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Magdalene Medievalists’ Society: Jordi Sanchez-Marti (17 May)

The next colloquium organized by the Magdalene Medievalists’ Society will take place on Tuesday 17 May at 6 pm at the Parlour, First Court, Magdalene College. We will be addressed by Dr Jordi Sanchez-Marti (University of Alicante) on the subject of:

‘The English Early Printers and Medieval Romance from a Continental Perspective’

The abstract for the talk is as follows:

The first book printed in English is a romance, namely the Recuyell of the histories of Troy, which significantly was published not in England but on the Continent. Originally composed in French by Raoul Lefèvre, the Recuyell was both rendered into English and printed by William Caxton in Flanders in ca. 1473. All the romances printed by Caxton were in prose and, except for Malory’s Morte Darthur, originated on the Continent. The predominance of the printed prose romances in England during the incunabular period can be regarded as an imposition of a
foreign literary fashion and a departure from the English romance tradition in the manuscript period, when verse was preferred to prose. To what extent did Caxton’s residence on the Continent determine the type of romance texts that obtained printed distribution in English?
Were the early English printers following developments on the Continent, or were they instead shaping European romance printing? Did the early English printers participate in the creation of a European canon of romances? Using the tools of enumerative bibliography, this paper hopes
to improve our understanding of romance printing in English by placing this commercial and literary activity in its European context and comparing it to continental printing trends.

Dr Jordi Sánchez-Martí is a senior lecturer in English Literature at the University of Alicante. The main focus of his research has been the study of the romance genre in late medieval England, with a particular interest in the transition of the Middle English verse romances from manuscript to print. His research on this topic has appeared in journals such as Modern Philology, Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, and Word & Image. More recently he has considered the publication of Iberian chivalric romances in early modern England and is currently finishing a critical edition of Anthony Munday’s Palmerin d’Oliva (1588), to be published in the Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies series from the University of Arizona.

As usual, we will be having dinner with the speaker at a local restaurant after the talk. Please let us know if you would like to join via email to mms@magd.cam.ac.uk.

John Coffin Memorial Lecturer: Daniel Wakelin (11 May)

Daniel Wakelin (Jeremy Griffiths Professor of Medieval English Palaeography, University of Oxford): ‘Let me slip into something less comfortable’: Gothic/Textualis/by Accident and by Design

Date: 11/05/2016 -17:30-19:00
Institute: Institute of English Studies
Venue: The Chancellor’s Hall, First Floor, Senate House, Malet Street,
London WC1E 7HU

Professor Wakelin is a leading expert in the palaeography and reading culture of the later Middle Ages. He is the author of numerous studies, among them Humanism, Reading and English Literature 1430-1530 (2007) and Scribal Correction and Literary Craft: English Manuscripts 1375-1510 (2014), which was joint winner of the DeLong Prize for book history in 2015. His John Coffin Memorial Lecture concerns the supposed ‘decadence’ of late gothic textualis, especially the more formal grades, whether it entailed effort or conscious design, and instances when individuals misunderstood it or slipped.

Download poster here: John Coffin 2016 poster

CFP: Medieval Sexualities (10 May)

Medieval Sexualities: An Interdisciplinary Conference
Institute of Archaeology, UCL
11-12 June 2016

The Northern/Early Medieval Interdisciplinary Conference Series is pleased to invite proposals for papers on medieval sexualities. This interdisciplinary event will explore how different forms and concepts of sexuality are represented and produced in the medieval context though textual, material, archaeological, visual and musical sources. For example, how are sexualities communicated though medieval art and writing? How are material objects used to create, encode and communicate particular identities? Whether absent or present, sexuality in medieval texts is equally telling. From the Anglo-Saxon Wife’s lament to the lamenting lover of 12th and 13th century troubadours, the taboos and editing of Apollonius of Tyre, Aelfric’s virgin martyrs, the sexualized devotion of Margery Kempe and the clever ruse of the Anglo-Saxon Judith, the power of sexuality is ubiquitous. Manuscript illustrations abound with scenes of eroticism, as do the carvings on later medieval churches. Sexuality in the Middle Ages is a topic that has steadily started to receive more serious attention from scholars. This conference will explore the significance of these varied (re)presentations of sexualities in literature and visual art looking at agency and voice, power and satire.

We invite proposals for papers of 20 minutes each on any aspect of sexuality, from researchers in any discipline, and considering any medieval culture.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

Sex and gender relations in medieval literature/music/material culture
Perceptions and self/representation of sexuality in the Middle Ages
Tropes of sexuality in medieval cultures
The role of sexuality in material objects, graves and other areas of archaeological interest
Gradual change of expression in sexualities throughout the medieval period
Sexuality and medieval gender identity
The absence or presence of sexuality: sexuality as an absent presence
Social norms and boundaries of individuals and cultural groups such as monastics, musicians and others
Seductions, taboos and transgressions
Sex, devotion and the body in medieval mysticism
The landscape and medieval sexualities
Papers exploring the treatment of medieval sexualities and gender in modern contexts and media, such as games, films and graphic novels, are also welcome.

Abstracts of 250 words are invited for submission by 10 May 2016. Please email abstracts to the conference committee at NEmics2016@gmail.com.

Medieval into Renaissance: Essays for Helen Cooper

A festschrift for Professor Helen Cooper has just been published, edited by Andrew King and Matthew Woodcock.

The borderline between the periods commonly termed “medieval” and “Renaissance”, or “medieval” and “early modern”, is one of the most hotly, energetically and productively contested faultlines in literary history studies. The essays presented in this volume both build upon and respond to the work of Professor Helen Cooper, a scholar who has long been committed to exploring the complex connections and interactions between medieval and Renaissance literature. The contributors re-examine a range of ideas, authors and genres addressed in her work, including pastoral, chivalric romance, early English drama, and the writings of Chaucer, Langland, Spenser and Shakespeare. As a whole, the volume aims to stimulate active debates on the ways in which Renaissance writers used, adapted, and remembered aspects of the medieval.

The volume includes an essay by James Wade, entitled ‘Penitential Romance after the Reformation’.

The other contributors are Joyce Boro, Aisling Byrne, Nandini Das, Mary C. Flannery, Alexandra Gillespie, Andrew King, Megan G. Leitch, R.W. Maslen, Jason Powell, Helen Vincent, Matthew Woodcock.

CFP: Treasure in heaven, treasures on Earth (1 Jun)

Treasure in heaven, treasures on Earth: the secular world and material consumption in Western European monasticism c.1050 – c. 1250

21-23^rd September 2016
Hatfield College, Durham University

Abstracts are invited for a conference entitled ‘Treasure in heaven, treasures on Earth: the secular world and material consumption in Western European monasticism c.1050 – c. 1250’ to be held 21-23^rdSeptember 2016 at the University of Durham. All are encouraged to submit, from graduate students to established staff, and from all disciplines.

This conference will explore ideas of monastic practice and rhetoric towards the social and material world, both within and outside the cloister. Both individual monks and their communities engaged with the secular world, whether driven by necessity or by their own impetus, despite the perceived dangers of interactions with lay society and their values. This period saw the unprecedented amassing of material wealth by monastic communities, closer interaction with lay society alongside increasing divisions in the interpretation of St. Benedict’s Rule, especially in the sphere of wealth and its appropriate use. How monks endeavoured to maintain their adherence to monastic expectations in this new atmosphere is the chief concern of this conference. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

Monastic dealings with money, offering, usury and communal wealth.
Monks as landlords and secular lords.
The rule of St. Benedict and the practicalities of life in the medieval monastery.
Monks as builders and patrons of construction.
Monks and their relationships with women and the secular social hierarchy.
Monks and earthly goods.
Monastic theological approaches to the relationship between the monk and the world.

Transcending disciplinary boundaries, this conference aims to bring together scholars working on all aspects of monastic life and thought in order to examine the various ways that monks in Western Europe from the mid-eleventh to the mid-thirteenth century approached and interacted with the world around them. Papers are encouraged which deal with all areas of medieval western Europe, including Scandinavia.

Prospective speakers are invited to submit abstracts of 200-300 words. Submissions should include name, affiliation, and contact details. The deadline for submissions is: 1st June 2016. Subsidies will be available for postgraduate delegates. For more information about the conference, to join the conference mailing list or to submit an abstract, please email the committee at: treasure.in.heaven@durham.ac.uk

Organizing committee: Stephanie Britton and Rosalind Green.

This conference is kindly funded by the Institute of Advanced Studies, the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, and the Centre for Academic and Researcher Development, all Durham University.

CFP: Medieval Romance Conference (22 Apr)

Medieval Romance Conference, 14-15 September, 2016
University of Cambridge

With a plenary lecture by Professor Helen Cooper.

PROPOSAL DEADLINE: 22 April 2016

This two-day conference, conceived as an alternative for those who cannot attend the biennial romance conference in Vancouver this August, is open to any medievalist working on romance in Britain. As with the regular romance conference, we encourage proposals on any aspect of romance and its contexts in medieval Britain, excluding Chaucer and Arthurian romance (which have their own specialist conferences this year).

Proposals for 20-minute papers or for 90-minute roundtable sessions can be sent to James Wade (jpw49@cam.ac.uk). Proposals should include: name, affiliation, email address, title of paper or roundtable, and an abstract of no more than 250 words. If you are proposing a roundtable, please include names, affiliations, and email addresses for all participants. The deadline for proposals is 22 April 2016.

We anticipate the conference will begin around 11am on Wednesday 14 September and run until approximately 4pm on Thursday 15 September. It will be held in the English Faculty at Cambridge. There will be accommodation (with optional breakfast) available at nearby Newnham College, and we plan to hold a conference dinner at Newnham on the evening of Wednesday 14th.

The conference fee will be £25 (£15 student/unwaged). We will also have a buffet lunch available in the Faculty on both days. The cost for lunch will be £12 per day.

Please circulate this message to any colleagues who may be interested.
If you have any questions at this point, please feel free to email James Wade (jpw49@cam.ac.uk).

The organisers are James Wade (Cambridge) and Elizabeth Archibald (Durham).

CFP: Pastoralia in the Late Middle Ages – Teaching, Translation, Transmission (18 March)

Pastoralia–the corpora of catechetical, homiletic and pastoral texts designed to aid in teaching the tenets of Christianity to the laity –flourished in the wake of the Fourth Lateran Council’s plea for the clergy to take their pastoral duties more seriously, and the subsequent ecclesiastical legislation enacted to implement this. In England, Pecham’s Lambeth Constitutions (1281) outlined the pastoral syllabus that was to be taught in the province of Canterbury, whilst similar legislation was enacted to cover the province of York. In recent years, a great deal of scholarly attention has begun to focus on the surviving texts that were composed to help the clergy carry out these pastoral duties. This conference seeks to investigate the utility and efficacy of pastoralia, and the ways in which the laity responded to these developments. Papers might consider:

 Evidence of manuscript transmission: production, acquisition, and circulation; individuals, institutions, and networks.
 The transmission of ideas: from the university to the parish, the cloister to the tavern.
 Translatio and its many interpretations: contemporary translations of Latin texts into the vernacular, and vice versa; modern principles of translating and editing texts.
 Teaching: the efficacy of pastoralia as a catechetical tool; how pastoral discourse was controlled, appropriated, and contested.Keynote papers by Prof. Ralph Hanna and Prof. John Arnold Deadline for Abstracts: 18 March 2016. Contact: pastoralia2016@gmail.com

International Conference: The European Fortune of the Roman Veronica in the Middle Ages (4-5 April)

This interdisciplinary conference poses questions about the European
fame of the Roman Veronica, the cloth believed to bear the imprint of the face of Christ. By bringing together the perspectives of scholars of history, literature, the liturgy and history of art, it seeks to break new ground in our understanding of the origin, cult, promotion and dissemination of the image in the Middle Ages.
The origin of the cult of the Veronica is explored through such
fundamental texts as the Cura Sanitatis Tiberii, which promulgated information about the Veronica to the West, and through a critical reading of the erudite Latin treatise de sacrosancto sudario Veronicae, in which Giacomo Grimaldi identified all the medieval sources for the relic contained in the pontifical archives, such as the Liber Pontificalis and Liber politicus.
The spread of the cult of the Veronica is examined through a synopsis of
the liturgical texts, the Mass Proper of the Holy Face or of Saint Veronica, and the analysis of their literary form, biblical motives and theological content, as well as more generally within the theme of pilgrimages, whose goal was to see the Holy Face. From a historical viewpoint, the start of the cult of the Veronica during Innocent III’s pontificate and its historical development is considered, with particular attention to the question of indulgences, the role played by the Ospedale di Santo Spirito in Sassia, the destination of the procession with the relic, and the symbolic meaning of the Veronica for the popes.
Within art history, the development of characteristics of the Veronica in iconographic terms is traced, both within England and across Europe, and its inclusion in prayer books belonging to the laity appraised.
Registration: To book your place at the conference, please click here
Further information: www.veronicaconference20162018.simply.net
Contact: secretary.veronica.20162018@gmail.com

CFP: After Chichele: Intellectual and Cultural Dynamics of the English Church, 1443 to 1517 (12 Aug)

After Chichele: Intellectual and Cultural Dynamics of the English Church, 1443 to 1517

St. Anne’s College, Oxford, 28-30 June 2017

An international conference organised by the Faculty of English, University
of Oxford, this event builds on the success of the 2009 Oxford conference, After Arundel: Religious Writing in Fifteenth-Century England, which resulted in a book of essays (ed. by Vincent Gillespie and Kantik Ghosh) that vigorously interrogated the nature of religious and intellectual culture in England in the long fifteenth century. After Chichele adopts a similar investigative and interdisciplinary approach. The period has been chosen precisely because the inner workings of English intellectual and religious life during these years have proved challengingly resistant to the formation of grand critical narratives. What are the chief currents driving the intellectual and cultural life of the church in England during this period? What happened to intellectual questioning during the period, and where did the Church’s cultural life express itself most vividly? What significant parochial, regional, national and international influences were brought to bear on English literate practices? In order to address these questions, the conference will adopt an interdisciplinary focus, inviting contributions from historians, literary scholars, and scholars working on the theology, ecclesiastical history, music and art of the period, and it is expected that a wide range of literary and cultural artefacts will be considered, from single-authored works to manuscript compilations, from translations to original works, and from liturgy to art and architecture, with no constraints as to the conference’s likely outcomes and conclusions. It is intended that the conference should generate a volume of essays similar to After Arundel in scope, ambition and quality.

Plenary speakers: David Carlson, Mary Erler, Sheila Lindenbaum, Julian Luxford, David Rundle, Cathy Shrank.

Possible topics for discussion:
Religious writing and the English Church; the emergence of humanism and the fate of scholasticism; literature and the law; cultural and ecclesiastical patronage; developments in art and architecture; the liturgical life of the Church; the impact of the international book trade and of print; palaeography and codicology; the Church’s role in education, colleges and chantries; the impact of travel and pilgrimage.

Please send 500 word abstracts (for proposed 20-minute papers) by Friday, 12th August 2016 to Vincent Gillespie, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford OX2 6QA (vincent.gillespie@ell.ox.ac.uk).

London Medieval Society Colloquium: ‘Treasure in the Middle Ages’ (27 Feb)

A message from the Colloquium Secretary of The London Medieval Society:

Dear Colleagues, Members, and Friends,

Please would you kindly note that our next Colloquium is just a week away – on Saturday 27th February 11-6 on ‘Treasure in the Middle Ages’. We are excited to welcome our speakers: Jenny Stratford(IHR) on treasure inventories, John Clark (MOL) on treasures of the Thames, Kirstin Kennedy (V&A) on treasure hoards, and Emily Guerry (Kent) on Sainte Chapelle. As I mentioned on the programme, this Colloquium springs from our 70th Anniversary Conference last May when archaeologists, curators, historians, and medieval literature experts came together to discuss medieval London in a most fruitful collaboration. This Colloquium will probe medieval attitudes to treasure and how we consider and care about medieval material culture today to debate and question medieval and modern perceptions of treasure, whether relic, ritual or royal object, and hoarded, lauded or rubbished.

We also have some exciting news about the Society to share and a report by Jon-Marc Grussenmayer on the Anniversary Conference.

We are very keen to encourage postgraduate students to attend. The Colloquium is only £5 for students (and concessions) and £10 for waged people and includes tea and coffee and a wine reception afterwards.

The venue is the Old Anatomy Building in QMUL Charterhouse Square EC1M 6BQ (nearest tube: Barbican). The directions are as follows: with your back to the only exit of this tube station turn left and take the first turning left, walk past the Tesco Metro, into Carthusian Street, cross over this street and bear right as it opens into the Square, walk past the glorious Art Deco apartment block and you will see the wrought iron gates ahead of you, walk through the side entrance and the Old Anatomy Building is immediately on your right, the walk takes about four to five minutes from the tube.

May I request also, if you have not already done so, that you kindly reserve a seat via Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/treasure-in-the-middle-ages-london-medieval-society-tickets-19078786163.

If you have any problems booking please contact me via this email address: deh4@kent.ac.uk – and I shall be delighted to make the reservation for you.

I look forward to welcoming you to Charterhouse Square on 27th February. If you would like to eat supper with us please email me (deh4@kent.ac.uk) and I shall book a nearby Italian trattoria for an early meal.

Best wishes,

Diane

Dr Diane Heath
Assistant Lecturer
Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS)
Rutherford College, University of Kent
Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NX
Colloquium Secretary, The London Medieval Society
http://londonmedievalsociety.com/

Medieval Research Group

Faculty of English, University of Cambridge