2023 ICMA Forsyth Lectures
Dirty Digital Books
Dr. Kathryn Rudy
Professor, School of Art History, University of St. Andrews
7-13 February 2023 in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri (details below)
Join us for a dynamic lecture exploring the intersections of technology and medieval book history. Esteemed manuscript scholar Dr. Rudy will discuss new research related to her project “Dirty Books,” which uses technology to understand how books of hours were read and handled in the late middle ages. The most used sections became darkened with fingerprints, which she has analyzed with a machine called a densitometer. Her new project makes use of digital resources in addition to hands-on study, benefiting from recent initiatives to digitize manuscripts and make them available online.
An internationally-recognized scholar of the reception and function of medieval manuscripts, Kathryn (Kate) Rudy is Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Art History at the University of St Andrews, a member of the St Andrews Institute of Medieval Studies, and the Director of the Centre for the Study of Medieval Manuscripts and Technology. She is also an Excellence Professor at Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Venues
*note - all lectures are in person only and will not be recorded
Oklahoma State University (Stillwater)
Tuesday, 7 February at 4:30pm
Helmerich Reading Room, OSU Library
contact: Jennifer Borland, jennifer.borland@okstate.edu
University of Arkansas (Fayetteville)
Thursday, 9 February at 5:15 pm
Gearhart 26
contact: Mary Beth Long, marylong@uark.edu
University of Missouri-Kansas City
Monday, 13 February at 3:30pm
Miller Nichols Library Room 451
contact: Virginia Blanton, blantonv@umkc.edu
These events have been supported by the International Center of Medieval Art's Forsyth Lecture Fund as well as Oklahoma State University, University of Arkansas, and University of Missouri-Kansas City.
About the Forsyth Lectureship in Medieval Art
The late Ilene Forsyth established The Forsyth Lectureship in Medieval Art in memory of medievalists George H. Forsyth, Jr. (Professor of Fine Arts and Director of the Kelsey Museum of Ancient and Medieval Archaeology at the University of Michigan) and William H. Forsyth (Curator, The Metropolitan Museum of Art). It is intended to sponsor a lecture by a distinguished scholar of medieval art to be presented at multiple venues. These lectures are typically held every other year.
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