Lectio chair 2015
Prof. Dr. Rosamond McKitterick (University of Cambridge)
The Authority of Rome in the Manuscripts of Early Medieval Europe

21 May 2015 at 5 pm
Promotiezaal – University Hall – Naamsestraat 22, 3000 Leuven

The special place of the Roman past in the memory of Europe as a whole has been considered by many scholars from many different perspectives. The reception, assimilation and adaptation of texts from ancient and early Christian Rome was undoubtedly a creative process. This process involved not only the adoption and promotion of written culture for administrative, legal, religious, and educational purposes and the universal use of Latin, but also the transmission into new contexts of secular, scientific and early Christian texts and knowledge from the classical and late antique Greek and Roman traditions. Study of the role of such cultural models in the early middle ages in both the barbarian successor states of western Europe and North Africa, and throughout the Frankish realm created by Charlemagne, enables us to see how both the knowledge of the past and of earlier texts could be appropriated.

Yet the transmission of texts and knowledge raises the overall question of the status and authority of Rome and Roman texts – both secular and religious. This lecture, therefore, will address the questions of how and why the authority of Rome was communicated and established in the various contexts of politics, ideology, law, the organisation of knowledge, language, and religious orthodoxy in early medieval Europe.

The lecture will be followed by a reception. Registration is required. Please send an email to marleen.reynders@kuleuven.be before 18 May 2015.

Doctoral seminar – The Uses and Communication of the Past in the Middle Ages

Friday 22 May 2015
Museumzaal MSI 02.08 10am-6pm
Mgr. Sencie-Institute, Erasmusplein 2, Leuven (B)

Professor Rosamond McKitterick is the holder of the 2015 LECTIO Chair. In addition to her public lecture on Thursday 21 May entitled “The Authority of Rome in the Manuscripts of Early Medieval Europe”, she will give on 22 May a Doctoral Seminar “The Uses of the Past in Early Medieval Francia and Italy: Narrative Strategies and Manuscript Witnesses”.

On the occasion of this seminar, a selection of early career scholars in the fields of history, art history, palaeography and manuscript studies, law, theology, music, philosophy, literary studies, architecture and archaeology are given the opportunity to present their research and to discuss it with the chair holder, the scientific committee and other colleagues.

The selected scholars are asked to consider the different ways in which medieval writers, scribes, artists, thinkers and composers used and communicated the past and thus, effectively or less effectively, contributed to the construction of identity, memory and commemoration, political arguments and intellectual debates.

Paper givers are invited to think about how such examples were communicated, what was being communicated and how effective such examples might have been. We invite early career researchers (PhD students and postdocs) to submit proposals for a paper in one of the aforementioned domains. Selected researchers are expected to give a 20-minutes presentation in English. A one-page description of the proposed paper and a short CV should be submitted no later than 20 April 2015 to lectio@kuleuven.be.

Scholars who want to attend the seminar without presenting a paper are also asked to register before that date.

Provisional program

Thursday 21 May 2015

17.00 Public lecture (Lectio Chair) – Prof. Dr. Rosamond McKitterick (University of Cambridge)
Promotiezaal – University Hall 01.46 – Naamsestraat 22 Leuven
‘The Authority of Rome in the Manuscripts of Early Medieval Europe’

Friday 22 May 2015

10.00 Introduction – Prof. Dr. Brigitte Meijns (KU Leuven)
10.05 Doctoral Seminar – Prof. Dr. Rosamond McKitterick (University of Cambridge) – “The Uses of the Past in Early Medieval Francia and Italy: Narrative Strategies and Manuscript Witnesses”.
12.00 Lunch

13.00 Paper session 1 ‘The Uses and Communication of the Past in the Middle Ages’ (5 papers)
15.00 Coffee break

15.30 Paper session 2 ‘The Uses and Communication of the Past in the Middle Ages’ (5 papers)
17.30 Final conclusions

Scientific & organizing committee :
KU Leuven : Brigitte Meijns, Pieter De Leemans, Marleen Reynders
U Antwerpen : Veerle Fraeters
U Gent : Steven Vanderputten

In collaboration with The Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (KU Leuven)

Conference poster
Lectio chair – CFP