Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Archives for Events

Spring Material Texts Workshop

Yesterday – March 9, 2016 – our program held our Spring 2016 Material Texts Workshop. Alexis Hagadorn, Conservator and Head of the Conservation Program at the Columbia University Libraries, graciously taught the workshop, which was attended by our MA students.

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Alexis Hagadorn shows materials from Columbia’s Rare Book and Manuscripts Library to students attending the workshop.

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Students and Program Director Susan Boynton listening to Alexis Hagadorn’s lecture.

Thank you, Alexis and the Columbia RBML, for a wonderful workshop!

Lauren Mancia opens our new “Medieval and Renaissance Lives” speaker series

On Wednesday, October 8, we launched our new “Medieval and Renaissance Lives” Speaker series.  The series, designed primarily for an audience of undergrads interested in the fields, features present and former Columbians discussing their academic and professional trajectories and current work in an informal setting.  The series was launched wonderfully by Lauren Mancia (CC ’05), who was kind enough to share some pictures and a bio that give a taste of her fascinating presentation.  Interested in future events in the series?  Email us for info!


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Mancia examining a manuscript in a library in France.

Lauren Mancia graduated from Columbia College in 2005 (B.A. in English/Medieval Studies). When she was at Columbia, she spent a lot of time learning about different aspects of the Middle Ages; in addition to taking classes in English, Classics, Art History, History, Music, and Religion, she was a summer intern at The Cloisters Museum, and she worked as an assistant to Consuelo Dutschke, the curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at Columbia’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library.  She then went on to get an M.A. in Medieval Studies at the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto (2006), and to get a Ph.D in History at Yale University (2013). In between her M.A. and her Ph.D, she taught Art History and History at The Marymount School in Manhattan.

Mancia is currently Assistant Professor of History at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and is also a lecturer at The Cloisters Museum.  She is a specialist in medieval monastic devotion, particular in the central Middle Ages. Her current book project, tentatively entitled Religious Reform as Emotional Reform at the Eleventh-Century Monastery of Fécamp, examines the spiritual writings of the Benedictine abbot John of Fécamp (ca. 990-1078 C.E.), who is responsible for the earliest known prayers to a suffering, crucified Christ. Drawing on the intellectual, visual, homiletic and liturgical culture of John’s Norman monastery, Mancia’s work sheds light on the emotional qualities of Benedictine monastic devotion and reform in the 11th century, and the high medieval monastic origins of later medieval affective piety.

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The church of Fécamp today (12th-15th century building)

Questions for Lauren Mancia? Contact her at laurenmancia AT brooklyn DOT cuny DOT edu

MA Program Fall Manuscript Workshop

The Med Ren MA program’s Fall Manuscript workshop, on Friday October 24, featured talks by Professor Robert Somerville and Professor Adam Kosto about Columbia’s Western MS 82 and 88, respectively.  Thanks to all who participated, and thanks to Professors Somerville and Kosto for a great event.  Extra special thanks as well to Consuelo Dutschke and the Rare Book and Manuscript Library for giving us the time and space to explore these interesting manuscripts!

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You can learn more about these manuscripts on Digital Scriptorium — or by coming by the RBML!