2016 witness the 1700-year anniversary of St. Martin of Tours. An international symposium will be organized in Tours in 2016 to address St, Martin and his world in an interdisciplinary context. Several scientific fields, History, Archaeology, Art History, Literary Studies, Ethnology and Anthropology, Theology, Economics, are called to participate.

Saint Martin, expansion and revivals of his popularity from the origins to the present day
Tours
12.10.2016 – 14.10.2016

 

As part of the Saint Martin’s year 2016 (1700th anniversary of the birth of Saint Martin), an international conference will be held at the University of Tours, October 12th-14th 2016, on the theme of “Saint Martin, expansion and revivals in his popularity from the origins to the present day”. The conference concerns not only historians but also archaeologists, art historians, sociologists, theologians, and literary scholars. Focus will be on the lesser known aspects of the theme, e.g. the revivals of saint Martin’s cult in some regions of Europe at different periods; or ethnological and anthropological dimensions and their impact on art and literature; or theological appropriation of the saint Martin’s figure.

Call for Papers

2016 will be St. Martin’s year and we shall celebrate the 1700th anniversary of his birth. This is a good opportunity to review the studies on St. Martin.

There is a huge bibliography on this subject, but the research topics are also very numerous. Reference should be made to the fundamental work of Jacques Fontaine (for editing the works of Sulpicius Severus), Clare Stancliffe (for the historical context of the fourth century) and Luce Pietri (for the historical context of late antique and early medieval city of Tours). Archeological works in the Touraine have been conducted by Charles Lelong and Henri Galinié. Recently it is to Elisabeth Lorans that we owe the renewal of archeology in Marmoutier.

St. Martin’s year 1960-1961 was marked by several symposia held in Tours, in Ligugé and in Rome. The proceedings remain a reference even today. St. Martin’s year 1996-1997 also gave the opportunity to hold conferences focusing on Tours and on the sharing of the mantle.

2016

The international symposium organized in Tours in 2016 aims to address the figure of Martin from a holistic perspective. Several scientific fields, History, Archeology, Art History, Literary Studies, Ethnology and Anthropology, Theology, Economics, are called upon to review some fundamental issues:

• If the origin of the cult has been well studied (cf. L. Pietri), further reflection should be hoped for on the relationship between the spreading of a book and the success of a cult, as well as on the different dimensions of the cult. This original phase is marked by foundations in Touraine, in Poitou, but also in Rome and elsewhere in Gaul and Italy. The characterization of an original phase should allow us to study the issue of revitalization, revival, renaissance, reappropriations, reinterpretations of the history of the cult; as well as obviously the opposite phenomena of extinction, decline, erasure, obliteration, etc. All this has been little studied in previous work. The various dimensions of the “martinian” cult are not necessarily combined in the same degree in the same period. Each phase of growth of the cult has probably its own source and its own geography. It is particularly useful to combine historical texts and archaeological data on these different phases: the first foundations, the Merovingian and Carolingian foundations, foundations of the central Middle Ages and foundations in more recent periods. At each stage there are issues of scale: across all regions of Europe where the cult was revived as opposed to those where it disappears; on a local scale the transfer of a patronage of a vanished church to a new church does not necessarily occur in the same place but may involve a series of local relations and transformations.
• How may we characterize the cult of St. Martin in Italy, in the British Isles, Spain, in the Germanic area, in the Scandinavian area, in the Slavic area, in Hungary …
• In a broader context covering the 1700 years participants are also invited to examine the testimony of literature, folklore, music, theology and art.
• Finally, the historiographical question, especially in the nineteenth century, should not be forgotten.

Proposals for presentations should be formulated in one page and may be submitted in English, French, German or Italian. The Scientific Committee will select the proposals according to their relevance to the argument of the conference.

The scientific committee is especially composed of Luce Pietri (professeur d’Histoire ancienne, université de Paris IV Sorbonne), Clare Stancliffe (Professor of Ecclesiastical History, Durham university), Elisabeth Lorans (professeur d’Archéologie médiévale, université de Tours), Bruno Judic (professeur d’Histoire du Moyen Âge, université de Tours), Thomas Deswarte (professeur d’Histoire du Moyen Âge, université d’Angers), Sylvie Labarre (maître de conférences de Latin, université du Mans), Christine Bousquet (maître de conférences d’Histoire du Moyen Âge, université de Tours), Yossi Maurey (professeur de musicologie, Hebrew University Jérusalem), Hervé Oudart (maître de conférences d’Histoire du Moyen Âge, université de Paris IV Sorbonne), Chantal Senséby (maître de conférences d’Histoire du Moyen Âge, université d’Orléans), Bruno Maes (maître de conférences d’Histoire moderne, université de Lorraine Nancy), Robert Beck (maître de conférences d’Histoire contemporaine, université de Tours).

The deadline for submitting proposals is April 30th 2016.

Bruno JUDIC
département d’Histoire, université de Tours
CeTHIS
3, rue des Tanneurs BP 4103
F 37041 Tours Cedex 1
02 47 36 66 28
Email: bruno.judic@univ-tours.fr
Visit the website at http://cethis.hypotheses.org