Medieval and Modern Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age (MMSDA)

2 – 6 May 2016, Cambridge and London

We are very pleased to announce the sixth year of this course, funded by the Digital Scholarly Editions Initial Training Network (DiXiT), and run by King’s College London with the University of Cambridge and the Warburg Institute. The course will run in two parallel strands: one on medieval and the other on modern manuscripts.

The course is open to any doctoral students working with manuscripts. It involves five days of intensive training on the analysis, description and editing of medieval or modern manuscripts to be held jointly in Cambridge and London. Participants will receive a solid theoretical foundation and hands-on experience in cataloguing and editing manuscripts for both print and digital formats.

The first half of the course involves morning classes and then afternoon visits to libraries in Cambridge and London. Participants will view original manuscripts and gain practical experience in applying the morning’s themes to concrete examples. In the second half we will address the cataloguing and description of manuscripts in a digital format with particular emphasis on the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI). These sessions will also combine theoretical principles and practical experience and include supervised work on computers.

The course is free of charge but is open only to doctoral students (PhD or equivalent). It is aimed at those writing dissertations relating to medieval or modern manuscripts, especially those working on literature, art or history. Eight bursaries will be available for travel and accommodation. There are thirty vacancies across the medieval and modern strands, and preference will be given to those considered by the selection panel likely to benefit most from the course. Applications close at 5pm GMT on 22 February 2016 but early registration is strongly recommended.

For further details see http://dixit.uni-koeln.de/mmsda/ or contact dixit-mmsda@uni-koeln.de.

Abstract deadline extended: Monday February 15, 2016

37^th Annual Medieval and Renaissance Forum

Keene State College

Keene, NH, USA

Friday and Saturday April 15-16, 2016

Call for Papers and Sessions

“The Local and the Global in the Middle Ages”

Keynote speaker: Suzanne Conklin Akbari, University of Toronto 

We are delighted to announce that the 37^th Medieval and Renaissance Forum will take place on April 15 and 16, 2016 at Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire.  This year’s keynote speaker is Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Professor of English and Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto.  Her research focuses on intellectual history and philosophy, ranging from neo-Platonism and science in the twelfth century to national identity and religious conflict in the fifteenth. Akbari's books include Seeing Through the Veil (on optics and allegory), her important and influential study on images of Islam and Muslims in medieval Europe (Idols in the East), and a book on Marco Polo.  She is currently at work on Small Change: Metaphor and Metamorphosis in Chaucer and Christine de Pizan.

We welcome abstracts (one page or less) or panel proposals on all medieval and Renaissance topics from all fields and on the reception of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Students, faculty, and independent scholars are welcome. Please indicate your status (undergraduate, graduate, or faculty), affiliation (if relevant), and full contact information (address and e-mail address), on your proposal.

Undergraduate sessions are welcome but require faculty sponsorship.  

Please submit abstracts, audio/visual needs, and full contact information to Dr. Meriem Pagès, Director. For more information please e-mail mpages@keene.edu.

Presenters and early registration: March 15, 2016

We look forward to greeting returning and first-time participants to Keene in April!

the Centre for Information Modelling in Graz is
organizing an event in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie programm "DiXiT":

Call for papers:

*Digital Scholarly Editions as Interfaces*

International symposium, 23.-24.9.2016, Graz (Austria)

Scholarly editions intermediate between the texts and their readers,
which does not change with their transfer to digital media. Over the
past two decades, research on digital scholarly editions (DSE) was 
deeply engaged with the impacts of the digital medium on the critical 
representation of texts and the changing conditions for the editor. 
However, less research has been done on the roles of the readers, or - 
as they are called in the digital environment - the users. A critical 
examination of the topic has already been demanded by Jerome McGann in 
2001, it was repeated by Hans Walter Gabler in 2010, and was taken up 
more recently by Patrick Sahle (2013) and Elena Pierazzo (2015). User 
studies are rare, and systematic considerations of principles of Human 
Computer Interaction are still marginal in theory and practice of DSE. 
In addition, the conceptualization of the DSEs as interfaces between 
machines could be intensified. However, the discourse on DSEs benefits 
from considering paradigms of interface design, from reflecting on the 
cultural and historical context of the visual appearance of scholarly 
editions and their affordances, as well as from examining the 
interactions between user and resource.
The symposium will discuss the relationship between digital scholarly
editing and interfaces by bringing together experts of DSEs and 
Interface Design, editors and users of editions, web designers and 
developers. It will include the discussion of (graphical/user) 
interfaces of DSEs as much as conceptualizing the digital edition itself 
as an interface. In this context, we are interested in contributions to 
the following questions and beyond:

- How can DSEs take full advantage of their digital environment without 
losing the traditional affordances that makes an edition "€˜scholarly"? 
What is the role of skeuomorphic tropes and metaphors like footnotes, 
page turn and index in the design of DSEs and concerning the user 
interaction?
- Do interfaces of DSEs succeed in transferring the complexity of the
underlying data models?
- Plurality in representation is a core feature of DSE. How do
interfaces realize this plurality? Do we need different interfaces for 
different target audiences (i.e. scholars, digital humanists, students, 
public)?
- How can user interfaces of DSEs succeed in transmitting Human Computer 
Interaction design principles like ‘aesthetics’, ‘trust’, and
"€˜satisfaction"?
- Citability and reliability are core requirements of scholarly work.
Which user interface elements support them? How can we encourage the 
user to critically engage with the DSE?
- What are the users of a DSE actually doing: are they reading the text 
or searching and analyzing the data?
- Can we conceptualize machines as users? How can we include application 
programming interfaces (APIs) in the discussion on DSEs as interfaces?
- Does the development of user interfaces for DSEs keep up with the
rising distribution of small handheld devices? Will interfaces on 
tablets greatly differ from those on computer screens and perhaps 
encourage a larger readership?

Please submit your proposal for a talk at the symposium until April 17,
2016 to dixit@uni-graz.at. The proposal should not exceed 700 words.
There are funds to reimburse travel and accommodation costs. Please
indicate with your submission if you need financial support.

For further information see:
http://informationsmodellierung.uni-graz.at/de/aktuelles/digital-scholarly-editions-as-interfaces/

CALL FOR PAPERS – CASBC/ACÉHL

Many Books, Many Communities
The twelfth annual meeting of the
CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF BOOK CULTURE
ASSOCIATION CANADIENNE POUR L’ÉTUDE DE L’HISTOIRE DU LIVRE
Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences
University of Calgary
May 29-30, 2016

CASBC/ACÉHL, founded to bring together scholars studying written communication in all its forms and processes, is pleased to announce its twelfth annual meeting at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Calgary.

In response to the “One Book, One City” campaign, which has now reached Canada, and the 2016 Congress theme “Energizing Communities,” CASBC/ACÉHL invites proposals for papers and presentations on the theme Many Books, Many Communities. We encourage scholars to consider book history and print culture in relation to the many uses of books, broadly defined, in the formation, maintenance, energizing, and transformation of communities of all kinds. Possible topics may include:
Books and communities—local, regional, national, global
Books and communities of belief
Books and subcultures / Books and counter-cultures
Books and dissident communities
Books and scholarly communities
Books and communities of their producers, such as artisan communes, co-operatives of various kinds, educational movements
Books and political movements
Books and communities of readers
Books and communities of distributors and circulators
Circulation of books in communities

Papers and panels on any topic related to book history are welcome, but priority will be given to proposals that address the chosen theme in any time period or geographical area. The program co-chairs also encourage papers that apply an interdisciplinary approach to the study of book history and print culture.
Proposals may be submitted in English or in French.

Please send your proposal, including a title, 250-word abstract and a one-page CV, in .doc format to both program co-chairs Gary Kelly, Department of English and Film Studies, University of Alberta, [gkelly@ualberta.ca] and Joan Judge, Department of History, York University, [judge@yorku.ca] before February 10, 2016. We also encourage proposals for three-paper panels.

*Please note that presenters must be members of CASBC/ACÉHL by the time of the conference, and that all presenters and participants must be registered through Congress in order to participate. For further information, visit http://congress2016.ca/

SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE 2016 CONFERENCE
* The keynote speaker for the CASBC/ACEHL conference will be Professor Massimo Ciavolella, Director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies of the University of California, Los Angeles. This international lecture will be co-sponsored by the Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies and the Canadian Society of Medievalists.
* CASBC/ACEHL will also collaborate with the Bibliographical Society of Canada on a joint session on May 30, 2016.
For further information on CASBC/ACEHL, please consult our website: http://casbc-acehl.dal.ca/
-- 

Joan Judge| Professor| Department of History|
2122 Vari Hall| York University | 4700 Keele St.|
Toronto, Ontario| Canada M3J 1P3|
Phone: (416)736-2100 x 20593| Fax: (416) 736-5732| judge@yorku.ca

CALL FOR PAPERS: 43rd Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies (14-15 October 2016)

Vatican Film Library

Saint Louis University

Paper or session proposals are invited for the 43rd Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies, organized by the Vatican Film Library and to be held at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, MO, 14–15 October 2016. The guest speaker will be Madeline H. Caviness (Mary Richardson Professor Emeritus, Tufts University), speaking on "Medieval German Law and the Jews: The Sachsenspiegel Picture-Books."

Proposals should address the material aspects of late antique, medieval, or Renaissance manuscripts. Papers are twenty minutes in length and a full session normally consists of three papers. Submissions of papers may address an original topic or one of the session themes already proposed. Submissions of original session themes are welcome from those who wish to be organizers.

SESSIONS PROPOSED

Patterns of Exchange: Manifestations of Cross-Cultural Practice and Production in Medieval and Renaissance Hebrew Manuscripts

Every year we try to have a panel that parallels the topic explored by the keynote speaker. To complement Madeline Caviness’s “Medieval German Law and the Jews: The Sachsenspiegel Picture-Books,” we welcome papers that will explore/discuss medieval and Renaissance Hebrew manuscripts that reflect cultural interactions between Christian and Jewish communities in diverse geographical locations.

Manuscripts for Travelers: Directions, Descriptions, and Maps

This session focuses on manuscripts of travel and accounts of places and geographies intended for practical use: perhaps as guidance for a journey; descriptions of topography and marvels, or as travel accounts of pilgrimage, mission, exploration, and commercial or diplomatic expeditions. They could constitute itineraries, guidebooks, narratives, surveys, chorographies, or practical maps such as city plans, local maps, or portolan charts. We invite papers that examine any of these aspects of manuscripts associated with travel, with particular attention to their production, illustration and decoration, use, transmission, or preservation.

Pages with Extended Pedigree: Second-Hand Manuscripts and Their Owners

The names of famous manuscripts come quickly to mind, especially because of their association with wealthy and celebrated figures: the Bedford Hours; the Très Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry; the Bible of Borso d’Este, for example. Less well-known are their subsequent owners, who may have been equally notable but have been eclipsed by the aura surrounding the first. This panel seeks papers that examine the cumulative ownership history of extraordinary manuscripts, before they entered their present holding institutions.

Open Panel

Here is your chance to propose and assemble, or propose and contribute to a panel that speaks to a manuscript theme that you have long been wishing to see explored, or investigated from a particular standpoint. We are open to proposals on all manuscript genres, from any geographical locale, on all aspects of manuscript study: transmission and reception, codicology, local practices of production, collecting, library history, cultural influence, and scholarly use.

Please submit a paper or session title and an abstract of not more than 200 words by 15 March 2016 via our online submission form. Those whose proposals are accepted are reminded that registration fees and travel and accommodation expenses for the conference are the responsibility of speakers and/or their institutions. For more information, contact Erica Lauriello, Library Associate Sr for Special Collections Administration, at 314-977-3090 or vfl@slu.edu . Conference information is posted at http://lib.slu.edu/special-collections/programs/conference.

---

Gregory A. Pass

Assistant Dean for Special Collections
Director, Knights of Columbus Vatican Film Library

Co-Editor, Manuscripta: A Journal for Manuscript Research

Saint Louis University Libraries

Pius XII Memorial Library

3650 Lindell Blvd.

St. Louis, MO 63108
tel 314-977-3096 | fax 314-977-3108 | email passga@slu.edu

http://lib.slu.edu/special-collections

Medieval and Modern Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age (MMSDA)

2 – 6 May 2016, Cambridge and London

We are very pleased to announce the sixth year of this course, funded by the Digital Scholarly Editions Initial Training Network (DiXiT), and run by King’s College London with the University of Cambridge and the Warburg Institute. The course will run in two parallel strands: one on medieval and the other on modern manuscripts.

The course is open to any doctoral students working with manuscripts. It involves five days of intensive training on the analysis, description and editing of medieval or modern manuscripts to be held jointly in Cambridge and London. Participants will receive a solid theoretical foundation and hands-on experience in cataloguing and editing manuscripts for both print and digital formats.

The first half of the course involves morning classes and then afternoon visits to libraries in Cambridge and London. Participants will view original manuscripts and gain practical experience in applying the morning’s themes to concrete examples. In the second half we will address the cataloguing and description of manuscripts in a digital format with particular emphasis on the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI). These sessions will also combine theoretical principles and practical experience and include supervised work on computers.

The course is free of charge but is open only to doctoral students (PhD or equivalent). It is aimed at those writing dissertations relating to medieval or modern manuscripts, especially those working on literature, art or history. Eight bursaries will be available for travel and accommodation. There are thirty vacancies across the medieval and modern strands, and preference will be given to those considered by the selection panel likely to benefit most from the course. Applications close at 5pm GMT on 22 February 2016 but early registration is strongly recommended.

For further details see http://dixit.uni-koeln.de/mmsda/ or contact dixit-mmsda@uni-koeln.de.

The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries is pleased to announce its new semi-annual journal Manuscript Studies. This journal aims to bring together scholarship from around the world and across disciplines related to the study of pre-modern manuscript books and documents.

We are actively seeking submissions for 2017 and beyond. The journal is open to contributions that rely on both traditional methodologies of manuscript study and those that explore the potential of new ones. We seek articles that engage in a larger conversation on manuscript culture and its continued relevance in today’s world and highlight the value of manuscript evidence in understanding our shared cultural and intellectual heritage. Studies that incorporate digital methodologies to further understanding of the physical and conceptual structures of the manuscript book are encouraged. A separate section, entitled Annotations, features research in progress and digital project reports. Book,  digital project, and exhibition reviews will also be included. For more information, go to http://mss.pennpress.org.

The following articles will be featured in first issue, to be published April 2016. For subscription information, please visit the website.

·        Christopher Blackwell, Christine Roughan, and Neel Smith, Citation and Alignment: Scholarship Outside and Inside the Codex

·        Benjamin J. Fleming, The Materiality of South Asian Manuscripts from the University of Pennsylvania MS. coll. 390 and the Rāmamālā Library in Bangladesh

·        Evyn Kropf, Will that Surrogate Do?: Reflections on Material Manuscript Literacy in the Digital Environment from Islamic Manuscripts at the University of Michigan Library

·        Nigel Ramsay, Towards a Universal Catalogue of Early Manuscripts: Seymour de Ricci’s Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada

·        Linda H. Chance and Julie Nelson Davis, The Handwritten and the Printed: Issues of Format and Medium in Japanese Premodern Books

·        Timothy L. Stinson, (In)Completeness in Middle English Literature: The Case of the Cook’s Tale and the Tale of Gamelyn

·        Y. Tzvi Langermann, Transcription, Translation, and Annotation: Observations on Three Medieval Islamicate Medical Texts in UPenn MS Codex 1649