L'Agenda des Médiévistes

19th – 21st October 2023 | Monastery of Batalha – Portugal

For centuries, religious built heritage has played an essential role in shaping social, economic, environmental and cultural values. Across major or minor religious traditions, this expressed a particular way of understanding the life, the human condition, the world, opening it to the mistery, in search of the ultimate meaning of the life. Caves, eremitical settlements, chapels, monasteries, convents, churches and cathedrals have dialogued with their surroundings, be them mountainous or solitary places, fertile valleys, peripheral or urban centres. The search for the Sacred, for the absolute otherness, which is present or can be experienced in specific places, led also to the development of pilgrimages, and their associated itineraries. Nowadays, the memory of these places tends to be erased. The secularisation of many convents, churches or monasteries, as well as the abandonment or low usage of others, led to the loss of material values. On the other hand, a significant part of this heritage and its understanding as a unity (for example, in the case of monasteries, the relationship between the spaces of prayer, the daily life and the enclosure), or its connection to a particular natural and social landscape, is gone. These specific buildings and landscapes need to be rethought at the light of the contemporary challenges.

The conference is structured around two main topics, in order to understand the historical and current values of these places and how they can shape the future, through a renewed knowledge and new ways of turning them culturally meaningful:  

1. History of religious experience; 2. Future of Religious Heritage. 

The conference aims to establish the platform for a multidisciplinary approach on the subject, gathering and crossing history, architecture, landscape architecture, cultural heritage, art history, computing science, among others. 

The three-day conference will be hosted by the Monastery of Santa Maria da Vitória, in the municipality of Batalha. This is a former dominican monastery,  on the initiative of the Avis dinasty at the end of the 14th century. The complex is recognised as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983, exactly 40 years ago. The conference will be an opportunity to experience this impressive place, sharing knowledge, thinking and debating around our common historical heritage.  

The organisers of the conference would like to invite authors to submit an abstract of recent and unpublished works. Selected authors have 15 min paper presentations. The conference will be structured around two main topics: 

1. History of religious experience 

1a. History of eremitical/monastic life

1b. Materiality of eremitical/monastic experiences

1c. Landscapes of the soul

2. Future for Religious Heritage

2a. Managment of UNESCO religious sites 

2b. Community engagement and empowerment 

2c. Sustainable reuse of secularised buildings 

2d. Conservation and rehabilitation 

2e. 3D survey with non-intrusive technologies 

2f. GIS Systems applied to religious landscapes 

2g. Information and communications technology 

2h. Heritage communication 

2i. Cultural and creative industries and tourism

Abstracts must have no more than 300 words, written in English and submitted before 31st March 2023, along with a short bio with no more than 200 words. Each abstract must include: context, aim, methodology, results, conclusions and 5 keywords. Otherwise the abstract will not be considered.

​After the conference, we will open a call for papers. Selected papers, through a double-blind peer-review process, will be published in an international book with ISBN and/or special issue(s) in indexed scientific journals.

More information will be shared over the coming months.

Submit your abstract here

Source : Dinamiacet

Konstanz, 21–23 March 2024 (hybrid format)

Conference organisers: Hossameldin Ali, Eric Böhme, Alejandro Peláez Martín, James Wilson (University of Konstanz)

From the beginning of the Arab-Islamic expansion in the early seventh century, Muslim and Christian communities interacted daily for sustained periods in several different geographical areas, from Iberia to Sicily, southern Italy and the Near East. In the last three decades, a new wave of revisionist and interdisciplinary methodologies, ranging from gender and global history to medievalism and the history of emotions, have broadened our epistemological horizons, creating innovative avenues of enquiry that provide new ways of thinking about the historical roots of Christian-Muslim relations. However, despite recent methodological advances and the various ways in which they enhance our understanding of the pre-modern Mediterranean (c. 630–1614), few conferences have attempted to apply these new approaches in a trans-Mediterranean context. By exploring the complex and much-studied topic of Christian-Muslim relations through the changing lens of methodologies, this conference aims to foster an interdisciplinary debate that, through comparison and collaboration between scholars from different fields, bridges rigid geographical and temporal frameworks. Early career scholars and all others interested in participating are thus invited to help demonstrate the historical value of new or nuanced methodologies by applying them to specific case studies (to be presented in c. 20–25 min papers). The conference has three main themes:

– Innovative approaches to the source material
– Revised, new, experimental methodologies
– Macro-historical perspectives

1. Select list of possible methodologies

i) Sources
– Material culture
– Legal traditions
– Vernacular literature, poetry, liturgy, songs & music
– Bilingual manuscripts and codicology (Judeo-Arabic, Aljamiado, Coptic, Syriac etc.)
– The study of space, place and cartography
– Climate change and environmental history
– Human body/medical history

ii) Methodologies
– Gender history
– Medievalism, post-colonial studies, translation studies
– Questioning the value of ‘eye-witness’ testimonies
– Digital humanities (large scale analysis of text)
– Ceremonial interactions and rituals
– Manuscript studies, codicology
– Legal frameworks (charters, laws, treaties, court cases etc.)
– Historiographical approaches and the role of authorial ‘agency’
– Emotions
– Trade and economic history
– Prosopography

iii) Macro-historical perspectives
– Comparative approaches – across regions or temporalities
– Network analysis
– Transregional / Mediterranean / Global history
– Legal sources & theories
– Micro-historical Quellenkritik
– Frontier theory
– Diplomacy and international relations

2. Potential topics for discussion

Please apply one or more of the above approaches to one or more of the topics outlined below. Any other combinations of approaches and topics are highly welcomed as well.

Q1 – Christian-Muslim relations during periods of transition or crisis
– To what extent are periods of transition or crisis discernible in the source materials and how might they have influenced Christian-Muslim ties?
– Did some crises / transitions increase or reduce tensions more than others? Were they a cause for renewed attention to historical episodes of conflict or oppression?
– Were there standardised practices or mechanisms for negotiating periods of crisis/transition, or did these alterations produce new modes of communication or collaboration?
– What were the linguistic, cultural and ceremonial practicalities of cross-cultural contact following periods of rupture? Did written material need to be translated, or provided in multiple languages, who translated it and how?

Q2 – Christian-Muslim relations during periods of stability
– Did periods of sustained contact facilitate new forms of communication, trade, settlement or political and military cooperation?
– Did behaviour around sites of devotional significance and shared sacred spaces change as a result to sustained periods of Christian-Muslim cohabitation? How did this compare to sites of strategic importance?
– Did periods of stability necessitate multi-cultural courts and shared mechanisms of legitimisation or diplomacy?
– Why was emphasis placed on translating scientific, medical and philosophical knowledge at the expense of historical writings? What does this suggest about the nature of Muslim-Christian contact in the Mediterranean? Was there any regional variation in this seemingly trans Mediterranean trend?

Q3 – The variation or preservation of political, legal, ceremonial or cultural norms in different geographical, topographical or temporal contexts
– Were there variations in attitudes towards Christian-Muslim interactions in rural and urban communities?
– What were the similarities and differences between Christians living under Muslim rule and Muslims living under Christian rule for sustained periods? Were any differences linked to local factors?
– How aware were communities of the customs of Christian-Muslim interactions in other geographical regions in the Mediterranean? How was this knowledge acquired?

3. Further details about the conference

The conference will take place at the University of Konstanz from 21–23 March 2024. The organisers plan to cover the full accommodation and travel costs (EU and UK) of all active participants. However, this is dependent upon securing sufficient funding. A publication of the conference proceedings is envisaged as well. Scholars interested in participating actively as speakers are invited to submit an abstract (about 250–500 words) as well as a short bio (about 150–250 words) to emerging-historical-perspectives@uni-konstanz.de by 31 March, 2023. Any inquiries about the conference and the modalities of participation can also be directed to this address.

Kontakt

emerging-historical-perspectives@uni-konstanz.de

Source : H-Soz-Kult

The 7th European Congress of Medieval Studies of the Fédération Internationale des Instituts d’Études Médiévales (FIDEM) will be organized by the Department of Arts, Media, and Philosophy of the University of Basel, Switzerland.

Call for Papers

There is a number of slots for papers (20 minutes) and special sessions (90 minutes). Proposals should be submitted to Prof. Maarten J.F.M. Hoenen at <fidem@unibas.ch> by 30 April, 2023.

Stipends

To facilitate attendance at the Congress, FIDEM stipends (500 €) are available for researchers under the age of 35, who will present a paper. Applications (including a letter of application, a CV and a letter of recommendation) should be submitted to Marta Pavón Ramírez, FIDEM Secretary General, at <secretary.general@fidem- web.org> by 30 April, 2023.

General Assembly

On Friday, 8 September, the General Assembly of the FIDEM will take place in the Kollegienhaus of the University of Basel. At the General Assem- bly, the new board of the FIDEM will be elected. Further items of the agenda will be announced in advance.

Registration and Information

Registration is free. To register, please send an email to <fidem@unibas.ch> by 15 July, 2023. In the next circular details on stipends, hotel accommodation and travel information will be provided. For further information, please visit <fidemweb.org> or contact Prof. Maarten J.F.M. Hoenen at <fidem@unibas.ch>.

Subject

A book is first of all a book, with a physical appearance, a title, and a content. The content is perhaps the part that most of all determines the book’s impact. But also the title and the physical appearance have their share, and perhaps also other aspects, such as the reputation of the author, the period in which the book was written, and the reception it received. The impact of these latter aspects is more di cult to trace, but they may produce a recognized quality, an aura that materializes itself when books come together in a physical or imaginary room, when they have to compete for identification and di erentiation. One such room is the medieval library with its ordered system of bookshelves and bookcases. Here, both content and aura guide the librarian when giving a call number to the book, when putting it together with other works in a convolute, or when naming it in the catalogue.

The Congress intends to focus on the interplay of content and aura of books in the Middle Ages and the way they are balanced and shaped through the work of medieval librarians. For example, when a medieval librarian in his

catalogue calls all the volumes devoted to mysticism ‘opuscula’, not because of their small physical size, since some of them are huge, but because of their subject matter, which should make the reader humble. In this case, it is the common reputation of a devotional work that explains the decision of the librarian. More di cult to grasp, however, is what happens when the same librarian lists a devotional convolute not as usual under the title of the first work included, Thomas a Kempis’ Imitatio Christi, but of the third one contained, pseudo-Bonaventure’s Stimulus amoris. Or when he names Thomas a Kempis’ Imitatio Christi in that same volume the Liber Qui sequitur me, although the print bears the title De imitatione Christi. Clearly for him, there is something special about these titles which makes them more distinctive. But what is it?

The above examples are all taken from the catalogue of the Carthusian Library St. Margare- thental in Basel, compiled about 1520 by George Carpentarius, who through his work as a librarian wanted to guide the monks, to illuminate their minds and to inflame their hearts. But many other cases from other medieval libraries and other fields of interest, such as medicine, law, history, philosophy, theology, and works of literature can help us understand how the di erent medieval librarians responded to the di erent auras of their books, how they enforced, changed or added to them. Besides the contents, how common and persistent are these reputations, how are they produced, what are the distinctive aspects, and is there a change from the early to the late Middle Ages?

These auras not only guided the medieval libra- rians when cataloguing and ordering content. They are still active today, when modern librari- ans or their algorithmic famuli produce networks that link medieval works through metadata, with the intention to serve the medievalists. Again an example from Basel: when searching for a specific manuscript, the digital catalogue of the University Library – which contains many books of the Carthusian Library St. Margarethental – produces a virtual bookshelf on which it puts the manuscript together with a number of volumes not searched for, some of which medieval, but others also modern. Obviously, here it is not the librarian, but an algorithm that does the work. What auras are e ective here? How do they a ect the minds and the research strategies of modern medievalists? Does this modern phenomenon help us understand the mecha- nisms of its medieval equivalent, or is there no such equivalent?

By way of plenary talks and discussion sessions, specialists from di erent fields of medieval studies will share with the audience their views about the special character of medieval books that transcends the immediate content and becomes visible most prominently in the special environment of the library with its catalogues, bookshelves and bookcases, and above all the active and reactive mind of the librarian.

Coordinators:
Nadia Mariana Consiglieri (Universidad de Buenos Aires – Universidad Nacional de las Artes- CONICET, Argentina)
María Cristina Correia Leandro Pereira (Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil)

Colour, both in its material and light dimensions, played a leading role in Medieval and Renaissance visual culture. Taking part in altarpieces, sculptures, architecture, tapestries, wall paintings and illuminated manuscripts, colour embraced multiple variants. Likewise, the translucent, ethereal but also brilliant and changing tones of enameled pieces and goldsmiths, gems, mosaics and stained glasses acquired an equally vital importance. Far from the imaginaries built during the nineteenth century about a Middle Ages plunged into dark and monochromatic grey buildings, the language of colour and light was a constant factor in the visual cultures of this period.

Since the last decades of the past twentieth century, the investigations of Michel Pastoureau reconsidered colour as an object of historical study plausible itself to be approached as a visual code from its multiple symbolic, social, cultural and religious dimensions. Moreover, Herbert L. Kessler stressed the dynamic and material performance of colours and Jean- Claude Bonne emphasized their diverse roles within ornamentation. In addition, specific investigations began to be carried out on typologies, modes of application and commercial routes of pigments used for the production of illuminated manuscripts, as well as collective studies on the diversity of techniques and the relationships between makers and patrons.

This dossier aims to open a new field of debate on the ways in which colour appears and acts on pictorial surfaces of different images, objects, devices and spaces produced between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. Within this broad temporal spectrum, it is not intended to focus only on the Medieval and Renaissance West, but also on chromatic objectualities from the East and from groups considered the « otherness » from Western Christianity perspective, in order to rethink the diversity of processes, exchanges, assimilations and overlaps. How did colours circulate in their different versions? ; how were material and symbolic exchange networks woven?; what were the roles of the itinerant and permanent painters, circles and workshops of artisans?; how did the technical and material knowledge of colour spread among them?; how did patrons and receivers interact?; what iconographic and ornamental relationships can engage colours with images?

We invite to submit papers related at least to one of the following topics:

1. Qualities of pictorial matter: diversity of supports, pigments, materials and techniques. Plurality of materials as interaction devices with the pictorial surface: pastiglia reliefs, use of gold leaf, etc.
2. Painting and praxis: recipe books, treatises and model compilation notebooks.
3. Medieval theories on colour, light, materiality and their symbolic dimensions.
4. The roles of artisans and patrons: miniaturists, painters and enamellers’ ways of making. From monastic environments to secular workshops. Regulations, the action of guilds, contracts.
5. Reception and agency of the pictorial matter: changes, interventions, damages, outrages.
6. Iconographic, constructive, syntactic, symbolic, aesthetic and rhythmic roles of ornamentation.
7. The pictorial materiality in objects and Islamic environments: their interactions with the Christian sphere.
8. Details and features in Medieval and Renaissance pictorial works (paintings, illuminated manuscripts) belonging to the Latin American artistic heritage. Collecting, museographical links and historiographical perspectives.

REFERENCES:
Bonne, J. C. (1983). Rituel de la couleur: fonctionnement et usage des images dans le Sacramentaire de Saint-Etienne de Limoges. In: Ponnau, D. (Ed.). Image et signification. Paris: La Documentation française, p. 129-139.
Bonne, J. C. (2002). Penser en couleurs: à propos d’une image apocalyptique du Xe siècle. In: Schmitt, J. C; Hülsen-Esch, A. (Eds.). Die Methodik der Bildinterpretation. Göttingen: Wallstein, v. 2, p. 355-379.
Castelnuovo, E. & Sergi, G. (Eds.) (2013). Arte e Historia en la Edad Media. Volumen II. Del construir: técnicas, artistas, artesanos, comitentes. Madrid: Akal.
Kessler, H. (2011). Seeing Medieval Art. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Miranda, M.A. & Miguélez Cavero, A. (Eds.) (2014). Portuguese studies on medieval illuminated manuscripts. Barcelona-Madrid: Fédération Internationale des Instituts d’Études Médiévales.
Pastoureau, M. (2006). Una historia simbólica de la Edad Media Occidental. Buenos Aires: Katz.
Pastoureau, M. (2008). Black. The History of a Color. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.

Pastoureau, M. (2010). Azul. Historia de un color. Madrid: Paidós. Pastoureau, M. (2016). Rouge. Histoire d’une couleur. Paris: Éditions du Seuil. Pastoureau, M. (2017). Vert. Histoire d’une couleur. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.

ABOUT THE SUBMISSIONS

Articles must be original and not be simultaneously evaluated by other publications. To be submitted to peer review modality, the articles must be sent to the email: revistacaiana@gmail.com, indicating in the subject: “LAST NAME_Dossier caiana #23”

Deadline for papers submission: May 29, 2023.

Issue publication date: November – December, 2023.

CAIANA is indexed in the catalog of the Latindex information system, the European Reference Index for Humanities (ERIH PLUS) and DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journal).

Papers must comply with the publishing standards of the journal:

Normas para la publicación – Caiana