From Words to Space – Textual Sources for Reconstructing and Understanding Medieval Sacred Spaces

The workshop aims to analyze and discuss various categories of texts related or linkable to sacred, ritual and liturgical spaces in the Middle Ages, with a geographical focus on Southern Italy. Conceived as a forum for methodological discussion, it will explore hermeneutical questions posed by the relationships between the textual sources and the monuments, urban landscapes and artistic products under investigation. It will also consider words and music performed in ritual contexts, and their power to create or suggest imaginary or ephemeral sacred spaces. The discussion will be mainly focused on medieval sources of an historical character (chronicles, hagiographies), on ritual instructions and texts for para-liturgical actions (such as liturgical dramas), as well as liturgical books and scrolls in their multifaceted nature of text, image, and performative objects. Moreover, it will include a critical reflection on the gaze of early modern writers on medieval buildings and their decoration.

Introduced by a keynote lecture from Sible de Blaauw, Krautheimer-Gastprofessor 2018/2019 at the Bibliotheca Hertziana, the workshop brings together art historians and historians who have been experimenting with different approaches to written sources in connection to the study and interpretation of medieval sacred spaces, their furnishing and decoration, and the related liturgical performances. The invited scholars have been asked to present short talks, offering to the discussion a sample of their methodology in relation to a personal long-term research topic. Through different case studies converging around shared questions or monuments, the group will thus examine textual sources in combination with art historical research, and in light of the latest developments in the discipline, involving multisensorial approaches, scientific analyses, and digital technologies.

Presentations will be held in English and Italian.

Due to the nature of the meeting and the scheduled format, researchers with a strong interest in the topic who want to participate in the Workshop of March 28th are invited to register writing to: Scirocco@biblhertz.it

This Workshop is part of the activities of the project Mapping Sacred Spaces: Forms, Functions, and Aesthetics in Medieval Southern Italy

Concept and scientific Organization: Sible de Blaauw and Elisabetta Scirocco.

Program

Wednesday, March 27
18:00
Welcome and Introduction
Tanja Michalsky and Elisabetta Scirocco (Rome) 

Keynote Lecture
Tiberio Alfarano and the Memory of St. Peter's Early Christian Atrium
Sible de Blaauw (Nijmegen/Rome)

Thursday, March 28
9:00
Opening Remarks
Sible de Blaauw and Elisabetta Scirocco

9:30–11:30
Writing History: Between Chronicle, Hagiography, and Erudition
Chair | Tanja Michalsky

Tracce testuali altomedievali per la Cattedrale di Napoli: i Gesta episcoporum e le fonti agiografiche
Vinni Lucherini (Naples) 

Lo spazio dei miracoli: Bernardo d'Angers e la chiesa abbaziale di Conques
Ivan Foletti (Brno) 

Public Space – Liturgical Memory: Two Case Studies from Southern Italian Chronicles
Andrew Irving (Groningen) 

Sguardi 'inconsapevolmente' retrospettivi. Fonti ed erudizione di età moderna per una riflessione sullo spazio sacro medievale
Manuela Gianandrea (Rome)

Coffee break 

11:45–13:30
Liturgical and Ritual Performances in Sacred Space
Chair | Barbara Bruderer (Rome)

Icons of Sound: The Living Image, Its Music, and Its Sacred Space in the Middle Ages
Bissera Pentcheva (Stanford/Berlin)

"Incipit compendiosa pronuntiatio officii ecclesiastici": il Directorium per la ricostruzione degli spazi nella cattedrale di Salerno
Maddalena Vaccaro (Salerno)

Exultet and other illuminated liturgical scrolls. What they tell us – and not – about creating sacred space in the Middle Ages
Nino Zchomelidse (Baltimore)

Lunch break

14:30–16:30
Reconsidering Textual Sources from Contexts and Objects
Chair | Valentino Pace (Udine/Rome)

Revisiting Quodvultdeus's Contra Judaeos, Paganos et Arianos
Dorothy F. Glass (New York)

I typiká dei monasteri greci nel Mezzogiorno medievale: solo una questione filologica?
Antonino Tranchina (Rome) 

"Huius aquae tactus fugat omnes demonis actus". Acquasantiere dei secoli XI-XIII
Elisa Di Natale (Regensburg)

Dallo spazio alla parola. Ripensare la Cappella Palatina, rileggere Filagato da Cerami
Ruggero Longo (Rome)

Coffee break

17:00–18:30
Round Table Discussion
Chair | Xavier Barral i Altet (Venice/Rome)

Hinweis: Teilnahme am Workshop nur möglich mit Voranmeldung per E-Mail an: scirocco@biblhertz.it
Für die Teilnahme am ABENDVORTRAG von Sible de Blaauw ist KEINE ANMELDUNG nötig.