.
Rylands Haggadah, Catalonia, Spain, mid-14th century. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 18v, lower. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Pursuit by the Egyptians. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 18v, lower. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Figure 4b: The Departure of the Israelites.
Rylands Haggadah, Catalonia, Spain, mid-14th century. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 18v, upper. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Departure of the Israelites. Manchester, John Rylands Library, Rylands Heb. MS 6, fol. 1vv, lower. Copyright of the University of Manchester.

Figure 5. An example of lancet windows in the Santa Maria de Léon Cathedral, Léon, ca. 1205. Photo by Michael Boyles, 2015. Reproduced by permission.

An example of a lancet window from the Santa Maria de Léon Cathedral, Léon, ca. 1205. Photo by Michael Boyles, 2015.

Figure 6. El Bierzo, Entrada del Castillo Templario de Ponferrada, 1178.
Picture by Jgaray, via Wikipedia, Creative Commons (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/legalcode ), August, 2006.

Entrada del Castillo Templario de Ponferrada, El Bierzo, 1178. Picture by Jgaray, Wikipedia, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/legalcode , August, 2006.

****

Editor’s Note:

We thank Zoey for this peer-reviewed article joining our blog on Manuscript Studies.  In the Contents List for the blog, which arranges the blogposts by category (“Setting the Stage”, “Bits & Pieces”, “Documents in Question”, etc.), Zoey’s article opens a new category, “Books Telling Their Stories”. 

We look forward to learning more from Zoey’s continuing research and their engagement with medieval and other materials.

Comments are welcome.  You might add your Comment here, reach us via Contact Us, or visit our Facebook Page.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Update on 26 March 2022:

We look forward to Zoey’s presentation on another subject in the 2022 Spring Symposium on “Structures of Knowledge” on 2 April.

****

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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Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases (Part I)

February 9, 2022 in Manuscript Studies, Research Group Speaks (The Series), Uncategorized

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

The Research Group Speaks
Episode 6

Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases (Part I)
A Roundtable

19 February 2022

[Posted on 9 February 2022, with updates, now with the accomplishment of the event.]

By special request, a roundtable discussion aims to consider challenges and opportunities encountered in making, and using, catalogs and databases — with a focus especially on bibliographical and manuscript materials. This aim flows from the plan to hold a lunch at the Index of Medieval Art at Princeton University during our 2020 Spring Symposium (which had to be cancelled), to bring together participants engaged with such issues, from the Index of Medieval Art, the BASIRA Project, the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, and elsewhere.

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.

Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, Anonymous, Still Life of an Illuminated Book, German School, 15th century. Image Public Domain.

As the next episode in the online series of webinars, workshops, and other meetings wherein The Research Group Speaks, the February 2022 Roundtable  explores challenges and opportunities for the catalogs, metadata, and databases, the characteristics of the materials which these structures seek to address, and some case studies.  Examples include the BASIRA Project on “Books as Symbols in Renaissance Art”, the Index of Medieval Art Database, Digital Scriptorium 2.0, the Pinakes/Πίνακες Database of Greek Texts and Manuscripts, and approaches to cataloging collections or selected source materials (such as artists’ books).

Speakers and Respondents include Barbara Williams Ellertson, Jessica L. Savage, Linde M. Brocato, Lynn Ransom, Katharine Chandler, Georgi Parpulov, Howard German, and David Porreca.  Subjects for consideration include “Standards and Vocabularies in Art-History Cataloging”, “Labelling, Way-finding, and Meaning”, “About ‘Aboutness’ “, “Teaching Cataloguing Today”, “The Pinakes Database”, “Digital Scriptorium 2.0:  Manuscript Description in a Linked Open Data Context”, and more.  See the Program below.

We gather perspectives from those who make, and those who use, such resources.

Preparations for the roundtable offer ‘Handouts’ in online format.

1) Below here:

  • a preliminary list of Questions for discussion at the roundtable and beyond, with a view also to planning further sessions on these subjects
  • an announcement about Future Plans, as Some Next Steps, for further sessions on these and related subjects.

2) Also, as an individual webpage:

  • an online Handout with a Draft List of Links to projects, databases, and other resources, including some mentioned in presentations in the roundtable:
    Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases: A Handlist of Links.

The roundtable is designed to compare notes, formulate questions, express wishes, and plan further sessions.  For example, we prepare sessions on “Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases, Continued“, for the pair of Spring and Autumn Symposia on “Structures of Knowledge” and “Supports for Knowledge”.  They belong to one of the overarching themes for RGME activities in 2022:  “Structured Knowledge“.

We welcome advice, suggestions, and contributions.

The Program for the Roundtable

Time-frame and Structure

The session of about 1 1/2 hours, starting at 1pm EST, has a brief introduction (pointing to this page), the series of presentations of about ten minutes each, with scope for sharing screens if wished, followed by about one half-hour for responses, questions, answers, and discussion with the audience.  Options for posing questions or comments include the Chat function, raised virtual hands, and other signals.  The discussion reports, and invites, suggestions for the follow-up sessions on “Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases, Continued” planned for later this year.

A recording of the event might become available afterwards.

Presenters

Some presenters have contributed to earlier RGME events.  They include Symposia, either in person or intended (the cancelled 2020 Spring Symposium); Congress Sessions; and online Episodes of The Research Group Speaks. One is also a Guest Blogger for our blog on Manuscript Studies (see its Contents List).  We thank all the presenters for this roundtable.

Moderator:  Mildred Budny (https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/ ), Executive Director of the RGME

In a nutshell:  The Illustrated Catalogue in two volumes (1997), which includes a detailed description of its “Scope and Structure”, was produced as a co-publication in print by the RGME (see RGME Publications).  The ongoing and evolving challenges of cataloging manuscripts and other materials, as well as their presentation for study, research, and display in many spheres and structures, and for various purposes, continue to claim our keen interest.  We thank the participants for sharing their expertise and experience for this meeting.

Speakers

Jessica L. Savage (https://theindex.princeton.edu/)
“Standards and Vocabularies in Art History Cataloging”

Standards and vocabularies in art history cataloging can be wonderful aids and powerful access tools, providing better term choices, increasing operability, and structuring thesauri with both breadth and specificity.  While these lists are guideposts to cataloging practice, the challenge of characterizing a work’s subject matter can be complex.  The objects at the center of this practice can generate new themes and iconographic developments not described in existing vocabularies; moreover, they provide unique documentary and material evidence which expands cataloging lists, seemingly ad infinitum.  Art history cataloging therefore must approach these expansive vocabularies with flexibility and a keen eye for their usefulness and authority as terms. Thus while cataloging standards provide an important armature for discoverability, they are also shaped through assessment of their legacy, multiple meanings, and applications — and going forward, by engaging in collaborative scholarly inquiry, and embracing the very human role in reading art historical images.

Barbara Williams Ellertson (https://basiraproject.org )
“Labeling, Way-Finding, and Meaning”

The BASIRA Project gathers images of medieval and Renaissance art, which are tagged with labels from a complex schema. Those labels enable users of the database to locate specific items or features; we use controlled vocabulary to enable cross-links with other image collections and ontologies. However, structured systems have inherent challenges such as imprecision and the possibility of mis-leading ‘certainty’, which will be described briefly.

Richard Twiss, ‘Farrago’, held in the Unversity of Miami Special Collections, Artists’ Books Collection, ‘Title page’. Photograph Linde M. Brocato.

Linde M. Brocato (https://miami.academia.edu/LindeMBrocato )
“About ‘Aboutness'”

Starting with a liminal case or two (such as artists’ books, which call for reconsideration in cataloging), I will reflect on Known and Not-Known Item Searches, Ad Hoc Categories and Kinds (with perhaps a gesture toward Jorge Luis Borges), and disasters (of economies of) scale.

Katharine Chandler (https://www.linkedin.com/in/katharine-chandler/; https://kcchandler.com/)

[Note that, because of illness, Katharine was unable to present on the day.  Our Spring Symposium (see below) will include an expanded version of her paper.]

“Teaching Cataloging Today; With an Update on the DACT Fragments Campaign and Controlled Vocabularies for Fragmentarium and Cantus”

Teaching cataloging to library and information students today involves instruction about past, present, and future technologies, as well as guidance for “critical cataloging” (i.e., recognizing the ways in which classification systems are biased and codify long-held prejudice through language and erasure). I will speak some about this instruction and the increased interest of students in work with special collections.

Additionally, I will provide information about the DACT (Digital Analysis of Chant Transmission) project (https://dact-chant.ca/ ), which is a multi-pronged effort to create workflow and controlled vocabularies for uploading fragments to the Fragmentarium (https://fragmentarium.ms/ ) and the CANTUS Chant (https://cantus.uwaterloo.ca) databases.

Georgi Parpulov (https://independent.academia.edu/GeorgiParpulov )
“The Pinakes | Πίνακες Database”

Pinakes (https://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/ ) is an on-line union catalogue of Greek manuscripts maintained by the Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes in Paris.  I will briefly describe its main features and explain how it extends its coverage.

Lynn Ransom (https://www.library.upenn.edu/people/staff/lynn-ransom )
“Digital Scriptorium 2.0:  Manuscript Description in a Linked Open Data Context”

This presentation will reflect upon the role of linked open data in the construction of Digital Scriptorium 2.0 (https://digital-scriptorium.org/ds-2-0/ ) and its implication for manuscript and research in a digital context.

Respondents

Howard German (https://www.linkedin.com/in/howard-german-a16ab7b/ )
“Risk and Migration in Managing Large Databases and Their Strategies”

A response to the presentations offers experience from a business perspective in working with very large databases and all the complexities that are associated with them.

David Porreca (https://uwaterloo.ca/classical-studies/people-profiles/david-porreca )
“My $0.02 Worth”

This brief response is designed to offer observations about the presentations and their subjects, and to lead into the Q&A.

[Update:  David Porreca’s notes for and from this Roundtable now accompany the Program notes for the Session on “Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases, Continued (Part II)” in the 2022 Spring Symposium on “Structures of Knowledge”.]

*****

Suggested Questions to Pose and Consider

We suggest a list of Questions for consideration for both the roundtable and future planning.  In some ways, these questions might amount to forms of Wish Lists or To-Do Lists.  We welcome additions and refinements.

  • How do we go about assigning meaning to information?
  • When we locate a resource, how can we understand the scope and limitations of what we have ‘found’?
  • How do we determine ‘aboutness’ in our records?  How much interpretation about a work is too much?
  • What do we gain and what do we lose by using controlled vocabularies?  Are controlled terms really all that valuable when descriptive text can be easily searched?
  • Can ‘anything’ receive a controlled term?  Have you ever been ‘stumped’ to find the right classification?
  • Will controlled vocabulary lists ever be fully ‘controlled’?  How does your organization keep up to date on standards?
  • How do you address cataloging bias?  What generates these deeper looks?
  • Thinking of backlog, how do you balance making a system cleaner with inherited metadata vs. creating new metadata?
  • How do we protect and preserve data?  What are the risks with complicated database migrations?
  • How can we go forth embracing the human side of cataloging while reaching full potential in our systems?

*****

“I was Here . . . ”

— Richard Twiss, Farrago, with annotations travelling in time, across the page and space, with the Pons Pragensis in print by Wenceslaus Hollar (1607–1677), and the first-person annotations (mentioning 20–26 September 1769).  On this book-as-assembly, see the Handlist of Links:  “Cataloging in Action:  Case Studies or Exhibits (selected by Linde M. Brocato)”.

Richard Twiss, ‘Farrago’, held in the Unversity of Miami Special Collections, Artists’ Books Collection, ‘I was here’. Photograph Linde M. Brocato.

*****

Links in necklace form

Links in necklace form, courtesy of “Milly Budny Designs”

[Draft] Handlist of Links

We gather a list of links to sites and other publications for exploration.  The link provides, for examples, sites relating to Catalogs, Controlled Vocabulary, and Other Resources.

  • https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/catalogs-metadata-and-databases-a-handlist-of-links/

Some links are listed also in the Handout for Episode 4 of “The Research Group Speaks”:

  • How to Be Indiana Jones in the Catalog and its Handout.

Additions are welcome.

*****

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

*****

We thank the speakers, respondents, and participants for joining the plan.

*****

More Episodes are in preparation. See The Research Group Speaks: The Series.

See also below:  Some Next Steps.

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

*****

Some Next Steps

Suggestions for further presentations in future sessions may find places in several forms:

  • Episodes in the online series of The Research Group Speaks (in episodes usually of about 1 1/2 hours long) https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/the-research-group-speaks-the-series/
  • Sessions at the interlinked pair of Spring and Autumn Symposia
    on “Structures of Knowledge” and “Supports for Knowledge”
    (One day each with sessions of about 1 1/2 hours each,
    with presentations of 20 to 30 minutes, or shorter or longer by arrangement)
  • Workshops (of about 1 1/2 hours in one or more sessions) as part of the Symposia or the online series.

Some proposed presentations at these Symposia offer refreshed materials which had been planned for the cancelled 2020 Spring Symposium.

  • See https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/2020-spring-symposium-save-the-date , with a published Program Booklet including illustrations and Abstracts.
Sessions under consideration include approaches to library catalogs; specific, and, it may be, complicated, case studies; issues relating to reproductions and display; and more.  For example:
“Catalogs, Metadata, and Databases, Continued (Parts II and III)”
“The Living Library”
“History and Uses of Paper”
“Hybrid Books, I and II”
“Manuscripts, Works of Art, Photography, and Facsimiles, I and II”
“Teaching with Manuscripts”
“Pattern in and on Books”
Etc.
Subjects for workshops include, by request, a workshop to follow up the episode on How to be Indiana Jones in the Catalog (December 2021), with a demonstration by Linde M.  Brocato:
  • “How to be Tarzan in the Catalog” (with audience requests invited ahead of time).
Note that the RGME activities (4 Sessions and our Open Business Meeting) at the Kalamazoo Congress (online in May 2022) will provide more ways to announce the Autumn Symposium and the series of “The Research Group Speaks”, to plan further activities, and to gather their audiences.
  • See https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/2022-international-congress-on-medieval-studies-program
    (Abstracts of the Papers are included).

More details to follow.  Watch this space.

*****

Do you have suggestions for subjects? Please let us know.

Please leave your Comments below, Contact Us, and visit our FaceBook Page. We look forward to hearing from you.

*****

Tags: BASIRA Project, CANTUS Chant, Controlled Vocabulary, DACT Project, Digital Scriptorium, Digital Scriptorium 2.0, Fragmentarium, History of Cataloging, Index of Medieval Art, Linked Open Data, Manuscript studies, Metadata and Databases, Pinakes | Πίνακες Database, Structures of Knowledge, Supports for Knowledge, The Research Group Speaks
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2022 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program

November 23, 2021 in Ibero-Medieval Association of North America, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Societas Magica, Uncategorized

2022 Congress Activities
Sponsored and Co-Sponsored by the RGME

at the 57th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Online
Monday, May 9 – Saturday, May 14, 2022

Le Parc Abbey, Theological Volume, Part B: Detail of Vellum Leaf.

Private Collection, Le Parc Abbey, Theological Volume, Part B: Detail of Vellum Leaf. Photography Mildred Budny.

Posted on 22 November 2021, with updates

Following the close of the 2022 Congress Preparations: Call for Papers, then the selection of proposals and arrangement of sequence of papers within the sessions, for the submission of their programs to the Congress Committee, we announce the Programs for our Sessions at the 2022 ICMS online in May 2021. As in previous years, we plan to hold a Business Meeting at the Congress.

All activities are to take place online, like 2021. See our 2021 Congress Report.

When appropriate, we can report the assignment of the scheduling of Sessions within the Congress Program overall.  Meanwhile, we publish the Abstracts of the Papers and Responses, as the authors might be willing. Note that the Abstracts for Congress Sessions are Indexed on our website by Author (in progress for 2022) and by Year (2022 included).

Now that [4 February 2022] the Congress Program has become available (see its website), we can post the assigned days and times for our activities, along with the assigned Numbers for the Sessions.  All our activities are scheduled for Wednesday and Friday, 11 and 13 May 2022.  Times are in Eastern Daylight Time.

Wednesday 11 May 2022

  • Session 173 (1 pm).  Medieval Writing Materials:   Processes, Products, and Case-Studies
  • Open Business Meeting (3 pm).  All are welcome.
  • Session 193 (7 pm).  Alter(n)ative Alphabets in the Iberian Middle Ages (co-sponsored with IMANA)|

Friday 13 May 2022

  • Session 310 (1 pm).  The Iconography of Medieval Magic (co-sponsored with the Societas Magica)
  • Session 324 (3 pm).  Pressing Politics:
         Interactions between Authors and Printers in the 15th and 16th Centuries

In due course, sometime in March, registration for the online Congress will commence.  After the close of the Congress, recorded content will be available to registrants from Monday, May 16, through Saturday, May 28.

Watch this space for updates. Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Aljamiado, Business Meeting, Divinatory Games, Hernán Núñez, History of Divination, History of Documents, History of Magic, History of Paper, Ibero-Medieval Association of North America, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Italian Paper, Libro del juego delas suertes, Manuscript studies, Marsilio Ficino, Medieval Writing Materials, Merchants of Venice, Morisco Manuscripts, Morisco Spells, Polish Coronation Sword, Societas Magica, Szczerbiec, The Lay of the Mantle, Venetian Documents
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An Illustrated Leaf from the Shahnameh with a Russian Watermark

August 4, 2021 in Manuscript Studies

An Illustrated Persian Leaf on Paper
from the Shahnameh
(Humai & Darab)
with a Russian Watermark

[Posted on 5 August 2021]

Continuing our examination of Watermarks and the History of Paper, we display an illustrated paper leaf from an illustrated manuscript which has come to our notice.  Its owner identified the text, but wondered about the watermark.  Responding to our blog, he offered its images for examination.

Private Collection, Leaf from a Persian Shanameh. Simurgh and Zal.

Private Collection, Leaf from a Persian Shanameh. Simurgh and Zal.

Now in a private collection, the detached leaf formerly belonged to an illustrated manuscript in Persian of the Shahnameh or ŠĀH-NĀMA / Šāhnāme (شاهنامه or “Book of Kings”), the renowned epic poem by the Persian poet Abul-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi or Ferdowsi (circa 329 – 411 AH / 940 – 1010 CE).  This poem, which the poet began to compose circa 977 CE and completed on 8 March 1010 CE, extends for more than 50,000 couplets.  Its text recounts the history of the kings and heroes of Persia from mythical times to the overthrow of the Sassanids by the Arabs in the middle of the 7th century.

The importance and popularity of the text ensured that it has circulated in very many copies produced at various times and in various places, manuscripts included.  Not all of them survive, and some survive only in pieces.

An earlier post in our blog (see its Contents List) considered a detached leaf from another portion of the epic, from another illustrated manuscript, and in another private collection.

Simurgh and Zal from a Persian Shahnameh.

That leaf illustrates an episode from the fabulous story of the winged creature Simurgh and her adopted human warrior son Zāl. Within a stepped frame set within the page of text, its illustration depicts the large creature as she swoops down to grasp or grab him by the waistband as he flees.

The ‘new’ leaf belongs to a different episode, a different manuscript, and a different style of illustration, in the long and richly varied tradition of illustrations for the Shahnameh or Šāh-nāma  in books and other visual arts, and in Persian and other spheres.

Humai and Darab

Among the Episodes of the Shahnameh, the sections devoted to a legendary queen of Iran, Humai or Humay Chehrzad (sections 609–614 in one form of reckoning), recount events of her reign within the legendary Kayanian dynasty. They relate the birth of her son Kai Darab, her abandonment of him as an infant, her recognition of him as an adult as her son, after he had helped to defeat the attacking Romans at the edge of the Iranian Empire.  These sections end with her retirement from the throne in favor of him as the next king, Dara I.

The text on the leaf belongs to the episode that recounts how, after “Darab fights against the Host of Rum” (612), “Humai recognises her Son Darab” (613).

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: History of Watermarks, Humai and Darab, manuscript fragments, Manuscript studies, Russian Watermarks, Shahnameh
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2022 Congress Preparations

July 16, 2021 in Announcements, Conference, Conference Announcement, Ibero-Medieval Association of North America, IMANA, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Societas Magica

Call for Papers (CFP) for Sessions
Sponsored or Co-Sponsored by the RGME

at the 57th International Congress on Medieval Studies (Online)
Monday, May 9, through Saturday, May 14, 2022

CFP Deadline:  15 September 2021
[Deadline for Session Programs:  1 October 2021]

Le Parc Abbey, Theological Volume, Part B: Detail of Vellum Leaf.

Private Collection, Le Parc Abbey, Theological Volume, Part B: Detail of Vellum Leaf. Photography Mildred Budny.

[Update on 22 September 2021:
Following the close of the CFP on 15 September, we can welcome the received proposals for papers, observe their strength and range, and prepare the programs for each session.  With the selection of proposed papers accomplished, it comes time to arrange their sequence within the given Sessions, assign the Presiders for them, and submit the programs to the Congress Committee by 1 October 2021.

When appropriate, we can announce the Programs, report the assignment of their scheduling within the Congress Program overall, and publish the Abstracts of the Papers and Responses, as the authors might be willing. The Congress Program will become available in due course, and registration for the online Congress might commence.

Update on 1 October 2021:
At the close of the deadline for submission of the programs to the Congress, we report that each of our Sessions has three or four Papers; three sessions also have Responses; and we plan to hold a Business Meeting at the Congress, as in previous years.  All these activities are to take place online.]

[Posted on 15 July 2021]

After accomplishing the 2021 ICMS Online, with 5 Sponsored and Co-Sponsored Sessions, plus our Open Business Meeting, we produced the 2021 Congress Report, as we turned to preparations for the 2022 Congress.  We proposed Sessions, and received answers in stages.

Through the Confex system for the 2022 International Congress on Medieval Studies, we have learned that all but one of our proposed sessions have been accepted.

One of the accepted sessions resumes a series (“Medieval Writing Materials”) which a rejection for the 2015 Congress disrupted.  That rejection interfered with the momentum of our series of sessions on the subject at the 2011–2016 Congresses.  (See Sponsored Sessions.)  The interval between then and now is a long time to wait.  We had to turn to other subjects, as the momentum for their own action not only gathered to produce the proposals to sponsor or co-sponsor them, but also found favor by the Congress Committee, so that it could become possible to move to the phase of the Call for Papers for them. With the Pre-Congress Business Meeting in May 2021, as we prepared for this year’s Congress, we aimed to resume that series, as well as to explore other sessions as their subjects and proponents might direct.

So, we can resume the series on Medieval Writing Materials for 2022.  But a new rejection of another subject for the Congress leads us to reconsider our approach to its current momentum.  This time, learning from experience, we could choose what to do, but elsewhere, before long, with the subject not accepted this time around, rather than waiting for some other year — or decade — at the Congress.

And so, now, we announce the Call for Papers for the 2022 Congress.

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Tags: Ars Notaria, History of Alphabets, History of Magic, History of Paper, History of Paper Manufacture, History of Watermarks, Manuscript studies, Medieval Studies, Medieval Writing Materials
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2021 International Congress on Medieval Studies Report

July 7, 2021 in Conference, Conference Announcement, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Reports

Report

Activities of the
Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
at the
56th International Congress on Medieval Studies
(10–15 May 2021)

#kzoo2021 / #kazoo2021

Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, MS W.782, folio 15r. Van Alphen Hours. Dutch Book of Hours made for a female patron in the mid 15th century. Opening page of the Hours of the Virgin: "Here du salste opdoen mine lippen". Image via Creative Commons. At the bottom of the bordered page, an elegantly dressed woman sits before a shiny bowl- or mirror-like object, in order, perhaps, to perform skrying or to lure a unicorn.

Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, MS W.782, folio 15r. Van Alphen Hours. Dutch Book of Hours. Image via Creative Commons.

We report the accomplishment of our activities at the 2021 ICMS, held entirely online. Individually and collectively, we have attended the Congress for many years.  Our ICMS blog records activities sponsored and co-sponsored by the RGME along the way.

This year’s Congress presented the first time for a totally “virtual” process.  Next year’s Congress will be the second.

The new format posed challenges, mostly surmounted.  Gladly we observe that, albeit with several technical glitches and scheduling issues, the activities of the RGME, both sponsored and co-sponsored, succeeded as we had wished.  The Sessions and Business Meeting proceeded smoothly, with time and scope for feedback and discussion.

How We Prepared

First, there was the cancellation of the 2020 Congress itself.  See our 2020 Congress Program Announced.

Then came the re-planning for the 2021 Congress.  Initially, it was designed to be held in person, like the 2019 Congress, and others before it.

Only after all the re-submissions of our intended 2020 Sessions to the Congress Committee, the completion of the 2021 Congress Call for Papers, the selection of the Session Programs, and the bookings for our Reception and Business Meeting (see our 2021 Congress Planning), did there come the decision that the 2021 Congress had to take place only online.

That choice led all 3 co-sponsors for our planned Reception —RGME, Societas Magica, and Index of Medieval Art — to agree that it makes sense to wait, instead, for such an event until a suitable occasion in person.  Likewise, a few rearrangements were required for the Sessions as had been planned.

Preparing for the 5 Sessions and our Open Business Meeting, we announced our Activities for the 2021 Congress Program.

Next came the Congress itself, as described in its own Program (plus Corrigenda), with further information on its website.

Sessions

Recorded Sessions

Vajra Regan presents his Paper for his 2021 Congress Session on “Prologues”.

With the virtual format, some Congress events were recorded, so as to be available for viewing by Congress Registrants from 17 to 29 May.  According with the participants’ wishes, 2 of our Sessions were recorded.  

  • Medieval Magic in Theory:
    Prologues to Learned Texts of Magic

Congress Session 103

  • Revealing the Unknown, II

    Congress Session 279

Thus were available, for a time, the chances to view and to re-view, a few of our activities ‘there’ this year.  For them and the others, this Report describes the accomplishment of the plans, already for the 2020 Congress, which had to be cancelled.  This year’s Congress gave the opportunity to complete the plan, with some changes as appropriate.

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Tags: 'Toulouse deformity', Bibliomancy, Ephesia Grammata, Headbinding, History of Documents, History of Magic, Manuscript studies, Matthew Paris, Medieval Lapidaries, Medieval Prologues, Medieval Seals, Picatrix, Reused Antique Gems, Scrying, Seals and Signatures, Sortilège, Thomas Hoccleve
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A Sinhalese Palm-Leaf Book in Deconstructed and Reconstructed Order

April 8, 2021 in Manuscript Studies

A Sinhalese Palm-Leaf Book
with Chopped and Disordered Leaves

A Cautionary Tale

Recently, we were contacted by a private collector, reading our blogposts and wondering about a book which had come through inheritance, without any identification to speak of.  The bare bones of information relayed got the object indicated “that it is a Buddhist book, with handwritten pages of about 33 leaves written on both sides”.  But what language?  Is it manuscript or print?  Etc.?

Private Collection, Sinhalese Palm-Leaf Manuscript, End-Leaf 01, Left.

Private Collection, Sinhalese Palm-Leaf Manuscript, End-Leaf 01, Left.

A few photographs gave some first glimpses.  (See below.)  With them, we conferred among ourselves, and offered a preliminary description.  It includes a brief guide about how to proceed, if wished, to examine the artefact more closely.

Mind you, we are talking in a time of pandemic and Bibliographical Lockdown.  (See, with some observations about escape routes, Selbold Cartulary Fragments, including some resourceful tips. Summed up as: “When all else fails, read the text.”)

Images are an amazing resource, of course, but what photographs might we seek to take, and how to look at them?  That question might come to the fore if, perchance, you don’t know what sort of book it is, let alone what language?  What if you can’t read the text?  And which way is up?

I phrase the questions this way because, in part, I can’t (yet) read every language (Can Dream!), decipher every script, etc., etc.

Perhaps you too?

Willing to learn?  At least some rudiments appropriate for the particular artefact?  Yes?

Read On!

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Tags: Buddhist Texts, Deconstructed Manuscripts for the Market, Fragmentology, Manuscript studies, Palm-Leaf Manuscripts, Reconstructing Manuscripts, Sinhalese Manuscripts
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2021 Congress Program Announced

December 16, 2020 in Abstracts of Conference Papers, Announcements, Business Meeting, Conference, Conference Announcement, Events, Index of Medieval Art, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Societas Magica

Activities of the
Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
At the
56th International Congress on Medieval Studies
(10–15 May 2021)

Following the Call for Papers
(due by 15 September 2020)
and the Selection of Papers (due by 1 October 2020)
We announce the Program for our Sessions

#kzoo2021 / #kazoo2021

Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, MS W.782, folio 15r. Van Alphen Hours. Dutch Book of Hours made for a female patron in the mid 15th century. Opening page of the Hours of the Virgin: "Here du salste opdoen mine lippen". Image via Creative Commons. At the bottom of the bordered page, an elegantly dressed woman sits before a shiny bowl- or mirror-like object, in order, perhaps, to perform skrying or to lure a unicorn.

Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, MS W.782, folio 15r. Van Alphen Hours. Dutch Book of Hours. Image via Creative Commons.

Following the 2021 Congress Call for Papers, the Selection of proposed Papers, and the submission of the Programs for our Sessions to the Congress Committee (see our 2021 Congress Planning), we announce the Program for our Sessions and our other Activities for the 2021 ICMS Congress.

All activities at the Congress are scheduled to take place only “virtually”.  For such virtual plans, see the Congress page of the Medieval Institute. 

Watch this space. We await instructions from the Congress Committee regarding the revised approach to Sessions.

Note that, once the Committee announced that the Congress would have to go ‘virtual’, all 3 co-sponsors for our planned Reception agreed that it would make sense to wait for such an event until some suitable occasion in person.  However, we continue to plan for all 5 Sessions and our Open Business Meeting.

Update on 26 March 2021:
The Program of the Congress is now available. For information about the Congress, see its website.

*****

In a Nutshell

Open Business Meeting:  All are Welcome

Thursday, 13 May at 12:00 pm EDT.

  • 2021 Congress Program, page 99.

Sessions

Seal the Real, I–II

Congress Sessions 259 and 279, Virtually on
Thursday, 13 May at 11:00 am EDT and at 1:00 pm EDT

  • 2021 Congress Program, pages 92–93 and 100–101.

Medieval Magic in Theory:
Prologues to Learned Texts of Magic

Congress Session 103, Virtually on
Tuesday, 11 May at 11:00 am EDT

  • 2021 Congress Program, pages 38–39.

Revealing the Unknown, Parts I–II

Congress Sessions 181 and 201, Virtually on
Wednesday, 12 May at 11:00 am and 1:00 pm EDT

  • 2021 Congress Program, pages 66 and 73.

Details follow here.

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Tags: Bibliomancy, History of Documents, History of Magic, Manuscript studies, Matthew Paris, Medieval Lapidaries, Medieval Prologues, Medieval Seals, Picatrix, Reused Antique Gems, Scrying, Seals and Signatures, Sortilège, Thomas Hoccleve
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2021 Congress Program in Progress

October 14, 2020 in Announcements, Business Meeting, Conference, Conference Announcement, Index of Medieval Art, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Societas Magica, Uncategorized

Activities of the
Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
Planned for the
56th International Congress on Medieval Studies
(13–16 > 10–15 May 2021)

Preparations

Following the Call for Papers due by 15 September 2020
and now the Announcement by the Medieval Institute on 16 October 2020

[Posted on 15 October 2020, with updates]

Update on 16 October 2020:

Today the Medieval Institute announced on its Congress page these changes for the 2021 Congress, which affect both the date-span and the activities, to occur only “virtually”:

Due to the ongoing health crisis, the 2021 International Congress on Medieval Studies hosted by Western Michigan University’s Medieval Institute will be held virtually, Monday to Saturday, May 10 to 15, 2021. More details will be released as they become available.

We will miss the camaraderie of the in-person experience. We look forward to hosting a vibrant and intellectually engaging virtual conference that offers plenty of opportunity for stimulating interaction at a distance. Please mark your calendar for these revised dates.

Watch this space.  We await instructions from the Congress Committee regarding the revised approach to Sessions.

Update on 5 November 2020:

As the plans advance for the now-virtual Congress, we announce that we continue to plan for the Sessions and the Open Business Meeting, but not for a Reception.  We co-sponsors for the Reception agree that it would make sense to wait for such an event under conditions in person.  We look forward to the new stages in preparing for a fully online presentation of the 2021 Congress.

*****

After the cancellation of the 2020 Congress (see our 2020 Congress Program Announced), preparations for the 2021 Congress permitted re-submitting the sessions which had been designed to take place in May 2020.  By popular request, we performed that re-submission for all 5 Sessions.  With approval by the Congress Committee, these Sessions joined the listings of all sessions on call on the Congress website — with additional details on our website, in our own 2021 Congress Call for Papers.  #kzoo2021.

New for this year, all proposals (or re-proposals from 2020) had to be made through a Confex system, as directed on the Congress website.  The new system imposed some teething problems for prospective participants, Session Organizers, and Sponsors.  These challenges emerged in several forms at various stages, including close to the several deadlines for submission of proposals for papers and of the proposed programs of the Sessions.

Especially under such conditions, it was helpful to have the benefit of collaborative consultations, among all our Organizers, and with our Sessions Co-Sponsor.  We thank Dr. Elizabeth Teviotdale of the Medieval Institute especially for her swift responses directly along the way, when our Director had to turn to her repeatedly for help, information, and advice.

In time, we will announce the Programs which we have chosen for the Sessions, now that the Call for Papers has completed on 15 September 2020, and following our choices for those Programs by 1 October 2020.  Before announcing our plans in detail, we await their Confirmation or adaptation by the Congress Committee.  We thank our Participants and Organizers for their contributions.

Adèle Kindt (1804–1884), The Fortune Teller (circa 1835). Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten. Image via Wikimedia Commons. A young lady, brightly lit and beautifully dressed, looks outward as an older woman, beneath a dark hood, holds a set of cards and stares at them with intent.

Adèle Kindt (1804–1884), The Fortune Teller (circa 1835). Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

The Plan We Had for the 2020 Congress

The Announcement for our Sessions and other Activities at the 2020 Congress describes what we planned.  As customary, we published the Abstracts of Papers, so as to record the intentions of speakers for their presentations. The Abstracts are accessible both through that Announcement and through the Indexes of published Abstracts by Year and by Author.

The Sessions included 3 Sessions sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence and 2 Sessions co-sponsored with the Societas Magica, in the 16th year of this co-sponsorship at the International Congress on Medieval Studies.

Like the 2015–2019 Congresses, we also planned for

  • an Open Business Meeting and
  • a co-sponsored Reception.

Even so, the Agenda for the postponed 2020 Business Meeting is available.  It takes into account the changes for Spring 2020:

  • 2020 Agenda.

The Plan We Have for 2021

We contemplate a similar approach to the 2021 Congress, conditions permitting.  [See Update above.]

For the 2021 Congress, we present the same Sessions, with a few changes.  Our pair of Sponsored Sessions dedicated to “Seal the Real I–II” remain as before.  The pair of co-sponsored Sessions dedicated to “Revealing the Unknown I–II” have some changes in the line-up.  One Session has a revised title (“Medieval Magic in Theory:  Prologues in Medieval Texts of Magic, Astrology, and Prophecy”).  For 2021, the Societas Magica has agreed also to co-sponsor this Session, so that the alignment of sponsorship has adapted to changing opportunities.

The 2021 Congress will be the 17th year of our co-sponsorship with the Societas Magica, in a constantly constructive partnership of friends, students, and colleagues.

As before, we have planned for an Open Business Meeting and a Co-Sponsored Reception.

For 2021, the co-sponsorship for a Reception joins the Research Group with the Societas Magica and The Index of Medieval Art, combining all 3 Sponsors in recent years.

[The virtual presentation of the Congress may allow for some form of Business Meeting and Reception.  Watch this Space.]

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Tags: Divination, History of Documents, History of Magic, Index of Medieval Art, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Manuscript studies, Medieval Seals, Skrying, Societas Magica
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