Edward Murphy-Schwartz

Andrew W. Mellon Undergraduate Fellow in the Humanities

20102011 Forum on Virtuality

Edward Murphy-Schwartz

Religious Studies, Biological Basis of Behavior, Health Care Management

CAS, 2012

Presentia Falsa Libri: Medieval Virtuality

My research deals with medieval notions of representation and the book. The medieval book as symbological object allowed for the virtual representation of text and image through scribal conventions and illuminations, while philosophers and theologians, from Church Fathers to late-medieval mystics, created theories of representation grounded in the image of the book. Today, the medieval book is experiencing a new virtuality through worldwide digitization projects. My paper will address this issue, its implications for medievalists, and the future of the bound codex's hegemony.