Popular Culture and the Deep Past: Sports and Pastimes in the Medieval and Renaissance Worlds

Popular Culture and the Deep Past 2024: 

Let the Games Begin! 

Sports and Pastimes in the Medieval and Renaissance Worlds

Location

We are excited to return to an in-person event for 2024! Friday's research presentations will be via Zoom, while the kick-off falconry event and keynote will be in-person (see locations below). Saturday's research presentations and keynote will be in person and via Zoom, while all other events and activities are in person. 

To register for Friday virtual events, go to: https://osu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUqce2hqDojHNLNkP7I-F5eGTjr1o_EdjqF

To register for Saturday virtual events, go to: https://osu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMpcuqqpz0qHNaHd3ODlzCCvATrtDKW1Y5p

On February 16-17, the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies will host its biennial celebration of Popular Culture and the Deep Past (PCDP) at the Ohio State University, with "Let the Games Begin!: Sports and Pastimes in the Medieval and Renaissance Worlds." As in past years, this event will feature a scholarly conference with papers, round tables and keynote lectures by prominent scholars who will discuss a range of entertainments in their cultural and social contexts, nested within a Renaissance-faire-like carnival featuring exhibits, gaming, contests and activities of all kinds. Costumes are welcome!

Medieval and Renaissance games are alive in our world in unmissable and unseen ways. Many of us enjoy attending a medieval-style joust or playing video games with Renaissance storyworlds, while many of the most popular "modern" games, like chess and baseball, have pre-modern roots. By actively discussing and experiencing what they did (and we do) for pleasure and competition, we can get closer to these cultures and the lived, embodied experiences of their members, while reassessing their place in our contemporary popular imagination. 

Schedule of Events 

(All times EST)

Friday, February 16 

• 9 - 10:30 AM: Paper Session 1 (Zoom) 
  • Moderator - Tiago Viúla de Faria
  •  "Folganças e desenfadamentos de montes e caças": the practice of royal hunting in the Medieval Portugal: Afonso Soares de Sousa and Diana Martins 
  •  With great harm and danger: Bullfighting in Medieval Portugal: : João Nisa
  • "Com os da corte por festa": urban elites and knightly jousting in Portugal:  António Oliveira
  •  All Fun and Games? Military training in Late Medieval Portugal (15th and early-16th centuries) : Paulo M. Dias
• 10:45 AM - 12:15 PM: Paper Session 2 (Zoom)
  • Moderator - Genevieve Berendt
  • What is in the Game? Moral Significance of Games in Medieval Psalters: Elena Lichmanova
  • From Chivalric Pageantry to Political Magnificence: Early Henrician Joust: Kristen Engel
  • The Gypsies and Street Games: The Corregiola in the Territories of the Spanish Empire During the Early Modern Age: Maria Gloria Tumminelli
• 12:45 - 2:15 PM: Paper Session 3 (Zoom)
  • Moderator - Elise Robbins
  • What Game is She Playing? "The Chess Game" (1555) by Sophonisba Anguissola: Alla Cherniak
  • Mixed Realism, Mixed Sociality: How Ludic Interactions Shape Homosocial Bonds in Thomas Malory's Morte: Brooke Thomas
  • The Art of the Game: The Representation of Status and Gender in Depictions of Medieval Games: Chloe Peters
• 2:30 - 4 PM: Paper Session 4 (Zoom)
  • Moderator - Jonathan Combs-Schilling
  • Games and Their Role in Homiletics: an Insight Into Selected Sermons in Late-Medieval Poland (14^th-15^th century) : Robert Bubczyk
  • The Mongol Empire's "Olympic Games" Prototype: How the Mongols Fostered International Sports Competitions in the Thirteenth Century: Stephen Pow
  • Courtly Airs in Contemporary Contexts: Michael Yonchak and Christina Reitz

• 4:30 - 5:15 PM: Live event kick-off demonstration with Ohio School of Falconry (east side of Oval near Hagerty Hall)

  KEYNOTE

• 5:30 - 7 PM: “Ther is fair game!” Falconry as Spectator Art:" Keynote Lecture with Sara Petrosillo, University of Evansville (Ohio Union: US Bank Conference Theater)

  • Abstract: Falconry, the practice of training hawks and falcons to hunt together with humans, was both an intimate partnership and a communal spectacle. This talk will explore the material history of falconry in Europe, the art of falconry training, and the influence of falconry on people’s thinking. We will explore the language and illustrations from the most famous and comprehensive falconry manual of all time, Frederick II’s On the Art of Hunting with Birds. This book was the first to insist that falconry was not a practical skill or sport but an art, and that there was a proper way to approach and appreciate that art. There were those who trained the birds, those who flew them, and those who watched it all. We will conclude with the medieval story Sir Orfeo to see these multiple levels of engagement and understand how falconry influenced people’s thinking about poetry, gender, and memory.

   

Saturday, February 17   

All Saturday Events Will be Held in the Ohio Union Lower Level

• 8:30 - 9 AM: Morning Reception (Lower Level Lounge)
• 9 - 10:30 AM: Paper Session 5 (Maudine Cow Room)
  • Moderator - Chris Highley
  • It’s All Fun and Games Until…: Leisurely and Competitive Pursuits in Harry Potter and Chivalric Romance: Laurie Beckoff
  • Challenge Accepted: Medievalist Christmas Tests in Harry Potter: Emily Strand
  • Teaching with Medieval Tabletop Games: Critical Making and Playing: Paul Milliman
• 9 - 10:30 AM: Paper Session 6 (Milestones Room)
  • Moderator - Genevieve Berendt
  • Zoom link specifically for session 6 - https://osu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0tduyqqzsvG9a17lwOFmQZ0OMO2--gHZUv 
  • The Ballgame of Vikings: An Analysis of the Role of Knattleikr in Icelandic Sagas: Evelyn McCune
  • Blindfolds, Slaps, and Secret Words: Children's Games in Medieval Courtship: Kristen Figg
  •  “New Founde:” Reconstructing Sixteenth-Century English Monastic Dance: Heidi Zmick

• 10:30 -11 AM: Break (Ohio Union Lower Level Lounge)

  KEYNOTE

• 11 AM:-12 PM: Sports Injuries - Emergency Medical Treatment in the Late Middle Ages & Renaissance, Keynote Lecture with Richard Swinney (Maudine Cow Room)

  • Abstract: This presentation delves into the historical perspective of sports injuries and their treatments, examining the evolution of the definition of sport from hunting-centric origins. Beginning with the broader concept of sport, including hunting, as depicted in William A. Baillie-Grohman’s 1913 work, Sport in Art:  From the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century. This research explores both modern and pre-modern definitions. It presents case reports of sports injuries, emphasizing survivable incidents like fractures, dislocations, trauma, and burns. This research includes regional variations in sports practices from across Europe, including France, England, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Notable historical incidents, such as the deaths of Maximilian I's wife and Henri II of France due to falconry and jousting accidents are highlighted. The demonstration aspect involves physically showcasing period treatments, connecting medical practices to the Sports and Pastimes theme.

     

• 12 - 1 PM: The Players' Patchwork Theatre Company: The Confused Greenies present A Comedic Farce of a Fraudulent Cow in Calcio Fiorentino (Dance Room 1)
• 1 - 2:30 PM: Paper Session 7 (Milestones Room)
  • Moderator - Jonathan Combs-Schilling
  • Rithmomachia: Edutainment in the Deep Past: David Swinney
  • The Unmaking and Fouaille of the Boar: Robert Trudeau
  • The Gendering of Birds in The Ornithology of Francis Willughby: Lexi Toufas
• 2:30 - 3:30 PM: Fencing Demonstration and Workshop with The Royal Arts Fencing Academy (Dance Room 2)
• 3:30 - 4 PM: Mouvoir les Peidz, Mains, & Corps [To Move the Feet, Hands, and Body] - Interactive European Dance Workshop with Heidi Zmick (Dance Room 1)
• 4:00 - 4:30 PM: Break (Lower Level Lounge)

• KEYNOTE

• 4:30 - 5:30 PM: The Power of Games: Europeans, Mesoamericans, and the Emergence of New Spain, Keynote Lecture 3 with Jonathan Truitt, Central Michigan University (Maudine Cow Room)

  • Abstract: Games have long played an important role in the lives of Spaniards. In 1283 King Alfonso X wrote the Libro de juegos (Book of Games). Throughout the illustrated manuscript are descriptions of games, accompanying strategies, and images of men, women, and children; Christians, Jews, and Muslims; and differing social classes playing games in mixed company. Spain was in no way unique in its diverse gaming scene. During the same period across the Atlantic Ocean in what is today central and southern Mexico we know that gaming was a major pastime and that different groups from differing cultural and language backgrounds and from differing social classes engaged in game play together. As Spaniards and Mesoamericans met, fought, and built New Spain’s society, games played a central role in their interactions. This talk traces the role games played in the first hundred years of European and Mesoamerican interactions. 

     

• 7:30 PM: TableTop Game Cafe - join us for a casual evening where we continue to explore MedRen tabletop games and their contemporary counterparts with interesting MedRen connections at TableTop Game Cafe, 4316 N High St, Columbus, OH 43214. You must secure your own transportation to the cafe, or take the COTA Bus (route 2 goes directly from the Ohio Union to the cafe). Registration is requested by Wednesday, 2/14 to get a full headcount- please follow this link to RSVP. 

Saturday Exhibition Participants: 9 AM - 4:30 PM in the Ohio Union Lower Level

Calligraphy (Calligraphy Guild of Columbus)

Furder Strandi / Regia Anglorum (Material culture display)

Parchment Making (John Cash)

Italian Renaissance Hairstyles and Hair Taping (Sarah Richman)

Fiber Demonstrations (weaving, spinning, etc.) - Central Ohio Weaving and Fiber Arts Guild

And more!

General Information

This event is free and open to all. **No registration for any in-person events is required, though registration for the Tabletop Games Cafe is requested. 

The nearest parking is at the Ohio Union garage, just north of the Ohio Union. Public transportation includes the #2 COTA bus, which comes directly to the Ohio Union. 

For more information and accommodation requests, email Megan Moriarty, Communications and Marketing Specialist for the OSU Humanities Institute: moriarty.8@osu.edu . 

Call For Papers

We seek papers from faculty, graduate students, and others that address any and all aspects of sports, games, and pastimes in medieval and early modern cultures. Topics might include entertainment and its representations from the courtly to the popular; their social, cultural, economic, gendered, and political dimensions; material and spatial artifacts and contexts; the relationship of modern and historical pastime; and the pleasures and perils of recreating historical games and sports. Speakers may also propose non-academic demonstrations. In defining the pastimes in the medieval and Renaissance worlds, we seek to span activities from across the globe, inclusive of all genders, classes, ethnicities, religions and cultures.

Submission Guidelines: Conference presentations will generally be limited to 20 minutes duration, followed by 10 minutes of discussion; they will be organized thematically into sessions of three or four papers each. Other presentations, including music, dance, art, gaming, readings and other activities or displays, will be accommodated more freely according to our resources of space and scheduling. Proposals for virtual presentation are welcome. Please send your presentation ideas to cmrs_gaa@osu.edu, and include a title, abstract and contact information. Abstracts should be no more than 300 words and attached as either a Word document or PDF. Please also submit a short description/synopsis (50 words) that will be used in publicity materials. We will begin evaluating proposals after December 1, 2023; submissions through December 31 will be happily received, but their inclusion will depend on remaining openings in the schedule.