PRESENTATION

Sacred books (including Jewish Bibles, Christian Bibles, Qur´ans, prayer books, psalters, haggadot, translations of and commentaries on Scripture, etc.) were at the center of book production for Jews, Christians and Muslims throughout the Middle Ages. This conference will investigate issues in the patronage, production, circulation and consumption of sacred books in the Western Mediterranean during the High and Late Middle Ages (roughly 10th-15th Century). In what ways did the demands of patronage nurture, determine, or constrain areas of intellectual and artistic engagement? How did patronage in the royal court differ from patronage in other contexts (the Church, religious orders, the madrasa, the university, the circles of learned elites, non-institutional settings)? What role did women play in the patronage, production or circulation of books? The interest of this conference is twofold: the patronage of sacred texts in comparative contexts and the role of inter-religious elements in the production of sacred texts. The participants will address the adoption of book-making techniques across religious boundaries, Jewish/Christian/Muslim collaborative translations of art/text productions, interest in reading, producing, or interpreting the sacred texts of other religious traditions, and other related questions.