When Blessed Margaret of Città di Castello, an acknowledged visionary despite being blind from birth, was exhumed some time after 1320, in order to transform her heart to a golden reliquary for display, suddenly three little stones fell out of her body, with images of Mary, Christ, Joseph & Saint Margarita impressed on them. Two centuries later Giovanni Battista Porta, in his Magiae naturalis, first published in 1558, warns the reader that if a pregnant woman fixes the image of a picture or a statue with her eyes or in her mind, her child will resemble the image. These are only two examples of numerous impressed images and transformed bodies through internal or external vision.

This call invites particular case studies as well as more general inquiries into the underlying concepts of visual perception (intro- versus extramission!), imagination, phantasia and memory, as well as matter and gender, their endurance but also transformations during the Renaissance period.

Please submit your abstract (up to 150 words) and a short CV (including affiliation and contact information) no later than 31 May 2012 to:
Berthold Hub, University of Vienna, berthold.hubunivie.ac.at

RSA Renaissance Society of America, Annual Meeting
4-6 April 2013
San Diego

Speakers must be members of the Renaissance Society of America at the time of the conference.

Please consult the RSA website for further information: http//www.rsa.org