“Shaping Understanding:
Form and Order in the Anglo-Saxon World, 400–1100″
A Colloquium held at The British Museum
London
7–9 March 2002

Since 2001, the Research Group has jointly sponsored scholarly meetings, co-organized by Mildred Budny and held at various centers in the United States and elsewhere.  These meetings constitute the ‘New Series’ of Symposia, Colloquia, Workshops & Seminars (2001–).

Following the move of our principal base to the United States in October 1994, the ‘New Series’ began with the Annual Symposia on “The Transmission of the Bible” (1995–2000).  Then it moved to events devoted to various topics, biblical and other subjects included.  Among them:  “Form and Order in the Anglo-Saxon World” (2002) at The British Museum.

Front Entrance to the British Museum on 10 March 2002. Photograph © Mildred Budny.

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First in this New Series came

” ‘The Dating Service or the Dating Game?’
Problems and Potential of Dating Materials from the Early Medieval Period”

An Inaugural and Celebratory Workshop
(The College of New Jersey, November 2001),
inaugurating a series of workshops and celebrating
both the formation of the Early Medieval Forum and
the recognition for the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence of tax-exempt status
as a Section 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Co-organized by Celia Chazelle and co-sponsored by the Early Medieval Forum, the Index of Christian Art of Princeton University, and the History Department and History Club of The College of New Jersey, the Workshop was held at The College of New Jersey, Ewing, New Jersey, in November 2001. Information about the interests, activities, and listserv of the Early Medieval Forum appears on its website: Early Medieval Forum.  Information about this Workshop appears on its own page.

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“Form and Order” Colloquium
at the British Museum

Next came the British Museum Colloquium, which extended across 3 days in March 2002.

Besides co-organizing the event, the Research Group prepared the printed announcements, Poster, Booking Form, Program, and Booklet containing the “Abstracts of Papers”.  All are set in Adobe Garamond and laid out according to our Style Manifesto.

“Shaping Understanding: Form and Order in the Anglo-Saxon World, 400–1100”

A Colloquium
Co-organized by Leslie E. Webster and Mildred Budny

Sponsored by

• The British Museum
• The British Academy
• Samuel H. Kress Foundation
• American Friends of the British Museum
• Index of Christian Art, Princeton University
• Royal Historical Society
• Centre for Palaeography
  in the School of Advanced Study of the University of London
• Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

The Colloquium was held at the Clore Centre of The British Museum in London in March 2002.

The Plan

We described it this way for the Announcement:

Anglo-Saxon perceptions of form and order are manifested in their approaches to multiple areas ranging from the visual arts and texts in all forms to religious practice and social structures.  The colloquium will explore this theme through two broad, interconnected strands:  Texts of all kinds, and Art, Architecture, and Archaeology.  We shall explore the varied evidence for the ways and means whereby Anglo-Saxons shaped their knowledge and understanding of the world, gave it order, and established their legacy.  Speakers, Keynote Speakers, Moderators, and Respondents are experts in a wide range of fields across these disciplines.  They come from many centres in the British Isles, Europe, and North America.

The Speakers (in Order of Appearance)

Simon D. Keynes (Trinity College and Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic, University of Cambridge)
“The ‘Grand Combinations’ of the Anglo-Saxons”

Noël Adams (London)
“Revival or Continuity?  Fifth-Century Elements in the Sutton Hoo Garnet Cloisonné”

Angela Evans (Department of Medieval and Modern Europe, British Museum)
“Innovation and Decline:  Garnet Cloisonné in Early Anglo-Saxon England’

Tania Dickinson (Department of Archaeology, University of York)
“Medium and Message in Early Anglo-Saxon Animal Art:  Some Observations on Salin’s Style I in England”

John Hines (School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University)
“The Predictable Wanderer:  Individuality and Conformity in Anglo-Saxon England”

Michael Ryan (Chester Beatty Library, Dublin)
“Some Irish Liturgical Spaces”

Susan Youngs (Department of Medieval and Modern Europe, British Museum)
“The Past in the Present:  Celtic Art in Insular Ornament”

James Graham-Campbell (Institute of Archaeology, University College, London)
“Shaping and Reshaping:  Aspects of Late Anglo-Saxon and Viking Art”

Alan Thacker (Institute of Historical Research, University of London)
“Bede and the Ordering of Understanding”

Wesley M. Stevens (Department of History, University of Winnipeg)
“En Route with Bedan Cosmology”

Helen Gittos (The Queen’s College, Oxford)
“Liturgy and Sacred Space in Anglo-Saxon England”

Richard Bailey (Department of English, University of Newcastle)
“Anglo-Saxon Art:  Some Orderings and Their Meanings”

Jane Hawkes (Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York)
“The Church Triumphant:  The Figural Columns of Early Ninth-Century Angl0-Saxon England”

Carol Farr (London)
“The Sign at the Cross-Roads:  The Matthean Nomen sacrum in Gospelbooks before King Alfred”

Nancy Netzer (Department of Fine Arts and McMullen Art Museum, Boston College)
“Framing the Book of Durrow Inside/Outside the Anglo-Saxon World”

Joyce Hill (School of English, University of Leeds)
“Anglo-Saxon Perspectives on Liturgical Order”

Mildred Budny (Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, Princeton)
“Balanced Asymmetry as a Hallmark of Ninth-Century Anglo-Saxon Art”

David Ganz (Departments of English and Classics, King’s College, and
Centre for Palaeography in the School of Advanced Study, University of London)
“Anglo-Saxon Reception of Carolingian and Ottonian Books”

Michael Wood (London)
“King Athelstan’s Imperium and the (Re-)Ordering of Anglo-Saxon England”

[Olivier Szerwiniack (Faculté des Lettres, Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens)
“Shaping an Historical Event:  The Anglo-Saxons’ Arrival in Great Britain According to Anglo-Saxon and Britonic Historians”
Note:  Olivier did not attend the Colloquium to present his paper]

Richard Gameson (School of History, University of Kent at Canterbury)
“The Last Chi-Rho in the West:  From Insular to Anglo-Saxon in the Boulogne 10 Gospels”

Elizabeth M. Tyler (Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York)
“Facta velut infecta:  History, Vergil and the Encomium Emmae Reginae”

Geoffrey Russom (Department of English, Brown University, Providence)
“The ‘Orchestration’ of Verse Patterns in Old English Meter”

Robert D. Stevick (Department of English, University of Washington, Seattle)
“Accumulated Geometry:  Harmony of Form in Anglo-Saxon Texts and Design”

Philip Rusche (Department of English, University of Nevada, Las Vegas)
“Order and Design in Anglo-Saxon Glossaries”

John Higgitt (Department of Fine Art, University of Edinburgh)
“Emphasis and Visual Rhetoric in Anglo-Saxon Inscriptions”

David Parsons (School of English Studies, University of Nottingham)
“Recasting the Anglo-Saxon Runes”

Anna Gannon (Department of Coins and Medals, British Museum, and Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge)
” . . . And Pretty Coins All in a Row”

Andy Orchard (Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto)
“Enigma Variations:  Mutual Influence in the Anglo-Latin and Old English Riddle Traditions:

Leslie E. Webster (Department of Medieval and Modern Europe, British Museum)
” ‘Learned Games’:  The Ludic Principle in the Visual Arts”

David Howlett (Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, Oxford)
“Letter and Number and Musical Note:  Literary Languages and Cosmic Order”

Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (School of History, National University of Ireland, Galway)
“Irish Manuscripts and Anglo-Saxon Studies:  The CALAMUS Project”

Patrick Wormald (Wolfson College, Oxford)
“The Power of Command:  Pre-Conquest England as a Developing ‘State’ ”

Moderators

David M. Wilson (Isle of Man)
Carol Neuman de Vegvar (Department of Fine Arts, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio)
Rosamond McKitterick (Newnham College and Faculty of History, University of Cambridge)
Rosemary Cramp (Department of Archaeology, Durham University)
Janet L. Nelson (Department of History, King’s College, London)
Giles Constable (School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton)
Richard Marsden (School of English Studies, University of Nottingham)
Raymond Page (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge)
Carin Ruff (Department of English, John Carroll University, University Heights, Ohio)

The 5-page Program lists the order of the proceedings, refreshments and receptions included.  The 14-page Booklet provides the Abstracts of Papers.  We include both of them here.

Written Records

Abstracts of the thirty-three papers presented at the Colloquium were published in print for distribution at the Colloquium.  They are also available online, as described in the list of Publications.

The Abstracts alone, without reference to the Research Group (which provided their texts), were reprinted in double-column layout in the Old English Newsletter, 35:3 (Spring 2002), A-5–A-15, and now available online.

The Abstracts of Papers [compiled and edited by Mildred Budny] appeared as a Booklet of 14 quarto-size pages, laid out in single columns in Adobe Garamond (Princeton:  Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, 2002).  Distributed at the event, and circulated afterward, it is now available for download on our site.

The Index of Abstracts of Papers for Events Listed by Year cites the Authors alphabetically for this and other events in the New Series. The Indexes of the Abstracts for Congress Sessions lists the Authors both by year and by name.

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We thank the Organizers, Hosts, Sponsors, and Contributors.  The photographs of the event reproduced here were taken by Geoffrey Russom and Mildred Budny.

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Next came the Colloqium on

“Innovations for Editing Texts from Antiquity to Enlightenment”
(The Ohio State University, October 2003)

Some of the Contributors to the 2001 Dating Game Colloquium and the 2002 British Museum Colloquium also participated in this Colloquium.
Details here

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More events continue to follow.  Have a look at our Symposia, Colloquia, Workshops & Seminars. Please see also our News & Views.

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