Welcome to sixth week!
All week, from Tuesday through to Saturday, you can watch The Harrowing of Hell.26, a 2026 experimental and abstract adaptation of the medieval Harrowing of Hell narrative, created from English mystery plays (York Cycle, Towneley Plays, Ludus Coventriae, Chester Cycle) and rewritten into contemporary English. Performances are at 9:30, in the Oxford Playhouse. Tickets can be bought here. And do book your (free) place for the Inaugural Lecture of theologian and medievalist Andrew Davison on Monday, 15 June, 5pm, in the Concert Hall of the Humanities Centre which promises to be spectacular: 1000 years of Creed settings in music with the choir of Christ Church singing. Do come and make sure the concert hall buzzes with medievalists! All information here.
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.
- Medieval History Seminar: – 5:00, All Souls College. Guy Geltner (Monash University) will be speaking on ‘The workers’ view: an environmental approach to premodern public health’.
- Edgar Wind Society Lecture – 6:00, House of St Gregory and St Macrina (1 Canterbury Road). Sir Richard Temple will be speakgin on ‘Andrei Rublev and the Hesychastic Mysteries of Byzantium’.
Tuesday
- Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2pm, Weston Library. Those who are interested can email the convenor Laure Miolo.
- Early Modern Diplomacy Seminar 1400-1800 – 4.15, Schwartzman 20.402. Philippa Jackson (Independent Scholar) will be speaking on ‘Girolamo Ghinucci (1480-1541): Papal Judge and English Ambassador’.
- Medieval Church and Culture Seminar– Tea & coffee from 5pm; papers begin at 5.15pm, Harris Manchester College. Mary O’Connor (Balliol) will be speaking on ‘Pride and Humility: biblical typologies in Old Norse romances’.
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.
- Oxford Seminar in the History of Alchemy and Chemistry – 3:00, Maison Française d’Oxford. Session 3 — Compuational History of Alchemy and Chemistry. Vojtěch Kaąe (University of West Bohemia, Plzeň) and Sarah Lang (Max Planck Institute, Berlin) will be speaking on ‘Tracing the Histories of Early Modern Conceptual Ecosystems: Remote Sensing Methods for the Archaeology of Alchemical Knowledge’; Guillermo Restrepo (Max Planck Institute, Leipzig) will be speaking on ‘Computational History of Chemistry: How Big Data Illuminates Macrohistorical Trends and Microhistorical Events’.
- Old Norse Reading Group – 4:00, Merton College, Americas 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.
- David Patterson Lecture – 5:00, Clarendon Institute. Elisheva Baumgarten (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) will be speaking on ‘Shared Words: Jews, Christians and Prayer in Medieval Europe’.
- Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar, Ioannou Centre. Saun Tougher (Cardiff) will be speaking on ‘Minor Characters? Other Eunuchs in Byzantine Historiography of the Tenth Century’.
- Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures: Provenance Unknown – 5:15, Memorial Room, The Queen’s College. Dr Stella Panayotova, Royal Librarian, will be speaking on ‘Islamic Manuscripts in the Royal Library’.
Thursday
- Transmitting and Preserving Languages in the Medieval and Early Modern Mediterranean, Second Workshop – 9:00, Balliol College. To register for online attendance, please contact Ugo Mondini at ugo.mondini@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.
- 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 Centre for Islamic Studies Lecture – 2:00, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Dr Kaouther Karoui (University of Münster) will be speaking on ‘Reframing Transcultural Justice: From Early Arabo Islamic Philosophy to Postcolonial Critique’.
- Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar- 4:00, Somerville College. Recording Women’s Deeds, including extracts from Agnes d’Harcourt’s Life of Isabelle of France and the Crònica de Sant Pere de les Puel·les
- Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5:00, St Catherine’s College. Jessica Barker (Courtauld Institute) will be speaking on ‘Contemporary Art Meets the Medieval Monastery’.
- ‘There is an Animal That is Called an Elephant’ – 5:00, Keble College. Research presentation by Dr Alexandra Paddock and sharing of a work-in-progress exploring the life and times of Henry III’s elephant through music, puppetry and text.
- The Khalili Research Centre Seminar – 5:15, KRC Lecture Room. Emine Fetvaci (Boston College) will be ‘Portrait as Biography at the Ottoman Court: the Case of Murad III (r. 1574–95)’.
- Bede Reading Group (or, ‘Bede-ing Group’) – 6:00, Blackfriars. To sign up, email Maura McKeon. Don’t stop Bede-lieving.
Friday
- Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
- Older Scots Reading Group – 3:00, Schwarzman room 30.401. No intensive preparation required. All are welcome and there are usually snacks. This week the theme is Orpheus and Eurydice. Contact megan.bushnell@ling-phil.ox.ac.uk for further details.
- 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.
Saturday
- Production of Fulgens and Lucrece – 5:30, St Hilda’s College Pavillion. Light refreshments will be served. Audience standing with limited seating around the outside of the room. Register online: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/sthildascollege/2225373
Opportunities (see Medieval Studies booklet for full details)
- Publishing with the Journal Manuscript and Text Cultures. Are you interested in submitting to the journal Manuscript and Text Cultures? Please review the About the Journal page.
- CfP – Representations of Women and/as Animals in Literature, Arts, and Other Media. Deadline: 15 July 2026.
- Sir John Rhŷs Prize for the study of the Celtic languages, literature, history, and antiquities. Entries should be submitted by email, with the subject line “Sir John Rhŷs Prize”, to the English Faculty Office, no later than Monday of Week 8 of Trinity Term (15 June 2026).
- Ashmolean Engagement Programme. More information here. Deadline: 1 June 2026.
- CfP – Contested Ground: Ownership and Belonging in the Middle Ages. More information here. Deadline: 1 June 2026.
- CfP – 1027 – 2027 : The World in which William was Born. More information here. Deadline: 1 June 2026.
- Postdoctoral Fellowships at the Dictionary of Old English, U of T. More information here. Deadline: 12 June 2026.
- 20th MEMSA Anniversary Conference. More information here. Deadline: 20 June 2026.
- The Mortimer History Society will once again be offering two Research Bursaries (each of £1000) for the academic year 2026 to 2027, for PhD and MA students whose research includes any aspect of the medieval Welsh Marches or the Mortimers. More information here. Deadline: 30 June 2026.
- Call for book chapters in ‘Times of Change: Norway in the 13thC‘. Deadline: 31 July 2026.
- Bodleian Purchasing Opportunity. Do you know of books that would aid your work but are not in the Bodleian? Help us strengthen the university’s collections. You can submit details of suggested books via https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/collections-and-resources/recommend-a-purchase or by email to medieval@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.