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Calendar
“What does the Battle of Hastings have to do with Pornography? Borders of the Bayeux Tapestry and the Meaning of Marginal Images” The central pictorial narrative of the eleventh-century Bayeux Tapestry has always attracted scholarly debate, but its lower and upper borders have received much less attention. Despite some quite obscene, if not pornographic motifs and other meaning-loaded elements in the borders, the older literature considered them as purely decorative ornament, having no relation to the main scenes. Recent scholarship, however, has tried to interpret these borders as a direct commentary on the main narrative of the Tapestry, without offering a consistent concept of the relation between the main panel and the borders. On the contrary, this paper by Professor Peter Klein (University of Tübingen) will argue that the borders of the Bayeux Tapestry belong to the tradition of the so-called “marginal images”, which generally do not function as a visual gloss but are relatively autonomous. Nevertheless, they do have an overall negative meaning apparenlty related to basic medieval concepts of order and space.
CMRS Sawyer Seminar, “Luther and the Leipzig Disputation: Dissent Disseminated” With Professor Erika Rummel (Emmanuel College, University of Toronto). In 1519, Martin Luther, assisted by Andreas von Karlstadt, debated Johann Eck on free will, penance and the authority of the pope. In a speech inaugurating the debate, later published as The Method of Disputing, Petrus Mosellanus presented a humanist critique of scholastic disputation. We also know that procedural wrangles on the use of written aids disturbed the debates, but these altercations also shed light on scholastic disputational practice. The most important outcome of the Leipzig Disputation, however, was Luther’s decision to use the new print media to broadcast his ideas, thus shifting authority away from university theologians, the traditional arbiters of doctrinal disputation, to a large and unruly reading public. Download the readings in advance at www.cmrs.ucla.edu/disputation_readings/index.html#luther_leipzig. You will need to contact CMRS for the user name and password to access the files. Call 310-825-1880 or email cmrs@humnet.ucla.edu.
CMRS Roundtable Dr. Chris Jones (University of Canterbury, Christchurch) discusses his new book Eclipse of Empire? Perceptions of the Western Empire and Its Rulers in Late-Medieval France, Cursor Mundi, vol. 1 (Brepols 2007). Eclipse of Empire explores the reality behind the assumption that the idea of a universal ruler became increasingly irrelevant in late-medieval Europe. Focusing on France in the century before the outbreak of the Hundred Years War, Jones investigates attitudes towards the contemporary institution of the western Empire, its rulers, and its place in the world. There has been a tendency among modern historians to assume that there was little place for a universal Empire and its would-be rulers in late-medieval thought. Pointing to the rapid decline in the fortunes of the medieval Empire after the death of the Emperor Frederick II, the rediscovery of Aristotle’s Politics by western Europeans, and the growing confidence—and burgeoning bureaucracy—of the kings of France and England, historians have often argued that the claims to universal domination of men like the Emperor Henry VII, or indeed of popes like Boniface VIII, were becoming increasingly anachronistic, not to say a little ridiculous. Perceptions of the Empire undoubtedly changed in this period. Yet, whether it was in the cloisters of Saint-Denis, the pamphlets of Pierre Dubois, or even the thought of Charles d’Anjou, the first Angevin king of Sicily, Jones argues that the Empire and its ruler still had an important, indeed unique, role to play in a properly-ordered Christian society.
“Byzantine Icons Under Attack: How Religious Images Survived Iconoclasm” With Professor Judith Herrin (King's College, London); co-sponsored with UCLA History Department and the UCLA Center for the Study of Women.
CMRS Distinguished Visiting Scholar Lecture, “The Matter of Fulk: Romance and History in Fourteenth-Century Shropshire” A lecture by Professor Ralph Hanna (University of Oxford). Fouke le Fitz Waryn, an Anglo-Norman prose text of c.1325-1330, is the only surviving full rendition of a narrative retold at least three times, in English and French, during the period c.1260-c.1400. Most of the text is devoted to Fulk III's quite historical revolt against King John in 1201-1203. But the text has always appeared problematic, since the tale of Fulk's disobedience has acquired a patina of ‘romance’ materials very far from plausible, let alone, historical. In this lecture, Professor Hanna examines aspects of this presentation, far from limited to this text but ubiquitous in insular historical writing and romance.
CMRS Sawyer Seminar, “Healing from History: Psychoanalytic and Sociological Considerations on Disputation and Reconciliation in the Modern Context” (formerly titled “Community Repair, Forgiveness and Reconciliation”) With Professor Jeffrey Prager (UCLA). This discussion shifts focus on disputation from various early modern expressions to a contemporary one. This presentation focuses on institutions of Truth and Reconciliation, describing these commissions or tribunals, convened in various national contexts, as uniquely modern practices of dispute settlement intending to transform existing enmities between perpetrators and victims into forms of civic friendship. Even in these modern settings, these institutions are also distinctly novel, subordinating conventional legal procedures aimed to determine guilt and to exact punishment to the offering of forgiveness in exchange for apology and truth-telling. Applying psychoanalytic insights concerning the process by which individuals overcome traumatic pasts, relevant social, political and interpersonal features are identified that promote this form of dispute-settlement and also describe the inherent challenges to its realization. Download the readings in advance at www.cmrs.ucla.edu/disputation_readings/index.html#community_repair. You will need to contact CMRS for the user name and password to access the files. Call 310-825-1880 or email cmrs@humnet.ucla.edu.
CMRS Distinguished Visiting Scholar Lecture Dr. Keith Lilley (Queen’s University Belfast) is a historical geographer, specializing in European urbanism of the later Middle Ages. In this lecture, he will discuss the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology to map out and analyse medieval urban landscapes. Most recently, he has used it to examine a mid-fourteenth century map of Great Britain known as the Gough Map. The Gough Map is a fascinating document, opening up questions of its production, purpose, and provenance, all of which are undocumented. GIS allows us to do some statistical analyses on the geographical features shown on the map (such as towns and cities) to explore its un-evenness in cartographic ‘accuracy’, and thus use the content of the map as a ‘way in’ to working out why it was made, how, and for whom. This, then, raises broader questions of surveying and cartography practices in fourteenth-century England, as well as statecraft and geographical knowledge.
31st Annual Symposium on Portuguese Traditions Organized by Claude Hulet (Emeritus Professor, Spanish and Portuguese, UCLA). CMRS is one of the co-sponsors.
CMRS Sawyer Seminar, “Raphael’s Disputa: Adoration and Disputation” With Professors Marcia Hall (Temple University), Franco Mormando (Boston College), Joanna Woods-Marsden (UCLA) Download the readings in advance at www.cmrs.ucla.edu/disputation_readings/index.html#disputa. You will need to contact CMRS for the user name and password to access the files. Call 310-825-1880 or email cmrs@humnet.ucla.edu.
Fifth Rebecca Catz Memorial Lecture, “Portuguese Seafarers and the Quest for Rewards and Social Status, 1640-1777 ” This year's lecture is presented by Professor Francis Dutra (History, UC Santa Barbara). From 1640-1777, hundreds of men with seafaring experience attempted to receive patents of nobility, knighthoods in the prestigious Portuguese military orders of Santiago and Avis, and financial rewards for themselves, their sons and grandsons and as dowries for their daughters. Knighthoods in the military orders made them members of the lower nobility. Most were not successful, though about a hundred did become knights of these two orders. Prof. Dutra will describe the social and maritime backgrounds of these seafarers and the obstacles they had to overcome to obtain the rewards and social status they desired.
CMRS Sawyer Seminar, “The Valladolid Junta of 1550-51: Native American Rights Disputed in Spain” With Professors José M. Hernández (UNED), Carole Goldberg (Law, UCLA), Anthony Pagden (Political Science, UCLA). Download the readings in advance at www.cmrs.ucla.edu/disputation_readings/index.html#native_americans. You will need to contact CMRS for the user name and password to access the files. Call 310-825-1880 or email cmrs@humnet.ucla.edu.
CMRS Roundtable, “Digital Graphics for Presentations: Using Photoshop and PowerPoint” This roundtable demonstration by Brett Landenberger (CMRS Staff) will introduce the basics of digital image editing for use in computer presentations. File formats, image sizing, and color adjustment will be done in Photoshop. Then, a sample PowerPoint presentation will be built with these images, adding text and slide transitions. Join us if you are new to computer slide presentations. If you have any special needs or requests related to digital images and presentations, contact CMRS in advance so your topic can be included at the Roundtable.
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