What did they write about in the Middle Ages?
Writing and reading, two activities involving one another, were two different things in the Middle Ages, both regarding its concept and skills, and they were further extended than what it was thought due the traditional cliché about the dark ages with its general illiteracy.
Writing and reading, two activities involving one another, were two different things in the Middle Ages, both regarding its concept and skills, and they were further extended than what it was thought due the traditional cliché about the dark ages with its general illiteracy.
Under the title “Escriure i llegir a lʼedat mitjana”, the Research Institute in Medieval Cultures of the University of Barcelona (IRCVM) is organizing its first conference on April 25, 26 and 27 at the Faculty of Geography and History, the Faculty of Philology and the Milà i Fontanals Institution (IMF-CSIC). The conference is dedicated to the field of writing, on which it aims to put an interdisciplinary emphasis, aiming to look for the links between the past and the contemporary world. Also, it coincides with Saint Georgeʼs day week, so it also highlights the importance of writing over time. There will be a total of six sessions with conferences and communications carried out by the experts on Middle Ages, coming from different universities worldwide.
The conference will start on Wednesday, April 25, at the Faculty of Geography and History, with a presentation by Xavier Roigé, vice-rector for Doctoral Studies and Research Promotion; Javier Velaza, dean of the Faculty of Philology; Ricardo Piqueras, dean of the Faculty of Geography and History, and Meritxell Simó, director of IRCVM. During the first session, “Lletra, so, i imatge”, experts will analyse works in which the lyrics, image and musical notes had a common space and connected with each other to create everything. The second session will be dedicated to writing and memory: “Escriptura i memòria: el paper dels notaris a lʼedat mitjana”. It will be focused on the role of notaries in the Middle Ages regarding memory construction in their tasks for society, which is kept in notarial protocols, an essential documentary source to study history of medieval society. The session “Del cant a la lectura: la recepció escrita dels trobadors” will close the first day, talking about the evolution of troubadour lyrics with the changes in the reception models that promoted the step from songs to reading.
Milà i Fontanals Institution will hold on Thursday, April 26, the second session of the conference, which consists of two separate sessions. The first one, titled “Els espais de lʼescriptura, els espais de la lectura” will analyse the places where the merge of lyrics and image took place, and in particular, the sacral spaces where words and images joined the liturgical ritual, determined the ways to control the secular ones and were aimed at monks with specific purposes. The second one will explore the different reading and writing tools that were spread over the Middle Ages. Last, the second session will present the last theme session, “Epigrafia medieval: les inscripcions als limits de lʼedat mitjana”, which will comment on the problem with dating and management of epigraphy between ancient times and modern times.
The last session will take place on Friday, April 27. The Faculty of Philology will hold a roundtable titled “La recerca sobre lʼedat mitjana: perspectives, reptes i oportunitats”, with the participation of several directors of institutes for medieval studies in Catalonia, Portugal and Spain, aiming to share the challenges and opportunities of research on the Middle Ages in the 21st century. A troubadour music concert by Ardit Ensemble will close the conference at 12 noon in the Aula Capella of the Historical Building of the University of Barcelona.
The Research Institute in Medieval Cultures (IRCVM) belongs to the University of Barcelona, and it aims to bring research on the Middle Ages to the highest level of excellence and become a model regarding the studies of the Middle Ages in Catalonia. IRCVM was born in 2008 and it gathers and coordinates research carried out by researchers from different disciplines of the UB, experts on the Middle Ages.