Crusading Things and the Material Outremer: The Account-Inventory of Eudes of Nevers, 1266
Date: Friday, March 26, 11:30-13:00 EST |17:30-19:00 GMT | 18:30-20:00 CET
Convened by: Anne E. Lester (History, Johns Hopkins University) & Laura K. Morreale (DALME Project at Harvard University/ Georgetown University, Affiliate)
Moderated by: Daniel Lord Smail (History, Harvard University, DALME Project PI)
Symposium Description: This symposium brings together the foremost scholars in the field of medieval material history and documentary practices of the Outremer (the medieval Latin East) to discuss the world of crusading things recorded in the Account-Inventory of Eudes of Nevers. Count Eudes of Nevers, son of the Duke of Burgundy, died in Acre on 7 August 1266, leaving in his wake a vast array of objects and obligations. Between August and October of the same year, three companion knights who served as his legal representatives oversaw the creation of an Account-Inventory ranging over four parchment rolls and written in Old French. The interlocking texts that make up the Account-Inventory open a window onto crusader life in Acre, including, debts owed, the pay rendered to knights, sergeants, and servants, and the numerous things -- jewels, armor, cloth, textiles, dishes, plates, books, relics, chapels, foodstuffs, banners, horses, and clothing -- that a crusading count possessed and gave away “on the day he was alive and dead.” Taken together the rolls evoke the material Outremer in unprecedented detail. Their composition, use, and circulation provoke a cascade of questions about diplomacy, trade, personal connections, the circulation of goods, the crusader Mediterranean, death, and remembrance. The symposium brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars to read, to comment on, and to think together about new ways of conceiving of the French Outremer in its material form and the histories that material objects reveal.
Panel of Invited Discussants:
Jonathan Rubin (History & Archaeology, Bar-Ilan University, Israel) “The Language and Written Culture of the Outremer”
Andrew Jotischky (History, University of London, Royal Holloway, UK), “The Landscapes of the Holy Land”
Sharon Farmer (Emerita, History, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA), “Textile Manufacture and Meaning”
Maureen Miller (History, University of California, Berkeley, USA), “Material Culture and Vestiture”
Caroline Smith (History & Old French, Independent Scholar/Fordham University, USA), “French Acre and the World of Joinville”
Richard Leson (Art History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA), “Crusader Cups and Moveable Objects”
A new edition and translation of the Account-Inventory as well as an accompanying commentary will be made available to registered participants. The draft documents are found in the links at the top of the website page, accessible with the password you'll receive upon registering:
Registration Link:
https://jh.zoom.us/webinar/register/4916148894283/WN_LTLmrpomQHGSd7Ub5nvLmw
Project Website:
https://materialoutremer.lauramorreale.com/
