"Queens, Noblewomen, and Burgher Women in the Middle Ages: Status, Role, Identity", October 26-27, 2023, Academic Conference Centre, Husova 4a, Prague.

Objects of visual and material culture provide insight into how medieval women formed their own identities. To various degrees it is here that their personal wishes and tastes, as well as the roles determined for them by society, were manifested. Of fundamental importance of course was a woman’s social status. It was her roles and status that directly formed or added to the individual personality traits of a woman from both the upper and the lower classes of society. The need to represent her family or family line was felt strongly, particularly at the highest levels of medieval society and this was extensively reflected in the arts. These identity-forming aspects overlapped and complemented each other, together creating the diversity of meanings of the works with which women surrounded themselves and through which they communicated, whether in the family, at court, in public, or sometimes to achieve a political aim.

The purpose of the conference is to inquire into these various aspects by considering a wide range of cultural media. In addition to questions regarding how medieval women perceived themselves and how they wished to be perceived, the conference papers will also look at aspects linked with the external attitudes of society, which was forming a model of identity by means of ‘mirrors’ and advice intended for women. The focus may also be directed at the ways their identity was, in particular instances, reflected and developed further through historiography or other literary works.

This interdisciplinary and international conference follows on from last’s year conference entitled “Queens, Noblewomen, and Burgher Women, 1300-1550: Initiative-takers or Passive Patrons?” The aim of the conference continues to be the development of an international platform for research on the topic of women patrons, their social standing and way they presented themselves in medieval Europe.

The conference is organized by the Institute of Art History of ASCR, Masaryk Institute and Archives of ASCR and Institute of Czech literature of ASCR with the support of the Strategy AV 21 Programme: Anatomy of European society. History, tradition, culture, identity.

PROGRAMME

OCTOBER 26, 2023

09.00: Morning Coffee and Registration

09.30: Welcome by TAŤÁNA PETRASOVÁ (Vice-director of the Institute of Art History, CAS, Prague, Czech Republic)

09.45: Conference Opening

SESSION I: Negotiating Social Status. Sounds, Objects, Symbols, Memoria

10.00 KARL KÜGLE (Faculty of Music, Oxford University, UK): "Sonic Identity Formations and French Princesses of the Blood: A Comparative Approach"

10.30 HANNO WIJSMAN (Institute for Research and History of Texts, French National Centre for Scientific
Research, Paris, France): "Staging Oneself in the Margin: Women and their Manuscripts, Women in their Manuscripts"

11.00: Coffee Break

11.30: HELENA DÁŇOVÁ – KLÁRA MEZIHORÁKOVÁ (Institute of Art History, CAS, Prague, Czech Republic):
"An imprint of identity? Tradition or Self-representation on Women’s Seals in Medieval Bohemia"

12.10: KAREL MARÁZ (Faculty of Chemistry, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic): "The Seal as a Means of Reflection of the Identity and (Self ) Presentation of Women in the Middle Ages in the Bohemian Lands"

12.45: Lunch Break

14.30: KRISTEN GEAMAN (History Department, University of Toledo, USA): "Anne of Bohemia, Patronage, Material Culture, and Gifts"

15.00: SOPHIE CHARRON (Faculty of History, Oxford University, UK): "Inventory of Sophie of Bavaria"

15.30: Coffee Break

16.00: LUCA PALOZZI (Department of Civilisations and Forms of Knowledge, University of Pisa, Italy): "Simone Martini’s Paradise: Vision and Female Commemoration in Petrarch’s RVF 77–78"

16.30: CIPRIAN FIREA (Institute of Archaelogy and Art History, Cluj-Napoca, Romania): "‘Relicta quondam egregii domini...’: Transylvanian Widows and their Families ‘Memoria’ (ca. 1450–1550)"

17.00: Discussion

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OCTOBER 27, 2023

09.00: Morning Coffee

SESSION II: Shaping and Expressing Religious Identity

10.00: VĚRA SOUKUPOVÁ (Institute of Czech Literature, CAS, Prague, Czech Republic): "Devotional Books in Late Medieval Bohemia and their Female Readers: Outline of Possible Contexts of Reception"

10.30: SUE NIEBRZYDOWSKI (The Stephen Colclough Centre for the History and Culture of the Book,
University of Bangor, UK): "‘Heldyng down hir hed, and hir boke in hir hand’: Margery Kempe’s Book of Hours"

11.00: EVA VESELOVSKÁ – ZUZANA BADÁROVÁ (Insitute of Musicology, SAS, Bratislava, Slovakia
Department of Musicology, Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic): "The Notated Manuscripts of Queen Elizabeth Richenza as a Source of Identity"

11.30: Coffee Break

12.00: EDYTA PLUTA-SALADRA (Institute of History and Archival Studies at the Pegagogical University of Krakow, Poland): "Socio-cultural Roles of Medieval Women in the Light of Selected Lists of Miracles"

12.30 MARIA CRÄCIUN (Department of Medieval, Early Modern and Art History, Babeş-Bolyai University,
Cluj-Napoca, Romania): "Gendered Individual and Social Identity within Transylvanian Late Medieval Devotional Culture"

13.00: Lunch Break

SESSION III: ‘Ideal Women’ – Meeting and Fulfilling Expectations?

14.30: DANA DVOŘÁČKOVÁ MALÁ – JANA FANTYSOVÁ MATĚJKOVÁ (Institute of History, CAS, Prague and Masaryk Institute and Archive, CAS, Prague, Czech Republic): "‘Nomen est omen.’ Guta of Habsburg and Bonne of Luxembourg as ‘Good Ladies’"

15.00: MATOUŠ TUREK (Institute of Czech Literature, CAS, Prague, Czech Republic): "‘... likly to ben quenes’: Noblewomen’s Aspirations in Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women"

15.30: Coffee Break

16.00: KATARZYNA KOSIOR (Department of Humanities, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK): "Royal Motherhood and Identity in the 16th Century"

16.30: PATRIK PAŠTRNÁK (Department of History, Palacký University in Olomouc, Czech Republic): "A Machiavellian Princess or Submissive Wife? Didactical Texts for Queens and Diomede Carafa’s Conduct Book (1476)"

17.00: Conclusion and Discussion

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The conference is open to the public. For the Zoom link, please register by October 24, 2023 at the e-mail addresses below:

Helena Dáňová (Institute of Art History of the CAS): danovaudu.cas.cz
Klára Mezihoráková (Institute of Art History of the CAS: mezihorakovaudu.cas.cz
Jana Fantysová-Matějková (Masaryk Institute and Archive of the CAS): fantysovamua.cas.cz
Věra Soukupová (Institute of Czech Literature of the CAS): soukupovaucl.cas.cz