 |
The Centre for Medieval Studies Newsletter
|
|
|
The Centre for Medieval Studies Newsletter
|
Edited by Associate Director,
John Pryor
|
The Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Sydney was founded in 1997 and is now in its ninth year of successful operation. The Newsletter is circulated to all Members, Honorary, Associate, and Student Members of the Centre either electronically or in hard copy, depending upon whether members have e-mail addresses. It appears biannually, in March and August, and includes a programme of events for the coming semester as well as news of Centre activities, research projects and publications of its members, and teaching. The Editors welcome news items and contributions from members. Please send them, preferably electronically, to the Acting Director: John Pryor. The Newsletter is also available on the Centre's Website: http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/arts/departs/medieval/ |
Professor Margaret Clunies Ross, the Director of the Centre, Woolley Building N304. Phone: 9351 6832 Fax: (02) 9351 2434 Email: mcr@arts.usyd.edu.au John Pryor , Associate Director, performs some of the functions of the running of the Centre. Woolley Building N306. Phone: (02) 9351 2840 Fax: (02) 9351 2434 Email: John.Pryor@arts.usyd.edu.au |
2: The 2004 Annual General Meeting of the Centre and Christmas "Do" (from the Director) As in 2003, there was a very successful Research Day combined with the Centre's Annual General Meeting on Thursday 25 November 2004. The day was well attended by 25 members and divided into two parts. Part I comprised brief research reports from various Centre members about their own current research projects. It was both refreshing and exciting to hear of all the diverse areas of Medieval Studies being investigated. Speakers and their topics included:
David Scott-Macnab (in absentia) on his research into medieval hawking and hunting manuals, many as yet unpublishedDiane Speed on 'Otuel in Medieval England'
Geraldine Barnes on 'Travel and Translation in Icelandic Romance'
Michael Carter on 'Talking to Dead People' (on medieval Arabic sources)
Jane Hardie on 'Spanish Liturgical Chant: The Sydney Manuscripts'
Lyn Olson on 'Writing Early Medieval History'
Elizabeth Bonner on 'The French Forts, Fortifications and Army in Scotland during the reign of Henri II, 1547-59'
Martin Rorke on 'The Economy and Society of Late Medieval Scotland: Overseas Trade and Traders'
Frances Muecke on 'Roman Topography in the Renaissance'
Vrasidas Karalis on 'Byzantine Art'.
Part Two of the day's events comprised an Annual General Meeting followed by an informal pre-Christmas lunch celebration. At the AGM the Board for 2005 was elected and the Centre's current account balances were presented, total current equity standing at $94,635.
The Board of the Centre for 2005 is:
Director
Associate Director
Associate Director
Professor Margaret Clunies Ross
Associate Professor Geraldine Barnes
Associate Professor John Pryor
Members of the Board
Dr Elizabeth Bonner
Dr Carole Cusack
Dr Jane Hardie
Dr Juanita Ruys
(There is room for two more members of the Board. if you are interested, please contact Margaret Clunies Ross - perhaps a "token male" to keep me company? Ed.)
Student Members of the Board
Matthew Sayles (P.G.)
(An Undergraduate will be elected by the class of MDST2001 this semester)
3.. Welcome to new Junior Members of the Centre
The Centre welcomes to the world Mr Raphael Gordon last November, to Yvette Paiement and Nick Gordon, and Mr Henry Walmsley-Weir last august, to Fiona Walmsley-Weir and Adam Weir. Our students are very productive! Congratulations to all the parents.
4.. And congratulations To Amanda Power. Amanda was never a Member of the Centre because she finished her Honours in Medieval History and went to Cambridge just before the Centre was formed. However, she participated in our Symposium on Cartography and Travel in the Middle Ages and will have a chapter in the publication. She has just been appointed to a tenurable Lectureship in medieval Mediterranean History at the University of Sheffield.
5: Research Profile: Professor Michael Carter
The last four years have seen a considerable surge in Mike's output, not, he hopes, a swan song, because there is still much he would like to achieve while the brain and the three typing fingers still function.
In 2000 he was a Visiting Fellow of the Centre for six months and this marked a new phase in his academic life. On the personal level it allowed him back on to campus as an active member of a university he was once employed by, and on the academic level it gave him a platform from which to finish two books, both of which have appeared, the first a joint effort, Modern Written Arabic, a Comprehensive Grammar, the other a small monograph, see below. All this while he was supposed to be at work on another book altogether. In 2003 he was back again, enjoying the other half of a well-earned sabbatical with a second spell as Honorary Associate in the same friendly and stimulating context of the Centre for Medieval Studies. Finally, unable to keep away (he does have children and grandchildren in Sydney, he emphasizes), he has returned for good and now enjoys the status of Honorary Professor in the Centre.
A third book (which was originally projected as the first of the three) is a history of Arabic for CUP. This is more of a hard grind than a voyage of joyous discovery, and he will be glad when it is finished. The Press has been waiting more than five years and will be even gladder. The problem with a book of this kind is that it does not involve true research or originality but rather the painstaking abridgement and accurate reproduction of all that has already been said about the subject. Fortunately his German colleagues have done a lot of the spadework and he can safely pillage them because nobody under fifty (sixty?) in Anglo-Saxon academe reads German nowadays.
Far more interesting will be the chance to return to a web project he started about six years ago, which ran out of money in 2000. By that time his team had digitalized two sections of the oldest and most important text in Arabic grammar (the author, Sibawayhi, who died about 795 AD, was the subject of his second book above). His hope is to obain funding for a small group, probably spread over three continents, to complete the digitalisation and develop an appropriate browsing environment. It is one thing to have a huge e-corpus but quite another to know how to use it. If this project gets under way it will offer an entire library on screen(s): text, translation, commentary, manuscripts and secondary literature, all linked as hypertext.
As a sideline he remains intrigued by the connection between language, faith and power which is such a conspicuous feature of Islamic culture in all periods. The Qur'an has lost none of its force in the last fourteen centuries, and there is a miraculous element in its unabating influence which he cannot explain but is beginning to understand, perhaps. What is even more fascinating is that the medieval Muslim theologians and jurists constructed an edifice of dogma and legal theory (with the help of grammarians) which is so logically coherent and profound that one can only marvel at their intellectual capacity. [[ This so far exceeds his own that all he can do is stumble along behind and congratulate himself when he thinks he has grasped a little of what they wrote. He wishes he could say that he understands as much as Aquinas did, but even he got it wrong, and he is certainly no Aquinas. He is going to try to put some of this into shape for a talk to SMRG later in the year. (Sic, Ed.) ]]
Dr Martin Rorke has also been made an Honorary Associate. Dr Rorke is an independent scholar recently relocated from the U.K. His field of expertise is late medieval and Early Modern Scotland, with special emphasis on Scottish overseas trade, particularly that of Edinburgh. He is currently applying for an ARC Postdoctoral Fellowish on the Commercial economy of later sixteenth-century Edinburgh.We are also pleased to be able to announce that when he completes his final semester of teaching in July this year, Mr Max Walkley of the Department of French will become a new Honorary Associate of the Centre. His appointment has already been approved. Max is, of course, well known to us all. He has been a well-known scholar of medieval French and a renowned "personality" of the University for over 30 years.
7.. Events
The Centre for Medieval Studies Lecture Series
Semester One, 2005
|
The Centre aims to present monthly lectures by local medievalists and visiting scholars on a variety of topics in Medieval Studies. All members and their guests are welcome at these lectures, which are free and delivered by experts in a manner accessible to those without specialist knowledge of their topics. The lectures will all be held in the Staff Common Room (Room N480) of the John Woolley Building on level four. The Common Room has a kitchen attached and drinks and nibbles are provided before each lecture. All lectures will be given on Thursdays between 5.30 and 7.00 p.m. Drinks and nibblies from ca 5.00 p.m. Please note that for various reasons, the lectures this year will not all be on the last Thursday of each month as has been our normal practice. Note the dates in your diaries. We normally take the speaker out to dinner after the lecture and members are invited warmly to come along. We usually go to a moderately-priced restaurant somewhere on Glebe Point Road. Please let John Pryor know at least by 12.00 noon of the day in question if you want to come with us. |
|
"Narrative techniques in the French Grail Romances" |
|
"Humanists and the European Study Tour" |
|
"Birth, marriage, death, and trade : the experience of Edinburgh's women overseas traders in the sixteenth century" |
Semester Two, 2005
|
"The Stroke of Difference : Girls in Renaissance Florence" |
|
"The modern reception of Middle English saints" |
|
"Ælfric's married saints : redefining marriage and living the ideal" |
|
"Antonio Mancinelli and Luca Signorelli : Interpreters of the Muses"
|
8: Events: From the West to the Holy Land in the Age of the Crusades
A Symposium at the Centre for Medieval Studies, 1 July 2005, in conjunction with the meeting of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East at the International Congress of Historical Sciences. Venue: Woolley Common Room
Cost: $25.00 (inc. GST) to cover expenses. Lunch and Morning and Afternoon Tea provided. May be paid in advance or on the day as long as John Pryor is informed in advance that you are coming.
Registration: By 12.00 noon on Wednesday 29 June.
|
Programme
From Europe to the Holy Land "Germany, Poland, and the Crimea: a late medieval overland trade route between Europe and Asia": Karl Borchardt "Archaeological evidence for Frankish rural administration in the Holy Land": Adrian Boas
"Gestures of concilation? Peacemaking endeavours and cultural consequences in the Latin East": Yvonne Friedmann "The relic of the Holy Lance of Antioch: power and faith in the First Crusade": Tom Asbridge "Two relics of the Order of St John of the Hospital in Constantinople": Richard Divall "Mission or Crusade: Sicard of Cremona in the Holy Land": Brenda Bolton
"Orientals in Cyprus at the beginning of the 14th century according to Genoese notaries": Michel Balard "Latin monasticism in Cyprus": Christopher Schabel "Greek identity and self-image in early Frankish Cyprus": Alexander Beihammer
"Mediterranean sea currents &endash; recent oceanographic research and its implications for Crusader studies": Benjamin Kedar "Greek Fire in Muslim warfare during the Crusades": Yaacov Lev "Naval activity around the port of Acre in the medieval period and its impact on the town's layout": Ruthi Gertwagen |
Dr Thomas Asbridge, Department of History, Queen Mary and Westbridge College, University of London. Professor Michel Balard, University of Paris, Sorbonne Associate Professor Alexander Beihammer, Department of History and Archaeology, University of Cyprus Dr Adrian Boas, Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Dr Brenda Bolton, Department of History, Queen Mary and Westbridge College, University of London. Professor Karl Borchardt, Stadtarchiv Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Professor Richard Divall, Parkville, Victoria Dr Yvonne Friedman, Department of General History, Bar-Ilan University, Israel Dr Ruthi Gertwagen, Oranim Academic College, Israel Professor Benjamin Kedar, The Institure for Advanced Study, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Israel Associate Professor Yaacov Lev, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, Bar-Ilan University, Israel. Dr Christopher Schabel, Department of History and Archaeology, University of Cyprus |
9: Events: The International Congress of Historical Sciences
The International Congress of Historical Sciences meets at the University of New South Wales from 3-9 July, 2005. There are many sessions which should be of interest to members of the Centre, including the meetings of a number of Affiliated International Organizations.
The programme is very complex and really the only way to work one's way through it is to visit the Congress's Web site @ << http://www.cishsydney2005.org >>
However, if you really are a medievalist (i.e., have wide interests) and have a week to give to it, you should be like a pig in clover. There is medieval and Early Modern content all over the place. Some of the most pertinent sessions appear to me to be (N.B., I don't guarrantee that I've got all the schedules right - it is rather complex, Ed.!):
1 Monday 4 July The International Society for the Study of the Crusades and
the Latin East, 9.00 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. in Matthews Lecture Theatre D - Convened
by John Pryor 2 Friday 8 July The International Association for Byzantine Studies, 9.00 a.m.
to 5.00 p.m in different rooms in the morning and afternoon - Convened
by Andrew Gillett 3 Tuesday 5 July Christianity-Islam relationships in History, 2.00-5.00 p.m.
Matthews Lecture Theatre B 4 Monday 4 July Medieval Europe gazes Eastward, 9.00-12.00 in Biomedical
Theatres B (N.B.: There seems to be a clash here with 1 above - some
participants are the same. 5 Tuesday 5 July The foreigner in the Ancient World, 9.00-5.00 in Matthews
Lecture Theatre C 6 Friday 8 July, International Association for the study of South-East Europe,
9.00-5.00, Room 107, Matthews Bldg 7 Thursday 7 July, 2.00-5.00, Friday 8 July 9-12.00 International Commission on Maritime History,, multiple
sessions in different rooms 8 Friday 8 July International Commission of Slavic Studies,, 9.00-12.00,
Matthews Lecture Theatre D 9 Friday 8 July, International Commission for the History of Representative and
Parliamentary Institutions, 9.00-5.00, Room 301 Matthews Bldg 10 Tuesday 5 July International Commission for the History of Universities,
9.00-5.00, in WTB ???? 11 Friday 8 July International Commission for the History of Towns, 9.00-12.00,
Room 125 Matthews Bldg 12 Thursday 7 July International Commission for Comparative Ecclesiastical
History, 9.00-5.00, Matthews lecture Theatre C
The real drawdack to the Congress is that although non-participant members of the public are very welcome, you are supposed to register and pay the Registration Fee, which is now $447.00 for regular Registration and $224.00 for Students and "Guests" (I'm not quite sure what "guests" are). There are apparently no "Day rates". The Web site of the Congress tells you when and where sessions are being held. You could try your luck.
1.. Geraldine Barnes reports the
imminent publication of Travel
and Travellers from Bede to Dampier: Papers from the 'Travel and
Cartography from Bede to the Enlightenment' Workshop at the CMS in
August 2001. Edited by
Geraldine Barnes, with Gabrielle Singleton; cover design by Peter
Hupfauf. 2.. Making the Middle Ages The long delayed volume 8 of Making the Middle
Ages, Medievalism
and the Gothic in Australia, ed.
Stephanie Trigg and co-published by Melbourne University Press is
imminent. Volume 6, Judith Johnston's George Eliot and the Discourses of
Medievalism is in the
very final stages of production and should appear in the first half of
this year. Volume 7, Maistresseof My Wit, edited by Louise d'Arcens and Juanita
Ruys, has received an excelled review by Richard Utz in the online Medieval Review.
11: Research Subsidies
It is anticipated that the Board will renew for 2005 its authorization of the expenditure of up to $2,500 to subsidise the attendance of Members of the Centre at conferences or for other research activities. A new sub-committee of the Board to approve applications has to be appointed. Members of the Centre requesting such subsidies should be associated with the University of Sydney in some way (such as postgraduate students, Honorary Associates of the Centre, ARC Fellows of the Centre, etc.) and should have no other access to funding for such purposes. Applications may be made at any time.
12: Undergraduate Teaching Programme, 2004
Semester I:
MDST 2001 The Written Record of the Middle Ages
This core unit of study in Medieval Studies (8 credit points, essential for a major in Medieval Studies)will again be offered in Semester I 2003, coordinated by John Pryor.
Enrolments are around 25 as has been the norm in previous years.
Semester II:
MSDT 2008 The First Crusade
This unit of study will be offered in Semester II, taught by John Pryor.
Medieval Studies IV Honours
We have three new IV-Honours students this year in addition to Fiona Walmsley Weir and Tom Leslie, both of whom commenced last year. Fiona is doing a thesis on logistics and the First Crusade with John Pryor and Tom on The Angelic and the Demonic in Aelfric with Craig Ronalds.
Leticia Anderson and Daniel Hill will both be with John Pryor. Leticia's thesis is on the status of Muslims under Latin rule across the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages and Daniel's is on the motivation of the First Crusaders. Melissa Markauskas will be working with Lyn Olson on heresy and religious dissent in the Early Middle Ages.
The number of postgraduate research students enrolled in Medieval Studies has grown slowly since our inception in 1997 and currently there are seven, six of whom are undertaking Ph.Ds. Deslee Campbell and Kim Selling are in their 5th years of candidature. Matthew Sayles and Melanie Heyworth are now in their fourth. Matthew will submit his thesis towards the middle of this year. Peter Hupfauf completed his Ph.D. last year and was successfully awarded the Centre's first Ph.D. Tricia Hutton is enrolled for an M.Phil. Melanie Heyworth has returned from the U.K. to complete her thesis and David Duchesne has now completed his thesis and is about to submit. Kim Selling has moved to Adelaide to be with her fiance and will complete her degree in absentia. Yvette Paiement has now begun a Ph.D, having successfully earned First-Class Honours last year.
We anticipate holding two Medieval Studies Literary Lunches this semester to celebrate the publishing of books by David Scott-Macnab and Jane Hardie, and by Louise D'Arcens and Juanita Ruys. We anticipate having a joint lunch for David and Jane on 20 April and one for Louise and Juanita on Wednesday 8 June. However, we have a problem because with the demise of the University Staff Club, finding a private room where we can have a reasonably-priced lunch has become very difficult. Even the Union's rooms are now prohibitively expensive. A modest lunch of sandwiches, fruit, and a little wine, is now $40.00.
We are investigating alternatives. Perhaps a local restaurant, or catering for ourselves in the Medieval Studies Room (but this semester there are time-tabling problems with that!). If anyone has a suggestion, please let John Pryor know.
John O. Ward has begun holding again his legendary Medieval Latin Reading Group in the Centre for Medieval Studies Room, Woolley Building N306 on Fridays @ 1.00-3.00 p.m. This group is an advanced group consisting at present of a group of long-standing enthusiasts. Anyone else interested would be welcome. There may also be an Elementary Medieval Latin Reading Group meeting in the same place @ 3.00 p.m. on Fridays. At the moment the later group is uncertain. Anyone interested please contact John @ << John.Ward@arts.usyd.edu.au >>16: General News from Members of the Centre
From Chris Bishop Chris is coordinating the 2005 conference of the Australian
Early Medieval Association to be held in Canberra from September 14th
to 16th on a theme of 'Text and Transmission'. A call for papers has
been issued and can be accessed at the AEMA website:
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~medieval/conferences.html There are a limited number of travel bursaries available for
graduates who may have to travel a considerable distance to attend the
conference
From Elizabeth Bonner Elizabeth is on the last leg of a research trip to Europe and
following six weeks in France has been working in Edinburgh and where
she gave a paper at the Department of Scottish History at Glasgow
University on 'The early career of Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange,
c.1520-1559", which may be published in the Scottish
Historical Review Due out this month is her article in the English
Historical Review on 'The Earl of Huntly and the King of
France, 1548: Man for Rent'. Later this year Ashgate is republishing
her EHR article of 1996: 'The Recovery of St Andrews Castle, 1547:
French Naval Policy and Diplomacy in the British Isles', in a volume on
the Marine in a series of volumes on 16th and 17th-century European
Military History edited by Jeremy Black. In May she is scheduled to give a paper on 'The myth of the
Alliance between Charlemagne and the Ancient Scottish Kings', to the
Sydney Society for Scottish History. When she was in Paris she was approached by Monseigneur Duval
Arnauld of the Vatican Library concerning a paper that she had hoped to
publish in the early 1990s. He is currently writing a book on a related
subject and wants to include references to her article. She has
promised to send it ff to him as soon as she can after returning to
Sydney.
From Tom Burton Tom has published Long Words
Bother Me, with illustrations by Michael Atchison
(Stroud, 2004) pp. xx + 242. [A revised reprint of Words, Words, Words (1995) and Words in Your Ear (1998), with
new material added.] Audio Recordings (Published by the Chaucer Studio): The Manciple's Tale, read by
Philip Thiel. Recorded at Radio Adelaide. 2003. (Director.); The Second Nun's Tale, read by
Katherine Davies. Recorded at Radio Adelaide. 2003. (Director.); Cleanness, directed by Michael
Calabrese. Recorded at the 38th International Congress on Medieval
Studies, Kalamazoo. 2003. (Reader as First Narrator, lines
1&endash;556); Selections from
Shakespeare in Early Modern English. Recorded at the
International Medieval Conference, University of Leeds. 2002 (Director;
one of six readers.); Chaucer's Tale of
Melibee. Recorded at the 13th International Congress of
the New Chaucer Society, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2002.
(Director.)
From Margaret Clunies Ross Margaret draws our attention to a flyer just received from The Department of English, University College,
London, drawing attention to their MA in English: Medieval Literature. Visit their Website @ << www.ucl.ac.uk/english
>>
From Michael Carter Mike has published the following articles and chapters:,
paper "Talking with and about God, Adam and the Arabic language" [Union
of European Arabists and Islamicists, conference Palermo 2002], now
appeared in Proceedings (Magaz 2003, received 2004); "Arabisk - det
klassiske kulturspraaket" in K. Gammelgaard, G. Mejdell and Rune
Svarverud, eds, Standardspraak Underveis
(Oslo 2004); "The Scholar as Dragoman" [A. R. Davis Memorial Lecture,
July 2003], in Journal of the Oriental
Society of Australia, 2003 (received 2004); Article
"Adam and the technical terms of medieval Islam" for the Gerhard Endress festschrift
(Louvain 2005); A paper on Sibawayhi jointly with Georges Bohas (Lyon)
and Djemal Kouloughli (Paris) has appeared 2005, though the offprints
seem to have got lost in transit. Completed activities, in press or in proof: Articles
"Humanism", "Sibawayhi" and "Grammarians and the Grammatical Tradition"
in J. Meri, et al, eds, Medieval Islamic
Civilization, an Encyclopedia; Articles "hadhf" and
"sabab" for Encyclopaedia of Arabic
Linguistics, ed. K. Versteegh. et al.; Article "Foreign
Vocabulary" for Blackwells Companion to
the Qur'an; Article "The Arabic Linguistic Tradition",
for the Encyclopedia of Linguistics;
"Approaches to the technical terms of Arabic grammar' [Union of
European Arabists and Islamicists conference, Krakow Sept. 2004], now
in press in Proceedings; "The indeterminacy of the Qur'an" [The Academy
of Sciences, Krakow, Sept. 2004], to appear in Folia
Orientalia. Currently in preparation: Three articles for the
Encyclopaedia of Arabic Linguistics on various grammatical terms, due
April-July; Article on 'Abd al-Qadir b. 'Umar al-Baghdadi, due by "May
or so" 2005; Paper, "Foreign words in the Qur'an and their implications
for legal theory", American Oriental Society,
Philadelphia, March 2005; Still hoping to finish the History of Arabic
before the end of 2005
From Rif Ebied Congratulations to Rif on his appointment as Honorary Adjunct
Professor of the Australian Catholic University for "ongoing
contribution to the intellectual life of the University and the
significant contribution to the Centre for Early Christian Studies". He
has also been Aawarded a Visiting Fellowship for seven months (January
&endash; July, 2005) at the Center of Theological Inquiry,
Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton. Rif has also published two books, Petri
Callinicensis Patriarchae Antiocheni: Tractatus Contra Damianum. Book
III, Vol. 4 [Corpus Christianorum, Series Graeca, 54].
[with Albert Van Roey and Lionel Wickham] (Louvain (2004); and Studies on the Christian Arabic Heritage in
honour of Father Prof. Dr. Samir Khalil Samir S.I. at the Occasion of
his Sixty-Fifth Birthday [Eastern Christian Studies, 5],
ed. Rifaat Ebied and Herman Teule (Louvain, 2004). and two articles: "Arab and Islamic contributions to European
Civilization" in Richard Tapper and Keith McLachlan, eds, Technology, Tradition and Survival. Aspects of
Material Culture in the Middle East and Central Asia (London, 2003), pp.25-35; "A Collection of
Syriac Short Stories about Early Church Fathers" [with Lionel Wickham]
in Philomathestatos: Studies in Greek
Patristic and Byzantine Texts presented to Jacques Noret for his
sixty-fifth Birthday, eds Bart Janssens, Bram Roosen and
Peter Van Deun [Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, 137] (Louvain, 2004). Conference Papers: "The Syriac Polemical Treatises of
Dionysius bar Salibi, Metropolitan of Amid (d. 1171 AD)", IXth
Symposium Syriacum, The Holy Spirit University in Kaslik, Beirut,
September, 2004; "An Unpublished short Arabic Poem of a Medieval
Muslim-Christian Polemic", VIIth International Conference of Christian
Arabic Studies, University of St. Joseph, Beirut, September, 2004;
Acted as Chairman of the Biblical Sections of the 2004 National
Association of Professors of Hebrew Conference, The University of
Austin, Texas, USA.
From Helen Fulton Helen is co-editing a festschrift for Stephen Knight, formerly
of the Department of English at Sydney, now Research Professor at
Cardiff University in Wales. The volume is called Medieval
Cultural Studies: A Volume of Essays to Celebrate the Work of Stephen
Knight, edited by Ruth Evans, Helen Fulton and David
Matthews, to be published by University of Wales Press later in 2005.
Contributors include Henry Ansgar Kelly, Tom Ohlgren, Martha Driver,
Helen Phillips, Helen Cooper, Mark Ormord, Stephanie Trigg, and a
number of 'locals' including Geraldine Barnes, Margaret Clunies Ross,
Margaret Rogerson and Diane Speed. If anyone would like to be sent an invitation to subscribe to
the volume, and have their name appear in the tabula gratulatoria,
please could they contact Helen at: helen.fulton@arts.usyd.edu.au or by mail to the Department of English, University of Sydney,
NSW 2006.
From Jane Hardie Jane has been working on the CD "Commemoration, Ritual and
Performance: The Iberian Connection" to be published by the Centre. The
music, sung by the St Laurence Chamber Choir directed by Neil McEwan,
was first performed at the Symposium "Commemoration,
Ritual and Performance" held by the Centre in July last
year. Most of the music from medieval and Renaissance Iberia is
performed here for the first time, and is the result of new research.
Funded by the Centre for Medieval Studies, CHASS and BBDA (Melbourne),
the CD is expected to be available around Easter, and will be available
through the Centre's Website and elsewhere. Watch for the notices! Jane will be making a research and conference trip to Spain
and Portugal in May and June. In May she will be delivering a lecture
to the Early Music Festival in Barcelona sponsored by the
Fundación Caixa. The title of this lecture is "Josquin Desprez
and his Contemporaries and Followers at Toledo". After the Barcelona
lecture she will travel to Salamanca to look at the series of cathedral
manuscripts that may be related to three manuscripts recently acquired
by Fisher Library. From there she goes to Braga to see some medieval
materials in the cathedral archives there. Then to Lisbon where she is
giving a paper on liturgical chant at the international Colloquium
"Monodia Sacra Medieval". On the way back to Sydney she plans to do
some work with Spanish sources at the British Library. Jane adds: "WATCH THIS SPACE (i.e., the Centre's Website)
FOR THE CD Expected to be available in/by early April.
From Louise Marshall "La costruzione di un santo contro la peste: il caso di Nicola
da Tolentino" in San Nicola da Tolentino
nell'arte. Vol. 1: Dalle origini al Concilio di Trento,
ed. V. Pace and R. Tollo (Milan, 2005) plus 8 catalogue entries in the
same volume "Luxury and Pathos in Girolamo Romanino's /Christ carrying the
Cross/", in The Italians in Australia:
Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Art, ed. D. Marshall
(Florence, 2004) pp. 131 - 144.
From Frances Muecke "Frances has peresented two papers, "Teaching music: the
didactic poem of Venceslaus Philomathes', at the Didactic Literature
Symposium, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Sydney, 4 Nov.
2004; and Poliziano meets Calderini, Virgil meets Silius: commentaries
in the age of printing', Loeb Lecture Harvard University, 30 Sept.
2004; seminar at University of Pennsylvania, 7 Oct. 2004 She has also published: Charles
Alphonse Dufresnoy, De arte Graphica liber (Paris 1668),
edition, translation and commentary by Christopher Allen, Frances
Muecke, Yasmin Haskell (Geneva, 2004). From Juanita Ruys Juanita forwards the following extract of a review just
published in The Medieval Review
by Richard Utz of the University of Northern Iowa for Maistresse of My Wit: Medieval Women, Modern
Scholars [Making the Middle Ages 7], ed. Louise
D'Arcens and Juanita Feros Ruys (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004): Juanita is also considering running a course on medieval Latin
paleography next January, in the week prior to the Latin Summer School? She also draws attention to the following: Thesaurus Linguae Latinae Cetedoc Library of Christian Latin Texts, including Latin
texts from Livy to the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65) Archive of Celtic Latin Literature International Medieval Bibliography Packard Humanities Institute (a Greek inscriptions
database). From David Scott Macnab In 2004 David gave a public talk to the Plantagenet Society
on: "Images of Hawking and Hunting in the Middle Ages" Several of his articles were accepted but only one appeared in
print: "Hawking information in the Tollemache 'Book of Secrets' " Notes
and Queries, n.s. 51 (2004), pp. 348-50. He is also in discussion with the Early English Text Society
over his proposed new edition of William Twiti's , L'Art de venerie.
"To me, this truly innovative volume will undoubtedly
become a mainstay (dare I say "maistresse"?) in my own future work on
medievalism. The editors' courage to explore the mutually enriching
qualities of medievalism and feminism and the various interconnections
between medieval and contemporary women (and men) deserves highest
praise. Indeed, I would go so far as to recommend this volume to any
and all students who are thinking of making the Middle Ages their
primary area of academic research. They, as well as their more
experienced colleagues, might be surprised about the level of
contingency governing our manifold scholarly conventions, a contingency
that should encourage them to dare speak and write themselves more
identifiably and affectively into their own future scholarly endeavors.'
Dr Rick Benitez of the Department of Philosophy is
currently setting up within the university a series of databases that
will be of great interest and benefit to scholars in the Centre for
Medieval Studies. This will be known as the Electronic Resource Centre
for Greek and Latin Philology (ERCGLP), and it will be searchable from
university offices; Dr Benitez is currently working with the Arts IT
people on securing remote access for members of the University as well.
The Resource Centre will contain the following databases:
Thesaurus Linguae Graecae
John H. Pryor, 15 March, 2005
