IMC 2011: Sessions
Session 315: Discovering the Riches of the Word: Religious Reading in the Late Middle Ages in City, Cloister, and Court, I - The Power of Words and Images
Monday 11 July 2011, 16.30-18.00
Sponsor: | European Research Council, Research Project 'Holy Writ and Lay Readers' |
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Organiser: | Sabrina Corbellini, Oudere Nederlandse Letterkunde Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Oude Kijk in 't Jatstraat 26 9712 EK GRONINGEN |
Moderator/Chair: | Margriet Hoogvliet, Centre for Classical, Oriental, Medieval & Renaissance Studies, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen |
Paper 315-a | Contradictio in Terminis: Passion Iconography within the 'Spegel der Minschliken Zalicheid' (Language: English) Index terms: Art History - General, Lay Piety, Manuscripts and Palaeography |
Paper 315-b | Speaking into the Wounds of Christ: A Franciscan Image-Centered Prayer (Language: English) Index terms: Art History - Decorative Arts, Lay Piety, Religious Life |
Abstract | The late Middle Ages are characterized by an 'oceanic' textual production, both in Latin and in the vernacular. A particularly high percentage of the circulating texts contained biblical or religious material. The wider dissemination of religious texts is related to a significant cultural transformation: the access to religious manuscripts and early printed was no more the exclusive right of members of religious communities. Lay readers in late medieval cities and courts engaged, as well as nun and monks, in a process of appropriation of religious knowledge which for long time had nearly exclusively been accessible to a restricted elite of Latinate readers. But how were religious texts approached? Are there specific religious reading techniques? How can the approach to religious texts by different social and cultural groups be described? The sessions will concentrate on the reconstruction of the mediaeval religious reading experience, focussing on readers, reading instructions, and reading techniques. Specific attention will be given in this session to the use of images and to the relation between words and images in processes of religious acculturation. |