IMC 2006: Sessions

Abstract paper -a:This paper will discuss the little known Book of the Foundation of St Bartholomew's Church, a late-14th century translation of the Latin foundation legend of St Bartholomew the Great Church, London. I will examine the Ricardian context and reasons for the Middle English translation, proposing Roger Walden, intimate of Richard II and eventual Archbishop of London, as the motivating force, if not the translator himself, of the 'Book'. Additionally, I will consider the discourse of competition established between St Bartholomew's, St Paul's, and Westminster Abbey, and the political and secular uses of sacred space in the later Middle Ages.

Abstract paper -b: The paper presents Mandeville's Travels as a witness to late-medieval literate practice. The English Defective and Cotton versions represent authorial activity (compilatio) and readerly method (exegesis) as affective practices that invite participation in a literate devotional community. Illuminated by the work of scholars who study the explosion of documentary culture in medieval England, the paper explores how Mandeville records the moving strangeness of widespread engagement in literate culture. The paper proceeds to discuss Mandeville both as a text that renders rhetorical theory through metaphors of travel and a text in conversation with Piers Plowman, another work engaged in re-imagining the relationship between affect and literate culture.

Abstract paper -c: There had been earlier protests against violence, for example the Peace of God movement and the Waldenses in continental Europe. In the second half of the 14th century, some of the most eloquent protests against war were made by the English poets Langland, Gower, and especially Chaucer (in the Tale of Melibee, derived from a 13th century work by Albertanus of Brescia). It was a witness that coincided with the stand of Wyclif and the rise of the (initially pacifist) Lollards.