We’re delighted to announce that the BASIRA public search interface will officially launch at this year’s Schoenberg Symposium for Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age, which will be held November 16–18 2023 at the University of Pennsylvania and the Free Library of Philadelphia. Now in its sixteenth year, the Schoenberg Symposium is an open, free-to-the-public event that gathers scholars, students, and interested members of the public. This year, the event theme is The Image of the Book: Representing the Codex, from Antiquity to the Present, and is tied to BASIRA: The occasion will mark the public launch of the BASIRA Project: our web browser public search features will be operational by then, and we’ll be conducting demonstrations of the interface.
This symposium will examine the means by which the book, and in particular the manuscript, is described across a wide variety of media, from painting and sculpture to digital media and film. Topics to be addressed include the book as a symbol of authority, wisdom, or piety; the visual archeology of otherwise vanished bookbinding styles, reading practices, and study spaces; and the re-imagining of the physicality of the codex through digital means.
The BASIRA database, like the symposium itself, aims to engage historians of religion, literacy, art, music, language, and private life, as well as book artists, conservators, and interested members of the public. The symposium is organized in partnership with the Rare Book Department of the Free Library of Philadelphia (view on map).
The program will begin Thursday evening, November 16, 5:00 pm (Location TBD), at the Free Library of Philadelphia in the Rare Book Department, with a reception and keynote address by Jeffrey Hamburger, Kuno Francke Professor of German Art & Culture, Harvard University. The symposium will continue November 17-18 at the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts (view on map).
The symposium will be held in person with an option to join virtually. Registration and program details will be available on September 1, 2023.
Other speakers include:
- Allie Alvis, Punch Type Matrix
- Georgios Boudalis, Museum of Byzantine Culture, Thessaloniki
- Alberto Campagnolo, Université Catholique de Louvain
- Sonja Drimmer, University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Barbara Williams Ellertson, Independent Scholar and SIMS
- Emine Fetvacı, Boston College
- Devin Fitzgerald, UCLA Library, Special Collections
- Denva Gallant, University of Delaware
- Beatrice Kitzinger, Princeton University
- Thomas Rainer, University of Zurich
- Yael Rice, Amherst College
- Lucy Freeman Sandler, New York University
- Dominique Stutzmann, Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes
- James Watts, Syracuse UniversitySabina Zonno, University of Southern California
EVENT SERIES
The Lawrence J. Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age
This annual symposium brings together scholars to present research related to the study of manuscript books and documents produced before the age of printing and to discuss the role of digital technologies in advancing manuscript research.
Open to the Public
Registration opens September 1
Event Series
The Lawrence J. Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age
This annual symposium brings together scholars to present research related to the study of manuscript books and documents produced before the age of printing and to discuss the role of digital technologies in advancing manuscript research.
