During the high Middle Ages, the bishopric of Liège found itself at a cultural crossroads between the German Empire and the French lordships. As such, it has been described as an interesting ‘point de rencontre et pénétration de deux grandes civilisations.” The same idea continues to echo in contemporary parlance : ‘Gaul considers us its most distant inhabitants, Germany as nearby citizens. In fact we are neither, but both at the same time.’ Medieval monastic communities in Liège were key sites of this interpenetration, actively participating in the cultural developments, social networks, and political structures of both regions.
This conference will address the problem of monastic identity and its formation in a region that was geographically wedged between two complex and competing socio-political powers. It will investigate how monastic communities negotiated the uncertainties of this situation, while also capitalizing on the opportunities it presented. These questions will be organized around three thematic strands. The first strand, Textual Transmission, will examine the circulation of texts and manuscripts between Liège and its surrounding territories. A second strand on Social Regulation will be devoted to novel forms of control and coercive power exercised by and upon monastic communities in the bishopric of Liège. A final strand will focus on Corporate Individuation and explore how monasteries fashioned their own social and cultural identities in response to the often contentious developments in Liège.
Programme du colloque :
Vendredi 18 novembre 2011
10h30 : Inscriptions
10h55 : Ouverture du colloque
11h00 : Steven Vanderputten (UGent) – Introduction
Textual transmission between Liège and Reims – Présidence : Anne-Marie Helvétius
11h30 : Tjamke Snijders (UGent) – Saintly Presence in Manuscripts from Liège and Flanders: From Isolation to Exchange
12h00 : Diane Reilly (Indiana University) – Reims, Liège and Institutional Reform in the Central Middle Ages: The Manuscript Evidence
12h30 : Lunch
14h00 – Keynote I : Rodney Thomson (University of Tasmania) – The Library of the Abbey of St Laurence, Liège, in the Twelfth Century: A Reflection of Two Cultures
Textual transmission between Liège and Cologne – Présidence : Steven Vanderputten
15h00 : Jay Diehl (Long Island University) – Libraries and Masters at St Laurence: Re-thinking Monastic Schools and Rupert of Deutz’ Early Career
15h30 : Klaus Krönert (Université Charles-de-Gaulle/Lille-III) : Between Identity, History and Rivalry: Hagiographic Legends in Trier, Cologne and Liège
16h00 : Pause
Textual transmission in and around Gembloux – Présidence : Jay Diehl
16h15 : Mia Munster-Swedsen (Københavns Universitet) – Law and Theology in Sigebert of Gembloux’ Letter of the Liégeois against pope Pascal
16h45 : Sara Moens (UGent) – An Inquisitive Monk at the Crossroads between the Rhineland and Tours: Transmission of Ideas, Texts, and Fame within the Network of Guibert of Gembloux (1124/25 –1124)
18h30 : Repas
Samedi 19 novembre 2011
9h30 – Keynote II : John Van Engen (Notre-Dame University) – Recluses, Beguines, New Nuns? On the Religious Women of Liège in the Early Thirteenth Century
Social regulation and social development – Présidence : Jean-Pierre Devroey
10h30 : Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld (Katholieke Universiteit Brabant) – Five Countries, Three Languages: How Challenging can the Monastic History of the Medieval Diocese of Liège Be?
11h00 : Alain Dierkens (Université Libre de Bruxelles) – Problèmes autour de Rathier de Vérone, évêque de Liège
11h30 : Pause
Social regulation : abbots, agency and lordship – Présidence : Tjamke Snijders
11h45 : Helena Vanommeslaeghe (UGent) – Wandering Abbots: Abbatial Agency and Stabilitas Loci in Eleventh-Century Liège
12h15 : Nicolas Schroeder (Université Libre de Bruxelles) – Imperial Abbacy meets French Lordship: Stavelot-Malmedy and the county of Luxembourg under Thibaut of Bar and Ermesinde (1197-1247)
12h45 : Lunch
Institutional development: the case of Saint-Hubert – Présidence : Steven Vanderputten
14h00 : Brigitte Meijns (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) – The Spread of the Ideas of the Eleventh-Century Church Reform in the Diocese of Liège and the Abbey of Saint-Hubert
14h30 : Michel Margue (Université de Luxembourg) – Le Cantatorium de Saint-Hubert
15h00 : Alexis Wilkin (Université Libre de Bruxelles) – Conclusions
Informations pratiques : organisé par Steven Vanderputten et Tjamke Snijders dans le cadre du réseau de recherche « Conventus – Problems of communal life in the High Middle Ages », le colloque se tiendra les 18 et 19 novembre 2011 à la Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts (KVAB), Academy Palace – Hertogsstraat 1, 1000 Brussels (Belgium). Contact et inscription : tjamke.snijders@ugent.be
L'Agenda des Médiévistes 