Presented by the Rare Book Department of the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies (SIMS) at the University of Pennsylvania.

Manuscript illumination has often been considered in relation to the texts it accompanies, but rarely in terms of its interplay with other artistic media. Historically, however, the technique was closely associated with other forms of artistic expression and served as a crucial point of contact and transfer for visual motifs across space and time. The goal of this year’s symposium is to examine cases of intermedial exchange through the lenses of technique, style, iconography, social context, and cultural geography, while also posing broader questions about the deep connections between the craft of illumination and other arts more widely. Of special interest will be insights gained from the technical examination of works in different media, new comparisons made possible by digital technology, and the discovery of linkages once obscured by strict historiographical divisions

The program will begin Thursday evening at 5:00 pm on November 15, 2018, at the Free Library of Philadelphia, Parkway Central Library, with a keynote lecture by Professor Susie Nash, Courtauld Institute of Art. The symposium will continue November 16th-17th at the Kislak Center of Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania.  

Speakers include:

Carmen Decu Teodorescu, University of Geneva

Sonja Drimmer, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Frédéric Elsig, University of Geneva

Alexandra Green, British Museum

Renata Holod, University of Pennsylvania

Bryan C. Keene, J. Paul Getty Museum

Stella Panayotova, The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

Georgi Parpulov, Independent Scholar

Nandita Punj, Rutgers University

Paola Ricciardi, The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

Christine Sciacca, The Walters Art Museum

Marianna Shreve Simpson, University of Pennsylvania

Benjamin C. Tilghman, Washington College

Nancy Turner, J. Paul Getty Museum

Laura Weigert, Rutgers University

Roger S. Wieck, The Morgan Library & Museum 

Organized by Nicholas Herman, Curator of Manuscripts, and Lynn Ransom, Curator of Programs, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, University of Pennsylvania. Support provided by the Williams Fund of the Department of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Wolf Humanities Center's "Humanities at Large" program.