Text-Image Dynamics in Medieval Manuscripts and Signs of Patronage in Medieval Manuscripts, sessions at at the 52nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 11–14, 2017
The Index of Christian Art will sponsor "Image & Meaning in Medieval Manuscripts: Sessions in Honor of Adelaide Bennett Hagens," at the 52nd Medieval Congress.
Session I: Text-Image Dynamics in Medieval Manuscripts
This session invites papers that examine the interaction between words and images in medieval manuscripts as they shape the reader-viewer’s experience of the book. How do texts and images interact on the page? How did medieval readers respond to the varied discourses between images and texts? This session endeavors to open up new perspectives in describing, analyzing, and contextualizing manuscript illumination. Speakers may address the topic of visual rhetoric and how images communicate meaning with accompanying text, image-text composition, and the recovery of the reader’s experience through text and iconography. Also of interest is the role of images and their intrinsic or peripheral textual elements (including rubrics, captions, mottos, names, initials, labels, titles, instructions, votives, quotations, speech scrolls, pseudo-inscriptions and other types of inscriptions), as well as that of formal text or paratextual elements, in elucidating meaning and engaging the viewer. Speakers may consider case studies of particular manuscripts or present analyses addressing broad iconographic trends.
Session II: Signs of Patronage in Medieval Manuscripts
This session invites papers that examine the many varied “visual signatures” of manuscript patrons, including the dress, gestures, posture, and attributes of donor figures; heraldry and personalized inscriptions; marginal notes, colophons, dedications, and other signs of ownership and use. Building on scholarship presented in the 2013 Index conference Patronage: Power and Agency in Medieval Art, this session seeks papers that will investigate the dynamic system of patronage centered on the interaction of owners with their books (whether as creator, patron, commissioner, or reader-viewer). Speakers may also investigate the importance of gender and social roles in book production, use, and readership or the role of patron as instigator in the process of book creation, from payment to design.
Inspired by Adelaide’s continued interest in new research, we would particularly welcome submissions from emerging scholars in manuscript studies to share projects that reflect new developments and chart future possible courses for the field.
Organizers
Judith Golden, Index of Christian Art, Princeton University
Jessica Savage, Index of Christian Art, Princeton University