Medieval and Early Modern Studies

Summer Festival 2018

Abstract List

Friday, 15 June:

Panel Session 1, 9.45 - 11.05 Panel 1A: Society on the Early Modern Stage - Grimond Seminar 2

‘[The] Instrument of Hell / That wicked Drurie’: Demonizing the Gossip in ​A Warning for Fair Women ​ (1599) Dr Iman Sheeha, University of Warwick

In this paper, I offer a new reading of the anonymous play, A​ Warning for Fair Women ​ (1599), focusing on the two gossips’ relationship placed at its centre. Drawing on primary and secondary material, I argue that the play demonstrates an anxiety about the figure of the gossip, the female companion and, specifically, about the threat she seems to pose to the patriarchal house. The project of the play is particularly clear when compared with the source pamphlet, Arthur Golding’s account of Master Saunders’s murder. While the pamphlet leaves the exact nature of Mistress Drury’s involvement in the murder of Master Saunders ambiguous, the play, by contrast, places her at the heart of the murder. While the play follows the pamphlet closely in its account of most aspects of the murder, it is in its depiction of Mistress Drury that its innovation lies. The playwright focuses on the way the gossip’s influence on the dutiful housewife proves destructive to the patriarchal house, both as a physical entity and as an ideological unit, the seat of order and the school of obedience in early modern English thought (the first result of the patriarch’s murder is his young son’s transgression). Depicting the gossip in this negative manner, the play seems to embody contemporary anxieties about female networks, only to assuage these by ensuring her punishment and, especially, ‘meekness’ and ‘submissiveness’ by the final scene.

‘Weren’t there any Ganymedes in the Globe Audience’? (Mario DiGangi, 1977): Reconsidering the male homoerotic audience in Renaissance theatre Philip Hunt, University of Kent

This paper proposes an answer to the question posed by Mario DiGangi (1997): ‘Weren’t there any ganymedes in the Globe audience, […] attuned to […] the kind of homoerotic desire represented in A​ s You Like It​?’ (62). Mary Bly’s Q​ ueer Virgins and Virgin Queans on the Early Modern Stage​ (2000) suggests that there were, at least at the Whitefriars theatre, as she examines the boy company of the King’s Revels and argues that its theatrical practices fostered a ‘self-aware homoerotic community in early modern London’ (26). This homoerotic community watching the King’s Revels performances had to come from somewhere. This paper will draw on Bly and on the work of Alan Bray and DiGangi to suggest that the Whitefriars audience were trained to see and engage with homoerotic subtext by watching plays by adult companies. An audience

1 member regularly attending the theatres of early modern London at which adult companies performed – the Globe, the Rose, the Theatre - was seeing homoerotic relationships play out repeatedly. It will suggest that this laid the foundations for the King’s Revels audience and that this homoerotic community already existed in fledgling form prior to the boy company documented by Bly. The only new element introduced by the playwrights and company owners of the King’s Revels was engaging in nascent capitalism by catering for a target market which already existed.

‘Pull’d Under’: Shakespeare’s Humoral Gendering of Memory and Madness Shelly Lorts, University of Kent

Like any archetypal element of story depicted on stage, madness comes with its own set of conventions: a stylized and intentional set of stage direction, costuming, and delivery. And while madness is not a concept lightly displayed in Shakespeare’s work, as it pertains to the women on his stage, it becomes stronger, more dangerous and out of control, allowing a depth to female characters that goes beyond their roles of wife, mother, sister, or lover. According to physicians in early modern England, madness was brought on by the imbalance of physical humors; simply put, too much wetness in the body presented as a slipping of memory that — if left uncorrected — pulled its victim under its surface and into maddened oblivion, effectively rendering her a passive participant in her physical or metaphorical death. Based on the widespread medical beliefs of his time, Shakespeare represents madness in women using the traits of an overabundance of the sanguine humour, effectively and inherently gendering the medical theory and subsequent portrayal of female madness, rooting it in biology rather than mere reaction to circumstances. This medical affliction seals the fate of two of Shakespeare’s most maddened women (​Hamlet’s​ Ophelia and M​ acbeth’s​ Lady Macbeth), who become submerged in the wetness of their madness — their loss of memory and therefore sanity — and are “pull’d” into oblivion, resulting in their ambiguous, off-stage deaths.

Panel 1B: Legal and Religious Policy - Grimond Seminar 3

The Mystery of the Reebok Shoebox: A Journey to the Elizabethan Exchequer Ashleigh Hawkins, Canterbury Cathedral Archives

In late 2015 the Athenæum, a members only library based in Liverpool, appointed an archivist for the first time in its 230 year history. Whilst surveying the to-date unexamined archives she stumbled upon a mystery – a large collection of uniform records, written in Latin, unhappily housed in a blue Reebok shoebox. This paper details the journey from the discovery of the records to their identification as tellers’ bills created by the tellers of the Receipt of the Exchequer during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It focuses on how historical research methods were used, including research with primary and secondary resources, diplomatic and qualitative analysis, to identify the collection’s administrative and custodial histories, the two key pieces of information for placing records in context to make them meaningfully accessible to researchers – a vital part of the work of an archivist.

This paper demonstrates how a collection of records can be the starting point for investigation and the principle site of enquiry, rather than a source among many which one turns to to find information and answer research questions. It reveals how close examination of a collection

2 and a little detective work can be used to challenge trends in academic thought, in this case, the level of influence of the earlier ‘Tudor Revolution’ on Elizabethan Receipt administration, and the extent to which the practice outlined in medieval and contemporary Exchequer ‘manuals’, such as the Dialogus de Scaccario (late 12th century), The Red Book of the Exchequer (early-mid 13th century) and The Practice of the Exchequor Court (1572), were actually adhered to.

What’s My Age Again?: Unravelling Legal Complexities of Apprentices’ Age of Majority Rhiannon Sandy, Swansea University

Age was an important factor in deciding who could become an apprentice, and how their indenture was formulated. This paper will show that the widely-held belief that apprenticeship began around age fourteen and lasted for seven years is not necessarily true, and that the reality is far more complicated. Although the Crown took very little interest in apprenticeship before the Statute of Labourers (1351), later legislation indicates attempts to limit social mobility through apprenticeship by placing limits on age and parental property. Records of legal cases will be discussed which show that litigants sought to use the age of the apprentice as a loophole to avoid these restrictions.

The existence of indentures themselves raises a tricky question – how could these documents, often made by children, be considered legally enforceable? Local customs and records of legal cases both show that, when it did not concern land, the age of majority was more pragmatic than we might suppose, and clearly there were mechanisms were in place which prevented indentures from being rendered invalid by the age of one party. This paper will consider various points of legislation and relevant legal cases with the aim of creating a theoretical framework outlining how the age of an apprentice affected the creation and form of the indenture.

This paper is adapted from a chapter of my (ongoing) thesis, ‘Apprenticeship Indentures in England, 1255-1500’. The aim is to discuss the experiences and realities of apprenticeship without relying on the generalisations made by other historians.

Henry IV and Richard II: Responses and Punishments for those Supporting a Dead King Daniel Oliver, University of Glasgow

This paper will focus on the way that Henry IV and his government responded to those who promoted rumours of the survival of the deposed king Richard II as well as those who acted in opposition to Henry in the name of Richard. These rumours started soon after Henry’s deposition of his cousin and continued throughout his reign and into that of his son, Henry V. The response of Henry and his government at first examination seems confused and inconsistent. In some instances, perpetrators were treated with extreme harshness, with a particular individual named William Serle, according to one chronicler, being hanged until nearly dead each night on his journey from his capture in the north of England to London. On the other hand, there are other occasions where those found guilty of opposing Henry in the

3 name of his dead predecessor were treated with leniency which seems extraordinary. The Countess of Oxford, who attempted to lead a rebellion against Henry, was imprisoned for a short time and her lands and possessions confiscated, but she was swiftly freed, and everything returned to her.

Can a overall strategy and framework as to how to deal with these opponents from Henry be identified, or was it a random process where punishments were decided on a case by case basis? By examining a range of cases and responses this paper will aim to answer this question.

Panel 1C: Seeing Space in Painting and Sculpture - Grimond Seminar 4

Enlightening the Laity: Seeing and Being Seen in the Welles Apocalypse Roisin Astell, University of Kent

This paper focuses on the Welles Apocalypse (c.1310, England, British Library MS Royal 15.D.II), a manuscript that despite it’s luxurious decoration, size, and significant contents, has never received an in-depth study. Made by a workshop of unknown illuminators, the Welles Apocalypse illuminators embraced new ideas about vision, creating a text-image paradigm through their design of decorative initials. Whilst these ‘looking’ head initials are not solely unique to this manuscript, the Welles Apocalypse initial’s potential meanings have been largely overlooked in scholarship. In this paper I will explore how these artists used the initial heads to emphasise the importance and power of human sight in light of contemporary scholastic developments in optical theory and theology. In examining how seeing and being seen were inherent to their meaning, I hope to demonstrate that these initials were not mere decorations, but part of a wider desire to enable the viewer to attain deeper spiritual understanding.

Bernini’s Light: Lux, Lumen, and St Theresa in the Cornaro Chapel Charlotte MacConnell, Independent Scholar

Modern analysis of Gianlorenzo Bernini’s Cornaro Chapel and its Ecstasy of St Teresa has almost exclusively been focused on the marble body of the female saint and her purported eroticism. Obscured by the figural obsession, the rest of the chapel has received less popular attention. Particularly, the concetto of the light within the chapel, inhabits a more consequential position in the program of the chapel than has previously been recognized. In this paper, I examine the dimensional forms of Bernini’s light by considering its programmatic role in linking the disparate registers of the chapel by making visually manifest the idea that light becomes more physical as it descends from heaven to earth. In addition, their permanence mediates the viewer’s experience of Teresa’s form and underscores the orthodoxy of her presentation. By exploring contemporary literary theories and theological trends about the nature of light, investigating the visual culture of pictorial representations of light, and by examining the particular relevance of the body of Teresa, I question how the analysis of Bernini’s light fits into existing scholarship about the Cornaro Chapel; How contemporary

4 developments in theory and theology about light affected Bernini’s conception of the space; and how these considerations inform our understanding of the Chapel as a whole.

Sacred Gender and Secular Space: The Importance of Architectural Imagery in 15th Century Netherlandish Painting Zoe Merod, Ithaca College

The built environment depicted in the Mérode Altarpiece from the workshop of Robert Campin is more than just background for the holy scene where the Angel Gabriel informs the Virgin Mary that she will bear the son of God. The images of architecture portrayed in this Annunciation Triptych, are an important part of the overall symbolism of the work and inform the viewer of cultural significance. The architecture represented structurally and instinctually in early Netherlandish painting - equally demonstrated in works of contemporaries Jan Van Eyck, Robert van der Weyden and Robert Campin - speaks to broader interpretations of gender in the 15th century in both sacred and secular settings. Utilizing the traditional iconographical approach to reading early Netherlandish painting, this paper engages with theories of architectural history and argues that the representation of specific elements of architecture suggests that concepts of gender were construed and learned from private devotion. Gender and its relation to space was clearly a widely approached theme in early Netherlandish painting, and the Mérode Altarpiece provides a point of reference for understanding these social constructions more critically, and exploring more deeply the greater connection between space, spirit and sex in Northern Europe in the 15th century.

Panel Session 2, 11.15 - 12.35 Panel 2A: Early Modern Manuscripts and Materiality - Grimond Seminar 2

Snips, Snails, and Paper Trails: Early Modern Recipe Culture and Penn Ms. Codex 627 Aylin Malcolm, University of Pennsylvania

Snail mucin, a non-Newtonian fluid produced by gastropods for locomotion, has long been a skincare staple in South America and Southeast Asia. Yet the first medical studies on its health benefits have only recently been published, raising questions about how traditional knowledge becomes accepted as “science.” This tension between science and folk remedies was equally evident in the early modern period. For every authoritative encyclopedia of natural knowledge printed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there are many more recipe manuscripts with limited circulation, as well as hybrid texts that trouble the distinction between manuscript and print.

In this paper, I will consider one such hybrid text: the University of Pennsylvania’s Ms. Codex 627, a handwritten recipe notebook with a title page imitating a popular printed book: Hugh Plat’s D​ elightes for Ladies​. A close reading of this codex provides several forms of insight into the intimate space of the early modern kitchen; indeed, Codex 627 serves as a node connecting

5 questions of textual authority, ecofeminism, and animal ethics. I will begin by considering this book in its seventeenth-century context, including print precedents and the culture of home distillation, before turning to material traces of its production and function. Its contents are grounded in practice and collaboration, lending insight into women’s domestic networks in the period. Finally, I will linger over its recipe for “Snail Water,” placing it in conversation with contemporary analogues and animal studies scholarship.

Representing Damaged Inscriptions in Sixteenth-Century Epigraphic Manuscripts and Early Printed Corpora Paloma Perez Galvan, University of Warwick

The renewed interest in Latin classical inscriptions during the Renaissance generated an astounding quantity of epigraphic syllogai. However, scholars soon realised that representing inscribed monuments on paper was not an easy task: inscriptions, by their very nature, are a combination of iconographic and textual elements, and in order to provide a relatively complete and accurate record, both these features should be depicted on paper. Sixteenth-century antiquarians were confronted with the materiality of epigraphic texts and had to devise a system that could record non-textual characteristics (such as the lettering, the layout and the support). These issues became even more relevant when the first printed collections began to circulate.

This paper delves into the various and numerous ways in which humanists recorded damaged inscriptions in their syllogai. By taking specific case-studies of inscriptions, such as the ones on the Arch of Septimius Severus (with the damnatio memoriae of Geta) and Trajan’s Column (which displays damage in its last line) and exploring how they were represented across various epigraphic corpora, I shall discuss the diverse issues that scholars encountered when transcribing damaged inscriptions and how they solved (or attempted to solve) them. This will also lead me to consider whether scholars were aware of what these different damages entailed (for instance, if they understood the reasons for Geta’s erasure). This paper addresses a turning point in the history of epigraphy, when all the foundations of the discipline itself were being established.

Panel 2B: Diplomacy and Conflict in Britain - Grimond Seminar 3

Diplomatic Recognition in Medieval Anglo-Scottish Diplomacy: 1074 - 1150 James Smith, University of Nottingham

‘Diplomatic Recognition’, or international acknowledgement of a state or government and its rights, receives extensive modern media attention. Over the last year it has been highlighted in relation to Catalonia’s failed attempt to obtain recognition of statehood from the European Union, and Donald Trump’s acknowledgement of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. However, how the concept worked in the medieval period, a time of frequent dynastic disputes and rival

6 territorial claims, has rarely been explored.

My paper will respond to this historiographical deficit by investigating medieval diplomatic recognition in relation to three Anglo-Scottish diplomatic encounters: the 1074 meeting between Edgar the Atheling of England and Malcolm III of Scots, Alberic of Ostia’s 1138 mediation between King Stephen of England and King David I of Scots, and David I’s meeting with Henry of Anjou, the future Henry II of England, in 1150. Using a variety of methods, such as anthropological theories of object exchange and modern diplomatic recognition techniques, I shall draw from my examples several recognition practices: meeting sites, gifts, knighting and appeals to international organisations.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. Firstly, I aim to demonstrate how diplomatic recognition functioned in the medieval period, filling a hole in the existing historiography. Secondly, this study will respond to John Watkin’s call for a ‘New Diplomatic History’. Watkins demanded a reassessment of pre-modern diplomacy through the use of interdisciplinary methods. Thus, my multifaceted approach to diplomatic recognition will shed new light on medieval Anglo-Scottish relations.

Oppression, Extortion, and Excess: Conflict, Corruption, and the Evolution of the English Crown Institutions - 1274-1348 Jack Newman, University of Kent

Economic historians such as Peter Turchin have argued that warfare is a catalytic factor in the development of increasingly sophisticated polities. Landscape and animal-human interactions are also seen as vitally important in these changes. This paper will explore this theory in a micro study of resource extraction by the English crown. The British Isles in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries saw a rapid series of institutional changes in conjunction with devastating environmental shocks, long running warfare, and political tensions which included the deposition and murder of two rulers. These stresses resulted in a series of institutional adaptations and an increased sophistication of crown institutions, especially in resource extraction and the legal system.

This paper will demonstrate how various forms of conflict, both social and military, created adaptive pressures upon crown practices most particularly with a focus on resource extraction, broadly defined as taxation, customs (particularly wool), and prise (the taking of agricultural produce for military or other purposes). The causal chain linking warfare, resource extraction, official corruption, and the development of new practices will be explored and suggest that conflict, and not simply warfare, was a catalytic force for the growth of the English state prior to the Black Death.

7 Corruption, Common Profit and City Customs in Late Medieval London: the curious case of the Jubilee Book and the 1388 Guild Petitions Daniella Gonzalez, University of Kent

The London of Richard II was characterised by betrayal, slander, factional politics and an ongoing tension between the monarch and his subjects. The policies of his favourites, such as Nicholas Brembre, previous mayor of London and grocer, subverted the natural order and impinged upon daily life in late fourteenth-century London. This disrupted the way that people remembered, perceived and responded to their immediate past. This is especially evident in the treatment of London’s artisanal guilds and their responses to Brembre’s tyranny in the Merciless Parliament of 1388. This paper examines a set of petitions compiled by London’s artisanal guilds, focusing on their usage and description of the burning of the Jubilee Book, a text burnt in 1386 by Nicholas Exton, the then mayor. This text outlined a set of articles, oaths and customs that were to be followed in order to properly govern the City of London. Through an examination of their attitude towards and memory of city customs preserved in the Jubilee Book, this paper explores the utility of documentary culture following the destruction of these materials during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, in addition to the political consciousness and awareness of the ideology of common profit demonstrated by London’s artisanal guilds.

Panel 2C: Emotional History and Social Standing - Grimond Seminar 4

Humorous Heroes, Gentle Giants, Impotent Emperors: Pulci’s Re-definition of Chivalric Manhood Benedetta Campoleoni, University of Edinburgh

This paper analyses the gender dynamics defining the interactions between the male protagonists of Luigi Pulci's M​ organte​. The research aims to illuminate, on this specific topic, the relations between literary representation and historical reality: how, in other words, the portrayal of the characters' social and emotional behaviours responds to, and contributes in shaping a conception of masculine identity that is inherently grounded in the urban setting of fifteenth-century Florence.

The subject of the M​ organte​ is evidently derived from the earlier Carolingian cycle, the most significant exemplar of which is the C​ hanson de Roland​. Although not the direct source for Pulci's poem, the Roland and its immediate descendants set, over more than three centuries, a conventional way of representing masculinity, modelled upon the notion of the 'ideal knight' and rooted in the feudal culture. As a structural tool, the present study proposes a comparison between the M​ organte ​ and this tradition, in order to identify the patterns of development that connect Pulci's masterpiece with the broader history of the epic genre and its definition of masculinities.

8 The research is programmatically interdisciplinary; the methodology used in order to talk historically about the ​Morgante ​ follows the lines set by the – relatively - recently developed micro- historical and micro-sociological analysis. A special emphasis is put on the emotional vocabulary and displays, occurring both among the knights, and across the hierarchical ladder. This focus aims to identify and define the emotional community informing the text, and its way of treating the issues of gender and power.

‘Alas! A man always remains a man.’: The Role of Passions in French Philosopher Work’s Pierre Bayle Ana Alicia Carmona Aliaga, École Pratique des Hautes Études(EPHE) and Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)

Pierre Bayle is one of the most important, complex, and controversial figures of the XVII century. Mostly known for his ideas on tolerance, he is deserving of his place in Modern History for much more than this. We aim to study the role of passions in his work. Through Bayle's books, we will also look at the role of passions, or emotions, during the Modern period more generally. « Passions » are not just a human trait; we find passions in the intersection between religion, politics, and philosophy. Indeed, passions are regarded as a sin by religion, but they are also necessary for the believer. Doesn't he need to feel “l'amour de Dieu”, the love for God? At the same time, passions are useful for governors and civil societies to control the masses. Only passions, like ambition and courage, can keep a government and a society alive. Nevertheless, there is an internal contradiction between these two dimensions, since the ideas of the good citizen and the good believer are opposed. How to use passions in that case? And what position does philosophy, and Bayle as a philosopher, take? In our presentation, we will provide an overview of these questions. We will discuss in further detail which role passions play when it comes to religion, politics, and philosophy, and we will look at which problems Bayle explores more specifically.

‘A Hopeful Prospect’: Parental Involvement and Motivation in Seventeenth Century Elite Marriage Arrangements Laura Charles, Nottingham Trent University

During the Seventeenth Century couples were theoretically able to marry without the permission of their parents, and this remained unchanged until Lord Hardwicke’s Act in 1753. However, this did not mean that parents were not involved with the marital arrangements of their children, especially at an elite level. From selecting potential partners to negotiating terms and settling dowries, parents were often heavily invested in marriage arrangements (Gillis, 1985).

Following the Reformation, concerns about marriage intensified, with an increase in Protestant conduct literature on the topic (Bailey,2003). The breakdown of marriage during this period was rare, and as such prescriptive literature emphasised the importance of creating a good match in the first instance (Baxter, 1673; Gouge, 1622). These guides also outlined the potential

9 role of parents in making these matches. The vast majority of marriage settlements at this time were drafted by and signed by male members of the family. Behind the scenes however, women within these elite families often wielded significant influence over proceedings, allowing them to occupy a somewhat hidden sphere of influence. Through a case study approach focusing on the Cavendish family, specifically Henry, Duke of Newcastle and his children, this paper will examine the role of parents in marriage arrangements during the Seventeenth Century. This will be achieved by analysing both private correspondence and the prescriptive literature of the period. As well as this, the motivations of parents and the emotional impact of marriage arrangements on family members will also be examined, drawing on theories of emotional history (Matt and Stearns, 2014).

Panel Session 3, 13.35 - 14.55 Panel 3A: The Idea of Kingship: Representations of Royalty

‘Everybody’s King’: Commemorative Ceramics and King Charles II Hannah-Marie Straw, University of Kent

On his restoration in 1660, King Charles II faced a sizable public relations problem - his people did not know what he looked like. His prolonged absence from England and the republican restrictions placed on the production and dissemination of the Stuart Prince’s image meant that outside of exiled royalists, their families and visitors to the exiled King at The Hague, the people had not seen their monarch in over a decade. On his return the proliferation of his image was a paramount concern of the King himself and all those who wished to see the Restoration succeed. This paper focuses on one way in which the image of King Charles II was disseminated to his subjects following his restoration - the production of popular commemorative ceramics. These objects survive in exceptionally large quantities considering their fragility and were a first for an English Monarch. Despite their evident contemporary popularity, the wide range of commemorative ceramic objects produced during the reign of King Charles II have escaped in-depth examination by historians. This paper will argue that these innovative objects were crucial to the development of a new form of royal representation – one that would last to the present day. Affordable popular ceramics allowed Charles II’s subjects to possess an object that conspicuously displayed their loyalty to the restored monarch regardless of their social (and financial) stature. Through the production and sale of this kind of memorabilia Charles II was able to be, quite literally, everybody’s King.

‘Bring Great Caesar to his Rightful Throne’: Elkanah Settle and the Fluidity of Restoration (Dis)Loyalty Carleigh Nicholls, McGill University

Elkanah Settle, a seventeenth-century playwright, is hardly the name one thinks of when picturing unwavering loyalty. Indeed, Settle is often dismissed as a turncoat, only looking out for himself. He wrote for the Whigs during the Popish Plot, and then joined their opponents

10 during the Tory Reaction. Following the ascension of James II/VII, he argued for religious toleration and the repeal of the penal laws. Historiography has generally been unkind to James’ pro-repeal pamphleteers, including Settle, often depicting them as insincere, isolated figures. For instance, one of Settle’s last political pamphlets has been classified for over a century as a Williamite piece — the piece where he abandoned James’ cause, proving his disloyalty and insincerity. However, even a cursory reading of the pamphlet shows that it is pro-Jacobite. Settle, at least initially, remained loyal to James, even when it was “unseasonable.” I argue that Settle can serve as a case study showing the fluidity and confusion of Restoration and Revolutionary loyalty.

Panel 3B: Architecture and Religious Space - Grimond Seminar 3

Cults, commemoration and crafts: Alphanumeric graffiti at Rochester Cathedral Jacob Scott, Rochester Cathedral

A flagship project of the Rochester Cathedral Research Guild has been the recording of the cathedral’s 4,000 surviving medieval, early modern and modern era graffiti. This huge recording project is nearing its completion. An article entitled ‘The pictorial and symbolic graffiti of Rochester Cathedral’ is to feature in this year’s Archaeologia Cantiana, due for publication in June. Another article is to be submitted for next year’s journal entitled ‘The alphanumeric graffiti of Rochester Cathedral’ and a further article will follow featuring the cathedral’s estimated 1,000 masons’ marks.

This comprehensive survey has revealed that medieval graffiti at Rochester, as elsewhere, can be seen to cluster around the sites of altars, shrines, tombs and paintings. This new dataset can be used to piece together the use of the building in the middle ages and the early modern period, for which few written records survive. A thirteenth-century decorative scene composed of some 100 standing figures and scenes from the bible has been recorded using photography for the first time. Ritual protection graffiti clusters round the site of the medieval font, possibly to protect against evil spirits released during the baptism ceremony. Devotional ship graffiti clusters around the altar and shrine to St Nicholas. The names of hundreds of workers from the post-medieval era are scattered throughout the roofs and clerestory level, which in many cases can be matched with local census records or recorded building campaigns.

The Leeds Castle Retable Christine Oakland, University of Kent

The Leeds Castle retable was kept for many years at Battel Hall, a private manor house on the grounds of the castle. Following cleaning and analysis at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, it is now on show for the first time to the public in the Chapel at Leeds Castle in Kent.

The fifteenth century retable is thought to have originally been owned by Dartford Priory

11 because of its subject matter, being a line up of seven figures, two of which wear the Dominican habit, and one identified as St Dominic. The other figures are of female saints, and the most popular in the Order of Dominicans or Black friars.

The saints’ faces have been crudely scratched out, most probably the result of iconoclast attacks at the time of the Dissolution, when the priory was closed and its contents confiscated by the Crown. The idea of defacing was to destroy the power of the image and obliterate idol worship, which the Reformers accused the old religion of promoting. There are also other marks, such as writings, which have yet to be explained. This painting is a unique example of the genre, bearing the marks of its creator as well as those of its attackers.

The aim of this presentation is to introduce this wonderful, if gory image to the public, to observe its form and function and to compare it with similar pieces of work, as well as write its biography.

Intermediary Spaces, Intercessory Subjects: Piety and the ​Platea​ in Early Netherlandish Panel Painting Jordan Cook, University of York and the National Gallery

​Part of a wider study that examines the variances in painted settings in votive portraiture and depictions of the Virgin in Early Netherlandish Painting between c.1425-1525. I am concerned with how different settings can instruct/alter the viewer’s experience of the same subject.

In late-medieval discourse, the Virgin Mary is often referred to as p​ orta coeli ​ (gate/door of heaven); this concept can be visually articulated through placing her upon a threshold, as we see in Petrus Christus’ Annunciation. This paper investigates the common trend of the transformation of the frame space into a threshold itself; specifically, in how painters employed the use of an “intermediary” space to incorporate the place of the viewer into the visual scheme of the panel.

Taking an interdisciplinary perspective, I apply Robert Weimann’s concept of the p​ latea​ to an art-historical topic. The p​ latea​, in contrast with the iconic and static lo​ cus​, is often described as a fluid space, a space of interaction, and of cohabitation between actor and spectator. Applying this to intermediary spaces utilised in early netherlandish panels, or the common trend of crossing the boundaries of fictive frames can tell us more about how viewers interacted/were intended to interact with devotional panels.

In short, this paper offers that artists incorporated the fluid space of the p​ latea​ in devotional portraiture in order to convey the intercessory nature of those depicted and to directly facilitate viewer’s access to those subjects through emotive response.

12 Panel 3C: Developments in Early Modern Print Cultures - Grimond Seminar 4

The Idea of a Good Death in Seventeenth Century Broadside Ballads - Examining the Woodcut Images Imogen Wiltshire, University of Kent

The study of death in the early modern period is an area that has received attention from a variety of different scholars. There are numerous works interpreting the theological ideas, common rituals and demographic statistics around death, but few have contributed to our understanding of the popular perception of death. I will use English broadside ballads, a source that is yet to be utilised in the study of death, to reveal these popular opinions. As the most accessible form of literature in early modern England, broadsides both reflected and influenced how people thought. Even illiteracy did not prevent people from understanding this form of cheap print, designed to be performed rather than read in public places. There are numerous broadsides which deal with death, including Ars Morendi stories, eschatological concerns and deathbed advice. These reasons make broadside ballads an excellent source for exploring ideas that permeated throughout the social orders. My talk will examine the beliefs, fears and expectations surrounding death that are represented in Broadside Ballads. In doing this I will look at the common narratives of death, identify stock characters and examine woodcut depictions, all to identify patterns in the representation of death.

‘That height of contempt as to be Gazetted’: Andrew Marvell's printed polemic and the issue of news distribution in the the 1670’s Hope Frew-Costa, University of Kent

I am proposing a paper which looks specifically at news culture and information dissemination in the 1670’s; in particular, the ways in which Marvell responded to the deficit of a free press. The 1670’s represent a lacuna in relation to the development of the newspaper – after the flurry of production during the Civil War, governmental suppression at the onset of the Restoration meant by the 1670’s only two news sources were available, The London Gazette (an organ of state propaganda) and the newsletters of Henry Muddiman, a secretary of state. Neither source satiated the public’s need for criticisms of their government. During times of increased political tumult such as the Exclusion Crisis, sales of The London Gazette dipped considerably – state sanctioned news omitting details craved by the public – falling from an average of seven thousand copies sold to five thousand copies between the year 1678 and 1681. In his prose Marvell lambasts ‘the Gazettes’ and purposely printed parliamentary votes, information deemed arcana imperii, in order to inform his readership. I will discuss both the history of the newspaper (including how issues of class affected your access to information) and ways in which Marvell presents his readers with an alternate narrative (one in line with Whig ideology). Marvell took to the press in order to make an impact on the political sphere, inspiring action and asking his readers to expect more of their political representatives. Though Marvell could not hope to persuade all, the act of publishing served as a protest.

13 Panel 3D: Corporate Interests, Public Cultures: Metropolitan Science 1600 - 1800 - Grimond Lecture Theatre 3

Dr Rebekah Higgitt, Dr Jasmine Kilburn-Toppin, Dr Noah Moxham, University of Kent

Recent and continuing scholarship in the history of science has done much to recover the variety and vitality of early modern London’s knowledge communities. These included not just the more or less well-studied new foundations such as the Royal Society, the Society of Antiquaries, and the Society of Arts, professedly dedicated to generating new knowledge through research, experiment, invention and discovery, and longer-standing professional associations such as the colleges of surgeons and physicians, but livery companies old and new; joint-stock and monopoly companies concerned to exploit particular regions or commodities; and state institutions and offices (the Navy, the Board of Ordnance, the Royal Observatory, the Mint, the Surveyor-General). They were, in an equal variety of ways, fundamentally linked with the metropole – by titular association in the case of the Royal Society, by being headquartered there, by regulating its professional communities, by monopolising aspects of its commerce, or by being part of its structures of civic governance. There were also less formally constituted communities, emerging at the intersection of amateur and professional interests in mathematics, chemistry, and botany, and sites of exchange, enquiry, discussion and display including shops, coffee-houses, museums, and collections. In the absence of a traditional seat of learning, these communities – organised around artificial skill and practice as much as the ‘natural knowledge’ espoused by the Royal Society – can be said to constitute, jointly and severally, the scientific culture of early modern London. Jointly and severally, because they overlapped and interacted, and individuals moved between them, in varied and complex ways, and because their practices for making and securing knowledge were shaped, and made distinct, by their various corporate functions and identities.

This isn’t only a matter of differences of institutional style, but sometimes of internal conflict and contradiction or external challenges to the legitimacy of an institution and its place in metropolitan life. Difficulties of this nature became particularly acute when tensions, real or perceived, arose between private or corporate interest and public responsibility. These might turn on questions of secrecy and disclosure; on conflicts of interest; on dependence upon expertise that might not be susceptible to external verification; or on issues of demarcation and oversight. In some instances an institution might seek to resolve or deflect them by functioning as several kinds of knowledge community at once. This panel, assembled as part of a project studying these communities under the rubric of ‘metropolitan science’, consists of three short papers on the Royal Observatory, the assayers of the Goldsmith’s Company, and the East India Company. We examine how they constituted and projected themselves as knowledge communities; their interactions, co-operative or rivalrous, with other types of knowledge community or state institutions; how they built trust around their knowledge or used their knowledge to build trust; how London signified in the construction of their identity, and the challenges of exerting metropolitan authority over long distances (or, in the case of the

14 Observatory, of assuming it over short ones). We intend that these should be relatively short interventions/provocations, followed by a discussion of some of the wider issues raised by this project: how (and whether) to distinguish between cultures and communities of knowledge, and of expertise; how to think about the relationship between public cultures of science and the private or corporate interest of many metropolitan knowledge-communities; how to ensure that we think about ‘metropolitan’ science so as to enlarge and enrich it, rather than simply opposing it to (or asserting it over) ‘peripheral’ or ‘provincial’ science; and the distinctive methodological challenges of recovering the significance for the history of science of communities that don’t have, or cut across, institutional and corporate identities.

15 Saturday, 16 June:

Panel Session 4, 10.00 - 11.20 Panel 4A: Embroidery, Print, and Pottery: Medieval and Early Modern Materiality - Grimond Seminar 2

Paper, Parchment, and Silk: Tracing Medieval Embroidery Ingrid Lunnan Nødseth, NTNU University, Trondheim

Medieval embroidery was one of the most prized art forms in its days, with close links to other arts such as manuscripts, painting and even architecture. This paper aims to shed new light on how medieval embroideries were made, focusing on the corpus of preserved ecclesiastical embroideries from 15th century Scandinavia. The making of medieval embroideries often involved paper or parchment in the form of pattern-books, tracing paper or as additional support, or incorporated in the finished piece. Exploring the methods for tracing and transferring motifs can give new insight as to how these textiles were so closely connected to other art forms at the time. I will discuss several examples of embroidery design on paper and parchment (from collections in Bergen and Stockholm). Additionally, I will discuss the only surviving pattern-book from medieval Scandinavia, known as «Islandsk Tegnebok» (AM 373a), and point out some interesting parallels with the Bergen and Stockholm patterns. Questions of pattern design and transfer have not been thoroughly discussed in recent literature addressing the medieval Scandinavian textiles, but there are close parallels to a broader European tradition. Thus, this paper aims to contribute to our understanding of how patterns and designs were developed, circulated and transferred in medieval Europe.

Daily Life in the Royal Anglo-Saxon Settlement of Lyminge, Kent: Using Pottery to Assess Social Development and Identity Lisa Backhouse, University of Reading

Pottery is one of the most expressive markers of both identity and social development in the early medieval period; it offers the opportunity to gain information about the type of people who occupied a settlement and illustrates clear distinctions between elite and ordinary consumers. Over the past decade, a number of ceramic research projects have successfully demonstrated the ability to use pottery in order to support research of settlement development during the Anglo-Saxon period, in particular the effect of the Christian conversion period. Increasingly, theoretical approaches have been employed to ceramic studies and made use of historical sources which have highlighted the potential of this everyday material culture in understanding aspects of identity and social groups. Domestic pottery provides an everyday material perspective of social and political complexity, in particular in settlements known to have had elite connections and was inevitability home to people of varying statuses, and therefore yields a vast amount of information. This paper gives an overview of the pottery assemblage excavated from Lyminge, Kent, and initial ideas from the analysis which is

16 providing intriguing hints at the social development and cultural identities expressed during the 400 year occupation spanning the conversion period. The speaker is in the first year of a PhD and therefore hopes to stimulate further discussion and invites ideas about the role of material in medieval social expression to further develop the avenues of the research.

Panel 4B: Medieval English Royal Life - Grimond Seminar 3

This panel will explore notions of royalty in Medieval England, and the many ways in which it can be studied, by presenting three papers that will each highlight a different aspect of and approach to medieval royal life. Together, these papers present literary, archaeological, and historical approaches, examining royal concerns in the widest sense, covering notions of kingship expressed as part of a political agenda, royal barrows, and personal relationships between members of a royal family. The aim is to consider how these approaches and perspectives may be interconnected and helpful to each other, whilst at the same time showcasing the great diversity studying medieval royalty has to offer.

Kingship in ​Havelok the Dane:​ Using the Past to Understand the Present Charlotte Liebelt, Canterbury Christ Church University

The first paper will adopt a literary approach. Despite the traditional scholarly division between Old and Middle English, there are notable continuities between pre- and post- Conquest concepts of kingship that have been obscured by this rather arbitrary partition. This continuity of interest in kingship can be found in thirteenth century literature, especially in ​Havelok the Dane.​ H​ avelok’s ​ central issues have been interpreted in several, seemingly conflicting, ways. Christopher Stuart has argued that ​Havelok​ reflects the contemporary issues facing Edward I. Dominique Battles, on the other hand, has taken the view that the text in fact looks back to the past. Though these readings of the text appear to differ greatly, they both imply that ​Havelok ​ is very much concerned with royal authority and legitimate kingship. Indeed, the text evokes memories of Anglo-Saxon kingship and political events such as the Norman Conquest (1066) and the anarchy (the succession crisis after the death of Henry I, 1135-1153), amongst others. This paper will assess these differing views, and will argue that ​Havelok ​ is, in fact, a hybrid text, which continues and combines narratives of kingship that look back to the past in order to make sense of a politically complex present.

What power do the dead hold: King Harold’s barrow burial Lily Hawker-Yates, Canterbury Christ Church University

The second paper gives an archaeological perspective: By the time of the Norman Conquest, burial in a barrow was an ancient, pagan custom. However, in the Carmen de Hastingae Proelio William the Conqueror refuses to relinquish Harold’s body to his mother, swearing that ‘he would sooner put him in charge of the shore of that very port – under a heap of stones.’ Harold’s cairn is then marked with a stone, inscribed: ‘You rest here, King Harold, by order of the duke,

17 so that you may be guardian over sea and shore’. A guardian burial such as this would not have been viewed as merely a supernatural or miraculous occurrence. The dead in High Medieval England may have been buried, but they were not expected to simply rest in peace. As Jane Gilbert (2011) writes: “the medieval dead and living had reciprocal obligations and complementary spheres of activity as members of a greater community.”

This paper will demonstrate how medieval interactions with barrows explain why this archaic form of burial was chosen for the defeated king, and how royal duties did not end with death, but were inextricably bound up in the past, present and future of the country, and even with the landscape itself.

The Letters of Henry III and his daughter, Beatrice Abby Armstrong, Canterbury Christ Church University

The third paper uses a historical perspective and re-examines the father-daughter bond,exploring the extant letters exchanged between Henry III and his daughter, Beatrice. Recent scholarship has rejected the view that medieval royal daughters were married off to foreign princes at a young age and forgotten about. If a daughter was expected to promote her natal family’s interests in a new court, she would need to identify with them. As such parents formed strong attachments to their children at a young age, which continued throughout their adult lives. After her marriage to the heir to the Breton duchy in 1260, Beatrice left England for Brittany in the summer of 1261. Following her departure Beatrice remained in contact with her father through letters that demonstrate the fusion of the political and the personal. They discuss various topics from the state of affairs in England to their health and wellbeing. This also included news of the birth of Beatrice’s first child. The purpose of this paper is to examine the emotional bond between Henry III and Beatrice in these letters, to demonstrate the depth of Henry’s affection for his daughter.

Panel 4C: Narrating the Ottoman Lands Through Early Modern Texts - Grimond Seminar 4

The panel focuses on three unique texts produced within the Ottoman Empire to explore the dynamics that shaped life in the massive empire’s central lands. These texts were produced by three distinct authors for very different purposes, and taken together they illustrate the wide variety of written materials produced by locals and foreigners in this large and diverse setting. The panel situates the empire within the wider dynamics of the early modern world, and addresses global themes like daily life, political legitimacy, and the use of urban space. It also highlights the unique experiences and perspectives of the individuals who lived and travelled in the Ottoman lands.

Legitimizing the Victorious Sultan with a Hagiography of Abraham in the Fifteenth Century Ahmet Cem Durak, Central European University, Budapest

18 Ahmet Cem Durak’s research focuses on the Halilname, a hagiography of Abraham by Abdulvasi Celebi (d. 1415) which draws on both Persio-Islamic and Judaic literary motifs to legitimize the rule of Sultan Mehmed I (r. 1413-21). He argues that the presence of Jewish themes in the text is a reflection of the syncretic religious landscape of late Medieval Anatolia, before the Ottoman state adopted a more orthodox Sunni self-image in the subsequent centuries. The text, likely the first Turkish hagiography of Abraham, also includes an account of Muhamad’s night journey and the battles of the interregnum, drawing a clear parallel between the two prophets and the victorious sultan. Bringing perspectives from literary studies, Durak also analyses how the form of the work, which is in the widely used mesnevi genre, further reinforces the themes of historical legitimacy. Taken together these themes paint a vibrant picture of Ottoman political ideology as the state began to rebuild itself, and laid the foundations for the period of its greatest expansion.

The Use of Space in Sufi Circles in Seventeenth-Century Istanbul: The Case of Seyyid Hasan’s Diary, T​ he Sohbetname Fatma Deniz, Central European University, Budapest

Fatma Deniz’s research asks how space structured the daily life routines of a group of Sufis. She contributes to a growing field focusing on the socio-cultural place and everyday life of Sufis (Islamic mystics) by conducting a spatial analysis based on The Sohbetname (1661-1664), a diary written by Seyyid Hasan, a Sufi who lived in Istanbul. Sufis were an influential social group in the Ottoman Empire, and studying their everyday life practices is therefore crucial to understanding Ottoman religious culture. After categorizing the places mentioned in the diary, she questions the roles of these places in shaping the life patterns of Sufis. She proposes three alternative ways of analyzing early modern Sufis. Firstly, in addition to the already existing categories (sedentary and wandering) for Sufis, she postulates a third: itinerant Sufis. Secondly, in contrast to the current secondary literature, she argues that the lodges were not the focal points of Sufi social life but only one of several alternative venues. Lastly, she suggests that privacy could take many shapes and the distinction between the public and private spheres sometimes blurred in the lives of these Sufis.

An Englishman’s Maps of Social and Ceremonial Spaces in Edirne in the Late Seventeenth Century Nicholas Crummey, Central European University, Budapest

Nicholas Crummey’s paper explores the ways Europeans perceived and mapped the city of Edirne when it was the seat of the Ottoman court in the 1670s, focusing particularly on the summer of 1675 when the city witnessed an enormous imperial circumcision festival, followed by a deadly outbreak of the plague. Using the highly personalized hand-drawn maps, sketches, and descriptions in the journal of John Covel, the chaplain to the British ambassador, along with current GIS technology, this paper both literally and figuratively maps the social networks, diplomatic geographies, and festival spaces available to European residents of the central

19 Ottoman lands. Recent scholarship on European-Ottoman relations has stressed the importance of intermediaries and the networks of sociability present in Istanbul but has rarely ventured beyond the capital. Crummey argues that the shift of the court to Edirne in the second half the 17th century, and the subsequent costly trips ambassadors had to make there, stretched European sociability to a new geography, allowing them opportunities to interact with each other and with Ottoman subjects in new ways.

Panel Session 5, 11.30 - 13.00 Panel 5A: Early Modern Letter Writing Practices - Grimond Seminar 2

The Campaign Letters of Horace Vere, 1st Baron Tilbury 1606-1633 Robert Gill, Canterbury Christ Church University

I am researching the life of Horace Vere, 1st Baron Tilbury who lived between 1565 and 1635. He was a soldier for most of his adult life serving in the cause of militant Protestantism in the Dutch wars of liberation between 1590 and 1634. Horace left 150 or so letters, written between 1606 and 1633. Almost all of these were written whilst he was on campaign in Europe and were addressed to a small number of English officials in Brussels, The Hague and in London. Some of these letters are written in code but most are in plain language commenting on the conflict in hand or upon some local aspect thereof. Many of the letters concern the lack of funds to pay the troops, others comment on the lack of information as to the progress of the wars. Some were clearly written in great haste, perhaps whilst in the saddle, and a small number appear to have been dictated to a scribe or other official.

The paper will focus on the coded letters which seem to use a simple number substitution system but I have managed to work out only a small number of the coded entries. I would welcome ideas and suggestions as to how this might be tackled. In addition, his salutations and valedictions vary depending upon the recipient and I would like a better understanding of the conventions in use at the time, both from a civilian standpoint and from a military one, the latter more specially perhaps because of the need to ensure such letters were secure.

Letter and Chronicle-Writing: Textual Production and Patronage in Elizabethan Kent Dr Claire Bartram, Canterbury Christ Church University

The extensive paper-trails generated by big projects such as the renovation of Dover Harbour in the 1580s provide valuable insight into a rich provincial textual culture and invite us to think, as Adam Smyth does in his work on autobiography, about intertextuality and the permeability of genre boundaries. This paper considers the ways in which bureaucratic paperwork – in this instance letters and letter books – might provide evidence for the compilation of other, quasi- literary texts. In tracking similarities in tone, language and outlook between letters written by Sir Thomas Scott and an account of the same events in Holinshed’s Chronicle, the paper explores the ways in which a now-lost letter book might have been used as a historical resource;

20 giving insight into how the chronicle-writer explicitly and implicitly reflected the views and values of his patron.

Material Implications of the Manuscript Letter Book and the Related Correspondence of Gabriel Harvey Anthony Heathfield, Canterbury Christ Church University

This paper will examine the materiality of the written correspondence of Gabriel Harvey in relation to both his public and private interactions with fellow writers and scholars. Harvey’s collection of notable letters and written correspondence spans over a period of more than 30 years. Throughout this time, Harvey undergoes an authorial evolution from a careful yet concise graduate scholar in his younger years to the brash, audacious and often rather careless pamphleteer towards the end of the sixteenth century. The presentation of written correspondence during this period was not simply a matter of aesthetics or presentational vanity. The act of composing an autographical letter brought with it many social and professional implications all of which varied depending on the circumstances with which the letter was being sent, the social expectations of the person sending the letter and often the professional standards expected by the recipient.

Along with what has already been researched by Nielson and Daybell, a study of the materiality of Harvey’s written correspondence can allow current research to make certain predictions about the way that Gabriel Harvey tailored his letters to meet the aforementioned social expectations and how this was then reflected in the copies he made in his personal letter book. This paper will explore how, through the material aspects of his manuscript letters, we are able to strip back the etiquette and vanity of his writing to reveal the more basic and ‘true’ intentions behind Harvey’s carefully constructed written persona.

Panel 5B: Hidden and Uncovered Medieval Church Art - Grimond Seminar 3

Mercy in Medieval - History and Art of Misericordia Anna Bartuli, Lomonosov Moscow State University

The choir seats refer to the usual church furniture of Western Christianity. They locate at the eastern end of religious buildings because of their special function: it’s difficult to stand a long divine service, and for the clergy these seats was invented, as a kind act of mercy.

The main purpose of this work is about the description of history of the choir seat. During the construction of the earliest Christian churches, the Roman buildings of the court were taken as a model. The Roman basilicas were built according to one plan. This plan served as a prototype for the seats of the clergy in the next era.

In the Middle Ages the choir seats were very important. From the eyes of the laity all these

21 charms were hidden, because before the Reformation the entrance to the choir was closed to them.

The sculptures and reliefs of the chairs were therefore not obliged to be a “Bible in pictures” for the people, but were for the educated clergy. Therefore, next to a strict theological program on the Christian theme, the marginal imagery of the grass-roots was side by side. This bright world with its ridiculous is for the modern viewer one of the charming areas of medieval art.

Hidden in Plain Sight - The Identities of the Donors in the Votive Fresco in the Lupi Chapel of the Basilica of St Anthony, Padua Morag McLintock, Birkbeck College, University of London

The donors represented in the votive fresco of this chapel, now dedicated to St Philip but originally dedicated to St James the Great, were assumed to be that of Bonifacio Lupi and his wife Caterina. The fresco (1376-1379), by Altichiero, shows the Virgin and Child enthroned. To the Virgin’s left is a kneeling knight in armour with his helmet thrown back who is presented by St James. To the Virgin’s right is a kneeling hooded figure in a red cloak, presented by St Catherine. However, all is not as it seems, for the positioning of the proposed figure of Caterina on the Virgin’s right would be highly unusual, and the hooded red cloak the figure wears would also be exceptional for a woman in this situation. One or two scholars have suggested an explanation for this, or proposed a different identity for the figure. However, the case for the proposed identities of these two figures has not been fully argued.

In this paper I propose to look anew at the identity of both figures, but that of the cloaked figure in particular. I will discuss all the possible candidates, two of which have not previously been suggested, and examine the evidence for and against each. This evidence will include looking at the original purpose of the chapel, the family and close ties of Bonifacio and Caterina, an altarpiece which depicts Bonifacio and Caterina as donors, the fashions of the day, and another rather puzzling fresco in the same chapel.

Saint Faith in England: The Case of the Priory of Horsham St Faith, Norfolk Katie Toussaint-Jackson, University of Kent

At a former priory dedicated to Saint Faith in Norfolk, there survives a monumental scheme of wall paintings which includes a crucifixion scene, a depiction of the priory’s foundation story, and a male and female saint. This paper will take a closer look at this fantastic survival, and put it into the broader context of the cult of Saint Faith. This paper will also take a close look at the narrative pictorial scenes which show the foundation of the priory, examining how the priory viewed themselves, their foundation and their history. In particular, the relationship between the famous reliquary statue of Saint Faith, a remarkable survival of a full figure reliquary, and the artwork in Norfolk will be explored. This paper stems from a recent site visit to the priory in Horsham St Faith and will build on the material gathered from that trip.

22 Panel 5C: Speech, Sound, and Space - Grimond Seminar 4

Paradise on Earth: Tomb of Akbar Sikandrabad Bhaswar Mallick, University of Cincinnati

Globalization’s dissolution of boundaries parallels a resurgent identity politics, exacerbated by religious invocations. Evidently, the Islamic heritage of India is being repositioned as foreign and incongruent to the nation-state’s cultural legacy. A prime case in point is the recent exclusion of the Taj Mahal from the state government’s tourism booklet. But this exclusion is also symptomatic of the primacy of classifications – a work identified by its style and age, its origin and author, and an objectified list of its distinguishing features.

This paper presents an alternative, rooted in the discourses of phenomenology, that can illuminate the nature of situated human interactions more holistically, and hermeneutics, that can reveal the continuing relationships between works of the distant past with the always new present. To account for the booklet’s missed opportunity, this paper will dwell on the tomb of the most powerful Mughal Emperor Akbar, at Sikandrabad. Ignored and attracting far fewer tourists, this monument recedes into relative obscurity, although located within the same city.

This paper argues that the medieval monument remains relevant to modern India because it incites questions of life and death, of living and dying; it claims legitimacy as a work of art – a meaningful and on-going, ever-present human experience. The work works best by transforming a sense of being with the deceased in a place after death, to become a respite in mortal life for soulful contemplation; realised for heightened sensitivity, activated by bodily engagement, and explored within spatial sequences, all encompassed as a holistic architectural experience.

Sleep-Preaching and Sleep-Meditation in the Vita of Queen Radegund Jennifer Chaloner, University of Oxford

The second book of the Vita Radegundis, written by the nun Baudonivia, contains several passages in which Radegund, Queen of the Franks in the sixth century, meditates on scripture or even preaches whilst she is sleeping or appearing to sleep. Baudonivia puts great emphasis on Radegund’s habit of constantly reading and preaching, illustrating the purity of Radegund’s heart. These interrelated themes – reading, holiness, and speech – are not new, but have their origins in the late-antique ascetic John Cassian. Cassian’s concern was for monastics to see God, and purity of heart was a prerequisite. He outlined how speech could reveal the state of a person’s heart and his or her progress toward perfection. Through the mediator of Caesarius of Arles, the importance of speech as an indicator of holiness appears in Baudonivia’s work. This paper explores the meaning behind the instances of sleep-meditation and sleep-preaching, searching out its significance in the works of Cassian and the Vita Caesarii. How does speech reveal but also shape a person’s heart? Why is speech in sleep used to reflect Radegund’s

23 holiness? What is the relationship between divine reading, sleep, and speech? The answers to these questions will help us better understand how Baudonivia intended to help the nuns of Radegund’s Convent of the Holy Cross purify their own hearts and thereby see God.

‘Painting the Emperor in Sound’: Composition, Performance, and Publication of the Lambert de Sayve’s Messe pour le Sacre de l’empereur Matthias (1632) Anastazja Grudnicka, University College London

This paper explores the uses of sacred music in the shaping of the public image of the Holy Roman Emperor Matthias I Habsburg (1612-1619). Matthias came to power against all the odds and in most unusual circumstances. As the third surviving son of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, he had little chances of ever accessing the imperial office. However, following a successful rebellion against his brother, Emperor Rudolf II, Matthias was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Frankfurt in June 1612. His imperial coronation was thus in many ways a watershed in the history of the empire and of the dynasty. Whilst coronations, their symbolic and ritualistic dimensions, have been extensively studied, their aural aspects have been largely neglected by historiography. Seen mostly for its liturgical function, the role of sacred music as means of self-fashioning has been overlooked. However, embedded with potent symbolism, sacred music composed for and performed during royal coronations was often revealing of ruler’s character, his political vision and aspirations. In studying the composition and performance of the Lambert de Sayve’s Messe pour le Sacre de l’empereur at Matthias’s imperial coronation in 1612, and the subsequent publication of these compositions, this paper explores the ways in which sacred music was employed as means of self-fashioning. In analysing its compositional and lyrical aspects together with the study of performance and distribution, this paper proposes a new methodological approach to the study of early modern self-fashioning.

Panel 5D: Spenser, Shakespeare, and Forms of Adaptation - Grimond Lecture Theatre 3

Memory, Ethics and Energeia in Spenser’s ​Faerie Queene Dr Darragh Greene, University College Dublin Dr Rory Loughnane, University of Kent

In Book One of Spenser's ​Faerie Queene,​ why, in the description of the procession of the personified Seven Deadly Sins, is ‘Idlenesse’ termed ‘the nourse of sin’ (I.iv.18)? And why, above all, is it placed first in the procession, acting as guide to all the others? In this joint paper, we will tease out the implications of the leading role given to idleness in Spenser’s overall theory of sin, by exploring the implied counter-intuitive notion that sin originates in purposeless inaction – in a nutshell, in doing nothing. In connection with this, we will argue that this unusual aspect of Spenser’s representation of the capital sins is grounded in a creative reading of Aristotle’s ethics, which, of course, is the theoretical framework privileged in the Author’s Letter to Raleigh. Aristotle’s conception of virtue is expressly built on the metaphysical principle of energeia, which is the working or actualisation of some potentiality. Thus when looked at

24 through an Aristotelian lens, idleness, conceived as the privation of activity, is antithetical to virtue as a whole.

In addition, when Spenser declares in the Letter to Raleigh that the ‘generall end…of all the booke is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline’, it seems that the energeia or work of reading the poem should be understood as the interrelated activities of unwrapping its cloudy ‘ensamples’, remembering its moral lessons, and practising them in life. When one regards the poem’s characters’ various acts as ‘ensamples’, that is both exempla in bono and in malo, which are designed in order to teach virtue, it stands to reason to expect that they be constructed with an eye to easy memorisation by the reader. Furthermore, if one conceives the reader storing these ‘ensamples’ in a mappable memory bank, then, for instance, the spatial dimension and disposition of the procession of the personified sins serves this project.

However, there is a problem with this ethical poetic, for Spenser’s conception of human agency turns out to be deeply pessimistic. A major conundrum of Book One is that it undoes its ethical project when in Canto X it is asserted, contrary to Aristotelian virtue ethics, that human beings only have power to do ill. If that is so, then the avowed aim to produce a noble person in virtuous discipline is undone. Moreover, in Canto X, it is only God’s intervention or grace that makes humans act virtuously. In this case, it seems that God is the only free agent, and therefore all human goodness is an epiphenomenon of divine energeia. If Spenser, in this way, subverts the edifying, ennobling aim of his work, then does Book One amount to a statement of essential human powerlessness, the nullity of textuality, the futility of memory, and that answers the question as to why idleness is the ‘nourse of sin’? In this paper, we will attempt to answer this by connecting Spenser's schema to the spatial schemes of specific versions of the art of memory.

Women, children, and this ‘bloody-scepter’d’ isle in Kurzel’s ​Macbeth ​ (2015) Dr Edel Semple, University College Cork

This paper examines the relationship between women, children, and the nation in Justin Kurzel’s film ​Macbeth.​ The film foregrounds several families, presenting them as the building blocks of civilised society. Duncan and his son Malcolm are obviously central to the state, but the Macbeths, the Macduffs, and Banquo all have progeny, and even the witches and the Scottish army have children among them. Children are highly valued – Fleance will be the progenitor of kings, the Macbeths never recover from the death of their biological and adopted sons – but they are endangered subjects. In this paper, I argue that in Kurzel’s M​ acbeth ​ the only hope for the future of the nation is its children, but they are a finite resource threatened by a power-hungry patriarchal culture. I will contend too that women are often shown to be the victims of the state, but they are also revealed to be the best guardians of the state. The film implies that the safe role for a woman is that of observer, but paradoxically this is how women can actively protect their interests and shape the nation’s future. Ultimately, Kurzel’s M​ acbeth

25 presents the viewer with the birth of a nation; yet, with its mothers and its children endangered, it is a parturition fraught with difficulties.

Restoring Shakespeare: Capell vs. Garrick Dr Ivan Lupić, Stanford University

“[B]eing complimented with the title of the Restorer of Shakespeare by a Literary Peer (I think Lord Dacre) he was known to have wept whenever he read the Letter.” So writes Samuel Pegge of Edward Capell in the only biography we have of this important eighteenth-century editor of Shakespeare. While the story can be shown to be apocryphal, the tears were probably genuine. This presentation will inquire into their cause by focusing on Capell’s frustrated Shakespearean ambitions, especially as they relate to those of David Garrick. Brought together through their interest in old playbooks, their work for the theater, and their efforts to adapt Shakespeare, Capell and Garrick were ultimately divided by rival claims to the author whom they set out to restore.

Panel Session 6, 14.00 - 15.20 Panel 6A: Religious Ritual and Movement - Grimond Seminar 2

A “Sacred” Trip to the East: The Religious Policy of Otto III Dr Loredana De Falco, University of Naples

The desire for independence from the diocese of Magdeburg, around which the grandfather Otto I had undertaken a policy of German spiritual colonization, pushed Otto III to undertake, in the year 1000, a trip to Gniezno, officially to pay tribute to the sacred relics of Adalbert , his personal friend, who fell a martyr in the Prussi’s land and buried there, actually to create ex novo a completely independent Christian place of worship . The imperialism of Otto III had a dimension of universality and religious fervor that involved a very different policy from that of his predecessor. Otto I, in fact, together with Pope Agapito II, in 962 had made Magdeburg become metropolis of an ecclesiastical province that embraced all the bishoprics of the Slavic territories, but the hope of engulfing them also Poland was disappointed. The journey of Otto III to Gniezno instead, allowed the implementation of the purpose.

The reconstruction of this new “sacred” landscape is carried out through the reading of passages of the Chronicon of Thietmar, main fons of the journey of Otto and of the symbolic and political value assumed by it. This is a highly significant text because Thietmar is the character linked to the archbishopric of Magdeburg and therefore uncertain about the legality of the metropolitan constitution of Gniezno.

26 The Seven Deadly Sins and Artificial Memory: The Art of Memory and Changing Attitudes to Penance in Pre and Post-Reformation Literature Samantha McCarthy, University of Kent

As the techniques of the classical art of memory were revived in late medieval and early modern literature, features of artificial memory techniques become identifiable in the presentations of the seven deadly sins. The connection between the seven deadly sins and the art of memory can be identified in the consistent use of images, concern about the sins’ order and repetition in their presentation. While the memorable depiction of these sins can certainly be seen to serve the pursuit of Christian prudence, their inherent connection with confessional and penitential practices raises wider questions about the role of memory in Christian belief. Through an examination of three texts, each from a different perspective on the matters of confession and penance, this relationship can be seen. The details of the sins’ presentations in the early fifteenth century Lollard tract, Þe Lanterne of Liȝt, William Dunbar’s late fifteenth century ‘Fasternis Evin in Hell’ and Edmund Spenser’s 1596 The Faerie Queene, reveal changing attitudes towards the Sacrament of Penance and the role of that memory played in the forgiveness of the deadly sins.

Panel 6B: Literary History Across Cultures - Grimond Seminar 3

A Medical Treatise: Between Science, Literature, and Art: The Case of John Actuarios’ Essay Ekaterina Rybakova, Lomonosov Moscow State University

A lot of historians often say that byzantine medicine has been very conservative referring to Galen’s system of knowledge but that is not exactly true. Byzantine physicians were not so influenced by their predecessors and were quite independent. They reinterpreted old methods of treatment and added or created the new ones. One of remarkable physicians was John Actuarius, a Byzantine healer of the 14th century. In his treatise “De spiritu animalis” he tried to explain the reasons of mental disorders and offer an applicable dietary treatment. The form and content of his treatise allows us to draw a conclusion about the special way of authoring. First of all, the language had the great meaning in this process and had its own particularities – tendency to ancient ideals of the writing and at the same time – an attempt to transmit the realities of that time. It presents quite interesting mix of information for analyzing, when he mentioned a popular medicine with known ingredients but presented it as a new one. Secondly, the medical treatise could be very literary. Without dispute, it’s a characteristic feature of rhetoric, most vivid fact of medieval literature, but a medical treatise has its audience and it demands special sort of comparisons and definitions. Which figures of speech were taken from his predecessors? What was created by himself? What we can say about byzantine medical discourse through the analyze of this treatise? We will try to answer these and many others questions in our research.

27 Fight Manuals of Medieval Germany Jason Hulott, T​ hanet Fecht Schule

HEMA—Historical European Martial Arts—is a collective name for weapon based and unarmed based training systems that have been documented and taught from as early as the early medieval period. As much as most people know there are eastern martial arts, there is now documentary evidence from across Europe that systems were developed for military, courtly and civilian use. There are systems from Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the UK. In this presentation I will present a few of the manuscripts available to study as well as the 3 types of manuals and development of civilian combat in Germany between the 1300 - 1500s. We will also look at why these combat systems didn’t seem to be prevalent in England during the period.

We follow the German historical tradition of Johannes Liechtenauer. This is the early part of the German system and dates from around 1380. Weapons-wise the system covers longsword, dagger, staff, poleaxe, messer (long knife), sword and buckler, and ringen (wrestling). Our main practice is longsword, then dagger and messer. I will discuss the whole system but we will focus our workshops on the Longsword which is the popular weapon of choice.

Panel 6C: In the Archives: Canterbury Journey Exhibitions and University of Kent MEMS Research Projects - Grimond Seminar 4

Dr Sarah Turner and Sophie Kelly, Canterbury Cathedral Archives Philippa Mesiano, Katie Toussaint-Jackson, Cassandra Harrington, and Megan Hack, University of Kent Victoria Mitchell, Canterbury Christ Church University

Canterbury Cathedral is engaging in a new project “the Canterbury Journey Exhibitions”. The purpose of the project is to open up the Cathedral’s collection and make it more accessible for a wider range of audiences. Part of this aim will be fulfilled by the creation of new exhibition displays. These exhibitions are due to open in spring 2019. As part of this project, the Cathedral’s Collections team is working in collaboration with students from Kent and Christ Church to research some of the most significant objects and documents planned for display. Hence, this proposed panel is a chance for the Collections team to explain the project in more detail and then for students to give presentations on their ‘work in progress’ regarding their chosen document/object for display.

The panel will be broken down as such:

Dr Sarah Turner and Sophie Kelly - Canterbury Journey Exhibitions: An Overview Megan Hack - An Anglo-Saxon Sundial Cassandra Harrington and Katie Toussaint-Jackson - Twelfth Century Martyrology Victoria Mitchell - A writ from Eleanor of Aquitaine, 1193 Philippa Mesiano - Canterbury Succession Crisis Settlement, 1213

28 Workshops

Friday, 15 June:

Pens and Pigments: A Practice Based Manuscript Workshop​ - H​ annah Lilley and Cassandra Harrington

Please note: this workshop will run for two hours and will be capped at 17 participants.

This workshop, run by an art historian and a literary scholar, gives participants the chance to explore aspects of medieval and early modern manuscript making using a practice-based approach. The aims of this workshop are: to discuss how a practice- based approach to material culture might help us get a sense of pre-modern manuscript processes; whether ‘recreation’ is an appropriate term to use; and whether ‘accuracy’ is something we can, and should, strive for. To do this, we will look at pictorial examples from the fourteenth-century Macclesfield Psalter, and give you the chance to try your hand at illumination using pigments. Then we will explore two early seventeenth-century manuscript recipes for ink to see how differing recipes impact writing, and make little paper books in a style common to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century notebooks. We will also explore quill-preparation in order to facilitate the copying of scripts from exemplars. In this workshop you will learn about galls and copperas, how materials and techniques converse in mysterious ways, and get a sense of just how difficult it is to get an illumination right. We hope that you will come away from the workshop with your own little manuscript to keep, and a sense of the processes involved in the making of the documents we use for much of our research.

Delving into the world of Special Collections & Archives -​ University of Kent Special Collections and Archives Librarians

Come and explore the world of Special Collections & Archives and discover the early modern material held here at Kent. This year, participants will hear from staff about how to work in the heritage sector and the various roles involved, explore our new basement areas for the first time and view some of Kent’s rare pre-1700 material in the Reading Room. All welcome!

Cultures of Performance Research Cluster: P​ ause, and Effect: Performing Medieval Prose - ​Dr Ryan Perry

Middle English prose often presents difficulties for editors of medieval literature. A variety of punctus marks are used by scribes, and the implications of these marks may differ from scribe to scribe. Such marks are standardised by editors, and fitted within the schema of modern textual practice. Not only do editors change the marks used within medieval texts, but they often always reposition the punctuation, which regularly fails to fit modern English sentence structure. This workshop will look at how medieval punctuation practices may have enabled performance and audience comprehension and question whether by re-editing Middle English prose we are, in effect, losing the performative rhythms of medieval prose as it was intended to be delivered and heard. The workshop will take advantage of the latest research being undertaken in the AHRC-funded project ‘Towards a New Edition of the Wycliffite Bible’ in

29 Oxford. The project team have shared some of the original texts and edited versions of the English Bible which will be performed and compared along with a selection of other religious prose literature.

Saturday, 16 June:

Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) Demonstration - ​Jason Hulott

Please note: this workshop will be capped at 15 participants.

Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) is a collective name for weapon based and unarmed based training systems that have been documented and taught from as early as the early medieval period. As much as most people know there are eastern martial arts, there is now documentary evidence from across Europe that systems were developed for military, courtly and civilian use. There are systems from Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the UK. This workshop will focus on single practice, learning how to cut and parry. We will explore the five meisterhau and four hangings which form the cornerstone of the system.

Cultures of Performance: Audience Reception and Early English Theatre ​- Dr Clare Wright and Becki Turtill

Come and join us as we explore the world of early English theatre through the lens of modern re-enactment. There is little evidence remaining to show how contemporary audience members would have felt or behaved while watching the first performances of the plays left to us by writers such as William Shakespeare, Thomas Middleton, Francis Beaumont and Thomas Dekker. Academics, directors and actors have attempted to explore and re-create the contemporary responses in modern audiences through theatre reconstruction projects such as The Globe, The Blackfriars and The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. In this workshop, we plan to add to this performance-based exploration of early English theatre by examining scenes from plays such as ​A Chaste Maid in Cheapside​, ​The Maid’s Tragedy,​ ​The Shoemaker’s Holiday,​ and ​A Winter’s Tale​. By looking at these plays, we hope to determine what clues the surviving texts hold as to how the plays may have been performed and what emotional responses they may have provoked. Some of the questions we will consider are:

Who were the early English audience and what was it like to be a member? How close is a modern audience to a contemporary one? What are the cultural differences between then and now? Is it possible to recreate the contemporary response in a modern audience at all?

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