IMC 2026: Sessions

Paper 306-a:

Prudentia, an Embodiment of Temporalities

The personification of Prudentia is part of the iconography of Christian Virtues (with Fides, Caritas, Spes and Justice, Fortitudo and Temperantia), as a recurrent motif of moral concepts during Medieval time. Prudence is deeply connected with temporality. Following Thomas of Aquinas or Gilles de Rome, she represents the passing of time. She can be showed with one, two or three heads, to illustrate her various references to time. As a young woman, she apprehends the future (precautio); as an adult, more mature than the precedent, she assesses the present (circumspectio); and as an older person, she scrutinizes the past, careful to avoid past errors (providentia). She holds systematically a mirror, to demonstrate the three temporalities she embodies. When she is presented with two heads, she is also a reference of the Antic Janus, God of Beginnings and Ends.

I propose to develop this specific iconography during the long Medieval Era and its evolution, as with the addition of the compass, a tool of astrological calculi, another reference to temporality.

Paper 306-b:

This presentation will address “time” relative to select visual interpretations of the biblical account of the Transfiguration. Though the components of the literary record are consistent, the illustrations crafted for distinct medieval manuscripts – often intended for restricted access among elite audiences – marshal the symbolic impacts of color, composition, and the “image” of Jesus toward more nuanced communications of theological principles. Illustrations of the narrative’s simultaneous recognition of past, present and future further integrate time as it was experienced by the faithful patron and ultimately facilitate consideration of Christian “discipleship” beyond the boundaries of circumstance and the limits of the imagination.

Paper 306-c:

This paper examines the Middle English rhyme royal version of the Fifteen Oes, one of the most widely circulated Passion prayers in fifteenth-century England, likely intended for daily private devotion by lay readers. Preserved in six manuscripts, this version presents a non-linear Passion sequence through its fifteen invocations of Christ. Its syncopated structure draws attention to the ritual act of prayer, transforming its repetition into an imitatio Christi. This paper argues that the repeated oral performance of the Fifteen Oes enacts the Passion as both narrative and ritual, producing a recursive, participatory temporality that intertwines the reader’s time with Christ’s.