IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 841: Here and There: Borders in the Middle Ages

Tuesday 7 July 2020, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:	NCN Project 'Alberic of Trois-Fontaines & the 13th-Century Cistercian Vision of the Historical & Cultural Community of Europe' / Christianitas
Organiser:	Antoni Grabowski, Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszawa
Moderator/Chair:	Mónica Ann Walker Vadillo, Old Operating Theatre Museum, London
Paper 841-a	Real and Fantastic Beasts: Tracing Exotic Species from the 'Physiologus' to Medieval Western Europe (Language: English) Kyrie Miranda, Department of English Modern Languages & Philosophy Francis Marion University South Carolina Index terms: Language and Literature - French or Occitan, Language and Literature - Latin, Language and Literature - Spanish or Portuguese, Learning (The Classical Inheritance)
Paper 841-b	The Iconographical Traditions of the Medieval Headless Men and the Type Having His Eyes on His Shoulders (Language: English) Adrienn Orosz, Institute of Library & Information Science Eötvös Loránd University / National Library of Foreign Literature Budapest Index terms: Art History - General, Religious Life, Social History
Paper 841-c	From Heretical to Holy: Conversion and Religious Fluidity between Cathars (Language: English) Alexandra Rubenstein, School of Philosophical, Historical & International Studies, Monash University, Victoria Index terms: Crusades, Daily Life, Ecclesiastical History
Abstract	Every region had its centre and its borders. This was also true for medieval Europe, the Empire, particular kingdoms, Christianity, or the Muslim world. The existence of borders caused a division of groups, people, and objects into 'insiders' and 'outsiders'. The session aims to show how medieval authors perceived borders, what was beyond, and what was inside them. This included seeing the outside as monstrous or dangerous or what it meant to be confined by these borders. Moreover, since borders defined communities, crossing a border was an act of identification. Acts such as conversions or simple physical movement could alter the outsider status of a person, group or object. It became part of the inside.