Medieval Matters: Week 8

Somehow we have arrived at the last week of term already! For everyone wondering how it went by so quickly, some wisdom from the Latin-English Proverbs of British Library, Cotton Faustina A X on the passing of time:

Æghwæt forealdað þæs þe ece ne byð
[Everything grows old if it is not eternal]

Hilary Term 2022, transient as it is, may be in its final week, but that doesn’t mean that it’s slowing down: we have a full schedule of events lined up for you! Please see below for all the details. And for those of you worried about blank spaces in your diary during the vac, we are also very excited to announce that the 2022 Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference programme is now finalised. See the full details on the OMS Blog. Now, on to the announcements before everyone grows old waiting for them:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

• The playlist for the Medieval Mystery Cycle 2022 is now finalised but there is still a chance to get involved: volunteer as steward, help distribute posters (download here as jpg or pdf) around Oxford – and of course, spread the word! Please contact Eleanor Baker to offer help. The spectaculum starts on Saturday, 23 April 2022, 12noon in the Front Quad of St Edmund Hall and move then around the grounds. The ten plays will take place in roughly half-hour slots. Welcome to drop in or stay for the whole afternoon!
• Registration for the Oxford Medieval Graduate conference, Medicine and Healing is now open: this will be a hybrid event and free for all participants, although there are limited in-person tickets available. The conference programme and registration details can be found on the OMGC website.
• Please note that there is no Celtic seminar this week: the seminar will resume on 17 March with Eurig Salisbury’s talk.

EVENTS THIS WEEK:

Monday 7th March:

• The Byzantine Graduate Seminar meets at 12.30-2pm on Zoom. This week’s speaker is Matthew Hassall (Cambridge), ‘Inventing the Tyrant and the Dissident: Procopius and the Limits on Acceptable Speech‘. To register, please contact the organiser at james.cogbill@worc.ox.ac.uk. Please note that there is no need to register if you have previously subscribed to the seminar mailing list. 
• The Medieval Latin Manuscript Reading Group meets at 1-2pm on Teams. Sign up here for the mailing list to receive details of each week’s sessions. Contact Matthew Holford, Andrew Dunning or Tuija Ainonen for further details.
• The Medieval Archaeology Seminar meets at 3pm on Teams and in the Institute of Archaeology Lecture Room. This week’s speaker will be Beatrice Widdell (U. of Reading): ‘Rethinking Battlefield Archaeology: Liminal Journeys and Campaign Landscapes in 14^th-century Northern Britain’. Please note: Attendance in person is by advance booking only as the room has a strict Covid-19 capacity limit. Bookings can be made by contacting: jane.kershaw@arch.ox.ac.uk. For the Teams’ link click here.
• The Medieval History Seminar meets at 5pm at The Wharton Room, All Souls College and online on Teams. This week’s speaker is Nicholas Karn (Southampton), ‘Memory and the dynamics of dispute in Anglo-Norman England‘. Attendance at the Wharton Room is by advance booking only as the room has a strict Covid-19 capacity limit. Seats will be released 1 week before each seminar. Bookings can be made at https://medieval-history-seminar.reservio.com. The Teams session can be accessed by logging in to Teams with your .ox.ac.uk account and joining the group “Medieval History Research Seminar” (team code rmppucs). If you have any difficulties please email: medhistsem@history.ox.ac.uk
• The Old Norse Reading Group meets at 5.30pm on Teams. Please email Olivia Smith (olivia.smith2@linacre.ox.ac.uk) to be added to the mailing list and Teams group.

Tuesday 8th March:

• The Medieval English Research Seminar meets at 11.30pm in Lecture Theatre 2, Faculty of English. This week’s speaker will be Paul Acker (St Louis University), ‘Dragons in Old English’. For further information, contact daniel.wakelin@ell.ox.ac.uk.
• The Class on Medieval Chronology by Prof. Anna Sapir Abulafia will take place 1.30-3.30 at the Faculty of Theology and Religion, Lecture Room, Gibson Building, ROQ site. This second class will review the solutions for last week’s work. Students interested in attending should contact anna.sapirabulafia@theology.ox.ac.uk.
• The Late Medieval Europe Seminar meets at 2pm at Saint John’s College, seminar room 21 St Giles. This week’s seminar is a discussion seminar.
• The Medieval Book Club meets at 3.30pm in Magdalen College, Old Law Library. This week’s topic is ‘Amusement’. If you want to join us, or would like more information, please contact oxfordmedievalbookclub@gmail.com. Option to join virtually via Google Meet as well, please send your contact details.
• The Medieval French Research Seminar meets at 5pm at Maison française d’Oxford and Online on Teams. This week’s speaker is Giulia Boitani (King’s College, Cambridge): ‘Edenic Entanglements: the Ship of Solomon in MS Bodmer 147‘. To join a session remotely via Teams, please contact helen.swift@st-hildas.ox.ac.uk to receive the link.
• The Medieval Church and Culture Seminar meets at 5pm in Warrington Room, Harris Manchester College. This week’s speaker is Helen Gittos (Balliol), ‘The Cerne Giant‘.

Wednesday 9th March:

• The Medieval German Seminar meets at 11.15-12.45 in Oriel College, Harris Room to discuss Reinbot of Durne’s Georg and find a topic for next term. If you are interested in being added to the teams channel and the mailing list for the seminar, email Henrike Lähnemann henrike.laehnemann@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk. For further information, follow MedGermOx on Twitter.
• The Early Medieval Britain and Ireland network meets at 12.30pm at LRVII in Brasenose College. The speaker will be Professor Jonathan Wooding, ‘Locating the Early Irish Peregrini in Iceland: Multi-Disciplinary Approaches’. All are very welcome to attend! Refreshments provided.
• The Medieval Trade Reading Group meets at 1-2pm in the Mertze Tate room of the History Faculty and online on Teams. Anyone interested in any element of medieval trade and its study are very welcome to join, from any department. To be added to the mailing list and team please email Annabel Hancock.
• Lucy Pick will give a talk on Blanche of Castile: An Iberian Queen in France, in the Kloppenburg Room, Cohen Quad (Exeter College) and on Zoom at 4.30-6 pm. Please register in advance here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
• The Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar meets at 5:30pm on Zoom. This week’s speaker is Miranda Williams (Oxford): ‘“He restored all the dismantled fortresses in Libya” (Aed. vi.5.7): Reassessing the Justinianic fortification programme in North Africa.’ Register in advance for this on-line series: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEkdeuspz8jG9IfBfrd75k6qrxLyWtG_PAu. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Thursday 10th March:

• Middle High German Reading Group meets at 10am at Somerville College Productivity Room (Margery Fry). This week’s text is Das Donaueschinger Passionsspiel. If you have any questions or want to participate, please send an e-mail to melina.schmidt@lincoln.ox.ac.uk.
• The Greek and Latin Reading Group meets at 4pm in St Edmund Hall. Room TBC: contact John Colley or Jenyth Evans to be added to the mailing list.
• The Early Textual Cultures Reading Group meets at 4.30pm, on Zoom and in person at the Dickson Poon Building (China Centre, Oxford), Lucina Ho Seminar Room. This week’s speaker will be Flaminia Pischedda (University of Oxford), ‘The Xici zhuan 繫辭傳 (Part A): Textual Structure and Readership‘. For zoom links, please register here.
• The Seminar in Medieval and Renaissance Music will take place on Zoom at 5pm. Today’s speakers are John Milsom (Liverpool Hope University) and Jessie Ann Owens (University of California at Davis): ‘Thomas Morley’s A plaine and easie introduction to practicall musicke (London, 1597): new observations and discoveries’. If you are planning to attend a seminar this term, please register using this form. For each seminar, those who have registered will receive an email with the Zoom invitation and any further materials a couple of days before the seminar. If you have questions, please email (matthew.thomson@ucd.ie).
• The Oxford University Heraldry Society meets at 6 for 6.30pm on Zoom. This week’s speaker is Robert Dennis: ‘Jacobite Flags of the 1745-46 Rising‘. Booking is essential – please contact the secretary at secretary@oxford-heraldry.org.uk

Friday 11th March:

• Pre-Modern Conversations meets at 11am-12pm on Teams. For more information and to be added the the PMC Teams Channel, email lena.vosding AT mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.
• The Seminar in the History of the Book will meet online and in the Weston Lecture Theatre at 2.15pm. You must be registered to attend: if you wish to attend online, you must register 24 hours before the seminar. This week’s speakers are Alexandra Franklin and Andrew Honey, Bodleian Library: ‘Bodleian Materials for the teaching of Book History‘. Register here: https://forms.office.com/r/FSXrV1W98u.

OPPORTUNITIES:

• Oxford Latinitas will be running a Spring Series of online intensive courses in ancient Greek (14th-18th March), and Latin (21st-25th March). All classes will be taught using the Active Method, which means that the target language is the language of the classroom. Classes will take place via Zoom, from 5-7pm UK time each day. For Greek there are two levels available: Absolute beginners / Beginners. For Latin, there are five: Absolute beginners / Beginners / Pre-intermediate / Intermediate / Advanced (this class will read Apuleius, Cupid and Psyche). Class size is capped at a maximum of 8 students. The cost of each course is £200, payable at the time of application. For detailed information about all the courses, and to access the sign-up form, click here.
• The Centre for Advanced Studies “Migration and Mobility in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages” at the University of Tübingen, Germany, headed by Mischa Meier, Steffen Patzold and Sebastian Schmidt-Hofner, invites applications for resident fellowships starting in 2023. The fellowships are available for a duration between one and twelve months. Fellowships are available for scholars at all stages of their academic career who have completed their doctoral degree and established an independent research profile. Applicants should be engaged in a research project in any relevant discipline that is related to the Centre’s interests in migration and mobility in the period and area in question. For full details, see here.
• CfP: 3 funded places for a Graduate Student Conference in Vienna on Late Rome, Byzantium and the Early Medieval West. In the spirit of fostering closer links between the participating universities, their teaching staff and their students, and building on their research strengths in Late Antique, Byzantine and Early Medieval studies (roughly defined as extending to the year 1000), this conference invites contributions from graduate students (MA and doctoral level) that deal with any aspect of these cultures. For full details, see here.

Finally, some more wisdom on time, appropriate to the seasonal passing of the Oxford terms:

Þæs ofereode, þisses swa mæg.
That passed; so will this.

I take this to mean: even though Hilary is coming to an end, a new term rises up on the horizon! I’ll be in contact again next week with some final announcements for the term, and a call for submissions for the Trinity Term Medieval Booklet. But in the meantime, I wish you a successful and enjoyable final week of term.