Seven Sages, Six Advisors: The first team meeting

In February 2024, the German half of the project team - Jutta Emming, and Rita Schlusemann - hosted a symposium for the rest of the team (Bettina Bildhauer, Jane Bonsall) and the Advisory Board at the Freie Univeresitat Berlin. The outcome was a series of exciting and thought-provoking discussions about the state of the project and its future directions, including impressive updates about the progress of the Dutch edition (from Rita) and an introduction to the working database (from Jane). 

[Back row: Yasmina Foehr-Janssens, Mohsen Zakeri, Bettina Bildhauer, Bea Lundt, Ulrick Marzolph; front row: Ida Toth, Rita Schlusemann, Jane Bonsall, Jutta Eming, Csilla Gabor.] 

In addition to these discussions, Rita also organised an excellent visit to the Berlin Staatsbibliothek, where we were able to view some of the Seven Sages manuscripts housed there. As always, getting to view the medieval manscripts was exciting and fascinating - and a window into the rest of the contents and marginalia of the codices was also revealing, with salacious verses crossed out, and hungry lions gnawing at the borders. 

Even more exciting than the manuscripts themselves, however, was the generous collegialiality and collaborative spirit of all our meetings, and the prospect of further work together.