Author: Tristan Alphey

Medieval Matters, MT25 Week 3

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27/10/2025

08:50

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

Week 3 is upon us – please find below the weekly offering of events, groups, and opportunities. As always, you can find a complete copy of the Oxford Medieval Studies Booklet here.  Any last-minuted changes will be updated in the weekly blogpost and in the calendar, both accessible via https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Introduction to Arabic Palaeography – 2:00, Khalili Research Centre
  • Carmina Burana: Graduate Text Seminar – 5:00, Harris Lecture Theatre, Oriel College
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5:00 with drinks reception to follow, All Souls College. Lucy Donkin (University of Bristol) will be speaking on “Ex urbe et ab Hierosolomis: The Materiality and Portability of Place in Pre-Reformation Europe”.

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, Margaret Thatcher Centre, Somerville. A range of contributors will be speaking on ‘On the Life and Works of Vincent Gillespie’
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Medieval Church and Culture Seminar – 5:00, Harris Manchester College. Susanna Heywood (KCL): will be speaking on ‘A Practical Guide to Kingship?: the virtue of prudence in Giles of Rome’s De Regimine Principum’
  • Medieval French Researsh Seminar – 5:00, Maison Française d’Oxford. Prof. Ellen Delvallée (Université Grenoble Alpes) will be speaking on ‘‘Éclats de la Chronique française de Guillaume Cretin: de l’inachèvement aux explorations esthétiques’
  • Old English Graduate Reading Group – 5:15, location TBC, contact Hattie Carter
  • Oxford Architectural and Historical Society – 5:30, Rewley House. Duncan Taylor will be speaking on ‘A New Understanding of Oxford’s Divinity School Vault’

Wednesday

  • John Lydgate Book Club – 11:00, Smoking Room (Lincoln College).
  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11:15, Somerville College.
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 in the Schwarzman Centre.
  • Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre. Stratis Papaioannou (Athens) will be speaking on ‘The Synaxarion of Constantinople as Historiography’
  • Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures Lecture – 5:15, Memorial Room (The Queen’s College). Daniel Schwemer (Würzburg) will be speaking on ‘Ancient Kings, a New Language (and sometimes wheelbarrows): a decade of field epigraphy at the Hittite capital Boğazköy-Ḫattuša’

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group – 11:00, Beckington Room (Lincoln College).
  • Environmental History Working Group – 12:00, Room 20.421 in the Schwarzman Centre. Madeleine Fyles (UToronoto) will be speaking on ‘More than Kindling: Algarrobo Posts and Social Memory on the Peruvian North Coast’.
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:00, hybrid. Jaione Diaz Mazquiaran (Alan R King Etxepare Chair 2025) will be speaking on ‘Language, Beliefs, and Belonging: Immigrant Students in Basque-Medium Education’
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5:00, St. Catherine’s College. Hannele Hellerstedt (Ox.) will be speaking on ‘Seeing Double: Visualizing La Cité des dames and La Cité de Dieu‘.
  • Seminars in Medieval and Renaissance Music – 5:00, online. Anne Walters Robertson (The University of Chicago) will be speaking on ‘a cycle of masses for all seasons in the Burgundian court’
  • Spooktacular Manuscripts – 3:00, Visiting Scholars’ Centre (Weston Library). To celebrate Halloween, Alison Ray will present a range of spooktacular medieval manuscripts, from magical spell books and alchemical texts to depictions of black cats and a witches’ sabbath. Costumes are optional! NOTE that a University or Bodleian reader card is required for access, which is via the Readers’ entrance to the Weston Library
  • Compline in the Crypt – 9:30, St Edmund Hall.

Friday

  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room).
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group: Library Visit (Merton) – 5:00. Sign-up required.

Opportunities

Medieval Matters MT25, Week 2

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19/10/2025

16:34

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

Welcome to week 2, and the Medieval Matters email – a day early this time to coincide with St Frideswide’s Day! In honour of the occasion, Jesus College has paid for the Pershore Legendary to appear on Digital Bodleian, which includes the most accurate copy of Robert of Cricklade’s Life of St Frideswide. Browse away!

As always, you can find a complete copy of the Oxford Medieval Studies Booklet here.  Any last-minuted changes will be updated in the weekly blogpost and in the calendar, both accessible via https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Introduction to Arabic Palaeography – 2:00, Khalili Research Centre
  • Carmina Burana: Graduate Text Seminar – 5:00, Harris Lecture Theatre, Oriel College.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5:00 with drinks reception to follow, All Souls College. Peter Jones (King’s College, Cambridge), will be speaking on ‘Event, story and image in writings of John Arderne (1307-c.1380), English surgeon’.

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, Margaret Thatcher Centre, Somerville. David Scott-Macnab (North-West U) will be speaking on ‘Edward, Second Duke of York’s Master of Game: A New Edition for EETS
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Medieval Church and Culture Seminar – 5:00, Harris Manchester College. John Merrington (All Souls) will be speaking on ‘Reading the Five Thousand: gender, the body and the interpretation of John 6 in medieval Europe’.
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5pm at the at the Maison Française d’Oxford. Prof. Johannes Junge Ruhland (University of Notre Dame) will be speaking on ‘The Bookishness of French Prose Histories’.

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11:15, Somerville College. The topic for this term is Ulrich von Richental, Chronik des Konzils zu Konstanz (1414-1438).
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 in the Schwarzman Centre.
  • Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre. Johannes Pahlitzsch (Mainz) will be speaking on ‘Concepts of Space and Orthodoxy beyond Byzantium’.

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group – 11:00, Beckington Room (Lincoln College).
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar – 4:00, Somerville College (meet at Lodge). Authorising the Text: including extracts from the prose works of Teresa de Cartagena and Anna Komnene.
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:00, hybrid. Rhys Kaminski-Jones (CAWCS) will be speaking on ‘Bardic liberties: Bardism and slavery in the poetry of Iolo Morganwg’.
  • Guild of Medievalist Makers – 5:30, online. Making Space Session.
  • Oxford University Heraldry Society – 6:30, online. Mike Rumble will be speaking on ‘The Heraldry of Kensington and Chelsea, London’.

Friday

  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room).
  • Memorial Service for Professor Vincent Gillespie – 2:00, Keble College Chapel.
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group Workshop – 5:00, Merton College. Workshop with Joumana Medlej.

Opportunities

MEMRN Winter Conference 2025

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13/10/2025

17:49

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opportunities

Fragmented Worlds, Shared Histories

The MEMRN Committee are delighted to announce the return of the Winter Conference after the huge success of last year’s inaugural in-person event in Norwich. The MEMRN Winter Conference 2025 will be held from the 13th to the 16th November 2025 at the University of East Anglia.

Please find the provisional programme for our conference event below. You can register to attend the conference panels virtually via Eventbrite HERE. Online registrations for the final few in-person spaces will be opened shortly. We hope to see you there!

Thursday 13th November Scheduled Activities
19:00
Norwich City Centre
The Adam & Eve
17 Bishopgate,
Norwich, NR3 1RZ		Welcome to MEMRN’s Winter Conference 2025! 

If you’re arriving early to the conference, we’d like to welcome you to Norwich by heading out together on a sociable crawl of some of Norwich’s oldest and finest pubs. 

We’ll begin our evening at the oldest pub in the city: the Adam & Eve, which dates back to at least 1249! From there, we’ll walk over to the Belgian Monk next to the historic Maddermarket. Try the cherry beer – you won’t regret it! We plan to wind up at the Lamb Inn, located in what was medieval Norwich’s Jewish Quarter. 
Friday 14th NovemberDay OneScheduled Activities
10:00 – 10:10
University of East Anglia 
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13		Arrival & registration at Congregation Hall, UEA. 

Morning refreshments (tea, coffee and breakfast pastries) will be provided.)
10:10 – 10:20 
University of East Anglia 
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13		Welcome and Opening Remarks from the CHASE MEMRN Committee.
10:30 – 11:40 
University of East Anglia 

Panel Session One: 
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13

Panel Session Two: 
The Union Building
Room 1		Panel Session One: Fragmented Religious Communities 
Panel Chair: Freya Laidlow-Petersen

Dr. Danny Buck 
(Independent Scholar)

A Calvinist Bolthole? The Unusual Survival of Great Yarmouth’s Dutch Congregation

Anisia Iacob 
(University of Kent, Kings College London) 

Banned and Burnt: Michael Servetus’ Christianismi Restitutio and its Journey to 16th century Transylvania

Felix Liber
(Independent Scholar) 

Natural Law Amidst a Plurality of Opinions: John Selden and the Agent Intellect

Panel Session Two: Communities in Manuscript
Panel Chair: TBC

Kate Yarbrough
(University of York)

Passionately Made: Reader Additions in the Pavement-Pulleyn Hours, York Minster LibraryMS XVI.K.6

Madeleine Duperouzel
(University of Oxford)

Examining Marginal Women in Late Antique and Byzantine Egyptian Papyri, 4th-7th centuries

Mathilda Linnéa Osborne
(Independent Scholar)

Remembering Husdent: Marginalised Animals and the Fragmented Béroul Manuscript

Emilia Hesler Osztafi
(University of Oxford)

Practical Fragments: Compilation as Craft and Ritual in English Fifteenth-Century Home-Made Notebooks
11:40 – 12:10BREAK
12:10 – 13:20
University of East Anglia 

Panel Session Three:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13

Panel Session Four:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.17		Panel Session Three: Voices from the Margin
Panel Chair: TBC

Conor Byrne 
(University of Southampton)

‘The supreme opportunity to speak’? Queenship, Gender and Agency on the Early Modern Scaffold 

Lucy Ryell
(University of Lincoln)

‘I love my master, and I hate that slave’: Servicing Power and Empowering Service in Early Modern Domestic Tragedy

Costas Gavriel 
(University of Oxford) 

The Politics of Conversion: The Role of the Jewish Orphan in the Memorias of Leonor López de Córdoba

Panel Session Four: Poetical Matter: Alchemy and Anatomy
Panel Chair: TBC

Amelia Ormondroyd-Williams
(Birkbeck, University of London)

The Vegetal Analogy in Early Modern Poetry and Obstetrics

Anna Piper-Thompson
(University of York)

‘When Phæbus with his Rayes Bryghte’: Sir Hans Sloane’s Alchemical Manuscript Collection in Practice

Gabriela Luz 
(University of Birmingham & UNESP, Brazil)

“And this feende, that hadde power to make woman conceive” – The Demonic Seed in Supernatural Pregnancies
13:20 – 14:00Lunch
14:45 – 17:00 

Session 1: Norwich Castle 
Castle St, Norwich,
NR1 3JU

Session 2: Norwich Cathedral
Cathedral Close,
Tombland, Norwich,
NR1 4DH

Session 3: Norwich City Centre

Session 4: The Forum,
Millennium Plain, Norwich
NR2 1BH		Afternoon Exploration Sessions
Session 1: Norwich Castle Museum – Visit to the new gallery of Medieval Life
Join Dr. Tim Pestell, Castle Curator of Archaeology, for a special look around Norwich Castle’s newly redeveloped Norman keep. Redesigned over the course of 7 years, the Norman keep now houses reconstructed royal apartments and the new Gallery of Medieval Life, opened in partnership with the British Museum. You’ll have the opportunity to hear Tim’s unique insights into the challenges of the keep project and enjoy some time exploring the museum independently. 

Please note: Norwich Castle keep is now fully accessible. 

Session 2: Norwich Cathedral Library Workshop and Cathedral Tour
With construction beginning in 1096, Norwich Cathedral has been a site of Christian worship for over 900 years. This visit will include a guided tour of the medieval & early modern highlights of the cathedral building, rounded off with a workshop in the Cathedral library with library curator Gudrun Warren to examine some of the special collections. 

Please note: Norwich Cathedral and its Library are mostly accessible but the main cathedral building has some uneven floors. You can access more accessibility information here: https://cathedral.org.uk/accessibility/

Session 3: Medieval & Early Modern Norwich Walking Tour
Wrap up warm and explore the incredible medieval and early modern city of Norwich with us! Embark on a walking tour of some of the stunning highlights including the medieval church that was home to Julian of Norwich, the glorious guildhall, Cathedral Close, Tombland, and the famously picturesque Elm Hill. 

Please note: Our walking tour route is largely accessible but could be a challenging distance for those with mobility issues. In the event that  the winter weather works against us, we will dip into Norwich cathedral, have a look around, and enjoy a sociable tea & cake in the Refectory instead! 

Session 4: Norfolk Heritage Centre – Special Collections Visit
This session will be based at the Norfolk Heritage Centre at the Forum. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to work with some of the medieval and early modern highlights of the Centre’s special collections and develop book handling and interpretation skills with the experts. The workshop is intended to develop a deeper understanding of palaeography and book history as well as the role of Norwich’s historic library collections across four centuries of public and academic life. 

Please note: The Forum is an accessible venue.
18:00 
Norwich City Centre
The Vault
The Cosy Club, 45-51 London St, Norwich, NR2 1AG		MEMRN Winter Conference Welcome Dinner

Tonight delegates will be invited to gather for an informal dinner at The Cosy Club in Norwich. Head downstairs to our private room in the old bank vault for a relaxed evening of great food, drinks and company! 

Please note that the cost of dinner is not included. As an optional social event, we’ve endeavoured to keep the costs as accessible as possible. 
Our dinner will be served buffet-style in The Vault at £25.95 per head for two courses. Payment will be made individually on the night. Please let us know via the registration form if you have any dietary requirements. 
Saturday 15th November Day TwoScheduled Activities
8:30 – 9:00
University of East Anglia 
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13		Arrival & registration at Congregation Hall, UEA. 

Morning refreshments (tea, coffee and breakfast pastries) will be provided.)
9:00 – 10:15
University of East Anglia 

Panel Session Five:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13

Panel Session Six:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.17		Panel Session Five: Diplomatic Encounters
Panel Chair: TBC

Teoni Maughan Passereau
(University of Bristol) 

Initiating and Negotiating Franco-English Diplomatic Relations: 1660-1664 

Rima Greenhill 
(Stanford University) 

“Mutual affection”: An overview of Anglo-Russian diplomatic and trade relations, 1601-1617.

Giada Semenzato
(Università di Firenze) 

The Wars of the Roses: An Italian Perspective through Diplomatic and Commercial Networks

Panel Session Six: Narratives of Travel & Encounter
Panel Chair: TBC

Freya Grace Laidlow-Petersen (University of Bangor)

Monks on the Move: Tracing the Paths of Celtic Wandering Friars

Virginia Ghelarducci 
(School of Advanced Study, University of London)

Images of Global Encounters: The Classical Tradition and the Americas in Early Modern Travel Literature

TBC
TBC

Title TBC
10:15 – 10:45BREAK
10:45 – 12:00 
University of East Anglia 

Session 1
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13

Session 2
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.17		Parallel Workshop Sessions

Session 1: Latin Crash Course
This session is designed to give those who haven’t had much of a chance to study Latin the opportunity to give it a whirl. Our Latin Crash Course will give you the basics of the language along with a bucket full of tips, tricks and resources to help you pursue effective self-directed Latin study. 

Session 2: Palaeography Clinic
Are you struggling with some monstrous palaeography in your research project? This session is an opportunity to outsource your palaeography woes and work through challenging documents together as a group. Bring your toughest examples to this workshop and with the help of a facilitator, work with your fellow delegates to decipher them. 
12:00 – 13:00Lunch
13:00 – 14:10
University of East Anglia 

Panel Session Seven:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13

Panel Session Eight:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.17		Panel Session Seven: Premodern Poetics of Race, Otherness, and Alterity
Panel Chair: TBC

Georgie Anderson 
(University of Kent)

‘Al was his sward wat scaetde dat?’ Medieval Conventions of Blackness in the Middle Dutch Moriaen.

Jessica Weiss-Bahia
(University of Oxford)

Medieval Legacies, Stuart Stages: Race and Gender Fluidity in Court Performance

Anna Mowery 
(Warburg Institute)

Magic, Colonialism, and Enslavement on the Early Modern Stage (1588-1621)

Panel Session Eight: The Fabric of Care: Medicine & Materiality
Panel Chair: TBC

Rachel Dow 
(Birkbeck, University of London)

Linen in Pieces: The Role of Linen in Seventeenth-Century Experience and Imagination

Alice Goldsney 
(University of East Anglia)

Medicine for the Soul at The Great Hospital, Norwich  

Veronika Lahodinski
(University of York)

The Transfer of Uroscopic Knowledge from Medieval Script Culture to 16th Century English-Language Print Culture
15:00 – 17:00 

Session 1: Norwich Medieval Combat Club 
St Lawrence Church, 
31 St Benedicts Street,
Norwich, NR2 4PE

Session 2: Museum of Norwich at the Bridewell  
Bridewell Alley, 
Norwich, NR2 1AQ

Session 3: Norwich City Centre

Session 4: The Shoebox Experiences
21-23 Castle Meadow, 
Norwich NR1 3DH		Afternoon Exploration Sessions

Session 1: Norwich Medieval Combat Club – Demonstration of Medieval Weaponry
Step into the gritty world of medieval tournaments with Norwich Medieval Combat as they showcase the raw intensity of full-contact armoured medieval fighting. This is not reenactment, but real combat in steel. Alongside the clashes, you’ll explore the arms and armour of 14th-century knights and even try your hand at the techniques they once used in tourneys. A rare chance to experience real history at its most visceral!

Session 2: Museum of Norwich at the Bridewell Tour
Situated in the Bridewell, one of Norwich’s grandest medieval flint-walled residences, the Museum of Norwich tells the story of the city’s colourful social history. Your exclusive tour of the Bridewell building includes a rare opportunity to enter the medieval undercrofts which are the largest remaining undercrofts in the city accessible to the public. 

Please note: Unfortunately, the Bridewell undercrofts are not wheelchair accessible.

Session 3: Medieval & Early Modern Norwich Walking Tour
Wrap up warm and explore the incredible medieval and early modern city of Norwich with us! Embark on a walking tour of some of the stunning highlights including the medieval church that was home to Julian of Norwich, the glorious guildhall, Cathedral Close, Tombland, and the famously picturesque Elm Hill. 

Please note: Our walking tour route is largely accessible but could be a challenging distance for those with mobility issues. In the event that  the winter weather works against us, we will dip into Norwich cathedral, have a look around, and enjoy a sociable tea & cake in the Refectory instead! 

Session 4: The Shoebox Experiences Norwich Hidden Street Tour 
Step into the shadows of Norwich’s history with the Shoebox Hidden Street Tour.  Guided by a local storyteller, and history enthusiast you’ll uncover a whole new world hidden beneath The Shoebox Experience’s office on Castle Meadow – where layers of city architecture expose secrets from the 15th century. Situated between the market and the Norman Keep, head underground to discover Norwich’s rich past.

Please note: Unfortunately, this tour is not wheelchair accessible. The Hidden Street is underground and the activity may not be appropriate for those who struggle with dark, enclosed spaces.
18:00 
Norwich City Centre 
The Louis Marchesi 
17 Tombland, 
Norwich NR3 1HR		MEMRN Pub Quiz Night! 
Join us this evening in the loft space at the Louis Marchesi pub in Norwich for the MEMRN pub quiz! Gather your teammates and compete in this MEMs-themed quizzical tournament for the Winter Conference prize!

The Louis Marchesi is a Grade II listed medieval building with an original gothic undercroft situated in the historic heart of Norwich on Tombland plain across from the Cathedral. Food and drink will be available to purchase at the venue. 
Sunday 16th November Day ThreeScheduled Activities
8:30 – 9:00
University of East Anglia 
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13		Arrival & registration at Congregation Hall, UEA.  

Morning refreshments (tea, coffee and breakfast pastries) will be provided.)
9:00 – 10:10
University of East Anglia 

Panel Session Nine:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13

Panel Session Ten:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.17		Panel Session Nine: Historic Communities, Modern Methodologies
Panel Chair: TBC

Stanislava Lisna 
(University of Oxford)

Translating the Translator: Making Heritage Inscriptions Accessible

Auriel Tiltman 
(University of Lincoln) 

What Remains When We Remove? The Conservation of a 13th Century Funerary Chalice

Natalie Tolentino 
(University of Kent) 

Pentlimentality: Fragmented Afterlives in the Canterbury Passional and Digital Representations of Recycled Material 

Panel Session Ten: Devotional Narratives
Panel Chair: TBC

Lucy Dallas 
(University of East Anglia)

Conflict and Contemplation: Hints of Autistic Patterning in the Relationships and Spirituality of Margery Kempe

Bella Cerulle 
(University of Cambridge) 

Ouercome ase kempe: A Lexical and Semantic Study of Depictions of the Miles Christi in Three Old and Early Middle English Lives of St. Margaret
10:10 – 10:20BREAK
10:20 – 12:00 
University of East Anglia

Session One:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.17

Session Two:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13

Session Three: 
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts,
UEA Campus		Wellbeing Workshops

Session One: Make Your Own Medieval Bestiary 
Under the watchful eye of our own fourteenth-century scribe and illuminator, participants in this art-based workshop will be encouraged to draw and paint their own fantastical medieval creatures, learning about the production and conventions of these attractive medieval manuscripts along the way. No previous art experience needed!

Session Two: Writing Historical Fiction – A Creative Workshop
Put your historical research to use in a brand newway through this guided creative writingworkshop. Learn strategies from our UEA Creative Writing facilitators for building rich and believable historical worlds in fiction, grounded in sensory details and a powerful sense of time and space.No previous creative writing experience is necessary.

Session Three: Exploring Living Art – Group Visit to the Sainsbury Centre 
Join your fellow delegates on a group visit to the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, a pioneering art gallery situated on the UEA campus that seeks to redefine our relationship with museums and cultural artefacts. Enjoy an introduction to the gallery’s unique guiding principle of ‘Living Art’ and explore this diverse collection at your leisure. 

You can find accessibility information for the gallery here: https://sainsburycentre.ac.uk/visit-us/#access
12:00 – 13:00Lunch
13:00 – 14:10
University of East Anglia 

Panel Session Eleven:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13

Panel Session Twelve:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.17		Panel Session Eleven: Embodied Masculinities: Encounter and Emotion
Panel Chair: TBC

Srija Dutta
(Independent Scholar) 

Travelling Masculinities: English Perceptions in Intercultural Encounters in Seventeenth-Century India

Olivia Golby-Kirk 
(University of Birmingham)

For Young-men are so false-hearted: Youthful Masculinity from the Perspective of Women

Alyssa Benedetto 
(University of Strathclyde & Aberdeen)

A Tangible Emotional Past in the Death of Roger Mortimer (1231-1282)

Panel Session Twelve: Romance Worlds
Panel Chair: TBC

Irene Lopez-Huicochea
(University of Kent)

The Decaying Corpse of the Empire: A Contemporary Reading of The Ruin

Davide Salmoiraghi 
(University of Cambridge)

Fragmented Selves in Old Norse Chivalric Sagas

Eileen Foy 
(​​Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf)

Locating Identity, Community and Fellowship in the Winchester MS: Reading Le Morte D’Arthur in its Wider Manuscript Context
14:10 – 14:40BREAK
14:40 – 15:45
University of East Anglia
Room TBC 		Keynote Lecture 

Professor Claire Jowitt
Professor of Renaissance Studies, University of East Anglia

The Gloucester, 1682: History, Artefacts, Significance
15:45 – 16:00 
University of East Anglia 
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13		Closing Remarks from the CHASE MEMRN Committee
16:00 onwards
Norwich City Centre		Goodbye Social 

Delegates who are staying in Norwich an additional night will be invited to gather in the city to celebrate the close of a successful conference. Keep an eye on the conference WhatsApp and come and join us!

Medieval Matters, MT25 Week 1

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13/10/2025

09:29

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events, News

,

Welcome to Michaelmas 2025 and to the definite version of the Oxford Medieval Studies Booklet! And greetings from the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities. Among the many superlatives it boasts, there can probably be added the claim that this is the largest grouping (a madness?) of medievalists in the world, allowing encounters across the Humanities faculties. We’ll start this year and term in the traditional way with a social in Harris Manchester College on Tuesday of week 1, 13 October, from 5pm – everybody welcome. 

This email will arrive every Monday in your inbox; any changes after that will be updated in the weekly blogpost and in the calendar, both accessible via https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Introduction to Arabic Palaeography – 2:00, Khalili Research Centre
  • Carmina Burana: Graduate Text Seminar – 5:00, Harris Lecture Theatre, Oriel College
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5:00 with drinks reception to follow, All Souls College. James Miller  (Christ Church, Oxford) will be speaking on “Imagining Monastic Perfection: Benedict, Fleury, and Beyond in the Central Middle Ages”.

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, Margaret Thatcher Centre, Somerville. Richard Dance (Cambridge) will be speaking on “Mirror Man: Ormm and his Words”.
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Medieval Studies Social – 5:00, Harris Manchester College. All welcome – come and meet your fellow medievalists!
  • James Ford Special Lecture 2025 Oxford Centre for Early Medieval Britain & Ireland (EMBI) – 5:15, Shulman Auditorium, Queen’s College. Francesca Tinti (University of the Basque Country) will be speaking on “Long-Distance Travel from Early Medieval Britain”.
  • Old English Graduate Reading Group – 5:15, location TBC, contact Hattie Carter

Wednesday

  • Early Medieval ‘Global Britain’: A Workshop by the Oxford Centre for Early Medieval Britain & Ireland (EMBI) – 9:15, The Memorial Room (Queen’s College). Booking required.
  • John Lydgate Book Club – 11:00, Smoking Room (Lincoln College).
  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar, planning meeting – 11:15, Somerville College.
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 in the Schwarzman Centre.
  • Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar.

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group – 11:00, Beckington Room (Lincoln College).
  • Environmental History Working Group – 12:00, Room 20.421 in the Schwarzman Centre. Stephanie Holt (Oxford) will be speaking on “Curious Minds: Gilbert White and Thomas Pennant”.
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:00, online. Elisabeth Chatel (CRBC) will be speaking on “The Joseph Loth Dilemma: Scientific Authority and Cultural Identity in Brittany”.
  • Old Norse Welcome Event – 6:00, Gardeners’ Arms (Plantation Road).

Friday

  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided. This week, Christina Ostermann and Henrike Lähnemann will speak on the ‘Girl Who Lived in the Library‘, the memoirs of Luisa Hewitt, born in the basement of the Taylorian in the 1880s
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room).

Opportunities

The Challenge of Historical Distance: Historicism and Anachronism in the Study of Art

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11/10/2025

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News

6-7 November 2025
Nederlands Interuniversitair Kunsthistorisch Instituut (NIKI), Florence, Italy (In Person and Online)

How can art historians explore, understand, or even ‘feel’ the material evidence of the past? How can we approach the problem of historical distance, of our anachronistic nostalgia and our intellectual desire for pre-modern periods and artefacts? Can we inhabit the time of past artworks, or do artworks constantly re-construct their own times? And what role do contemporary concerns play in our interpretations of the ancient, medieval, and early modern periods?

Numerous recent publications have explored the study of the past through different lenses. They have complicated the idea of ‘historical contexts’ by showing the ability of artworks to simultaneously refer to various time periods. They have also encouraged cross-temporal and sometimes ahistorical interpretations of premodern artefacts in the light of modern theories and concerns. This conference will bridge the ‘historicist’ and ‘anachronist’ camp in an attempt to theorise the thorny issue of time which sits at the core of both history and art history.

The conference is organised in celebration of the scholarship of Prof. Gervase Rosser and in honour of his retirement from the University of Oxford. One aspect of Rosser’s career that we particularly want to celebrate is his prominence as both historian and art historian, and his inspirational interrogation of both disciplines.

Speakers include: Armin Bergmeier (University of Leipzig); Saida Bondini (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz); Donal Cooper (University of Cambridge); Heiko Droste (Stockholm University); Jas Elsner (University of Oxford); Michael Ann Holly (Clark Institute); Maria Loh (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton); Keith Moxey (Barnard College); Susie Nash (The Courtauld Institute of Art); Caspar Pearson (The Warburg Institute); Hannah Skoda (University of Oxford); Nancy Thebaut (University of Oxford); Ben Thomas (Trinity College Dublin).

The conference is organised by Costanza Beltrami (Stockholm University), Lia Costiner (Utrecht University), Elena Lichmanova (University of Oxford/British Library) and Michael W. Kwakkelstein (NIKI/Utrecht University).

View the programme here

Click here to register for online attendance via Teams.

Click here to register for in-person attendance at the NIKI, located at Viale Evangelista Torricelli 5 in Florence.

Call for Committee Members – Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference

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08/10/2025

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opportunities

The Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference (OMGC) is one of the highlights of the graduate academic calendar every year. Over two days, this interdisciplinary conference brings together graduate students from the UK and around the world to present their research on a wide variety of topics from across the Middle Ages. Read a review of the 2025 conference. If you think you might be interested in becoming a committee member and gaining experience organizing conferences, please send an expression of interest to oxgradconf@gmail.com. The committee is also excited to announce that the theme for the 2026 Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference will be Sounds and Silence! Until then, keep an eye on the OMGC website and social media (Bluesky / Twitter) for updates on this year’s conference.

Medium Ævum Essay Prize

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08/10/2025

12:42

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opportunities

The Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature has awarded the Medium Ævum Essay Prize since 2008. The competition is run annually, with postgraduates and those recently graduated with a higher degree invited to submit an essay on a topic that falls within the range of the interests of Medium Ævum in the medieval period (loosely defined as the fifth to the fifteenth century, in the Western calendar).

The winner of the Essay Prize will receive a cash prize of £500. The winning article is also eligible to be considered for publication in Medium Ævum, subject to the usual editorial procedures of the journal.

The annual deadline for submissions for the Essay Prize is 12 noon on the first Monday of December of the preceding year (for the Medium Aevum Essay Prize 2026, the deadline is 12:00 noon (GMT), Monday 1st December, 2025).

To read the rules of the Essay Prize Competition and to submit your essay, please follow this link.

Any queries can be directed to the Executive Officer of the Society.

Medieval Matters Week 0 – Draft Booklet

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06/10/2025

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Medieval Matters, News

With the start of First Week just around the corner, the draft of this term’s OMS Booklet is here! For those of you joining us for the first time, this booklet includes a compilation of the events, seminars, and reading groups that will take place across Oxford over the coming term. An updated version will follow at the end of the week but the link will stay the same, so please follow this link to the Medieval Booklet!

Please can I ask for your assistance on two points:

  1. If you have submitted an event for the booklet, please check through the pdf to confirm that the details are correct. Any corrections must be returned to me by Wednesday at the latest.
  2. For all: please let me know of any new medieval members of teaching or research staff, and visiting scholars, so that they can be briefly introduced at the beginning of the booklet.

This mailing list is open to all those interested in keeping informed about medieval goings-on at Oxford: if you know of anyone who is not yet a member of the mailing list, please encourage them to Oxford, register here for the mailing list via our website https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/; if there are problems or queries, email me under medieval@torch.ox.ac.uk, or forward them this email.

To close: a particular plug for the Medieval Church and Culture ‘Welcome Social’ on the 14th October at 5pm, in the Wellbeloved Room (Harris Manchester College). This will be a great chance to meet members of the community – new and old – and to learn about the exciting list of upcoming speakers!

Carmina Burana: Graduate Text Seminar

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02/10/2025

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Uncategorized

Mondays, 17:00–18:30

Harris Lecture Theatre, Oriel College

Further information from Dr Franklinos (tristan.franklinos@classics.ox.ac.uk).

Week 1 (13th Oct)

Introduction (TEF)


Week 2 (20th Oct)

33 Non te lusisse pudeat & 34 Deduc, Syon Nell Mulhern Barnes
50 Heu, uoce flebili cogor enarrare Max Hardy


Week 3 (27th Oct)

62 Dum Diane uitrea Charlie Baker
63 Olim sudor Herculis & 64 De XII uirtutibus Herculis Clara Bykvist

Week 4 (3th Sept)

76 Dum caupona uerterem
77 Si linguis angelicis James Fulcher


Week 5 (10th Sept)

89 Nos duo boni & 90 Exiit diluculo
105 Dum curata uegetarem Hanna Koban


Week 6 (17th Sept)

145 Musa uenit carmine & 146 Tellus flore uario Grace Macdonald
179 Tempus est iocundum & 180 O mi dilectissima Thyra-Lilja Altunin


Week 7 (24th Sept)

131 Dic, Christi ueritas/Bulla fulminante Matthew Wainwright
189 Aristippe, quamuis sero James Clark


Week 8 (1st Dec)

211 Alte clamat Epicurus & 212 Non iubeo Melina McClure
227 Propheten- und Weihnachtsspiel Monty Powell