In the frame of the Pergamenum21 project of the University of Namur, the conference will gather for the first time in Belgium experts in scientific and historical studies on parchments. It will be interdisciplinary and international, with speakers from United Kingdom, Germany and France. The focus will be on the physics of the parchment material and the synergy between experimental and historical approaches, at the boundary between sciences and humanities. The sessions will be organized according to the different disciplines and techniques involved (history, bio-archaeology, physical optics, analytical methods, conservation and restauration), with emphasis on synergies between these approaches. The conference will favour networking of various projects currently running across Europe, where researchers of a relatively small but active community just begin to know each other and to collaborate.

Programme :

Thursday 28 November 2019

12:30 : Welcome & registration
12:50 : Prof. Olivier Deparis (UNamur, Belgium) | Introduction

Plenary session | Chairman T. Falmagne (Luxembourg National Library, Luxemburg)

13:00 : Prof. Matthew Collins (University of Cambridge, UK) | Medieval libraries as archives of domestication
14:00 : Prof. Olivier Deparis (UNamur, Belgium) | The Orval Abbey project
14:45 : Coffee break

Session « Analytical techniques » | Chairman: Johan Wouters (UNamur, Belgium)

15:00 : Dr. Laurianne Robinet (CRC, FR) | Retrieving knowledge from the Chartres fire-damaged medieval manuscripts
15:45 : Angel M.F. Alvarez (UNamur, Belgium) | Animal species identification in parchments by light
16:30 : Coffee break

Session « Conservation & Restauration » | Chairman: Catherine Charles (UNamur, Belgium)

16:45 : Prof. Dr Lieve Watteeuw (KUL, Illuminare, Center for the study of Medieval Art, Belgium) | Historical parchment restoration. Reflections on materials, techniques and degradation
17:30 : Prof. Andrea Pataki – Hundt (Cologne Institue for Coservation Sciences, DE) & Rest. M.A. Marie Kern (LWL Museum, Munster, DE) | Accelerated Ageing of Parchment – investigation of a low-heat approach
19:30 : Gala dinner

Friday 29 November 2019

08:45 : Welcome coffee & croissants

Session « Imaging techniques » | Chairman: Laurianne Robinet (CRC, France)

09:00 : Dr Gaël Latour (Univ. Paris-Saclay, FR) | The potential of nonlinear optical microscopy to non-invasively quantify the degradation state of historical parchments
09:45 : Julie Bouhy (UNamur, BE) | Imaging birefringence in parchments

10:00 : Dr Andreas Janke (University of Hamburg, DE) | Multispectral Imaging of Medieval Music Manuscripts
10:45 : Coffee break

Session « Animal skins » | Chairman: Matthew Collins (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom)

11:00 : Dr Annelise Binois (Université de Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne/Université de Copenhague) | Exploring past animal disease through the biological study of parchment
11:45 : Dr Richard Thomas (University of Leicester, UK) | The changing size and shape of livestock in medieval and post-medieval England
12:30 : Lunch break

Session « Historical studies » | Chairman: François Bougard (IRHT Paris, France)

14:00 : Dr Jean-François Nieus (UNamur, Belgium) & Dr Nicolas Ruffini-Ronzani (Univ. Versailles-Saint-Quentin, France) | Medieval parchment charters: Orval and beyond
14:45 : Dr Richard Thomas (University of Leicester, UK) | Zooarchaeological evidence for a possible parcheminerie at Green Shiel, Lindisfarne
15:30 : Zina Cohen (BAM, Berlin & EPHE Paris, FR) | Parchment production from Antiquity to Medieval time using Jewish manuscripts from the Dead Sea Scrolls and from the Cairo Genizah

16:15 : Coffee break
16:30 :: Round table & discussions

17:00 : Concluding remarks | Paul Bertrand (UCL, Belgium)
17:30 : Farewell drink

Informations pratiques :

University of Namur
28-29 November 2019

Inscription : ici

Comité organisateur :
Paul Bertrand (UCLouvain)
Catherine Charles (UNamur)
Olivier Deparis (UNamur)
Karin Derochette (UNamur)
Xavier Hermand (UNamur)

Comité scientifique :
Matthew Collins (Copenhagen Univ., Denmark & Cambridge Univ., United Kingdom)
Olivier Deparis (UNamur)
Xavier Hermand (UNamur)
Angel Martin Fernandez Alvarez (UNamur)
Jean-François Nieus (UNamur)
Etienne Renard (UNamur)
Nicolas Ruffini-Ronzani (Univ. Versailles-Saint-Quentin, France)
Johan Wouters (UNamur)

Source : Pergamenum 21 – UNamur