Map of Europe of unknown date. The prominent position and size of Scandinavia in relation to the rest of the continent may give an indication of its origin.
[Revised from those delivered 5 June to facilitate the transfer of oral remarks into written shapes.]
As David so elegantly led us through the itineraries of Europe 1348-1418, I couldn´t help but think of Io, whom we met earlier in the conference, her wanderings and how much terrain we had traversed.
It just then reminded me–for what does not unite us more vividly than a love for writing on dead animals–of an old map found at the Centre. And upon pulling it out and gazing thereon, the image caused me to imagine the event as its own sort of textual itinerary.
William (Johnson) reminded us of the social context of our recitationes,
As Fabrizio (Conti) wrote down a reportatio of the event.
He sent it to Mihail (Mitrea), who was longing for letters to share.
Nadia (Togni) received an epistle, reformed the text and placed it in a giant bible.
Anna (Siebach Larsen) added pious illustrations throughout.
Phil (Shaw) then sent the proceedings into flight,
So that Rebecca (Stephenson) could see the writing in the stars.
While Claudia (Di Sciacca) pointed out the fluidity of the collected texts,
Katy (Lowe) pointed out some of the scribal emendations therein, noting particularly the misspelling of her name in the program.
Estelle (Stubbs) identified 5 hands,
Erik (Kwakkel) judged the angle of the r’s (and twenty-three features set out by Albert Derolez),
Jacob (Thaisen) the compartment of the a’s,
and Irene (O’Daly) marked divsions in book 5.
Marlena (Maniaci) took measurements of the written space and compared it with 2,000 manuscripts.
While Kristel (Zilmer) scratched a notice, which most of us could not read, on the church wall,
and Aara (Suksi) used another alphabet to inscribe events on the wax tablets of our minds.
Rolf (Bremmer)’s scribes provided colophons,
George (Younge) squeezed in a title that proved a bit difficult to fit on the last side of the quire (prompting another scribal error in the program!),
and Svetlana (Tsonkova) added aprocrypha
That Erika (Sigurdson)’s Icelandic bishop wrote about,
As I tried to put a price on it,
Foteini (Spingou) examined the gatherings for evidence of past ancestral glory, increasing the value substantially.
Gemma (Wheeler) revised some of the ethnic tensions in such a heterogenous text,
After which Orietta (Da Rold) digitized it within a universal and open-access network ready for automated entity recognition,
So that David (Wallace) could take readers on a wonderfully inspiring Grand Tour.
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It was a great pleasure to see friends and acquaintances, meet and speak with people whose work I know and admire, and to hear the excellent work of people I had not yet met. Thanks to participants and speakers for sharing so much with each other with such generosity and good will. I learned much and enjoyed it immensely.
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A nice overview of the conference and several of the papers has been written up by Irene O’Daly at medievalfragments. Thanks, Irene!