Workshop “Cultural Heritage Destruction : Documenting Parchment Degradation via Multispectral Imaging”

Cultural heritage destruction : documenting parchment degradation via multispectral imaging (London, University of London). – http://digitalmedievalist.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/seminar-cultural-heritage-destruction-documenting-parchment-degradation-via-multispectral-imaging/

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Call for Papers: “Putting England in Its Place: Cultural Production and Cultural Relations in the High Middle Ages”

March 9-10, 2013
Lincoln Center Campus, Fordham University, New York City, NY
“Putting England in Its Place: Cultural Production and Cultural Relations in the High Middle Ages”
33rd Annual Conference of the Center for Medieval Studies, Fordham University

Conference Aims:

The rich culture of England’s mid-eleventh to thirteenth centuries is central to some disciplinary narratives for the High Middle Ages (for example, the political history of its ruling dynasties, analyses of visual and material culture and of Latin historiography), but omitted from others (the period is often assumed, for instance, to have little to do with the history of English literature). This interdisciplinary conference aims to look in a fresh and integrated way at cultural production and cultural relations within England and between England and other locales in order to explore what kind of place England as a region, a changing political entity, and a culture or set of cultures might occupy in our accounts of the High Middle Ages. We welcome papers dealing with England’s cultures (local, regional, general) in themselves and in their many connections (diplomatic, economic, artistic, etc…) with further areas of the British Isles and other medieval regions.
Speakers include:
Oliver Creighton, Julia Crick, Robert W. Hanning, Paul R. Hyams, Sarah Rees Jones, Rachel Koopmans, Kathryn A. Smith, Carol Symes, Elizabeth Tyler

The deadline for submissions is September 5, 2012
Please send an abstract (around 200 words) and cover letter with contact information to: Center for Medieval Studies, FMH 405, Fordham University, Bronx, NY 10458 or by fax to 718-817-3978, or by email to medievals@fordham.edu

Please see our website, http://www.fordham.edu/mvst/conference13/England/index.html

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London Rare Books School 2012

London, University of London, 25.VI. – 6.VII.2012 : London Rare Books School 2012. – http://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/study-training/research-training-courses/london-rare-books-school/london-rare-books-school-2012#BAW

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Call for Papers: New York University’s Medieval and Renaissance Center’s Annual Spring Conference

Medieval and Renaissance Center
New York University

Annual Spring Conference
March 29, 2013

Charisma

Keynote speaker: Professor C. Stephen Jaeger, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Call for papers: New York University’s Medieval and Renaissance Center invites proposals for papers that address the topic of charisma in any of its multiple forms and cultural sites: from an attribute of an individual person–whether a god-given grace or personally cultivated aura–to a feature of a work of art that affords it the power to uplift or dazzle a beholder; and from the elite productions and practices of church and state–such as Gothic cathedrals and royal regalia and processions–to such cult objects of religion and secular art as icons, relics, stones, pilgrimage shrines, weapons, and portraits; and to such quasi-historical and literary characters as Lancelot of the Lake, Don Quixote, Mephistopheles, and Helen of Troy. In approaching the topic of charisma, papers might touch on such phenomena as charm, enchantment, adoration, favor, grace, aura, enthusiasm, inspiration, magic of body and speech, fame, notoriety, fascination, glorification, elegance, divinity, embodiment, post-embodiment, sensuality, beauty, glamour, the elite, the heroic, and the supernatural. While recent conferences and publications on the topic of charisma have focused on charismatic preaching and religious institutions, this conference aims to explore charisma as a quality or force that charms, persuades, enchants, and transforms, a force that may appear as a magical quality of human personalities, of works of art, of animals, and even of objects: in short, charisma no longer strictly in the sense of Max Weber’s studies of charismatic leadership, but in addition, charisma as it asserts itself in aesthetics, psychology, and anthropology.

Papers from every sub-discipline of Medieval and Renaissance Studies are welcome. Please send abstracts (250 words maximum) to Martha Rust (at martha.rust@nyu.edu) by September 15, 2012.

The Medieval and Renaissance Center will be able to offer assistance with travel and accommodation to conference participants living outside New York City.

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Séminaire “Paleografia greca oggi”

Paleografia greca oggi (Padova, Università degli studi di Padova, Dipartimento dei beni culturali).  – http://www.beniculturali.unipd.it/cms/?p=1213

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Spectacular Discovery: Origen’s Homilies on the Psalms in their Original Greek Version

In the context of the ongoing cataloguing project of the BSB’s Greek manuscripts from the collection previously owned by Johann Jakob Fugger, a spectacular discovery has been made. While cataloguing a twelfth-century manuscript, philologist Marina Molin Pradel was able to identify numerous passages from the original Greek version of the homilies on the Psalms by Origen (185-253/4 A.D.), which were previously unknown. Origen Adamantius of Alexandria is considered the most important theologian of the early Christian Church before Saint Augustine of Hippo.

The importance of this discovery for research and the academic world cannot be overestimated. The attribution of the texts to Origen has been confirmed by Lorenzo Perrone of Bologna University, an internationally renowned specialist for the works of this author, “with the utmost probability”.

Origen is considered as the founder of the allegorical interpretation of scripture in biblical exegesis. His numerous works, which have survived only in fragmentary transmission or in Latin translations, are counted among the foundations of Christian thought. Origen has had a profound influence on the history of ideas in the fields of theology, philology and preaching from late antique times to the present.
Until today, his homilies on and interpretations of the Psalms were known only in fragmentary transmission or in Latin translations. The manuscript into which the newly discovered texts were copied is an unconspicuous and bulky volume dating from the twelfth century.

According to Rolf Griebel, Director General of the BSB, “This discovery is extremely important – both for its age and for the sheer number of texts concerned. It will stimulate lively discussion in the academic world and it will even give us new insights into the textual tradition of the Greek Bible. Origen’s works were read by all church fathers and had a profound influence on them. This find will permit scholars to study the previously unknown original Greek text”.

The manuscript has been digitised by the BSB and can be accessed via the internet:

www.digitale-sammlungen.de > Enter “Homiliae in psalmos” or “Cod.graec. 314”
http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/bsb00050972/image_1

The BSB owns more than 650 Greek manuscripts and thus holds the most important collection of this kind in Germany. It has always been consulted by scholars intensively. Academic cataloguing of the manuscripts is carried out in the library’s own Manuscripts Cataloguing Centre and is supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

This discovery underlines the necessity of and the wealth of new insights made possible by this laborious and thorough examination of the original volumes. The cataloguing project for the Greek manuscripts can celebrate its 20th anniversary this year, but it will take at least another fifteen years to complete these new academic descriptions of all Greek manuscripts owned by the BSB.

Contact:
Dr. Claudia Fabian
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Abt. Handschriften und Alte Drucke
Ludwigstr. 16, 80539 München
Tel.: +49 (0) 89/28638 2255
claudia.fabian@bsb-muenchen.de

Peter Schnitzlein
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
Ludwigstr. 16, 80539 München
Tel.: +49 (0) 89/28 638 2429
peter.schnitzlein@bsb-muenchen.de

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REMINDER: Michael Camille Essay Prize Deadline: June 30th

From In The Middle:

Just a reminder that the deadline for the first Biennial Michael Camille Essay Prize, jointly sponsored by postmedieval, Palgrave Macmillan, and the BABEL Working Group, is looming: JUNE 30th. To recap:

The competition is open to early career researchers: those currently in M.A./Ph.D. programs or within 5 years of having received the Ph.D. (that will include those graduating in 2007 or later). Essays in all disciplines are encouraged. The prize is for the best short essay (4,000-6,000 words), the 2012 thee for which, inspired by Camille’s last book on the gargoyles of Notre Dame, is:Medievalism and the Monsters of Modernity (conceptualized and imagined in any way the author sees fit). The award for 2012 will include: publication in postmedieval, 250 dollars, and one year’s free print and online subscription to the journal.

The prize is named after Michael Camille (1958-2002), the brilliant art historian whose work on medieval art exemplified playfulness, a felicitous interdisciplinary reach, a restless imagination, and a passion to bring the medieval and modern into vibrant, dialogic encounter. In addition, we wish to honor Camille for his attention to the fringes of medieval society, to the liminal, excluded, ‘subjugated rabble,’ and disenfranchised, and to the socially subversive powers of medieval artists who worked on and in the margins. The prize is also named after Camille because his work was often invested in exploring ‘the prism of modernity through which the Middle Ages is constructed’ and because, as his colleague at the University of Chicago Linda Seidel said shortly after his death, he had ‘a mind like shooting stars.’

Submissions will be judged by a panel of scholars selected from postmedieval’s Editorial Board, and the winner will be announced at the 2nd Biennial Meeting of the BABEL Working Group, to be held September 20-22, 2012 at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. Please send submissions (as a Word document, formatted according to Chicago Manual, author-date format with endnotes + list of references at end) to the editors, Eileen Joy and Myra Seaman, at postmedievaljournal@gmail.com.

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Conference: “Insular books : vernacular miscellanies in Late Medieval Britain”

Insular books : vernacular miscellanies in Late Medieval Britain (London, The British Academy). – http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2012/Insular_Books_Vernacular_Misc_in_Late_Med_Britain.cfm

(See our calendar for more conferences)

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Workshop “A book of Psalms from eleventh-century Constantinople : on the complex of texts and images in Vat. gr. 752”

A book of Psalms from eleventh-century Constantinople : on the complex of texts and images in Vat. gr. 752. An Ars edendi Workshop (Roma, Svenska Institutet i Rom). – http://www.isvroma.it/public/PDF/Programblad.pdf

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Birmingham Fellowships 2012

The University of Birmingham, UK, is advertising 25 Birmingham Fellowships for high-flying postdoctoral candidates. These exceptional positions provide five years of protected research time followed by a permanent position. Applications are invited from candidates in the UK and overseas. Applications are invited in all fields, both within the advertised priority areas and outside – the most important criterion is research excellence. Medievalists may be interested in applying under Language Text and Performance or several of the other themes.

Interested candidates should email the contact person in their chosen priority area or, if none of these areas is suitable, the email contact for people outside the priority areas. The closing date is 27 August 2012. Full details at http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/excellence/fellows/index.aspx

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