- \n
- Temporalities<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Our choice of session addresses<\/p>\n
\u201cManuscripts at Play and as Play:
\nTemporalities and (Re)Configurations
\nas Reading Methods\u201d<\/h3>\nAfter announcing and successfully completing our 2026 Call for Papers<\/a>, we selected the programme for our session, announced here and in the<\/p>\n
- \n
- 2026 IMC Programme<\/a> (page 160).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
For information about the IMC:<\/p>\n
- \n
- International Medieval Congress<\/a> at Leeds<\/li>\n
- 2026 IMC Programme<\/a><\/li>\n
- Call for Papers<\/a> for the 2026 IMC, with the Special Thematic Strand of “Temporalities”.<\/li>\n
- IMC 2026 Padlet<\/a>, with poster-like announcements of Calls for Papers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The Plan:
\nLocating Manuscripts in Their (Mobile) Temporalities<\/h2>\nFor the 2026 IMC and its Special Theme, we explore manuscripts in terms of the essence of their \u2018temporalities\u2019 (also see Temporalities<\/a>) \u2014 that is, in a nutshell, “the state of existing within or having some relationship with time”, which pertains intrinsically to any physical object, just like its “spatial position”. That essence or condition, combining location with points in time, forms both centerpiece and focus-point going forward in our continuing studies of Manuscript Evidence.<\/p>\n
Building upon the success of our activities at the annual IMC in 2024 and 2025, we extend the subject of one of our Sessions at the 2025 Congress, namely:<\/p>\n
- \n
- “Knowledge Games and Games of Knowledge”, organised by Michael Allman Conrad<\/strong> (see RGME @ 2025 IMC: Program<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2025-Leeds-Poster-4-Knowledge-Games-Image-with-Border.png\")
2025 Leeds: “Knowledge Games and Games of Knowledge” Poster 1. Set in RGME Bembino.<\/p><\/div>\n
For the 2026 ICMS, we seek to examine games and playful approaches of multiple kinds with regard to manuscripts. The opportunities across time range from the creation of a book to its use in the world. We observe, for example, habits of entering scribbles and sketches as spontaneous or imaginative playtime on the one hand to creating and transmitting texts about games or gaming strategies.<\/p>\n
Aims<\/h2>\n
By their nature, whether text or image, the planarity of manuscript surfaces offers invitations for readers to engage with them playfully. This play entails a process of temporalisation, of setting manuscript elements into motion, resulting in configurations and re-configurations that are keys for deciphering hidden \u2014 or less apparent \u2014 meanings. While carmina figurata<\/i> or picture poems may range among the most obvious examples, they are by no means limited to them. Such elements can include scribbles and sketches, diagrams (including game diagrams specifically), material extensions (such as volvelles and other pop-up features), acrostics, and other puzzles. We consider the performativity and dynamics at work, or play, on the pages.<\/p>\n
We examine a wide range of materials and genres and from a variety of perspectives, to consider case-studies, work-in-progress, or research results celebrating the roles of play in which manuscripts engage, and which they might inspire in us as readers, scholars, and beholders.<\/p>\n
Want to play? Are you game?<\/p>\n
Our Session<\/h2>\n
“Manuscripts At Play and As Play:
\n(Re)Configurations as Reading Methods”<\/h2>\nIMC Session 609 \u2013 Hybrid<\/strong>
\n(2026 IMC Programme,<\/a> page 160)<\/p>\nLaidlaw Librari, Teaching Room 2<\/strong>
\nFor Location see:<\/p>\n- \n
- Campus Map<\/a>, Number 63:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Sponsor:<\/h3>\n
Research Group on Manuscript Evidence<\/strong><\/p>\n
Organisers:<\/h3>\n
Mildred Budny<\/strong>
\nResearch Group on Manuscript Evidence, New Jersey
\nand
\nMichael Allman Conrad<\/strong><\/p>\nModerator:<\/h3>\n
N. K\u0131v\u0131lc\u0131m Yavuz<\/strong>
\nInstitute for Medieval Studies \/ School of History, University of Leeds<\/p>\nPresentators<\/h2>\n
1. Michael A. Conrad
\n<\/strong>Fachbereich Literatur-, Kunst- und Medienwissenschaften, Universit\u00e4t Konstanz<\/p>\n“Can There Be Fun in Coding and Decoding?:
\nWhat Game Theory Has to Say about Medieval Carmina Figurata<\/em>”
\n(Language: English)<\/p>\n2. Mildred Budny
\n<\/strong>Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, New Jersey<\/p>\n“Pages and Words at Play across Time:
\nText as Puzzles and Images as Playful Creations”
\n(Language: English)<\/p>\nRespondents<\/h2>\n
1. Antony R. Henk<\/strong>
\nEnglisches Seminar, Ruhr-Universit\u00e4t Bochum<\/p>\n2. David Porreca<\/strong>
\nDepartment of Classical Studies, University of Waterloo, Ontario<\/p>\n************<\/p>\n
Images<\/b><\/h2>\n
To whet the appetite, we survey some evocative images-on-pages, pages-as-images, and words-as-image in the remarkable genre of picture poems.<\/p>\n
Examples of dynamic constructions involving word-play upon the page include the elaborate, intricate, and beautiful picture-poems favoured among some authors, not least at in the early medieval period. We display specimens by the Carolingian author Hrabanus (or Rabanus) Maurus Magnentius<\/a> (circa 780 \u2013 856), Archbishop of Mainz (from 847). His poem De laudibus sanctae crucis<\/em> (“In Praise of the Holy Cross”), which survives in multiple copies, contains a series of poems laid out as rectangular constructions in which each line contains the same number of letters as any other.<\/p>\n
Their patterns make it possible to lay out the letters not only in horizontal lines but also in vertical rows, strictly in line with each other. Moreover, it is possible to read key portions vertically as well as horizontally. Reading vertically in a line using the initial, medial, or final letter of each line yields an acrostic, mesostic, or telestic. Such forms of cross-word puzzles can produce wonders of legibility, requiring the attention in steps of time to gain comprehension of the message as a whole. Adding images to the ensemble increases the layering of meanings, and the possibilities of wonderment through resonance.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Vienna-ONB-Cod-652-Hrabanus-Maurus-Evang-symbols-10048D05_jpg_50-766x1024.jpg\")
Vienna, \u00d6sterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 652, fol. 20v (scan 50 of 109). Hrabanus Maurus, De laude sanctae crucibus<\/em>. Mainz or Fulda, 9th century (circa 830-840). Carmen figuratum<\/em> with four Evangelist symbols surrounding the Lamb of God. Image via https:\/\/viewer.onb.ac.at\/10048D05\/.<\/p><\/div>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Vienna-ONB-Cod-652-Hrabanus-Maurus-fol-poem-10048D05_jpg_64-801x1024.jpg\")
Vienna, \u00d6sterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 652, fol.
Image https:\/\/viewer.onb.ac.at\/10048D05\/.<\/p><\/div>\nQuestions or Suggestions?<\/h2>\n
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***********<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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- 2026 IMC Programme<\/a> (page 160).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n