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The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies Online Lecture Series

The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies Online Lecture Series presents regularly scheduled lectures related to the study of premodern manuscript books and global manuscript culture by scholars at all levels from Penn and around the world. Started in 2021 as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, the series offers a virtual space for students, scholars, and citizen scholars to come together to hear about and discuss the latest research in manuscript studies.

Detail from LJS 242 Basis grammatice, fol. 9v.

Upcoming Events

Feb 10
  • Lecture
  • Kislak
Open to the Public

Personal Names and Authority: The Achilles Heel of (Islamicate) Manuscript Description in the Context of Digital Humanities

Yasmin Faghihi, Head of the Near and Middle Eastern Department at Cambridge University Library and the editor of the online union catalog for manuscripts from the Islamicate world FIHRIST, discusses the problems and potential of name authorities in manuscript research.

  • Friday, February 10, 2023, 12:00 - 1:30 pm EST
  • 12:00pm - 1:30pm
  • Virtual
A page of a manuscript copy of Durr al-buḥūr (Jewels of the Seas), composed and written by J.L. Burckhardt during his residence in Aleppo in the year 1810. As stated in the colophon this is an abridged Arabic version of The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, the novel by Daniel Defoe.

Past Events

Oct 28
  • Lecture
  • Kislak
Open to the Public

Hebrew Paleography Album: A New Tool for the Study of Hebrew Scripts in the Digital Age

Professor Judith Olszowy-Schlanger, Director of the Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies at the University of Oxford and Professor of Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic Manuscript Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, will discuss and demonstrate the Hebrew Palaeography Album, a new online tool to study medieval Hebrew writing practices.

  • October 28, 2022
  • 12:00pm - 1:30pm
  • Virtual
Screenshot of landing page of HebrewPal (the Hebrew Palaeography Album) with inset showing graphic elements of Hebrew characters.
Sep 16
  • Lecture
  • Kislak
Open to the Public

Medieval Rolls in a Digital Environment

Medieval rolls are notoriously difficult to represent online. In this lecture, Lisa Fagin Davis and Dot Porter will show medieval rolls recently published in Digital Mappa, a new digital publishing tool that centers the image and enables the annotation and linking of both images and text.

  • September 16, 2022
  • 12:00pm - 1:30pm
  • Virtual
View of a Digital Mappa screen showing side-by-side annotated images of Adam and Eve with the serpent wrapped around the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden.
Apr 29
  • Lecture
  • Kislak
Open to the Public

Beyond the Page: Immaterial Texts in Late Medieval England

From some curious habits by scribes of late Middle English manuscripts, Professor Daniel Wakelin shall argue that scribes were sometimes not interested in, or were even vexed by, the material form of texts.

  • April 29, 2022
  • 12:00pm - 1:30pm
  • Virtual
Detail from John Lydgate's Middle English version of Laurence Premierfait's French translation of Boccaccio's De casibus virorum illustrium
Mar 18
  • Lecture
  • Kislak
Open to the Public

Wars in the Workshop: Digitizing Manuscript Rolls

This lecture will discuss some of the issues relating to the digitization of manuscript rolls, focusing on a fifteenth-century genealogical roll produced during the Wars of the Roses, the Canterbury Roll.

  • Friday, March 18, 2022, 1:00 - 2:30 pm EST on Zoom
  • 1:00pm - 2:30pm
  • Virtual
Camera scanning unrolled manuscript of genealogical roll.
Oct 15
  • Lecture

Growing a Research Network: Approaches to Global Book History

In this talk, Professors Akbari and Gillespie offer an overview of their research findings, lessons learned from the pandemic, and upcoming exhibition of Hidden Stories: Books Along the Silk Roads.

  • October 15, 2021
  • 12:00pm - 1:30pm
  • Zoom
Hand holding a digital magnifying lens over opened manuscript with laptop visible in background.
Mar 05
  • Lecture

Translating Experience into Science in the Middle Ages

This talk explores how experience—natural knowledge from the sensorium—was translated into science—understanding natural laws and causation—in both the Arabic and Latin Middle Ages.

  • March 5, 2021
  • 12:00pm - 1:30pm
  • Zoom
Diagram of head with faculties and senses
Feb 05
  • Lecture

The Monastery of Saint Catherine in the Sinai and its Manuscripts

This lecture will explore the history of the Monastery and its association with manuscript production and manuscript ownership, and how the library holdings reflect the presence of Christians from several different language traditions. A special focus will be on the recent work of the Sinai Palimpsests Project.

  • February 5, 2021
  • 1:00pm - 2:30pm
  • Zoom
The Monastery of Saint Catherine in the Sinai.

Image above: Detail from LJS 242 Basis grammatice, fol. 9v