Edward Murphy-Schwartz
Andrew W. Mellon Undergraduate Fellow in the Humanities
2010—2011 Forum on Virtuality
Edward Murphy-Schwartz
Religious Studies, Biological Basis of Behavior, Health Care Management
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.