Newsletter 7

The Medieval Chronicle Society

The MCS was founded at the 2nd International Conference on the Medieval Chronicle, held in Driebergen, the Netherlands. It is an international and interdisciplinary organisation founded to facilitate the work of scholars interested in medieval chronicles, or more generally medieval historiography.

The history of the society began with a series of triennial conferences initially in Utrecht, but later moving from place to place. These early conferences were hosted by Erik Kooper (English Department, Utrecht). It was at the second of these conferences, in 1999, that the society was formally founded.

Conferences so far:

1996 Utrecht (Driebergen) – 1999 Utrecht (Driebergen) – 2002 Utrecht (Doorn) – 2005 Reading – 2008 Belfast

Membership

The MCS is a virtual society in the sense that it has no formal organisation. Anyone interested in the study of medieval chronicles is eligible to membership. As soon as one’s name has been included in the MCS mailinglist, one is a member. There are no dues.

At the end of every triennial conference a General Meeting is held, and since all conference participants are on the MCS mailinglist they also have the right to take part in the discussions and decision making.

General Meeting – Belfast 2008

As usual a General Meeting concluded the 5th International Conference in Belfast, July 2008, organized by Dion Smythe.

Election new officers

The most important point on the agenda (apart from the venue of the next conference) was the election of two members to succeed Erik Kooper in two of his functions.

In the first place Graeme Dunphy (Regensburg, Germany) was elected as the new President of the MCS as per immediate (g{at}dunphy.de).

After that Sjoerd Levelt (Warburg Institute, London) was elected to act as assistant-editor of The Medieval Chronicle volumes, for vol. VIII, and to become chief editor with vol. IX.

6th International Conference on the Medieval Chronicle 2011 – Pécs, Hungary

At the same Genral Meeting in Belfast it was decided that the 6th International Conference on the Medieval Chronicle will be held at the University of Pécs, Hungary, in the summer of 2011. The organizing committee will consist of Mártha Font and Dániel Bagi, both of the History Department. Their e-mail addresses are:
marthafont{at}mail.datanet.hu – Bagidani{at}btk.pte.hu

(With thanks to Hartley Miller (Liverpool) for help with the minutes)

The Medieval Chronicle

The Medieval Chronicle VI

Work on vol. VI has reached its final stages; publication is expected later this year. It will contain papers by keynote speakers and other participants at three different conferences, as well as papers submitted by members of the MCS.

The Medieval Chronicle VII

In July of 2008 a small international symposium on the Medieval Chronicle was held in Cambridge. Papers from that gathering will form the core of vol. VII, which will in its entirety be dedicated to chronicles written in England, and include papers on texts in Latin, French/Anglo-Norman and English. There is still space for one or two contributions, especially on chronicles in one of the Celtic languages. Guest editor of the volume will be Dr Juliana Dresvina, one of the organizers.

The possibility of a thematic volume offered itself unexpectedly, but was welcomed by the editorial board. Members are invited to submit proposals for similar thematic volumes.

The Medieval Chronicle VIII – Call for contributions

Although much of the space of vol. VIII will undoubtedly go to papers read at the conference in Pécs in 2011, members are reminded that they can always submit papers independent of conference activities.

Website

Within the next few months, the Medieval Chronicle Society will have its own website. Dr Godfried Croenen and Dr Sarah Peverley of the University of Liverpool have registered the domain name ‘medievalchronicle.org’ and the site is currently being designed. The website will allow society members to find information about past and future conferences, current international research being done on chronicles, and other important news. Members will be contacted once the website is up and running.

Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle

A number of interdisciplinary projects have been inspired by the society. One of these is Graeme Dunphy’s Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle, due to appear with Brill (Leiden) in 2009, and to which many members of the MCS are contributing items. For some areas, especially Italy, Byzantium, the Islamic world, and Latin works from throughout the Empire, a few additional contributors would be very welcome. Beside this there are still a few free items in other areas as well (English, French, Spanish and Celtic languages). If you feel like helping out, or know someone who might, please contact Graeme Dunphy at: g{at}dunphy.de.

Announcements

Conferences – 2009

Journée d’études à Bruxelles – Lundi le 4 mai, 2009

Centre International de Codicologie et Réseau des Médiévistes belges de langue française, Groupes de Contact du F.N.R.S., annoncent la 21e journée d’études:
– Conférence de Mgr Paul Canart, Vice-Préfet émérite de la Bibliothèque Vaticane –

« De la catalographie à la codicologie. L’itinéraire d’un scriptor graecus »

Lundi 4 mai, 2009 – 14 h 00
Adresse du jour: Bibliothèque royale Albert Ier – Auditorium De Greef – Boulevard de l’Empereur, 4 (4e étage) – 1000 Bruxelles (B).

Renseignements: Baudouin Van den Abeele : Baudouin.Vandenabeele{at}uclouvain.be

Kalamazoo Sessions – May 2009

The Medieval Chronicle Society will have two sessions at Kalamazoo this year:

I – Medieval Chronicles

Organizer/Presider: Cristian Bratu, Baylor Univ.

• (a)‘Authorship Deferred: Medieval Chroniclers as Authors and Intellectuals’ William Christopher Brown, Indiana Univ., Bloomington
• (b) ‘History and Narration in Medieval Chronicles’ Gesine Mierke, Technische Univ. Chemnitz
• (c) ‘Theorizing the Temporal Break in Noah’s Deluge and Irish Chronicles Elizabeth Blake, New York Univ.

II – Authorship in Medieval Chronicles

Organizer: Cristian Bratu, Baylor Univ. – Presider: Lisa M. Ruch, Bay Path College

• (a) ‘Authorial Presence and Absence in Medieval Brut Chronicles’ Caroline D. Eckhardt, Pennsylvania State Univ.
• (b) ‘Author Awareness in the German World Chronicles of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries’ Graeme Dunphy, Univ. Regensburg
• (c) ‘The Emergence of the Author in French Medieval Chronicles’ Cristian Bratu, Baylor Univ.

Cultural Icons of Medieval Scotland – July 2009

Conference 22–23 July 2009
King’s College, Aberdeen – Room KCG 8
These events will highlight the cultural achievements of the medieval North and the objects which help us define the identity and early history of Scotland.
Wednesday 22nd July, 6pm – Public Lecture – Professor David Dumville (Aberdeen):
‘The Book of Deer: A monument of North-Eastern book production’
Thursday 23rd July 2009 – James McKay Hall – One-Day Conference

For more information, see http://www.abdn.ac.uk/celtic/.

The Soldier in Later Medieval England – July + September 2009

Dr Adrian R Bell and Professor Anne Curry are announcing two conferences:

• 20–22nd July 2009, ‘England’s Wars, 1272 – 1399’, University of Reading, UK.
• 2–4th September 2010, The Annual Fifteenth Century England Conference, including a strand on ‘England’s Wars in the Fifteenth Century’, University of Southampton, UK.

For more information, including speakers and abstracts of papers see: http://www.medievalsoldier.org

Interdisciplinary Approaches to Gender, Sexuality and Power – October 2009

The Center for Gender Equity and the Gender and Sexuality Studies Program at Pacific University, Oregon, USA, present: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Gender, Sexuality and Power.
October 16–17, 2009.

For further information and submissions: please email the conference committee at whitehej{at}pacificu.edu by May 1st, 2009.

Conferences – 2010

Medieval Chronicle Society at Leeds – July 2010

The Medieval Chronicle Society is sponsoring two sessions at the 17th International Medieval Congress in Leeds, 12-15 July 2010:

Session one: Travel and Exploration in Medieval Chronicles

Abstracts are invited for papers dealing with descriptions of travel, exploration, migration and/or conquest in medieval chronicles, and with relations between chronicles and travel accounts in other texts. We particularly welcome papers with either interdisciplinary or cross-cultural approaches, and papers that reach beyond the conventional chronological and geographical borders of the European Middle Ages.

Session two: The Medieval Chronicle

Abstracts are invited for papers dealing with any aspect of medieval chronicles. We particularly welcome papers addressing one or more of the themes of the Medieval Chronicle Society. We particularly, but by no means exclusively, welcome papers with interdisciplinary and/or diachronic approaches, and papers relating to chronicles from regions other than Western Europe.

Please send proposals for twenty-minute papers in English, French or German (title and an abstract of about 250-300 words, with a short bibliography) by e-mail to Sjoerd Levelt (s.levelt{at}seh.oxon.org) by September 6, 2009. Inquiries are welcome.

New Publications

Broken Lines: Genealogical Literature in Medieval Britain and France

Ed. Raluca L. Radulescu and Edward Donald Kennedy. Turnhout: Brepols, 2008. 295 pp. ISBN 978-2-503-52485-6. Approx. € 80.

Geschichte der Sächsischen Franziskanerprovinz von den Anfängen bis zum Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts

Vol. 1 (Middle Ages). Ed. by Volker Honemann, including his contribution ‘Mittelalterliche Geschichtsschreibung der Saxonia’; the following authors and works will be dealt with Alexander Minorita, Albert von Stade, the Sächsische Weltchronik, Jordan von Giano, Detmar von Lübeck, the Erfurter Franziskanerchronk, as well as numerous others (e.g. monastic chronicles). To be published by Verlag Schöningh/Paderborn, ca. 2010.

Commemorating Violence: The Writing of History in the Francophone Middle Ages

Zrinka Stahuljak (Assoc. Professor of French, UCLA) and Noah Guynn (Assoc. Professor of French, UC Davis) have obtained a contract to publish a volume of essays entitled Commemorating Violence: The Writing of History in the Francophone Middle Ages in the Gallica Series at Boydell & Brewer. The volume is slated to appear in 2012.

The overarching goals of the volume will be, first, to contribute to ongoing efforts to integrate medieval history writing more fully into the fold of literary studies; and, second, to discern properly medieval conceptions of historicity, as distinct from modern notions of factual accuracy. The volume will explore the methodologies, epistemologies, and ideologies of medieval Francophone historiography by concentrating specifically on the commemoration of violent acts and events. For more information, bulletin readers should contact ndguynn{at}ucdavis.edu or zs{at}humnet.ucla.edu.

Mosaics of Time: The Latin Chronicle Tradition from its Beginnings to the Sixth Century

This multi-volume work will provide a comprehensive history of the chronicle and related genres in Latin, setting them in their wider Mediterranean context. After the first, historical volume – to appear within the year – further volumes will include texts, translations and extensive commentary on that tradition. In cases where an adequate textus receptus exists, we will print that, but in most instances we are producing new editions. For more information contact the editors, Richard Burgess or Michael Kulikowski: rburgess{at}uottawa.ca – mkulikow{at}utk.edu.

Manuscript Exhibition – 2011

Imagining the Past in France, 1250-1500 (Nov. 16, 2010 – Feb.6,  2011)

J. Paul Getty Museum – Los Angeles, CA – USA – http://www.getty.edu/

‘Imagining the Past in France’ will celebrate historical imagery produced in France between about 1250 and 1500, bringing together a number of the finest masterpieces produced in the Middle Ages. The exhibition will explore the role of illumination in vernacular manuscripts as a way of formulating and disseminating a medieval idea of history, to help an entire nation understand the present and plan for the future by looking to the past. Approximately 60 manuscripts will be supplemented by a small selection of medieval objects such as tapestries and ivory boxes.

The exhibition is curated by Dr. Elizabeth Morrison, Curator, Department of Manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum, working in conjunction with Professor Anne D. Hedeman, School of Art and Design, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Download Newsletter 7 in PDF format: Newsletter 7 – April 2009 (English).

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The Medieval Chronicle Society
For information contact:
Dr Erik Kooper
Dept of English
Trans 10
3512 JK Utrecht
The Netherlands

Tel. +31 (30) 2536187
or +31 (30) 2538189 (secr.)

E-mail: e.s.kooper{at}uu.nl