Call for Papers

49th International Congress on Medieval Studies

Western Michigan University

8th-11th May 2014, Kalamazoo, MI

Dear all,

The DigiPal team (digipal.euhttp://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: digipal@kcl.ac.ukmailto:digipal@kcl.ac.uk

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

You can find the PIF here: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html#PIF

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

--------------------------------------- SESSION DESCRIPTIONS ----------------------------------------

"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. -- Dr Stewart J Brookes Research Associate Department of Digital Humanities King's College London