Lecture Saskia Quené: Time as Form in Medieval Diagrams

On 25 April, the Utrecht University Centre for Medieval Studies will organise another lecture in its Lecture Series 2023-2024. Visiting researcher Saskia Quené (University of Tübingen) will give a lecture entitled ‘Time as Form in Medieval Diagrams’.

Visualising time

Medieval methods to visualise time evolved in dialogue with cosmological and musical knowledge. Located at the nexus of sensory experience and imaginative thought, the quadrivium of musica, cosmology, arithmetic, and geometry remained firmly anchored in the visual realm. In medieval manuscripts, time, and eternity materialise as intricate diagrams, graphs, and line drawings meticulously executed using parchment, ink, and pigments.

An in-depth examination of some of these diagrams dating back to the 9th and 10th centuries will demonstrate how medieval scribes and scholars ingeniously devised new shapes and forms to traverse between dimensions, shedding light on the richness of their intellectual and creative pursuits.

About Saskia Quené

Saskia Quené is an Assistant Professor in Medieval Art History at the University of Tübingen. Until October 2024, she will be present in Utrecht as a visiting fellow supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Quené is currently working on her second book project, which explores visualisations of time and eternity in 9th- and 10th-century diagrams.