Medieval Matter TT26, Wk 8

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15/06/2026

09:13

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events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities, Uncategorized

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At last, week 8!

We’d like to put together a survey of all the medieval opportunities and events that have taken place this year. If you’ve run a seminar series, reading group, or workshop, at any point this year, I would be very grateful if you’d send me a short report for inclusion by the end of the week.

For your diary: St Edmund Hall is hosting a workshop entitled Peter Payne: A Forgotten Great European from 30 September – 1 October 2026, exploring connectedness in European cultural development and the emergence, as a result of joint artistic and scholarly endeavour, of modern local and common European identity. More information, including how to register, can be found here. The Compline on Thursday in the crypt of St-Peter-in-the-East will be a full Night Office devised by Henry Parkes to resemble that sung by a female monastic community in Northern Germany in post-pentecostal time; starting 9.30pm and probably lasting a couple of hours, so not for the faint-hearted but certainly worthwhile!

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.
  • Runic Germanic Inscriptions and Language Lectures – 2:00, room 30.445 (Anna Morpurgo Davies Room) of the Schwarzman Centre.
  • Medieval History Seminar: – 5:00, All Souls College. Serena Ferente (University of Amsterdam) will be speaking on ‘Girls in the Global Middle Ages: three case-studies from the 13th to the 15th centuries’. Prosecco will be served to celebrate the end of term.
  • Inaugural Lecture of theologian and medievalist Andrew Davison on ‘the Creed in Music’ – 5pm, in the Concert Hall of the Humanities Centre (currently sold out but try your luck at the door).
  • Italian Research Seminars – 5:15, Taylor Institute Library. Arielle Saiber (Johns Hopkins) will be speaking on ‘Neither Here, Nor There: Directionality in Dante’s Paradiso‘.

Tuesday

  • Forgotten Libraries (Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures: International Workshop) – 9:00, The Queen’s College. For more information: https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/forgotten-libraries/
  • 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. Marcos Marinho Fernandes (Aix-Marseille Université) will be speaking on ‘Comparing Royal Matrimonial Diplomatic Strategies between Portugal, Spain, France, and the Habsburgs, 1490-1519’. 
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 4:30, The Queen’s College. Ben Saltzman (University of Chicago) will be speaking on ‘Turning Away: The Poetics of an Ancient Gesture’. Co-sponsored with the Early Medieval Britain & Ireland + the Medieval English Research Seminars.

Wednesday

  • Forgotten Libraries (Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures: International Workshop) – 9:00, The Queen’s College. For more information: https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/forgotten-libraries/
  • Methods in Arabic and Islamic Studies Class – 10:30, LMH Library.
  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11:15, Oriel College. For the final session of the Medieval German Graduate Seminar, Prof. Markus Stock (Toronto) will talk about his project Medieval Undergrounds under the title “Lithic Enclosures: Limitations and Expansions im wilden steine  in Medieval German Romance”, dealing with Trevrizent’s cell in Wolfram’s ‘Parzival’, the Minnegrotte in Gottfried’s ‘Tristan’, Jerome’s realm in Friedrich von Schwaben etc.
  • 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.
  • Magdalen Lecture – 5:00, Magdalen College Auditorium. Professor Benjamin Pohl will be speaking on ‘Food for Thought—The Bayeux Tapestry Revisited’. Free tickets can be booked here.
  • 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. Tassos Papacostas (London) will be speaking on ‘The Cult of Saint Mamas between Cyprus and Venice in the 16th Century: A Patron Saint of Shepherds Promoted by the Urban Elite’.
  • Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Seminar – 5:00, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Dr Afifi Al-Akiti (University of Oxford) will be speaking on ‘The Imago Dei and Human Dignity in Islamic Tradition’.

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. 
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar- 4:00, Somerville College. Celebration and Praise, including extracts from the works of Christine de Pizan and Sara al-Halabiyya.
  • Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures: Global Manuscript and Text Cultures Seminar – 5:15, The Queen’s College. Jessica Rahardjo (Khalili Research Centre) will be speaking on ‘A Critical Edition and Translation of Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm: a 17thc Malay Shāfi’ī Legal Text’; Shane Patrick (Wolfson) will be speaking on ‘The Debate of Abu Qurrah and its Manuscript Circulation’.
  • The Khalili Research Centre Seminar – 5:15, KRC Lecture Room. Jun Muzaffer Özgüleş (Barakat Trust Postdoctoral Fellow, KRC ) will be speaking on ‘Historicising and Visualising the Evolution of Ottoman Architecture in Istanbul from the Mid-fifteenth to the Early Twentieth Century’.
  • Bede Reading Group (or, ‘Bede-ing Group’) – 6:00, Blackfriars. To sign up, email Maura McKeon. Don’t stop Bede-lieving.
  • Special Compline i– 9.30pm in the crypt of St-Peter-in-the-East (St Edmund Hall), devised by Henry Parkes.

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. 

Opportunities (see Medieval Studies booklet for full details)

  • 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).
  • 20th MEMSA Anniversary Conference. More information here. Deadline: 20 June 2026.
  • CfP – 2026 Journal of the History of Ideas Graduate Student Symposium on ‘Prophecy, Prediction, and the Politics of Futurity’. Deadline: June 22, 2026. More information here.
  • 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.
  • CfP – Representations of Women and/as Animals in Literature, Arts, and Other Media. Deadline: 15 July 2026.
  • Call for book chapters in ‘Times of Change: Norway in the 13thC‘. Deadline: 31 July 2026.
  • CfP – Ars Inquirendi 2026. Deadline: 31 August 2026.
  • 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.
  • 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.