IMC 2026: Sessions
Session 544: The Spatial Turn in Medieval Studies, I: Conceptualising Space
Tuesday 7 July 2026, 09:00-10:30
| Organisers: | Anne Sieberichs, Departement Talen, Literatuur en Communicatie, Universiteit Utrecht Imke Vet, Medieval Studies, Yale University |
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| Moderator/Chair: | Christien Schrover, Departement Geschiedenis en Kunstgeschiedenis, Universiteit Utrecht |
| Paper 544-a | Bodies and Stones: Theorising Medieval Sacred Space (Language: English) Index terms: Architecture - Religious, Ecclesiastical History, Historiography - Modern Scholarship, Theology |
| Paper 544-b | Forgotten Space: Non-Linear Spatial Systems and Social Hierarchies in Medieval Art (Language: English) Index terms: Art History - General, Art History - Painting, Historiography - Medieval |
| Paper 544-c | 'Come down to us here for a little while': Space and Place in the Adapted Hymns of Prudentius in London, British Library, MS Add. 30851 (Language: English) Index terms: Liturgy, Manuscripts and Palaeography |
| Paper 544-d | Prayer Benches and Preickstoeltjes: The Use of Seating Furniture for Domestic Devotion in the 15th- and 16th-Century Southern Low Countries (Language: English) Index terms: Art History - Painting, Daily Life, Religious Life |
| Abstract | Part of ‘The Spatial Turn in Medieval Studies', this panel reveals how space, both built and imagined, shaped rituals, objects, politics, and experience. By rethinking medieval practices through space, we uncover its power to shape Medieval history and lived experience. This session explores how spatial perspectives enrich the study of medieval culture across diverse sources. Gustav Zamore redefines Christian sacred space as dynamic and porous, shaped by the interplay of bodies, buildings, and sacral practices, challenging rigid sacred–secular divides in medieval urban and religious life. Anna M. Migdal-Grizard highlights the sophistication of medieval spatial representation, examining how hierarchy, narrative, perspective, and light structured visual culture. Ellen Joosten traces how Prudentius’ Liber Peristephanon mapped sanctity onto urban space and how its later liturgical adaptations reshaped this “hymnodic cartography” in the Old Hispanic tradition. Finally, Lien Vandenberghe and Jessica van Zadelhof investigate prayer furniture in the Southern Low Countries, comparing devotional paintings with probate inventories to uncover domestic devotional practices. |