Elements and Environment in the Middle Ages: A Multidisciplinary Workshop

Belfast, Thursday 29 June 2023

Queen’s University Belfast

The Graduate School, ROOM TR6

Programme:

9.15-9.30 Welcome

9.30-10.45 Session 1 ‘COSMOLOGY’

moderator: Ciarán Walsh

Matthew McMahon (Armagh Observatory):  “Science and Spectacle; The History of Irish Astronomy Network” 

Piero Sicoli (Sormano Observatory): “Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli’s Observations of Comets”

Philipp Nothaft (Princeton): “Transformation or Augmentation? Cosmology and Planetary Theory in the Wake of the Twelfth-Century Translation ‘Movement’”

Q&A

10.45-11.00 Coffee Break

11.00-12.15 Session 2 ‘MEDICINE AND THE HUMAN BODY’

moderator: Irene Tenchini

Eileen Murphy (QUB): “Osteoarchaeological Evidence for Medical Practices in Medieval Ireland”

Siobhán Barrett (Maynooth): “Was the Cure Worse than the Disease? Animal Dung as an Ingredient in Medieval Remedies”

Elisa Ramazzina (QUB): “Therapeutic Baths and Elemental Theory in Medieval England”

Q&A

12.15-13.30 Lunch Break

13.30-14.45 Session 3 ‘TIME AND METEOROLOGY’

moderator: Holly E. Shipton

Andreas Lammer (Radboud): “Whose Meteorology? — The Purpose of Water in Explanation and Commentary” 

Richard Oram (Stirling): “Finding the 'Little Ice Age' in 15th-century Scotland: Parchment and Climate Proxy Records” 

Immo Warntjes (TCD): “The Formation of Time-reckoning as a Discipline of Christian Learning in Seventh-century Ireland” 

Q&A

14.45-15.00 Coffee Break

15.00-15.30 Flash Presentations

Holly E. Shipton (QUB): “The Environment and the Economy: Agrarian Considerations in 13th century Leinster”

Ciarán Walsh (QUB): “Combusting Crystals: Gemstones as Representations of Fire in Early-Medieval England”

Irene Tenchini (QUB): “Scents, Vaporous Emissions, and Noxious Air: Smell and Health in Old English Medicine”

Q&A

15.45-16.00 Break

16.00-17.00 Round Table ‘MEDIEVAL ENVIRONMENT AND IMPACT OPPORTUNITIES’

moderator: John Barry (QUB)

Keith Lilley (QUB); Mark Bailey (Armagh); Alexandra Paddock (Oxford); Marilina Cesario (QUB); James Davis (QUB).