To celebrate its fourth year, the IUS ILLUMINATUM Research Workshop will host on 20 September 2022, in collaboration with the Institute of Medieval Studies (IEM) of NOVA FCSH and the Fondazione Biblioteca Capitolare di Verona (Italy), with the sponsorship of the Italian Cultural Institute of Lisbon, an international workshop entitled: “The Illuminated Legal Manuscript. Research in progress”.

This is the third international Workshop organised by the Research Workshop IUS ILLUMINATUM. The event, which is taking place in person in Verona, in the city’s prestigious Capitular Library, aims to communicate the results of the research carried out by team members during its fourth year to a wider audience and take stock of that already done in order to outline future research perspectives.

This Workshop also aims to set out an overview of the research developments on illuminated law manuscripts in Europe, with the aim of reflecting on the methodological implications and the practical and theoretical challenges that this research entails. This scientific event features different case studies interrelated with specific European regions, subject to analysis through an interdisciplinary approach that overcomes limitations and opens up innovative and fruitful research paths.

IUS ILLUMINATUM is an international scientific team composed of medieval art historians belonging to different European academic institutions, all specialised in illuminated legal manuscripts. This research team interlinks with the ongoing research project “ManJurEurIt. Itinerant European Legal Manuscripts” by Maria Alessandra Bilotta, a contract post-doc researcher at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Nova University of Lisbon and an integrated member of the Institute of Medieval Studies (IEM) at the same university, and project coordinator and the team’s lead researcher. The “ManJurEurIt. Itinerant European Legal Manuscripts” project aims to study the circulation of legal manuscripts in Portugal and their linkage with artistic and social mobilities across Mediterranean Europe. The research team is correspondingly undertaking a comparative study of the artistic, cultural and social currents reflected in the production and circulation of illuminated legal manuscripts in medieval Europe. Each team member sets out to investigate these phenomena by studying specific legal manuscript typologies within a defined European region. The focus also extends to the material aspects of medieval legal books, incorporating the collaboration of codicologists and archaeologists, analysing these works as archaeological artefacts. Finally, another team objective involves assisting in promoting and broadening discussion of these issues by organising scientific meetings and establishing contacts and interdisciplinary networks with other research groups and scientific institutions. IUS ILLUMINATUM is based at the Institute of Medieval Studies (IEM), the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Nova University, although its members retain their own academic affiliations.

Organisation: Institute of Medieval Studies (IEM-NOVA FCSH); IUS ILLUMINATUM Oficina de investigação; Fondazione Biblioteca Capitolare di Verona

Sponsorship: Italian Cultural Institute of Lisbon

Scientific Commission: Massimiliano Bassetti (University of Verona); Maria Alessandra Bilotta (IEM-NOVA / FCSH); Fabio Coden (University of Verona); Timoty Leonardi (Chapter Library of Verona)