Prequel to the Research Group Activities

At the Annual International Congress on Medieval Studies

1985‒1992 Congresses leading to the 1993 Congress and Beyond

[First published on our website on 10 September 2016]

Mattei Athena at the Louvre, Paris. Classical Roman copy from a 4th-century BCE Greek original. Via Wikipedia Commons.

Often, from the 1993 Congress onward, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence participates in the International Congress on Medieval Studies (ICMS) held annually at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo. The Research Group activities at the Congress take myriad forms.

Usually, now, we sponsor and co-sponsor Sessions with Papers, Responses, or a Panel Discussion. Sometimes the Session includes a Display of original manuscript and related materials. Occasionally we have provided a Photographic Exhibition of manuscript images and commentary. Some years call for special celebrations, with a Party or Reception, as with our Special Anniversary Year of 2014. Our practice also includes Trustees’ Meetings or Business Meetings, as appropriate; since 2015, our Open Business Meetings are listed in the Congress Schedule, with an assigned room and provided refreshments. The concise Agendas for these Meetings, which report on one page our activities, accomplishments, prospects, requirements, and vision, continue to be downloaded regularly from this website (so far for 2015 and 2016).

Our Congress Archive reports our Congress Activities for each year. Among them are Sponsored Sessions and Co-Sponsored Sessions, highlighting the different organizations in their own right.

These concerted activities did not arise, unlike Athena, fully formed.  They took years of preparations, both in the development of an integrated approach to manuscript studies, and in the cultivation of fields of expertise, experts, scholars, students, and others interested in the study and promotion of better understanding the transmission of written materials through the ages.  Some of this spadework occurred at the International Congress on Medieval Studies.  We review its highlights here.

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