2026 RGME Colloquium on “Transformations & Renewals” at The Grolier Club

January 27, 2026 in Announcements, Event Registration, Events, Friends of the Research Group on Manuscript Evience, Manuscript Studies, Visits to Collections

2026 RGME Colloquium
at The Grolier Club

“Transformations and Renewals”
Examining and Celebrating
Treasures of the Grolier Club Library

Wednesday 11 February 2026 (Hybrid, in Two Events)
Workshop + Roundtable

[Posted on 15 January 2026, with updates
Now see also the 2026 RGME Colloquium at The Grolier Club: Report]

Front Entrance of The Grolier Club. Photograph (4 April 2008) [cropped] by participant/team W. C. Minor as part of the Commons:Wikipedia Takes Manhattan project, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license., via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grolier_Club.jpg.

For the Year 2026, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence chooses the Theme of “Transformations and Renewals” for exploration across its activities and projects.

Our first hybrid event of the year brings the RGME to The Grolier Club of the City of New York, in central Manhattan, for a curated set of hybrid events on Wednesday 11 February 2026. In keeping with the RGME’s dedication to accessibility for events reaching a wider audience, these events will be available both in person and online. For registration for the different events and functionalities (in person or online), see below.

With registration beforehand (see below), the day’s events comprise:

a “Show-Off-and-Tell” Workshop in the afternoon
2:30–4:30 pm EST (GMT-4)
1) online open to the public
2) in person privately with limited seating, open for Grolier Club Members and RGME invited guests
a “Transformations and Renewals” Roundtable in the early evening
6:00–7:30 pm EST
open to the public
1) online and
2) in person

We gather a team of specialists, collectors, and curators of books — all Grolier Club Members and mostly RGME Associates— to examine, reflect on, and celebrate selected treasures of the Grolier Club Library. On offer: reports and conversations about research discoveries, work-in-progress, and the joys of experiencing the materials directly and also sharing their stories. Join us!

2024 Beletsky logo of the Grolier Club of the City of New York.

Program

For information about the scope of the event, its Participants, its two parts as Workshop and Roundtable, and Registration for each part, see below. Both parts are hybrid, through the RGME for the Workshop and through the Grolier Club for the Roundtable.

The Program for both the afternoon Workshop and early-evening Roundtable can now be downloaded as a 4-page

2026 RGME-Grolier Colloquium Poster 1. Set in RGME Bembino.

Program Booklet, set in RGME Bembino.

2026 RGME Colloquium at the Grolier Club: Program

Posters

Both Posters for this bipartite event can be downloaded:

Colloquium Booklet

We offer the 64-page illustrated Colloquium Booklet as a guide and souvenir for the event. You may download it here, in two formats according with your printing and viewing preferences.

2026 RGME Colloquium Booklet: Pages (as a series of individual pages on 8 1/2″ × 11″ sheets)
2026 RGME Colloquium Booklet: Foldable Booklet (laid out for printing on 11″ × 17″ sheets, ready for folding)

Speakers and Panelists

Speakers with comments at the afternoon workshop over original materials and/or with lightning talks at the early-evening roundtable:

Jamie Elizabeth Cumby (Grolier Club Librarian)
“ ‘Show-Off-and Tell’: A Curated Selection from the Grolier Club Library”
Beppy Landrum Owen (also Oral History Project: Beppy Landrum Owen)
“ ‘That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once. . .’
Lost Stories of the Making of the Bremer Presse’s 1934 (but 1935) Vesalian Icones anatomicae”
John T. McQuillen (Morgan Library & Museum, Associate Curator of Printed Books & Bindings)
“Blockbooks Dismembered”
Note:
Watch for the coming exhibition at the Morgan later this year:

“Late Medieval European Blockbooks: The First Printed Picture Books” (6 November 2026 to 16 May 2027)
Mildred Budny (Director of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)
“A Medieval Missal Fragment from the Otto F. Ege Collection and its Provenance”
Note:
“Break-Up Books and Make-Up Books: Encountering and Reconstituting the Legacy of Otto F. Ege and Other Bibliocasts” (See 2025 RGME Autumn Colloquium on Fragments)
Reid Byers (Reid Byers, Author)
“Secrets in Secrets in Secrets”
Note:
Reid Byers, Imaginary Books: Lost, Unfinished, and Fictive Works Found Only in Other Books (Oak Knoll Press and Le Club Fortsas, 2024)
Richard Kopley (Distinguished Professor of English, Emeritus, Penn State DuBois, and Author)
“William Gowans, New York Bookman and Poe Family Boarder”
Note:
Richard Kopley, Edgar Allan Poe: A Life (2024)
Mark Samuels Lasner (Mark Samuels Lasner)
“A Gift from William Morris to the Grolier Club”
Note:
Wilhelm Meinhold, Sidona the Sorceress (Kelmscott Press, 1893), translated by “Francesca Speranza” / Jane Francesca Agnes Wilde, Lady Wilde—a novel drawn from the life of the Pomeranian noblewoman Sidonia von Borcke (1548–1620), accused of witchcraft and executed.
Mary Crawford (Co-Curator, current exhibition at the Grolier Club; Bio)
“From ‘By a Lady’ to Global Superstar: Curating 250 Years of Jane Austen”
Note:
Grolier Club Exhibition. “Paper Jane” (to 14 February 2026)
Online exhibition. Exhibition Gallery
Online curators’ tour. Tour of Paper Jane
Catalogue. Catalogue

Presider/Moderator for Roundtable

Anna Siebach–Larson

Book-Signings at Roundtable for Grolier Authors’ Publications

Reid Byers, Mary Crawford, Richard Kopley, and Mark Samuels Lasner

We look forward to welcoming you!

The Grolier Club, View of Exhibition “Paper Jane” (to 14 February 2025). Image: Grolier Club.

Registration for the 2 Hybrid Events

We give information for
I. the evening Roundtable first,
II. then the afternoon Workshop.

I. Hybrid Roundtable in the Grolier Club Exhibition Hall
6:00 to 7:30 pm EST (GMT-4)

Open to the public both in-person and online
Book-signings available

Registration through the Grolier Club

Grolier Club: Eventbrite

Overview

With Mildred Budny, Beppy Landrum Owen, John T. McQuillen, Reid Byers, Richard Kopley, Mark Samuels Lasner, and Mary Crawford

Friends of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, a Princeton-based 501(c)(3) educational organization, will visit the Grolier Club for an in-person/hybrid ‘Roundtable’. In lightning talks, several Club members will discuss a curated selection of books, manuscripts, and prints on the RGME’s 2026 organizational theme of “Transformations and Renewals. Open to the public, this event will be live-streamed and will offer book-signings for Club member guides who have recently published works discussed.

Registration for the Roundtable
Virtual or In-Person Attendance

Public roundtable on “Transformations and Renewals” at 6:00-7:30 pm EST (GMT-4)
[although the registration portal lists the time as “6:00-7:00”]
All are welcome to attend in both functionalities.

1) Virtual
“Transformations and Renewals” Roundtable (Virtual)

2) In-Person
“Transformations and Renewals” Roundtable (In-Person)

2026 RGME-Grolier Colloquium Poster 2. Set in RGME Bembino.

II. Hybrid “Show-Off-and-Tell” Workshop upstairs
preceding the Roundtable
2:30 to 4:30 pm EST (GMT-4)
with Break at 3:15–3:30 pm

Open to the public online;
In-person seats limited, for Grolier Members and invited RGME Guests

Registration through the RGME

RGME Eventbrite Collection

Overview

As a prelude to the Roundtable on “Transformations and Renewals”, Friends of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence and Grolier Club Members will have a hybrid “Show-Off-and-Tell’ Workshop to examine, up close, the original materials (as book, manuscript, print) to be discussed further at the evening Roundtable in lightning talks. The curated selections comprise favorites from the Grolier Club Library which have given rise to detailed study and discoveries for them and their contexts.

Like our pair of hybrid workshops recently over original manuscript and printed materials in Special Collections at the Princeton University Library, held by our Associate Eric White at the 2025 RGME Colloquium on Fragments, this hybrid workshop will take place over original materials at the Grolier Club, guided by the Librarian Jamie Cumby (see also Jamie Cumby).

We gather to share experiences of delight and wonder, to celebrate the joys of learning from original materials at the Club and their relatives in other collections, especially in combination, to learn more about the rich range of the Grolier Club Library, and to give thanks for responsible access to it and for its curators. Open to the public online and to an invited audience in person (limited seating), this event will be accessible widely by interactive Zoom Meeting.

Speakers (in order of presentation):
Jamie Elizabeth Cumby, Beppy Landrum Owen, John T. McQuillen, Mildred Budny, Reid Byers, Richard Kopley, and Mark Samuels Lasner

Registration for the “Show-Off-and-Tell” Workshop
Virtual or In-Person Attendance

Hybrid Workshop at 2:30-4:30 pm EST (GMT-4)
All are welcome to attend online; space is limited in person.

1) ONLINE (Open to the public)

- Workshop Online: Registration
  Note that, after you register, the RGME will send you the Zoom Link a day or so before the event. For security, the Zoom Link will be sent to you by the RGME, and NOT Eventbrite or Zoom.

2) IN-PERSON (Space is limited, by invitation)

- “Show-Off-and-Tell” Workshop IN PERSON for Speakers, Grolier Members, and Invited Guests: Registration
  In case of demand, we offer a Waiting List.

Willhelm Meinhold, Sidona the Sourceress (Kelmscott Press, 1893), Opening of Book I, Chapter 1, “Of the Education of Sidonia”. Photograph courtesy of Mark Samuels Lasner.

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

Questions? Suggestions?

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We look forward to welcoming you to the special visit to the Grolier Club, whether you can attend in person or online!

Front of The Grolier Club. Photograph (4 April 2008) [cropped] by participant/team W. C. Minor as part of the Commons:Wikipedia Takes Manhattan project, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grolier_Club.jpg.

Tags: Edgar Allan Poe, Exhibitions, Grolier Club Library, History of Blockbooks, history of printing, History of Provenance, Jane Austen, Kelmscott Press, Manuscript studies, Otto Ege Fragments, Responsible Access to Collections, RGME Visits to Special Collections, Transformations & Renewals, William Morris
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2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Report

October 23, 2023 in Events, ICMS, Index of Medieval Art, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Manuscript Studies, POMONA, Societas Magica, Uncategorized

2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Report

58th ICMS (11–13 May 2023)

Held in a transitional ‘hybrid’ form
with Sponsored and Co-Sponsored Sessions
an Open Business Meeting
and Co-Sponsored Reception

[Posted on 22 October 2023]

After the successful completion of our activities at the 2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies (ICMS), we offer a Report about them. For their programs and the abstracts of their presentations, see 2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program.

Note that Abstracts for Papers published on our website appear in the Indexes of the Abstracts for Papers, listed both by Alphabetical order of Author’s Surname and by Year.

Logistics

2023 ICMS: Pedagogy II viewed online. Michael Allman presents. Photography by Mildred Budny.

This year’s Congress presented more logistical challenges than ever before, in our experience of attending the annual ICMS. They were due to the complex and incompletely or perplexingly described conditions for holding the Congress in a nominal ‘hybrid’ format, with few fully hybrid events and the necessity for organizers mostly to choose either in-person or online formats — or to provide the alternative through their own resources.

In that way, for example, once the rules were clarified (within only a fortnight of the Congress), the RGME was able resourcefully to provide (through its own Zoom subscription) for online access to events assigned as in-person and to arrange (sometimes with payment) for a room to be made available for registrants on site at the Congress to gather for participating in sessions assigned as online. We thank the Congress staff for enabling those arrangements once we learned that they might be permitted.

Our activities comprised five co-sponsored scholarly Sessions, our annual Open Business Meeting at the Congress, and a co-sponsored Reception.

The extra arrangements for in-person facilities for the online sessions and online access for in-person sessions were designed also for the convenience of participants for our events on the first day of the Congress, which had a consecutive series of Morning Session / Lunchtime Business Meeting / two Afternoon Sessions / Reception. With the Morning Session in a nearby building, the other events that day, by design, took place on one building.

Co-Sponsorship

Societas Magica: 2 Sessions and the Reception
Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies (SIMS): 2 Sessions
Polytheism-Oriented Medievalists of North America (P.-O.M.o.N.A.): 1 Session
Index of Medieval Art at Princeton University: Reception

This year marked Year 19 of our co-sponsorship with the Societas Magica; the second (non-consecutive) year of co-sponsorship with POMONA, the third of co-sponsorship with the Index of Medieval Art, and the first year of co-sponsorship with SIMS.

As always, we thank the host, organizers, co-sponsors, presiders, speakers, respondents, advisers, and participants for our activities at the Congress, along with the Congress staff and support staff.

The Sequence of Events

Day 1 of the Congress (Thursday 11 May) had a full set of events. They opened with the Morning Session, led to the RGME Open Business Meeting (with lunch provided), followed with a pair of Afternoon Sessions, and rounded out with the co-hosted Reception.

Day 3 (Saturday 13 May) had a pair of Afternoon Sessions.

The shortness of the notice and the complexity of the RGME’s extra preparations for an ad-hoc fully hybrid format imposed further problems in communicating updated information which, in the rush of last-minute preparations and conflicting information, meant that not all participants received the relevant information in time. Notably this affected the extra online arrangements for the in-person sessions on Saturday afternoon, so that the first one did not have an on-site log-in for the online component.

Informal “Evening Sessions”. Outside the Program, a set of traditional informal gatherings offered the occasion to revive the in-person tradition of meetings in an ad-hoc ‘Board Room’ where board games, brought to the table for the occasion, formed a focus of activity and conversation. As usual, they included some elements of RGME planning. This year, they included an ad-hoc hybrid component for participation at a distance as well.

Our Report of all our activities at the 2023 Congress relates their accomplishment, celebrates the presentations, praises the work of organization, notes a few changes in the program and accessibility for the sessions, displays the full set of posters for our events, and illustrates some memorable moments.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Albert the Great, Binding Archaeology, Binding Spines and Fastenings, Board Games, Board Room, Corpus Christi College Cambridge MS 286, Datini Collection, Ephesia Grammata, Gospels of Saint Augustine of Canterbury, Gutenberg Biblt, History of Bindings, History of Pedagogy, Index of Medieval Art, International Congress on Medieval Studiesieval Studies, Islamic Bookbindings, Manuscript studies, Open Business Meeting, Otto Ege Fragments, Reception, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, Societas Magica, William Fulke, Words as Agents
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2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program

January 15, 2023 in Conference, Conference Announcement, International Congress on Medieval Studies

2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program

58th ICMS (11–13 May 2023)

To occur in a transitional ‘hybrid’ form
with Sponsored and Co-Sponsored Sessions
— to be held either in person or online (with some options) —
and with an Open Business Meeting
and Co-Sponsored Reception

[Posted on 17 January 2023, with updates]

Façade of the Celsus library, in Ephesus, near Selçuk, west Turkey. Photograph (1910): Benh LIEU SONG, via Creative Commons.

Building upon the successful completion of our activities at the 2022 ICMS (see our 2022 International Congress on Medieval Studies Program), we announce our Activities for the 2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies, following our Preparations for them, with the completion of the Call for Papers (15 September 2022) and the selection and submission of the Programs for our Sessions (by 15 October 2022).

For information about the Congress, registration for it, and the current version of the 2023 Congress Program (plus the extra Corrigenda), see the Congress website.

With the turn of the calendar year toward the year of the Congress, we published the selected Programs for our Sessions and announced our other Activities, while we awaited the promulgation of the official Schedule for the 2023 Congress as a whole. With the publication of a Sneek Peak for the Congress Program, we can add the times and venues for our Sessions. As the Congress approaches, new information guides additional features of our planning, with Virtual options now possible for some of our In-Person events, through extra arrangements by the RGME.

This year, with some Sessions on line and some in person in a transitional ICMS, we prepare six Sessions, an Open Business Meeting, and a Reception. Our co-sponsors:

Societas Magica: 2 Sessions and the Reception
Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies (SIMS): 2 Sessions
Polytheism-Oriented Medievalists of North America (P.-O.M.o.N.A.): 1 Session
Index of Medieval Art at Princeton University: Reception

This year marks Year 19 of our co-sponsorship with the Societas Magica; the second (non-consecutive) year of co-sponsorship with POMONA, the third of co-sponsorship with the Index of Medieval Art, and the first year of co-sponsorship with SIMS.

Here we list our Sessions (arranged in the order in which they are scheduled for the Congress), with the Links to the Abstracts for the individual Papers, then turn to our other Activities (Open Business Meeting and Reception). A Note on our Congress Sessions describes the Indexes of the Abstracts for Papers as published on our website, listed both by Alphabetical order of Author’s Surname and by Year.

Logistics

This year, the partly in-person, virtual, and hybrid modalities to the Congress add to the complexity, tasks, resources, and expenses for preparing for our events there. The complexity encourages us to create more flexible and resourceful our arrangements for some events held in person or virtually, so as to accommodate attendance in these different modalities directed by the Congress, while any fully hybrid event is not permitted for us in the arrangements by this online/offline Congress.

1) Optional RGME Zoom Meeting Room in live time for some In-Person events. For Congress participants unable to travel to the place, but registered for the Congress, we offer an optional Virtual Meeting Room by RGME Zoom subscription. In this way, an In Person Congress event might be accessed virtually — with registration for each of them through our RGME Eventbrite Collection.

We provide the RGME Zoom option (by specific registration, without charge) for

our In Person Open Business Meeting on Thursday lunchtime and
our pair of co-sponsored In-Person Sessions on Saturday afternoon.

2) Especially Reserved In-Person Room for In-Person Attendees of the Congress who will log-on to our Virtual Sessions. These reserved rooms are prepared (in different, but adjacent, buildings) for:

our first, Virtual Session on Thursday morning, with an In-Person option (Session 50 / Schneider 1220)
the pair of our co-sponsored Virtual Sessions on Thursday afternoon, with In-Person option (Sessions 87 + 137 / Fetzer 1030)The second dedicated room is located a few steps away, on the same floor, in the same building, from the two In-Person events before and after that pair of Sessions, namely the Open Business Meeting and the Reception.

Details below, including information about how to register with us for the access by Zoom for the In-Person events.

In brief:

Day 1 of the Congress (Thursday 11 May) has a full set of events. They open with the Morning Session, lead to the RGME Open Business Meeting (with lunch provided), follow with a pair of Sessions, and round out with the co-hosted Reception.

Session 50 on “Words as Agents”
held Virtually from 10:00-11:30 am EDT (GMT-4)
— with In-Person option: By arrangement, Schneider 1220 is reserved for us for that time period for those attending the Congress in person, to be able to gather for accessing the online Sessions with their own computers
RGME Open Business Meeting
held In Person in Fetzer 1035 from 12:00-1:00 pm EDT, with catered lunch (donations are welcome)
— We recommend registering if you plan to attend in person, so that we could know how many to expect.
In Person Reservation for RGME Open Business Meeting
— We also offer the option to attend virtually through the RGME (not via the Congress), for Congress participants unable to travel. With your registration for the event itself, we will send the Zoom link ahead of time.
Virtual Registration Option for RGME Open Business Meeting
Sessions 87 and 137 on “The Eloquence of Medieval Book Bindings”, Parts 1-2
(“Bindings from German Lands” and “Diverse Regional Techniques”)
held Virtually from 1:30-3:00 pm and 3:30-5:00 pm EDT (GMT-4)
— with In-Person option: Fetzer 1030 is reserved for us for the afternoon for those attending the Congress in person, to gather for accessing the online Sessions with their own computers
Update on 7 May: The order of the three Papers in Session 87 is changed from that advertised in the Congress Program Booklet. The Paper by William H. Campbell, formerly in first position, has moved to third, as indicated below.
Co-hosted Reception
held in Person in Fetzer 1035-1045 from 5:30-7:00 pm EDT (GMT-4).

For the RGME Open Business Meeting held In Person, open to to Congress attendees, it would help us to know how many to expect if you would please register for it through the RGME Eventbrite collection. See below.

Day 3 of the Congress (Saturday 13 May) has a pair of Sessions.

Sessions 369 and 419 on”Moving Parts and Pedagogy”, Parts I–II (“Teaching Magic and Other Occult Arts” and “Teaching Astrology and Other Liberal Arts”)
held In Person in Fetzer 2040 from 1:30-3:00 pm and 3:30-5:00 pm EDT (GMT-4)
(If requested, we will set up an RGME Zoom Room for these Sessions.)

Note: If you have questions about these arrangements, we apologize for the complexity, and ask that you contact director@manuscriptevidence.org. Safe travels!