![\"Baltimore,](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/W782_000033_sap-fol-15r-cropped-more-300x240.jpg\")
Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, MS W.782, folio 15r. Van Alphen Hours. Image via Creative Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n
With the achievement of our Activities at the 2019 International Congress on Medieval Studies (ICMS), as announced in our 2019 Congress Program<\/a>, we\u00a0prepare the program for the 2020 Congress.\u00a0 Accepting most of our proposed Sessions, the Congress Committee publishes the full 2020 Call for Papers for the 55th ICMS<\/a>, with the list of Session Titles and Sponsors.\u00a0 Here we announce our 4 sponsored and co-sponsored Sessions and describe their aims.<\/p>\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.\u00a0 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>.\u00a0 We build upon this year’s multiple celebrations in designing future activities.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n This coming year, 2020, we prepare events at the Congress and elsewhere, as customarily, so as 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 Also, like the 2015\u20132019 Congresses, we plan for<\/p>\n As usual, we aim to publish the Program for the accepted Papers, once the Call For Papers has completed its specified span. We will publish the Abstracts for these Papers as the preparations for the Congress advance and 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 The Agendas<\/strong> for our Open Business Meetings<\/a> are available for your inspection and perusal:<\/p>\n These 1-page statements serve as concise Reports for our Activities, Plans, and Desiderata.<\/p>\n Interesting, isn’t it, that these Agendas are one of our Most-Downloaded Offerings? Some of them now stand among the Top 5 Most Popular Downloads on our site.<\/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>.<\/a><\/p>\n We look forward to your contributions.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n And now, here is the plan for 2019 at the International Congress on Medieval Studies. We announce the accepted Sessions, describe their aims and scope, and provide information for sending your questions and your proposals for papers to the Session Organizers. Herewith our Call for Papers for the 2019 Congress.<\/p>\n Although the prologues of learned books of magic could take many forms, nearly all share at least one common characteristic:\u00a0 the claim to transmit a secret and pristine branch of knowledge.\u00a0 Such claims are frequently couched in the form of a narrative describing how this secret knowledge was originally revealed.\u00a0 Many employ the same actors (Hermes Trismegistus<\/a>, King Solomon<\/a>, Aristotle<\/a>), the same objects (a tablet or disk made of precious material and inscribed with divine wisdom), and the same locations (a hidden cavern or lost pagan temple).\u00a0 These narratives helped to establish the authority of their texts, broadcast their affiliation with specific discourses, and signal how they should be read.\u00a0 Moreover, the prologues served to highlight the erudition of their authors through the use of classical and biblical references and often sophisticated word-play.<\/p>\n The aim of this session is to explore these still largely understudied prologues which testify to the variety of medieval approaches to ‘magic’.\u00a0 What do these prologues have to tell us about the institutional, cultural, and political milieux in which they were produced?\u00a0 How do certain recurring mythemes found in these prologues stand in relation to the various magical and divinatory arts, specifically those classified as natural or demonic?\u00a0 And to which philosophical, mystical, or religious beliefs do they appeal in order to justify the magical practices that they introduce?<\/p>\n Other potential topics relating to magical prologues include, but are not limited to<\/p>\n Hermes Trismegistus holds an open book. Frontispiece Image (Lyons, 1669) via Wikimedia Commons and Wellcome Images (Wellcome_L0000980).<\/p><\/div>\n Organized by<\/p>\n Vajra Regan<\/strong> Please send your proposals to\u00a0vajra.regan@mail.utoronto.ca<\/a> by 15 September 2019.<\/p>\n Judgment of Arbitration by Philip I, Count of Savoy, of 28 May 1275 This session explores the presentation and attestation of documentary records in the medieval and early modern periods, in the long transition to the modern custom of signatures as autographs \u2014 as distinct (partly) from earlier ‘signatures’ often made by proxy, whether by cross-signs, names inscribed by others on behalf of the signatory, personal or official seals, or other forms.\u00a0 The fields of consideration include forgeries (‘signatures’, seals, and questionable documents), reported records of documents perhaps otherwise lost (as in cartularies, chronicles, and other narratives), and the occasional preservation of fingerprints upon the records themselves.<\/p>\n The time-honored human determination to establish recognized \u2014 that is, effective \u2014 modes of authenticating intentions and actions by individuals and institutions alike underpins the historical transmission (or disruption, willful and otherwise) of formal records of agreements, sales, transfers, decisions over grievances and feuds, and other impactful official arrangements across the centuries.\u00a0\u00a0 Examining case studies for this session, we encourage multiple approaches, subject matters, and methodologies for analyzing the strategies adopted (successfully or otherwise) in the pursuit of such a quest for authentication.<\/p>\n The desire effectively to express identity and authenticity as a matter of record may well resonate with many participants.\u00a0 The Session considers aspects of the historical traditions, improvisations, inventions, and (it may be) occasional failures of earlier centuries in such a quest.\u00a0 Perchance we might learn instructively from the past.<\/p>\n Organized by<\/p>\n Mildred Budny Please send your proposals to director@manuscriptevidence.org<\/a> by 15 September 2019.<\/p>\n Equestrian Wax Seal of Philip I, Count of Savoy, From the little boy on the lap of the priest to the astrologer physician Richard Napier, scryers have fulfilled a significant role in spirit communications throughout the Middle Ages and early modern period.\u00a0 That children were instrumentalized by clergy doubling as ritual magicians has been known for a long time.\u00a0 The activities of professional adult scryers, such as Edward Kelley and Sarah Skelhorn, are likewise well-documented.\u00a0 Recently, however, attention has moved to the scrying activities of medical and astrological professionals, as Ofer Hadass\u2019s study of Richard Napier bears out.\u00a0 The autobiography of William Lilly and the manuscripts of Elias Ashmole suggest that early modern astrologer physicians utilized scrying in different ways from the medieval clerical underworld.<\/p>\n This session offers an opportunity to reassess older notions about scryers and scrying, and to engage with current research on the identity and activities of professional scryers.\u00a0 Topics for papers could feature, for instance, the techniques used by scryers, the necessary instruments for this craft, as well as the goals for which a scryer\u2019s services could be used. \u00a0 Diachronic approaches to the topic are welcome, and papers that consider cross-cultural approaches, such as Jewish or Arabic scryers and scrying practices, are encouraged.<\/p>\n Magic mirror of Floron. Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Via Creative Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n Organized by<\/p>\n Sanne de Laat<\/strong> L\u00e1szl\u00f3 S\u00e1ndor Chardonnens<\/strong> Please send an abstract (200 words maximum) to both<\/u> session organisers before 15 September 2019.<\/p>\n Baltimore, Walters MS W.782, folio 15r. Van Alphen Hours. Dutch Book of Hours made for a female patron in the mid 15th century. Opening page of the Hours of the Virgin: “Here du salste opdoen mine lippen”. At the bottom of the page, an elegantly dressed female figure gazes into a bowl- or mirror-like object, perhaps to perform skrying or to lure a unicorn. Image via Creative Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n From earliest times, humans have sought methods to contact supernatural entities to obtain knowledge of the present or future, known as divination.\u00a0 In ancient and medieval contexts, two such methods that were sometimes connected were sortilege and bibliomancy:\u00a0 for example, the Lots of Mary, the Sortes Astramphysychi<\/em><\/a>, Homeric Oracles, Virgilian Oracles.<\/p>\n These practices involved numerological processes to select specific passages from canonical texts in order to divine on desired topics.\u00a0 This session will focus on these and other methods of divination, so as to understand how textual and other authorities became invested with powers far greater than the impacts of their literary merits.<\/p>\n Organized by<\/p>\n Phillip A. Bernhardt-House<\/strong> Please send your proposals to phillip.bernhardthouse@gmail.com<\/a> by 15 September 2019.<\/p>\n Ad\u00e8le Kindt (1804\u20131884), The Fortune Teller (circa 1835), cat included. Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten. Image via Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n *****<\/p>\n Please send your proposals for papers, along with the completed Congress Participant Information Form<\/a>, to the Session Organizer(s) or to director@manuscriptevidence.org<\/a> to reach us on or before 15 September 2019<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Please Contact Us<\/a> with your questions and suggestions.<\/p>\n 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 For updates, please visit this site, our News & Views<\/a>, and our Facebook Page<\/a> .<\/p>\n *****<\/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-sponsor Sessions with the Societas Magica<\/a> (2 Sessions). It will be the 15th year of this co-sponsorship.<\/p>\n\n
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Background and Foreground<\/h3>\n
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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\n
Sessions for the 2020 Congress<\/h2>\n
<\/a>I. Sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence<\/h3>\n2 Sessions<\/h4>\n
1.\u00a0 Prologues in Learned Texts of Medieval Magic<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"Book-bearing](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/J._Sprenger_and_H._Institutoris_Malleus_maleficarum._Wellcome_L0000980detail.jpg\")
\n
\nCentre for Medieval Studies
\nUniversity of Toronto
\n125 Queens Park
\nToronto, ON M5S 2C7
\nCANADA<\/span>
\nvajra.regan@mail.utoronto.ca<\/a><\/p>\n2.\u00a0 Seal the Real:\u00a0 Documentary Records, Seals & Authentications<\/h4>\n
![\"Judgment](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG_4843-1-1275-Charter-with-Seal-and-Guide-cropped-300x232.jpg\")
with Brown Wax Seal
and with Docketing in French. Photograph by Mildred Budny.<\/p><\/div>\n
\n<\/strong>Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
\nA New Jersey Nonprofit Educational Corporation
\n46 Snowden Lane
\nPrinceton
\nNew Jersey 08540<\/p>\n![\"Equestrian](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG_4845-1-1275-Charter-Seal-squared-1024x1024.jpg\")
Affixed to his Judgment of Abritration, 28 May 1275. Photograph by Mildred Budny.<\/p><\/div>\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, in Parts I & II:\u00a0 Revealing the Unknown
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n3.\u00a0 Revealing the Unknown I:
\nScryers and Scrying in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period<\/h3>\n![\"Magic](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Magic-mirror-of-Floron-Mathematisch-Physikalischer-Salon-Staatliche-Kunstsammlungen-Dresden-300x300.jpg\")
\nEnglish Department
\nRadboud University Nijmegen
\nsannede.laat@student.ru.nl<\/a><\/p>\n
\nEnglish Department
\nRadboud University Nijmegen
\nPO Box 9103
\n6500 HD Nijmegen
\nThe Netherlands
\ns.chardonnens@let.ru.nl<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Baltimore,](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/W782_000033_sap-fol-15r-728x1024.jpg\")
4.\u00a0 Revealing the Unknown II:
\nSortil\u00e8ge, Bibliomancy, and Divination<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n101 SE Ely Street, #D-102
\nOak Harbor, Washington 98277
\nphillip.bernhardthouse@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Ad\u00e8le](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kindt_Fortune_teller.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Bk-of-Hours-verso-bottom-foliage.png\")
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