Thesis: Material Witnesses: Examining the Migration of Hebrew Manuscripts in Relation to Jewish Displacement 1290-1550
Supervisor: Professor Alixe Bovey, FSA FRHistS Advisor: Dr Tom Nickson
Funded by the Consortium for the Humanities and Arts South-East England (CHASE)
This dissertation examines how Jewish thought, ritual, and identity were impacted by the expulsion of Jews from England, France, Germany, and Spain between 1290 and 1492. It focuses on a group of Hebrew manuscripts that migrated from their origin to new cities in north Italy before 1500. The movement of each manuscript can be mapped through their material composition: colophons, censor signatures, ownership inscriptions and the addition of new pages, decorations, and bindings. The manuscripts’ movement to Italy in this period raises vital questions regarding the insight they can provide into the impact of displacement on Jewish communities from England, France, Germany, and Spain as well as the communities to which they moved. Where previous scholarship has discussed these manuscripts primarily in relation to the moments they were made, this dissertation charts their ritual use and interpretation of their images across time periods and geographic borders. In doing so, it addresses crucial, yet unanswered, questions regarding how each manuscript changed over time to reflect the influence of displacement on Jewish mentalités. In this way, the dissertation presents a fresh method for studying Jewish displacement while also giving voice to a minority often overshadowed in studies on medieval history.
Education
2019: The Courtauld Institute of Art, MA History of Art (Distinction)
2018: Stanford University, BAH History of Art (First Class Honours)
2018: Stanford University, BA Italian Language and Literature (First Class Honours)
Research and Travel Grants
2024: Etienne Gilson Dissertation Grant, Medieval Academy of America
2023: Samuel H. Kress Foundation Travel Grant, International Center of Medieval Art
2022: British Archaeological Association Travel Grant
2021-Present: AHRC Doctoral Studentship, Consortium for the Humanities and Arts South-East England
Conferences and Workshops
“Exodus and Expulsion: The Barcelona Haggadah as a Material Witness to Sephardi Migration 1391-1459″, Emerging Researchers Symposium 2023: Movement and Transformations in the Making of Iberian and Latin American Art and Visual Cultures, Zurbarán Centre for Spanish and Latin American Art, Durham University, 22-23 June 2023.
“Material Witnesses: Examining the Migration of Hebrew Manuscripts in Relation to Jewish Displacement 1290-1550”, Lecture to the Department of Medieval Art & The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 3 May 2023.
“Mapping Migration: The Barcelona Haggadah (BL MS Add 14761) As A Material Witness to Sephardi Migration 1391-1459”, Mediterranean Seminar: Diasporic Legacies of the Mediterranean, University of Minnesota, 27-28 April 2023.
Honours and Awards
2022: Juan Facundo Riaño Essay Prize
2019: Association for Art History Postgraduate Dissertation Prize
2018: Albert Elsen Award in Art History, Stanford University
Research Interests
- Hebrew manuscripts from England, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy
- Jewish-Christian relationships and Jewish experience in the Middle Ages
- Jewish displacement and expulsion in western Europe 1290-1492
- Marginal images (marginalia) in Hebrew and Latin manuscripts
- Processes of Hebrew and Latin manuscript production and illumination in western Europe (13th – 15th centuries)
- Jewish persecution and anti-Jewish sentiment across historical periods
- Movement of people and books across time periods and geographies