Call for Papers

49th International Congress on Medieval Studies 

Western Michigan University 

8th-11th May 2014, Kalamazoo, MI 

Dear all,

The DigiPal team (digipal.eu) are delighted to invite submissions for the following sessions:

   "Digital Methods: Anglo-Saxon Manuscript Studies"

   "Digital Methods: Reading between the Lines of Medieval Manuscripts"

To submit an abstract: read the session descriptions below, decide which 

session suits you best, and then send an abstract of a couple of hundred words 

or so (we won't count them, but try not  to overdo it) to us by 15th September 2013: 

And if you fill in a Participant Information Form, and send that too, we'd be very grateful. 

You can find the PIF here: 

Oh, and if for some curious reason we *don't* accept your abstract, never fear: any 

proposals we don't include will be sent to the Congress committee for consideration 

for general sessions. 

Looking forward to reading your abstract, Stewart

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SESSION DESCRIPTIONS

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"Digital Methods: Anglo-Saxon Manuscript Studies"

The aim of the papers in this session is to consider what twenty-first 

century technology might offer us in the study of the handwriting of 

the scribes who were producing charters, homilies, farming memoranda 

and other aspects of the written culture of Anglo-Saxon England. Utilising 

computer-based resources for the study of medieval handwriting, the papers 

will investigate the development of letter forms; the influence of scriptoria 

and the politics of writing style; the significance of scribal choices such 

as vernacular script in preference to, or alongside, Caroline letter forms; and 

whether text type can be said to determine the style of writing.

"Digital Methods: Reading between the Lines of Medieval Manuscripts"

Glosses and marginalia in Old English manuscripts have been understudied, with 

nineteenth century editions often being relied upon in the absence of more 

recent work. In this session, the papers will ask whether the development

of methodologies based in digital technologies affords us the opportunity to 

produce new work and new discoveries in this area. Areas explored will include 

the study and detection of scratched glosses; the handwriting of the Old 

English glosses to the Lindisfarne and Rushworth Gospels; the relationship 

between so-called main text and writings in the margins; the hierarchy 

of scripts for glossing and annotation; and producing new edited texts.