Leeds International Medieval Congress 2018: The Textual Afterlives of Medieval Mystics, Visionaries, and Prophets

deadline for submissions: 
September 28, 2017
full name / name of organization: 
Justine Trombley
contact email: 

Recent scholarship has noted the importance of viewing medieval manuscripts at many stages of their “lives”, not merely confined to the mechanics of their production and the immediate contexts of their creation, but also viewing them within each cultural context that they encountered throughout their existence. This session aims to apply this approach to manuscripts of medieval mystical, visionary, or prophetic/revelatory texts, examining their reception and use long after their original composition and the lives of their authors. These genres produced some of the most provocative and controversial texts of the Middle Ages, with often complicated reception histories. By examining their “afterlives” through the examination of their extant manuscripts, this session hopes to present previously unconsidered or overlooked aspects of these texts’ histories, as well as highlight the complexity of textual circulation and reception in the Middle Ages.

The session invites papers on any topic related to the reception history of mystical, revelatory/prophetic, or visionary texts c. 500-1500 that focus on manuscript evidence. Papers may address any religion or geographic area within the specified chronological span.

Paper proposals should be submitted to Justine Trombley (jltrombl@gmail.com) by 28th September 2017 at the latest. Please provide a paper title and a short abstract (max. 250 words), and indicate whether you will require any audio-visual equipment.