Hwaet?

A Terrified and Floundering Newcomer

2012-11-28T23:37:09Z

Hello, medievalists!

I just spent two hours hitting the "Previous 10"! What an informative and friendly community I've stumbled upon!

I am so, so thankful to have found you all. And I hope that you can help me!

Let be begin by stating that I've been interested in medieval literature since AP English in eleventh grade. Every class I took at university with a focus in medieval studies just confirmed that THIS -- this was what I wanted to immerse myself in for the rest of my days. In particular, my heart throbs over the linguistic aspect. I really, really like grammar (I'm praying that no one finds a billion typos in this now). And I really, really enjoy languages in general! I've taken two semesters of Latin (before the subject was CANCELLED -- unbelievable!) and many long years of French, from high school and into college. I am more interested, however, in Old Norse, and I wish that I had taken German instead of Latin or French. Gosh, I'd die to learn Welsh! ... Maybe not die.

Okay, so this is why I'm terrified and floundering:

I'm low on funds. I've been low since I've started paying back student loans and the rest of life's bills (relatable, I'm sure). So I'm taking my GRE late and applying to grad school late, and will probably be broke by the time January rolls around. But I think it's worth it. Oh lawd, I hope it's worth it.

I'm trying to be very careful about where I apply. I graduated with a 3.66 GPA, and while I didn't do much volunteering, I was a writer for our university's magazine, and my poetry was featured in our annual literary journal. I've had a rough undergraduate career simply due to the fact that I changed majors twice and transferred schools once. Really, when I look at myself, I see a lot of passion but very little to show for it.

And yet still, I want to get into a good school. I also want to be realistic about it. So far I've looked into the Medieval Studies/Literature programs at Purdue, Western Michigan, Oregon, and a few others. I can only apply to a few-- it's honestly all I can afford. I'd love to study abroad but that's moving into the territory of "in your dreams". Can any of you pros offer any input on the situation or suggest any other schools that might be more suited for my interests?

All the best to you wonderful people, and I hope your holidays are off to a grand start! Thanks for reading!

CFP: Hortulus 2012 "Space and Place"

2012-01-25T16:51:27Z

Hortulus: The Online Graduate Journal of Medieval Studies

Special Call For Papers for Issue on Medieval Space and Place

SUBMISSION DEADLINE FOR VOLUME 7, Issue 1: 1 March 2012

Hortulus: The Online Graduate Journal of Medieval Studies is a refereed journal devoted to the literature, history, and culture of the medieval world. Published electronically twice a year, its mission is to present a forum in which graduate students from around the globe may share their ideas. Article submissions on the selected theme are welcome in any discipline and period of Medieval Studies. We are also interested in book reviews on recent works of interest to a broad audience of Medieval Studies scholars.

Recently, place and space theories have manifested themselves in Medieval Studies in a number of ways, from analysis of specific spaces and places, such as gardens, forests, cities, and the court, to spatially theorized topics such as travel narratives, nationalism, and the open- or closedness of specific medieval cultural areas. Over an array of subjects, the spatial turn challenges scholars to re-think how humans create the world around them, through both physical and mental processes. Articles should explore the meaning of space/place in the past by situating it in its precise historical context.

Possible article topics include, but are not limited to:

Medieval representations of spatial order
The sense of place in the construction of social identities
Mapping and spatial imagination
Topographies of meaningful places
Beyond the binary of center/periphery
Spatial policies of separation: ethnicity, religion, or gender
Travel and the sense of place
Creating landscape
The idea of place in medieval religious culture
Pilgrimage
Workplaces Intimate space, public place
Liminality and proximity as social categories

The 2011 issue of Hortulus: The Online Graduate Journal of Medieval Studies will be published in May of 2012. All graduate students are welcome to submit their articles and book reviews, or to send their queries, via email to submit@hortulus.net by March 1, 2012. For further information please visit our website at www.hortulus.net

Hortulus: The Online Graduate Journal of Medieval Studies, www.hortulus.net

The Phantom Time Hypothesis

2011-09-20T11:39:36Z

I'm writing a paper on the "Phantom Time Hypothesis". You can Google this, or refer to this paper by Niemitz http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/volatile/Niemitz-1997.pdf, or this by Illig http://www.bearfabrique.org/Catastrophism/illig_paper.htm, or this article about it on the BBC website http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/A84012040. Briefly, the hypothesis is that in order to reconcile the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendar, we have to remove 300 years from the 'official' calendar. Illig reckons these years would be 614-911. Thus many popes, emperors, wars &c never existed. The hypothesis explains this as a massive conspiracy. The entire history of that period was invented by Holy Roman Emperor Otto III, whose conventional dates are given as 980 –1002, but who really lived 300 years before that, from about 680 to 702. However, in connivance with Pope Sylvester II, he decided to convince everybody they were living at the end of the First Millennium, because it was a wonderful opportunity for positive PR, and Otto liked the idea of reigning in the Year 1000. “It was such a nice, round number”. He changed the dates, and got scribes to write an extra 300 years of history.

I have my own ideas about this but welcome the thoughts of people here. In particular, I am interested in how ordinary people in the early middle ages actually recorded years. Did they really rely on priests to tell them the time (it is essential to the hypothesis that the whole Church was involved in the conspiracy)? Or did they record dates and years in their own way? How often did official documents record the exact date?

My only knowledge of reference to dates is Bede, who includes a whole chronology of the world in his book on the English Church and people. (However, Bede was living right in the middle of the 'phantom period' so perhaps his works were a later forgery).

Thanks

Edward

postdoc for a "digital medievliast"

2011-09-07T21:51:32Z

Dear Colleagues:

I know it is very late in the game

for this kind of posting, but circumstances are such that I am looking
for a post-doc research fellow for the T-PEN project for immediate hire.
At this point, residence in St Louis is negotiable (although the
successful candidate must already be able to work legally in the USA).
Feel free to share the details with everyone and anyone.

Jim

__________________________

Saint
Louis University, a Jesuit Catholic institution dedicated to education,
research, healthcare and service, seeks applications for a full-time,
limited contract, Research Fellow (Senior Research Assistant) in the
Center for Digital Theology. The successful candidate will join a
research team which is developing a web-based application in digital
humanities: T-PEN (Transcription for Paleographical and Editorial
Notation) is a web-based tool that assist scholars who wish to
transcribe from digitized, unpublished manuscripts. T-PEN has been in
development for a year, and the new Research Fellow will contribute to
its completion over the next year. Details of the project may be found
at digital-editor.blogspot.com

Reporting to the Principal Investigator, the Research Fellow
works alongside a Java Developer and GUI Developer as well as the
project's other Co-PI, Professor Abigail Firey (University of Kentucky).
The Research Fellow contributes to T-PEN's general development (which
features to create or modify, how to make the application more usable,
etc.), participates in bug reporting and usability testing, attends
weekly staff meetings, and executes a transcription project that will
act as a major use case for T-PEN. That project will be based on one or
more the 2,600 manuscripts that T-PEN currently has permission to use,
which are drawn from five partnering digital repositories (Parker on the
Web, e-codices, CEEC, Hougthon Library [Harvard] and Assisi). The
Research Fellow will publish a working digital edition of the text based
on the transcription work using T-PEN throughout the academic year. The
Research Fellow also contributes posts to T-PEN's blog and must be
willing to "tweet" about the project on a regular basis on Twitter.

The successful candidate will possess a doctorate in medieval studies

(or a single humanities discipline with a medieval research focus) and
will have strong, demonstrated skills in paleography and Latin and/or a
medieval vernacular language. Some experience in text editing would also
be an asset. The successful candidate must have demonstrable experience
in the digital humanities (such as digital text editing, software
development, digital image analysis, database development, etc.).
Experience with XML encoding would also be an asset. (S)he must also
possess strong interpersonal skills, be able to work in a team
environment, and be able to work to set deadlines. The position will
begin immediately upon hire and will terminate on 30 April 2011. The
annual salary will be $40,000, paid on a monthly basis. The position
includes medical and other minor benefits.

Summary of Qualifications

Required

- PhD in Medieval Studies (or a single humanities discipline with a medieval research focus)
- Demonstrated skill in Paleography and Latin (and/or a medieval vernacular language)

- Demonstrable experience in digital humanities
- Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to work in a team environment
- Able to work to set deadlines
Desirable
- Experience in text editing
- Experience with XML encoding

Applications are to be submitted on line at http://jobs.slu.edu.
Please include a letter of application, a CV, a list of URLs of
previous projects or a sample written piece that engages the methods of
digital humanities, and a list of three referees. Potential applicants
are welcome to contact Professor James Ginther, Director, Center for
Digital Theology, for any additional information at ginthej@slu.edu.

Saint Louis University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity

Employer and strongly encourages applications from women and minority
candidates.

--
----------
James R. Ginther, PhD

Professor of Medieval Theology
& Director,
Center for Digital Theology
Saint Louis University
-------------------------
ginthej@slu.edu
Faculty Page: Departmental Page

Research Blog: http://digital-editor.blogspot.com

Twitter: DH_editor

PhD

2011-07-04T11:46:48Z

Hello all,

I'm new here. I am considering applying for a PhD program dealing with Medieval Manuscripts. The topic is wide open and I'm curious if anyone can lead me in the right direction to topics that are of current interest in Medieval Studies?

I have reviewed many online exhibitions and I have also come up with a few topics only to research and find that a great deal has already been covered on that topic.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Lenticular

CFP: New College Conference on Medieval & Renaissance Studies 2012

2011-06-23T18:38:40Z

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

The eighteenth biennial New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies will take place 8–10 March 2012 in Sarasota, Florida. The program committee invites 250-word abstracts of proposed twenty-minute papers on topics in European and Mediterranean history, literature, art, 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.

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, art and music. The 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 plenary speakers, conference events, and area attractions: http://faculty.ncf.edu/medievalstudies

The deadline for abstracts is 15 September 2011. Send inquiries and abstracts (email preferred, no attachments please) to:

nmyhill [at] ncf.edu

Nova Myhill
Division of Humanities
New College of Florida
5800 Bay Shore Road
Sarasota FL 34243

***Please share this announcement with interested colleagues.***

"John Donne" by Ben Jonson

2011-04-20T03:47:38Z

ARUGH! (sorry, need to vent.)

So I am doing a paper on the above mentioned poem; trying to tease out its story.

I know that Jonson and Donne knew each other, have found many snippits that confirm this, but cannot find out any more about this relationship.

I know that Jonson criticised Donne pretty harshly at times, but other than about 2 or three separate sentances, I cannot find out more.

I know that he wrote this poem but cannot find out why or any commentary on it.

I know that I need to improve my research skills but the few times I have tried my "ask the librarian 24/7" doesn't seem to be working.

Luckily my paper is short so I probably have enough to do the paper. But I want to know MORE. I am _really_ interested in this.

(end vent)

Thanks, I feel better. Just wanted to express this somewhere I thought it might be understood.

big fat history book - YOURS FOR FREE!

2011-03-18T11:38:27Z

- um, if you can read Chinese and use big fat .pdf documents. I have a beautiful e-copy of THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGES in Chinese which I don't need, but would hate to have to delete. Anyone who asks can have a copy.

Kalamazoo meet-up??

2011-03-13T16:32:13Z

Information for those going to the Zoo is here.

Please feel free to link back and otherwise pass the word.

Thanks!

The Bayeux Tapestry

2011-02-26T05:22:04Z

I am brainstorming a topic for my class and would be excited to hear other's thoughts on this topic. Any thoughts at all are of interest to me because I am ashamed to admit that I had not heard of this before. Perhaps that is why I chose this one for my paper. I know the basics at this point; history of the Norman conquest, not it isn't really a tapestry but embroidery, Latin, only a few people named, very few women depicted, end of tapestry missing etc.

What is most interesting to me at this point are the borders. I have read so far that they depict Aesops fables, some other medieval folktales, sometimes seem to be related to the story, sometime not. May signify dissent of those who made tapestry and disagreed with the way this history was recorded etc. I have found several interesting sites, articles and mention of books. Any recommended resources, one's I should not miss?

I hope it does not look like I am asking other's to do my work for me. I think better in discussion and just sort of need a place to start. Thanks.

CFP: "Cities in History: Urban Identities Reconsidered"

2011-02-10T04:05:15Z

Throughout history, the city has functioned as a dynamic nexus of cultural, political, and economic identities, a complex forum for the construction of social categories like ethnicity, class, and gender. Seeking to expand the discourse on this dynamic urbanism to a global platform and beyond the confines of periodization, the Fordham University History Graduate Student Association (HGSA) invites proposals for papers on urban history for a one-day conference to be held on Saturday, September 17, 2011, at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus in New York City. We are especially interested in papers that introduce innovative methods or approaches to the study of urban identities, as well as those that address problems of periodization, but proposals may cover any aspect of urban history from any period or region of the world. Reflecting this conference’s goal of breaching temporal and spatial boundaries, sessions will be organized around common themes and topics rather than specific geographies or historical periods. Potential topics may include:

• Urban planning, environment, and architecture
• The arts and civic patronage
• Centers and peripheries
• Civic administration, management, institutions, and politics
• Poverty, charity and the social margins
• Law, crime, and policing
• Demographic change
• Immigration and emigration
• Civic religion, ritual, and interfaith conflicts
• Women, families, and domesticity
• Youth culture and education
• Protest, resistance, and unrest
• Entertainments, performance, and habits of consumption
• Utopias and dystopias
• Economies, wealth, and class conflict

Plenary Speaker: Dr. Guy Ortolano (NYU)

This conference is open to all. Please send abstracts of 250-300 words for a paper of 20 minutes in length, along with a C.V., to fordhamhgsa@gmail.com by April 15, 2011. Accepted papers will be pre-circulated to panel commentators and panel participants. For additional information, contact Esther Cuenca at fordhamhgsa@gmail.com or visit www.fordhamhgsa.org

Sponsored by the Fordham University HGSA and the Fordham University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Please forward and repost elsewhere. Thank you

Setting on a crusade - a question

2011-02-07T19:35:03Z

How long did it take to prepare for a crusade for say, a middle ranking noble who joined the host of a king for example?

thanks!

Anglo-Saxon Dictionary

2011-01-30T19:36:29Z

Hello, all,

This summer I plan on spending some time teaching myself some Old English in preparation of graduate school. But I was wondering if anybody could recommend a good dictionary? A web-based dictionary would be nice, but I'd prefer if anybody knew of a good paperback.

Thanks in advance! :)

Selling books ... medieval books

2011-01-12T21:50:40Z

Hopefully this is okay to post here, I know I've bought books that were posted to this comm but that was years ago.

I'm about to move and start library school and I desperately need to get rid of a lot of my books (not to mention, make some extra cash). I was in a Medieval Studies MA program for several years and I have a huge number of books from that time, some from classes I took, some from classes I taught, some from the Exhibit Hall at Congress. DX

I'm selling them here. The medieval stuff is listed first. Take a look if you please. :)

Only in Wikipedia

2010-12-16T19:03:21Z

Someone began an article this week on the London Greyfriars (amazingly, there was no article already). Then the Wikipedians tried to delete it, imagining that nothing created on Wikipedia after 10 years of its existence could possibly be notable. Fortunately the article survived deletion.

This edit is also quite amusing. Someone changed "habits" to "robes" with the comment "robes is better than habits. Habit is usually used when referring to behavior, not robes". Enjoy.

Some book advice!

2010-11-10T08:27:16Z

Hello, I'm doing an opuscle about the Fisher King in Chrétien's "Li contes del Graal", I was searching some book advice. I've already checked some information around Internet, but I'm sure there is a lot of good material published (in fact, my problem is that I don't know what to choose!). I want to emphasize the possible inspiration that Chrétien took in king Baldwin IV for his character. I'm also interested in another comparisons (I heard someone comparing him with Oedipus, as an example).

Thanks for your help!

Hello

2010-11-08T20:14:15Z

Hello historians, I'm Susan, seeking the help of the good people here.
This is my first post here. I'm also active (kind of) at the forum King Baldwin.
Truth be told, I'm writing a story and I'm not sure about the plausibility of one part, so let me start with some questions if I may;
Lets say a flock of people (not soldiers, not pilgrims, just random people expelled from their native land for whatever reason) arrived to a city in a different realm (say, Outremer) with the plans of staying there for a longer time period.
What would be the reaction of the leaders of the given city?
Would they take them in?
Would they refuse them and send them away?
If the latter, what would be the reasoning?
If they would take them in, would they help their settling in any way?
In the city proper or in the surrounding villages?
What would be the rights and obligations of the newcomers?
Is there an example to that in history?

Thank you for your help in advance.

CFP: Canada Chaucer Seminar 2011

2010-10-29T17:28:35Z

Canada Chaucer Seminar
Saturday, 30 April 2011
University of Toronto

Call for Papers

The third annual Canada Chaucer Seminar will be held at the Centre for Medieval Studies in Toronto on April 25, 2011. The aim of the seminar is to provide a one-day forum that will bring together scholars, from Canada and elsewhere, working on Chaucer and on late medieval literature and culture.

The 2011 gathering will include plenary papers by David Wallace (Pennsylvania) and J. Allan Mitchell (Victoria), several sessions of conference papers, and a concluding roundtable discussion.

Proposals are invited for 20-minute conference papers on any aspect of Chaucer’s works. Submit one-page abstracts by 15 December 2010 to Professor William Robins.

william.robins@utoronto.ca

THE CRUSADES, ISLAM AND BYZANTIUM: AN INTERDSCIPLINARY WORKSHOP AND CONFERENCE

2010-10-25T12:56:43Z

THE CRUSADES, ISLAM AND BYZANTIUM: AN INTERDSCIPLINARY WORKSHOP AND CONFERENCE

8 and 9 July 2011

The Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East;
The German Historical Institute; The Institute of Historical Research, London; The London Centre for Crusader Studies

This is a conference aimed at those in the latter stages of their PhD, those engaged in post-doctoral research, or early career academics. It is intended to bring together people from across these three subject areas to generate scholarly contacts and to give an insight into the workings and approaches of these fields; it will also provide participants with an opportunity to have their work analysed by contemporaries and a panel of distinguished commentators.

The conference will discuss pre-circulated papers of 5,000 words. Interested parties should, in the first instance, send a proposal of 500 words to one of the convenors listed below by 1 November 2010. Completed papers will be required by 30 April 2011 for circulation. The conference will also feature full-length lectures by leading scholars. Those who wish to listen and comment on the papers, rather than presenting their own work, are very welcome to attend. They are invited to contact schenk@ghil.ac.uk by 30 June 2011 and are strongly encouraged to familiarise themselves with the content in advance.

We hope to be able to offer some financial support – details of this and the format of the meeting will follow via the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East website at: http://www.sscle.org

Those travelling from abroad may wish to know that the Leeds International Medieval Congress follows the week after this event.

For further information, please contact Professor Jonathan Phillips (Royal Holloway, University of London) J.P.Phillips@rhul.ac.uk; Dr Jochen Schenk (German Historical Institute, London) schenk@ghil.ac.uk; Dr William Purkis (University of Birmingham) w.j.purkis@bham.ac.uk

The New Logic Museum

2010-10-12T13:44:30Z

After Geocities took everything down I reached into my wallet and got a proper domain name. The new site is here. For those who don't know, the Logic Museum is designed for those who want to read Latin texts in parallel with an English one. The Latin is in the first column (it is the most important!) the English is in the second. It has many uses: first as a source of Latin (many medieval and mostly late 13C) texts, mostly on the subject of logic, theology and metaphysics. Second, to understand the terms the authors were actually using (as opposed to the various and often eccentric reditions in the English translations - try and find a consistent one for ratio e.g.). Also as a way of searching for difficult to translate Latin phrases. Pop the phrase in the Latin search here, choose which author or set of texts you want, and it may give you an answer. The searcher may take a while to settle down until the Google bot crawls through all the new material. Specific subject areas are listed here (includes English material from the nineteenth and early twentieth C). Specific authors and corpora here.

Most recent addition is Thomas Aquinas' commentary on the first book of Aristotle's Metaphysics (more to follow). This is comprehensively linked to the Aristotle text (English only, for now) using Bekker numbers (the only version of Aristotle on the internet which gives you this, I believe). Later I will replace this with the Latin translation from the Greek made by William of Moerbeke in the 1260s. I have a bit about William here.

I hope this is useful to this community. I owe the community a lot when I first began translating Latin five years ago. I have improved a bit since then and with a bit of luck my first translation (of an early work by Scotus) will be published next year!

CFP: Infirmitas. Social and Cultural Approaches to Cure, Caring and Health.

2010-10-11T10:11:41Z

Passages from Antiquity to the Middle Ages V:

Infirmitas. Social and Cultural Approaches to Cure, Caring and Health.

August 23 - 26, 2012
University of Tampere, Finland

Call for Papers

The fifth international conference on Passages from Antiquity to the Middle Ages will focus on social and cultural approaches to health and illness, cure and caring, and notions of ability and disability. These topics are of major importance for communities and societies both in Antiquity and during the Middle Ages, yet research is still fragmentary and more synthetic and interdisciplinary approaches are rare.

We welcome papers which focus on different actors - institutions, communities, families or individuals - and have a sensitive approach to social differences: gender, age and status. Thus, our focus lies on society and the history of everyday life, on the differences and similarities between elite and popular culture, and on the expectations linked to gender and life-cycle stage, visible in the practices and policies under scrutiny. How were physical and mental disability/ability defined within daily life; what were the social consequences of illness; how was social interaction reflected in caring for the sick; how were cure and caring organised in families, communities and in society? We aim not to concentrate on medical or technical aspects of health and illness, but rather to integrate them in a larger social and cultural context.

The conference aims at broad coverage not only chronologically but also geographically and disciplinary (all branches of Classical and Medieval Studies). Most preferable are contributions having themselves a comparative and/or interdisciplinary perspective.

If interested, please submit an abstract of 300 words (setting out thesis and conclusions) for a twenty-minute paper together with your contact details (with academic affiliation, address and e-mail) by e-mail attachment to the conference secretary, passages@uta.fi. The deadline for abstracts is September 15th 2011, and the notification of paper acceptance will be made in November 2011. Conference papers may be presented in major scientific languages, however supplied with English summary or translation if the language of presentation is not English. The registration fee is 100 € (post-graduate students: 50 €).

For further information, please visit http://www.uta.fi/trivium/passages/ or contact the organizers by e-mailing to passages@uta.fi. The registration opens in November 2011 at http://www.uta.fi/trivium/passages/.

Looking for Hasdai ibn Shaprut in English

2010-10-05T20:11:50Z

Does anyone know where I might be able to find an English translation of Hasdai ibn Shaprut's letter to Empress Helena about Jewish life in Spain? It sounds like the kind of source that I'd really like to give to my students, but I haven't been able to find it in English.

Thank you!

CFP Leeds ’11: "Economies of Monstrosity" and "Monstrous Gifts"

2010-09-20T04:03:32Z

Calls for papers for two Leeds ’11 sessions sponsored by MEARCSTAPA (Monsters: the Experimental Association for the Research of Cryptozoology through Scholarly Theory And Practical Application).

CFP for Leeds 2011: Rich and Poor

SESSION I: ”The Economy of Monstrosity: Slaves, Human Traffickers, Bankers and Thieves”
Throughout the Middle Ages, certain groups have been associated with the exchange of money and the exchange of people for money. This panel welcomes submissions that deal with the monstrosity associated with both the buyers and the bought, with monstrous depictions of ethnic groups associated with economic exchange and/or the stigma attached to enslaved groups in medieval literature, history, art history or archaeology.

Please send abstracts of 250 words, with contact details and affiliation to
Dr. Larissa Tracy, kattracy@comcast.net by September 27th.

SESSION II: ”Monstrous Gifts”
As the Havamal states, friends should give gifts, and “gifts with gifts requite.” But, as the Durham Proverbs caution, “every gift looks over its shoulder.” When gift-giving creates bonds, maintains relationships, and redefines or adjusts status and power in relationships, the gift is anything but a simple object, anything but gratuitous. As William Ian Miller’s study of gift exchange in medieval Iceland discusses, the gift often contains, transmits, and encodes something of the spirit and intention of its giver, for better and for worse. The deeply symbolic nature of much medieval gift exchange makes it a rich field for examining the messages which gifts encode — the spurs with which Chretien de Troyes’ knight is given his identity, the Anglo-Saxon sword with its own genealogy, the saints’ relic bestowed upon a cathedral, or the reliquary given by a petitioner to a patron saint. Anthropologists and poets alike have mused on how gift exchange sometimes blurs the distinction between subject and object, between giver, gift, and recipient, particularly when the item of exchange is animate (a bride circulating between households) or a body part (an enemy’s head as a trophy presented to the king). As Debra Higgs Strickland has recently noted, when the gift is itself a sentient being, such as Herzog Ernst’s “sartorial monsters,” simultaneously his close companions but also possessions which he might give as pilgrim’s offerings or gifts to emperors, distinctions between subject and object are especially troubled – and the messages encoded in the gifts especially complex. Papers in this session might explore poisonous gifts, monsters as gifts, perilous exchanges, the role of gifts in the formation of the subject or at critical life-cycle rituals, power roles and imbalances in gift exchange, media of exchange (and consumption) defining monstrosity, gifts of the body (blood, hair, relics), bodies as gifts, monstrous communicants, the theft of relics and saints’ bodies, or other examinations of sites where gifts or gift exchange figure as monstrous, poisonous, combative, transcendent, or abject.

Please send abstracts of 250 words, with contact details and affiliation to
Karma deGruy <karma.degruy@gmail.com> by September 27th.

Medieval Annuity Payments

2010-09-14T04:05:27Z

I'm curious to find out if there are any medieval reports on the ways in which knights and others collected their annuities from magnate lords in the 14th century. Simon Walker says that part of John of Gaunt's attractiveness to potential retainers was his reputation for paying promptly and in cash (Walker, The Lancastrian Affinity Ch 4, Sec 1 - page 93 in my version). This suggests to me that retainers collected their annuities in person on the appointed day -- but did they travel to wherever their lord and his administrative staff were encamped or collect it from some other designated place?

Anyone have any light to shed on this?

(And this doesn't necessarily need to pertain to John of Gaunt's retinue, that's just the best and closest example I had close to hand.)

13th century African/European cultural exchange

2010-09-02T03:47:53Z

A colleague of mine is entertaining a project tracing Anglo-English/African aesthetic exchange through 1200s-1700s using both “high” and popular culture materials (e.g., a thirteenth-century African oral epic, oral-traditional “history” songs from thirteenth-century Mali and Ghana). He’s found that scholarship regarding African-European contact beyond the Islamic world usually starts with the fifteenth century. I know zilch about what primary sources are out there for him, but he’s getting some input from folks working with African literature and with early modern English literature. Surely “medieval studies” has something to offer him here – any ideas?