Memory and the Middle Ages

February 17—May 23,1995

E-book

Memory and the Middle Ages—the first exhibition to explore how memory played an integral part in the formulation of images and thought throughout the middle ages, as well as in the neo-Medieval movements in New England during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The installation comprises nearly 100 objects in various media including sculpture, metalwork, ivory, manuscripts and prints from more than thirty different museums and libraries in the United States, Canada, and France. The exhibition and accompanying catalogue are divided into 7 sections, each representing a topic examined by one of the co-curators from the faculty at Boston College:

"Modes of Remembering the Classical Past"
Professor Nancy Netzer, Department of Fine Arts

"Unde et Memores, Domine: Memory and the Mass of St. Gregory"
Professor Patricia DeLeeuw, Department of Theology

"Remembering the Saints"
Professor Virginia Reinburg, Department of History

"'The Captivity of Jerusalem that is in Sepharad' Otherness, Exile, and Memory in Sephardic Spain"
Professor Dwayne E. Carpenter, Romance Languages and Literature

"Reinventing Arthurian History: Lancelot and the Vulgate Cycle"
Professor Matilda Bruckner, Department of Romance Languages

"Nineteenth-Century New England's Memory of the Middle Ages"
Professor Robin Fleming, Department of History

"A Twentieth-century Re-creation of a Medieval Memory: The Film Sorceress"
Professor Pamela Berger, Department of Fine Arts

The catalogue contains an essay by each curator and illustrates all of the objects in the exhibition in black and white. "The catalogue is a major contribution to the historical, literary and art historical scholarship on memory and will contribute to a broader understanding of the role of memory in medieval culture," explains Dr. Nancy Netzer, Director of the Museum.