Dr. James D'Emilio

PhD. History of Art

University of London, 1989

About Dr. D'Emilio:

James D'Emilio is Associate Professor of Humanities. A specialist in twelfth- and thirteenth-century art and architecture, and the history and culture of medieval Iberia, he teaches a broad range of courses on ancient and medieval culture.

As a Marshall scholar, he earned his Ph.D. in art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art (University of London) in 1989. He has held grants and fellowships from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, the Howard Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Society of Architectural Historians (Montequin Senior Fellowship), the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, and the Program for Cultural Cooperation Between the Spanish Ministry of Culture and United States' Universities. He has delivered more than fifty papers and public lectures on the art and ecclesiastical culture of medieval Spain, and he has published articles on diverse aspects of the art and culture of medieval Galicia, the royal nunnery of Las Huelgas, and the mosaics of Monreale cathedral (Sicily).

His current research interests include art, culture, society and the church in medieval Galicia (with a book project underway, Galicia in the Early Middle Ages: Recovery of a Forgotten Past); monasticism in medieval Iberia, with particular emphasis on the persistence of early medieval monastic practices in the kingdom of Leon, and the establishment of Cistercian houses in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Iberia; and modern constructions - and uses - of medieval Iberian history.

He serves (with Ana Varela-Lago) as webmaster for the Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies (SSPHS), and he has organized numerous sessions for SSPHS and for the American Academy of Research Historians of Medieval Spain at the annual Medieval Studies congress at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo. He is one of the founding members of the Florida MedievaLists.

For a complete vita, course material, and a selection of photographs of art and architecture, please visit Dr. D'Emilio's Home Page

Recent Publications Include:

• "The Legend of Bishop Odoario and the Early Medieval Church in Galicia," in Church, State, Vellum and Stone: Essays on Medieval Spain in Honor of John Williams, ed. J. Harris and T. Martin (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2005), 47-83.

• "The Royal Convent of Las Huelgas: Dynastic Politics, Religious Reform and Artistic Change in Medieval Castile", Studies in Cistercian Art and Architecture , ed. M. P. Lillich, VI (2005), 189-280.

• "The Cistercians and the Romanesque Churches of Galicia: Compostela or Clairvaux?" in Perspectives for an Architecture of Solitude. Essays on Cistercians, Art and Architecture in Honour of Peter Fergusson, ed., T. Kinder (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), 313-27.

• "Writing is the Precious Treasury of Memory: Scribes and Notaries in Lugo (1150-1240)", in La collaboration dans la production de l'écrit médiéval: actes du XIIIe colloque du Comité international de paléographie latine (Weingarten, 22-25 septembre 2000), ed., H. Spilling (Paris: École des Chartes, 2003), 379-410.