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It would be difficult to exaggerate the centrality of the Psalms within
medieval monastic life and thought. As the wellspring of the liturgy and
the most intensively studied book of the Bible, the Psalter's language
powerfully shaped monastic understandings of salvific history, prayer and
penance, and mankind's relationship to God. While a great deal of work has
been done on the place of the Psalms in pre-modern Christianity, much of
this has focused on a relatively small number of subjects and texts (e.g.,
richly illuminated 'presentation' Psalters), and on Late Antiquity and the
early Middle Ages. The role of the Psalms in shaping monastic ideals during
the later Middle Ages remains a rich area for scholarly inquiry.
Possible topics for papers include, but are not limited to: monastic
exegesis of the Psalter or individual Psalms; the psalmody of particular
orders or religious communities; the reception of patristic commentaries in
later medieval monasteries; the language of the Psalms (or invocations of a
particular Psalm or verse) in monastic sermons, letters, and/or works of
hagiography; iconographic traditions related to the Psalter or to particular
Psalms; and the recitation of the Psalter as a meditative, ascetic, or
penitential practice. Interdisciplinary approaches that engage with some
combination of history, literature, liturgy and musicology, manuscript
studies and art history are especially welcome.
Submission Details: Submit one-page abstracts and contact information to
Katherine Smith at [log in to unmask] no later than September 15, 2009.