\nUpdates include photographs supplied by Larissa Tracy, whom we thank.<\/em>]<\/p>\n
At the 2007 Congress, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence<\/strong> sponsored one Session, and co-sponsored one Session with the Societas Magica<\/a><\/strong>, in the second consecutive year of this co-sponsorship.<\/p>\n For this Congress, moreover, the Research Group began the tradition of publishing the Abstracts for its Sponsored Sessions on its official website, which appeared online in this year.\u00a0 And so began the possibility of posting online announcements and updates for the programs of our Sessions and other Events at the Congresses from this year onward. The series appears in the list of our Congress Activities<\/a> and our blog about the International Congress on Medieval Studies<\/a>.<\/p>\n [Updates:\u00a0 By 2015, with our updated website, it has become possible to access the Abstracts of Papers for our Sessions, listed both By Author<\/a> and By Year<\/a>.\u00a0 In reporting the program, we cite the published Abstracts as they have appeared on both our first website and our current website.<\/p>\n In 2017, while sorting through her photographic files, our Associate Larissa Tracy generously supplied the images from the 2007 Congress, now added here, with her permission.]<\/p>\n This session of papers, plus a response, addressed the curious duality manifest at present between descriptions and depictions of monstrous creatures in the Middle Ages, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, some prevalent assumptions nowadays of supposedly “medieval” practices and behavior, also deemed monstrous, albeit in somewhat different and generally untutored terms. \u00a0In distinguishing between these realities and fantasies, both then and now, our papers focused upon specific cases of monstrous beings represented in medieval sources, in a variety of media. We also considered the definitions, interpretations, and characteristics of monstrosity (or “barbarity”) during the medieval period as such.<\/p>\n Organizer:\u00a0 Jennifer A. T. Smith<\/strong> (Department of English, University of California at Los Angeles)<\/p>\n Presider:\u00a0 Mildred Budny<\/strong> (Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)<\/p>\n Presenters:<\/p>\n Respondent:<\/p>\n The experience of this session \u2014 “with its excellent turnout, the stimulating questions from the audience, and the lively discussion about medieval lycanthropy”, in the words of its 2008 organizer\u00a0\u2014 led directly to one of our sessions, on the “Medieval Werewolf”, for the 2008 Congress<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Asa Mittman, Mildred Budny, and Hans Sauer at the 2007 Congress. Photography by Larissa Tracy.<\/p><\/div>\n Larissa Tracy at the 2007 Congress. Photograph supplied by Larissa Tracy.<\/p><\/div>\n *****<\/p>\n Organizer:\u00a0 Claire Fanger<\/strong> (Independent Scholar)<\/p>\n Presider:\u00a0 Claire Fanger<\/strong><\/p>\n Presenters:<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n The full 2007 Congress<\/strong> program is archived as 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Societas Magica<\/strong> sessions are listed as Sessions Sponsored by the Societas Magica at the Forty-Second International Congress on Medieval Studies May 10\u201313, 2007<\/a>.<\/p>\n The full set of Research Group Activities at the Congress is listed in our Congress Archive<\/a>.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\nI.\u00a0 Session sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Logo](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Heavy-LOGO1-150x138.jpg\"){kind=logo}
<\/a>“Medieval Monstrosities and their Ill Repute”<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n
\n” ‘Rending the Flesh’:\u00a0 Modern Misconceptions about Medieval Torture”
\nAbstract of Paper<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n” ‘There, Wolf . . . There, Castle’:\u00a0 Comedy, Romance, and the Self-Deconstructing Monster”
\nAbstract of Paper<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n“Monstrous Mixture:\u00a0 The Archaeology of Teratology”
\nAbstract of Paper<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n“A Response, via Walter Benjamin”
\nAbstract of Response<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n![\"Asa](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Asa-Milly-2007-lightened-300x225.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Larissa](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Me-2007-lightened-300x225.jpg\")
<\/a>II.\u00a0 Session sponsored by the
\nSocietas Magica and
\nthe Research Group on Manuscript Evidence<\/h2>\n![\"Societas](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/SocMaghead2.png\")
<\/a>“Magic and the Holy Book”<\/h3>\n\n
\n“Biblical Authority in the Malleus maleficiarum<\/em>:\u00a0 Sacred Text in Support of a Radical Agenda”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n“De magica naturali<\/em> and Quintuplex psalterium<\/em> by Jacques LeF\u00e8vre d’\u00c9taples:\u00a0 Kabbalah as Biblical Magic”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n“Qur’anic Symbols and Influence in the Corpus of Ahmad Ibn ‘Ali Al-Buni (d. 622 A.H. \/ 1225 C.E.)”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"Duck](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Duck-Family-at-AZO-07-for-LFD-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>