Author: Tristan Alphey

Medieval Matters – Vac

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23/03/2026

10:46

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

The OMS emails will be put on brief pause over the vac, although the blog will be continually updated with new events. Please see below a number of important opportunities and reminders before term starts. Of particular note to those interested in early medieval England (and who amongst us doesnt fall into that category) is the British Library’s upcoming PhD placement on the Norman Conquest. Applications are open for three PhD placements which will support the development of our upcoming major exhibition on the Norman Conquest, marking the 1,000th anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror. Apply by Monday 6 April 2026. Apply by Monday 6 April 2026.

British Library PhD placement: the Norman Conquest

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23/03/2026

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Uncategorized

Application are open for three PhD placements which will support the development of our upcoming major exhibition on the Norman Conquest, marking the 1,000th anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror. Apply by Monday 6 April 2026.

This placement will be hosted by the Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts team at the Library. This team curates the extensive national collection of British and European manuscripts dating from Antiquity to 1600, actively making these collections accessible through cataloguing, digitisation and exhibitions. Curators in the section have led major Library exhibitions including Medieval Women: In Their Own Words (2024–25); Elizabeth and Mary: Royal Cousins, Rival Queens (2021–22); Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War (2018–19); Harry Potter: A History of Magic (2017–18) and Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy (2015).

The Library is currently developing a major exhibition on the Norman Conquest which will run from 1 October 2027 to 27 February 2028, to mark the 1,000th anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror in 1027. The exhibition will span two generations either side of the Conqueror to explore the history, art and culture of England from the early 11th century to the middle of the 12th century. It will draw on our extremely strong collection of historical and illuminated manuscripts from this period, together with a large number of manuscripts and museum objects on loan from collections in Britain and Europe.

The placement student will be supervised primarily by the co-curator of the exhibition and will assist with key tasks in the development of the exhibition.

The students will assist with the varied tasks involved in developing the exhibition, including but not limited to: 

  • Helping to liaise with other teams at the Library such as Exhibitions, Conservation and Marketing.
  • Researching themes, exhibits or historical figures within the exhibition to support the curators in finalising the object list and storyline
  • Editorial assistance for the exhibition book such as assembling images, bibliography and proof-reading
  • Producing promotional materials such as preparing social media threads and writing blog posts based on exhibits and themes in the exhibition

More information can be found here.

A Conference at the British Library: Multispectral Gaze: New Approaches to the Cotton Genesis

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23/03/2026

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conference, events

Friday 9th June, at 10:00

The British Library recently undertook a new multispectral digitisation campaign of the Cotton Genesis (British Library, Cotton MS Otho B VI), one of the greatest works of manuscript art to survive from late Antiquity and one of the most tragic casualties of the Cotton Library fire of 1731. The new imagery made visible parts of the manuscript unseen since the fire. Pages that look black to the naked eye now reveal portions of readable texts; illuminations that look like blocks of colour now show layers of paint, brush strokes, and fold outlines. This opens exciting opportunities for new research on this manuscript, which is a significant witness both of an influential late-antique visual tradition and of the text of the Septuagint. The British Library will celebrate the launch of the multispectral images of the Cotton Genesis on its website with an interdisciplinary conference fully dedicated to the manuscript: Multispectral Gaze: New Approaches to the Cotton Genesis.

View the full programme and register here.

Supported by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and the Association for Manuscripts and Archives in Research Collections (AMARC).

Thank to support from AMARC, five free student tickets are available. To apply, please contact  elena.lichmanova@bl.uk and e.zingg@hist.uzh.ch.

Medieval Matter HT26, Week 8

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08/03/2026

15:59

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

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We have made it, at long last, to the end of another Hilary term – but the events don’t stop coming! Please find below another week full of medieval events for you to enjoy, and an ever-increasing list of future opportunities. NB: the Maison Française d’Oxford lecture this Tuesday has had to move earlier and is now at 12:00.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library.
  • Seminar in Palaeography and Manuscript studies – 2:15, Weston Library. Seamus Dwyer (Cambridge) will speak on ‘Pen-Flourishing and the Boundaries of Meaning’.
  • Medieval Archaeology Seminar – 3:00, Archaeology Faculty.  Eugene Costello will be speaking on ‘Exploring the expansion of pastoral farming in northern Europe’s uplands, c.1200-1600’.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5:00, All Souls College. Nick Evans (Birkbeck) “Cowries, Cloth and Coins: Currency in Medieval Economic Anthropology”.
  • Theory and Play: Comparative Medievalisms – 5.15, Lady Margaret Hall.

Tuesday

  • Europe in the Later Middle Ages Seminar – 2:00, New Seminar Room, St John’s College. Mike Carr (Edinburgh) will be speaking on ‘Popes, Ambassadors and Falcons: Trade and Diplomacy between Latin Europe and the Mamluk Sultanate in the Fourteenth Century’.
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room). Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo.
  • Maison Française d’Oxford lectures: ‘Children in the Middle Ages’ – 12:00, Maison Française. NB. the new, earlier, time.
  • Maghrib History Seminar: “Reading the Qurʾān across the Mediterranean: Toward a Maghribī School of Tafsīr in Early Islam” – 5:00, The Queen’s College.
  • Medieval Church and Culture, theme: TRANSLATION(S) – tea and coffee from 5:00, Harris Manchester College. Celeste Pan (Balliol) will be speaking on ‘Some issues of translation in an illuminated Hebrew bible manuscript from medieval Brussels (Hamburg, Staats- und Universitätsbibl., Cod. Levy 19)’.
  • Old English Hagiography Reading Group – 5:15, Jesus College Memorial Room.
  • 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 speaking on ‘Text identification’.
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 (Humanities Centre). Palyce of Honour, Thyrd Part, ll. 1288-2142; Palyce of Honour, Dedication, ll. 2142-2169.
  • The Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
  • Islamic Studies Seminar – 5:00, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Professor Sheilagh Ogilvie (University of Oxford) will speak on ‘Leviathan’s Health: State Capacity and Epidemics from the Black Death to Covid’.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies. Nathan Websdale (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Unbecoming Roman: Performative Ethnicity and Panspermía in the Byzantine World c.1190-1235’.
  • eCatalogus+: A Digital Tool for the Automated Study of Latin Manuscripts (Liturgical Case Studies) – 5:00, Weston Library. More infomation here.
  • Lydgate Book Club – Weston manuscript visit with Laure Miolo. Meet 3:50pm at the Weston lockers for a 4pm start. Please email Shaw Worth for any information.

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group (MERG) – 11:00, Lincoln College, Beckington Room. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar – 4:00, Somerville College. Making and Breaking Connections, including letters sent by Hildegard von Bingen and Catherine of Lancaster, queen of Castile.
  • Seminars in Medieval and Renaissance Music – 5:00, online. Elisabeth Giselbrecht, Louisa Hunter-Bradley and Katie McKeogh (King’s College London) will be speaking on ‘No two books are the same. Interactions with early printed music and the people behind them’.
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:15, hybrid. Eleanor Stephenson (Cambridge) will be speaking on ‘Landscapes of Extraction: Philippe de Loutherbourg and the Morris Family’s Copper Works, Swansea’.
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5:00, St Catherine’ College. Emily Guerry (University of Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Silver trees and pearl crosses: Franco-Mongolian diplomacy and cultural exchange in thirteenth-century Karakorum’.
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5:15, The Khalili Research Centre. Johannes Niehoff-Panagiotidis (Freie Universität, Berlin) will be speaking on ‘A Greek-Orthodox monastery in the desert: Mount Sinai and the material culture of its Arabic (and Islamic) manuscripts’.

Friday

  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – Friday 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided. This week, Jana Lammerding will speak on the representation of witches in the Douce Collection.
  • The History of the Bible: From Manuscripts to Print – 12:00, Visiting Scholars Centre at the Weston Library. Week 8: The Bible printed. Places are limited. To register interest and secure a place, please contact Péter Tóth.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room). Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo.
  • EMBI ‘New Books: A Celebration’. – 4:30, Schwartzman Room 421. Helena Hamerow and Conor O’Brien will talk informally about the process of researching and writing the projects that they have both just published, and we will also hear some reflections on being a postdoctoral researcher on a major project such as the ERC-funded grant for FeedSax. End-of-term drinks in Jude the Obscure, Walton St.
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group – 5:00, John Roberts Room at Merton College. Julian Harison (Curator, British Library) will be speaking on ‘Sir Robert Cotton and Oxford’.

Opportunities and Reminders

Locational Lives: Medieval Experience in Town and Country

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04/03/2026

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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

Medieval matter HT26, Week 7

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02/03/2026

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

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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

Borders, Boundaries and Barriers: Real and Imagined in the Middle Ages

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28/02/2026

07:21

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Around Oxford, conference

20 and 21 April 2026 in Oxford. Register by 9 March

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Panels_Borders_Boundaries_BarriersDownload

From the Call for Papers

Borders, Boundaries, and Barriers have become increasingly prominent themes in historical scholarship. Over the last decade, these concepts have been the focus of sustained scholarly interest, drawing especially upon theoretical frameworks and (trans-)national contexts. There is, therefore, a pressing need to examine how these constructs have shaped the lived experiences of historically marginalised groups, as well as how they were perceived, defined, and engaged with by those groups.

This conference seeks to reorient discussions around borders, boundaries, and barriers by foregrounding the experiences and perspectives of marginalised groups and considering how these divisions were perceived fromthe peripheries of societies. Rather than treating these concepts as abstract or solely geopolitical, we will explore the ways in which they have operated — both historically and historiographically — as tools of exclusion and differentiation.

Organised by Natasha Jenman (University of Oxford), Naomi Reiter (QMUL), and Dean A. Irwin (University of Lincoln/OCHJS), the conference will focus on individuals, religious groups, social groups, societal constructions, and natural phenomena. Participants are invited to explore the role played by evolving borders, boundaries, and barriers in the medieval world as part of group identities; and how groups used them to their advantage. Likewise, it will consider the extent to which borders, boundaries and barriers have been imposed upon the medieval world by modern scholars. Possible topics for consideration include, but are not limited to:

  • Legal jurisdictions
  • The natural and the supernatural worlds
  • Socio-economic strata
  • Ritual and religion
  • Space, time, and the environment
  • Gender and sexuality
  • Disability
  • Transgression, delinquency, and the grey middle space

This conference adopts a broad chronological and geographical approach with submissions from all historically-related disciplines being welcome. The conference will take place on 20 and 21 April 2026 in Oxford. To submit, please send a title, abstract (c. 250 words), and a bio (c. 100 words) to: bordersboundariesbarriers@gmail.com. Any questions should be directed to the same e-mail address.
The organisers hope to be able to offer a limited number of bursaries for students and those on low income. Please indicate in your proposal whether you would like to be considered for
one of these if this becomes possible.

Image ref: Latin Psalter (13th-15th C), f.9 – BL Add MS 28681,



Medieval Matters HT26, Wk6

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22/02/2026

21:14

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

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Welcome, all, to week 6 – it was lovely to see so many of you at the OMS lecture last week. An updated version of the OMS Booklet is linked here, and is available on the OMS website throughout the term.

Events

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library
  • Seminar in Palaeography and Manuscript studies – 2:15, Weston Library. Eric Crégheur (Université Laval) will be speaking on ‘The Bruce Codex (MS. Bruce 96): Answering the Riddles of Coptic Gnostic Manuscript’.
  • Medieval Archaeology Seminar – 3:00, Archaeology Faculty. Charlotte Wood will be speaking on ‘A cultural history of combs in Medieval England, c. 400-1400’.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5:00, All Souls College. Chris Wickham (Birmingham/Oxford) will be speaking on “International commerce and regional development: pepper in the Indian Ocean”.
  • Theory and Play: Comparative Medievalisms – 5.15, Lady Margaret Hall. Selections from: Dhuoda’s Liber Manualis  (9th Century CE, tr. Handbook for William); Boethius’ Consolatio (6th Century CE, tr. Consolation of Philosophy); Ode in Praise of al-Mansur Al-Amiri, Emir of Córdoba by Ibn Darradj al-Qastalli (10-11th Century CE)  
  • Oxford Thomistic Institute Lecture – 7:30, Blackfriars. Prof Rebecca Rist will be speaking on ‘Pope or Antipope?: Schism and the Medieval Papacy’

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, Room 00.079 (Humanities Centre). Elaine Treharne (Stanford University) will be speaking on ‘‘Motes of gold’: early English poetry and its modern recollection’
  • Europe in the Later Middle Ages Seminar – 2:00, New Seminar Room, St John’s College. Tom Cousins (Bournemouth) will be speaking on’ The Mortar Wreck: A Thirteenth Century shipwreck outside of Poole Harbour, Dorset’.
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room). Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo.
  • Early Modern Diplomacy Seminar 1400-1800: ‘Competition or Integration? Urban and Princely Diplomacy at times of Civil War in the Burgundian Low Countries (1380s vs. 1480s)’ – 4:15, University College. Michael Depreter (UC Louvain Saint Louis-Brussels) will be speaking on ‘Competition or Integration? Urban and Princely Diplomacy at times of Civil War in the Burgundian Low Countries (1380s vs. 1480s)’.
  • Medieval Church and Culture, theme: TRANSLATION(S) – tea and coffee from 5:00, Harris Manchester College. Celeste Pan (Balliol) will be speaking on ‘Some issues of translation in an illuminated Hebrew bible manuscript from medieval Brussels (Hamburg, Staatsund Universitätsbibl., Cod. Levy 19)’ 
  • Old English Hagiography Reading Group – 5:15, Jesus College Memorial Room. T
  • Book Launch: Medieval Commentary and Exegesis – Interdisciplinary Perspectives – 5:30, Monson Room (LMH). More information.
  • Church Historian Pub Night – 6:00 at the Chequers Inn. Contact Rachel Cresswell

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11:15, Old Library, St Edmund Hall. The topic for this term is the ‘Liederbuch der Clara Hätzlerin’. 
  • History and Materiality of the Book Seminar series – 2:15, Weston Library. Laure Miolo will be speaking on ‘Calendars and time-reckoning’.
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 (Humanities Centre). Palyce of Honour, Seconde Part, ll. 772-1287.
  • The Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies. Robert Wiśniewski (Warsaw) will be speaking on ‘Mapping Unholy Places in Late Antiquity’
  • Islamic Studies Seminar – 5:00, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Jocelyne Cesari (University of Birmingham) willbe speaking on ‘From Divine Sovereignty to National Legitimacy: Transformations in the Theology of Political Islam’
  • John Lydgate Book Club – 5:15pm. All Souls College, Hovenden Room. Mishtooni Bose will be speaking on ‘Thinking with Lydgate’. Please email shaw.worth@all-souls.ox.ac.uk for a copy of the text.

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group (MERG) – 11:00, Lincoln College, Beckington Room. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar – 4:00, Somerville College. Experiences of Captivity and Enslavement – including extracts from the works of Layla bint Lukayz, ‘Arib al-Ma’muniyya, Qamar, Uns al-Qulub and Leonor López de Córdoba
  • Seminars in Medieval and Renaissance Music – 5:00, online. Andrew Kirkman (University of Birmingham) will be speaking on ‘Made to measure or prêt à chanter? The Court of Wilhelm IV and the Later Alamire Manuscripts’
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:15, Online. Malo Adeux (CRBC)  willbe speaking on ‘Ystoria Daret: sources, circulation, reception’
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5:15, The Khalili Research Centre. Eva Schreiner (Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence) will be speaking on ‘Debt in stone: architectures of finance in late Ottoman Istanbul’.

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. Week 6: The Bible in Medieval Europe. Places are limited. To register interest and secure a place, please contact Péter Tóth.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room). Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo.
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group – 5:00, Sir Howard Stringer Room at Merton College. Tour of the All Souls College library with Peregrine Horden, Fellow Librarian. The deadline to register has passed. To be put on a waiting list, write to oxfordmedievalmss@gmail.com. 

Opportunities and Reminders

Medieval matter HT26 Wk 5

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16/02/2026

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

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Welcome to Week 5.

Apart from the Medieval Studies Lecture this Thursday, I would like to highlight a new CfP: Forgotten Libraries: Lost, Dispersed, and Marginalised Manuscript Collections: The Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures (CMTC) is pleased to invite Oxford-based researchers to participate in the workshop Forgotten Libraries to be held at The Queen’s College (Oxford) on Tuesday 16 June. 

Events

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5:00, All Souls College. Jay Rubenstein (University of Southern California) will be speaking on “Queen Melisende of Jerusalem and the Wages of Sin”.

Tuesday

  • Europe in the Later Middle Ages Seminar – 2:00, New Seminar Room, St John’s College. Maria Fusaro (Exeter) will be speaking on ‘Maritime Risk Management and Aequitas: the long life of the principle of General Average’
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room). Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo.
  • Maghrib History Seminar- 5:00, The Queen’s College. Prof. Cyrille Aillet (Université Lumière Lyon 2)  will be speaking on “Ibadism and Medieval Maghrib: a View from Within”
  • Medieval Church and Culture, theme: TRANSLATION(S) – tea and coffee from 5:00, Harris Manchester College. Luisa Ostacchini (Jesus) will be speaking on ‘(Re)working Miracles: translating Gregory the Great’s Dialogues in Old English literature’.
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5:15, Maison Française d’Oxford. Fran Charmaille (Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge) & Gareth Evans (St John’s College, Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Trans Studies and Medieval Literatures’. (joint seminar with Medieval English)
  • Old English Hagiography Reading Group – 5:15, Jesus College Memorial Room. The first text is the anonymous Life of Saint Giles – email Luisa Ostacchini for a copy.
  • Church Historian Pub Night – 6:00 at the Chequers Inn. Contact Rachel Cresswell

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11:15, Old Library, St Edmund Hall. The topic for this term is the ‘Liederbuch der Clara Hätzlerin’. 
  • History and Materiality of the Book Seminar series – 2:15, Weston Library. Andrew Honey will be discussing Bindings.
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 (Humanities Centre). Palyce of Honour, Seconde Part, ll. 772-1287 .
  • The Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies. Arietta Papaconstantinou (Aix-Marseille) will be speaking on ‘Dependent Labour in the Late Antique Near East’
  • Maison Française d’Oxford lecture series – 5:00, at the Maison. Antoine Destemberg will be speaking on ‘‘Is medieval biblical exegesis a form of totemism? An examination of analogical-social thinking in Moralised Bibles’
  • Islamic Studies Seminar- 5:30, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Dr Tugba Bozcaga (Kings College London) will be speaking on ‘Imams and Patrons: Service Provision by Islamic Non-State Actors’.

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.
  • Environmental History Working Group – 12:30–2:00pm, Humanities Centre History Hub Room 20.421. Louis James Henry (PhD Medieval Environmental History, University of Stavanger, Visiting Student at KCL) will be speaking on “Timely Courts and Immediate Responses: Waste Management as a Temporal Issue in Late Medieval England”.
  • Pop-up display – ‘What do Christ Church’s newly acquired Hebrew books tell us about the College in the 17th century?’ – 12:00 – 2:00,  Christ Church Upper Library. More info here.
  • OMS Lecture -5–6.30pm in the Old Dining Hall of St Edmund Hall. Prof. Ian Forrest (Glasgow) will be speaking on ‘Telling Tails: Weaponizing Gender in the Late Medieval Church‘. Drinks to follow. More information and register for dinner.
  • Heraldry Society – 5:00, Oriel College. Dr Nicolas Vernot (Guest Researcher, CY Cergy Paris University) will be speaking on ‘Heraldry and Magic’.
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:15, Room 20.306 (Humanities Centre and Online). Sarah Zeiser (Harvard) will be speaking on ‘Finding allegory, history, and a complicated timeline in the harvest quatrain of Rhygyfarch ap Sulien’.
  • Old English Graduate Reading Group – 5:15. Email Harriet Carter for location.
  • Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures – 5:15, Memorial Room, The Queen’s College. Hana Navratilova (Harris Manchester College/ AMES, Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Meidum: landscape, pyramid, graffiti, and political memory’
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5:15, The Khalili Research Centre. Umberto Bongianino (Khalili Research Centre) will be speaking on ‘Wall painting in the Islamic West and the aesthetic of naqsh’.
  • Latin Compline in the Crypt with the St Edmund Consort – 9:30, St Edmund Hall.

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 ‘The Bible in Latin: Old Latin and the Vulgate’. Places are limited. To register interest and secure a place, please contact the lecturer at Péter Tóth.
  • Pop-up display – ‘What do Christ Church’s newly acquired Hebrew books tell us about the College in the 17th century?’ – 12:00 – 2:00,  Christ Church Upper Library. More info here.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room). Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo.
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group – 3:30, Weston Library. Workshop with Laure Miolo: Observing and Measuring the Heavens: Manuscripts, Instruments, and Astronomical Practice in the Middle Ages. Limited places. The deadline to register has passed. Write to Oxford Medieval Manuscript group if you want to go on a waiting list. 
  • Postponed: the Wikipedia Editathon planned for today has been postponed to Trinity Term.

Opportunities and Reminders