37th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan
University, Kalamazoo
May 2-5, 2002
Special Session
"In the name of God and Profit:" Images of Commerce and Spirituality in the
Later Middle Ages
This session will explore the multifaceted relationships between commerce
and spirituality as depicted in late Medieval images.
The Italian merchant Francesco Datini's ledger entry ("in the name of God
and profit") illustrates one way in which religious piety and business
practices were integrated in the late fourteenth century. Such a
connection reflects contemporary anxieties over how religious thought could
structure commerce and profit-making. Religious texts also integrate
commercial practices with salvation, such as Jacopo da Voragine's citation
of Augustine, where Christ's redemption of mankind's original sin was
recast as the borrowing of money at interest and the debt's repayment. The
large numbers of images depicting money, charity, vices connected with
greed, and religious stories related to poverty and wealth, reflect
societal attempts either to delineate moral divisions between profit-making
and religious piety, or to reconcile them. Papers might consider religious
imagery produced in connection with commerce, such as images for guilds;
the depiction of commercial practices in narrative cycles or manuscripts;
commissions for mendicant orders; private commissions; coinage, or
relationships between images and sumptuary laws.
Abstracts must be submitted by September 15, 2001 (see instructions on the
following webpage)
<http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/37cfp/02letter.html>
Please contact one of the co-organizers for further information.
Julia Miller: jimiller@csulb.edu
Laurie Taylor-Mitchell: ltmitch@juno.com
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Julia I. Miller
Art Department
California State University, Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Boulevard
Long Beach, CA 90840
Phone: 562-985-5665
Fax: 562-985-1650
jimiller@csulb.edu
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