Programme   Tours   Contributors

The second annual Vagantes conference was held at the University of Toronto, March 20-23, 2003 in the Chapel of Victoria College. Four tours and five talks on resources available at the University of Toronto for medievalists were given. The final banquet was held in a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown.

Programme

Thursday March 20

4:30 4th Annual Boyle Lecture: Prof. Eamon Duffy (University of Cambridge): "In the Margins: Medieval Prayer Books and Their Users" Alumni Hall, Room 100, St. Michael's College. This series is sponsored by the Friends of the Library of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies to honour the memory of Father L.E. Boyle, O.P., a former Senior Fellow of PIMS and a Professor at the U of T. All are invited.

5:30 Boyle Lecture Reception, co-sponsored by Vagantes, common room of PIMS.

6:30- Pub Night to welcome all to Vagantes. 2nd floor of Duke of York pub, at corner of Bedford Rd. and Prince Arthur, one short block north of Bloor, between Avenue Rd. and St. George. A few steps from the Bedford exit of St. George subway station.

Friday March 21

All sessions to be held in the Chapel, 2nd floor, "Old Vic" Building, Victoria College.

8:30 - 9:00 Registration, Coffee and Light Breakfast

9:00 Welcome and opening remarks

9:15-10:00 Keynote Address #1

"Performing the Middle Ages: What Do We Think We're Doing?"
Prof. David Klausner, University of Toronto

10:00 - 11:30 Session 1: Seeing is Believing: Texts and Images
Chair: Therese Forgacs (Fine Arts, UofT)

‘A Penny for Your Text: Economy and Indulgence in an Israhel van Meckenem Print’
Kathleen M. Dunn, University of Pennsylvania

‘Classical Ekphrasis and the Construction of Irish Epic’
Brent Miles, University of Toronto

‘Lighting the Spark: The Medieval Itty-Bitty Book Light’
Heather Blatt, University of Virginia and Janice Safran, Cornell University

11:30 - 11:45 Coffee Break

11:45 - 1:15 Session 2: Family Affairs: Households and Relations
Chair: Donna Trembinski (History, UofT)

‘Holy Incest: Dynastic Error and Christian Metaphor in the Late Medieval Hagiographic Romances’
Margarita Yanson, University of California, Berkeley

‘Norwegian Fathers, Icelandic Sons: Pride and Poetry in Egils saga’
Anthony J. Adams, University of Toronto

‘Playing House: The Public Performance of Domesticity in the Advent Pageants of the York Mystery Plays’
James Riddle, University of Wisconsin, Madison

1:15 - 2:00 Lunch at the Centre for Medieval Studies (provided for all registrants)

2:00 - 4:00 Tours and Presentations of Local Resources (click here for details)

4:15 - 4:30 Coffee Break

4:30 - 6:00 Session 3: Who’s Who? Medieval Constructions of Identity
Chair: Robert H. Henry (Romance Studies, Cornell University)

‘Byzantine Imperial Costume: Image Maker of the Emperors’
Catherine Leahey, Savannah College of Art and Design

‘The Devil's Men Do Penance Too?
Jennifer Reid, University of Toronto

‘Drengr and maðr: manly men (and women) in Njáls saga’
Kim Zarins, Cornell University

Saturday March 22

9:30 - 10:00 Breakfast

10:00 - 11:30 Session 4: We are We: Medieval Constructions of National Identity
Chair: Johanna Kramer (Medieval Studies, Cornell University)

‘The French Prose Brut and Chronicle Writing of the Anglo-Norman Regnum’
Heather Pagan, University of Toronto

‘Saxo Grammaticus: History and the Rise of National Identity in Medieval Denmark’
Christopher Bailey, Eastern Illinois University

‘Navigating Borders: Controlling Ambivalence in Gerald of Wales’ Itinerarium Kambriae’
Lesley Finn, Columbia University

11:30 - 11:45 Coffee Break

11:45 - 1:15 Session 5: Textual Orientations
Chair: Susan Small (University of Western Ontario)

‘El Libro de los huéspedes: An Edition’
John K. Moore, Jr., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

‘Ins e.l cor port, domna, vostra…votz? Incorporation of Trobairitz Lyric in Pierpont Morgan 819’
Jaye Puckett, Johns Hopkins University

‘St. Katherine of Alexandria: The Christian Virgin against 50 Philosophers’
Tina Chronopoulos, Kings College London, University of London

1:15 - 2:45 Lunch (fend for yourselves)

2:45 - 4:15 Session 6: The Presence of Absence
Chair: Nancy Kang (English, UofT)

‘Of Weavers, Angels, and the Blind Minstrel of God: Exploring Contexts for Musical Performance in the York Corpus Christi Plays’
John T. Sebastian, Cornell University

‘Henry of Ghent on the Role of Concepts in Cognition’
Bernd Goehring, Cornell University

‘Partial Recall: The Sutton Hoo Mounds as Objects of Collective Memory’
Emily Brewer, Wake Forest University

4:15 - 4:30 Coffee Break

4:30 - 6:00 Session 7: Holy War: Conflicts Political, Intellectual, Spiritual
Chair: Amy Airhart (English, UofT)

‘Disturbing the Peace of the Sacred Monastery: The Battle for Twelfth-Century Vézelay’
John F. Romano, Harvard University

‘Jacob ben Reuben’s Sefer Milhamot Hashem: Literary Polemics and the New Testament’
Joshua L. Levy, New York University

‘Anglo-Saxon Crusades? Æthelstan’s Tenth-Century Scottish Campaigns’
John D. Hosler, University of Delaware

6:00 - 7:00 Meeting to ratify Vagantes constitution and elect Board (all welcome)

8:00 - on "Extravagantes": Multiple course banquet dinner at Golden Country Restaurant (466-468 Dundas St. West, 2nd floor; tickets will be available in advance)

Sunday March 23

9:30 - 10:00 Breakfast

10:00 - 11:00 Keynote Address #2

"How Might We Read Trial Scenes in Twelfth-Century Literature?"
Prof. Paul Hyams, Cornell University

11:00 - 12:30 Session 8: Medieval Transformations: Jobs, Habits, Devotions
Chair: Christina Linklater (Music, Harvard University)

‘A "Baleful View on the Case of Archdeacons": The Meteoric Rise and Fall of the Twelfth-century English Archdiaconate’
Winston Black, University of Toronto

‘Changes in Lay Devotional Experience and Late Medieval Representations of the "Three Living and the Three Dead"’
Christine Kralik, University of Toronto

‘Adopting New Habits: Ideas of Custom in the Correspondence of Peter the Venerable and Bernard of Clairvaux’
Marc Saurette, University of Toronto

12:30 - 1:00 Concluding remarks. Explicit.

Vagantes 2003 : Tours of University of Toronto Projects and Resources

We are pleased to be able to offer to conference attendees a number of tours / presentations of the many research projects and libraries in Toronto of interest to medievalists. These may be particularly helpful in planning a future research trip to Toronto. They will run in the early afternoon of Friday March 21st. Due to time and space limitations, it will not be possible to see all of them. Below you will find brief descriptions of the different tours, followed by a timetable. Signing up to attend any of these events will take place at the reception on the evening of Thursday the 20th and also on the morning of Friday the 21st. However, if you happen to know in advance of that time which tours/presentations you would like to sign up for, you may send an email to

Massey College: a demonstration of early printing presses and visit to the Robertson Davies library which specializes in the history of the book.

Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies: an introduction to the activities of this research centre and a hands-on presentation of early printed books from this collection. The Erasmus holdings in particular are of international importance.

University of Toronto Art Centre: includes a tour of the Malcove Collection (especially strong in icons and other Byzantine art) and a temporary exhibition of Italian drawings from the National Gallery of Canada.

Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library: a chance to see up close a selection of the manuscript and incunable holdings of UofT's main rare book library, presented by Fisher curators.

Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies Library: an introduction by the librarian to this terrific resource for medievalists in any discipline.

Dictionary of Old English: an overview of this enormous lexicographical project, including comprehensive microfilm resources.

Records of Early English Drama (REED): compilers of county-by-county document collections relating to all aspects of performance in England.

DEEDS (Documents of Essex England Data Set): a database of Latin charters from the High Middle Ages, useful for social and legal history, and now extending beyond original focus to over all of England.

ITER: a major online portal to medieval and Renaissance studies featuring a giant bibliographic database of books, reviews and articles and other electronic resources.