Final Report Summary - BILDE (How Can “Images Drive Out Images”? The Use and Function of Devotional Imagery in Heinrich Seuse’s Exemplar: A Reassessment)
The aim of this two-year research and training programme was to provide new answers to art historical questions on the use and functions of imagery in meditative and mystical practices of the Late Middle Ages. Ingrid Falque did this by focusing of the highly problematic case of Henry Suso’s Exemplar in an interdisciplinary way, combining visual and textual studies. She worked on this project at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS) as an associated member of the Marie Curie Initial Training Network “Mobility of Ideas and Transmission of Texts” (MITT). This international network, uniting historians of literature, philosophers, historians and philologists (coordinated from LUCAS), focuses on the mystical tradition of the Rhineland and the Low Countries in the Late Middle Ages. The writings of Henry Suso belong to the corpus of mystical literature that is being studied in this ITN.
On a scientific level, the objectives of this project were to offer a renewed interpretation of Suso’s image theory and to study the text/images relationship in the Exemplar. On a training level, the aim of the programme was to broaden and deepen the research skills of Falque, who has been trained as an art historian, in other fields of medieval studies (German and Dutch literature, philosophy and theology) in order to enhance her academic career perspectives and to prepare her for larger research projects that bring together visual and textual studies.
Summary of training and transfer of knowledge
In the frame of this fellowship, it was fundamental to go beyond the limited text-image relationship that sees texts as commentaries on images and images as illustrations of texts. This is why Falque extended her research skills in the field of medieval literature, philosophy, theology and codicology.
During the academic year 2011-2012, she too the course “The Manuscript Book in the West” (Dr. Erik Kwakkel, Leiden University), whose aim is to introduce to codicology, preservation and dissemination of medieval manuscripts. She also attended several lectures organized in this context.
From the beginning of her fellowship, Falque participated very actively in the MITT-network and its scientific and training activities:
- MITT-meeting in Antwerp, December 2011: workshop on poster presentations; course on Early printed books and Analytical bibliography; study day on Johannes Tauler.
- MITT-meeting in Leiden, April 2012: on the themes ‘Career perspectives’ and ‘The Future of Historical Humanities’, with workshops and debates. Falque contributed to the organisation of the meeting and gave a lecture on my postdoc experience in Leiden for the early-stage researchers of the MITT.
- MITT-meeting in Oxford, October 2012: workshop on postdoc possibilities across Europe, a study day on ‘Medieval Women and Their Books. Manuscript Culture and Devotion in Germany and the Low Countries’ and
- Final meeting of the MITT, Freiburg, April 2013: presentations of the results of all individual research projects (including Falque’s) and meetings on the future of the MITT-network
On a more general level, the MITT-network allowed Falque to benefit from its international and interdisciplinary contacts. She worked with supervisors from the other universities of the MITT-network on her research (notably in Oxford, with Prof. Nigel Palmer and Prof. Almut Sauerbaum). The MITT has also launched a series entitled MIC (Manuscripts-Ideas-Culture) with the publisher ‘Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura’ (Rome). Falque will be co-editor of the one of the upcoming volumes of the series, which will contain articles written by the early stage researchers. The publication is scheduled in early 2014.
During these two years at Leiden University, Falque also took part in the activities of LUCAS, a research institute that also unites literary scholars and art historians. She attended the promovendibijeenkomsten (workshops where young researchers present their research projects), as well as several lectures in the fields of medieval studies. I also made use of training opportunities that Leiden University offers to its employees for career development: I attended workshops on “Writing an excellent research proposal”, on peer-reviewing, on Horizon 2020 and ERC starting grants. She contributed to a research master seminar on Medieval and Early Modern Art and Literature (Leiden University) and to a seminar for master students in the course “Power, Society, Politics: Religious Art in Northern Europe, c. 1450-1600” (Birmingham University)
On a scientific level, the objectives of this project were to offer a renewed interpretation of Suso’s image theory and to study the text/images relationship in the Exemplar. On a training level, the aim of the programme was to broaden and deepen the research skills of Falque, who has been trained as an art historian, in other fields of medieval studies (German and Dutch literature, philosophy and theology) in order to enhance her academic career perspectives and to prepare her for larger research projects that bring together visual and textual studies.
Summary of training and transfer of knowledge
In the frame of this fellowship, it was fundamental to go beyond the limited text-image relationship that sees texts as commentaries on images and images as illustrations of texts. This is why Falque extended her research skills in the field of medieval literature, philosophy, theology and codicology.
During the academic year 2011-2012, she too the course “The Manuscript Book in the West” (Dr. Erik Kwakkel, Leiden University), whose aim is to introduce to codicology, preservation and dissemination of medieval manuscripts. She also attended several lectures organized in this context.
From the beginning of her fellowship, Falque participated very actively in the MITT-network and its scientific and training activities:
- MITT-meeting in Antwerp, December 2011: workshop on poster presentations; course on Early printed books and Analytical bibliography; study day on Johannes Tauler.
- MITT-meeting in Leiden, April 2012: on the themes ‘Career perspectives’ and ‘The Future of Historical Humanities’, with workshops and debates. Falque contributed to the organisation of the meeting and gave a lecture on my postdoc experience in Leiden for the early-stage researchers of the MITT.
- MITT-meeting in Oxford, October 2012: workshop on postdoc possibilities across Europe, a study day on ‘Medieval Women and Their Books. Manuscript Culture and Devotion in Germany and the Low Countries’ and
- Final meeting of the MITT, Freiburg, April 2013: presentations of the results of all individual research projects (including Falque’s) and meetings on the future of the MITT-network
On a more general level, the MITT-network allowed Falque to benefit from its international and interdisciplinary contacts. She worked with supervisors from the other universities of the MITT-network on her research (notably in Oxford, with Prof. Nigel Palmer and Prof. Almut Sauerbaum). The MITT has also launched a series entitled MIC (Manuscripts-Ideas-Culture) with the publisher ‘Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura’ (Rome). Falque will be co-editor of the one of the upcoming volumes of the series, which will contain articles written by the early stage researchers. The publication is scheduled in early 2014.
During these two years at Leiden University, Falque also took part in the activities of LUCAS, a research institute that also unites literary scholars and art historians. She attended the promovendibijeenkomsten (workshops where young researchers present their research projects), as well as several lectures in the fields of medieval studies. I also made use of training opportunities that Leiden University offers to its employees for career development: I attended workshops on “Writing an excellent research proposal”, on peer-reviewing, on Horizon 2020 and ERC starting grants. She contributed to a research master seminar on Medieval and Early Modern Art and Literature (Leiden University) and to a seminar for master students in the course “Power, Society, Politics: Religious Art in Northern Europe, c. 1450-1600” (Birmingham University)