Stephen Jaeger | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (original) (raw)

Papers by Stephen Jaeger

Research paper thumbnail of Roger Bacon's Ars poetica sacra: Spiritual Persuasion and the Christian Sublime

Itinera: "Memory and Poesis between Aesthetics and Rhetoric", 2024

Roger Bacon (d. ca. 1292) wrote extensively on rhetoric and poetics. He did so in the context of ... more Roger Bacon (d. ca. 1292) wrote extensively on rhetoric and poetics. He did so in the context of a critical overview of the religious culture of his age. He places poetry (the argumentum poeticum) at the very pinnacle of culture, above the sciences, above the liturgy and preaching, well above scholastic philosophy and any other mode of expression current in his age. Poetry and rhetoric are the modes of exposition capable of captivating and transporting the listener/reader. That makes them an effective means of converting and of inspiring faith. The religious culture of his own time has so far declined that it is incapable of performing this function. Bacon was looking back on real rhetorical practices that had become outmoded. In earlier days Christianity spoke with force and passion. His sacred poetics has a place in the history of pre-modern Christian discourse, one of two works theorizing sacra eloquentia; the other is Augustine's On Christian Doctrine. Christian traditions of teaching, preaching, prayer, oratory, sacred music, regularly had called on modes that were emphatic, forceful and passionate: the "grand style," sermo propheticus, sermo affectuosus. Bacon's poetics commends these modes as it laments their passing.

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Research paper thumbnail of Charisma and the Transformation of Western Culture from the Twelfth to the Thirteenth Century

Religions, 2023

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Research paper thumbnail of The Sense of the Sublime in the Middle Ages

Contents, Preface, Epigraphs, 2022

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Research paper thumbnail of The Sense of the Sublime in the Middle Ages

Introduction

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Research paper thumbnail of Excursus 1: Erich Auerbach on Dante and the Sublime

The Sense of the Sublime in the Middle Ages, 2022

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Research paper thumbnail of The Sense of the Sublime PART ONE: Ch. 1 The Discourse of the Sublime: Lexis, Semantics, Rhetoric, Style

The Sense of the Sublime in the Middle Ages, 2022

The introduction was for the most part about the experience of sublimity along with some general ... more The introduction was for the most part about the experience of sublimity along with some general considerations of the character and source of its imagery. The first four chapters are about the word "sublime" in its various forms and the uses to which it was put in describing things above nature (ch. 1); a writing style in prose and verse (ch. 2); its articulation in rhetoric and poetics (ch. 3); the poetics of the grand style in Roger Bacon (ch. 4).

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Research paper thumbnail of Ch. 2 Sublimitas Sermonis

The Sense of the Sublime, 2022

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Research paper thumbnail of Chapter 3 The Grand Style and Medieval Rhetoric, Augustine to the Twelfth Century

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

Antiquity and the Middle Ages recognized and practiced an elevated style in Latin verse and prose... more Antiquity and the Middle Ages recognized and practiced an elevated style in Latin verse and prose, called in the sources "grand style," grande dicendi genus, genus sublime, sublime dicendi genus, stilus grandis, grandiloquentia, sublimitas, sublimitas sermonis. 1 In the language of medieval and renaissance rhetorical texts, the terms "sublime" and "grand" are interchangeable as designations of style. But-not to diminish the importance of this chapter; only to set it in a clear relation to the conceptual aspects of sublimity-be it said that, while "sublime" is a technical term of rhetoric, its larger role is contemplation, experience of things boundless, awe-inspiring and divine. While those experiences often call on a style which is elevated and magnificent, the overlap is not baked into its usage. The move from the lower to the higher of the two usages is, in a memorable phrase of Deborah Shuger, "a shift from the body [rhetoric] to the soul Jaeger, Sense of the Sublime ch. 3

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Research paper thumbnail of Chapter 4 Roger Bacon on Rhetoric and Poetics

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

Expressius, sensibilius, distinctius-Bacon's prescript for the improvement of church music Roger ... more Expressius, sensibilius, distinctius-Bacon's prescript for the improvement of church music Roger Bacon wrote extensively on sacrum eloquium and sacra eloquentia. These terms occur in the Middle Ages but they are rare, and they ordinarily refer to Scripture as a whole, not to a style or an art of composition of sacred books and not to a rhetoric of devotional texts. Still, there are many indications that sacra eloquentia in this sense existed as a practice;

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Research paper thumbnail of Ch. 5 Richard of St. Victor on the Sublime

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

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Research paper thumbnail of Chapter 6 Anselm of Canterbury: Dark Sublimity

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

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Research paper thumbnail of Ch. 7 Sermons and the Grand Style

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

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Research paper thumbnail of Ch. 8 Lessons in Grand Style-Honorius

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

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Research paper thumbnail of Chapter 9 The Voice of Thunder: Aelred of Rievaulx

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

Aelred of Rievaulx (d. 1167) wrote about 200 sermons, says his biographer, Walter Daniel. (The CC... more Aelred of Rievaulx (d. 1167) wrote about 200 sermons, says his biographer, Walter Daniel. (The CCCM edition includes 213 in three volumes). Many are plain, many are boring. He often writes out large sections from patristic and medieval texts. Sometimes he recycles his own sermons and writings. Composing sermons for the church calendar can be an onerous task. 1 But an abbot whose soporific preaching left his monks bored and indifferent was not doing his job, at least not that part of it. Alongside teaching, he needed to move them from spiritual torpor to fervor, stir the love and the fear of God, and rouse enthusiasm for the faith. 2 His Sermon 68 for Pentecost stands out notably. 3 It is decidedly a prophetic sermon. Aelred gave much thought to that sermon type. His thirty-one "Homilies on the

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Research paper thumbnail of Ch. 10 Voice of the Dove-Bernard of Clairvaux

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

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Research paper thumbnail of Ch 11 Decorative Prose Adam of Dryburgh

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

Adam of Dryburgh, also Adam the Scot (Adamus Scotus, ca. 1140-ca. 1212), is more interesting than... more Adam of Dryburgh, also Adam the Scot (Adamus Scotus, ca. 1140-ca. 1212), is more interesting than the dearth of modern scholarship on him indicates. 1 He was a monk, priest and, it seems, abbot, at the monastery of Dryburgh at the Anglo-Scottish border. Early in his life in the Premonstratensian order his abbot noticed his gift for preaching and assigned him to preach both to laymen and clerics (i.e. outside the monastery). A striking witness to his success is the effect his preaching had on Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, who on a visit to Dryburgh expressly asked Adam for a sermon. He complied, and the Archbishop was so moved that he led Adam by the hand to his (Adam's) cell, wept, fell on his knees before him, made his confession and stripped off his garments to accept disciplining by rods. 2 An eloquence that inspires a paroxysm of humility in an archbishop of Canterbury calls for a close look. A close reading of some of his works gives us a clear picture of his ideal and of his practice of an elevated style, and it may be the quality that overturned hierarchy in that critical moment of Adam's life. A passage in the prologue to his treatise, On the Threefold Kind of Contemplation (De triplici genere contemplationis), 3 prepares us for an author who thinks and expresses sublimity in terms and concepts we are familiar with: We now are sculpting for you the book with the title On the three kinds of Contemplation. It treats of the way that God is incomprehensible in himself, terrible to the reprobate, but also sweet and gentle to the chosen. And so we feel

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Research paper thumbnail of PART FOUR: Grand Themes: Death and Love / Ch. 12 The Death of St. Victor

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

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Research paper thumbnail of Ch 13 The Death of Adalbert of Bremen

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

The Life of Adalbert takes up most of book 3 of Adam’s History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Brem... more The Life of Adalbert takes up most of book 3 of Adam’s History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen. Book 3 is far from a conventional Bishop's Vita, as far as Adalbert himself was from an orthodox bishop. It is a composition; it has an atmosphere; it has epic tone which it sustains from beginning to end: a great man of great talents struggles to rise to fame and glory, but fails because of his own weaknesses and excesses, and dies a tragic death. It is a drama in prose; it has more in common with Shakespearean tragedy than with a typical Bishop's Life from the period. Julius Caesar, Macbeth and Coriolanus tell of men of vaulting ambitions who end in tragic failure. So does Adam of Bremen's Book 3. Adalbert was remarkable for his egotism and grandiosity, his largesse and prodigality, his devotion to the church and his depradation of the church, his high virtue and his degeneracy. The arc of his story is Sophoclean. It is hard to find anything comparable in the genre, Vita episcoporum, flexible and relatively free of conventional strictures as that genre can be. 2 Adam's Book 3 stands out notably from the other three

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Research paper thumbnail of Ch 14 The Death of Thomas Becket

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

Chapter 14 The Death of Thomas Becket Medieval writers were perplexed and inspired by the story o... more Chapter 14 The Death of Thomas Becket Medieval writers were perplexed and inspired by the story of a man who lived the life of a splendid worldly cleric, friend and chancellor to the king of England, who reversed the course of his life when appointed by that same king as Archbishop of Canterbury and became the servant of the church, not, as the king had planned, the king's

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Research paper thumbnail of PART FOUR (cont.): Grand Themes: Love / Ch. 15 Heloise and Romantic Love

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

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Research paper thumbnail of Roger Bacon's Ars poetica sacra: Spiritual Persuasion and the Christian Sublime

Itinera: "Memory and Poesis between Aesthetics and Rhetoric", 2024

Roger Bacon (d. ca. 1292) wrote extensively on rhetoric and poetics. He did so in the context of ... more Roger Bacon (d. ca. 1292) wrote extensively on rhetoric and poetics. He did so in the context of a critical overview of the religious culture of his age. He places poetry (the argumentum poeticum) at the very pinnacle of culture, above the sciences, above the liturgy and preaching, well above scholastic philosophy and any other mode of expression current in his age. Poetry and rhetoric are the modes of exposition capable of captivating and transporting the listener/reader. That makes them an effective means of converting and of inspiring faith. The religious culture of his own time has so far declined that it is incapable of performing this function. Bacon was looking back on real rhetorical practices that had become outmoded. In earlier days Christianity spoke with force and passion. His sacred poetics has a place in the history of pre-modern Christian discourse, one of two works theorizing sacra eloquentia; the other is Augustine's On Christian Doctrine. Christian traditions of teaching, preaching, prayer, oratory, sacred music, regularly had called on modes that were emphatic, forceful and passionate: the "grand style," sermo propheticus, sermo affectuosus. Bacon's poetics commends these modes as it laments their passing.

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Research paper thumbnail of Charisma and the Transformation of Western Culture from the Twelfth to the Thirteenth Century

Religions, 2023

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Research paper thumbnail of The Sense of the Sublime in the Middle Ages

Contents, Preface, Epigraphs, 2022

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Research paper thumbnail of The Sense of the Sublime in the Middle Ages

Introduction

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Research paper thumbnail of Excursus 1: Erich Auerbach on Dante and the Sublime

The Sense of the Sublime in the Middle Ages, 2022

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Research paper thumbnail of The Sense of the Sublime PART ONE: Ch. 1 The Discourse of the Sublime: Lexis, Semantics, Rhetoric, Style

The Sense of the Sublime in the Middle Ages, 2022

The introduction was for the most part about the experience of sublimity along with some general ... more The introduction was for the most part about the experience of sublimity along with some general considerations of the character and source of its imagery. The first four chapters are about the word "sublime" in its various forms and the uses to which it was put in describing things above nature (ch. 1); a writing style in prose and verse (ch. 2); its articulation in rhetoric and poetics (ch. 3); the poetics of the grand style in Roger Bacon (ch. 4).

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Research paper thumbnail of Ch. 2 Sublimitas Sermonis

The Sense of the Sublime, 2022

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Research paper thumbnail of Chapter 3 The Grand Style and Medieval Rhetoric, Augustine to the Twelfth Century

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

Antiquity and the Middle Ages recognized and practiced an elevated style in Latin verse and prose... more Antiquity and the Middle Ages recognized and practiced an elevated style in Latin verse and prose, called in the sources "grand style," grande dicendi genus, genus sublime, sublime dicendi genus, stilus grandis, grandiloquentia, sublimitas, sublimitas sermonis. 1 In the language of medieval and renaissance rhetorical texts, the terms "sublime" and "grand" are interchangeable as designations of style. But-not to diminish the importance of this chapter; only to set it in a clear relation to the conceptual aspects of sublimity-be it said that, while "sublime" is a technical term of rhetoric, its larger role is contemplation, experience of things boundless, awe-inspiring and divine. While those experiences often call on a style which is elevated and magnificent, the overlap is not baked into its usage. The move from the lower to the higher of the two usages is, in a memorable phrase of Deborah Shuger, "a shift from the body [rhetoric] to the soul Jaeger, Sense of the Sublime ch. 3

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Research paper thumbnail of Chapter 4 Roger Bacon on Rhetoric and Poetics

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

Expressius, sensibilius, distinctius-Bacon's prescript for the improvement of church music Roger ... more Expressius, sensibilius, distinctius-Bacon's prescript for the improvement of church music Roger Bacon wrote extensively on sacrum eloquium and sacra eloquentia. These terms occur in the Middle Ages but they are rare, and they ordinarily refer to Scripture as a whole, not to a style or an art of composition of sacred books and not to a rhetoric of devotional texts. Still, there are many indications that sacra eloquentia in this sense existed as a practice;

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Research paper thumbnail of Ch. 5 Richard of St. Victor on the Sublime

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

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Research paper thumbnail of Chapter 6 Anselm of Canterbury: Dark Sublimity

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

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Research paper thumbnail of Ch. 7 Sermons and the Grand Style

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

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Research paper thumbnail of Ch. 8 Lessons in Grand Style-Honorius

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

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Research paper thumbnail of Chapter 9 The Voice of Thunder: Aelred of Rievaulx

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

Aelred of Rievaulx (d. 1167) wrote about 200 sermons, says his biographer, Walter Daniel. (The CC... more Aelred of Rievaulx (d. 1167) wrote about 200 sermons, says his biographer, Walter Daniel. (The CCCM edition includes 213 in three volumes). Many are plain, many are boring. He often writes out large sections from patristic and medieval texts. Sometimes he recycles his own sermons and writings. Composing sermons for the church calendar can be an onerous task. 1 But an abbot whose soporific preaching left his monks bored and indifferent was not doing his job, at least not that part of it. Alongside teaching, he needed to move them from spiritual torpor to fervor, stir the love and the fear of God, and rouse enthusiasm for the faith. 2 His Sermon 68 for Pentecost stands out notably. 3 It is decidedly a prophetic sermon. Aelred gave much thought to that sermon type. His thirty-one "Homilies on the

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Research paper thumbnail of Ch. 10 Voice of the Dove-Bernard of Clairvaux

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

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Research paper thumbnail of Ch 11 Decorative Prose Adam of Dryburgh

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

Adam of Dryburgh, also Adam the Scot (Adamus Scotus, ca. 1140-ca. 1212), is more interesting than... more Adam of Dryburgh, also Adam the Scot (Adamus Scotus, ca. 1140-ca. 1212), is more interesting than the dearth of modern scholarship on him indicates. 1 He was a monk, priest and, it seems, abbot, at the monastery of Dryburgh at the Anglo-Scottish border. Early in his life in the Premonstratensian order his abbot noticed his gift for preaching and assigned him to preach both to laymen and clerics (i.e. outside the monastery). A striking witness to his success is the effect his preaching had on Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, who on a visit to Dryburgh expressly asked Adam for a sermon. He complied, and the Archbishop was so moved that he led Adam by the hand to his (Adam's) cell, wept, fell on his knees before him, made his confession and stripped off his garments to accept disciplining by rods. 2 An eloquence that inspires a paroxysm of humility in an archbishop of Canterbury calls for a close look. A close reading of some of his works gives us a clear picture of his ideal and of his practice of an elevated style, and it may be the quality that overturned hierarchy in that critical moment of Adam's life. A passage in the prologue to his treatise, On the Threefold Kind of Contemplation (De triplici genere contemplationis), 3 prepares us for an author who thinks and expresses sublimity in terms and concepts we are familiar with: We now are sculpting for you the book with the title On the three kinds of Contemplation. It treats of the way that God is incomprehensible in himself, terrible to the reprobate, but also sweet and gentle to the chosen. And so we feel

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Research paper thumbnail of PART FOUR: Grand Themes: Death and Love / Ch. 12 The Death of St. Victor

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

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Research paper thumbnail of Ch 13 The Death of Adalbert of Bremen

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

The Life of Adalbert takes up most of book 3 of Adam’s History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Brem... more The Life of Adalbert takes up most of book 3 of Adam’s History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen. Book 3 is far from a conventional Bishop's Vita, as far as Adalbert himself was from an orthodox bishop. It is a composition; it has an atmosphere; it has epic tone which it sustains from beginning to end: a great man of great talents struggles to rise to fame and glory, but fails because of his own weaknesses and excesses, and dies a tragic death. It is a drama in prose; it has more in common with Shakespearean tragedy than with a typical Bishop's Life from the period. Julius Caesar, Macbeth and Coriolanus tell of men of vaulting ambitions who end in tragic failure. So does Adam of Bremen's Book 3. Adalbert was remarkable for his egotism and grandiosity, his largesse and prodigality, his devotion to the church and his depradation of the church, his high virtue and his degeneracy. The arc of his story is Sophoclean. It is hard to find anything comparable in the genre, Vita episcoporum, flexible and relatively free of conventional strictures as that genre can be. 2 Adam's Book 3 stands out notably from the other three

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Research paper thumbnail of Ch 14 The Death of Thomas Becket

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

Chapter 14 The Death of Thomas Becket Medieval writers were perplexed and inspired by the story o... more Chapter 14 The Death of Thomas Becket Medieval writers were perplexed and inspired by the story of a man who lived the life of a splendid worldly cleric, friend and chancellor to the king of England, who reversed the course of his life when appointed by that same king as Archbishop of Canterbury and became the servant of the church, not, as the king had planned, the king's

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Research paper thumbnail of PART FOUR (cont.): Grand Themes: Love / Ch. 15 Heloise and Romantic Love

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

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Research paper thumbnail of The Controversy over the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial: On the Limits of Representation and of Charismatic Art

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Research paper thumbnail of Eros and Charisma: On Seduction and Life-force

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Research paper thumbnail of The Clerical Dilemma: Peter of Blois and Literate Culture in the Twelfth Century, by John Cotts

The English Historical Review, 2012

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Research paper thumbnail of Notre-Dame, Paris: Sublimity and Aura Endangered and Engendered--Rodin, Hugo, Abelard

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Research paper thumbnail of Blitz und Magnifizenz: Zu einem charismatischen Redestil im frühen und hohen Mittelalter

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Research paper thumbnail of Godfrey of St. Victor and the End of Medieval Humanism

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Research paper thumbnail of "What is Medieval Humanism Anyway?"

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Research paper thumbnail of The Romantics Got it Right After All: Kenelm Digby, Walter Scott and Others as Interpreters of the Middle Ages

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Research paper thumbnail of Johan Huizinga as Cultural Historian and the Place of Cultural History between History and Literature

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Research paper thumbnail of “Verecundus et delicatus": Tender Passions and Refined Tastes, With some Thoughts on Martha Nussbaum on the Philosophy and Morality of Emotions

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Research paper thumbnail of Horizontal Learning. Peer to Peer Knowledge Transfer in Medieval Religious Communities

This collective volume examines the ways in which co-habiting peers learned from one another in m... more This collective volume examines the ways in which co-habiting peers learned from one another in medieval religious communities (11th-12th century) by focusing on the way in which day-to-day interpersonal exchanges of knowledge concretely functioned.

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Research paper thumbnail of The Clerical Dilemma: Peter of Blois and Literate Culture in the Twelfth Century, by John Cotts

The English Historical Review, 2012

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Research paper thumbnail of Charisma: Imagining women's power in medieval Europe

Saints, empresses, mothers, seductresses: medieval authors and artists were fascinated with the s... more Saints, empresses, mothers, seductresses: medieval authors and artists were fascinated with the shapes women’s power could take. This workshop uses charisma as a key to thinking through women’s power in medieval Europe. While some medieval women enjoyed official authority, women could also influence others through a range of strategies not necessarily dependent on their public status. Over the three days of this international workshop, we will consider how theories of charisma, and the related concepts of enchantment, charm, celebrity and sacrality, allow us to understand modes of women’s influence. Thirteen scholars will come together from the fields of medieval literature, history, art history, performance, religious studies, and gender studies to examine how medieval European literary texts, art works and historical documents represent influential or fascinating women. Speakers will discuss Byzantine, Carolingian, English, French, Italian and Spanish sources spanning the early and late Middle Ages.

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Research paper thumbnail of CALL FOR PAPERS International Conference: The Arts and Rituals of Pilgrimage

The Network for Medieval Arts & Rituals (NetMAR), an international, interdisciplinary network inv... more The Network for Medieval Arts & Rituals (NetMAR), an international, interdisciplinary network investigating the overlaps between medieval arts and rituals, invites applications for 20-minute papers that address the broad theme of Arts & Rituals of Pilgrimage. The conference will be held at the premises of the University of Cyprus in 01-03 December 2022.

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