Dr Hanna Vorholt
Senior Lecturer

Profile

Biography

MA (Courtauld Institute of Art), PhD (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), FSA

Hanna Vorholt is a Senior Lecturer in History of Art. Before joining the Department as an Anniversary Research Lecturer in 2012, she held positions and fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for History, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge University Library, the British Library, and the Warburg Institute.

Departmental roles

Director of the Medieval Art and Medievalisms Research Cluster  

Research

Overview

• Early media technologies, esp. illuminated manuscripts
• Art and science in the middle ages
• Medieval encyclopaedias, maps and diagrams
• Jerusalem in medieval art and architecture
• Romanesque art and its cultural and intellectual contexts
• Typology and visual argumentation
• Iconicity of script and notation

Hanna researches medieval art and in particular illuminated manuscripts. Her book Shaping Knowledge presents the first monograph on the transmission of the Liber Floridus, one of the most enigmatic medieval encyclopaedias. It offers new evidence regarding our understanding of the mechanisms which inform the way knowledge is produced, recorded and transformed. Her co-edited books Imagining Jerusalem in the Medieval West, Visual Constructs of Jerusalem and Between Jerusalem and Europe are concerned with Jerusalem in its relationship to medieval imagination, art and architecture. 

Projects

Hanna is currently writing the book Images on Lines: Ruling and Illumination in Medieval Manuscripts, funded by a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship. A Grants in Focus feature about her project can be found in the Annual Review of the Leverhulme Trust. 

Research group(s)

Centre for Medieval Studies

Medieval Art and Medievalisms

Grants

• Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship, 2022-2024
• British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, Warburg Institute, 2007-2010
• Munby Fellowship in Bibliography, Cambridge University Library, 2006-2007
• Frances A. Yates Fellowship, Warburg Institute, 2003

Collaborators

• Co-Investigator AHRC-funded research project The Production and Reading of Music Sources (Bangor University, Manchester University, King’s College London, Warburg Institute), PI Professor Thomas Schmidt, 2010-2014
• Collaborator ERC-funded research project Visual Translations of Jerusalem (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), PI Professor Bianca Kühnel, 2010-2015

Membership in Research Networks

• DFG Network Zeitenwelten
• AHRC Network Remembered Place and Invented Traditions 
• AHRC Network Imagining Jerusalem 1099 to the Present Day

Supervision

Hanna welcomes enquiries from students wanting to undertake research in related areas.

In progress

• Aikaterini Perdiki, 'Greek and Latin maps associated with Macrobius' (co-supervision with Dr Divna Manolova)

Completed

• Eleanor Jackson, To hold infinity in the palm of your hand: the Insular pocket gospel books re-evaluated (AHRC-funded, co-supervised with Dr Jane Hawkes)
• Elizabeth Wright, 'The Representation of the Book in the Visual and Textual Culture of Anglo-Saxon England' (Wolfson Scholarship, co-supervision with Prof. Elizabeth Tyler)
• Claudia Jung, 'Visual translations of Jerusalem in the Early Modern Netherlands' (ERC-funded, co-supervision with Dr Jeanne Nuechterlein)
• Blair Apgar, 'Romanesque Architecture in Lombardy' (co-supervision with Prof. Amanda Lillie)
• Cher Casey, 'Sacred skulls, textiles, and medieval veneration: Exploring the Holy Head reliquaries of Cologne' (ORS Scholarship, co-supervision with Prof. Jane Hawkes)

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Illuminating the Book
• Jerusalem in Western Medieval Art and Architecture
• Transmission and Connections (co-design)

Postgraduate

• Mapping the World
• Corpus Christi 
• Global Middle Ages 

Other teaching

• Vice Chancellors Teaching Award, 2018
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, since 2017

Publications

Selected publications

Authored Books 

• Shaping Knowledge: The Transmission of the Liber Floridus [= Warburg Institute Studies and Texts 6], London, 2017 
  (reviewed by Irene O’Daly, in: Speculum, 95.2, 2020, 625-627; by Nathalie Bouloux, in: Médiévales, 77, 2019, pp. 188-192; by Christian Heitzmann, in: Das Mittelalter, 24.2, 2019, pp. 508-509; by Jeffrey Hamburger, in: Medium Aevum, 88.1, 2019, pp. 151-153; by Megan C. McNamee, in: The Library, 7.19.4, 2018, pp. 506-8)
• Die Neue Wache [= Berliner Ansichten 19] (Berlin 2001)

Edited Books 

• Visual Constructs of Jerusalem [= Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, 18], edited with Bianca Kühnel and Galit Noga-Banai (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014)
  (reviewed by Cynthia Hahn, in Speculum4, 2017, pp. 1214-16; by C. Heck, in Bulletin Monumental 174.2, 2016, pp. 229-31; by I. Baumgärtner, in Das Mittelalter 21.1, 2016, pp. 221-3; by A. I. Sullivan in Parergon 32.2, 2015, pp. 324-5; by E. Lapina in The Medieval Review 15.10.2014)
• Between Jerusalem and Europe: Essays in Honour of Bianca Kühnel [= Visualising the Middle Ages 11], edited with Renana Bartal (Leiden, 2015)
• Imagining Jerusalem in the Medieval West [= Proceedings of the British Academy 175], edited with Lucy Donkin (Oxford: Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 2012)
  (reviewed by C. Tyerman, in: English Historical Review, 129, 2014, pp. 944-6; by T. W. Smith, in: Imago Mundi 62.2, 2013, pp. 303-4; by A. Jotischky, in The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 65 (2014), pp. 659-60; by S. Schröder, in Das Mittelalter 19.2, 2014, pp. 424-45)

Guest Edited Journals

• Journal of the Alamire Foundation 7.1, edited with Thomas Schmidt (2015)
• Journal of the Alamire Foundation 6.2, edited with Thomas Schmidt (2014)

Books Chapters and Journal articles  

• 'Maps', in: Handbook of Medieval Book Ornament, ed. David Ganz, Thomas Rainer, Sabrina Schmid, Katharina Theil [in print]
• 'Looking Beyond Jerusalem: A Fifteenth-Century Exercise in Image Comparison', in: Art History 46.4 (2023), 636-841
• 'The local, the regional, and the universal in knowledge compilations: Observations on the Codex Aldenburgensis', in: Between Encyclopaedia and Chorography: Defining the Agency of “Cultural Encylopaedias” from a Transcultural Perspective, ed. Anna Boroffka in collaboration with Margit Kern (Berlin and Boston, 2022), 41-91
• 'Visual Studies for the End of Time', in: Time and Science in the Liber floridus of Lambert of Saint-Omer [= Répertoire Iconographique de la Littérature du Moyen Age 13], ed. Patrizia Carmassi (Turnhout, 2021), 51-75
• 'The Ruled Line and the Drawn Line in Medieval Maps', in France et Angleterre : manuscrits médiévaux entre 700 et 1200 [= Bibliologia 57], ed. Charlotte Denoël and Francesco Siri (Turnhout: Brepols, 2019), 75-106
• '"Das was ich als Jude vertrete kann ich auch in England oder Frankreich sein". A letter by Gertrud Bing to Hanns Swarzenski of May 1933', in Uwe Fleckner and Peter Mack (eds), The Afterlife of the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg. The Emigration and the Early Years of the Warburg Institute in London (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2015), pp. 23-37 and 202-208
• 'Wissenstransfer und Erkenntnisprozesse in einer enyzklopädischen Sammelhandschrift aus dem Umfeld der Universität Leuven', in Eckart Conrad Lutz, Vera Jerjen and Christine Putzo (eds), Diagramm und Text. Diagrammatische Strukturen und die Dynamisierung von Wissen und Erfahrung (Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2014), pp. 95-121 and figs 38-46
• 'Herrschaft über Jerusalem und die Kartographie der Heiligen Stadt', in: Ingrid Baumgärtner and Martina Stercken (eds), Politische Kartographie des Mittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit (Zürich: Chronos, 2012), pp. 211-228
• 'Studying with Maps: Jerusalem and the Holy Land in Two Thirteenth-Century Manuscripts', in: Lucy Donkin and Hanna Vorholt (eds), Imagining Jerusalem in the Medieval West [= Proceedings of the British Academy 175] (Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 163-200
• 'Touching the Tomb of Christ: Notes on a Twelfth-Century Map of Jerusalem from Winchcombe, Gloucestershire', in: Imago Mundi 61/2 (2009), pp. 244-55
• 'Mise-en-page in choirbooks, ca. 1450-1550', in: Gazette du livre médiéval 55 (2009), pp. 31-42, co-authored with Thomas Schmidt
• 'Bildlichkeit und politische Legitimation im Vorfeld des Irakkriegs 2003', in: Bildwelten des Wissens. Kunsthistorisches Jahrbuch für Bildkritik 2,1 (2004), pp. 29-40, co-authored with Stefan Schweizer 
• 'Der "Guernica Cover-Up" vom Februar 2003. Verhüllung und Enthüllung zeitgenössischen Bildgebrauch', in: Historische Anthropologie 3 (2003), pp. 435-446, co-authored with Stefan Schweizer
• 'Die Kunst technologischer Kulturerkundung – Stephan von Huene', in: Horst Bredekamp and Jochen Brüning(eds), Theatrum Naturae et Artis. Theater der Natur und Kunst. Wunderkammern des Wissens (Berlin 2000), vol. 1, pp. 236-241

Web Publications

• ‘Mapping the World’, British Library, 2018 (translated as ‘Cartographier le monde’)
• ‘1414: John Neuton and the Re-Foundation of York Minster Library', ed. with Peter Young, 2014

Contributions to Catalogues  ‌

• 'Gregor Reisch, Margarita Philosophica', in Attar, K. and Pressler, C. (ed.), Treasures of Senate House Library (London: Scala, 2012)
• 9 entries in Nigel Morgan, Stella Panayotova, Suzanne Reynolds, Illuminated Manuscripts in Cambridge: A Catalogue of Western Book Illumination in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge Colleges, 2, Italy and the Iberian Peninsula, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 2011)
• 38 entries in Nigel Morgan, and Stella Panayotova, with the assistance of Martinie Meuwese, Elizabeth New, Suzanne Reynolds, Hanna Vorholt, and Andrea Worm, Illuminated Manuscripts in Cambridge: A Catalogue of Western Book Illumination in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge Colleges, 1, The Frankish Kingdoms, Northern Netherlands, Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, Austria, the Meuse region, Southern Netherlands, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 2009)
• 136 entries in Digital Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, British Library, 2007
• 'Stephan von Huene - Helmholtz' and 'Stephan von Huene - Rückkehr der Stochastiker', in: Bredekamp, H. and Brüning, J. (ed.), Theatrum Naturae et Artis: Theater der Natur und Kunst. Wunderkammern des Wissens, exh. cat., 2 vols, Berlin: Henschel, 2000    ‌

External activities

Memberships

• Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries

Editorial duties

• Member of Editorial Board of York Medieval Press

Invited talks and conferences

• Display Script and Surfaces, conference 'Superficies. Surfaces, Skins and Textures', Zurich (01/2024)
• The Future of the Planet in Medieval Manuscripts, Yorkshire Archaeological & Historical Society, Leeds (12/2023)
• Patterns of Movement in Botticelli's Dante, Study Day 'Botticelli's Dante: interpreting the Book in Late Fifteenth-Century Florence', Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence (10/2023)
• [Keynote] Das Weltenende im Seitenraum: Bücher als Erzählmedien, conference ''Schreckliche Sehnsucht. Apokalyptisches Erzählen in der Vormoderne', University of Vienna (09/2023) 
• Ruled Lines and the Making of Manuscript Images, Oxford Medieval Visual Culture Seminar (05/2023) 
• [Keynote] Earthquakes, Hail and Fire: Twelfth-Visions of the Future, conference 'Shifting Landscapes of the Medieval World', University of Cambridge (09/2022)
• [Keynote] Image as Compilation: Jerusalem in the Liber Floridus and Beyond, University of Ghent, co-sponsored with The Henri Pirenne Institute for Medieval Studies Ghent, Centre for Medieval Literature Odense and York, Centre for Medieval Studies York and the Centre for Medieval Studies Fordham (10/2021)
• [Keynote] Mapping Space on the Manuscript Page, conference 'Meaning, Memory and Movement: Ancient and Medieval Space', University of Birmingham (11/2019) 
• Encyclopedic Compilations and Collaborations, workshop 'Liber Floridus' organized by the Centre for Medieval Literature, York - Odense in collaboration with the Henri Pirenne Institute for Medieval Studies at Ghent University (10/2019)
• Apocalypse et représentations du temps dans les différentes versions du Liber Floridus, conference 'Temps et science dans le Liber Floridus de Lambert de Saint-Omer', Le Studium, Institute for Advanced Studies, Orléans (03/2019)
• Ruling and Illumination: Observations on Some Twelfth-Century Maps and Diagrams, conference 'France et Angleterre : manuscrits médiévaux entre 700 et 1200', Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris (11/2018)
• Encyclopedic Compilations: The case of the Codex Aldenburgensis, conference 'Cultural Encyclopedias', University of Hamburg (10/2018)
• Strukturen der Heilsgeschichte: Der Kontext des Apokalypsezyklus im Liber Floridus, conference 'ZeitenWelten', University of Duisburg-Essen (04/2015)
• Performative Strategies in Image Placement: The Case of the Liber Floridus Manuscripts, invited lecture, University of Hamburg (01/2014)
• Being Jewish and being German: A letter from Gertrud Bing to Hanns Swarzenski of May 1933, conference ‘The Afterlife of the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek, Hamburg and London Traditions in the Development of the Warburg Institute: A Commemoration of the Migration in December 1933’, Warburg Haus, Hamburg/Warburg Institute, London (12/2013)
• Maps of Jerusalem and the Passion, International Medieval Congress, Leeds (07/2013)
• Composite Diagrams in Romanesque Art: the example of the Liber Floridus, conference ‘Maps and Diagrams’, Princeton (03/2013)
• Wissenstransfer und Erkenntnisprozesse in einer Liber Floridus-Bearbeitung des 15. Jahrhunderts aus dem Umfeld der Universität Leuven, conference 'Diagramm und Text', Fribourg (03/2012)
• The Jerusalem map in the Stuttgart Passional and its cartographic tradition, Minerva Gentner Symposium 'Jerusalem Elsewhere: The German Recensions', Wienhausen (10/2011)
• The iconocity of the page in Lambert of Saint-Omer’s Liber Floridus, GRIM conference 'Fréquence ou rareté des thèmes iconographiques: entre l'unicum et la série', Institut National d'Histoire de L'Art, Paris (03/2011)
• The map of Jerusalem in manuscripts of Paulinus Minorita's Chronologia Magna, conference 'Visual Constructs of Jerusalem', Hebrew University, Jerusalem (11/2010)
• The Liber Floridus diagrams in a 15th Century manuscript at Tongerlo, Medieval Work in Progress Seminar, Courtauld Institute of Art (11/2010)
• The construction of history through images in the Liber Floridus, BAA conference 'Romanesque and the Past: Retrospection in the Art and Architecture of Romanesque Europe, Courtauld Institute of Art, London (04/2010)
• Provenance and Dissemination of Medieval Maps of Jerusalem: Constructing and Deconstructing a Stemma, Maps and Society Series, Warburg Institute, London (03/2009)
• 'Hec sunt peregrinationes in sanctam terram'. Collating two early 13th century English Maps, conference 'Imagining Jerusalem in the Medieval West', University of Oxford (03/2009)
• Herrschaft über Jerusalem und die Kartographie der Heiligen Stadt', conference 'Herrschaft verorten. Politische Kartographie des Mittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit', University of Zurich (01/2009)
• Between Genealogy and Morals: A miniature of Lambert of Saint-Omer in its Manuscript Setting, International Medieval Congress, Leeds (07/2008)
• An unpublished map of Jerusalem at the British Library: Observations on its place in the history of cartography, Cambridge Seminars in Medieval Art, University of Cambridge (11/2008)
• St Omer, the Liber Floridus and the Origin of the Circular Map of Jerusalem, 35th annual Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies, St Louis (10/2008)
• Hand-held libraries: Encyclopedic compilations of Early Norman England, Cambridge Bibliographical Society, Cambridge University Library (05/2007)
• The Scales of Heaven: A 12th Century Treatise on the World Soul and the Harmony of the Spheres and its Transmission in the Copies of the Liber Floridus, Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference, Tours (07/2005), with Christian Leitmeir
• Remarks on the Foundation of the 'Kaiser-Wilhelm'Gesellschaft' in Berlin and on the Formation of the 'Three Sections' of its Scientific Council, conference 'Languages of Science', Humboldt University, Berlin (05/2004) 

Invited Respondent

• ‘Zur Medialität des Todes in Spätmittelalter und Früher Neuzeit’, Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome (03/2021)
• ‘Reflecting Jerusalem in Medieval Czech Lands’, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (05/2021)

International Conference Organisation  

• Political Dimensions of Visual Translations of Jerusalem (20-21 March 2015), held at the Humanities Research Centre, University of York, co-organised with Laura Slater
• Cathedral Libraries and Archives in the British Isles (2-4 July 2014), international conference held at York Minster Library and the King’s Manor, hosted by CMS and CREMS, in association with the Cathedral Libraries and Archives Network, co-organised with Brian Cummings, Linne Mooney and Bill Sherman
• Production and Reading of Music Sources (6-8 June 2013), held at the British Library and the Warburg Institute, co-organised with Thomas Schmidt
• Medieval Diagrams and Maps (9 March 2012), held at the Warburg Institute, co-organised with Alessandro Scafi
• Language of Science – Sprachen der Wissensgesellschaft (14-15 May 2004), held at the Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik, Humboldt-University, Berlin, in association with the Max Planck Society

Teaching and Research Training

• Lecturer at the Summer School History of Science in the Medieval World, University of Veliko Turnovo (2022)
• Co-organiser of the AHRC- and COST-funded PhD training course Medieval Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age (MMSDA), a collaboration between the Institute of English Studies in the University of London, the University of Cambridge, King’s College London and the Warburg Institute (2008-2012)
• Affiliated Lecturer in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge (2011-2012)
• Lecturer at the London Palaeography Summer School (2010-2011)