This day-long symposium will commemorate Elizabeth (Peggy) A. R. Brown’s extraordinary legacy in the field of Medieval Studies and will mark the official launch of the Elizabeth A. R. Brown Medieval Historians’ archive.
September 12, 2025
9:30am -
7:00pm
Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts (Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, 6th Floor, Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania) & Online
On Tuesday, September 16, Schoenberg Curator of Manuscripts Nick Herman will talk about the practice of illumination in premodern manuscripts, showing us a variety of manuscripts from Penn's collections.
September 16, 2025
2:00pm -
3:00pm
Kislak Center Vitale II (Room 623), Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, 6th Floor
For Coffee With A Codex on September 18, Curator Dot Porter will bring out Ms. Codex 141, an illuminated prayer book with a processional, and a prayer added in German. Written in Germany ca. 1450.
How do archives best care for the Indigenous knowledge in their collections? Emily Leischner will reflect on lessons learned during a year in residence at the Kislak Center.
Michael Zellman-Rohrer offers a progress report on a larger project to place manuscripts on the astral sciences (astronomy and astrology) from Europe and the wider Mediterranean world in social context and to bring these products of premodern science and their producers and users, in the fullness of their languages and faiths, into dialogue with social history and the history of science.
For Coffee With A Codex on September 25, Curator Dot Porter will bring out LJS 394, the second volume of a 10th-century dictionary of the Arabic language. It was written in Egypt or Syria in the 14th century.
In this three-hour workshop, students will be introduced to basic wood engraving tools and will have the opportunity to begin a block of their own design.
September 26, 2025
1:00pm -
4:00pm
Common Press, Fisher Fine Arts Library, Lower Level
For Coffee With A Codex on October 2, Curator Dot Porter will bring out Ms. Codex 1057, an illuminated Ferial psalter containing the psalms, antiphons, hymns, short chapter readings, and other prayers. It was written in Trento c. 1350.
