Pitts Theology Library will host a day-long symposium expounding on its current exhibition, “The Materiality of Devotion: From Manuscript to Print.” The exhibition runs through March 15, with guided tours on February 15 and February 22 at 1:00 p.m. Sign up for a tour. The symposium will be held on March 1 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Pitts Theology Library Lecture Hall, featuring speakers from Emory and the wider Atlanta community who represent the fields of conservation, art history, medieval and early modern history, and the history of all three Abrahamic religions. Register here by February 21 to receive complimentary breakfast and lunch.
Curated by Pitts’ Head of Research and Access Services Sarah Bogue and Emory doctoral candidates Kelin Michael and Emma de Jong, the exhibition provides visitors with the opportunity to explore a variety of objects, texts, and images that supported devotional practices in the medieval and early modern world. “By focusing on the material side of each of these objects rather than just their content, this exhibition is uniquely accessible to a variety of audiences,” Bogue says. “Our main goal is to invite modern viewers to think concretely about how things smelled, looked, felt, and sounded to their original audiences.”
The exhibition draws on Pitts Theology Library’s medieval manuscripts as well as its world-renowned early print collection, and also benefits from generous loans made by Emory University’s Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library and the Michael C. Carlos Museum.
“Both the exhibition and the symposium are truly interdisciplinary collaborations between multiple Emory institutions and colleagues at diverse stages in their professional journeys,” says Bogue. She also notes the importance of funding for the symposium through grants from the Mellon Humanities PhD Interventions Project and the New Thinkers/New Leaders Program at Emory’s Laney Graduate School. “This funding is evidence of the invaluable professional development opportunity for the students involved, and speaks to the way this exhibition can connect artists, historians, conservators, and beyond.”
The March 1 symposium will begin with a keynote address on fragmentary manuscripts by Lynley Herbert, associate curator of rare books and manuscripts at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, who will examine all that goes into making a book—particularly the complexities inherent in dealing with dismantled books.
A full schedule of topics and speakers for the symposium is below.
9:00-9:30 a.m.: Breakfast
9:30-9:40 a.m.: “Introduction to The Materiality of Devotion Exhibition and Symposium”
Sarah Bogue, Head of Research and Access Services at Pitts Theology Library
9:45-10:45 a.m.: “The Materiality of Manuscripts: A Curator’s Perspective on Loose Leaves”
Lynley Herbert, Associate Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
11:00-11:30 a.m.: “Between the Page and the Statue: Illuminated Manuscripts and the Medieval Cult of the Virgin”
Nicole Corrigan, PhD candidate in Art History at Emory University
11:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.: “A Technical Update on the Carlos Museum’s Virgin and Child”
Brittany Dinneen, Assistant Conservator of Objects at Emory University’s Michael C. Carlos Museum
12:00-1:00 p.m.: Lunch
1:30-2:00 p.m.: “Emory’s Fifteenth-Century English Chronicle Roll: Late Medieval History Writing and Sixteenth-Century Nobility”
Jenny Bledsoe, PhD candidate in English at Emory University and Andrew W. Mellon Graduate Teaching Fellow in Agnes Scott College’s Department of English
2:00-2:30 p.m.: “Poetry in the Realm of Devotion: Illustrations of Celestial Rhymes of Hafez”
Azadeh Vatanpour, PhD student in the West and South Asian Religions program in Emory’s Graduate Division of Religion
2:45-3:15 p.m.: “Images and Intercession: St. Margaret of Antioch in Late Medieval Manuscripts”
Ashley Laverock, Professor of Art History at Savannah College of Art and Design
3:15-3:45 p.m.: “The Nuremberg Chronicle as a Case Study in the Rise of Print”
Emma de Jong, PhD student in Art History at Emory University and exhibition co-curator
3:45-4:15 p.m.: “The Transition of Material: Hrabanus Maurus’s In honorem sanctae crucis as Manuscript and Printed Book”
Kelin Michael, PhD student in Art History at Emory University and exhibition co-curator
For more information, contact Sarah Bogue at sarah.bogue@emory.edu.
Register here to attend the symposium.
Candler School of Theology is located on the campus of Emory University, at 1531 Dickey Drive, Atlanta, GA 30322.