Acknowledgments

Strickland, Debra Higgs

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Acknowledgments

Debra Higgs Strickland

Saracens, Demons, and Jews: Making Monsters in Medieval Art

~THIS BOOK GREW FROM A COURSE I taught first in 1995 at the University of Oregon and subsequently at the University of Glasgow and the University of Edinburgh. Although what I have written here departs considerably from material covered in the course, there is still significant overlap, so I must therefore thank my students at all three institutions. Their...

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Debra Higgs Strickland

PublisherPrinceton University Press

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00183.009

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-19756

Acknowledgments

This book grew from a course I taught first in 1995 at the University of Oregon and subsequently at the University of Glasgow and the University of Edinburgh. Although what I have written here departs considerably from material covered in the course, there is still significant overlap, so I must therefore thank my students at all three institutions. Their concerns and questions provided the impetus to write the book in the first place and helped determine aspects of its structural organization.

The other important stimulus for writing arose from the reception of a paper delivered in 1996 at the International Congress of Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo. Thanks to Colum Hourihane and Bill Jordan, I had the opportunity to present a more developed version of this paper the following year as part of the celebration of the eightieth anniversary of the Index of Christian Art at Princeton University. The scholarly feedback and contacts made during this conference have proved invaluable, and for this I am very grateful. For their support of the project in its formative stages, I would also like to thank Peter Barker, Michael Camille, Patricia Fidler, Avril Henry, Peter Jones, Christopher Moss, and Keith Moxey.

For his patience and support, for a steady stream of highly relevant bibliographical and pictorial references, and for many helpful discussions and astute observations pertaining to numerous aspects of this study, I am most grateful to my husband, Matt Strickland. That he is an accomplished medieval historian is just one of many benefits that came with marriage. Anne Derbes provided many useful suggestions and helped to clarify the art historical perspective of the book; for her continuous support and for invitations to present papers at Hood College, I express sincere thanks. I have also benefited greatly from Gary Dickson’s wise counsel and historical expertise. His tactful corrections and suggestions based on a close reading of the entire manuscript have helped to make this a better book. For other improvements implemented in the final manuscript, I would like to thank my anonymous reader at Princeton University Press. Of course, any remaining errors and shortcomings are my own responsibility.

I am grateful to Al Acres, Aileen Ajootian, Suzanne Akbari, Adelaide Bennett, Philip Bennett, Sam Cohn, Matt Kavaler, Andrew Roach, and John Shinners for discussion and bibliography; and to Naomi Kline, Katie Lowe, Jim Simpson, and Finn Sinclair for bibliography and for help with text transliterations and translations. For assistance in acquiring slides, photographs, and access to original source materials, thanks are due especially to Norma Aubertin-Potter, Rigmor Båtsvik, John Blazejewski, Sarah Brown, Jeffrey Fisher, The Reverend John Handley, Bernward Hinkes, Marcia Kupfer, Claudine Lautier, Jörg Oberste, Pamela Porter, Christine Reynolds, Joe Rock, Martial Rose, Bettina Schmidt-Czaia, and Godfrey Waller. I would also like to express my appreciation to helpful staff at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Morgan Library, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the British Library, the Bodleian Library, the Trinity College Cambridge Library, the Cambridge University Library, the National Library of Scotland, and the Interlibrary Loan Department at the University of Glasgow.

I am indebted to a number of institutions for crucial support at various stages. Initial research was funded by several grants awarded by the University of Oklahoma; I would like to extend special thanks to the History of Science Department for support of my work during 1996–97. For research and travel fellowships, I would like to thank the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies; the British Academy; the Newberry Library; the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh; and the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities. Research was also supported by the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and the Graduate School of Arts and Divinity, both at the University of Glasgow. In addition to a research grant, the British Academy provided a generous photographic subsidy that made it possible to publish the requisite amount of visual documentation. Color plates appear thanks to the generosity of the Furthermore Foundation.

I am especially indebted to the staff at Princeton University Press. I offer warm thanks first of all to my editor, Nancy Grubb, for her enthusiastic support and for guiding me through the publication process with precision and flair. To Kate Zanzucchi for her cheerful and efficient assistance; to Devra K. Nelson and Sharon Herson for their fine editorial work; and to Sarah Henry and her design team for the most handsome of books; I must express my sincerest gratitude.

This book is dedicated to the memory of my nephew, Nathan Hassig, who was kind, cheerful, and brave in the face of lifelong adversity. He was an inspiration to his family and friends, and I am proud to have known him.

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