CALL FOR PAPERS

Digital Editing and the Medieval Manuscript: Rolls and Fragments (DEMMR/F)

Sponsored Sessions at Kalamazoo, May 10-13 2018

1. Form, Text, and the Medieval Manuscript Roll

The medieval manuscript roll was remarkably versatile. Playing host to a variety of genres, the roll format was an omnipresent feature of the textual landscape throughout the Middle Ages. Though its popularity is often attributed to its portability or economical construction, scholars have also noted relationships between its form and the genres it contains. For example, the inverted images of Exultet rolls were visible to onlookers as the texts were read, while the continuous length of a roll could emphasise the continuous history of a chronicle or genealogy. At the same time, however, rolls contain many texts not obviously connected to their format: poetry, recipes, devotional texts, charms, poetry, and even chiromancy. Likewise, there are numerous examples of chronicles and other texts, like Peter of Poitier’s Historiae in genealogia Christi and further examples of devotional poetry, that circulate in both rolls and codices, complicating simple notions of the relationship between text and form. The form of the roll even served as an imaginative substrate, as in the decorative architectural scrollwork in the church at Long Melford, Suffolk where Lydgate’s poetry can be seen unfurled on the wall. Drawing on these varied examples, this panel seeks to initiate new conversations that discuss these and other complicated relationships between form and substrate.

Responding to growing interest in the roll form, this panel invites papers that explore, interrogate,  and illuminate our understanding of the complex relationship between text and form in the medieval manuscript roll and in texts which move between roll and codex.  Please submit a 250-word proposal for a 15- to 20-minute paper as well as a Participant Information Form to digitalmanuscriptrolls @gmail.com by September 15, 2017.

2. Methods and Tools for Reuniting Manuscript Fragments (A Roundtable)

The proposed roundtable invites papers on both the techniques and technologies that scholars use to virtually reunite disparate fragments from the same original codex, as well as the scholarly and pedagogical value in creating these virtual, restored objects. This roundtable offers participants the opportunity to reflect on a number of exciting developments in "fragmentology" from individuals and institutions around the world who have recently turned their attention to the specific challenges and rewards of working with medieval manuscript fragments.  Panelists are invited to speak about specific projects, as well as broader concepts involved in fragment studies and digital humanities, such as IIIF, academic crowd sourcing, the publication and publicization of digital projects, and new digital tools and methods for working with manuscript fragments.

Please submit a 200-word proposal as well as a completed Participant Information Form to ehebbard@iu.edu by September 15, 2017.