Monthly Archives: October 2013

Mapping Our World: Terra Incognita to Australia

A free exhibition is opening soon at the National Library of Australia in Canberra, which may interest members.

Mapping Our World: Terra Incognita to Australia

Exhibition Website

Date: 7 November 2013 to 10 March 2014
Opening hours: Open from 10.00am daily with last entry at 5.00pm (closed Christmas Day)

Treasured items from some of the world’s greatest map collections will tell the remarkable story of how Australia came to be on the map, and will reveal the history and struggle to imagine and document the world; from the earliest imaginings of the earth and the night sky through to Matthew Flinders’ landmark General Chart of Terra Australis or Australia in 1814.

The exhibition will take you on a spiritual, artistic and scientific journey, showing how European explorers gradually unravelled the secrets of the south land. Highlights of the exhibition include the magnificent Fra Mauro, Map of the world; the remarkable Boke of Idrography presented to Henry VIII; an intricate world map by the Benedictine monk Andreas Walsperger (1448); a fifteenth-century Ptolemy manuscript; magnificent and controversial ‘Dieppe’ charts; one of only four surviving copies of Mercator’s groundbreaking 1569 projection and original manuscript charts by Pacific navigators including Louis de Freycinet, James Cook and Matthew Flinders.

Mapping our World is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see rare and unique cartographic treasures from around the world.

Actor Russell Crowe, who has an interest in maps, will open the exhibition on November 7. Entry is free however bookings are required.

Post-Doctoral Researcher, University of London: The Warburg Institute – Call For Applications

Post-Doctoral Researcher
Encounters with the orient in early modern European scholarship (EOS),
University of London -The Warburg Institute

Applications are invited for a 0.5 part time research assistantship, as part of a major research project funded by the HERA. The post is available from 1 November 2013 for a fixed term until 30 September 2016.

Funded by HERA the project will document the scholarly European encounter with Oriental culture between c 1500‐1800. The ‘Orient’ explored in this context is, first of all, a Biblical Orient, covering the religious area of Islam, Eastern Judaism and Christianity. Interest in this cultural, religious and linguistic area arose from Scripture Studies and theological and missionary concerns with the Eastern Churches and Islam. These delineate the early modern concept of ‘Orient’, and also determine our use of the concept. In a number of case studies, conferences, and exhibitions, the project will explore the early modern scholarly European encounter with the Orient.

There is no application form. Candidates should submit with their letter of application a full curriculum vitae giving contact information (including e-mail address), details of qualifications, previous experience, current salary (if any) and the names, addresses and e-mail addresses of two referees (present/previous employers or academic references).

For full details and to apply, please visit: http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/home/vacancies/post-doctoral-researcher

Closing date for receipt of applications: Monday, 21 October 2013

Chaucerian Manuscripts Across Time – Call For Papers

From glass case to cyber-space: Chaucerian manuscripts across time / Syrffio’r silff: hynt a helynt llawysgrifau Chaucer
National Library of Wales / Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru 
14-16 April, 2014

Conference Website

To celebrate the digitization of the Hengwrt manuscript of The Canterbury Tales (available from April 2014 on the National Library’s Digital Mirror), The School of English, Bangor University and IMEMS (the Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Bangor and Aberystwyth Universities) is delighted to host an interdisciplinary conference devoted to Chaucerian manuscripts and editions of Chaucer’s works.

Abstracts are welcomed from postgraduates and colleagues on all aspects of Chaucerian studies, and from a broad range of disciplines, including history, book history, literature, art history, and the digital humanities.
Papers are particularly welcome on, but not limited to:

  • The palaeography and codicology of Chaucerian manuscripts
  • From manuscript to printed text; Chaucer and his contemporaries
  • Owners and users of Chaucer’s works
  • Chaucer and medieval Wales
  • Medieval story telling
  • Post-medieval production and reception of Chaucer’s works
  • Digitizing medieval manuscripts
  • Digital Chaucer in the classroom
  • Chaucer in the Twenty-first century

In addition to the panels, confirmed speakers include Lorna Hughes (University of Wales), Ceridwen Lloyd Morgan (Bangor and Cardiff Universities), Andrew Prescott (King’s College, London), Liv Robinson (Oxford University) and Estelle Stubbs (Sheffield University). We are pleased also to announce that the conference will include a tour of the multi-faceted exhibition at the National Library of Wales showcasing the Hengwrt Chaucer – one of the treasures at the National Library of Wales. Papers submitted may also be considered for a special edition of English: The Journal of the English Association (OUP).

Please send abstracts of 200-300 words, for papers lasting 20 minutes, or proposals of panels comprising three papers, no later than 1 December 2013 to Dr Sue Niebrzydowski, for consideration by the conference committee.

Trinity College Digitized MSS.

Trinity College, Cambridge is digitizing its medieval manuscripts, and making them freely available on the Web. A few years ago, M.R.James’s catalogue of the manuscripts was put up on the Library’s website, with some updates. This is now being used as the index tool for searching for digitized volumes. So far, about 150 of the thousand or so manuscripts have been copied, in a programme that is part-funded by the College’s alumni.

For access, go to the Library’s website http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php?pageid=9

Click on ‘Early manuscripts’, and then ‘The James catalogue’. From there follow the links to the manuscript you wish to see. The descriptions of those manuscripts that have been digitized are headed with access to the relevant images. Priority is being given to manuscripts that are most in demand. The Librarian (Professor David McKitterick) will be glad to receive suggestions for further manuscripts that might be treated early in the programme.

Thanks to the MEMC for passing on this resource.

Forms and Formats: Experimenting with Print, 1695-1815 – Call For Papers

Forms and Formats: Experimenting with Print, 1695-1815
University of Oxford
8-9 September, 2014

Plenary Speakers (TBC): Dr Christine Ferdinand (Magdalen College, University of Oxford), Prof. James Raven (University of Essex)

From broadside ballads and Lilliputian folios to printed engravings and manuals, from newspapers and pamphlets to abridgements and anthologies, a vast variety of print circulated in eighteenth-century Britain and its colonies. How did authors, printers, engravers or booksellers experiment with new forms of publication and with what results? To what extent did regulations related to copyright, taxation, or postal distribution affect the choices of authors and publishers? How did changes in printing format (octavo, duodecimo, etc.) alter the experiences of readers and reveal the modifications of the book trade?

Papers may examine a specific text or image as it appeared across different formats, or consider a particular category (the monthly magazine, the advertisement, the abridged novel, etc.) in relation to its material form(s). Whether focusing on the evolution of techniques and materials or the changing habits of readers, authors are especially encouraged to include analysis of works held by one of the host libraries: The Bodleian Library, Jesus College Fellows’ Library, and Oriel College Senior Library. Copies of relevant works will be displayed during the conference.

Please supply a 300-word proposal and a one-page C.V. by 15 January 2014 to: formsandformats2014@gmail.com 

View this CFP online: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/?a=151534 

Medium Ævum Essay Prize 2013

In 2007, The Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature established the Medium Ævum Essay Prize. The competition is run annually, with postgraduates and those recently graduated with a higher degree invited to submit an essay on a topic that falls within the range of the interests of Medium Ævum in the medieval period (up to c. 1500). The prize is £250. In addition, the winning article may be considered for publication in Medium Ævum, subject to the usual editorial procedures of the journal.

A list of previous Essay Prize Winners is downloadable here.

The deadline for Essay Prize is 12 December. The rules of the competition are available here. It is a requirement to submit an entry with a completed cover sheet, which is available, in Word doc format. Any queries can be directed to Executive Officer of the Society.

Professor Emerita Michelle P. Brown – PMRG/CMEMS @ UWA lecture

Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group/UWA Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies lecture
“The Luttrell Psalter: Imaging England on the Eve of the Black Death”, Michelle P. Brown, Professor Emerita of Medieval Manuscripts, University of London

Date: Thursday 28 November 2013
Time: 6:00 PM
Venue: Webb Lecture Theatre (G21) Geography Building, UWA
Cost: Free, but RSVP to anne.scott@uwa.edu.au by Monday 25 November 2013

The Luttrell Psalter (now in the British Library, London) is oneof the most famous and colourful of medieval manuscripts. A menagerie of weird and wonderful grotesques populates its margins – some the stuff of nightmares, others acceptable household pets, others overt parodies of society and politics. It was made for Sir Geoffrey Luttrell, Lord of the Manor of Irnham (Lincolnshire) in the 1330s and tells us more than any other medieval artwork about those who commissioned it and also, unusually, of the daily life of the folk who worked their land. The whole medieval microcosm is there, but how is it to be read and interpreted? Come along and find out!

—–

Michelle P. Brown is Professor Emerita of Medieval Manuscript Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, and is a Visiting Professor at University College London and Baylor University (Texas). She was formerly the Curator of Medieval and Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library and a Lay Canon of St Paul’s Cathedral, London. She has published, lectured, and broadcast widely on medieval cultural history and her books include the facsimile commentary for the Luttrell Psalter, The Lindisfarne Gospels and the Early Medieval World, The Holkham Bible Picture Book, A Guide to Western Historical Scripts, The Lion Companion to Christian Art, and The Book and the Transformation of Britain c500-1050.

Reading Conference in Early Modern Studies – Call For Papers

Reading Conference in Early Modern Studies
The Early Modern Research Centre, University of Reading
7-9 July, 2014

The Reading Early Modern Conference continues to establish itself as the place where early modernists meet each July for stimulation, conversation and debate. As in previous years, proposals of individual papers and panels are invited on research in any aspect of early modern studies relating to Britain, Europe and the wider world. This year, the plenary speakers are Randall McLeod (Toronto) and Tony Claydon (Bangor).

We would welcome proposals for individual papers and panels on any aspect of early modern literature, history, art, music and culture. Panels have been proposed on the following themes and further panels or individual papers are also invited on these topics or any other aspect of early modern studies:

  • 1714: the death of Queen Anne, the last of the Stuarts; succession in a British and European context.
  • Material texts: technologies of paper, pen and print; binding and unbinding books; compilation, collection, anthologising; modern technologies and early modern texts.
  • Writers’ career choices: poetry versus plays; theatre history; plague closures; history of printing; debates over authorship.
  • Knowledge, method, practice; mechanic arts; guilds and mysteries; tacit knowledge; statecraft and arcana imperii; how-to manuals; thinking about thinking.

Proposals for panels should consist of a minimum of two and a maximum of four papers.

Each panel proposal should contain the names of the session chair, the names and affiliations of the speakers and short abstracts (200 word abstracts) of the papers together with email contacts for all participants. A proposal for an individual paper should consist of a 200 word abstract of the paper with brief details of affiliation and career.

Proposals for either papers or panels should be sent by email to the chair of the Conference Committee, Dr Rebecca Bullard, by 6 January 2014, r.bullard@reading.ac.uk.

Proposals are welcome from postgraduates, and the conference hopes to make some money available for postgraduate bursaries. Anyone for whom some financial assistance is a prerequisite for their attendance should mention this when submitting their proposal.