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.

Upcoming 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.

12:00pm - 1:30pm | Virtual

Screenshot of landing page of HebrewPal (the Hebrew Palaeography Album) with inset showing graphic elements of Hebrew characters.

Dec 09

Lecture Kislak Open to the public

The Card Index of Leo Olschki and the Trade in Medieval Manuscripts in the Early 20th Century

Schoenberg Institute of Manuscript Studies 2022-2023 Visiting Research Fellow Dr. Federico Botana reveals the secrets of the trade in medieval manuscripts found within the card index file of the Italian bookseller Leo S. Olschki (1861 - 1940).

12:00pm - 1:30pm | Virtual

Card annotated with details of a Greek manuscript and its purchase.

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.

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.

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.

1:00pm - 2:30pm | Virtual

Camera scanning unrolled manuscript of genealogical roll.

Feb 11

Lecture

Masters in Miniature: Future Horizons for Italian Manuscript Studies

This lecture centers on the historiography and future of Italian manuscript illumination with the goal of suggesting new methods of attribution and assessment for art historians, dealers, and collectors.

1:00pm - 2:30pm | Zoom

Initial B from a choir book, showing Christ blessing a Dominican nun.

Dec 17

Lecture

The Rescue of Armenian Historiography and the Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa

In this talk Tara Andrews will present some of the features and puzzles of the manuscript tradition of the Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa, give us glimpses into the history of the developing Armenian diaspora.

12:00pm - 1:30pm | Zoom

Page from a manuscript copy of Matthew of Edessa's Chronicle combined with page of computer code.

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.

12:00pm - 1:30pm | Zoom

Hand holding a digital magnifying lens over opened manuscript with laptop visible in background.

Sep 17

Lecture

Between Central and East Asia: Chinese Manuscripts from Tenth-Century Dunhuang

Imre Galambos gives a talk on the wider context of Chinese manuscripts, connecting them with non-Chinese scribal cultures of Central Asia.

12:00pm - 1:30pm | Zoom

Man kneeling and holding a flower and facing printed text in Chinese characters.

Jun 25

Lecture

American Collectors and the British Market for Rare Books c. 1890-1939: Two Perspectives

This lecture offers two perspectives on early twentieth century American collection of British rare books and manuscripts.

1:00pm - 2:15pm | Zoom

Punch cartoon showing Uncle Sam standing next to a gravestone with British cultural treasures under his arm as ghost of William Shakespeare looks on. Uncle Sam says, "Now, that's real disappointing. I had my heart set on that skeleton." Shakespeare replies, "But all the same I should feel more comfortable if it was insured."

Apr 28

Lecture

Across the Margin: Finding a New Page from Jean Bourdichon's Hours of Louis XII

This talk will begin by revealing a stunningly beautiful and previously unknown detached miniature from a royal Book of Hours created by the court artist Jean Bourdichon around 1498.

1:00pm - 2:15pm | Zoom

Two panels: Left: Lamentation of Christ with the Virgin Mary, the Holy Women, and Saint John. Right: Louis XII presented by saints and dignitaries.

Apr 23

Lecture

Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations: Symbolizing the Elements That Create Manuscripts and Their Structural History with VisColl 2.0

In this lecture, creators Dot Porter, SIMS founding member and Curator of Digital Research Services, and Alberto Campagnolo, book conservator and adjunct professor at the University of Udine, will present a new version of the online collation modeler VisColl.

1:00pm - 2:15pm | Zoom

Quires within quires: diagram and photograph of unbound spine.

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.

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.

1:00pm - 2:30pm | Zoom

The Monastery of Saint Catherine in the Sinai.

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