![\"Central](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/20190510_131923-Central-Rock-Garden-Kzoo-2019-300x225.jpg\")
Central Rock Garden. Photograph Mildred Budny.<\/p><\/div>\n
In 2019, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence celebrates its 20th year as a nonprofit educational corporation and its 30th year as an international scholarly organization. Accordingly, we hold both customary and extra-special events, both at the Congress and elsewhere. For example, shortly before the 2019 Congress, we<\/p>\n
We have a tradition of celebrating landmark Anniversaries, both for our organization, with organizations which which we share anniversaries, and for other events. As described, for example, in our 2014 Anniversary Reflections<\/a>. For 2019, our events aim to represent, to explore, to promote, to celebrate, and to advance aspects of our shared range of interests, fields of study, subject matter, and collaboration between younger and established scholars, teachers, and others, in multiple centers.<\/p>\n Now we Report the successful accomplishment of our Activities at the 2019 Congress.<\/p>\n Who, What, Why Not<\/strong><\/p>\n Also, like the 2015\u20132018 Congresses, we held<\/p>\n As usual, we publish the Program for the accepted Papers, as their Authors permit. Abstracts for previous Congresses appear in our Congress Abstracts<\/a>, conveniently Indexed both by Year<\/a> and by Author<\/a>.<\/p>\n Glimpses of our co-sponsored Receptions<\/a> at the Congress appear in the souvenirs of our <\/a>Celebrations<\/a> and in the Reports for the individual Congresses (<\/a>2016<\/a>, <\/a>2015<\/a>, and <\/a>2014 Anniversary<\/a>).<\/a><\/p>\n 2017 Business Meeting Agenda<\/p><\/div>\n 2019 Business Meeting Agenda<\/p><\/div>\n The Agendas<\/strong> for our Open Business Meetings<\/a> are available for your perusal:<\/p>\n These 1-page statements serve as concise Reports for our Activities, Plans, and Desiderata.<\/p>\n While we’re here: Interesting, isn’t it, that these Agendas have rapidly become one of our Most-Downloaded Offerings? Some of them now stand among the Top 5 Most Popular Downloads on our site.<\/p>\n The most popular downloads still remain our copyright and FREE multilingual digital font Bembino<\/a>, and some Booklets from our Symposia and Colloquia. So far, those “best sellers” \u2014 they are FREE \u2014 include:<\/p>\n These publications, like most of our <\/a>Publications<\/a>, are FREE, but we welcome donations, both in funds and in kind, for our nonprofit mission, with the option of tax-deduction for your <\/a>Donations<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/a>We look forward to your contributions.<\/p>\n Plant Life to Greet the Congress Attendees. Photograph Mildred Budny.<\/p><\/div>\n *****<\/p>\n Session 28:\u00a0 Thursday, 9 May 2019, 10:00\u201311:30 a.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n Opening Title and Opening Words of Luke. Despoiled Large-format Romanesque Bible made in Italy. Budny Handlist 1.<\/p><\/div>\n While our organization’s abiding mission is to consider the material evidence of written records “as carriers of text, archaeological artefacts, works of art, layers of history, and monuments of culture” (as declared in our Mission Statement<\/a>), we must wonder what happens when lacunae<\/a><\/em> \u2014 whether from scribal intentions, accidental omissions, temporal vicissitude, or other means \u2014 alter or limit the topography opened by a manuscript.<\/p>\n For example, how have previous receivers and transmitters negotiated these lacunae? How do editors amend, elide, or underscore them? How do scholars interpret the gaps and silences occasioned by them? This session may explore some options and present telling case-studies.<\/p>\n Co-organizers: Justin A. Hastings<\/strong> (Loyola University, Chicago) and Presider: Derek Shank<\/strong><\/p>\n Presenters:<\/p>\n Ian Cornelius<\/strong> (Loyola University, Chicago) Abstract of Paper<\/a><\/p>\n Sarah Connell<\/strong> (Northeastern University) Abstract of Paper<\/a><\/p>\n [Please note<\/em>: The 2019 Congress Program Booklet<\/a> misspells Sarah’s surname in both the Program for Session 28 (on page 83) and the “Index of Participants” (on page 202). We correct the mistake here.]<\/p>\n Alessia Bellusci<\/strong> (Yale University) Abstract of Paper<\/a><\/p>\n [Note<\/em>:\u00a0 Alessia was not able to present her paper at the Congress.\u00a0 This change to the program is reported here and in the Corrigenda for the Congress Program.\u00a0 We continue to report her intended paper and its Abstract, with appreciation for her aim to contribute to this Session.]<\/p>\n Respondent:<\/p>\n Jack Wiegand<\/strong> (Center for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto) Abstract of Response<\/a><\/p>\n Discussion for the Lacuna Session. Photograph Mildred Budny.<\/p><\/div>\n Session 390:\u00a0 Saturday, 11 May 2019, 1:30\u20133:30 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n A variety of magical texts in Celtic contexts include animals or animal imagery in their spells. The creatures range from snakes, beetles, and worms, to dogs, wolves, deer, pigs, and birds \u2014 and many other creatures besides. The texts range from individual Irish incantations and collections, as found in the St. Gall Incantations, the Reichenau Primer<\/a>, the Stowe manuscript, and in the Leabhar Breacc<\/a>, amongst many others.<\/p>\n \u00a9 The British Library Board. Harley MS 1023, folio 64 verso. Part-page framed illustration in ink of the Eagle Symbol of Saint John the Evangelist.<\/p><\/div>\n Some mantic operations, like the imbas forosnai<\/em> ritual detailed in the early 10th-century Sanas Cormaic<\/a><\/em>, include the use of pig-, cat-, and dog-meat in their formulae, whilst the tarbfheis<\/em> described in some literary texts required the slaughtering of a bull. Charms designed to repel rats and other vermin were also employed, including their use into more modern periods. The medieval literate record also contains many occurrences of animals in relation to the magical actions of characters, whether human or divine, or of \u201cmagical animals\u201d of various sorts appearing as messengers, omens, or agents and characters in their own right. Whether animals or animal parts are used as components or metaphors, sacrifices or spoken formulae, narrative elements or desired outcomes, Celtic texts have ubiquitous instances of animal imagery and involvement.<\/p>\n Papers in this session consider theoretical approaches toward the material of animal imagery, thematic explorations of different types of usage of animals, or attempts to survey, catalogue, and analyze the nature of particular animal appearances in these texts and operations, as well as anything else which may relate to the broad topic of animals and Celtic magical texts.<\/p>\n Phillip Introduces the Animals Session. Photograph Mildred Budny.<\/p><\/div>\n Organizer: Phillip A. Bernhardt-House <\/strong>(Skagit Valley College \u2013 Whidbey Island)<\/p>\n Presider: Phillip A. Bernhardt-House<\/strong><\/p>\n Presenters:<\/p>\n Ilona Tuomi<\/strong> (Department of Early and Medieval Irish, University College Cork) Abstract of Paper<\/a><\/p>\n [Note<\/em>:\u00a0 Katherine was not able to present her paper at the Congress.\u00a0 This change to the program is reported here and in Corrigenda for the Congress Program.\u00a0 We continue to report her intended paper and its Abstract, with appreciation for her aim to contribute to this Session.]<\/span><\/p>\n Katherine Leach<\/strong> (Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University)<\/span> Abstract of Paper<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Gregory R. Darwin<\/strong> (Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University) Abstract of Paper<\/a><\/p>\n Session 295:\u00a0 Friday 10 May, 3:30\u20135:00 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n Although texts of ritual magic circulated widely during the later Middle Ages, the opprobrium they attracted both elevated the risks for their owner-users, and limited the physical lifespan of the codices themselves when they caught the attention of Church authorities. Consequently, texts of ritual magic often survive not as independently circulating treatises, but rather as subsections of more innocuous-seeming treatises on other topics such as natural philosophy or medicine. This session aims to bring to light and discuss this particular sub-category of magical treatises, their transmission histories, and the intertextualities between them and their textual \u201chosts\u201d.<\/p>\n Mainstream Session. Photograph Mildred Budny.<\/p><\/div>\n Organizer: Vajra Regan<\/strong> (Center for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto)<\/p>\n Presider: David Porreca<\/strong> (University of Waterloo)<\/p>\n Presenters:<\/p>\n Claire Fanger<\/strong> (Rice University) Abstract of Paper<\/a><\/p>\n Chiara Benati<\/strong> (Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Genova) Abstract of Paper<\/a><\/p>\n Vajra Regan<\/strong> Abstract of Paper<\/a><\/p>\n Respondent:<\/p>\n Michael A. Conrad<\/strong> (Kunsthistorisches Institut, Universit\u00e4t Z\u00fcrich) Abstract of Response<\/a><\/p>\n Session 237:\u00a0 Friday, 10 May, 1:30\u20133:00 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n Nicolas Fouch\u00e9, “Pomona” (circa 1700). Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts. Via Wikipedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n After the suppression of polytheistic religious activities in the fourth century CE, some sites and images \u2014 and certainly citations in literature \u2014 of the classical Greek and Roman (and occasionally other Mediterranean) deities had a \u201csecond life\u201d in places like Italy, Spain, Greece, and North Africa. However, even if imported and syncretistic cultus to these deities existed in more northern climes (including the former Roman provinces of Germania, Gaul, and Britain), the various Latin and vernacular literatures of the Germanic, French, British, and Irish peoples of medieval and later periods gave some of these deities a \u201cthird life,\u201d and often one rich in interpretive possibilities for the learned authors who discussed them.<\/p>\n Whether the authors derived their knowledge of these deities from various classical, biblical, or patristic sources, the influence specifically of Isidore of Seville\u2019s Etymologiae<\/a><\/em>, or their own re-interpretation of originally local practices, this tendency gave rise to such intriguing instances as<\/p>\n Papers in this session will explore these themes and thereby work to contextualize these reinterpretations historically, politically, and theologically, as well as via other vectors of analysis. They also seek to catalogue and to increase the visibility of these phenomena.<\/p>\n Organizer: Phillip A. Bernhardt-House<\/strong> (Skagit Valley College \u2013 Whidbey Island)<\/p>\n Presider: Daniel Attrell<\/strong> (University of Waterloo)<\/p>\n Presenters:<\/p>\n Galina Krasskova<\/strong> (Fordham University) Abstract of Paper<\/a><\/p>\n H. Jeremiah Lewis<\/strong> (Independent Scholar) Abstract of Paper<\/a><\/p>\n Respondent:<\/p>\n Phillip A. Bernhardt-House<\/strong> Abstract of Paper<\/a><\/p>\n Pomona Session Kzoo 2019<\/p><\/div>\n *****<\/p>\n Thursday, 9 May 2019, 12:00 noon \u2013 1:00 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n Refreshments were provided, through a donation.<\/p>\n See its Agenda, downloadable\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2019 Business Meeting Invitation<\/p><\/div>\n ******<\/p>\n Friday, 10 May 2019, 8:30 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n All are welcome.\u00a0 Refreshments are provided, through our co-sponsored generosity.<\/p>\n This year, the Research Group celebrates 20 years as a nonprofit educational corporation based in Princeton, New Jersey, and 30 years as an international scholarly society founded at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in the United Kingdom.\u00a0 We celebrate our hosts, donors, sponsors, contributors, volunteers, and friends.\u00a0 Much to celebrate!<\/p>\n 2019 Anniversary Reception Invitation.<\/p><\/div>\n 2019 Anniversary Reception. Photograph Mildred Budny.<\/p><\/div>\n *****<\/p>\n Please Contact Us<\/a> with your questions and suggestions. For our nonprofit educational mission, with tax-exempt status, donations in funds and in kind (expertise, materials, time) are welcome<\/a>.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n You might keep track of our updates also via our News & Views<\/a>.<\/p>\n Already, we plan for next year’s activities at the International Congress on Medieval Studies.\u00a0 Following our Call for Papers<\/a>, we will announce the Programs for the Sessions.<\/p>\n![\"Logo](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Heavy-LOGO1-150x138.jpg\"){kind=logo}
<\/a>As in recent years, we co-sponsored Sessions with the Societas Magica<\/a> (2 Sessions). It is the 14th year of this co-sponsorship, and the first year of co-sponsorship with the newly-founded organization Polytheism-Oriented Medievalists of North America<\/strong> (P.-O.M.O.N.A).<\/p>\n\n
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Background and Foreground<\/h3>\n
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Sessions for the 2019 Congress<\/h2>\n
<\/a>I. Sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence<\/h3>\n1. In the Absence of Manuscript Evidence:
\nConsidering Lacunae in Manuscript Studies<\/h4>\nThe Aim<\/h5>\n
![\"Detail](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/DSCN1914-Italian-Bible-Luke-Gospel-Opening-branded-276x300.png\")
\nDerek Shank<\/strong> (Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)<\/p>\n
\nand James Eric Ensley<\/strong> (Yale University)
\n“The Lost Medieval Exemplar of Beinecke Library, Takamiya MS 23<\/a>”<\/p>\n
\n\u201c \u201bHow Dangerous \u2014 Sd<\/sup> Any Thing Be Ommitted!!!!\u2019
\nEditing and Encoding the Almanacks<\/em> of of Mary Moody Emerson<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n
\n“Jewish Pizza in Exchange for Invisibility:
\nReconstructing a Recipe for Achieving Invisibility from an Early Modern Italian \u0336Hebrew Codex and Its Earlier Analogues”<\/p>\n
\n“Text without Context, Context without Text:\u00a0 Examining Absence in the Case of Grettisf\u00e6rsla”?””\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n![\"Discussion](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/20190509_110942-Discussion-for-our-Session-1-kzoo-2019-cropped-more-1024x705.jpg\")
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<\/h3>\nII. Co-Sponsored with the Societas Magica<\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"Logo](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/SocMaghead23.png\")
<\/a>2 Sessions<\/p>\n2. Animals in Celtic Magical Texts<\/h3>\n
![\"Harley](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Harley-MS-1023-f-64v-6a013488b5399e970c01b8d0ec13de970c1-808x1024.png\")
<\/a>![\"Phillip](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_7036-AZO-2019-Phillip-introduces-his-Session-cropped-more-1024x725.jpg\")
\n“Rodents, Rhymes, and Rituals:\u00a0 The Irish Tradition of Charming Rats (to Death)”<\/p>\n
\n“Horn of Stag and Skin of Snake:\u00a0 Animal Ingredients in Late Medieval Welsh Medical and Charm Texts”<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u201c ‘Le gl\u00f3r binn a cinn \/ thug s\u00ed an r\u00f3n mara \u00f3n tuinn’:\u00a0 The Seal in Gaelic and Norse Tradition”<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2019-RGME-and-Soc-Mag-Session-2-with-border.png\")
<\/h3>\n3. Embedded in the Mainstream: Ritual Magic Incorporated in ‘Legitimate’ Texts<\/h3>\n
![\"Panel](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/20190510_164839-Embedded-in-the-Mainstream-Session-cropped-1024x467.jpg\")
\n“Scriptural Dreaming:\u00a0 Revisiting the Ecstasy Defense”<\/p>\n
\n“Scriptural References as Legitimation Strategy in Late Medieval German Magical Formulas”<\/p>\n
\n“Not<\/em> Underground:\u00a0 Learned Lapidaries and the Reformation of Ritual Magic”<\/p>\n
\n“In Plain Sight:\u00a0 The Promotion of Astrology and Magic at Royal Courts in the Thirteenth Century in Transcultural Perspective (A Response)”<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2019-RGME-and-Soc-Mag-Sessions-1-and-2-with-border.png\")
<\/h3>\nIII. Co-Sponsored with the Polytheism-Oriented Medievalists of North America (P.-O.M.o.N.A.<\/strong>)<\/h3>\n
4. Classical Deities in Medieval Northern European Contexts<\/h3>\n
![\"Pigment](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Nicolas_Fouch\u00e9_001-Pomona-235x300.jpg\")
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\n“Ravens in the Meadhall:\u00a0 Pre-Christian Influences in the H\u00ealiand<\/em>”<\/p>\n
\n“Dionysos in the Northlands: The Cult of Dionysos in Early Medieval Europe”<\/p>\n
\n“P.-O.M.o.N.A.: Where Have We Been, Where Are We Going? (A Response)”<\/p>\n![\"Poster](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Pomona-Poster-AZO-2019-with-border.png\")
Open Business Meeting<\/h3>\n
![\"2019](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2019-Business-Meeting-Reception-Full-Page-with-border.png\")
Anniversary Reception, with Hosted Bar<\/h3>\n
Co-sponsored with the Societas Magica<\/p>\n![\"2019](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2019-RGME-Societas-Magica-Anniversary-Reception-Invitation-Full-Page-with-border.png\")
![\"2019](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/20190510_211257-At-our-Reception-Kzoo-2019-1024x671.jpg\")