Month: March 2026

Locational Lives: Medieval Experience in Town and Country

by

04/03/2026

16:16

Comments Off on Locational Lives: Medieval Experience in Town and Country

Call for Papers

Invitation to join the Graduate Centre of Medieval Studies at Reading on Thursday, 16th April 2026, for a postgraduate forum and discussion on understanding medieval life from the perspective of those in Town and those in the Country. Four sessions of 20-minute presentations followed by discussion on each topic area. Hybrid event in person and online – please register with Eventbrite.

10:00 -17:00 (Registration from 9:30; Lunch break 13:00 -14:00)

Session 1: The Impact of the Church on the Rural

  • The Templar estates in Gloucestershire, c.1308-1310
  • Hyde Abbey’s management of its estates in the localities around Winchester
  • The Network of Bishop Birinus: Religious Influence in the Upper Thames Valley

Session 2: The Rurality of Italy

  • ¨ The countryside and its changes during the Middle Ages in the Italian Peninsula
  • ¨ The emergence of rural communes in the Florentine hinterland
  • ¨ Regulating Transhumant Pastoralism in The Liber Augustalis

Session 3: Cities, Towns and Links with Wider Populations

  • ¨ Religious Fraternities dedicated to St Christopher in Town and Country
  • ¨ From Country to City: the London Artisan and the Art of Assimilation 1300-1520
  • ¨ Experiential Anthropogenic(ity): Locational Identities in Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Tale

Session 4: The Urban as seen in Manuscripts

  • ¨ Architecture: Representing the Urban Cathedral in Late Medieval French Manuscript Tradition
  • ¨ The visual representation of the ancient Russian ‘grad’ (city, fortress) in manuscript miniatures

TICKETS FOR BOTH IN PERSON AND ONLINE ATTENDEES AVAILABLE VIA EVENTBRITE: Please search ‘GCMS Eventbrite’ , or use this Eventbrite link

LocationalLivesDownload
GCMS Forum 2026 Call for PapersDownload

eCatalogus+: A Digital Tool for Latin Manuscripts

by

03/03/2026

17:28

Comments Off on eCatalogus+: A Digital Tool for Latin Manuscripts

Around Oxford, events

11 March, 5pm, Horton Room, Weston Library
Dr Paweł Figurski Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw
eCatalogus+: A Digital Tool for the Automated Study of Latin Manuscripts  (Liturgical Case Studies)

The presentation introduces eCatalogus+, an innovative digital platform designed for the comprehensive description and automated analysis of medieval Latin manuscripts, with a particular focus on liturgical sources. At its core, eCatalogus+ combines HTR (Handwritten Text Recognition) technology with advanced tools that improve transcription accuracy and enable the automatic analysis of manuscript contents. Its main features—powerful search functions, interactive databases, and collaborative research modules—facilitate both individual and collective work on medieval texts. The system has been successfully implemented in research projects such as eCLLA+ and Liturgica Poloniae: A Descriptive Catalogue of Polish Liturgical Manuscripts, where it supports the study, cataloguing, and interpretation of medieval liturgical sources. Through selected liturgical case studies, the presentation will demonstrate the platform’s research potential and its contribution to the evolving field of digital manuscript studies. Ultimately, the talk aims to show how digital technologies are transforming the study of medieval manuscripts, opening new avenues for both academic inquiry and public engagement.

Paweł Figurski is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The focus of his research is on the history of liturgy and its political significance as well as on medieval manuscript culture, book illumination, and the theology of politics in the Early and High Middle Ages. He is also an active researcher, database analyst, and developer of tools for automated research on the Latin liturgical tradition in the field of digital humanities. He is currently the Principal Investigator (PI) of two projects: “Liturgica Poloniae…”, funded by the Polish Ministry of Higher Education (NPRH), and “Dangerous Prayers…”, funded by the Polish National Science Centre (SONATA)  

Please let Matthew Holford know if you would like to join him and the speaker for dinner after the talk.

Medieval matter HT26, Week 7

by

02/03/2026

08:59

Comments Off on Medieval matter HT26, Week 7

blog, Call for Papers, conference, events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities, Uncategorized

,

Welcome all to week 7, and another packed schedule of events. The ‘Opportunities and Reminders’ section is growing particularly large, with a number of new additions – keep an eye out for CfPs and funding opportunities. The OMS blog continues to grow rapidly: Cris Arama (MSt. Medieval Studies) has recently written a report on Ian Forrest’s workshop.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5:00, All Souls College. Jo Story (Leicester) “Insular manuscripts: why membrane matters” [Please note: this session will be in-person only, not hybrid – this is due to restrictions governing the sharing of unpublished data by grant partners].

Tuesday

  • EMBI workshop: ‘Reading’ manuscript membrane: bioarchaeology of early medieval books’ – 10:00, Weston Library. Requires pre-booking.
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room). Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo.
  • Medieval Church and Culture, theme: TRANSLATION(S) – tea and coffee from 5:00, Harris Manchester College. Simon Heller (Lincoln) will be speaking on ‘Translation, Transformation, and Transmission: the case of the Old English Beowulf’
  • Old English Hagiography Reading Group – 5:15, Jesus College Memorial Room.
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5:15, Maison Française d’Oxford. Nathalie Koble (ENS Paris) will be speaking on ‘Sens et sentibilité. Pour une lecture multimédiale de la Dame à la Licorne (Musée de Cluny, Paris)’ .
  • Poetry Reading: Kevin Crossley-Holland – 5:30, St Edmund Hall. More information here.
  • Church Historian Pub Night – 6:00 at the Chequers Inn. Contact Rachel Cresswell

Wednesday

  • History and Materiality of the Book Seminar series – 2:15, Weston Library. Matthew Holford and Laure Miolo will be discussing Medieval Libraries and Provenance
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 (Humanities Centre). Palyce of Honour, Thyrd Part, ll. 1288-2142 
  • The Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
  • Islamic Studies Seminar – 5:00, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Dr Moin Nizam will be speaking on ‘Transnational Ties of Faith: Imdadullah’s letters and writings from the Hijaz during the late-19th century’.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies. Alasdair Grant (Hamburg) will be speaking on ‘Ubiquitous and Universal? Rebellion and State Formation between Byzantium and Early Islam’

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group (MERG) – 11:00, Lincoln College, Beckington Room. All are welcome as we read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: bring any edition of the original text.
  • Heraldry Society – 5:00, Oriel College. Dr Beatrice Groves (Research Fellow, Trinity) will be speaking on ‘”Azure-laced / With blue of heaven’s own tinct:” Shakespeare’s heraldic language’.
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:15, Room 20.306 (Humanities Centre and Online). Emmet Taylor (Cork) will be speaking on ‘Heads, hierarchy and the heroic’
  • Old English Graduate Reading Group – 5:15. Email Harriet Carter for location.
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5:15, The Khalili Research Centre. Günseli Gürel (Khalili Research Centre) will be speaking on ‘Picturing marvels, magic and monsters at the Ottoman court, 1574–1603’.
  • Guild of Medievalist Makers – 5:30, online. Optional theme: regrowth.

Friday

  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – Friday 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • The History of the Bible: From Manuscripts to Print – 12:00, Visiting Scholars Centre at the Weston Library. The theme this week is ‘Vernacular Bibles of the Middle Ages’. Places are limited. To register interest and secure a place, please contact the lecturer at Péter Tóth.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room). Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo.

Opportunities and Reminders