This workshop focusses on the practices and settings of knowledge production and transmission within various cultural and linguistic traditions of the medieval world. By examining a wide range of texts and manuscripts from different periods and regions of medieval Eurasia, the workshop aims to shed new light on how knowledge of various kinds (historical, legal, theological, philosophical, technical) was acquired, disseminated, preserved, and re-interpreted in medieval cultures.
Thematic emphases include, but are not limited to: a) the materiality of surviving manuscripts; b) the compilation strategies, the rise of new emphases, and the sociocultural relevance of text collections; c) the paratextual elements and marginal additions in the manuscripts as evidence of the creative interaction of medieval scholars with the received tradition; d) the institutional framework in which knowledge was preserved and organised (scriptoria, libraries, schools, institutions of higher learning); e) and the teaching methods employed, ranging from didactic poetry to extensive prose commentaries.
The workshop aims to facilitate discussions and exchange between the invited speakers and the participants in the LAB on relevant methodologies and theoretical frameworks, and to enrich the ideas and research questions driving our work.
Subject to Change
Friday, 24 April 2026
09:30 – 10:00 Welcoming Address | Claudia Rapp
Opening Remarks | Cinzia Grifoni, Maria-Lucia Goiana
10:00 – 11:00 Session 1 | Chair: Adrian Pirtea
Philip Forness, Shaping and Organizing Knowledge Through the Formation of Homiliaries from Greek to Syriac to Arabic
11:00 – 11:30 Coffee break
11:30 – 12:30 Session 2 | Chair: Till Stüber
Johanna Jebe, Monastic Knowledge and Knowledge about Monasticism: History-of-Knowledge Perspectives on Religious Change in the Carolingian World
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch
13:30 – 14:30 Session 3 | Chair: Francesca Fiaschetti
Pascale Hugon, On the Shoulders of Buddhas: Negotiating Authority and Creativity in the Medieval Tibetan Buddhist Tradition of Learning
14:30 – 15:00 Coffee break
15:00 – 16:00 Session 4 | Chair: Andreas Rhoby
Floris Bernard, Floating Among the Stars: Didactic Poetry on the Astral Sciences in Byzantium
16:00 – 16:30 Concluding Remarks | Nikos Zagklas
Discussion
19:00: Dinner for Invited Guests
Participants
Floris Bernard | Ghent University
Francesca Fiaschetti | ÖAW
Philip Forness | KU Leuven
Maria-Lucia Goiana | ÖAW
Cinzia Grifoni | ÖAW / Universität Wien
Pascale Hugon | ÖAW
Johanna Jebe | Universität Tübingen
Edit Anna Lukács | ÖAW
Adrian Pirtea | ÖAW
Claudia Rapp | ÖAW / Universität Wien
Andreas Rhoby | ÖAW
Till Stüber | ÖAW
Nikos Zagklas | ÖAW/ Universität Wien
& the members of the IMAFO Lab “Shaping Knowledge in the Middle Ages. Texts, Manuscripts, Contexts“
The workshop is organized within the framework of the Lab “Shaping Knowledge in the Middle Ages: Texts, Manuscripts, Contexts“, with financial support provided by the Institute of Medieval Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Information
24 April 2026
09:30-16:30
Venue:
Institute for Medieval Research (IMAFO)
PSK, Georg-Coch-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna
4th Floor, Seminar Room 5
Conveners and contact:
Maria-Lucia Goiana (ÖAW)
Cinzia Grifoni (ÖAW / Universität Wien)
Nikos Zagklas (ÖAW / Universität Wien)
Organisation:
Lab “Shaping Knowledge in the Middle Ages”, with the support of Angeliki Kolovou.