PERMANENT SEMINAR 2026
April-December 2026

SESSION 1
April 30, 2026

Between text and image in Portuguese Cistercian liturgical codices: transfers and iconological reading
Catarina Barreira (FSCH/UNL)

The intervention is part of a decade and a half of research dedicated to the liturgical codices of a Portuguese Cistercian monastery, Alcobaça. The framework for this work and the main methodological issues that have guided the study of these codices will first be briefly presented.

In the second part, the paper will focus on how transfers between text – particularly hagiographic texts – and image are operationalized in liturgical codices. Based on a case study of a set of codices produced in the scriptorium of Alcobaça, we will try to analyze the relationship between textual narrative and visual representation, exploring the mechanisms of adaptation, selection and visual translation of hagiographic content, with a view to developing an iconographic and iconological reading of these figurative programs.

FLUP, Amphitheater 2 | 17h00
Link to Teams: https://bit.ly/4sADbDj

Organization: CITCEM-FLUP – Sociabilities and Religious Practices (CITCEM Research Group)
Organizing committee: Nuno Resende (CITCEM-FLUP)

Catarina Fernandes Barreira is Principal Researcher at the Institute of Medieval Studies of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, NOVA University of Lisbon, where she also teaches. Her research interests focus on medieval liturgy, the Cistercian Order and its monasteries, libraries and codices – particularly their materiality and circulation.

She holds a PhD in Art Sciences from the University of Lisbon (2011), with FCT funding. Subsequently, he carried out a post-doctoral research project (also funded by FCT) dedicated to the study of illuminated manuscripts from the Monastery of Alcobaça in the 14th and 15th centuries. This research laid the foundations for subsequent studies and introduced innovative methodologies for the study of illuminated codices, especially liturgical ones.

She was Principal Investigator on two FCT projects: Cistercian Horizons. Studying and characterizing a medieval scriptorium and its production. Alcobaça. Local identities and liturgical uniformity in dialogue (completed in 2022) and Books, rituals and space in a Cistercian nunnery. Living, praying and reading in Lorvão, 13th-16th centuries (completed in March 2025).

From 2015 to 2019 he led the Images, Texts and Representations research group at the IEM. Between 2019-2021 and 2023-2025 she served as deputy director of IEM, and is currently deputy director.

Ciência Vitae: https://www.cienciavitae.pt//en/8618-E4CF-A494