{"id":12632,"date":"2020-03-24T02:18:40","date_gmt":"2020-03-24T02:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/?page_id=12632"},"modified":"2020-11-20T06:34:23","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T06:34:23","slug":"conrad-2020-congress","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/abstracts\/conrad-2020-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Conrad (2020 Congress)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael A. Conrad
\n(Kunsthstorisches Institut, University of Zurich<\/em>)
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cUnlocking the Future:
\nRemarks on the Materiality of Tools of Sortil\u00e8ge\u201d<\/h2>\n

Abstract of Paper
\nIntended<\/em><\/span> To be presented at the 55th International Congress on Medieval Studies [CANCELLED]<\/span>
\n(Kalamazoo, 2020)<\/h3>\n

Rescheduled<\/span> for the 56th International Congress on Medieval Studies
\n(Kalamazoo, 2021)<\/h3>\n

Session II of II on
\n\u201cRevealing the Unknown\u201d
\nPart II:\u00a0 \u201cSortil\u00e8ge, Bibliomancy, and Divination\u201d<\/h4>\n

Co-Sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence and<\/em> the Societas Magica<\/strong>
\nOrganized by Phillip A. Bernhardt\u2013House<\/h4>\n

2020 Congress Program<\/a><\/h4>\n

2021 Congress Program Planning<\/a><\/h4>\n

[Published on 10 March 2020, with an Update on 17 March 2020 reporting the Cancellation of the Congress as a whole,
\nand with an Update on 19 November 2020 reporting the Rescheduling for the 2021 Congress<\/em>]<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Abstract<\/h4>\n

The starting point of the paper is a genre of mantic literature that was popular in the late Middle Ages and known in the German-speaking world under the name of Losb\u00fccher<\/em>.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 Its character oscillated between an entertaining leisure activity and serious divination. With the help of a certain sortil\u00e8ge technique, which often was described in, or added to, the book, readers were enabled to randomly select a passage that would reveal their future. Different types of randomizers could be applied for the purpose, with the most common ones belonging to the sphere of games, such as playing cards or dice. However, there were also more elaborate devices, for instance modified volvelles with woodcut depictions that would be included to the printed work. Like the literary genre itself, the nature of these random generators equally oscillated between serious exploration and light-hearted diversion.<\/p>\n

These tools of bibliomancy are the main topic of the paper.\u00a0 It will also, mostly for purposes of comparison, as well as with the aim of searching historic prototypes, consider techniques of sortil\u00e8ge and bibliomancy in Islam (falnama<\/em>) and Judaism. By encompassing concepts linked to the Material Turn of current academic research, the main question is how the experience of anticipated future, the concept of human agency, and the design of mantic literature itself were informed by the materiality of the randomizers used. Building on these observations, a consequent issue to be discussed is what rhetorical and epistemological strategies these books used to justify mantic practices as valid forms of knowledge of the future.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Marco Heiles, Das Losbuch: Manuskriptologie einer Textsorte des 14.\u00a0bis 16.\u00a0Jahrhunderts<\/em>, Cologne et al.<\/em>: B\u00f6hlau, 2018.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Biography<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Michael A. Conrad was Research Assistant for the project \u201cMudejarismo and Moorish Revival in Europe\u201d at the Department for Art History at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. Before that, he worked for the Collaborative Research Centre 980 \u201cEpisteme in Motion. Transfer of Knowledge from the Ancient World to the Early Modern Period\u201d at the Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin, and at the Centre for Media and Interactivity<\/em> (ZMI) at Julius Liebig University Giessen. Michael studied philosophy and theatre research at both the Freie Universit\u00e4t and Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz; his master thesis examined photography as an artistic technique of self-fashioning.<\/p>\n

In his dissertation Michael analyzes how, in the late 13th<\/sup> century, gameplay was understood as a practice for coping with uncertainty; for this work a main source is the Libro de acedrex, dados e tablas<\/em> (1283\/84) commissioned by King Alfonso X of Castile and Le\u00f3n (reigned 1252\u20131284). Michael’s research interests center upon the history and theory of games and play, and the history of medieval Iberia, with a special focus on issues of religious and cultural coexistence.<\/p>\n

Publications (Selected)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSports and Games in the Middle Ages\u201d, in: Paul R. Milliman, A Cultural History of Leisure<\/em>, vol. 2: A Cultural History of Leisure in the Medieval Age (500-1450), <\/em>London: Bloomsbury (forthcoming).<\/p>\n

\u201cArchitectural Warfare: The Strategic Use of Gothic during the Reigns of Fernando III and Alfonso X for Promoting Castilian Identity\u201d, Justi-Mitteilungen<\/em> (forthcoming).<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Shadow of Toledo and Granada. On the Significance of Murcia for Cultural Exchange and Transmission of Knowledge in the 13th Century,\u201d Mar\u00eda Cobaleda (ed.), Dialogues in Late Medieval Mediterranean<\/em>, London: Palgrave-MacMillian (forthcoming).<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

\"Michael

Michael Presents His Paper at the the 2019 Congress.<\/p><\/div>\n

We thank Michael for his continuing contributions to Research Group activities.<\/p>\n

See, for example, the Abstracts for his Papers at the Congress and for our Symposia:<\/p>\n