MEDIEVAL BOOKS IN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD: COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES
CLUJ, 8-11 SEPTEMBER 2026
Project: UEFISCDI PN-IV-P1-PCE-2023-0465, ‘Medieval Books in the Early Modern Period: The Case of Cluj in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries’
TUESDAY, 8 SEPTEMBER
Colegiul Academic UBB, Str. Emmanuel de Martonne 1, Sala Club UBB (ground floor)
10:00-10:30 Opening addresses (Rector, dean, convenor)
10:30-11:15 Keynote 1; Chair: Adrian Papahagi (Cluj)
Cristina Dondi (Rome): Bibliothecae disiectae: Tracking books from the same library around the world
11:15-11:45 Coffee break
11:45-13:00 Panel 1 – Medieval Liturgical and Devotional Books in the Early Modern Period; Chair: Marilena Maniaci (Cassino)
11:45-12:10 Anne Margreet As-Vijvers (The Hague): Medieval devotional books in the sixteenth-century Netherlands
12:10-12:35 Dominika Grabiec (Warsaw): Using and updating medieval liturgical books in the early modern period in the Polish province of the Dominican Order
12:35-13:00 Ana-Maria Gînsac (Iași): Copying and annotating the Psalter in the sixteenth-century: The rhotic Romanian Psalters
13:00-14:30 Lunch break
14:30-15:45 Panel 2 – Medieval Manuscript Fragments: European Landscapes; Chair: Anne Margreet As-Vijvers (The Hague)
14:30-14:55 Antoni Iglesias (Barcelona): ‘Feliç el poble que pot i sap encara recollir i venerar tantes d’engrunes de còdexs perduts’. La fragmentología en Cataluña, una historia secular
14:55-15:20 Fanni Hende (Budapest): Fragments used as wrappers of records of tithes at the National Archives of Hungary in Budapest
15:20-15:45 Marilena Maniaci, Chiara de Angelis (Cassino): Cassinese manuscripts between dismemberment and recomposition: The genesis of the compactiones, and the late seventeenth-century restoration campaign
15:45-16:15 Coffee break
16:15-17:05 Panel 3 – Medieval Manuscript Fragments in Oxford and Cambridge; Chair: Joseph O’Hara (Oxford)
16:15-16:40 Peter Toth (Oxford): Library in the binding: Fragments from late medieval Levoča in Oxford
16:40-17:05 Scott Mandelbrote (Cambridge): Manuscript fragments in early sixteenth-century Cambridge book trade: evidence and methods for interpretation
17:05 – City tour. Free dinner arrangements.
WEDNESDAY, 9 SEPTEMBER
Colegiul Academic UBB, Str. Emmanuel de Martonne 1, Sala Club UBB (ground floor)
9:00-9:45 Keynote 2; Chair: Miruna Belea (Paris)
Judith Olszowy-Schlanger (Oxford/Paris): The contribution of Hebrew fragments to the study of Jewish book culture in Europe
9:45-10:15 Coffee break
10:15-11:30 Panel 4 – Hebrew Manuscript Fragments[1]; Chair: Scott Mandelbrote (Cambridge)
10:15-10:40 Emma Abate (Bologna): Sketches of knowledge: Kabbalistic diagrams in fragmentary Hebrew scrolls copied in Italy
10:40-11:05 Joseph O’Hara (Oxford): Structured annotation: digital palaeography and its use for the identification of Hebrew fragments
11:05-11:30 Elena Lolli (Paris): Frammenti ebraici ritrovati: recenti identificazioni a Mantova e nei territori limitrofi
Biblioteca Academiei Române, Str. M. Kogălniceanu 12-14, lobby (second floor)
11:45-12:45 Exhibition Opening: ‘Medieval Books in the Early Modern Period’
13:00-14:30 Lunch break
Colegiul Academic UBB, Str. Emmanuel de Martonne 1, Sala Club UBB (ground floor)
14:30-15:45 Panel 5 – Preserving Medieval Heritage in the Early Modern Period; Chair: Emma Abate (Bologna)
14:30-14:55 Adrien Quéret-Podesta (Warsaw): Préserver la mémoire des défunts et l’histoire du couvent: l’exemple du monastère bénédictin de Lubiń
14:55-15:20 Matilde Malaspina (Rome): Books not (yet) identified in Hernando Colón’s Libro de los epítomes: A first account
15:20-15:45 Andrei Crișan (Cluj): Assembling Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in the Elizabethan Age: Archbishop Matthew Parker’s Colligata
15:45-16:15 Coffee break
16:15-17:30 Panel 6 – Medieval Musical Manuscripts and Fragments; Chair: Zsuzsa Czagány (Budapest)
16:15-16:40 Eduard Lazorík (Bratislava): Travelling fragments: Reconstruction of an unknown fifteenth-century antiphonary
16:40-17:05 Szabolcs Márton (Cluj): Transylvanian manuscripts with Metz Gothic musical notation, and their fate in the sixteenth century
17:05-17:30 Eva Veselovská (Bratislava): From manuscripts to wrappers: Recycled medieval musical fragments in the Slovakian archives, museums and libraries, and in the city of Bardejov
19:00 Conference Dinner (Place tbc)
THURSDAY, 10 SEPTEMBER
Facultatea de Litere UBB, str. Horea 31, Sala Popovici (Ground Floor)
10:00-10:45 Keynote 3; Chair: Adrien Quéret-Podesta (Warsaw)
István Monok (Budapest): Changes in the content of reading material in the Kingdom of Hungary, 1450–1560
10:45-11:15 Coffee break
11:15-12:30 Panel 7 – Late Medieval Printed Books in the Early Modern Period; Chair: Ana-Maria Gînsac (Iași)
11:15-11:40 Miklós István Földváry, Apor Kiss-Pető (Budapest): Localism after nationalization: early modern glosses in printed missals from late medieval Hungary
11:40-12:05 Carmen Fenechiu, Carmen Oanea (Cluj): Reading the classics: Incunabula from the Academy Library in Cluj and their early modern readers
12:05-12:30 Márton Szovák (Budapest): Lessons from parchment incunabula fragments
12:30-14:30 Lunch break
14:30-15:45 Panel 8 – Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments: Cluj and Transylvania; Chair: Eva Veselovská (Bratislava)
14:30-14:55 Zsuzsa Czagány (Budapest): Two fragments and the story behind them: A fourteenth-century notated breviary from Cluj and its early modern afterlife
14:55-15:20 Miruna Belea (Paris): Medieval Hebrew Fragments in Cluj: a palaeographic case-study
15:20-15:45 Ágnes Korondi (Budapest): The long career of a fourteenth-century Franciscan Psalter in Transylvania
15:45-16:15 Coffee break
16:15-17:00 Roundtable – Closing Remarks; Chair: Adrian Papahagi (Cluj)
St Michael’s Church, Piața Unirii
19:00-20:00 Concert: Music from Transylvanian Manuscripts; Conductor: Szabolcs Márton (Cluj)
FRIDAY, 11 SEPTEMBER
Conference trip to Alba Iulia
9:00-10:30 Hotel Universitas, Cluj to Batthyaneum Library, Alba Iulia (100 km, by coach)
10:30-12:30 Visit of the Batthyaneum Library
12:30-14:30 Lunch
14:30-16:30 Visit of the city
17:00-18:00 Alba Iulia > Cluj
PARTICIPANTS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER):
Prof. Emma Abate – Associate Professor, Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna; emma.abate@unibo.it
Dr Anne Margreet As-Vijvers – Senior curator, Medieval Manuscript Illumination, RKD — Netherlands Institute for Art History, The Hague; as-vijvers@rkd.nl
Dr Miruna Belea – Postdoctoral researcher, École Pratique des Hautes Études – PSL, Paris; miruna.belea@ephe.psl.eu
Mr Andrei Crișan – Assistant professor in Old English, Faculty of Letters, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj; ioan.crisan2@ubbcluj.ro
Dr Zsuzsa Czagány – Senior researcher, Head of the Department of Early Music History, Institute of Musicology, ELTE Research Centre for the Humanities, Budapest; czagany.zsuzsa@abtk.hu
Dr Chiara de Angelis – Researcher, Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio meridionale, Cassino; chiara.deangelis@unicas.it
Prof. Cristina Dondi – Professor of Modern History, Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, Sapienza University, Rome, and Secretary of the Consortium of European Research Libraries; cristina.dondi@uniroma1.it
Dr Carmen Fenechiu – Lecturer, Department of Classical Studies, Faculty of Letters, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj; carmen.fenechiu@ubbcluj.ro
Dr Miklós István Földváry – Associate Professor, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), and principal investigator, MTA-ELTE Momentum Research Group of Liturgical History, Budapest; foldvary.miklos@btk.elte.hu
Dr Ana-Maria Gînsac – Researcher, Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies, ‘Alexandru Ioan Cuza’ University, Iaşi; anamaria.ginsac@uaic.ro
Dr Dominika Grabiec – Assistant Professor, Department of Musicology, Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw; dominikagrabiec@wp.pl
Dr Fanni Hende – Researcher, HUN-REN–NSZL Fragmenta et Codices Research Group, National Széchényi Library, Budapest; hende.fanni@oszk.hu
Prof. Josep Antoni Iglesias Fonseca – Professor, Department of Ancient and Medieval Sciences, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; toni.iglesias@uab.cat
Mr Apor Kiss-Pető – PhD candidate and researcher, MTA-ELTE Momentum Research Group of Liturgical History, Budapest; kiss.peto.apor2000@gmail.com
Dr Ágnes Korondi – Researcher, HUN-REN–NSZL Fragmenta et Codices Research Group, National Széchényi Library, Budapest; korondi.agnes@oszk.hu
Dr Eduard Lazorík – Researcher, Institute of Musicology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava; eduard.lazorik@savba.sk
Dr Elena Lolli – Postdoctoral researcher, École Pratique des Hautes Études – PSL, Paris; elena.lolli@ephe.psl.eu
Dr Matilde Malaspina – Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, Sapienza University, Rome; matilde.malaspina@uniroma1.it
Mr Scott Mandelbrote – Fellow, Director of Studies in History, and Perne Librarian, Peterhouse College, Cambridge; shm24@cam.ac.uk
Prof. Marilena Maniaci – Professor of Palaeography, Università di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale, and President of the Comité Intérnational de Paléographie Latine; m.maniaci@unicas.it
Dr Szabolcs Márton – Organist and choir director, St Michael’s Roman-Catholic church, and researcher, Centre for the History of the Book (CODEX), Faculty of Letters, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj; szabolcs.marton@ubbcluj.ro
Prof. István Monok – Director General, Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, and Professor, University of Tokaj-Hegyalja, Sárospatak; monok.istvan@konyvtar.mta.hu
Dr Joseph O’Hara – Junior Research Fellow in Hebrew Palaeography, Corpus Christi College, Oxford; joseph.ohara@ames.ox.ac.uk
Ms Carmen Oanea – PhD candidate, Faculty of Letters, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj; carmen.oanea@ubbcluj.ro
Prof. Judith Olszowy-Schlanger – Fellow and Professor in Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and Professor of Hebrew, École Pratique des Hautes Études – Paris Sciences Lettres; judith.schlanger@ames.ox.ac.uk
Prof. Adrian Papahagi – Professor of English and Manuscript Studies, and director of the Centre for the History of the Book (CODEX), Faculty of Letters, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj; adrian.papahagi@ubbcluj.ro
Dr Adrien Quéret-Podesta – Researcher, Department of History, Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw; adrien.queret-podesta@ispan.edu.pl
Dr Márton Szovák – Researcher, Early and Rare Printed Books Department, National Széchényi Library, Budapest; szovak.marton@oszk.hu
Dr Peter Toth – Cornelia Starks Curator of Greek Collections, The Bodleian Library, Oxford; peter.toth@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Dr Eva Veselovská – Director, Institute of Musicology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava; eva.veselovska@savba.sk
VENUES
Accommodation: Hotel Universitas UBB, Strada Plopilor 52-54, 400535 Cluj-Napoca (TRAM 101/102 stop PLOPILOR)
Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai, Colegiul Academic, Sala Club, Strada Emmanuel de Martonne 1, 400394 Cluj-Napoca (TRAM 101/102 from Hotel Universitas to G. BARITIU (4 stops), then walk 10-15 mins)
Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai, Colegiul Academic, Restaurant Piramida, Strada Emmanuel de Martonne 1, 400394 Cluj-Napoca (TRAM 101/102 from Hotel Universitas to G. BARITIU (4 stops), then walk 10-15 mins)
Biblioteca Academiei Române, Strada Mihail Kogălniceanu 12-14, 400084 Cluj-Napoca (TRAM 101/102 from Hotel Universitas to G. BARITIU (4 stops), then walk 10-15 mins)
Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai, Facultatea de Litere, Strada Horea 31, 400394 Cluj-Napoca (TRAM 101/102 from Hotel Universitas to FACULTATEA DE LITERE, 5 stops)
PARTNERS
• Biblioteca Filialei Cluj a Academiei Române
• MiDRASH/HebrewPal projects
[1] Panel sponsored by the MiDRASH/HebrewPal projects.
Centrul CODEX 