Publication – Jessica Dijkman, "Shaping Medieval Markets. The Organisation of Commodity Markets in Holland, c. 1200 – c. 1450"

Publié le 1 septembre 2011 par RMBLF
The late Middle Ages witnessed the transformation of the county of Holland from a peripheral agrarian region to a highly commercialised and urbanised one. This book examines how the organisation of commodity markets contributed to this remarkable development. Comparing Holland to England and Flanders, the book shows that Holland’s specific history of reclamation and settlement had given rise to a favourable balance of powers between state, nobility, towns and rural communities that reduced opportunities for rent-seeking and favoured the rise of efficient markets. This allowed burghers, peasants and fishermen to take full advantage of new opportunities presented by changing economic and ecological circumstances in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries



Table des matières :


1. Introduction

PART I – THE INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK: TRADE VENUES

2. Fairs

3. Rural markets c. 1200 – c. 1350: a late start?

4. New institutions for rural trade (c. 1350 – c. 1450)

5. The Dordrecht staple

PART II – THE INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK: RULES AND PRACTICES

6. Weighing and measuring

7. Contract enforcement

PART III – MARKET PERFORMANCE: QUANTITATIVE TESTS

8. Market integration

9. Market orientation

10. Conclusions

APPENDICES

Appendix A. Survey of fairs 

Appendix B. Rural weigh houses in the north of Holland around 1400

Appendix C. Charters of urban liberties

Appendix D. Wheat prices

Informations pratiques :

Jessica Dijkman, Shaping Medieval Markets. The Organisation of Commodity Markets in Holland, c. 1200 – c. 1450, Brill, Leyde, 2011 (Global Economic History Series, 8). XVI + 447 p. 129 Euros. ISBN : 9789004201484

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Appel à contribution – Culture de table : échanges entre l’Italie et la France (XVe siècle – mi-XVIIe siècle)

Publié le 30 août 2011 par RMBLF
La grande cuisine française serait née dans les fourneaux des cuisiniers italiens qui accompagnèrent Catherine de Médicis lors de son mariage avec le futur Henri II en 1533. Présente tant en France (préface des Dons de Comus, 1739, article « cuisine » du chevalier de Jaucourt dans l’Encyclopédie, 1754) qu’en Italie (La cuciniera piemontese, 1771, Giovanbattista Roberti, Lettre sur le luxe, 1772), cette affirmation s’impose durablement à partir du XVIIIe siècle. Bien que combattue dans la seconde moitié du XXe siècle, elle demeure encore aujourd’hui un lieu commun fortement associé à la Renaissance et à son goût du sucre. Pourtant la nouvelle cuisine française rejette les épices, refuse l’aigre-doux et dévalorise le sucre. En revanche, Giovanni de’ Rosselli, auteur d’une nouvelle mouture des recettes de Martino en 1517 (Opera nova chiamata Epulario…), se présente, dès la page titre du traité, comme étant français, reconnaissance explicite de la qualité de sa cuisine !

La question controversée de l’influence de l’Italie sur la cuisine française sera au cœur de ce colloque organisé dans le cadre d’une exposition sur la table au temps des derniers Valois (château de Blois, été 2012). Son objet est de repérer et d’évaluer, entre le XVe siècle et la première moitié du XVIIe siècle, les influences réciproques entre l’Italie et la France dans le domaine de l’alimentation, de la production des mets à leur consommation. Sans perdre de vue la question centrale des échanges entre l’Italie et la France, la prise en compte des apports d’autres aires culturelles, par exemple les états bourguignons ou l’Espagne, devrait également nous permettre de nuancer les réponses.

Plusieurs thèmes seront abordés :
(1) la circulation des professionnels de l’alimentation, notamment des officiers de bouche des familles aristocratiques italiennes et françaises, et des savoir-faire techniques tant dans le domaine de la cuisson et de la découpe des viandes que dans les arts de la table (automates de table) ou l’art de la confiserie. Une attention particulière sera portée à l’organisation des cuisines, notamment à la présence ou à l’absence du potager du côté français.
(2) Les vecteurs matériels de circulation d’une culture de table, leur diffusion et leur réception : livres de cuisine, régimes de santé, livres de confitures, traités spécialisés dans l’art de la découpe, traités de civilité… mais aussi les représentations iconographiques (scènes de repas, intérieurs de cuisine, représentations de mets et d’aliments, planches des traités de cuisine et des arts de bien servir…), le mobilier, comme la crédence / credenza, et les pièces de vaisselle… La question des traductions – adaptations en français des œuvres italiennes, par exemple Le platine en Francoys en 1505 ou l’Histoire macaronique de Merlin Coccaie en 1606 d’après l’œuvre de Folengo, devrait nous permettre d’apprécier des degrés de naturalisation d’une culture de table.
(3) Les ingrédients utilisés et leur fréquence dans les cuisines aristocratiques comme l’ordre des mets et des types de repas, par exemple la collation / colazione, afin de déterminer des modèles. L’approche diachronique devrait nous permettre d’apprécier les influences mais aussi des résistances : l’usage du sucre et des épices, la consommation des salades, des légumes (asperge, artichaut, aubergine…) et des fruits (poire, melon…), la promotion des « terroirs », le prestige de la viande. Le cas du dindon, enfin, nous invite à comparer les attitudes des élites italiennes et françaises face aux denrées du Nouveau Monde.
(4) Les imaginaires associés à la culture de table de l’Autre de part et d’autre des Alpes, par exemple en étudiant les recettes dites alla francese dans les livres de cuisine italiens et celles associées à l’Italie dans les livres de cuisine français (fréquence, ingrédients, assaisonnement, cuisson…). Récits de voyage et sources littéraires permettent également de travailler sur ces représentations.

Informations pratiques :


Le colloque se tiendra du 13 au 14 septembre 2012 à Blois.  Les propositions de communication sont à envoyer par courriel avant le 30 novembre 2011, sous forme d’un court résumé (200 signes) accompagné d’un bref CV (1 page maximum) à pascal.brioist@free.fr et/ou florent.quellier@orange.fr. Organisation scientifique : Pascal Brioist, professeur d’histoire moderne, université de Tours, CESR, et Florent Quellier, maître de conférences en histoire moderne, université de Tours, Chaire CNRS histoire de l’alimentation des mondes modernes.
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Colloque – Mémoires conflictuelles et mythes concurrents dans les pays bourguignons (ca. 1380-1580)

Publié le 29 août 2011 par RMBLF
Le colloque se tiendra du 22 au 25 septembre 2011, au Cercle Cité, Luxembourg. Il est organisé par l’Université du Luxembourg, le Centre européen d’études bourguignonnes et le Musée d’Histoire de la Ville de Luxembourg, avec le soutien du Fonds National de la Recherche, le Cercle Cité et du Grand Séminaire de Luxembourg Centre Jean XXIII


Jeudi 22 septembre 2011


14h00 : ouverture des rencontres – allocutions inaugurales du représentant de M. Rolf Tarrach, recteur de l’Université du Luxembourg, de Danièle Wagener, directrice du Musée d’Histoire de la Ville de Luxembourg et du Baron Daniel Cardon de Lichtbuer, président du Centre européen d’études bourguignonnes

14h15 : Michel Margue (Université du Luxembourg) – Introduction : Mythes et mémoires au bas Moyen Âge14h45 : communications

– Jan Dumolyn (Universiteit Gent) et Graeme Small (University of Glasgow) – Burgundian state propaganda : the media and the messages
– Jonathan Dumont, Alain Marchandisse et Christophe Masson (FNRS/Université de Liège) – Les funérailles de Philippe le Beau, survivance ducale bourguignonne ou prémices royales espagnoles?

16.15 h. : pause
16.45 h. : communications
– Len Scales (University of Durham) – Leaving an impression : Itinerant rule and the materials of memory in Germany and the Burgundian territories (to c. 1440)
– Rob C. Wegman (Princeton University) – The « contenance angloise » of Philip the Good
 18.15 h. : fin de la séance

Vendredi 23 septembre 2011


8.30 h. : communications
– Lia Ross (University of New Mexico) – Mémoires sélectives : les travaux d’Hercule aux festivités de Bruges en 1468
– Bertrand Haquette (Université Charles de Gaulle – Lille 3) – Réécrire l’histoire sans « esventer les secrets des maisons » : le cas La Viesville
– Jelle Haemers (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) et Frederik Buylaert (Universiteit Gent) – La mémoire de Nicolas Despars : identité politique, historiographie urbaine et une mémoire « noble » à Bruges (XVIe siècle)
10.45 h : pause
11.15 h. : communications
– Andrew Brown (Massey University, Palmerston North [New Zealand]) – Liturgical memory and civic politics : the entry of Maximilian into Bruges 1486
– Harry Schnitker (Maryvale Institute, Birmingham) – Multiple memories : Jean de Vaux’s « Vie de sainte Colette », Burgundy and the Church

14.15 h. : communications
– Hans Cools et Violet Soen (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) – Passer des frontières : élites transrégionales et limites de l’idéologie bourguignonne. Les cas des familles de Luxembourg et de Croÿ (1470-1530)
– Mario Damen (Universiteit van Amsterdam) et Robert Stein (Universiteit Leiden) – Cultural policies of the elites vis-à-vis the prince in the duchy of Brabant. The case of the Carthusian convent of Scheut
15.45 h. : pause
16.15 h. : communications
– Tobias Tanneberger (Technische Universität Dresden) : Die historiographischen Konstruktionen in der « Genealogia principum Tungro-Brabantinorum » und ihr Kontext im Vergleich
– Jean-Christophe Blanchard (Centre de Médiévistique Jean Schneider, Nancy) – Entre généalogie et mythologie : la mise en images de la mémoire dynastique dans les heures d’Antoine, duc de Lorraine (1508-1544)
17.45 h. : fin de la séance

Samedi 24 septembre


9.00 h. : communications
– Juan Luis Gonzalez Garcia (Universidad Complutense, Madrid) – Artistic issues of (dis)continuity between the dukes of Burgundy and the Spanish Habsburgs in the 16th Century
– Sonja Dünnebeil (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien) – Der Orden von Goldenen Vlies als Zeichen burgundische Einheit unter Maximilian I.
10.30 h. : pause
11.00 h. : communication
– Éric Bousmar (Facultés universitaires Saint-Louis, Bruxelles) – Siècle de Bourgogne, siècle des grands ducs : variations de mémoire en Belgique et en France du XIXe siècle à nos jours
11. 45 h. : assemblée générale statutaire du Centre européen d’études bourguignonnes

14.00 h. : communications

– Antoine Leduc (Musée de l’Armée, Paris) et Nicolas Baptiste (Université de Savoie, Chambéry) : Regard critique sur le butin bourguignon

– Gilles Docquier (Musée royal de Mariemont, Morlanwelz) – « L’heure du légitime tribut sonne pour Bruges » : revendications brugeoises autour de l’ordre de la Toison d’or
15.30 h. : pause
16.00 h. : communications :
– Jean-Paul Hoyois (Bruxelles) – Idéologie « versus » objectivité : Marguerite d’Autriche et Marie de Hongrie sous la plume des historiens des XIXe et XXe siècles
– Monique Weis (F.N.R.S./Université libre de Bruxelles) et Jean Houssiau (Archives de la Ville de Bruxelles) – L’opéra comme « lieu de mémoire » : la Pacification de Gand (1576)17.30 h. : fin de la séance
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Appel à communication – The Royal Body

Publié le 26 août 2011 par RMBLF
The idea of the king’s two bodies, the body natural and the body politic, founded on the distinction between the personal and mortal king and the perpetual and corporate crown, has long been of interest to scholars of medieval and early modern kingship. In later centuries the natural body of the monarch remained a contested site, with the life, health, sexuality, fertility and death of the king or queen continuing to be an important part of politics. Now royal sex and scandal is the very stuff that sells newspapers, and royal christening, weddings and funerals continue to capture the popular imagination. Indeed the ‘royal touch’ of Aids victims or sick children remains a potent image. So what is the significance of the natural body of the monarch to their subjects now and the importance of it for the concept, and survival, of monarchy?

This conference will explore the bodies of monarchs across Europe ranging from the medieval period to the present. By considering how the monarch’s body has been washed, dressed, used, anointed, hidden, attacked and put on display, it will investigate how ideas of king/queenship have developed over time.

Topics might include: 
  • Body service – dining, dressing, washing
  • Rituals and ceremony 
  • Bodyservants and bodyguard
  • Royal sleep –dreams and nightmares
  • Assassination attempts
  • Age, health and pregnancy
  • Deformity and disability
  • Royal births and deaths
  • Regicide
  • Royal touch
  • Divine bodies
  • Christenings, coronations, weddings and funerals
  • Sexuality
  • Fertility, chastity, virility
  • Royal doctors
  • Effigies and monuments
  • Royal Dress
  • Sex and Scandal
  • Historiography
  • Iconography and representation
  • Drama and literature
  • Political theory
Informations pratiques : Abstracts of 300 words, for papers of approximately 20 minutes, should be submitted by 15 September 2011 to Dr Anna Whitelock, Department of History, RHUL, anna.whitelock@rhul.ac.uk. The conference will take place at Royal Holloway, Egham, Surrey, on 2-5 April 2012.
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Publication – Understanding Monastic Practices of Oral Communication

Publié le 25 août 2011 par RMBLF
This collection of papers delves into the fascinating methods with which monastic groups of the central Middle Ages practised modes of oral communication.

Although traditionally defined as a literate environment, Western monastic culture depended on a range of communicative practices which was just as large, and in some ways more sophisticated in its diversity, than that of other groups of society. Monks and nuns exchanged considerable amounts of information for which no written media were deemed necessary or which did not make a complete or immediate transition into written sources. Grouped in five thematic chapters, the papers in this volume aim to provide inroads into a useable interpretation of the various contexts in which monks and nuns in the central Middle Ages considered the spoken word as a vital complementary medium to other forms of communication.

Table des matières :

Steven Vanderputten – Introduction : Understanding Monastic Practices of Oral Communication

Part I: The Politics of Non-Written Communication

Gerd Althoff – Communication at the Abbey of St. Gall
Wojtek Jezierski – Verba volant, scripta manent: Limits of Speech, Power of Silence and Logic of Practice in Some Monastic Conflicts of the High Middle Ages
Steven Vanderputten – Monachos hujus ecclesie ad se venire fecit: Attitudes laïques comme reflets des stratégies monastiques orales et rituelles dans les transferts patrimoniaux

Part II: Traces of Orality in Liturgy, Customs and Material Culture

Susan Boynton – Oral Transmission of Liturgical Practice in the Eleventh-Century of Cluny
Diane J. Reilly – Education, Liturgy and Practice in Early Cîteaux
Tjamke Snijders – Celebrating with Dignity: The Purpose of Benedictine Matins Readings

Part III: Traces of Orality in the Transmission of Memory

Marie-Anne Polo de Beaulieu – Traces d’oralité dans les recueils d’exempla
Geoffrey Koziol – What Charles the Simple Told the Canons of Compiègne: Oral and Written Transmissions of Memory in the Genealogia Dictata a Karolo Rege
Edina Bozoky – L’oralité monastique et la fabrication des légendes hagiographiques

Part IV: Talking Shop: Educating the Monastic Mind

Mirko Breitenstien – “Ins Gespräch gebracht”: Der Dialog als Prinzip monastischer Unterweisung
Albrecht Claessen – Performance, Orality, and Communication in Medieval Women Convents in the Light of the Plays of Hrotsvit of Gandersheim
Peter Dinzelbacher – Bericht, Verschriftlichung und Reoralisierung visionärer Erlebnisse im Mönchtum des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts

Part V: Talking Shop: Voicing the Monastic Mind

Elisabeth Van Houts – Conversations amongst Monks and Nuns, 1000-1200
Julie Barrau – Did Medieval Monks Actually Speak Latin?
Wim Verbaal – Oleum de saxo durissimo: Bernard of Clairvaux’s Poetics of Silence
Mette Bruun – Wandering Eyes, Muttering, and Frowns: Bernard of Clairvaux and the Communicative Implications of Gesture

Marco Mostert – Conclusions: Orality, Non-Written Communication and Monastic Studies

Informations pratiques : Steven Vanderputten (ed.), Understanding Monastic Practices of Oral Communication (Western Europe, 10th-13th centuries), Brepols, Turnhout, 2011 (Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy, 21). XII + 390 p., 156 x 234 mm. ISBN: 978-2-503-53482-4.

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Appel à communication – Infirmitas. Social and Cultural Approaches to Cure, Caring and Health.

Publié le 23 août 2011 par RMBLF
The fifth international conference on Passages from Antiquity to the Middle Ages will focus on social and cultural approaches to health and illness, cure and caring, and notions of ability and disability. These topics are of major importance for communities and societies both in Antiquity and during the Middle Ages, yet research is still fragmentary and more synthetic and interdisciplinary approaches are rare. 

 We welcome papers which focus on different actors – institutions, communities, families or individuals – and have a sensitive approach to social differences: gender, age and status. Thus, our focus lies on society and the history of everyday life, on the differences and similarities between elite and popular culture, and on the expectations linked to gender and life-cycle stage, visible in the practices and policies under scrutiny. How were physical and mental disability/ability defined within daily life; what were the social consequences of illness; how was social interaction reflected in caring for the sick; how were cure and caring organised in families, communities and in society? We aim not to concentrate on medical or technical aspects of health and illness, but rather to integrate them in a larger social and cultural context. 
The conference aims at broad coverage not only chronologically but also geographically and disciplinary (all branches of Classical and Medieval Studies). Most preferable are contributions having themselves a comparative and/or interdisciplinary perspective. The speakers of the conference will include Nancy Caciola (University of California, San Diego), Véronique Dasen (University of Fribourg), William V. Harris (Columbia University), and Christian Krötzl (University of Tampere).
 Informations pratiques :
Infirmitas. Social and Cultural Approaches to Cure, Caring and Health, August 23-26 2012, Tampere, Finland. Organizing Committee:Prof. Christian Krötzl, Prof. Katariina Mustakallio, Dr. Sari Katajala-Peltomaa, and Dr. Ville Vuolanto. 
If interested, please submit an abstract of 300 words (setting out thesis and conclusions) for a twenty-minute paper together with your contact details (with academic affiliation, address and e-mail) by e-mail attachment to the conference secretary, passages@uta.fi. The deadline for abstracts is September 15th 2011, and the notification of paper acceptance will be made in November 2011. Conference papers may be presented in major scientific languages, however supplied with English summary or translation if the language of presentation is not English. The registration fee is 100 € (post-graduate students: 50 €). For further information, please visit http://www.uta.fi/trivium/passages/ or contact the organizers by e-mailing to passages@uta.fi. The registration opens in November 2011 on the website. 
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Colloque – Book design from the Middle Ages to the future : traditions and evolutions

Publié le 22 août 2011 par RMBLF
The objective of this international congress is to explore traditions and innovations in book design and typography from the manuscript era to the age of the electronic book. The congress explicitly wants to focus on these elements of book design that have faded out, have survived or that evolved over a long period of time. Secondly, the objective is to trace local and international uses and mutual influences in the field of book production. Furthermore, traditions and evolutions are compared with progressive ones, and influences between text genres are dealt with. All these elements should lead to a better understanding of the outer appearance of books being pre-eminant carriers of knowledge, information and ideas.
The programme includes a keynote lecture by Professor David McKitterick and seven sessions on :
– The design of manuscripts in the 11th and 12th centuries, 
– Layout and the reader
– Type
– Book design in the Southern Low Countries
– Physical appearance of the book
– Design in the Modern Period
– Future design.

Programme :

Wednesday 28 September 2011 – Venue: Nottebohm Hall, Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience 


18h00 : Yuri Cowan (Ghent University) – The Mirror of Everyday Life: Morris’s Book Collecting and the Kelmscott Press 

Thursday 29 September 2011 – Venue: Hof van Liere, University of Antwerp 

9h30 : Registration

10h30 : Hubert Meeus (University of Antwerp) – Opening Speech
10h45 : David McKitterick (Trinity College Cambridge) – Design in the Eleventh & Twelfth Centuries 

11h45 : Erik Kwakkel (Leiden University) – ‘These Books are Tall and not Wide Enough’: Anomalous Page Dimensions in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries 
12h15 : Jenny Weston (Leiden University) – The Great Divide: Paragraphs and Paragraph Marks in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries 


12h45 : Lunch

14h30 : Juulia Ahvensalmi (University of Glasgow) – Layout and Structural Organisation of Medieval and Early Modern English Gynecological Manuscripts and Books 
15h00 : Niki Sioki & Dr Mary Dyson (University of Reading) – Serving the Reader: Typography and Text Layout in Greek Alphabet Books 

15h30 : Christoph Reske (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) – The Effect of Technical Tools for Visualisation on the Appearance of Characters 

16h00 : Coffee & Tea 

16h30 : Gerard Unger (Leiden University) – Jenson’s Model of Type and its Development from the 1470s until Today
17h00 : Claire Bolton – The Influence of Type and Spacing on the Design of the Printed Page 
17h30 : Goran Proot (University of Antwerp) – There are the Romans! Changing Faces in the Book Production of the Southern Netherlands, 15th-18th Centuries 
18h00 : Reception 

Friday 30 September 2011 


09h00 : Kristof Selleslach (Museum Plantin Moretus) – Using Ornamental Initials in 16th-Century Antwerp. Trends and Traditions
09h30 : Karen L. Bowen – Designing the New Tridentine Missal: A Case of Melding Guidelines from the Vatican, Personal Preferences of Spanish Theologians, and Practical Considerations of the Printer in Charge, Christopher Plantin 

10h00 : Diederik Lanoye (vzw Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliotheek – STCV) – Building Flemish Facades. Title Pages of Books Printed in the Southern Netherlands (17th-18th Century) 

10h30 : Coffee & Tea 

11h00 : Erik Geleijns (Koninklijke Bibliotheek Den Haag) – Eighteenth Century Paperbacks 
11h30 : Nicholas Pickwoad (University of the Arts, London) – The Origins and Development of Adhesive Case Bindings 
12h00 : Bharain Mac an Bhreithiún (Middlesex University, London) – Graphic Design and the Expansion of the Public Sphere – The Paperback Book in France since 1968 

12h30 : Lunch 

14h00 : Carine Dujardin (KADOC Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) – Gothic Revival and Book Design (1820-1950): Between Tradition and Modernity 
14h30 : Paul van Capelleveen (Koninklijke Bibliotheek Den Haag) – Reprinting Private Press Books 
15h00 : Markus Polzer (University of Antwerp) – A Footnote on Mormon. How Cross-referencing Helped to Shape Mormonism’s Canon 

15h30 : Coffee & Tea 

16h00 : Paul Dijstelberge (Universiteit van Amsterdam) – Sea-changes: How New Techniques Influence Page-Design 
16h30 : Geoffrey Brusatto (University College of PHL) – The Shape of the Paper Book to Come 

17h00 : Simon Rosenberg (University of Münster – Institute for the History of the Book; D) From Fascicles to Screen. Presenting Knowledge in the OED in the 19th and 21st Centuries 
17h30 : Margaret M. Smith (University of Reading) – The Evolution of Colour in Texts: Will Colour Return to the Texts in Our Books? 
18h00 : Closing Remarks 
19h00 : Congress Diner 


Saturday 1 October 2011 

Guided Tour at Museum Plantin-Moretus 

Informations pratiques :
The congress proper is preceeded by the 12th Miræus Lecture on Wednesday 28 September 2011, 6 p.m., at the Nottebohm Hall of the Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience, Antwerp. With a congress diner on Friday 30 September, 7 p.m., and a guided tour at Museum Plantin Moretus on Saturday 1 October (free of charge). Registration: €60 | €20 (students), coffee and reception included. For registration and more information, see http://www.bookdesign.be
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Appel à contribution – Sins, Vices and Virtues

Publié le 19 août 2011 par RMBLF
In 2008, Archbishop Girotti triggered a heated public discussion when he identified new types of sins that wreak the modern world. The traditional list of the Church Fathers was unofficially updated to include social sins prevalent in what he called the era of “unstoppable globalisation”. and not necessarily embracing Christians only. Thus, apart from the familiar, but Christianity specific: Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Greed, Sloth, which individuals were to test their conscience for, the Church now cautions the whole of humanity inter alia about: Genetic modification and human experimentations; Polluting the environment; Social injustice; Causing poverty; Paedophilia, contraception, abortion; Taking drugs; and Financial gluttony. Not only are the ‘new sins’ not necessarily Christian in nature but they seem inter- and transcultural, disregarding religious persuasion. It seems no longer the matter of individual transgression that has spiritual repercussions, but rather the sin whose subject is the entire, global society.

Are we then to talk about a completely new hamartiology, new schematization, or are we just are revising, or adapting the Seven Deadly Sins to fit the secularized world of the 21st century? What are the real changes between medieval, originally Christian hamartiology and today’s religious/moral doctrines preached across the modern world? And what about non-Christian cultures with different categories of religious/spiritual transgressions. May one actually still talk about ’sin’ at all or is it an obsolete word in a multicultural world? Is the concept of religious transgression being secularised as well? Are all Western sins and virtues other cultures’ vices too?

This interdisciplinary conference seeks a new, provocative, intercultural perspective on some enduring truths concerning virtues and vices, sins and transgressions. Do we need a new list of moral commandments in the globalised, multicultural 21st century? Should they be religious or secular in nature? What are the foundations behind morality of the ‘modern (wo)man’. And, finally, is it possible, reaching back to the origins of humanity, to find common denominators between religious/spiritual definitions of vices and virtues of all belief systems?


Papers, reports, work-in-progress, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues related to the following themes:

– The genealogy of the idea of sin or religious transgression in Christian and non-Christian cultures
– Sinful/Transgressive actions and evil thoughts in Christian and non-Christian cultures 
– Lexicon of sinfulness/transgression and virtuousness in Christian and non-Christian cultures 
– Social functions of sins and virtues
– Modern sins and vices: Individual and social; religious and secular; intercultural
– Social sins: ‘Institutional’ and ’structural’; their social ramifications
– Communal versus individual sins/transgressions: Do societies sin?
– The concept of sin or spiritual transgression/deviation and philosophy
– Sins and vices on the political arena (secular morality or no morality)
– Psychology of sin (’sinful’ or ‘abnormal’?; the concept of sin after Darwin, Nietzsche and Freud)
– Representation of sins and sinners, vices, transgressions and virtues in art, literature, movies in Christian and non-Christian cultures
– Genderization of sins, vices and virtues in Christian and non-Christian cultures
– Ideology of sin/religious transgression and technological progress: G/god or the Machine; ’sins’ of productive necessity
– Sins/Vices and/in the Media (ie adveritising)
– Medieval crusades and modern (holy) wars
– Sinless, non-transgressive life in 21st century: Possibility or wishful thinking?
– Fear of the confessional or ‘McDonald-isation’ of spiritual life; is confession needed at all?
– Penitential practices across the ages and cultures
– Punishment for sin/transgression and rewarding virtue across the ages and cultures: individual and collective
– Visions of Hell and Paradise across cultures
– Virtues in the modern times

Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 30th September 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper of no more than 3000 words should be submitted by Friday 27th january 2012. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract. E-mails should be entitled: Sins and Virtues Abstract Submission.

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Informations pratiques : le colloque se tiendra du 18 au 20 mars 2012 à Prague. Les frais de déplacement ne seront pas remboursés. Organisateurs : Katarzyna Bronk (chercheur indépendant) et Rob Fisher (Inter-Disciplinary.Net). Contact : sin@inter-disciplinary.net
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Publication – Current Directions in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Sculpture Studies

Publié le 18 août 2011 par RMBLF
Informations pratiques : 
Robert A. Maxwell et Kirk Ambrose (eds.), Current Directions in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Sculpture Studies, Brepols, Turnhout, 2011(Studies in the Visual Cultures of the Middle Ages, 5). XII+212 p., 114 b/w ill., 220 x 280 mm, 65 Euros. ISBN: 978-2-503-53165-6

Table des matières :
Robert A. Maxwell and Kirk Ambrose – Introduction: Romanesque Sculpture Studies at a Crossroads
Jérôme Baschet – Iconography beyond Iconography: Relational Meanings and Figures of Authority in the Reliefs of Souillac
Martin Büchsel – The Status of Sculpture in the Early Middle Ages: Liturgy and Paraliturgy in the Liber miraculorum sancte Fidis
Thomas E. A. Dale – The Nude at Moissac: Vision, Phantasia and the Experience of Romanesque Sculpture
Ilene H. Forsyth – The Date of the Moissac Portal
Dorothy F. Glass – (Re)framing Early, Romanesque Sculpture in Italy
Klaus Niehr – Sculpturing Architecture, Framing Sculpture and Modes of Contextualizing the Arts in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
José Luis Senra – Between Rupture and Continuity: Romanesque Sculpture at the Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos
Andrea von Hülsen-Esch – Romanesque Sculpture in Italy: Form, Function, and Cultural Practice
John Williams – The Emergence of Spanish Romanesque Sculpture: A Century of Scholarship
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Appel à contribution – Think Romance ! Re-Conceptualizing a Medieval Genre

Publié le 16 août 2011 par RMBLF
Informations pratiques : 

Appel à contribution en vue de la « 32rd International Conference of the Center of Medieval Studies » organisée par la Fordham University (New York City). En 2012, le thème du colloque sera : Think Romance ! Re-Conceptualizing a Medieval Genre. Le colloque aura lieu les 31 mars et 1er avril 2012. 

Les propositions de communication sont à envoyer par courrier au Center for Medieval Studies, FMH 405, Fordham University, Bronx, NY 10458, ou par courriel à medievals@fordham.edu. Ces propositions comprendront un résumé de la communication et une lettre de motivation. Les informations doivent être parvenues aux organisateurs avant le vendredi 9 septembre 2011.


Appel à contribution :

Romances were the most popular, most influential, most wide-ranging form of fiction in the high and late Middle Ages. While this popularity has ensured a great deal of modern critical attention, particularly to individual romances, it has not necessarily meant that the place of romance in the Middle Ages has been understood adequately. That is, as scholars outside of the field of literary studies – historians, art historians, musicologists – have begun to look at romances, those inside continue to treat this genre largely in terms of its literary merit. This interdisciplinary conference seeks to re-conceptualize romance more broadly, not only as a topic of interest for scholars of particular medieval vernacular texts, but as a kind of tool, a bearer of a set of assumptions, a cultural category available to medieval authors, artists, composers, and patrons.

This conference thus invites new work on a variety of topics, including the birth of romance out of historical prose and its supposed death in the early modern period; on the generic fluidity of romance, particularly its relationship to chronicles, hagiography, and fabliaux; on the relationship between the romance and visual art or architectural space; on the romance book as object and objects inscribed/decorated with romance motifs; on the place of romance in the development of new musical genres and theatrical performances; on the status of romance in cultural geographies that conceptualize notions of normativity and otherness; and on its role in the discovery of new worlds (literal and figurative) and the obliteration of old ones.


Although papers on individual romances are welcome, we particularly encourage work that positions itself more broadly, that uses one or more texts, as well as very different source material (archival, documentary, historical and art historical), to rethink the place of romance in medieval culture as well as in our modern understanding of the Middle Ages.
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