Conference

The Wandering Word: the travels of insular manuscripts

MS56 fol 22r_DET

5-7 May 2016

Neill Lecture Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute

Manuscripts are by their nature portable. In some cases portability is inherent in their design, such as the pocket- gospels of the Insular world. In other cases it becomes clear through physical location; echoes of the nomadic nature of Insular texts are found in library collections across the Continent and beyond, whether in the survival of whole or fragmentary Insular texts, or through resonances of their distinctive style emulated in scriptoria far beyond British or Irish shores.

Travel through time has also left its mark. Physical alterations to manuscripts, the history of their ownership and the traditions associated with them all help to build a picture of changing attitudes towards manuscripts as physical objects over the past millennium and the different meanings that they may have conveyed.

The Bank of America Merrill Lynch Trinity College Early Irish Manuscripts Project is concerned with the conservation, digitization and art historical study of four such itinerant and mutable texts: Codex Usserianus Primus, the Book of Dimma, the Book of Mulling and the Garland of Howth. This conference will present the findings of the project to date, and set these texts within the broader context of the peregrinations of Insular manuscripts.

Full program available here.

Booking is essential – register here.

The conference organisers wish to thank the following sponsors for their generous support:

Trinity Association and Trust

Speakers:

Susie Bioletti, Keeper of Preservation and Conservation, Library of Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin

Michelle Brown, Professor Emerita, SAS, University of London

Marco di Bella. Project Conservator, Preservation and Conservation, Library of Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin

David Dumville, Chair in History, Palaeography and Celtic, School of Divinity, History and Philosophy, University of Aberdeen

William Endres, Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Oklahoma

Carol Farr, Independent Scholar, London

John Gillis, Senior Conservator, Preservation and Conservation, Library of Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin

Bernard Meehan, Head of Research Collections and Keeper of Manuscripts, Library of Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin

Rachel Moss, Assistant Professor, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin

Paul Mullarkey, Assistant Keeper, Conservation Department, National Museum of Ireland

Francis Newton, Emeritus Professor of Latin, Duke University, North Carolina

Dáibhí Ó Cronín, Professor of History, NUI Galway

Timothy O’Neill, Calligrapher and author of The Irish Hand

Heather Pulliam, Senior Lecturer, Dept of the History of Art, University of Edinburgh

Allyson Smith, Project Scientist, Preservation and Conservation, Library of Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin

Mark Stansbury, Lecturer, Director of the Centre for Antique, Medieval and Pre-modern Studies , Department of Classics, NUI Galway

Joanna Story, Professor of Early Medieval History, University of Leicester