AVISTA Sponsored Sessions
at the 35th International Congress
on Medieval Studies, 2000

JEAN GIMPEL:

FIVE DECADES OF MEDIEVAL
TECHNOLOGY, SCIENCE AND ART

KALAMAZOO, 4-7 MAY 2000

1) Medieval Technology

Organizer and Presider: Kelly DeVries, Loyola College

• Charles Stegeman, Haverford College, “Gimpel and the legacy of medieval technology” (10 minutes)

• Bert S. Hall, University of Toronto, “The gunpowder cookbook: Reconstructing the history of gunpowder from recipe texts”

• Alan M. Stahl, American Numismatic Society, “Technological innovation and control at the medieval Venetian mint”

• Paul J. Gans, New York University, “The medieval horse harness: Revolution or evolution? A case study in technological change”

2) Medieval Science

Organizer: Charles Stegeman, Haverford College and Marie-ThÈrËse Zenner, CNRS-Poitiers
Presider: Marie-ThÈrËse Zenner, CNRS-Poitiers

• John D. North, University of Gröningen (emeritus), “Diagram and thought in medieval science”

• Stephen McCluskey, West Virginia University, “The uses of astronomy in the early middle ages”

• Wesley M. Stevens, University of Winnipeg, “Euclid or not? Assessing geometry in 32 Latin manuscripts”

• Bob Greenberg, Architect, Ryerson University, “Practical geometry of plate tracery” (hands-on demonstration)

4) Practical Geometry from the 7th to 15th Century

Organizer and Presider: Marie-ThÈrËse Zenner, CNRS-Poitiers

• Robert D. Stevick, University of Washington, “The art of radically coherent geometry”
• Renaud Beffeyte, ARMEDIEVAL, “A Platonic dialogue on the Villard portfolio” (40 minutes: a special session by an artisan trained in the same oral tradition of compagnonnage as Villard)
• Richard J. Betts, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, “‘No art is perfect without mathematics’: Geometry and design in the treatises of Francesco di Giorgio (1439-1501)”

5) Portfolio of Villard de Honnecourt

Organizer and Presider: Carl F. Barnes, Jr., Oakland University

• William W. Clark, Queens College and Graduate Center-CUNY, “Reims Cathedral in the portfolio of Villard de Honnecourt”
• Jennifer S. Alexander, University of Nottingham, “Masons’ marks in the portfolio of Villard de Honnecourt”
• Roland Bechmann, Atelier d’AmËnagment et d’Architecture, Paris, “The ‘Saracen’s tomb’: A new interpretation of folio 6r in the Villard manuscript”
• Janet Snyder, West Virginia University, “Costumes in the portfolio of Villard de Honnecourt”

6) Gothic Architecture

Organizer and Presider: Stephen Murray, Columbia University

• Malcom Thurlby, York University, “Aspects of Gothic vault construction in England 1175-1330”
• William B. Folkestad, Central Washington University, “Gothic windows at Saint-Denis”
• Meredith Cohen, Columbia University, “The Sainte-Chapelle of Paris: Locus Sanctus or Locus Regius?”
• Robert Bork, University of Iowa, “Rock, spires, paper: Some technical aspects of Gothic spire construction”