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IMC 2018: Sessions

Session 350: Scientific, Empirical, Biblical, and Hagiographical Knowledge in the Middle Ages, III: Saints, Scripture, and Liturgy

Monday 2 July 2018, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:School of Arts, English & Languages, Queen's University Belfast
Organiser:Ciaran Arthur, School of Arts, English & Languages, Queen's University Belfast
Moderator/Chair:Elisa Ramazzina, School of Arts, English & Languages, Queen's University Belfast
Paper 350-a'You wished to vomit forth words which you had not swallowed down': Imitating Scriptural Obscurity in Early Medieval Texts
(Language: English)
Ciaran Arthur, School of Arts, English & Languages, Queen's University Belfast
Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Learning (The Classical Inheritance), Liturgy, Literacy and Orality
Paper 350-bOld English in the Liturgy
(Language: English)
Helen Gittos, Balliol College, University of Oxford
Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Language and Literature - Latin, Learning (The Classical Inheritance), Liturgy
Paper 350-cThe Seven Sleepers in Anglo-Saxon England
(Language: English)
Hugh Magennis, School of Arts, English & Languages, Queen's University Belfast
Index terms: Biblical Studies, Hagiography, Language and Literature - Old English
Abstract

This session will focus on attitudes to knowledge, which constitutes one of the most complex concepts in the Middle Ages, as suggested by the vast semantic range of the Latin terms commonly translated as 'knowledge', including scientia, cognitio, notitia, eruditio and sapientia.
It will consider how scientia was transmitted and manipulated in the Middle Ages by looking at diverse sources ranging from astronomical, computistical, and mechanical texts (medicine, agriculture, and navigation), maps and the environment, and liturgical and hagiographical compositions from England, Scandinavia, and the Continent. Furthermore it will discuss the ways in which scientific knowledge and biblical and hagiographical learning were used to exercise power and the role that beliefs played in shaping and promoting scientific thinking.