SCAS News - 23 May, 2016

New Book by SCAS Pro Futura Scientia Fellow Virginia Langum

Recently the book Words and Matter: The Virgin Mary in Late Medieval and Early Modern
Parish Life, edited by SCAS Pro Futura Scientia Fellow Virginia Langum and Jonas Carlquist,
was published by Runica et Mediævalia (Scripta minora 24; 2015).

Virginia Langum is Pro Futura Scientia Fellow at SCAS and Reader (Docent) in English
Literature at Umeå University. She was in residence at the Collegium during the academic
year 2014-15 and in the autumn of 2015.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
'Words and Matter presents new work on the reception of the Mater Dei. Although a minimal
presence in the Bible, the virgin Mary figured prominently in the cultural artefacts produced in
the Middle Ages and even after the Reformation. As words, she dwelled in exempla, sermons,
prayers and plays. As matter, she imprinted church windows, wall paintings and illuminations.
In her various manifestations, Mary engaged the senses, minds and bodies of the faithful. The
studies in this collection span the Nordic countries, Ireland, England and southern Europe during
the later Middle Ages and the Reformation. However, all the essays in Words and Matter are
grounded in the practices of the late medieval and early modern parish and the beliefs of the
ordinary faithful. '

Read more about the book
Read more about Virginia Langum