Our four Sponsored and Co-Sponsored Sessions at the 2012 Congress examined the material culture and production of written records in Western Europe and beyond, and the dispersal, recovery, and preservation of those works in various forms and widespread locations.\u00a0\u00a0Besides these interlinked subjects, our highlighted genre was \u201cDream Books\u201d, appearing in multiple manifestations in both manuscript and print.<\/p>\n
One Session was the second in our series at the Congress on “Medieval Writing Materials”.\u00a0 Its series (2011\u20132014 and, intended, 2016) is listed in our Sponsored Conference Sessions<\/a>.<\/p>\n This year, for the first time, after the debut of a single illustrated Poster for one of our sponsored Sessions at the 2011 Congress<\/a>, an illustrated Posters accompanied both of our own Sponsored Sessions.\u00a0 Since 2015, the full series of illustrated Posters for Congress Sessions and other Events appear in our Gallery of Posters on Display<\/a>.<\/p>\n At this Congress, we co-sponsored sessions with the Societas Magica<\/strong><\/a>, as in previous years (in the seventh year of this co-sponsorship), and, for the first time, with King Alfred\u2019s Notebook LLC<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0Also, three of our Trustees and many of our Associates presented papers at the Congress in a variety of sessions.<\/p>\n Here we describe our Sessions, list their Programs, and publish Abstracts for their papers, along with our Posters for two sessions.\u00a0\u00a0 Inspired by the responses to our single Poster at last year’s Congress, for one Session (Sessions at the 2011 Congress<\/a>), these Posters include donated images and layout, with images courtesy of David Sorenson and with layout in our copyright digital font Bembino.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You may learn more about this font and download it for FREE here:\u00a0Bembino<\/a>.<\/p>\n This year, for the first time, illustrated Posters accompanied both of our own Sponsored Sessions, building upon last year’s first such Poster.\u00a0 And now, for the first time, the full series of illustrated Posters for Congress Sessions and other Events, which flows from this inspiration, appear in our Gallery of Posters on Display<\/a>.<\/p>\n This session focused on physical codicology and the study of the craft of book production.\u00a0\u00a0It examined and compared a range of areas and periods of production across the medieval world and its heritage, so as better to distinguish modes, regions, and styles in crafting the manuscript book throughout its development, transmission, and transformation across time and place.\u00a0\u00a0The papers considered the materials, construction, and processes involved in bookmaking and the craft aspects of production, including the archaeological evidence for manuscript production.<\/p>\n Presider:\u00a0 Mildred Budny<\/strong> (Research Group on Manuscript Evidence<\/em>)<\/p>\n Presenters:<\/p>\n Sarah’s post (07 May 2012) for the British Library blog on Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts<\/strong> gives an illustrated glimpse of her talk and this session:\u00a0\u00a0Beneath the Surface<\/a>. With permission, we reproduce the frontispiece of Le Parc Bible, a real beauty of a book.\u00a0 Sarah’s Abstract tells more about it. The manuscript is now digitised online<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a9The British Library Board, Additional MS 14788, folio 6v, with the opening of Genesis. Reproduced by permission<\/p><\/div>\n The survival of medieval records of any kind depends upon the media which carry them, comprising two general classes:<\/p>\n (1) the media upon which records were written and This session considered both classes, as an aid to discourse between different fields of research in rapid development.\u00a0 The writing surfaces themselves present researchers with challenges ranging from the steps and equipment of manufacture to the ranges of trade and use, including redeployment at the hands of collectors.\u00a0 Likewise, the scribing tools, pigments, and ingredients which allow the media and pigments to bind together offer further avenues for exploration.\u00a0 Examining these subjects in combination may prove invaluable for the study of medieval records in many areas.<\/p>\n Presider:\u00a0 Alan M. Stahl<\/strong> (Firestone Library, Princeton University<\/em>)<\/p>\n Presenters:<\/p>\n This 2012 session formed the second in our series at the Congress on ‘Medieval Writing Materials’.\u00a0 The others:<\/p>\n The fifth in the series is planned for the 2016 Congress<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Organizer:\u00a0 Scott Gwara<\/strong> (Department of English, University of South Carolina, and King Alfred’s Notebook LLC<\/em>)<\/p>\n The dispersal of Western European manuscript materials in North American collections entails painstaking examination, and sometimes serendipitous discovery, so as properly to assess and, if possible, to identify the nature, origin, and provenance of these materials.\u00a0\u00a0The unexpected richness of the medieval manuscript resources on this continent continues to challenge the individual scholar or collector as well as scholarly awareness at large. Our session contributed to this ongoing investigation \u2014 and celebration\u00a0\u2014 of the trashed or treasured books and scraps which have found their way, by one means and another, into various hands, both private and public, prepared to give them a home or shelter of some kind.\u00a0\u00a0We rightly expected the revelation of unsuspected surprises.<\/p>\n Presider: Mildred Budny<\/strong> (Research Group on Manuscript Evidence<\/em>)<\/p>\n Presenters:<\/p>\n Organizer: L\u00e1szl\u00f3 S\u00e1ndor Chardonnen<\/strong>s (Department of English Language and Culture, Raboud University Nijmegen<\/em>)<\/p>\n The compelling nature of dreams, both mysterious and fantastical, which persistently combined with the notion of a revelatory potential between these envisioned events and conscious life, ensured a widespread interest during the medieval period (as at other times) in any means of understanding or “reading” dream phenomena.\u00a0 This session examined the characteristics, approaches, and transmission of such knowledge, emphasizing the interaction between the texts and their material contexts of manuscripts and early printed books across a wide range of periods, languages, and cultures.<\/p>\n Presider: David Porreca<\/strong> (Department of Classics, University of Waterloo<\/em>)<\/p>\n Presenters:<\/p>\n Our Sponsored Session on “Predicting the Past: Dream Symbology in the Middle Ages” at the 2015 Congress<\/a> returned to this subject, with the participation of 2 of the speakers here.\u00a0 Then, for the first time at a Congress, and from our tradition of providing program Booklets for Symposia, Colloquia, and other Events elsewhere, we prepared a 4-page booklet for this Session, now available for download through the 2015 Congress Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n Shaping Plans for the Future<\/p><\/div>\n The Research Group on Manuscript Evidence held its Meeting of the Board of Trustees at the Congress.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n *****<\/p>\n The full Congress<\/strong> program is archived as 47th International Congress on Medieval Studies<\/a>.<\/p>\n*****<\/h3>\n
I.\u00a0 Sessions Sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1.\u00a0 “Material and Craft Aspects of Manuscript Production”<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Poster](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/poster-AZO-2012-Material-and-Craft-Aspects-11-May-2012-with-border-232x300.png\")
<\/a>Organizer:\u00a0 Sean M. Winslow<\/strong> (Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n
\n“Pigments, Painters and the Parc Abbey Bible:\u00a0\u00a0A Multispectral Imaging Study”
\nAbstract: Biggs (2012 Congress)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n
\n“How Middle English Scribes Avoided Eyeskip When They Copied Texts”
\nAbstract: Thaisen (2012 Congress)<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n“Contemporary Ethiopic Scribal Practice as an Informant for the Study of Antique and Medieval Manuscript Production”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n![\"\u00a9The](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/6a00d8341c464853ef0168eb1415aa970c-800wi-702x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>2.\u00a0 “Medieval Writing Materials:\u00a0\u00a0Manufacture, Use, and Trade”<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Poster](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Poster-AZO-2012-Medieval-Writing-Materials-12-May-2012-with-border-232x300.png\")
<\/a>Organizers:\u00a0 Mildred Budny<\/strong> (Research Group on Manuscript Evidence<\/em>) and
\nEleanor A. Congdon<\/strong> (Department of History, Youngstown State University<\/em>)<\/p>\n
\n(2) the materials used to write them.<\/p>\n\n
\n“Varieties of Islamic Paper:\u00a0\u00a0Laid-Lines Only”
\nAbstract: Sorenson (2012 Congress)<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n“Venetian Trade in Writing Materials in the Datini Letters:\u00a0\u00a0Paper, Pigments, and Other Chemicals”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
*****<\/h3>\n
II. Session Co-Sponsored by
\nthe Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
\nand King Alfred’s Notebook LLC
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n3.\u00a0 “Medieval Manuscripts in North American Collections: Texts, Illuminations, Collection<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n
\n“Composite Books of Hours in American Collections”
\nAbstract: Gwara (2012 Congress)<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\nStacey Morris<\/strong>
\n(Special Collections, James A. Gibson Library, and Department of History, Brock University, St. Catherine’s, Ontario<\/em>)
\n“The Budding Medieval Document Collection at Brock University and the Study of a Letter from the Scottish Throne in 1579”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n“In hoc iquo libro<\/em>: \u00a0A Study of Osler Library MS 480 (De anima in arte alchemiae<\/em>)”
\nAbstract: Dysert (2012 Congress)<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n*****<\/h3>\n
III.\u00a0\u00a0Session Co-Sponsored by the Societas Magica and the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n![\"Societas](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/SocMaghead2.png\")
<\/a>4.\u00a0 “Dream Books”<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n
\n“Editing the Somniale Danielis<\/em>: \u00a0Vox Populi<\/em> and Dream Culture in Medieval Italy”
\nAbstract: Cappozzo (2012 Congress)<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n“Classified Dreams: \u00a0Oneirocritical Manuscripts from Dunhuang (Ninth to Tenth Century) and Their Place in the Mantic Culture of Medieval China”
\nAbstract:\u00a0 Drettas (2012 Congress)<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n“Dream Divination in Manuscripts and Printed Books: \u00a0Patterns of Transmission”
\nAbstract:\u00a0 Chardonnens (2012 Congress)<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/RJC-MB-at-AZO-2012-1024x657.jpg\")
<\/a>