Medieval Matter TT26, wk5

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25/05/2026

09:02

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

Welcome to week 5,

Last week’s Wikipedia editathon proved a great success, and there is now a wikipedia article for OMS itself! Thanks again to Louise for leading the session – a recording of the introductory talk can be found here.

This Friday sees the ‘Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives‘ conference at the Weston, which includes an exhibition curated by the participants.

Exciting news! The Thegns of Mercia – an Anglo-Saxon reconstruction group – are coming to Balliol the Friday 29th May to show off a range of replicas (Old Common Room, 14:30). All are welcome!

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library. If you are interested in joining the group or would like more information, please email the convenor Laure Miolo.
  • Armenian Studies Lecture – 4:00, Pembroke College. Ruth Gornandt (Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies) will be speaking on ‘‘Measured Theology’ – Gregory of Tatev (1346–1410) and the limits of theological knowledge’.
  • Medieval History Seminar: – 5:00, All Souls College. Julia Hillner (University of Bonn) will be speaking on ‘The marrying kind: how late Roman emperors chose their wives’.

Tuesday

  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2pm, Weston Library. Those who are interested can email the convenor Laure Miolo.
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5:00, Maison Francaise. Laura Campbell (Durham University) will be speaking on‘In the Beginning: Re-Creating the Creation Story in Medieval French Translations’.
  • Medieval Church and Culture Seminar– Tea & coffee from 5pm; papers begin at 5.15pm, Harris Manchester College. Youfei Fan (St Anne’s) will be speaking on ‘The Potion and the Women around It: female knowledge and trickery in the Tristan Legend’.
  • Professor Frank Griffel’s inaugural lecture – 5:00, Humanities Centre. ‘Double Truth and Multiple Rationalisms: Philosophy in Islam’s Post-Classical Period’. More information here.
  • Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures – 5:15, Memorial Room, Queen’s College. Gunnar Seelentag (Hannover & Münster) will be speaking on ‘Monumentalising Norms, not Names: cartelisation and colossality in Archaic Crete’.

Wednesday

  • Methods in Arabic and Islamic Studies Class – 10:30, LMH Library.
  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar on Thomasin von Zerklaere – 11:15, Oriel College. If you are interested to be added to the teams group for updates and access to the sources, please contact Henrike Lähnemann.
  • Old Norse Reading Group – 4:00, Merton College, Breakfast Room. This term we are reading Völsunga saga. If you are interested in joining the group, please contact one of the group convenors via email Brooklyn Arnot or Zeynep Kirca. 
  • The Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online. To join and/or to find out more about this and the possibility of some hands-on experience of cataloguing such documents to develop further your research skills, please contact  Michael Stansfield.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar, Ioannou Centre. Alessandra Bucossi (Venice) will be speaking on ‘The Komnenian Panoplies between Religious Polemic and Political Self-Defence’.
  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 5:15, The Schwarzman Centre, room 00.018 . Mel Cowdery (U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) will be speaking on ‘What Does a Mirror Mean to Thomas Hoccleve?’.
  • ‘Public Health in the Premodern World’ Book Launch – 5:30 in the Mark Bedingham Room, St John’s College. Discussants: H. Skoda, U. Khan, G. Geltner, Janna Coomans, and Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim. Drinks reception to follow.

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group (MERG) – 11:00, Lincoln College, Beckington Room. All are welcome as we finish Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Bring any edition of the original text! There will be tea and biscuits. For more information or to be added to the mailing list, please email Rebecca Menmuir. 
  • Oxford Environmental History Working Group – 12:30, Schwarzman Centre History Hub Room 20.421. Dr. Kelsey Granger (IHR History Research Fellow) will be speaking on ‘Messengers of Empire: The Lives and Labour of Horses in China’s Ancient Postal System’.
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5:00, St Catherine’s College. Lloyd Debeer (British Museum) will be speaking on ‘The Many Lives of the Asante Ewers’.
  • Global Manuscript and Text Cultures Seminar – 5:15, Memorial Room, Queen’ College. Lauren Dogaer (Univ) will be speaking on ‘How the Greek Text Culture Has Shaped Modern Views of Ptolemaic Egyptian Priests’; Fergus Bovill (Merton) will be speaking on ‘Rebuilding the Medieval, Preserving the 19th Century: Littifredi Corbizzi, Johann Anton Ramboux, and the making and breaking of a choirbook in Gubbio’.
  • Old English Graduate Reading Group – 5:15. This term we will be reading some of the Exeter Riddles. Our Location is variable so please email Hattie (harriet.carter@lmh.ox.ac.uk) or James (james.titterington@stcatz.ox.ac.uk) if you’re interested.
  • The Khalili Research Centre Seminar – 5:15, KRC Lecture Room. Margaret Squires (Ashmolean Museum) will be speaking on ‘Woven Together: Carpets and Architecture in Safavid Iran’.
  • Oxford Trobadors Concert – 7:00, La Maison Francaise.
  • Bede Reading Group (or, ‘Bede-ing Group’) – 6:00, Blackfriars. To sign up, email Maura McKeon. Don’t stop Bede-lieving.
  • Compline in the Crypt – 9:30, St Edmund Hall.

Friday

  • Conference Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 9:00, Weston Library lecture theatre.
  • Oxford Festival of the Arts: Reading the signs: The meanings of medieval and Renaissance objects, symbols, and tokens – 9:30, The Hub, Kellog College.
  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – Friday 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Thegns of Mercia: Learning through Making – 2:30, Balliol College (Old Common Room).
  • Medieval Latin Reading Group – 5:30, Christ Church. This term, we will be reading the Cosmographia of Bernardus Silvestris in the original. For more information, please contact Clara Bykvist or Monty Powell. 

Opportunities (see Medieval Studies booklet for full details)