Martha Dana Rust

Associate Professor of English

"The Roundel: Window onto the Domain of a Concept"

16 October 2019

Venue TBC

Time: TBC

About the Speaker

Martha Rust (New York University) is one of the most innovative scholars working in History of the Book today. Her book Imaginary Worlds in Medieval Books argues that medieval books are virtual realms, where text, paratextual features and images combine to produce a network of meaning in the reader’s mind. She focuses in particular on the way that illuminated initials work both as parts of words and as graphic features, with their shapes being used to create symbolic meaning as well as providing homes for images. In her lecture at Durham, she will focus on the intriguing way that roundels, found in groups in many magnificent illuminated manuscripts, gather images into series, functioning as shapes, frames, links, containers and spaces of meaning all at once.

26-27 March 2020, Hatfield College, Durham

We are delighted to confirm the following plenary speakers:

Deborah McGrady (University of Virginia)

Ada Palmer (University of Chicago)