Hosted by the Centre for Medieval Studies and the Centre for Renaissance
and Early Modern Studies at the University of York.
Organised by Brian
Cummings, Linne Mooney, Bill Sherman and Hanna Vorholt.
3 - 5 July 2014,
York, UK, The King's Manor
* Call for Papers *
The York Manuscripts Conference has been held biennially or
triennially since 1986 and, with about 50 papers, is amongst the largest
conferences in Europe dedicated to manuscript studies. The Thirteenth
York Manuscripts Conference, to be held from 3-5 July 2014 will have as
its topic the Cathedral Libraries and Archives of England, Wales,
Scotland and Ireland.
The Cathedral Libraries and Archives of Britain and Ireland
comprise some of the most remarkable and least explored collections of
medieval and early modern manuscripts. While predictably focused on
theological, liturgical, and devotional books, they also contain many
medical, scientific, and literary sources, as well as legal and
administrative documents. In addition to the many collections that are
still in situ, others are now being looked after elsewhere, or have been
dispersed. The conference will include papers on medieval and early
modern manuscripts which are or were once held by the cathedrals of
Britian and Ireland, considering their varied contents, illumination,
use, and provenance; paper topics might also explore the formation,
development, and dissolution of the libraries themselves; connections
between different collections; their location and cataloguing within the
cathedrals; or the distinction between cathedral libraries and
cathedral archives in a historical perspective. Papers which shed light
on lesser known treasures and collections will be especially welcome. We
invite papers from researchers in the fields of religion, history, art
history, musicology, history of science, literature, codicology,
conservation, and other cognate disciplines. Papers delivered at the
conference may be considered for inclusion in a volume of selected
essays.
The conference is organised in association with the Cathedrals
Libraries and Archives Network (CLAN), which seeks to engender,
co-ordinate, facilitate and promote research on the Cathedral
collections, and to act as an interface between academic communities,
church bodies, and the wider public.
Plenary lectures will be given by Nigel Morgan (Cambridge),
Christopher Norton (York), Rodney Thomson (Tasmania), and Magnus
Williamson (Newcastle).
Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words. Deadline for submission of proposals is 1 July 2013.