Babette Hellemans teaches Cultural History and Medieval History at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. She has published books and articles in English, French and Dutch focusing especially on the French intellectual tradition, the relationship between religion, academic discourse and the anthropology of images.Alissa Jones Nelson completed her PhD at the Centre for the Study of Religion and Politics, University of St. Andrews, in 2009. She has published a monograph and several articles focusing on the politics of biblical hermeneutics and postcolonial theory. From 2011-2016, she was the Acquisitions Editor for Religious Studies at De Gruyter. She now works as a freelance writer, editor, and translator. She is based in Berlin.

• Ouverture: Degree Zero Between Past and Future Babette Hellemans, IMAGES The Two Bodies of the Virgin: On the Festival of Cirio de Nazaré Jean-Claude Schmitt, The Three Ages of Man and the Materialization of an Allegory: Inquiries on an Object at the Threshold of Modernity Andrea von Hülschen-Esch, Lapsus figurae: Remarks on Iconographic Error Pierre-Olivier Dittmar, IMPROVISATIONS Drawing a Line and Questioning Art Nicola Suthor, Fall and Rise Again Irit Kleiman, Improvisation as a Chief Pillar of the Poetic Art in Persian Literary Tradition, Asghar Seyed-Gohrab, SOUND Intending the Listener Rokus de Groot, The Sovereign Ear: Handel's Water Music and Aural Historiography Sander van Maas, Where Sound and Meaning Part: Language and Performance in Early Hebrew Poetry Irene Zwiep, SILENCE Writing about Silence and the Secret in the Twelfth Century: Monastic Variations on a Biblical Theme Cédric Giraud, An Arrangement of Silence: Shaping Monastic Identity in Anselm of Canterbury's Letter Collections Theo Lap, Dimidia Hora: Liminal Silence in Bernard of Clairvaux, Anselm of Canterbury, and Barack Obama Burcht Pranger, List of Contributors.