Virginia Blanton | University of Missouri Kansas City (original) (raw)

Papers by Virginia Blanton

Amsterdam University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2023

Catholic Historical Review, 2019

The Sixteenth century journal, Oct 1, 2003

Page 1. Inward Purity and Outward Splendour DEATH AND REMEMBRANCE IN THE DEANERY OF DUNWICH, SUFF... more Page 1. Inward Purity and Outward Splendour DEATH AND REMEMBRANCE IN THE DEANERY OF DUNWICH, SUFFOLK, 1370-1547 Judith Middleton-Stewart Page 2. Studies in the History of Medieval Religion VOLUME ...

Journal of British Studies, Apr 1, 2012

EUR 100. the volume has its origin in the conference "Nuns' Literacies in Medieval Europe" held a... more EUR 100. the volume has its origin in the conference "Nuns' Literacies in Medieval Europe" held at the University of Missouri−Kansas City in June 2012. It is the second volume in a series of three publications on nuns' literacies, the first being Nuns' Literacies in Medieval Europe: The Hull Dialogue (2013). According to the three editors, "[t]his multi-year project aims to investigate the topic of literacy from palaeographical and textual evidence, as well as by discussing records of book ownership in convents, and other more external evidence, both literary and historical" (pp. xxvii-xxviii). More specifically, the "focus is on the extent to which female religious from particular countries and in varying languages read, interpreted, copied, wrote, translated, edited, and acted as patrons of, or intermediaries in, intellectual and literary practice" (p. xxix). In contrast to the first volume, which concentrated on England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, this volume broadens the geographical horizon to include articles on also southern (Italy and Spain) and northern (Ireland and Iceland) countries. Moreover, the editors "pressed for contributions that would illustrate the nuns' active engagement with formal education, and other textual forms−beyond the liturgical that was the main focus of the earlier volume−such as legal charters in Anglo-Saxon England or politically engaged letters in medieval Germany" (p. xxxiii). Finally, this volume includes also articles on visual literacy, which was not examined in the first volume. As pointed out by the editors, "overarching themes or theoretical straitjackets were not imposed on participants in either volume, apart from the need for a steady concentration on the topic of nuns' literacies" (p. xxxiii). Framed by a lengthy introduction, a bibliography, an index of manuscripts, archival documents, and incunabula, an index of convents, and an index of people, the book consists of seventeen articles by an international group of scholars. these articles are divided into five sections. the first section, entitled "Educating the Sisters," consists of four articles. Virginia blanton and Helene Scheck's "Leoba and the Iconography of Learning in the Lives of Anglo-Saxon Women Religious, 660-780" examines Rudolf's vita of Saint Leoba and how this work, despite its biases and reliance on conventional hagiography, can be mined for information about the learning of Anglo-Saxon nuns. Ulrike Wiethaus's "Collaborative Literacy and the Spiritual Education of Nuns at Helfta" is an investigation of the collection of monastic women's writings at the Cistercian house beatae Mariae Virginis. More specifically, she demonstrates how the nuns collaborated in order to produce texts and concludes her essay with reflections on the contemplative pedagogy used by the authors of these texts. Patricia Stoop's fascinating essay on "From Reading to Writing: the Multiple Levels of Literacy of the Sister Scribes in the brussels Convent of Jericho" provides a survey of the literacy of the Jericho sisters with a focus on their education, the production of manuscripts, and the writing of books for people and institutions outside the walls of the convent. Andrea Knox's captivating article on "Her book-Lined Cell: Irish Nuns and the Development of texts, translation, and Literacy in Late Medieval Spain" explores the schools established and run by Irish nuns in Spain. It traces the development of these schools, their curricula, the books produced by the nuns, and their role in the translation of texts in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Finally, Knox examines the nuns'

Aethelthryth of Ely (c.630–79)

A recent gift to the Spencer Art Reference Library in Kansas City, Missouri, is an illuminated ma... more A recent gift to the Spencer Art Reference Library in Kansas City, Missouri, is an illuminated manuscript containing the life of St. Didier (Desiderius), Bishop of Langres. Reminiscent of books of hours with elaborate borders illustrating flowers and insects, this book also contains a pictorial cycle of the saint's life and martyrdom. Yet, this tiny devotional book was produced in 1902.[1] Purchased by Lewis Gould in memory of his wife, the book augments a group of manuscript leaves in the Nelson-Atkins Museum Library, a teaching collection amassed by the medievalist and art historian, Karen Gould (1946-2012). As an artifact, this book contributes evocatively to the nineteenth-century vogue for medieval-style book arts; as a representation of medievalism, this manuscript encodes meanings about masculine sanctity perfected in medieval Christian devotionals.[2] But, the book is far more provocative in that it stages the city of Langres as an important cultural landscape in Christian history. Designed and executed by the Langrois antiquarian and bibliophile, Joseph Royer (1850-1941), the manuscript demonstrates the artist's investment in preserving the life of a local bishop who sacrifices himself to protect Langres from marauding Vandals. In effect, Royer's text operates as a homage to this ancient, walled city, which sits on a limestone promontory originally inhabited by the Lingones tribe.[3] Styled as a ploughman turned bishop, Didier is an uncommon overlord, but his efforts and ultimate failure to preserve Langres are masked by Royer's visual rhetoric of a fortified town that never succumbs: Didier is martyred but outside the city's intact walls. Drawing on masculinity studies-which Rachel Dressler has so usefully invoked to discuss medieval tomb sculpture and the virility of knights' effigies-we argue that the depiction of the town demonstrates Royer's desire to rewrite the history of Langres as a sanctified communal space bounded by the virility of its patron saint.[4] Our study takes up the likely medieval sources, both textual and visual, of Royer's book to discuss its multivalent images of masculinity.[5] We contend that Royer's manuscript operates not only as an honorific for the town of Langres, where Royer was raised, but also as a totem of personal devotion to his community. Born into a family dedicated to preserving the antiquities of Langres, Royer used his talents as a painter and bookmaker to contribute to these familial commitments. Royer's book is not simply a celebration of the saint who defended the town; it is a demonstration of God's love for Langres. The vie's language affords God ultimate power over the city, even allowing the town to be vandalized and its bishop martyred. Like many other male saints who ineffectively resist, Didier cannot forestall the Vandals; he cannot save his town, his people, or himself. In this provincial narrative, Didier is but a metonym for the defeated town, reborn.[6] The sacking of the city and the beheading of its bishop operate as elements that reveal God's agency and the eternal reward for those who imitate Christ's suffering: the city and the bishop are re-energized as masculine subjects of strength and vitality. The narrative of Didier, then, is representative of God's intervention in human affairs, as Didier rises from his martyrdom and carries his head back into his city. Manuscript Description & Provenance Now in the Spencer Library collection at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the manuscript, which we will refer to as the Royer Didier, is identified by shelf mark KGC51. The petite book features twenty-one parchment leaves, measuring 136 x 115 mm, mounted on paper guards, with modern end papers. The leaves are gilded at the fore-edge, head, and tail to complement the gilt-tooling on the binding, which is red morocco over pasteboards with watered silk inserts in navy blue. There is no ex-libris or signs of ownership.[7] A bookmark made from a gold and red striped ribbon embellishes the volume. Two tiny metal eye clasps, adorned with a perforated

Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Jul 1, 2022

The Arthurian World, May 27, 2022

New Readings on Women and Early Medieval English Literature and Culture

In this research, it is aimed to examine the level of the students' comprehension questions of cl... more In this research, it is aimed to examine the level of the students' comprehension questions of classical and digital stories according to their individual and group listening status. Tthe descriptive survey model, one of the survey models, was used in this research. The study group consisted of 50 children aged 60-72 months in kindergarten. 4 stories belonging to the same publisher were used. 2 classical and 2 digital stories were recorded throught 5 weeks. Students' answers to the post-story comprehension questions were recorded by voice recording and descriptive analysis was done. Video recordings were used to analyze the behavior of students while listening to stories in groups and individually. As a result of the research, the total score obtained from the students' comprehension questions of digital stories was 9.72 while it was 7.92 in the classic stories. It was concluded that the students were more interested in the digital story-listening process and listened carefully. As a result of examining the classic stories in terms of individual and group listening, group scores were 8.32 and individual scores were 7.52; and the digital scores of the group were 9.50 and 9.94, respectively. It was concluded that listening to individual stories using the tablet increased the students' level of comprehension, students were affected by each other while the group was listening to the story and their physical behavior was increased and they were more immobile during individual listening.

Pamietnik Literacki, 1961

Modern Philology, 2019

Of the several studies of Middle English (ME) saints' lives published since Anne Thompson's groun... more Of the several studies of Middle English (ME) saints' lives published since Anne Thompson's groundbreaking critical reading of the South English Legendary (SEL) collection (ca. 1300), 1 Catherine Sanok's New Legends of England, although focusing on saints native to Britain, is the most ambitious in scope, situating the work of the SEL poet, Osbern Bokenham, and John Lydgate in a larger context of vernacular hagiographic production in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Impressively interdisciplinary, and copiously annotated and indexed, Sanok's stylish monograph combines textual and critical expertise and contemporary theory of poetic form, "scale," and "community" (the book's recurring theme) with a thorough grounding in modern historical scholarship, on which Sanok draws judiciously to contextualize and historicize her primary texts. These include male as well as female saints' legends, several of which have received little or no critical attention previously. Immediately below, to convey the scope and variety of the book (virtually a vade mecum to late ME hagiography), I itemize Sanok's main primary sources, then comment selectively to illustrate some of her wide-ranging critical findings. The seven numbered chapters after the introduction deal, in roughly chronological order, with (1) selections from the fourteenth-century "A" recension of SEL, especially the legends of Ursula, Alphege, and Thomas Becket; (2) the early fifteenth-century Wilton Abbey verse lives of Edith of Wilton and Etheldreda of Ely; (3) Bokenham's "ballad-rhyme" life of Modern Philology, volume 116, number 3.

Early Medieval Europe, 2011

Book reviews Économie rurale et société dans l'Europe franque (VI e-IX e siècles). Tome 1: Fondem... more Book reviews Économie rurale et société dans l'Europe franque (VI e-IX e siècles). Tome 1: Fondements matériels, échanges et lien social. By Jean-Pierre Devroey. Paris: Editions Belin. 2003. 391 pp. + 31 tables and diagrams, 25 b/w figures, 11 maps, 9 graphs. ISBN 2 7011 2618 5. Puissants et misérables. Système social et monde paysan dans l'Europe des Francs (VI e-IX e siècles). By Jean-Pierre Devroey. Brussels: Académie royale de Belgique. 2006. 727 pp. + 1 colour figure, 8 maps, 28 tables and diagrams. €55. ISBN 2 8031 0227 7.

Amsterdam University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2023

Catholic Historical Review, 2019

The Sixteenth century journal, Oct 1, 2003

Page 1. Inward Purity and Outward Splendour DEATH AND REMEMBRANCE IN THE DEANERY OF DUNWICH, SUFF... more Page 1. Inward Purity and Outward Splendour DEATH AND REMEMBRANCE IN THE DEANERY OF DUNWICH, SUFFOLK, 1370-1547 Judith Middleton-Stewart Page 2. Studies in the History of Medieval Religion VOLUME ...

Journal of British Studies, Apr 1, 2012

EUR 100. the volume has its origin in the conference "Nuns' Literacies in Medieval Europe" held a... more EUR 100. the volume has its origin in the conference "Nuns' Literacies in Medieval Europe" held at the University of Missouri−Kansas City in June 2012. It is the second volume in a series of three publications on nuns' literacies, the first being Nuns' Literacies in Medieval Europe: The Hull Dialogue (2013). According to the three editors, "[t]his multi-year project aims to investigate the topic of literacy from palaeographical and textual evidence, as well as by discussing records of book ownership in convents, and other more external evidence, both literary and historical" (pp. xxvii-xxviii). More specifically, the "focus is on the extent to which female religious from particular countries and in varying languages read, interpreted, copied, wrote, translated, edited, and acted as patrons of, or intermediaries in, intellectual and literary practice" (p. xxix). In contrast to the first volume, which concentrated on England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, this volume broadens the geographical horizon to include articles on also southern (Italy and Spain) and northern (Ireland and Iceland) countries. Moreover, the editors "pressed for contributions that would illustrate the nuns' active engagement with formal education, and other textual forms−beyond the liturgical that was the main focus of the earlier volume−such as legal charters in Anglo-Saxon England or politically engaged letters in medieval Germany" (p. xxxiii). Finally, this volume includes also articles on visual literacy, which was not examined in the first volume. As pointed out by the editors, "overarching themes or theoretical straitjackets were not imposed on participants in either volume, apart from the need for a steady concentration on the topic of nuns' literacies" (p. xxxiii). Framed by a lengthy introduction, a bibliography, an index of manuscripts, archival documents, and incunabula, an index of convents, and an index of people, the book consists of seventeen articles by an international group of scholars. these articles are divided into five sections. the first section, entitled "Educating the Sisters," consists of four articles. Virginia blanton and Helene Scheck's "Leoba and the Iconography of Learning in the Lives of Anglo-Saxon Women Religious, 660-780" examines Rudolf's vita of Saint Leoba and how this work, despite its biases and reliance on conventional hagiography, can be mined for information about the learning of Anglo-Saxon nuns. Ulrike Wiethaus's "Collaborative Literacy and the Spiritual Education of Nuns at Helfta" is an investigation of the collection of monastic women's writings at the Cistercian house beatae Mariae Virginis. More specifically, she demonstrates how the nuns collaborated in order to produce texts and concludes her essay with reflections on the contemplative pedagogy used by the authors of these texts. Patricia Stoop's fascinating essay on "From Reading to Writing: the Multiple Levels of Literacy of the Sister Scribes in the brussels Convent of Jericho" provides a survey of the literacy of the Jericho sisters with a focus on their education, the production of manuscripts, and the writing of books for people and institutions outside the walls of the convent. Andrea Knox's captivating article on "Her book-Lined Cell: Irish Nuns and the Development of texts, translation, and Literacy in Late Medieval Spain" explores the schools established and run by Irish nuns in Spain. It traces the development of these schools, their curricula, the books produced by the nuns, and their role in the translation of texts in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Finally, Knox examines the nuns'

Aethelthryth of Ely (c.630–79)

A recent gift to the Spencer Art Reference Library in Kansas City, Missouri, is an illuminated ma... more A recent gift to the Spencer Art Reference Library in Kansas City, Missouri, is an illuminated manuscript containing the life of St. Didier (Desiderius), Bishop of Langres. Reminiscent of books of hours with elaborate borders illustrating flowers and insects, this book also contains a pictorial cycle of the saint's life and martyrdom. Yet, this tiny devotional book was produced in 1902.[1] Purchased by Lewis Gould in memory of his wife, the book augments a group of manuscript leaves in the Nelson-Atkins Museum Library, a teaching collection amassed by the medievalist and art historian, Karen Gould (1946-2012). As an artifact, this book contributes evocatively to the nineteenth-century vogue for medieval-style book arts; as a representation of medievalism, this manuscript encodes meanings about masculine sanctity perfected in medieval Christian devotionals.[2] But, the book is far more provocative in that it stages the city of Langres as an important cultural landscape in Christian history. Designed and executed by the Langrois antiquarian and bibliophile, Joseph Royer (1850-1941), the manuscript demonstrates the artist's investment in preserving the life of a local bishop who sacrifices himself to protect Langres from marauding Vandals. In effect, Royer's text operates as a homage to this ancient, walled city, which sits on a limestone promontory originally inhabited by the Lingones tribe.[3] Styled as a ploughman turned bishop, Didier is an uncommon overlord, but his efforts and ultimate failure to preserve Langres are masked by Royer's visual rhetoric of a fortified town that never succumbs: Didier is martyred but outside the city's intact walls. Drawing on masculinity studies-which Rachel Dressler has so usefully invoked to discuss medieval tomb sculpture and the virility of knights' effigies-we argue that the depiction of the town demonstrates Royer's desire to rewrite the history of Langres as a sanctified communal space bounded by the virility of its patron saint.[4] Our study takes up the likely medieval sources, both textual and visual, of Royer's book to discuss its multivalent images of masculinity.[5] We contend that Royer's manuscript operates not only as an honorific for the town of Langres, where Royer was raised, but also as a totem of personal devotion to his community. Born into a family dedicated to preserving the antiquities of Langres, Royer used his talents as a painter and bookmaker to contribute to these familial commitments. Royer's book is not simply a celebration of the saint who defended the town; it is a demonstration of God's love for Langres. The vie's language affords God ultimate power over the city, even allowing the town to be vandalized and its bishop martyred. Like many other male saints who ineffectively resist, Didier cannot forestall the Vandals; he cannot save his town, his people, or himself. In this provincial narrative, Didier is but a metonym for the defeated town, reborn.[6] The sacking of the city and the beheading of its bishop operate as elements that reveal God's agency and the eternal reward for those who imitate Christ's suffering: the city and the bishop are re-energized as masculine subjects of strength and vitality. The narrative of Didier, then, is representative of God's intervention in human affairs, as Didier rises from his martyrdom and carries his head back into his city. Manuscript Description & Provenance Now in the Spencer Library collection at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the manuscript, which we will refer to as the Royer Didier, is identified by shelf mark KGC51. The petite book features twenty-one parchment leaves, measuring 136 x 115 mm, mounted on paper guards, with modern end papers. The leaves are gilded at the fore-edge, head, and tail to complement the gilt-tooling on the binding, which is red morocco over pasteboards with watered silk inserts in navy blue. There is no ex-libris or signs of ownership.[7] A bookmark made from a gold and red striped ribbon embellishes the volume. Two tiny metal eye clasps, adorned with a perforated

Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Jul 1, 2022

The Arthurian World, May 27, 2022

New Readings on Women and Early Medieval English Literature and Culture

In this research, it is aimed to examine the level of the students' comprehension questions of cl... more In this research, it is aimed to examine the level of the students' comprehension questions of classical and digital stories according to their individual and group listening status. Tthe descriptive survey model, one of the survey models, was used in this research. The study group consisted of 50 children aged 60-72 months in kindergarten. 4 stories belonging to the same publisher were used. 2 classical and 2 digital stories were recorded throught 5 weeks. Students' answers to the post-story comprehension questions were recorded by voice recording and descriptive analysis was done. Video recordings were used to analyze the behavior of students while listening to stories in groups and individually. As a result of the research, the total score obtained from the students' comprehension questions of digital stories was 9.72 while it was 7.92 in the classic stories. It was concluded that the students were more interested in the digital story-listening process and listened carefully. As a result of examining the classic stories in terms of individual and group listening, group scores were 8.32 and individual scores were 7.52; and the digital scores of the group were 9.50 and 9.94, respectively. It was concluded that listening to individual stories using the tablet increased the students' level of comprehension, students were affected by each other while the group was listening to the story and their physical behavior was increased and they were more immobile during individual listening.

Pamietnik Literacki, 1961

Modern Philology, 2019

Of the several studies of Middle English (ME) saints' lives published since Anne Thompson's groun... more Of the several studies of Middle English (ME) saints' lives published since Anne Thompson's groundbreaking critical reading of the South English Legendary (SEL) collection (ca. 1300), 1 Catherine Sanok's New Legends of England, although focusing on saints native to Britain, is the most ambitious in scope, situating the work of the SEL poet, Osbern Bokenham, and John Lydgate in a larger context of vernacular hagiographic production in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Impressively interdisciplinary, and copiously annotated and indexed, Sanok's stylish monograph combines textual and critical expertise and contemporary theory of poetic form, "scale," and "community" (the book's recurring theme) with a thorough grounding in modern historical scholarship, on which Sanok draws judiciously to contextualize and historicize her primary texts. These include male as well as female saints' legends, several of which have received little or no critical attention previously. Immediately below, to convey the scope and variety of the book (virtually a vade mecum to late ME hagiography), I itemize Sanok's main primary sources, then comment selectively to illustrate some of her wide-ranging critical findings. The seven numbered chapters after the introduction deal, in roughly chronological order, with (1) selections from the fourteenth-century "A" recension of SEL, especially the legends of Ursula, Alphege, and Thomas Becket; (2) the early fifteenth-century Wilton Abbey verse lives of Edith of Wilton and Etheldreda of Ely; (3) Bokenham's "ballad-rhyme" life of Modern Philology, volume 116, number 3.

Early Medieval Europe, 2011

Book reviews Économie rurale et société dans l'Europe franque (VI e-IX e siècles). Tome 1: Fondem... more Book reviews Économie rurale et société dans l'Europe franque (VI e-IX e siècles). Tome 1: Fondements matériels, échanges et lien social. By Jean-Pierre Devroey. Paris: Editions Belin. 2003. 391 pp. + 31 tables and diagrams, 25 b/w figures, 11 maps, 9 graphs. ISBN 2 7011 2618 5. Puissants et misérables. Système social et monde paysan dans l'Europe des Francs (VI e-IX e siècles). By Jean-Pierre Devroey. Brussels: Académie royale de Belgique. 2006. 727 pp. + 1 colour figure, 8 maps, 28 tables and diagrams. €55. ISBN 2 8031 0227 7.

Paul E. Szarmach has demonstrated time and again that Anglo-Saxon literary culture is intertextua... more Paul E. Szarmach has demonstrated time and again that Anglo-Saxon literary culture is intertextual, that as a corpus it resonates with allusions from many disparate sources. Given his engagement with and support of inter- and multi-disciplinary studies, Intertexts brings together a range of traditionally isolated or disparate texts in a synergistically productive manner. Dr. Szarmach’s scholarship not only shows the relationships among texts, but it also intimates how we as modern readers and scholars are defining the value of these texts. As both scholar and editor, moreover, he has produced or supported work that frames, engages, and traces the intertextual; the twenty-six essays in this collection are organized specifically to reflect his interests in the field. In the first section, titled "(Re)Framing Insular Texts," contributors are at work reassessing received scholarly opinion and prompting further inquiry into insular texts. The section titled “Engaging Insular Culture” demonstrates how material artifacts, such as carvings, books, coins, and guild lists, work as texts and contexts for new understandings. The final section, "Tracing Textual Transmission," features essays that make connections between source texts and insular writings, as well as essays that discuss the dissemination of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. The collection Intertexts offers, therefore, a significant contribution to the field of Anglo-Saxon studies, even as it provides a fitting tribute to this renowned scholar.