
The University of New Mexico
NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Carolyn Gonzales 277-5920
cgonzal@unm.edu
March 20, 2006
Inventiveness Focus of UNM Medieval Institute Lecture Series
The University of New Mexico's Institute for Medieval Studies hosts “Medieval Innovations: How the Middle Ages Changed Western Culture,” a series of six lectures and a concert, Monday, April 3 through Thursday, April 6 in Room 101 of Woodward Hall on the university's main campus.
The event, supported by a grant from the New Mexico Humanities Council, is free and open to the public. The series begins with a keynote lecture at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 3 and continues with 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. lectures on the following three days. The lecturers include distinguished, award-winning experts from the United States and the United Kingdom . Several major cultural developments to be discussed in the presentations have special resonance with New Mexico 's own rich traditions, themselves rooted in the medieval past.
A concert of medieval music, scheduled for 4 p.m. on Thursday, April 6, will be performed by UNM's Early Music Ensemble under the direction of Colleen Sheinberg, founder member and co-director of Música Antigua de Albuquerque.
Modern perspectives on the Middle Ages often see the period between 500 and 1500 A.D. as a time of stagnation and backwardness. “Medieval Innovations: How the Middle Ages Changed Western Culture” sets out to demonstrate that these centuries saw fundamental developments in Western culture that represent brilliant achievements in their own right—achievements which in many cases have remained influential down to the present.
The bound book, for example, began to replace the roll or scroll only toward the end of Antiquity. It evolved during the Middle Ages into the major means for the transmission of knowledge that remained until the advent of the Internet Age; medieval scribes and artists exercised remarkable inventiveness to turn the illuminated manuscript into an object of the most exquisite beauty. Again, the technical innovations in construction that made possible the soaring arches and vaults of the great Gothic cathedrals of the 12th through 15th centuries produced an architectural form that has never ceased to evoke feelings of awe in all who enter these magnificent buildings; while their stained glass windows, the product of an entirely new technique discovered in the 11th century, have similarly fired the imagination of those who behold their richly resonant colors and imagery.
The university, which both revolutionized and codified Western education, is another medieval “invention,” springing out of the world of 12th-century schools. In religious and spiritual life too, the Middle Ages witnessed striking diversity and inventiveness as new movements emerged, among them the Devotio Moderna or “Modern Devotion,” which in the late 14th century offered lay men and women a new means to develop and interpret their spiritual experience.
The lectures offer a multi-disciplinary perspective with broad appeal. For more information on “Medieval Innovations” or on other events offered by the Institute for Medieval Studies, call 505-277-2252 or visit the Institute's website at www.unm.edu/~medinst.
The University of New Mexico is the state's largest university, serving more than 32,000 students. UNM is home to the state's only schools of law, medicine, pharmacy and architecture and operates New Mexico's only academic health center. UNM is noted for comprehensive undergraduate programs and research that benefits the state and the nation.
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