The Medieval Academy Blog

The Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II and  CIRICE – Centro Interdipartimentale di Ricerca sull’Iconografia  della Città EuropeaVI Convegno Internazionale – are organizing the conference: CIRICE 2014 “Città mediterranee in trasformazione,” to be held in Naples, 13-15 March  2014

The Conference, open to scholars from national and international circles, aims to take stock of the historiography on the Mediterranean city during the contemporary age, with reference to its identity, structure and image from the beginning of the industrialization to post-Enlightenment and bourgeois age, up to the themes concerning the evolution/involution of the territory and of the post-industrial landscape, as well as the development of the tourist model between the 19th and 20th centuries.

Scientific Committee  President: Cesare de Seta, Università di Napoli Federico II  Gilles Bertrand, Université de Grenoble  Alfredo Buccaro, Università di Napoli Federico II – CIRICE Andreas Giacumacatos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki  Deborah Howard, University of Cambridge  Michael Jakob, Haute École du Paysage, d’Ingégnierie et d’Architecture de Genêve  Brigitte Marin, Université d’Aix-Marseille  Juan Manuel Monterroso Montero, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela Carlo M. Travaglini, Università di Roma Tre – CROMA Guido Zucconi, Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia
Organizing Committee / Scientific Coordination of Sessions  Annunziata Berrino, Università di Napoli Federico II  Giulia Cantabene, Università di Napoli Federico II  Francesca Capano, Università di Napoli Federico II  Salvatore Di Liello, Università di Napoli Federico II  Leonardo Di Mauro, Università di Napoli Federico II  Nunzia Iannone, Università di Napoli Federico II  Marco Iuliano, University of Liverpool  Roberto Parisi, Università del Molise  Maria Ines Pascariello, Università di Napoli Federico II
Maria Perone, Università di Napoli Federico II  Daniela Stroffolino, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche  Massimo Visone, Università di Napoli Federico II  Ornella Zerlenga, Seconda Università di Napoli

Blind Peer Review:  The selection shall be subject to blind peer review, being conducted every proposal to three referees. The acts shall be deposited at the Conference Secretariat and disclosed after the deadline (September the 15th, 2013).

Organizing Secretariat  University of Naples Federico II – Research Centre on the Iconography of the European City Tel. +390812538000/08/14  Dott. Rita Ercolino, ercolino@unina.it – Dott. Valeria Mirabella, valeria.mirabella@unina.it Tel. +39081 2538070/78

Steps/Deadlines:  Paper proposals submission: July, 31st  2013, max 1.000 blanks  Notification of paper acceptance: September, 15th 2013  Final text entering (max 30.000 blanks (notes incl., max 7 images): January, 31st 2014  Web Publication: March, 10th 2014  Then it will be the proceedings edition

Registration on web: http://www.iconografiacittaeuropea.unina.it Download the partecipation form and enter to: cirice@unina.it and to session coordinators.
Registration fee: 120 € (structured scholars) / 50 € (free scholars).  C/C 0025/11 Banco di Napoli – Account Holder: Centro Interdipartimentale Iconografia Città Europea – IBAN IT27 S010 1003 4280 0002 5000 011 – BIC IBSPITNA Note: the payment is to be made only after the deadline for the acceptance of abstracts (September 15th, 2013) and the consequent communication by e-mail.

Sessions/Coordinators

1. Urban types and iconographic models: from the urban views to cartography  (C. de Seta, cedese@tin.it – A. Buccaro, buccaro@unina.it )
During the contemporary age, the city and the Mediterranean landscape are represented in the making: through tools, methods and models clearly recognizable in iconographic and cartographic works. Evidences are left from the travelers of the Grand Tour to landscape-painters during the age of Romanticism; from the representation of natural disasters to the rhetoric either of rebuilding or new foundation programs; from the projects either of new cities or new towns to the spread of the image resulting from the rise of ‘mass’ tourism and its propaganda. Which has been the evolution of the view’s model? And what about the negotiation regarding the parallel, rising, progress of cartography and topography? Furthermore, what the tools – from survey techniques to transport ways and mass media – have offered to the matureness of the idea about the city portrait and the Mediterranean landscape, to spread their image
and their identity?

2. Invention and promotion of the image of the tourist city (A. Berrino, annunziata.berrino@unina.it – L. Di Mauro, dimauro@unina.it )
In the late 19th century, with the maturation of service sector and tourism, the competition between tourist destinations becomes an important factor. The need to be visible in the market pushes companies and local authorities to use the advertising and, sometimes, to associate, to meet the ever more expensive techniques of illustration and communication. But what are the content and character of the iconography of the towns for the tourist communication between the late 19th and 20th centuries? Is there a code representation in Western Europe? Is there a correspondence between the textual description and the iconographic representation? Which imaginary resort-town is processed? Furthermore, when and how the iconography of the resort-town changes to the changing imaginary of tourist practices?

3. The archives and the sources: from the paper iconography to the digital one (M. Perone, maria.perone@unina.it – D. Stroffolino, danielastroffolino@libero.it )
The session presents two subject areas: the first one relates to ‘non-traditional’ types of sources of urban iconography, the second one to the places – real and virtual – where finding these sources. We are accustomed to associate the urban iconography to an engraved or painted image on traditional medias such as paper, canvas, wall: we are interested to expand the research area with carved, sculpted, modeled images of city, until the last cases of virtual three- dimensional reconstructions of historical cities. With reference to these less usual urban images, but also to traditional ones, we want to emphasize the importance of the ‘ hidden treasures ‘, i.e. of unpublished collections of images, made on public or private engagement and kept in private collections, museums, archives, libraries that today can also be accessed online.

4. Representation and virtual reconstruction of the urban image (M.I. Pascariello, mipascar@unina.it  – O. Zerlenga, ornella.zerlenga@unina2.it )
The thematic session focuses on the graphic analysis of iconographic sources with an emphasis on the critical reading of the project of an ‘image construction’ – of an architectural, urban and landscape setting. In this perspective, topography, cartography and landscape painting are the main fields of study, investigation and application for this thematic session. In particular, the graphic analysis will be studied in the cultural context which generated the image itself, in reference to the scientific foundations of representation, with the resulting critical choice of the representation, geometric and pictorial methods and techniques for the iconography. Current literature on this topic confirm how construction, as well as the resulting analysis of the initial data, is critical occasion to transfer potential communicative differences. Particular interest will be given to the graphical analysis and verification of the places represented with current ones, using innovative digital representation and image techniques of de-construction.

5. Sea towns: architecture and evolutionary characters in the historic iconography
(S. Di Liello, sadiliel@unina.it – R. Parisi, roberto.parisi@unimol.it )
In the rich corpus of Urban European Iconography, the cities of the Mediterranean constitute the archetypal image of an ancient classical and Byzantine koinè, which has long influenced the identifing character of many sea-scapes, still in the bourgeoisie and post- industrial ages. Between East and West, from the first ‘city portraits’ to the latest techniques of visual representation, the historical iconography often returns images that are underlying rhetoric of a ‘maestà scenica’ framed in the mirror of delightful landscapes, but also regional and urban scenarios marked by deep and, sometimes, tearing evolutionary processes. The session will compare ideas and researches on the relationship between architecture, urban space and iconography in the history of the Mediterranean cities from the times of the ‘Grand Tour’ to the second half of the 20th century.

6. The hinterland: evolution and iconography of the city and of the landscape (G. Cantabene, giuliacant@libero.it – M. Visone, massimo.visone@unina.it )
The studies on the major urban centers and on the coastline landscape have essentially relegated to second place researches on the hinterland. The large territorial transformations between 18th and 20th centuries involved the inner areas of Mediterranean basin opened up new perspectives for research on the characters of the historical recognition of the urban centers and of the territory as a whole. How much was it influenced by the phenomena tied to the great events of contemporary history? To which extent demographic flows, industrialization, tourism investment policies, as well as earthquakes and changes related to the hydrogeological instability and fires, have consolidated, modified or altered the identity of Mediterranean hinterland and its iconographic models?  The session aims to open a space for dialogue to the various studies that analyze a multidisciplinary phenomenon of great relevance in the light of the latest researches.

7. Transformations of the built environment and of the landscape in photography and cinema (F. Capano, f.capano@unina.it – M. Iuliano, marco.iuliano@liverpool.ac.uk )
Photography and cinema developed synchronically with the urban growth of the Mediterranean cities. These astonishing tools recorded the urban metamorphosis, acting as media for the knowledge of centers geographically distant; furthermore, they contributed significantly to build an alternative, often imaginary, reality.  In the second half of 19th century, photographic and cinematographic studios started to open in an intense moment of urban transformation in Europe. Especially after WWII, some of these extreme transformations, generated by an uncontrolled growth, will be crystallized on film and celluloid.   The multidisciplinary session wants to recall scholar’s attention on this ‘new’ documentation for the history of the city and of the landscape, going beyond the traditional compartmental vision on architecture and city, opening up to the recent ways of recording landscape and built environment through video and photography at the end of 20th century. We would like to have a coherent overview of the state of the art with the archival documentation which, correctly analysed, can help us not only to understand our past, but also to build a more conscious future.

– At the end of each session there will be a final note by the Coordinators.

– At the end of the Conference there will be a panel discussion, which will be attended by the members of the Scientific Committee.

More info:
<http://www.iconografiacittaeuropea.unina.it/>

Grandson of William the Conqueror and brother to King Stephen, Henry of Blois
(1101-1171) was undoubtedly one of the most significant figures in twelfth-century England, yet no substantial academic study of him in English exists. By turns, kingmaker, ecclesiastical politician, diplomat, and elder statesman, Henry of Blois played a central role in shaping the course of the Anarchy that characterized much of his brother’s reign and, towards the end of his life, presided over the trial of Thomas Becket. For over four decades he held the bishopric of Winchester and the abbacy of Glastonbury in plurality and, between 1139 and 1143, effectively governed the English Church as Papal Legate. Raised and tonsured at Cluny, he considered himself a spiritual son of Peter the Venerable and, if no great thinker or writer himself, he was intimately engaged with those that were. Henry’s influence and activities extended across Europe; he travelled extensively and became twelfth-century England’s most prolific collector and patron of the arts. Despite all this, the only major monograph written on him was published in German (by Lena Voss) as long ago as 1932, and remains untranslated. In part, this surprising omission in the literature results from the extraordinary range of Henry’s own activities and spheres of influence. Scholars have tended to focus on his importance only within their discipline, and as such there remains no comprehensive account of this influential and complex figure, nor any study that posits Henry in relation to the wider intellectual and cultural developments associated with the Twelfth-Century Renaissance.

Papers are therefore sought for a volume of collected essays from across the relevant disciplines that explore the breadth of Henry of Blois’ life, influence and legacy. The aim of this volume is to bring together a range of scholars working on Henry of Blois in a variety of disciplines. A number of distinguished academics have already undertaken to contribute, including historians, art and architectural historians, manuscript specialists and archaeologists, from Europe, the United States and Australia.

Please send a brief CV (no longer than 2 pages) and abstracts of no more than 500 words by 15th September 2013 to: henryofbloisconference@gmail.com

We will solicit first drafts in August 2014 in order to go to press in the third quarter of 2015 with a publication date in spring or summer 2016.

For further details please contact the editors: Dr John Munns (Cambridge) and Dr William Kynan-Wilson (Cambridge) on the email address above.

Paper proposals are now being accepted for “Revisiting the Legacy of Boethius in the Middle Ages,” an interdisciplinary conference sponsored by the Department of English and the Committee on Medieval Studies with support from the Morton Bloomfield Fund and the International Boethius Society. The legacy of Boethius in the Middle Ages has been enjoying a resurgence of interest in recent years, with new editions, translations, and studies that place his profound influence in a new light. The Alfredian Boethius project of Oxford University, to pick just one example, has produced a critical edition of the Old English Boethius (2009), and the spinoff database of the commentary tradition will almost certainly change our understanding of the broader reception of The Consolation of Philosophy across medieval Europe. Other recent work has revisited the legacy of Boethius in the fields of music, philosophy, poetry, and theology, and the Companion to Boethius in the Middle Ages (2012) wi  ll stimulate future scholarship and teaching.

The conference will feature plenary addresses by Ann Astell (University of Notre Dame), Susan Irvine (University College London), and Eleanor Johnson (Columbia University). The organizers invite abstracts of c. 250 words for twenty-minute presentations on the early reception of Boethius and his influence on readers and writers in medieval England and continental Europe. Possible topics include vernacular translations and transformations; Neoplatonism and the philosophical tradition; adaptations of Boethian prosimetrum; Boethian afterlives in poetry, music, and the visual arts; and new findings from the Latin commentary tradition. Please send abstracts to HarvardBoethius@gmail.com; the submission deadline is 1 October 2013. For more information, please visit the conference website (http://harvardboethius.wordpress.com).

Call for Papers
Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts Sponsored Session
at the 49^th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, May 8-11, 2014

The Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts Project at the University of Pennsylvania seeks proposals for the following sponsored session:

Tracking Medieval Manuscript Books and Documents through Time: Networks of Transmission and Practices of Collecting

This session will focus on the mapping of those networks of sale and purchase through which medieval manuscripts have been pursued and on the collectors and collecting that have catalyzed this transmission across the centuries. This session – like The Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts itself – is rooted in the belief that studying manuscripts’ provenance can have dynamic and profound effects not only on our understanding of these medieval materials as objects to be bought and sold but also on their texts through mapping their circulation and reception. We particularly welcome proposals that explore diverse topics from the role of digital technologies such as the SDBM in conducting provenance research, the relationship between institutional and private ownership of manuscripts, specific case studies of collecting practices, the transatlantic travels of medieval materials, collectors’ roles in the dispersal of libraries and the fragmentation of manuscripts, collectors and manuscript preservation, and how a manuscript’s provenance history can effect its value and collectability on the rare books market, to how collectors and the act of collecting can shape and influence interpretations of manuscript evidence.

Please send proposals with a one-page abstract and Participant Information Form (www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html) to the organizers, Lynn Ransom (lransom@upenn.edu ) & Alexander Devine (aldevine@sas.upenn.edu ) by September 1, 2014.

Nineteenth biennial New College Conference on Medieval
and Renaissance Studies

*****CALL FOR PAPERS******

The nineteenth biennial New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies will take place 6–9 March 2014 in Sarasota, Florida. The program committee invites 250-word abstracts of proposed twenty-minute papers on topics in European and Mediterranean history, literature, art, music and religion from the fourth to the seventeenth centuries. Interdisciplinary work is particularly appropriate to the conference’s broad historical and disciplinary scope. Planned sessions are welcome; please see the new guidelines at http://www.newcollegeconference.org/cfp.

In memory of the conference’s founder Lee Daniel Snyder (1933–2012), we are pleased to announce the establishment of the Snyder Prize, which will be awarded for the first time in 2014. The prize carries an honorarium of $400 and will be given to the best paper presented at the conference by a junior scholar. Further details are available at the conference website.

The conference will be held on the campus of New College of Florida, the honors college of the Florida state system. The college, located on Sarasota Bay, is adjacent to the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, which will offer tours arranged for conference participants. Sarasota is noted for its beautiful public beaches, theater, food, art and music. Average temperatures in March are a pleasant high of 77F (25C) and a low of 57F (14C).

More information will be posted on the conference website as it becomes available, including submission guidelines, prize details, plenary speakers, conference events, and area attractions:

http://www.newcollegeconference.org

The deadline for abstracts is 15 September 2013. Send inquiries to info@newcollegeconference.org and abstracts to:

abstracts@newcollegeconference.org