For the official launch of the IUS ILLUMINATUM Research Team, the Institute of Medieval Studies (IEM) of FCSH is hosting an international Workshop on the theme: “The Illuminated Legal Manuscript: Production, Circulation and Usage in Medieval Europe” on Friday 20 September 2019. The Workshop aims to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art in research on illuminated legal manuscripts in Europe within the framework of reflecting on the methodological implications and the practical and theoretical challenges that this research field entails. During the Workshop, different case studies analyse particular regions around Europe, with particular attention to whatever approaches the production, usage and circulation of the different copies subject to examination. The Workshop also aims to question the potential offered by new technologies and by the interdisciplinary approach to the study of the illuminated legal manuscript in order to both overcome existing limitations and open up innovative and fruitful avenues of research.

IUS ILLUMINATUM is made up of an international scientific team composed of medieval art historians belonging to different European academic institutions, all specialists in illuminated legal manuscripts. The formation of this research team is linked to the current research project “ManJurEurIt. Itinerant European Legal Manuscripts” by Maria Alessandra Bilotta, a post-doc researcher under contract at the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, NOVA University and an integrated member of the Institute of Medieval Studies (IEM) at the same University, and the coordinator and principal researcher of this team. The project “ManJurEurIt. Itinerant European Legal Manuscripts” seeks to investigate the circulation of legal manuscripts in Portugal and their interconnections with the artistic and social mobilities ongoing in Mediterranean Europe. The research team correspondingly intends to conduct a comparative study of the artistic, cultural and social currents revealed by the production and circulation of illuminated legal manuscripts in medieval Europe. Each member of the team sets out to investigate these phenomena through studying the specific typologies of legal manuscripts within a defined region of Europe. The team will also consider the material aspects of medieval legal books, analysing the books as archaeological artefacts through the collaboration of codicologists and archaeologists. Finally, another aim of the team’s work is to help promote and broaden discussion of these issues by organising scientific meetings and establishing contacts and interdisciplinary collaborations with other research groups and scientific institutions. IUS ILLUMINATUM has its headquarters at the Institute of Medieval Studies (IEM) of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, NOVA University, although members retain their own academic affiliations.

Organisation: Institute of Medieval Studies (IEM-FCSH/NOVA) Research workshop IUS ILLUMINATUM

Scientific organisation and coordination: Maria Alessandra Bilotta (IEM-FCSH/NOVA – PI of the IUS ILLUMINATUM research team)

Contacts: iem.geral@fcsh.unl.pt ; iusilluminatum@gmail.com