February 21, 2023
Vienna, June 2-3, 2023
June 2: Central European University, Quellenstrasse 51, D002, 1100 Vienna
June 3: University of Vienna (Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies), Postgasse 9, Lecture Hall, 1010 Vienna
By Prof. Ann Marie Rasmussen, University of Waterloo
Prof. Ann Marie Rasmussen from the University of Waterloo (Canada) brings to the fore the modernity of medieval pilgrim badges and the medieval dimensions of a modern cell phone camera.By Dr Aletta Leipold, Saxon Academy of Science and Humanities
The Old High German noun rûna does not denote a character, as one might erroneously assume based on the meaning of the German word Rune. The majority of words connected to rûna, rûnên and related derivates and compounds pertain to the semantic field of words such as ‘whisper’, ‘whispering’, ‘murmur’, and ‘murmuring’. This semantic range, associated with orality, was further expanded to include meanings related to ‘sorcery’ and ‘secret’. How much magic is in these Old High German words and what may we learn from them about medieval concepts of magic?By Savvas Mavromatidis, University of Cyprus (PhD student in the Interdepartmental Programme in Byzantine Studies and the Latin East)
How is the ‘distance’ or perhaps the lack of ‘distance’ between cultural and social phenomena, such as conception, birth, death, and the practices regarding the care of newborns and the dead conveyed in medieval art? This blog post investigates the didactic, social, devotional, and performative role of painting and funerary sculpture as formed in the Middle Ages.