The Early Book Society Newsletter · at King's College London. Papers of 20 minutes in length are...
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Membership Form The Early Book Society grew out of sessions planned for the International Congress on Medieval Studies (Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo) by Sarah Horrall and Martha Driver. Founded as an independent entity in 1987, the Society was formed to bring together all those who are interested in any aspect of the study of manuscripts and early printed books. EBS now has 475 members in the US, Canada, Japan, Ireland, Great Britain, and on the Continent. Membership brings announce- ments of EBS activities, including the biennial conference, as well as the member- ship list and the Journal of the Early Book Society, both published annually, along with pre-publication discounts on books of interest to members and access to the EBS chatline. Dues are $40 or £24 for 2010-2011. All members are asked to pay by mail not later than May 1, 2011, or in person at the annual EBS business meeting at Western Michigan (May 13) so copies of JEBS may be ordered in a timely fashion. JEBS may also be ordered separately from Pace UP (see www.pace.edu/press for details). Those who have paid dues are indicated on the EBS website: (www.nyu.edu/ projects/EBS). Please share a copy of this announcement with an interested friend. ___________________________________________________________________ I enclose $40 or £24 as dues for 2010-2011 membership in EBS. Name: ______________________________________________________ Address: ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ e-mail address: __________________________________________________ Affiliation: __________________________________________________ Research interests: _____________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Members wishing to pay in US dollars should send $40 to Martha Driver, Early Book Society, Department of English, Pace University, 41 Park Row, NY, NY 10038. Members paying in pounds sterling should send £24 to Linne Mooney, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King’s Manor, York YO1 7EP UK. Visit our Website at (http://www.nyu.edu/projects/EBS). Send newsletter items of interest to the editor Samantha Mullaney <[email protected]>.
Transcript of The Early Book Society Newsletter · at King's College London. Papers of 20 minutes in length are...
Membership Form
The Early Book Society grew out of sessions planned for the International Congress
on Medieval Studies (Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo) by Sarah Horrall
and Martha Driver. Founded as an independent entity in 1987, the Society was
formed to bring together all those who are interested in any aspect of the study of
manuscripts and early printed books. EBS now has 475 members in the US, Canada,
Japan, Ireland, Great Britain, and on the Continent. Membership brings announce-
ments of EBS activities, including the biennial conference, as well as the member-
ship list and the Journal of the Early Book Society, both published annually, along
with pre-publication discounts on books of interest to members and access to the
EBS chatline.
Dues are $40 or £24 for 2010-2011. All members are asked to pay by mail not later
than May 1, 2011, or in person at the annual EBS business meeting at Western
Michigan (May 13) so copies of JEBS may be ordered in a timely fashion. JEBS
may also be ordered separately from Pace UP (see www.pace.edu/press for details).
Those who have paid dues are indicated on the EBS website: (www.nyu.edu/
projects/EBS). Please share a copy of this announcement with an interested friend.
___________________________________________________________________
I enclose $40 or £24 as dues for 2010-2011 membership in EBS.
Name: ______________________________________________________
Address: ______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
e-mail address: __________________________________________________
Affiliation: __________________________________________________
Research interests: _____________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Members wishing to pay in US dollars should send $40 to Martha Driver, Early
Book Society, Department of English, Pace University, 41 Park Row, NY, NY 10038.
Members paying in pounds sterling should send £24 to Linne Mooney, Centre for
Medieval Studies, University of York, King’s Manor, York YO1 7EP UK.
Visit our Website at (http://www.nyu.edu/projects/EBS). Send newsletter items of
interest to the editor Samantha Mullaney <[email protected]>.
The Early Book Society Newsletter Spring 2011, volume 16, number 1
Kalamazoo 2011
EBS is pleased to present five special ses-
sions at the 46th International Congress on
Medieval Studies to be held at Western
Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michi-
gan, from May 12 to 15, 2011. EBS ses-
sions are scheduled on Friday and Satur-
day. Please also plan to attend the annual
EBS business meeting on Friday evening
at 8:30 (Fetzer 2030) when we will ask
for session themes or topics for Kalama-
zoo 2012 and discuss plans for our con-
ference “Out of Bounds: Mobility, Move-
ment and Use of MSS and Printed Books,
1350-1550” to be held in July 2011 at the
University of York.
I Session 229 Friday, 10:00 a.m., Bernhard Brown & Gold, 204,
Medieval Books and Their Early Modern Readers Presider: Derek A. Pearsall, Harvard University
“How Francis Thynne Read His Chaucer”
Megan Cook, University of Pennsylvania
“Making Chaucer Safe for Early Modern Readers”
Stephen D. Powell, University of Guelph
“Textual Afterlives: The Transmission of Older Scots Writers to the Enlight-
enment”
Jeremy J. Smith, University of Glasgow
II Session 271, Friday, 1:30 p.m., Schneider 1360,
Book Production and Cross Cultural Exchange Presider: Mary Morse, Rider University
“Crossroads on the Page: The Language of the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle MS E”
Christine Schott, University of Virginia
“The Translation of „Engelonde‟ in the ME Life of Gregory”
Helen Marshall, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto
“Proverbs and Their Translations in Marguerite Porete‟s
Mirror of Simple Souls”
Zan Kocher, University of Louisiana- Lafayette
“The London Illuminating Shop of the Caesar Master, 1447-1486:
Four Decades of Exchange between Netherlandish and English Limners”
Holly James-Maddocks, University of York
III Session 329, Friday, 3:30 p.m., Schneider 1360,
Why Edit Critically in a Digital Age? Presider: James J. Murphy, University of California-Davis
“Editing the Staciouns of Rome”
Jeanne Krochalis, Pennsylvania State University
“The Dangers of Editing Critically and the Threat of Uncritical Editing”
Barbara Bordalejo, University of Saskatchewan
“Why Indeed Edit Critically in a Digital Age?”
Eugene Lyman, University of Rhode Island
“In the Digital Age, Can Anyone Edit? Should They?”
Peter Robinson, University of Saskatchewan
Session 449, Saturday, 1:30 p.m., Bernhard 105,
Private Reading / Public Reading Presider: Jeremy J. Smith, University of Glasgow
“Reading the Rolls of the Symbols of the Passion”
Sarah Noonan, Washington University in St. Louis
July 25-July 30
The 23rd triennial conference of the
International Arthurian Society, Uni-
versity of Bristol, with plenary speakers
Siân Echard (UBC), Helen Fulton (York),
and Bart Besamusca (Utrecht), among
others. The conference includes master
classes for postgraduate students. For fur-
ther information, contact Arthur-
[email protected] Website: http://
www.bristol.ac.uk/medievalcentre
August 23-25
“From ancient manuscripts to the digi-
tal era: Readings and literacies” organ-
ized by the Swiss Institute of Biblical Sci-
ences (IRSB), University of Lausanne,
Switzerland, will demonstrate the major
impact of the digital era on knowledge, by
studying the history of cultural technolo-
gies. A public evening will conclude the
conference on the 25th August with post-
ers, editors' booths, artistic animations
and a round table discussion, bringing to-
gether publishers and scholars: "What
Will Come after the Book?" Website:
http://www.unil.ch/digitalera2011
September 5
“Digital Resources for Palaeography,”
a one-day symposium at King's College
London, sponsored by the 'Digital Re-
source and Database of Palaeography,
Manuscripts and Diplomatic' (DigiPal) at
the Centre for Computing in Humanities
at King's College London. Papers of 20
minutes in length are invited by May 8 on
any relevant aspect of digital methods and
resources for palaeography and manu-
script studies. Send abstracts (250 words
max) to [email protected]. Notice of ac-
ceptance will be sent by 20 May 2011.
Sept 29-30
“Book Design from the Middle Ages to
the Future Traditions and Evolutions,”
a congress to be held at the University of
Antwerp, in Antwerp, Belgium. How did
the design of books evolve during the
Middle Ages, the early modern period and
beyond? Which traditions survived the
successive transitions from manuscripts to
hand press books in the early modern pe-
riod, at the end of the eighteenth century
(the period of mechanization and automa-
tisation), and at the end of the twentieth
century from the paper book to the elec-
tronic book? These and other questions
will be addressed. David McKitterick
(Cambridge University) is a keynote
speaker and EBS member Erik Kwakkel
will also present a lecture. The congress
will be preceded by a Miræus Lecture in
the Nottebohm Hall of the Antwerp
Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience,
and will be followed by a guided tour of
the Museum Plantin Moretus in Antwerp
on Saturday 1 October. For further infor-
mation, contact Goran Proot, University
of Antwerp, Grote Kauwenberg 18, room
d218, B-2000 Antwerp, Belgium.
tial letter of recommendation from an ad-
visor, thesis director, mentor, or in the
case of postdoctoral candidates, a col-
league. For more information, contact The
Committee on Research, Hill Museum &
Manuscript Library, Box 7300, St John‟s
University, Collegeville, MN 56321-
7300. Inquiries may also be directed to
[email protected] or FAXed to 320-363-
3222.
Harry Ransom Center
Fellowships
The Harry Ransom Center at the Univer-
sity of Texas at Austin annually awards
fifty fellowships to support research pro-
jects that require substantial onsite use of
its collections. The fellowships support
visits of one to three months, with sti-
pends of $3000 per month (US). Travel
stipends of $1200 to $1700 are also avail-
able as are dissertations fellowships
($1500). More information about the fel-
lowships and the Ransom‟s center‟s col-
lections is available at: http://
budurl.com/5gcd
Morningside Drive, with a reception to
follow. Cosponsored by the French De-
partment, the University Seminar on Me-
dieval Studies, and the Friends of the Co-
lumbia Libraries.
May 13-Sept 4
Illuminating Fashion: Dress in the Art
of Medieval France and the Nether-
lands, an exhibition at the Morgan Li-
brary and Museum, NYC.
June 4
"Book Production in the Byzantine
World," a colloquium organized by Lu-
kas A. Schachner and Georgi R. Parpulov,
at Oxford University, with opening re-
marks by Nigel Wilson (Oxford). Papers
discuss luxury book production in the
tenth through twelfth centuries as well as
authors and patronage. Attendance is free
and open to the public. For more informa-
tion, contact
June 30-July 2
Ordo, the eighth annual symposium of
the International Medieval Society,
Paris. The conference focuses on ordo in
the broad sense of concepts for classify-
ing realities or ideas and especially of me-
dieval classification of knowledge. Fur-
ther information is available at: http://
www.ims-paris.org
Conferences, Colloquia,
Talks, Exhibitions of Interest
to EBS Members
May 10
“What’s Going on in the Head of the
Monastic Artist?” a lecture by Patricia
Stirnemann (IRHT) at 5 p.m., Columbia
University, Faculty House, Rm 2, 64
EBS Newsletter
© 2011 Early Book Society
The Early Book Society grew out of sessions planned for the International Congress on Medieval
Studies (Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo) by Sarah Horrall and Martha Driver. Founded as
an independent entity in 1987, the Society‟s goal is to bring together all those who are interested in
any aspect of the study of manuscripts and early printed books.
Newsletter Editor: Samantha Mullaney ([email protected]). Newsletter items
should be sent to the editor, including short reviews, reports on works in progress. Announcements
and conference listings are also welcome.
EBS Officers:
Martha Driver, Department of English, Pace University, 41 Park Row, NY, NY 10038
Sue Powell, Dept of English, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT UK
Linne R Mooney, Centre for Medieval Studies, King's Manor, University of York, York Y01
7EP UK Email: <[email protected]>
JEBS: The Society‟s other publication, Journal of the Early Book Society, can be ordered us-
ing the form that may be downloaded from the EBS website http://www.pace.edu/press . Details of
how to contribute to JEBS can be found under a separate heading in the Newsletter.
“„Thy moche more ys oure Lady Mary longe‟: Childbirth Protection and
Other Prayers in the Takamiya Roll”
Mary Morse, Rider University
“Reading Saints‟ Lives in CUL MS Add. 2604”
Veronica O‟Mara, University of Hull
Session 505, Saturday, 3:30 p.m., Bernhard 105,
Figures of Speech Presider: Martha W. Driver, Pace University
“Tasting the Eucharist: Interaction between Devotion and Image in the
Medieval Sermon”
Nicole Bériou, IRHT
“Fennel, Whale, Oignon, Dice …Puzzling Images of the Virgin in a
Dominican Preacher‟s Literary Work
Marie-Laure Savoye, IRHT
“Off-Color Locutions in the Histoire d’amour sans paroles”
Patricia Stirnemann IRHT
JEBS 14 in Progress
The current issue of JEBS is with Pace
University Press and includes an out-
standing roster of contributors including
Paul Acker, Nicole Clifton, Ralph Hanna,
Omar Khalaf, Vickie Larsen, Arnold
Sanders, Estelle Stubbs, Linne R.
Mooney, Robert N. Swanson, Deborah
Thorpe, Daniel Wakelin, and David Watt,
along with twenty book reviews collected
by the indefatigable Sue
Powell. The contributors
represent a range of schol-
ars from graduate students
to full professors and li-
brarians who are making
their mark in the valuable
field of MS and early print
studies (no puns intended).
As the Press schedule has
changed, it is expected that
JEBS 14 will be sent later in
summer 2011 to members
whose accounts are current.
Members of the Early Book Society
are asked to submit longer papers (35 - 40
pp), with endnotes and a full Works Cited
list, for consideration for publication in
JEBS 15 (2012) in summer and early fall
(by October 1). These are substantial es-
says on any aspect of the history of manu-
scripts and/or printed books, with empha-
sis on the period between 1350 and 1550.
Essays should be sent in duplicate with an
abstract to Martha Driver. A limited num-
ber of illustrations may be included with
complete captions and permissions cita-
tions; Xeroxes of these should initially be
sent with papers for consideration to the
editor. Notes on recent discoveries (4 to10
pages), highlighting little-known or re-
cently uncovered texts or images, may be
sent to Linne Mooney, Centre for Medie-
val Studies, University of York, King‟s
Manor, York Y01 7EP UK. These shorter
essays include only endnotes (not a
Works Cited list). Inquiries are welcome
<[email protected]>. Please
send brief descriptions (200-
650 words) of little- or lesser-
known collections and libraries
of interest to the Society to
Martha Driver, Early Book So-
ciety, Department of English,
Pace University, 41 Park Row,
New York, NY 10038. Mem-
bers of the Early Book Society
who are recent authors may
send review books for consid-
eration to Susan Powell, Re-
views Editor, Department of
English, University of Salford,
Salford M5 4WT UK. Sue may be con-
tacted at <[email protected]>. The
Journal uses The Chicago Manual of
Style as its house manual. For general in-
formation, contact <[email protected]>.
Articles from back issues of JEBS are
available online through the Modern Lan-
guage Association database. The first is-
sue of JEBS (published in 1997) has been
reprinted by Pace University Press and is
available for purchase from the Pace UP
website (see below).
mercial private use.
The V&A offers publishers of aca-
demic books and scholarly articles direct
download of more than 25,000 images
directly from its website
www.vandaimages.com
The Met in NY has joined with
ARTstor to offer high-resolution images
from its collections for scholarly publica-
tion free of charge. Images are available
to users, both individual and institutional,
who are not ARTstor subscribers. See
www.artstor.org/what-is-artstor/w-html/
services-publishing.shtml for more infor-
mation.
AMARC
The Association for Manuscripts and Ar-
chives in Research Collections (AMARC)
promotes the accessibility, preservation,
and study of medieval and later manu-
scripts and archives in libraries and other
research collections in the United King-
dom and Ireland. Membership is open to
all and includes reduced-rate attendance
at meetings, held usually three times per
year (which often involve privileged ac-
cess to manuscript collections), and the
twice-yearly Newsletter. The AMARC
Newsletter contains listings of worldwide
exhibitions and conferences, and UK lec-
tures and seminars; it also includes a sub-
stantial bibliography of recent publica-
tions, recent acquisitions by libraries and
museums, information about recent and
forthcoming auction and dealer cata-
logues, and a list of useful websites. For
Heckman Research Stipends
The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library
(Collegeville, Minnesota) offers stipends
for research at the library from periods of
two weeks to six months. Candidates
must be graduate students or scholars who
are within three years of completing a ter-
minal master‟s or doctoral degree.
Amounts of grants are variable up to
$2,000. Deadlines are twice yearly: April
15 for research conducted from July 1 to
December 1, and Nov 15 for research
conducted from January to June 30. Sub-
mit a letter of application, cv, a one-page
description of the research project includ-
ing proposed length of stay, an explana-
tion of how use of the Library‟s resources
will advance the project and a confiden-
further details, visit http://
www.amarc.org.uk/
The Remnant Trust Exhibition
Program for Medieval MSS
The Remnant Trust is a public educa-
tional foundation that shares a collection
of original works, including medieval
MSS. The Trust makes this collection
available for a small fee that covers costs
to colleges, universities, and other organi-
zations for use by students, faculty, and
scholars, who are encouraged to touch,
feel and read the originals. For further
information, contact the Trust at remnant-
[email protected] or the Consulting
Curator of medieval MSS sandrahind-
encing some technical problems.
While the server at curiousexpedi-
tions.org is being sorted out, images of
some beautiful libraries can be seen at the
http://
bookshelf-
porn.com/
archive which
also has some
truly enviable
creative
shelving so-
lutions for people who share living space
with a large number of books.
Another site, run by The Historic
Libraries Forum, may
also be of interest. The
Historic Libraries Fo-
rum is a free, non-profit
organization for all
those interested in historic libraries and
collections. More information is available
at www.historiclibrariesforum.org.uk
Mellon Summer Institutes in
Vernacular Paleography,
2011 – 2012
Supported by a grant from The Andrew
W. Mellon Foundation, these summer in-
stitutes provide intensive practical train-
ing in reading late medieval and Renais-
sance MSS in European vernacular hands.
The institutes in French paleography
(2012), Spanish paleography (2011), and
English paleography (2012) are hosted by
the Newberry Library Center for Renais-
sance Studies, the Getty Research Insti-
tute, the Huntington Library, and the
Harry Ransom Center at The University
of Texas at Austin. First consideration is
given advanced graduate students and
junior faculty at US colleges and universi-
ties but applications are also accepted
from advanced graduate students and jun-
ior faculty at Canadian institutions, from
professional staff of US and Canadian
libraries and museums, and from inde-
pendent scholars. Those admitted receive
a stipend to help defray the cost of attend-
ing the institute. For general information
about the program, contact Carla Zecher,
Director of the Center for Renaissance
Studies (312-255-3514) or renais-
Free Digital Images for Scholars
The National Gallery and the Victoria and
Albert Museum in London, along with the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York, have made digital images of works
from their collections available for free
for all scholarly publications. The Na-
tional Gallery waives reproduction
charges for digital images used in aca-
demic books and journals that meet spe-
cific criteria (nonprofit, short-run publica-
tions) and where orders are processed and
delivered via its Picture Library website
www.nationalgalleryimages.co.uk. Dis-
counts are available
for images repro-
duced in student
theses, academic
presentations or lec-
tures, and noncom-
Subscription Information
JEBS 14, the issue forthcoming this sum-
mer, is part of timely membership re-
newal; further copies must be ordered
separately. If you are ordering extra cop-
ies, you can pay with VISA (in U.S. dol-
lars) using the order form on from the
Pace UP site at <http://www.pace.edu/
press>. Libraries may purchase copies
directly from Ingram Library Services (1-
800-937-5300).
A membership renewal form for
2010-2011, which includes the cost of
JEBS 14, may be found on the last page
of this bulletin. Members are asked, how-
ever, to pay their dues promptly. All
members are encouraged to join (for the
academic year) not later than the annual
business meeting at Western Michigan
(Friday, May 13, 2011), so the proper
number of orders can be given the Press
directly on return. UK and Continental
payments are made to Linne Mooney,
Centre for Medieval Studies, University
of York, King‟s Manor, York Y01 7EP
UK. E-mail: <[email protected]>, but
well before the May deadline, please, if
you wish to include the Journal with your
subscription for this year.
This cumbersome and time-
consuming system is in the process of be-
ing updated, and we hope to make direct
payment of membership available on the
EBS website in the coming academic year
(that is, from September 2011 to May
2012).
EBS Website and 2011 Member-
ship List Martha Rust at New York University is
the webmaster for the EBS site housed at
NYU <www.nyu.edu/projects/EBS>. The
site includes an electronic version of the
Newsletter, announcements of interest to
the EBS membership, the current mem-
bership list, and the Honor Roll, a list of
those who have paid their EBS dues al-
ready for 2010-2011. Suggestions for
other items members would like to see
included on this site (announcements of
forthcoming books, of conferences or
talks and exhibitions) may be sent to:
<[email protected]> or to
EBS Book Series
The Making of Poetry: Late-Medieval
French Poetic Anthologies by Jane H. M.
Taylor, the first volume in the EBS Texts
and Transitions series with Brepols, was
published in August of 2007 and has re-
ceived many excellent reviews. Another
volume, Reforma-
tions: Three Me-
dieval Authors in
Manuscript and
Movable Type by
Rebecca Schoff,
published in Janu-
ary 2008, is both
cited and re-
viewed in JEBS
12 and recently
reviewed in the
with late medieval manuscripts
and early printed books to about
1550, particularly those that ex-
plore the transition from manu-
script to print and questions to
do with readers and literacy,
owners and patronage, the dis-
semination of texts, and the re-
ception of medieval texts. A
„text‟ may be either a word or
an image, where a picture
serves also as a text that can be
read and interpreted. The focus is mainly
on manuscripts and books produced in
England or for the English market, and
closely related French and Continental
works. The series includes monographs of
about 250 to 300 pages, collections of
previously published essays by one author
(updated and revised), or in some cases
essay collections with a clearly unified
theme or one main subject. Authors are
encouraged to include illustrations. Pic-
tures are reproduced in black and white,
though color illustrations may be included
in special cases. Authors are responsible
for purchasing photographs and securing
the permissions to reproduce them.
The immediate organizers and gen-
eral editors of the series are Martha
Driver (Pace University, NY) and Derek
Pearsall (Harvard University, emeritus).
The advisory board comprises scholars
expert in the various fields of late medie-
val and early modern literature and cul-
ture and in the history of manuscripts and
books. The members of the board are:
Julia Boffey (Queen Mary, University of
Journal of English and Ger-
manic Philology. The Poet’s
Notebook: The Personal
Manuscript of Charles d’Or-
léans (Paris, BNF MS
fr.25458) by Mary-Jo Arn,
issued last year, was re-
viewed in Renaissance
Quarterly by Jane Taylor
who aptly describes “Arn‟s
acute, meticulous, and min-
ute observation of manu-
script details that turn out to be astonish-
ingly informative” (876). Helen Swift,
writing in Medium Aevum, further com-
ments that this “study opens up important
new lines of research into the duke‟s po-
etry and into the operation of literary
manuscripts as documents” (149). There
was also an extensive review in Philologi-
cal Quarterly (88.3 [2009]: 337-340.
Anne Bulkeley and Her Book: Fashioning
Female Piety in Early Tudor England. A
Study of London, British Library MS
Harley 494 by Alexandra Barratt, the
most recently pub-
lished volume in the
series, is reviewed by
Jan T. Rhodes in the
forthcoming issue of
JEBS.
The series
draws on the ideals
and aims of the Early
Book Society.
Through Brepols,
EBS publishes
monographs dealing
first English work ever
translated into Continen-
tal languages, and the
conference will focus on
recent research in liter-
ary, philological, histori-
cal and/or cultural topics.
Those with a special in-
terest in the field of An-
glo-Spanish relations or translation are
especially encouraged to participate
though all Gower scholars are most wel-
come. For further information, see the
John Gower Society website (http://
www.wcu.edu/johngower/index.html) or
contact the organizing committee
Conference on Nuns’ Literacies
A conference on “Nuns‟ Literacies in Me-
dieval Europe” will take place at the Uni-
versity of Hull from 20 to 23 June 2011.
It is designed to bring together specialists
working on diverse geographical areas to
create a dialogue about the Latin and ver-
nacular texts nuns read, wrote, and ex-
changed, primarily from the late eighth to
the mid-sixteenth centuries. To date, there
has been significant research in this field
but little in the way of cross-cultural
study. For this reason, twenty-five inter-
national experts (from Belgium, Den-
mark, England, Germany, the Nether-
lands, New Zealand, Sweden, the United
States, and Wales) will address these is-
sues in Hull. For further details, please
contact the organizers: Veronica O‟Mara,
University of Hull
([email protected]), Virginia
Blanton, University of Missouri-Kansas
City ([email protected]), and Patricia
Stoop, University of Antwerp
New Blog on MSS
Juan Garcés ([email protected]) has
started a new blog called Digitised Manu-
scripts Blog (http://
britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/
digitisedmanuscripts/). The blog concerns
the current digitization project at the Brit-
ish Library, focusing
on the Greek Manu-
scripts Digitisation
Project, but also on
digitized MSS in gen-
eral. Take a look!
Manuscripts on
My Mind
Brighten your day with an email newslet-
ter from the Vatican Film Library at Saint
Louis University. To subscribe or contrib-
ute, contact the editor, Susan L‟Engle at
Lovely Libraries
If you are stuck at home and long for the
meditative quiet of a library, Curious Ex-
peditions has collected photographs of
beautiful libraries from around the world
that may be viewed in the web at
http://curiousexpeditions.org/?p=78 al-
though the host server is currently experi-
and expert reviews. For more information,
contact Ian Johnson (irj@st-
andrews.ac.uk) and Margaret Connolly
([email protected]). To order, con-
tact [email protected]
Introduction (1000-1500 words) and
translation. These include a broad range
of pre-modern texts including but not lim-
ited to literary and philosophical works,
letters, charters, court documents, and
notebooks. Texts should be previously
unedited, and the edition must represent a
discrete text in its entirety. For more in-
formation or to view a sample edition, go
to opuscula.usask.ca or write Frank
Klaassen, General Editor at
<[email protected]>. Website:
http://opuscula.usask.ca
OSTMAR is an on-line and open-
access journal published by Classical,
Medieval, and Renaissance Studies at the
University of Saskatchewan under a crea-
tive commons license. All submissions
are subject to a double-blind peer review
and must be accompanied by readable
digital facsimiles of the original docu-
ments.
The Mediaeval Journal
Brepols and the St Andrews Institute of
Mediaeval Studies have announced this
new journal to start in 2011. With Euro-
pean-based cross-disciplinary and multi-
national focuses, the editors invite sub-
missions from international scholars in
the fields of art history, history, archae-
ology, theology, languages, literatures
(including English), Islamic studies, Jew-
ish studies, manuscript studies, history of
ideas, queer studies, material culture, his-
tory of medicine and science, among oth-
ers. The journal will also contain timely
FONS LUMINIS
Fons Luminis: an Interdisciplinary Jour-
nal of Medieval Studies, a peer-reviewed
journal, seeks submissions of articles
from all areas, especially those with an
interdisciplinary emphasis; articles should
be about 8,000 words and follow the
Speculum style sheet. Junior faculty and
graduate students are particularly encour-
aged to submit. Deadlines are Jan 1 for
the spring issue and June 1 for the autumn
issue. Inquiries and submissions should
be directed to Victoria Goddard and An-
drew Reeves, Editors in Chief, at
[email protected], or Fons Lumi-
nis, Centre for Medieval Studies, 39
Queen's Park Crescent East, Toronto, ON
M5S 2C3.
Conferences to Attend,
Grants and Websites of
Interest
Second International Conference
of the John Gower Society
“John Gower in Iberia: 1411-2011, Six
Hundred Years” is the theme of the sec-
ond Gower Society conference to be held
in Valladolid, Spain, from July 18 to 21,
2011. Gower‟s Confessio Amantis was the
ple from all over the world including the
UK, USA and Canada, France, Norway,
Cyprus, the Netherlands, Finland and Ja-
pan, attesting to Professor Takamiya's in-
ternational influence in a number of im-
portant scholarly fields. The themes are
diverse but rich in scope, and we expect
to learn a great deal from our colleagues
about manuscripts, books, reading, and a
number of other related subjects.
The provisional program has been
posted on the conference website found
on this link: www.york.ac.uk/medieval-
studies/. Talks will mainly be given at
King's Manor. A list of rooms available in
local B&Bs, hotels and youth hostels is
supplied on the conference site. It is best
to book early as York is crowded in sum-
mer. Please consult the website for travel
information, approximate costings and
bookings. We
look forward
to seeing you
at the Early
Book Society
conference!
We are ex-
ploring future
venues for
Early Book
Society con-
ferences. Col-
leagues who
wish to co-
sponsor the
next confer-
ence in 2013
London), Jennifer
Britnell (University
of Durham), Ardis
Butterfield
(University Col-
lege, London),
Philippa Hardman
(University of
Reading), Dieter
Mehl (University
of Bonn), Alastair
Minnis (Yale Uni-
versity), Oliver
Pickering
(Brotherton Library, Leeds), John Scatter-
good (Trinity College, Dublin), and John
Thompson (Queen's University, Belfast).
Those interested in inquiring about
submissions should contact Simon Forde
at Brepols <[email protected]>, or
Derek Pearsall at
<[email protected]>, or
Martha Driver <[email protected]>.
EBS conference in York 2011
The Twelfth Biennial Conference of the
Early Book Society "Out of Bounds:
Movement and Use of Manuscripts and
Printed Books, 1350-1550," honors
Toshiyuki Takamiya, an Advisory Board
member and long-time friend and member
of the Early Book Society. Hosted by
Linne Mooney at the Center for Medieval
Studies, University of York, in collabora-
tion with the York MSS Conference, the
meeting will be held from July 3 through
7. The conference has attracted 100 peo-
are invited to contact Martha Driver. At
the international business meeting in Exe-
ter, several possibilities were discussed
including the University of St Andrews
(Margaret Connolly) and the University
of Liverpool (Pollie Bromilow).
in this provision is crucial, even if often
delivered from behind a virtual veil.
Equally, the library of today and tomor-
row has an immutable obligation to con-
tinue collecting and preserving the record
of human activity in whatever shape or
format they appear. Books, manuscripts,
photographs, pamphlets, films, works of
art and videos: all are important elements
in any collecting policy. ... Outside the
entrance to Sterling Memorial Library is
the legend, „The Library is the Heart of
the University.‟ One might paraphrase
that to embrace research libraries in gen-
eral: „The Library is at the heart of Civili-
zation.‟” Ms. Prochaska has now become
librarian at Somerville College, Oxford.
The full text of her lecture is available at
www.atbl.us Kings Manor
University of York
A Brief Meditation on Library
Collections
Alice Prochaska, Yale librarian, gave a
farewell talk on April 15, 2010, titled
“Building a great research library: one
decade‟s perspective on 300 years of col-
lecting.” In it she remarked: “Whatever
the future holds for ... [the] great research
libraries of the world, electronic resources
and their preservation will play an in-
creasingly important role. They are al-
ready the principal means whereby schol-
ars and students in almost all scientific
disciplines and most of the social sciences
gain access to what they need for their
research and teaching. The library‟s role Alice Prochaska
Calls for Papers
AVISTA
This journal devoted to the study of me-
dieval technology, science and art pub-
lishes selected abstracts of conference pa-
pers of interest to their readership. In the
AVISTA Forum Journal (20:1/2, fall
2010), abstracts of several papers pre-
sented at EBS sessions in 2010 at the In-
ternational Congress of Medieval Studies,
Western Michigan University, were pub-
lished including: “Writing Fame: Renais-
sance Chaucer Editions‟ Epitaph Tran-
scriptions and the construction of Chau-
cer,” by Arnold Sanders (Goucher Col-
lege), “A „Stewe Hous‟ Bursting with
„Bokes of Frensche, Latyn and Englyssh.‟
Who Read Sir John Fastolf‟s books, how,
and why?” by Deborah Thorpe (Centre
for Medieval Studies, University of
York), “Sixteenth-Century Readers of the
1721 Chaucer” by David Sprunger
(Concordia College) and “The Ludlow
Scribe of MS Harley 2253 and his Li-
brary,” by Catherine A. Rock (Stark State
College of Technology). If you are pre-
senting a paper at Kalamazoo or intend to
present one in any Early Book Society
session in the future, and your paper fits
the themes of the AVISTA organization,
please send your abstract to
ICMA at CAA
The International Center for Medieval Art
is sponsoring sessions at the College Art
Association to be held February 22-25,
2012, in Los Angeles, CA. The theme is
“Res et signification: the Material Sense
of Things in the Middle Ages.” Abstracts
are invited for papers on the medieval sig-
nification of materials and material
things. Papers may focus on material- or
thing-signification in the Western or Byz-
antine Middle Ages through material- or
object-focused case studies. Send propos-
als by May 10, 2011, to Aden Kumler
(University of Chicago) akum-
[email protected] and Christopher Lakey
(Johns Hopkins University)
Haskins Society, Boston College
Paper proposals are welcome in fields to
which Charles Homer Haskins contrib-
uted, including but not limited to Anglo-
Saxon, Viking, Norman and Angevin his-
tory, as well as early and high medieval
cultural history. Proposals for complete
sessions (three papers) and for individual
papers will be considered. Please send a
one-page abstract and vita to the Program
Director, John Cotts, by June 1. Email:
[email protected] website: http://
haskinsatbostoncollege
Opuscula: Short Texts of the
Middle Ages and Renaissance
(OSTMAR)
The editors seek single-witness editions
of Medieval and Renaissance texts under
6,000 words accompanied by a brief
Membership Form
The Early Book Society grew out of sessions planned for the International Congress
on Medieval Studies (Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo) by Sarah Horrall
and Martha Driver. Founded as an independent entity in 1987, the Society was
formed to bring together all those who are interested in any aspect of the study of
manuscripts and early printed books. EBS now has 475 members in the US, Canada,
Japan, Ireland, Great Britain, and on the Continent. Membership brings announce-
ments of EBS activities, including the biennial conference, as well as the member-
ship list and the Journal of the Early Book Society, both published annually, along
with pre-publication discounts on books of interest to members and access to the
EBS chatline.
Dues are $40 or £24 for 2010-2011. All members are asked to pay by mail not later
than May 1, 2011, or in person at the annual EBS business meeting at Western
Michigan (May 13) so copies of JEBS may be ordered in a timely fashion. JEBS
may also be ordered separately from Pace UP (see www.pace.edu/press for details).
Those who have paid dues are indicated on the EBS website: (www.nyu.edu/
projects/EBS). Please share a copy of this announcement with an interested friend.
___________________________________________________________________
I enclose $40 or £24 as dues for 2010-2011 membership in EBS.
Name: ______________________________________________________
Address: ______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
e-mail address: __________________________________________________
Affiliation: __________________________________________________
Research interests: _____________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Members wishing to pay in US dollars should send $40 to Martha Driver, Early
Book Society, Department of English, Pace University, 41 Park Row, NY, NY 10038.
Members paying in pounds sterling should send £24 to Linne Mooney, Centre for
Medieval Studies, University of York, King’s Manor, York YO1 7EP UK.
Visit our Website at (http://www.nyu.edu/projects/EBS). Send newsletter items of
interest to the editor Samantha Mullaney <[email protected]>.
The Early Book Society Newsletter Spring 2011, volume 16, number 1
Kalamazoo 2011
EBS is pleased to present five special ses-
sions at the 46th International Congress on
Medieval Studies to be held at Western
Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michi-
gan, from May 12 to 15, 2011. EBS ses-
sions are scheduled on Friday and Satur-
day. Please also plan to attend the annual
EBS business meeting on Friday evening
at 8:30 (Fetzer 2030) when we will ask
for session themes or topics for Kalama-
zoo 2012 and discuss plans for our con-
ference “Out of Bounds: Mobility, Move-
ment and Use of MSS and Printed Books,
1350-1550” to be held in July 2011 at the
University of York.
I Session 229 Friday, 10:00 a.m., Bernhard Brown & Gold, 204,
Medieval Books and Their Early Modern Readers Presider: Derek A. Pearsall, Harvard University
“How Francis Thynne Read His Chaucer”
Megan Cook, University of Pennsylvania
“Making Chaucer Safe for Early Modern Readers”
Stephen D. Powell, University of Guelph
“Textual Afterlives: The Transmission of Older Scots Writers to the Enlight-
enment”
Jeremy J. Smith, University of Glasgow
II Session 271, Friday, 1:30 p.m., Schneider 1360,
Book Production and Cross Cultural Exchange Presider: Mary Morse, Rider University
“Crossroads on the Page: The Language of the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle MS E”
Christine Schott, University of Virginia
“The Translation of „Engelonde‟ in the ME Life of Gregory”
Helen Marshall, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto
“Proverbs and Their Translations in Marguerite Porete‟s
Mirror of Simple Souls”
Zan Kocher, University of Louisiana- Lafayette
“The London Illuminating Shop of the Caesar Master, 1447-1486:
Four Decades of Exchange between Netherlandish and English Limners”
Holly James-Maddocks, University of York
III Session 329, Friday, 3:30 p.m., Schneider 1360,
Why Edit Critically in a Digital Age? Presider: James J. Murphy, University of California-Davis
“Editing the Staciouns of Rome”
Jeanne Krochalis, Pennsylvania State University
“The Dangers of Editing Critically and the Threat of Uncritical Editing”
Barbara Bordalejo, University of Saskatchewan
“Why Indeed Edit Critically in a Digital Age?”
Eugene Lyman, University of Rhode Island
“In the Digital Age, Can Anyone Edit? Should They?”
Peter Robinson, University of Saskatchewan
Session 449, Saturday, 1:30 p.m., Bernhard 105,
Private Reading / Public Reading Presider: Jeremy J. Smith, University of Glasgow
“Reading the Rolls of the Symbols of the Passion”
Sarah Noonan, Washington University in St. Louis
July 25-July 30
The 23rd triennial conference of the
International Arthurian Society, Uni-
versity of Bristol, with plenary speakers
Siân Echard (UBC), Helen Fulton (York),
and Bart Besamusca (Utrecht), among
others. The conference includes master
classes for postgraduate students. For fur-
ther information, contact Arthur-
[email protected] Website: http://
www.bristol.ac.uk/medievalcentre
August 23-25
“From ancient manuscripts to the digi-
tal era: Readings and literacies” organ-
ized by the Swiss Institute of Biblical Sci-
ences (IRSB), University of Lausanne,
Switzerland, will demonstrate the major
impact of the digital era on knowledge, by
studying the history of cultural technolo-
gies. A public evening will conclude the
conference on the 25th August with post-
ers, editors' booths, artistic animations
and a round table discussion, bringing to-
gether publishers and scholars: "What
Will Come after the Book?" Website:
http://www.unil.ch/digitalera2011
September 5
“Digital Resources for Palaeography,”
a one-day symposium at King's College
London, sponsored by the 'Digital Re-
source and Database of Palaeography,
Manuscripts and Diplomatic' (DigiPal) at
the Centre for Computing in Humanities
at King's College London. Papers of 20
minutes in length are invited by May 8 on
any relevant aspect of digital methods and
resources for palaeography and manu-
script studies. Send abstracts (250 words
max) to [email protected]. Notice of ac-
ceptance will be sent by 20 May 2011.
Sept 29-30
“Book Design from the Middle Ages to
the Future Traditions and Evolutions,”
a congress to be held at the University of
Antwerp, in Antwerp, Belgium. How did
the design of books evolve during the
Middle Ages, the early modern period and
beyond? Which traditions survived the
successive transitions from manuscripts to
hand press books in the early modern pe-
riod, at the end of the eighteenth century
(the period of mechanization and automa-
tisation), and at the end of the twentieth
century from the paper book to the elec-
tronic book? These and other questions
will be addressed. David McKitterick
(Cambridge University) is a keynote
speaker and EBS member Erik Kwakkel
will also present a lecture. The congress
will be preceded by a Miræus Lecture in
the Nottebohm Hall of the Antwerp
Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience,
and will be followed by a guided tour of
the Museum Plantin Moretus in Antwerp
on Saturday 1 October. For further infor-
mation, contact Goran Proot, University
of Antwerp, Grote Kauwenberg 18, room
d218, B-2000 Antwerp, Belgium.
tial letter of recommendation from an ad-
visor, thesis director, mentor, or in the
case of postdoctoral candidates, a col-
league. For more information, contact The
Committee on Research, Hill Museum &
Manuscript Library, Box 7300, St John‟s
University, Collegeville, MN 56321-
7300. Inquiries may also be directed to
[email protected] or FAXed to 320-363-
3222.
Harry Ransom Center
Fellowships
The Harry Ransom Center at the Univer-
sity of Texas at Austin annually awards
fifty fellowships to support research pro-
jects that require substantial onsite use of
its collections. The fellowships support
visits of one to three months, with sti-
pends of $3000 per month (US). Travel
stipends of $1200 to $1700 are also avail-
able as are dissertations fellowships
($1500). More information about the fel-
lowships and the Ransom‟s center‟s col-
lections is available at: http://
budurl.com/5gcd
Morningside Drive, with a reception to
follow. Cosponsored by the French De-
partment, the University Seminar on Me-
dieval Studies, and the Friends of the Co-
lumbia Libraries.
May 13-Sept 4
Illuminating Fashion: Dress in the Art
of Medieval France and the Nether-
lands, an exhibition at the Morgan Li-
brary and Museum, NYC.
June 4
"Book Production in the Byzantine
World," a colloquium organized by Lu-
kas A. Schachner and Georgi R. Parpulov,
at Oxford University, with opening re-
marks by Nigel Wilson (Oxford). Papers
discuss luxury book production in the
tenth through twelfth centuries as well as
authors and patronage. Attendance is free
and open to the public. For more informa-
tion, contact
June 30-July 2
Ordo, the eighth annual symposium of
the International Medieval Society,
Paris. The conference focuses on ordo in
the broad sense of concepts for classify-
ing realities or ideas and especially of me-
dieval classification of knowledge. Fur-
ther information is available at: http://
www.ims-paris.org
Conferences, Colloquia,
Talks, Exhibitions of Interest
to EBS Members
May 10
“What’s Going on in the Head of the
Monastic Artist?” a lecture by Patricia
Stirnemann (IRHT) at 5 p.m., Columbia
University, Faculty House, Rm 2, 64
EBS Newsletter
© 2011 Early Book Society
The Early Book Society grew out of sessions planned for the International Congress on Medieval
Studies (Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo) by Sarah Horrall and Martha Driver. Founded as
an independent entity in 1987, the Society‟s goal is to bring together all those who are interested in
any aspect of the study of manuscripts and early printed books.
Newsletter Editor: Samantha Mullaney ([email protected]). Newsletter items
should be sent to the editor, including short reviews, reports on works in progress. Announcements
and conference listings are also welcome.
EBS Officers:
Martha Driver, Department of English, Pace University, 41 Park Row, NY, NY 10038
Sue Powell, Dept of English, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT UK
Linne R Mooney, Centre for Medieval Studies, King's Manor, University of York, York Y01
7EP UK Email: <[email protected]>
JEBS: The Society‟s other publication, Journal of the Early Book Society, can be ordered us-
ing the form that may be downloaded from the EBS website http://www.pace.edu/press . Details of
how to contribute to JEBS can be found under a separate heading in the Newsletter.
“„Thy moche more ys oure Lady Mary longe‟: Childbirth Protection and
Other Prayers in the Takamiya Roll”
Mary Morse, Rider University
“Reading Saints‟ Lives in CUL MS Add. 2604”
Veronica O‟Mara, University of Hull
Session 505, Saturday, 3:30 p.m., Bernhard 105,
Figures of Speech Presider: Martha W. Driver, Pace University
“Tasting the Eucharist: Interaction between Devotion and Image in the
Medieval Sermon”
Nicole Bériou, IRHT
“Fennel, Whale, Oignon, Dice …Puzzling Images of the Virgin in a
Dominican Preacher‟s Literary Work
Marie-Laure Savoye, IRHT
“Off-Color Locutions in the Histoire d’amour sans paroles”
Patricia Stirnemann IRHT
JEBS 14 in Progress
The current issue of JEBS is with Pace
University Press and includes an out-
standing roster of contributors including
Paul Acker, Nicole Clifton, Ralph Hanna,
Omar Khalaf, Vickie Larsen, Arnold
Sanders, Estelle Stubbs, Linne R.
Mooney, Robert N. Swanson, Deborah
Thorpe, Daniel Wakelin, and David Watt,
along with twenty book reviews collected
by the indefatigable Sue
Powell. The contributors
represent a range of schol-
ars from graduate students
to full professors and li-
brarians who are making
their mark in the valuable
field of MS and early print
studies (no puns intended).
As the Press schedule has
changed, it is expected that
JEBS 14 will be sent later in
summer 2011 to members
whose accounts are current.
Members of the Early Book Society
are asked to submit longer papers (35 - 40
pp), with endnotes and a full Works Cited
list, for consideration for publication in
JEBS 15 (2012) in summer and early fall
(by October 1). These are substantial es-
says on any aspect of the history of manu-
scripts and/or printed books, with empha-
sis on the period between 1350 and 1550.
Essays should be sent in duplicate with an
abstract to Martha Driver. A limited num-
ber of illustrations may be included with
complete captions and permissions cita-
tions; Xeroxes of these should initially be
sent with papers for consideration to the
editor. Notes on recent discoveries (4 to10
pages), highlighting little-known or re-
cently uncovered texts or images, may be
sent to Linne Mooney, Centre for Medie-
val Studies, University of York, King‟s
Manor, York Y01 7EP UK. These shorter
essays include only endnotes (not a
Works Cited list). Inquiries are welcome
<[email protected]>. Please
send brief descriptions (200-
650 words) of little- or lesser-
known collections and libraries
of interest to the Society to
Martha Driver, Early Book So-
ciety, Department of English,
Pace University, 41 Park Row,
New York, NY 10038. Mem-
bers of the Early Book Society
who are recent authors may
send review books for consid-
eration to Susan Powell, Re-
views Editor, Department of
English, University of Salford,
Salford M5 4WT UK. Sue may be con-
tacted at <[email protected]>. The
Journal uses The Chicago Manual of
Style as its house manual. For general in-
formation, contact <[email protected]>.
Articles from back issues of JEBS are
available online through the Modern Lan-
guage Association database. The first is-
sue of JEBS (published in 1997) has been
reprinted by Pace University Press and is
available for purchase from the Pace UP
website (see below).
mercial private use.
The V&A offers publishers of aca-
demic books and scholarly articles direct
download of more than 25,000 images
directly from its website
www.vandaimages.com
The Met in NY has joined with
ARTstor to offer high-resolution images
from its collections for scholarly publica-
tion free of charge. Images are available
to users, both individual and institutional,
who are not ARTstor subscribers. See
www.artstor.org/what-is-artstor/w-html/
services-publishing.shtml for more infor-
mation.
AMARC
The Association for Manuscripts and Ar-
chives in Research Collections (AMARC)
promotes the accessibility, preservation,
and study of medieval and later manu-
scripts and archives in libraries and other
research collections in the United King-
dom and Ireland. Membership is open to
all and includes reduced-rate attendance
at meetings, held usually three times per
year (which often involve privileged ac-
cess to manuscript collections), and the
twice-yearly Newsletter. The AMARC
Newsletter contains listings of worldwide
exhibitions and conferences, and UK lec-
tures and seminars; it also includes a sub-
stantial bibliography of recent publica-
tions, recent acquisitions by libraries and
museums, information about recent and
forthcoming auction and dealer cata-
logues, and a list of useful websites. For
Heckman Research Stipends
The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library
(Collegeville, Minnesota) offers stipends
for research at the library from periods of
two weeks to six months. Candidates
must be graduate students or scholars who
are within three years of completing a ter-
minal master‟s or doctoral degree.
Amounts of grants are variable up to
$2,000. Deadlines are twice yearly: April
15 for research conducted from July 1 to
December 1, and Nov 15 for research
conducted from January to June 30. Sub-
mit a letter of application, cv, a one-page
description of the research project includ-
ing proposed length of stay, an explana-
tion of how use of the Library‟s resources
will advance the project and a confiden-
further details, visit http://
www.amarc.org.uk/
The Remnant Trust Exhibition
Program for Medieval MSS
The Remnant Trust is a public educa-
tional foundation that shares a collection
of original works, including medieval
MSS. The Trust makes this collection
available for a small fee that covers costs
to colleges, universities, and other organi-
zations for use by students, faculty, and
scholars, who are encouraged to touch,
feel and read the originals. For further
information, contact the Trust at remnant-
[email protected] or the Consulting
Curator of medieval MSS sandrahind-
encing some technical problems.
While the server at curiousexpedi-
tions.org is being sorted out, images of
some beautiful libraries can be seen at the
http://
bookshelf-
porn.com/
archive which
also has some
truly enviable
creative
shelving so-
lutions for people who share living space
with a large number of books.
Another site, run by The Historic
Libraries Forum, may
also be of interest. The
Historic Libraries Fo-
rum is a free, non-profit
organization for all
those interested in historic libraries and
collections. More information is available
at www.historiclibrariesforum.org.uk
Mellon Summer Institutes in
Vernacular Paleography,
2011 – 2012
Supported by a grant from The Andrew
W. Mellon Foundation, these summer in-
stitutes provide intensive practical train-
ing in reading late medieval and Renais-
sance MSS in European vernacular hands.
The institutes in French paleography
(2012), Spanish paleography (2011), and
English paleography (2012) are hosted by
the Newberry Library Center for Renais-
sance Studies, the Getty Research Insti-
tute, the Huntington Library, and the
Harry Ransom Center at The University
of Texas at Austin. First consideration is
given advanced graduate students and
junior faculty at US colleges and universi-
ties but applications are also accepted
from advanced graduate students and jun-
ior faculty at Canadian institutions, from
professional staff of US and Canadian
libraries and museums, and from inde-
pendent scholars. Those admitted receive
a stipend to help defray the cost of attend-
ing the institute. For general information
about the program, contact Carla Zecher,
Director of the Center for Renaissance
Studies (312-255-3514) or renais-
Free Digital Images for Scholars
The National Gallery and the Victoria and
Albert Museum in London, along with the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York, have made digital images of works
from their collections available for free
for all scholarly publications. The Na-
tional Gallery waives reproduction
charges for digital images used in aca-
demic books and journals that meet spe-
cific criteria (nonprofit, short-run publica-
tions) and where orders are processed and
delivered via its Picture Library website
www.nationalgalleryimages.co.uk. Dis-
counts are available
for images repro-
duced in student
theses, academic
presentations or lec-
tures, and noncom-
Subscription Information
JEBS 14, the issue forthcoming this sum-
mer, is part of timely membership re-
newal; further copies must be ordered
separately. If you are ordering extra cop-
ies, you can pay with VISA (in U.S. dol-
lars) using the order form on from the
Pace UP site at <http://www.pace.edu/
press>. Libraries may purchase copies
directly from Ingram Library Services (1-
800-937-5300).
A membership renewal form for
2010-2011, which includes the cost of
JEBS 14, may be found on the last page
of this bulletin. Members are asked, how-
ever, to pay their dues promptly. All
members are encouraged to join (for the
academic year) not later than the annual
business meeting at Western Michigan
(Friday, May 13, 2011), so the proper
number of orders can be given the Press
directly on return. UK and Continental
payments are made to Linne Mooney,
Centre for Medieval Studies, University
of York, King‟s Manor, York Y01 7EP
UK. E-mail: <[email protected]>, but
well before the May deadline, please, if
you wish to include the Journal with your
subscription for this year.
This cumbersome and time-
consuming system is in the process of be-
ing updated, and we hope to make direct
payment of membership available on the
EBS website in the coming academic year
(that is, from September 2011 to May
2012).
EBS Website and 2011 Member-
ship List Martha Rust at New York University is
the webmaster for the EBS site housed at
NYU <www.nyu.edu/projects/EBS>. The
site includes an electronic version of the
Newsletter, announcements of interest to
the EBS membership, the current mem-
bership list, and the Honor Roll, a list of
those who have paid their EBS dues al-
ready for 2010-2011. Suggestions for
other items members would like to see
included on this site (announcements of
forthcoming books, of conferences or
talks and exhibitions) may be sent to:
<[email protected]> or to
EBS Book Series
The Making of Poetry: Late-Medieval
French Poetic Anthologies by Jane H. M.
Taylor, the first volume in the EBS Texts
and Transitions series with Brepols, was
published in August of 2007 and has re-
ceived many excellent reviews. Another
volume, Reforma-
tions: Three Me-
dieval Authors in
Manuscript and
Movable Type by
Rebecca Schoff,
published in Janu-
ary 2008, is both
cited and re-
viewed in JEBS
12 and recently
reviewed in the
with late medieval manuscripts
and early printed books to about
1550, particularly those that ex-
plore the transition from manu-
script to print and questions to
do with readers and literacy,
owners and patronage, the dis-
semination of texts, and the re-
ception of medieval texts. A
„text‟ may be either a word or
an image, where a picture
serves also as a text that can be
read and interpreted. The focus is mainly
on manuscripts and books produced in
England or for the English market, and
closely related French and Continental
works. The series includes monographs of
about 250 to 300 pages, collections of
previously published essays by one author
(updated and revised), or in some cases
essay collections with a clearly unified
theme or one main subject. Authors are
encouraged to include illustrations. Pic-
tures are reproduced in black and white,
though color illustrations may be included
in special cases. Authors are responsible
for purchasing photographs and securing
the permissions to reproduce them.
The immediate organizers and gen-
eral editors of the series are Martha
Driver (Pace University, NY) and Derek
Pearsall (Harvard University, emeritus).
The advisory board comprises scholars
expert in the various fields of late medie-
val and early modern literature and cul-
ture and in the history of manuscripts and
books. The members of the board are:
Julia Boffey (Queen Mary, University of
Journal of English and Ger-
manic Philology. The Poet’s
Notebook: The Personal
Manuscript of Charles d’Or-
léans (Paris, BNF MS
fr.25458) by Mary-Jo Arn,
issued last year, was re-
viewed in Renaissance
Quarterly by Jane Taylor
who aptly describes “Arn‟s
acute, meticulous, and min-
ute observation of manu-
script details that turn out to be astonish-
ingly informative” (876). Helen Swift,
writing in Medium Aevum, further com-
ments that this “study opens up important
new lines of research into the duke‟s po-
etry and into the operation of literary
manuscripts as documents” (149). There
was also an extensive review in Philologi-
cal Quarterly (88.3 [2009]: 337-340.
Anne Bulkeley and Her Book: Fashioning
Female Piety in Early Tudor England. A
Study of London, British Library MS
Harley 494 by Alexandra Barratt, the
most recently pub-
lished volume in the
series, is reviewed by
Jan T. Rhodes in the
forthcoming issue of
JEBS.
The series
draws on the ideals
and aims of the Early
Book Society.
Through Brepols,
EBS publishes
monographs dealing
first English work ever
translated into Continen-
tal languages, and the
conference will focus on
recent research in liter-
ary, philological, histori-
cal and/or cultural topics.
Those with a special in-
terest in the field of An-
glo-Spanish relations or translation are
especially encouraged to participate
though all Gower scholars are most wel-
come. For further information, see the
John Gower Society website (http://
www.wcu.edu/johngower/index.html) or
contact the organizing committee
Conference on Nuns’ Literacies
A conference on “Nuns‟ Literacies in Me-
dieval Europe” will take place at the Uni-
versity of Hull from 20 to 23 June 2011.
It is designed to bring together specialists
working on diverse geographical areas to
create a dialogue about the Latin and ver-
nacular texts nuns read, wrote, and ex-
changed, primarily from the late eighth to
the mid-sixteenth centuries. To date, there
has been significant research in this field
but little in the way of cross-cultural
study. For this reason, twenty-five inter-
national experts (from Belgium, Den-
mark, England, Germany, the Nether-
lands, New Zealand, Sweden, the United
States, and Wales) will address these is-
sues in Hull. For further details, please
contact the organizers: Veronica O‟Mara,
University of Hull
([email protected]), Virginia
Blanton, University of Missouri-Kansas
City ([email protected]), and Patricia
Stoop, University of Antwerp
New Blog on MSS
Juan Garcés ([email protected]) has
started a new blog called Digitised Manu-
scripts Blog (http://
britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/
digitisedmanuscripts/). The blog concerns
the current digitization project at the Brit-
ish Library, focusing
on the Greek Manu-
scripts Digitisation
Project, but also on
digitized MSS in gen-
eral. Take a look!
Manuscripts on
My Mind
Brighten your day with an email newslet-
ter from the Vatican Film Library at Saint
Louis University. To subscribe or contrib-
ute, contact the editor, Susan L‟Engle at
Lovely Libraries
If you are stuck at home and long for the
meditative quiet of a library, Curious Ex-
peditions has collected photographs of
beautiful libraries from around the world
that may be viewed in the web at
http://curiousexpeditions.org/?p=78 al-
though the host server is currently experi-
and expert reviews. For more information,
contact Ian Johnson (irj@st-
andrews.ac.uk) and Margaret Connolly
([email protected]). To order, con-
tact [email protected]
Introduction (1000-1500 words) and
translation. These include a broad range
of pre-modern texts including but not lim-
ited to literary and philosophical works,
letters, charters, court documents, and
notebooks. Texts should be previously
unedited, and the edition must represent a
discrete text in its entirety. For more in-
formation or to view a sample edition, go
to opuscula.usask.ca or write Frank
Klaassen, General Editor at
<[email protected]>. Website:
http://opuscula.usask.ca
OSTMAR is an on-line and open-
access journal published by Classical,
Medieval, and Renaissance Studies at the
University of Saskatchewan under a crea-
tive commons license. All submissions
are subject to a double-blind peer review
and must be accompanied by readable
digital facsimiles of the original docu-
ments.
The Mediaeval Journal
Brepols and the St Andrews Institute of
Mediaeval Studies have announced this
new journal to start in 2011. With Euro-
pean-based cross-disciplinary and multi-
national focuses, the editors invite sub-
missions from international scholars in
the fields of art history, history, archae-
ology, theology, languages, literatures
(including English), Islamic studies, Jew-
ish studies, manuscript studies, history of
ideas, queer studies, material culture, his-
tory of medicine and science, among oth-
ers. The journal will also contain timely
FONS LUMINIS
Fons Luminis: an Interdisciplinary Jour-
nal of Medieval Studies, a peer-reviewed
journal, seeks submissions of articles
from all areas, especially those with an
interdisciplinary emphasis; articles should
be about 8,000 words and follow the
Speculum style sheet. Junior faculty and
graduate students are particularly encour-
aged to submit. Deadlines are Jan 1 for
the spring issue and June 1 for the autumn
issue. Inquiries and submissions should
be directed to Victoria Goddard and An-
drew Reeves, Editors in Chief, at
[email protected], or Fons Lumi-
nis, Centre for Medieval Studies, 39
Queen's Park Crescent East, Toronto, ON
M5S 2C3.
Conferences to Attend,
Grants and Websites of
Interest
Second International Conference
of the John Gower Society
“John Gower in Iberia: 1411-2011, Six
Hundred Years” is the theme of the sec-
ond Gower Society conference to be held
in Valladolid, Spain, from July 18 to 21,
2011. Gower‟s Confessio Amantis was the
ple from all over the world including the
UK, USA and Canada, France, Norway,
Cyprus, the Netherlands, Finland and Ja-
pan, attesting to Professor Takamiya's in-
ternational influence in a number of im-
portant scholarly fields. The themes are
diverse but rich in scope, and we expect
to learn a great deal from our colleagues
about manuscripts, books, reading, and a
number of other related subjects.
The provisional program has been
posted on the conference website found
on this link: www.york.ac.uk/medieval-
studies/. Talks will mainly be given at
King's Manor. A list of rooms available in
local B&Bs, hotels and youth hostels is
supplied on the conference site. It is best
to book early as York is crowded in sum-
mer. Please consult the website for travel
information, approximate costings and
bookings. We
look forward
to seeing you
at the Early
Book Society
conference!
We are ex-
ploring future
venues for
Early Book
Society con-
ferences. Col-
leagues who
wish to co-
sponsor the
next confer-
ence in 2013
London), Jennifer
Britnell (University
of Durham), Ardis
Butterfield
(University Col-
lege, London),
Philippa Hardman
(University of
Reading), Dieter
Mehl (University
of Bonn), Alastair
Minnis (Yale Uni-
versity), Oliver
Pickering
(Brotherton Library, Leeds), John Scatter-
good (Trinity College, Dublin), and John
Thompson (Queen's University, Belfast).
Those interested in inquiring about
submissions should contact Simon Forde
at Brepols <[email protected]>, or
Derek Pearsall at
<[email protected]>, or
Martha Driver <[email protected]>.
EBS conference in York 2011
The Twelfth Biennial Conference of the
Early Book Society "Out of Bounds:
Movement and Use of Manuscripts and
Printed Books, 1350-1550," honors
Toshiyuki Takamiya, an Advisory Board
member and long-time friend and member
of the Early Book Society. Hosted by
Linne Mooney at the Center for Medieval
Studies, University of York, in collabora-
tion with the York MSS Conference, the
meeting will be held from July 3 through
7. The conference has attracted 100 peo-
are invited to contact Martha Driver. At
the international business meeting in Exe-
ter, several possibilities were discussed
including the University of St Andrews
(Margaret Connolly) and the University
of Liverpool (Pollie Bromilow).
in this provision is crucial, even if often
delivered from behind a virtual veil.
Equally, the library of today and tomor-
row has an immutable obligation to con-
tinue collecting and preserving the record
of human activity in whatever shape or
format they appear. Books, manuscripts,
photographs, pamphlets, films, works of
art and videos: all are important elements
in any collecting policy. ... Outside the
entrance to Sterling Memorial Library is
the legend, „The Library is the Heart of
the University.‟ One might paraphrase
that to embrace research libraries in gen-
eral: „The Library is at the heart of Civili-
zation.‟” Ms. Prochaska has now become
librarian at Somerville College, Oxford.
The full text of her lecture is available at
www.atbl.us Kings Manor
University of York
A Brief Meditation on Library
Collections
Alice Prochaska, Yale librarian, gave a
farewell talk on April 15, 2010, titled
“Building a great research library: one
decade‟s perspective on 300 years of col-
lecting.” In it she remarked: “Whatever
the future holds for ... [the] great research
libraries of the world, electronic resources
and their preservation will play an in-
creasingly important role. They are al-
ready the principal means whereby schol-
ars and students in almost all scientific
disciplines and most of the social sciences
gain access to what they need for their
research and teaching. The library‟s role Alice Prochaska
Calls for Papers
AVISTA
This journal devoted to the study of me-
dieval technology, science and art pub-
lishes selected abstracts of conference pa-
pers of interest to their readership. In the
AVISTA Forum Journal (20:1/2, fall
2010), abstracts of several papers pre-
sented at EBS sessions in 2010 at the In-
ternational Congress of Medieval Studies,
Western Michigan University, were pub-
lished including: “Writing Fame: Renais-
sance Chaucer Editions‟ Epitaph Tran-
scriptions and the construction of Chau-
cer,” by Arnold Sanders (Goucher Col-
lege), “A „Stewe Hous‟ Bursting with
„Bokes of Frensche, Latyn and Englyssh.‟
Who Read Sir John Fastolf‟s books, how,
and why?” by Deborah Thorpe (Centre
for Medieval Studies, University of
York), “Sixteenth-Century Readers of the
1721 Chaucer” by David Sprunger
(Concordia College) and “The Ludlow
Scribe of MS Harley 2253 and his Li-
brary,” by Catherine A. Rock (Stark State
College of Technology). If you are pre-
senting a paper at Kalamazoo or intend to
present one in any Early Book Society
session in the future, and your paper fits
the themes of the AVISTA organization,
please send your abstract to
ICMA at CAA
The International Center for Medieval Art
is sponsoring sessions at the College Art
Association to be held February 22-25,
2012, in Los Angeles, CA. The theme is
“Res et signification: the Material Sense
of Things in the Middle Ages.” Abstracts
are invited for papers on the medieval sig-
nification of materials and material
things. Papers may focus on material- or
thing-signification in the Western or Byz-
antine Middle Ages through material- or
object-focused case studies. Send propos-
als by May 10, 2011, to Aden Kumler
(University of Chicago) akum-
[email protected] and Christopher Lakey
(Johns Hopkins University)
Haskins Society, Boston College
Paper proposals are welcome in fields to
which Charles Homer Haskins contrib-
uted, including but not limited to Anglo-
Saxon, Viking, Norman and Angevin his-
tory, as well as early and high medieval
cultural history. Proposals for complete
sessions (three papers) and for individual
papers will be considered. Please send a
one-page abstract and vita to the Program
Director, John Cotts, by June 1. Email:
[email protected] website: http://
haskinsatbostoncollege
Opuscula: Short Texts of the
Middle Ages and Renaissance
(OSTMAR)
The editors seek single-witness editions
of Medieval and Renaissance texts under
6,000 words accompanied by a brief
