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48b. Bonus: Melissa Moreton on Hidden Stories: Books Along the Silk Roads.
The Silk Roads aren’t stuck in time. They’re so often depicted as just a
certain period of time and a certain geographic range, and I think we’re kinda
blowing that apart! [These objects span] a thousand-year history, but also
[range] from Japan all the way to Mexico. We’re breaking outside the box and
really thinking about: Wait a second. What do we all have around us today that
was influenced by this intercultural trade and exchange of ideas? And it’s
everywhere.
Melissa Moreton is a codicologist
and cultural historian who studies the material aspects of old books and
manuscripts and the people who made and used them. Her research started in
Italy, but has broadened to include the study of global manuscript culture,
the spread of book technologies, and book use across Africa, South Asia,
Europe, and the Middle East. She combines interdisciplinary methodologies
drawn from material book studies, history, art history, and the quantitative
sciences, and has been known to make parchment, paper, and to bind books. She
is currently a Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced Study in
Princeton and helped organize the current exhibition at the Aga Khan Museum in
Toronto, entitled “Hidden Stories: Books Along the Silk
Roads.”
Melissa joins us to talk about that “Hidden Stories”, which our own Suzanne
was one of the curators of! (Hence why we’ve been a little quiet recently.)
Chris, Suzanne, and Melissa discuss how the objects in the exhibition tell
stories both as texts and as objects, what it’s like to put together such a
show during a pandemic, and some of the marvellous pieces they were able to
put on display.
Show Notes.
Hidden Stories: Books Along the Silk
Roads is at the Aga
Khan Museum in Toronto until February
27, 2022.
The digital companion site to the
exhibition, where images of many of the objects we discuss can be
found.
The textile Qur’an.
Two unexpectedly preserved
pieces.
The baptismal
register.
The antiphoner (and its
music).
The list of all the objects in the exhibit (still under
construction).
The
Women’s Studio Workshop.
Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon! Thanks
if you do.
View all episodes
By Suzanne Conklin Akbari and Chris Piuma
4.8
3030 ratings
The Silk Roads aren’t stuck in time. They’re so often depicted as just a
certain period of time and a certain geographic range, and I think we’re kinda
blowing that apart! [These objects span] a thousand-year history, but also
[range] from Japan all the way to Mexico. We’re breaking outside the box and
really thinking about: Wait a second. What do we all have around us today that
was influenced by this intercultural trade and exchange of ideas? And it’s
everywhere.
Melissa Moreton is a codicologist
and cultural historian who studies the material aspects of old books and
manuscripts and the people who made and used them. Her research started in
Italy, but has broadened to include the study of global manuscript culture,
the spread of book technologies, and book use across Africa, South Asia,
Europe, and the Middle East. She combines interdisciplinary methodologies
drawn from material book studies, history, art history, and the quantitative
sciences, and has been known to make parchment, paper, and to bind books. She
is currently a Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced Study in
Princeton and helped organize the current exhibition at the Aga Khan Museum in
Toronto, entitled “Hidden Stories: Books Along the Silk
Roads.”
Melissa joins us to talk about that “Hidden Stories”, which our own Suzanne
was one of the curators of! (Hence why we’ve been a little quiet recently.)
Chris, Suzanne, and Melissa discuss how the objects in the exhibition tell
stories both as texts and as objects, what it’s like to put together such a
show during a pandemic, and some of the marvellous pieces they were able to
put on display.
Show Notes.
Hidden Stories: Books Along the Silk
Roads is at the Aga
Khan Museum in Toronto until February
27, 2022.
The digital companion site to the
exhibition, where images of many of the objects we discuss can be
found.
The textile Qur’an.
Two unexpectedly preserved
pieces.
The baptismal
register.
The antiphoner (and its
music).
The list of all the objects in the exhibit (still under
construction).
The
Women’s Studio Workshop.
Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon! Thanks
if you do.
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