Around Oxford – Oxford Medieval Studies

Palaeography Offers in Michaelmas 25

13/10/2025

09:02

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archives, French, Latin, michaelmas 25, palaeography

There are a number of palaeography offers available for anybody interested in Oxford happening in Michaelmas 2025, coordinated by Dr Laure Miolo, Lyell Career Development Fellow in Latin Palaeography and Dilts Fellow at Lincoln College, historian of late medieval Europe, specialising in manuscript studies and history of early libraries with a special focus on scientific books and practices. Contact her for any of the below under laure.miolo@history.ox.ac.uk.

Header Image: Lincoln College/EL/OAS/D1

French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group, Mo 10.30-12
Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives, Fr 2-3pm
Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group, Tue 2-3.30pm

1. French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group

This group is open to anyone with an interest in Old French, Middle French and Anglo-Norman manuscripts. We study and read manuscripts from the 12^th century to the 16^th century with a special focus on palaeography. We meet every Monday between 10.30am-12pm in the Weston Library.

If you are interested in joining the group or would like more information, please write to Laure Miolo.

The seminar comprises brief lectures on the morphology and function of scripts, as well as the evolution of script shapes and graphic systems in context, followed by transcription practice using original manuscripts and documents. Sessions are structured around the historical development of scripts, progressing from simpler shapes and strokes with minimal ligatures and abbreviations to more cursive and complex forms. A study of the diverse scripts found between the twelfth and early sixteenth centuries in manuscripts and documents written in Old French, Middle French, and Anglo-Norman — and produced in various geographical areas —will allow participants to gain familiarity with a wide range of scripts and abbreviations. The reading of literary texts in parallel with the analysis of manuscripts and their scripts serves to complement both the lectures and transcription practice.

Oxford, St John’s College MS 164, fol. 1r

2. Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives

Every Friday 2-3pm Weston Library (Horton Room)

This weekly one-hour seminar offers participants the opportunity to work directly with original documents from various Oxford parishes, held in the Bodleian Libraries. Focusing primarily on thirteenth-century deeds, these documents provide rich insight into everyday life in medieval Oxford. Open to undergraduates, postgraduates, and early career researchers, the seminar welcomes all those interested in working with primary sources and conducting in-depth contextual analysis of historical records

Working individually or in pairs on a self-selected original document, participants will closely examine its physical and material features (such as writing surface, layout, and signs of use), carry out transcription and translation, and identify the individuals and locations mentioned in order to situate the document within its historical context. Particular emphasis will be placed on the seals attached to the documents.

Alongside collaborative work on these unpublished or little-studied sources, participants will gain experience in the digitisation and cataloguing of archival materials, and will have the opportunity to present their research and original documents to a wider audience during a one-day workshop in Trinity Term.

This seminar is held at the Weston Library (Horton Room) in collaboration with Matthew Holford, Tolkien Curator of Medieval Manuscripts. Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo via email: laure.miolo@history.ox.ac.uk. Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo

3. Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group

(advanced beginner, intermediate and advanced levels)

For those wishing to develop, deepen or maintain their skills in Latin palaeography, we meet every Tuesday between 2pm and 3.30pm in the Weston Library (Horton Room or Visiting Scholars Centre). We explore a wide variety of medieval manuscripts and documents dating from the 9th to the 15th centuries. Each session combines hands-on analysis of different scripts, abbreviations, and codicological features. Regular practice is key to building palaeographical skills and gaining confidence in reading a range of scripts, from clear book and documentary hands to more cursive and heavily abbreviated ones. This reading group is designed to introduce the essential features of each script and abbreviation, enabling participants to read and interpret manuscripts directly and with confidence. Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo

Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Laud Misc. 562, fol. 1r

Reintroducing the Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group

by Fergus Bovill

06/10/2025

19:05

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guest blog, manuscripts

By Mathilde Mioche

The Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group (OMMG) is a collective of eight postgraduate students and early-career researchers who bonded in Oxford over their passion for medieval manuscripts. We host a seminar series which gathers a community of emerging scholars, from the University of Oxford and beyond, around the study of medieval books and the art of illumination.

OMMG seminars take place twice monthly on Friday afternoons. We discuss the most exciting recent research; share our own projects and ideas in a supportive environment; learn from lectures and tutorials given by experienced colleagues; and examine medieval manuscripts together during library visits.

Since the start of our activities in Hilary Term 2024, we have organised over twenty events, created an online reading group, and launched social media accounts on Instagram and Bluesky. This academic year, we welcome our first Honorary Member! We are very happy to announce that James Marrow, Professor Emeritus of Art History at Princeton University, will give a guest lecture in Trinity Term.

Are you a manuscript specialist, a book enthusiast or an admirer of medieval art? We would love you to join us! To subscribe to our mailing list and for all enquiries, please contact: oxfordmedievalmss@gmail.com.

Steering committee:

Martin Kauffmann is Head of Early and Rare Collections at the Bodleian Libraries.

Peter Kidd is an independent scholar of medieval and illuminated manuscripts based in Oxford.

Laure Miolo is Associate Professor in Medieval Latin Manuscript Studies at Wadham College.

Organising committee:

Irina Boeru is a final-year DPhil candidate at St. Hilda’s College. She has worked extensively on humanism, accounts of exploration and travel narratives in French, Spanish and Latin illuminated manuscripts. Her doctoral project focuses specifically on chronicles of the fifteenth-century conquest of the Canary Islands. Prior to her DPhil, Irina completed a BA in Medieval and Modern Languages and a MSt in Medieval Studies at the University of Oxford.

Fergus Bovill is a first-year DPhil candidate in History of Art at Merton College. His thesis, entitled Breaking, Remaking, Reimagining: The Afterlives of Illuminated Manuscripts in the Nineteenth Century, studies the culture of assembling individual illuminations cut from medieval books in albums and collages which proliferated during that period. Fergus holds a BA in History of Art from the University of York and a MSt in Medieval Studies from the University of Oxford. Between his MSt and DPhil, he worked as a Graduate Research Assistant at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz—Max-Planck-Institut.

Antonia Delle Fratte is a fourth-year PhD student in the History Department at the University of Padua. She holds a BA and MA in History of Art from the Sapienza University of Rome, where she specialised in manuscript illumination and the career of Gustav Friedrich Waagen. Antonia continues to work on Waagen as part of her doctoral project, which analyses the reception of illuminated manuscripts in the nineteenth century. In 2022, she received a CERL grant for cataloguing incunabula at the Royal Library of Belgium and began collaborating with the Vatican Apostolic Library on manuscripts of the Duke of Urbino.

Hannele Hellerstedt is a second-year DPhil candidate in History of Art at Lincoln College. Her research interests include conceptions of gender between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, as well as the relationship between Gothic and Italianate architectural styles at the turn of the early modern period. Her thesis, entitled Constructing Virtue: The Female Builder in Late Medieval and Early Modern French Illuminated Manuscripts, examines the motif of the woman-builder within the prolific literary output of late medieval and early modern France, combining text-image analysis with archival research on women on construction sites.

Elena Lichmanova is Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library and a final-year DPhil candidate at Merton College. Her doctoral project explores the origins and early history of marginalia in medieval manuscripts, focusing on illuminated English devotional books of the thirteenth century. Elena has devoted most of her research to the Rutland Psalter, held at the British Library, and the rise of Gothic marginalia.

Mathilde Mioche is a second-year PhD student at The Courtauld Institute of Art. Her thesis, entitled Markets for the Macabre: Uncovering New Contexts for the Art of Death in Europe, 1450–1550, investigates the extraordinary demand for macabre art in late medieval and Renaissance Europe. Mathilde is also a Prints and Drawings Study Room Assistant at The Courtauld Gallery. She holds a BA in History of Art from University College London and a MSt in History of Art and Visual Culture from the University of Oxford.

Ana de Oliveira Dias is a historian of early medieval visual and intellectual culture with a specialisation in manuscript studies. She received a PhD in Medieval History from Durham University in 2019 and is now a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the project Crafting Documents, c. 500–c. 800 CE at the University of Oxford. Ana also holds the position of William Golding Junior Research Fellow at Brasenose College.

Celeste J. Pan is a final-year DPhil candidate in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. Prior to her DPhil at Balliol College, she completed a BA in English at the University of Cambridge and a MPhil in Medieval Studies at the University of Oxford. Celeste works primarily on illuminated Hebrew manuscripts from medieval northern Europe, in particular a liturgical Pentateuch manuscript produced in northeastern France in 1296, known commonly as ‘the Rothschild Pentateuch’. She is especially interested in style, multilingualism and heraldry.

Image: Incipit to the Gospel of John, from the Lindisfarne Gospels. Courtesy British Library, MS Cotton Nero D. IV, folio 211r.

Medieval Vernacular Bibles

by Hannah Schuhle-Lewis

09/09/2025

16:09

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Bible, translation

‘In our own tongues’: The Medieval Vernacular Bible and its European Contexts’ is organised jointly by the Oxford and Augsburg research teams of the ‘Medieval Vernacular Bibles as Unity, Diversity and Conflict’. The project is based at the universities of Oxford and Augsburg and is supported by the UK-German Funding Initiative in the Humanities (Arts and Humanities Research Council and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) and the Bavarian Academy. As part of the conference, we will be hosting the following session on Wednesday 1st October 2025:

3pm-5pm Bodleian Library, Lecture Theatre
Chair: Andrew Dunning (University of Oxford)

Emily Davenport Guerry (University of Oxford), MS. Duke Humfrey c. 1: Illuminating the French New Testament and its readers, from Jean le Bon to Duke Humfrey https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/d5298278-6c9f-4eeb-a5a7-b6a3afa10720/

Freimut Löser (University of Augsburg), MS. Laud Misc. 479: The Paradisus-collection https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/3d773133-2ecd-4dcb-b330-6879de4250ec/

Henrike Lähnemann (University of Oxford), MSS. Bodl. 969-970: A Fifteenth-century German Bible https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/c7d33325-585c-4b2c-9a8b-e5689b58f893/

Catherine Mary MacRobert (University of Oxford), MS e Mus. 184: The Vicissitudes of the Church Slavonic Psalter https://medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/catalog/manuscript_9100

Cosima Gilhammer (University of Oxford), MS. Bodl. 243: Wycliffite Glossed Gospels https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/49847fce-6618-481d-b7f5-2e31985995f4/

Elizabeth Solopova (University of Oxford), MS. Bodl. 441: Gospels in Old English https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/759999c2-7a29-46a7-9182-734449e2b8c3/

The full conference programme is as follows:
30 September

9am-10.30am St Stephen’s House

Chair: Elizabeth Solopova (University of Oxford)

Elizabeth Solopova (University of Oxford), Welcome

Hannah Schühle-Lewis (University of Oxford), ‘Þe pope, maister of bischopps’: Translating an Episcopal Oath in 1380s England

Michael Kuczynski (Tulane University), Hebrew and Greek Words in the Wycliffite Bible

10.30am – Coffee

11am-12.30pm St Stephen’s House

Chair: Nadine Popst (University of Augsburg)

Domenic Peter (University of Augsburg), ‘Als Daniel gesprochen hat’: The Book of Daniel in the Work of the Austrian Bible Translator and Beyond

Stefanie Katzameyer (University of Augsburg), ‘Ungefüerte pfaffen’, ‘Stiffter alles kriegs vnd streytz’, ‘Discipuli Antichristi’: Criticism of the Clergy by the Austrian Bible Translator, Austrian Heretical Movements, and the Wycliffites

Angila Vetter (Hamburg University), Modelling Lay Authority in Digital Editions: When the Austrian Bible Translator Invokes Wolfram von Eschenbach

1-2pm Lunch at St Stephen’s House

Afternoon: Walk to the Norman church of St Mary, Iffley, with Henrike Lähnemann, followed by viewing of the Old Library, St Edmund Hall.

Evening: Buffet dinner, followed by Compline in the Norman Crypt of St-Peter-in-the-East (library church of St Edmund Hall).

1 October

9am-10.30am St Stephen’s House

Chair: Catherine Mary MacRobert (University of Oxford)

Kateřina Voleková (Charles University / Czech Language Institute), Old Czech Glosses on the Psalms in Latin Biblical Dictionaries

Andrea Svobodová (Czech Language Institute), Colophons in Late-medieval Bohemian Biblical Manuscripts

Katarzyna Jasińska-Różycka (Institute of Polish Language, Polish Academy of Sciences), Scriptural Echoes in the Prologues to Medieval Dictionaries: Motifs, Citations, and Inspiration

10.30am – Coffee

11am-12.30pm St Stephen’s House

Chair: Freimut Löser (University of Augsburg)

Vladimir Agrigoroaei ( CNRS / Centre for Medieval Studies, Poitiers), The Cultural Implications of God’s Preference for the French Speech in the Old Testament Poem Written by Évrat (Late–Twelfth Century)

Corentin Delattre (University of Poitiers / Centre for Medieval Studies, Poitiers), ‘To furnish the priests to maintain the law’: Structures and Contents of London, British Library, MS Arundel 230

Ágnes Korondi (Fragmenta et Codices Research Group of the Hungarian Research Network, National Széchényi Library), Converting the Gospel of Nicodemus into a Sermon: The Old Hungarian Adaptation of the Apocryphon and its Latin Homiletic Background

1-2pm Lunch at St Stephen’s House

3pm-5pm Bodleian Library, Lecture Theatre

Chair: Andrew Dunning (University of Oxford)

Emily Davenport Guerry (University of Oxford), MS. Duke Humfrey c. 1: Illuminating the French New Testament and its readers, from Jean le Bon to Duke Humfrey

Freimut Löser (University of Augsburg), MS. Laud Misc. 479: The Paradisus-collection

Henrike Lähnemann (University of Oxford), MSS. Bodl. 969-970: A Fifteenth-century German Bible

Catherine Mary MacRobert (University of Oxford), MS e Mus. 184: The Vicissitudes of the Church Slavonic Psalter

Cosima Gilhammer (University of Oxford), MS. Bodl. 243: Wycliffite Glossed Gospels

Elizabeth Solopova (University of Oxford), MS. Bodl. 441: Gospels in Old English

7pm Conference Dinner at St Stephen’s House

2 October

9am-10.30am St Stephen’s House

Chair: Vladimir Agrigoroaei (CNRS / Centre for Medieval Studies, Poitiers)

Ana-Maria Gînsac (Institute of Interdisciplinary Research, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași), The Practice of Alternative Translation in Two Seventeenth-century Romanian Psalters

Ileana Sasu (University of Tours), Translating Saint Audrey:Images, Motifs, and Cultural Adaptations Across Europe

Élisa Marcadet (University of Tours), From Latin to Middle English: Vernacular Adaptations of Psalm 135 in the Surtees Psalter

10.30am – Coffee

11am-12.30pm – St Stephen’s House

Chair: Ian Johnson (University of St Andrews)

Ondřej Fúsik (Charles University and National Library of the Czech Republic), Latin Gerunds and Gerundives and their Old English Translational Equivalents as Evidenced in Old English Biblical Translations

Audrey Southgate (University of Oxford), Wyclif on Scripture and Islam

Mishtooni Bose (University of Oxford), The Sword of Solomon: John Bury, Reginald Pecock and the Authority of Scripture

1-2pm Lunch at St Stephen’s House

Image credit: Pentecost, Sherbrooke missal, fol. 169v, c. 1320

Medieval Insular Romance Conference

by Nick Perkins

23/08/2025

15:27

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conference, hilary 26

OXFORD, 8–10 APRIL 2026

Plenary speakers: James Simpson and Carolyne Larrington

We welcome proposals for papers at the 2026 Medieval Insular Romance conference.

Papers may address any aspect of romance composed in the languages of medieval Britain and Ireland, along with the ways that Insular romances engage with texts and traditions beyond those islands. The focus on discussion at these conferences is traditionally non-Chaucerian, non-Arthurian romances.
We especially welcome papers that respond to the theme of the conference, ‘Moving Medieval Romance’. This may be interpreted broadly, from the ways that romances stage and provoke emotion; to studies of physical movement, travel and exchange; to textual shifts, adaptation and the remediation of romances, in and beyond the medieval period.

Proposals for 20-minute papers; complete sessions of three papers; or roundtables on a particular theme, should be sent to the conference organizers, Lucy Brookes (Merton College, Oxford) lucy.brookes@ell.ox.ac.uk and Nicholas Perkins (St Hugh’s College, Oxford) nicholas.perkins@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk. Please include: your name; affiliation; contact details; title of paper/session; and an abstract of up to 250 words.

The deadline for submitting proposals is 31 October 2025.

Illustration: Cristabel and her baby are cast out to sea; from Eglamour of Artois, Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Douce 261, fol. 39v. Creative commons licence: CC-BY-NC 4.0

Rare Jewish Languages at Oxford

by Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies

12/08/2025

11:12

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Jewish, languages, michaelmas 25

OSRJL Applications for Michaelmas Term 2025 are now open!

As part of the Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages (OSRJL), applications for language classes beginning in Michaelmas Term 2025 are now open! The deadline to apply is 12 September at 12 noon UK time.

Classes beginning in Michaelmas Term 2025 include those on the following languages:

For more information on the programme and how to apply, please consult the OSRJL page and our News/Announcements page on our website. If you have questions, please email us at osrjl@ochjs.ac.uk.

Jewish languages are essential and incorporeal parts of Jewish history, creativity, culture and identity. Most of them are currently in danger of extinction while others are already dead, known only from early writing. Various research programmes stress the immense role of vernacular languages in Jewish life and culture as well as point to their fragility, yet universities offer very few learning opportunities for most of these rare Jewish languages.

Created in August 2021 by the Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies (OCHJS) in collaboration with the Institut des Langues Rares (ILARA) at Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE), Paris, the Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages (OSRJL) offers free, online teaching of rare Jewish languages and their cultural-historical contexts—along with a public lecture series, academic blog, Visiting Fellows programme, Jewish music classes (this year focusing on the history of Yiddish music!) and language Cafés—accessible at no cost to accepted students and members of the general public around the globe. By doing so, the OSRJL aims to preserve, spark interest in, enable access to and reflect on the nature and role of Jewish languages as rich linguistic facets of Jewish life and history. It is the first school of its kind globally.

You can read about the OSRJL’s second year, 2022–23, in the Impact Report:

COMPRESSED-OSRJL-Impact-Report-2022-23 Download

In 2023–24, expanded the language offerings to include classes on 3 languages new to the programme—Haketia, Judeo-Hamadani and Kivruli, teaching a record 18 languages. Languages taught through the OSRJL in 2023–24 included:

Haketia (Dr Carlos Yebra López, University College London)
Baghdadi Judeo-Arabic (Dr Assaf Bar Moshe, Freie Universität Berlin)
Classical Judeo-Arabic (Friederike Schmidt, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
Judeo-French (Dr Sandra Hajek, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)
Judeo-Greek (Dr Julia G. Krivoruchko, University of Cambridge)
Judeo-Hamadani (Professor Dr Saloumeh Gholami, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)
Judeo-Italian (Dr Marilena Colasuonno, University of Naples)
Judeo-Moroccan (Haviva Fenton)
Judeo-Neo-Aramaic (Dr Dorota Molin, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge)
Judeo-Persian (Dr Ofir Haim, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, & Maximilian Kinzler)
Judeo-Provençal (Dr Peter Nahon, Université de Neuchâtel)
Judeo-Tat (Professor Gilles Authier & Dr Murad Suleymanov, EPHE, Paris)
Judeo-Turkish (Professor Laurent Mignon, University of Oxford)
Karaim (Professor Henryk Jankowski, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań)
Kivruli (Dr Hélène Gérardin, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales/EPHE)
Ladino (Dr Carlos Yebra López, University College London)
Old Yiddish (Dr Diana Matut)
Yiddish (Dr Beruriah Wiegand, OCHJS, University of Oxford)

Some of the languages we teach—such as Classical Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-French, Judeo-Provençal, Judeo-Persian and Judeo-Greek—are extinct, and our teaching is therefore based, at least in part, on medieval texts and manuscripts written in these languages.

To receive notifications about application opportunities, as well as other activities of the OSRJL, follow the Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies on social media (X: @OCHJSnews, Facebook: Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies, LinkedIn: Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies and Vimeo: OCHJS) and/or sign up to its Activities Email List by emailing academic.administrator@ochjs.ac.uk. To learn more about the OSRJL programme as a whole, please visit our website or email us at osrjl@ochjs.ac.uk.

We hope to see you in one of our classes and/or at one of our events soon!

Madeleine Trivasse (OSRJL Coordinator; Academic Registrar & Publications Officer of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies)

With: Professor Judith Olszowy-Schlanger (OSRJL Founder; President of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies; Professor of Hebrew Manuscript Studies, EPHE, PSL; Fellow, Corpus Christi College)

The Guild of Medievalist Makers

by Eleanor Baker

29/07/2025

13:41

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medievalism, trinity 25

In April 2025, the Guild of Medievalist Makers was launched, co-founded by Eleanor Baker, Kristen Haas Curtis, and Laura Varnam. The Guild was the grateful recipient of an Oxford Medieval Studies Small Grant in Trinity Term 2025 to support the launch of their website and to assist with publicity materials for their first two conference appearances this summer. In this blogpost, Oxford co-founders Eleanor Baker and Laura Varnam introduce the Guild and its activities.

The Guild of Medievalist Makers is a newly formed organisation for academic and academic-adjacent creatives and makers dedicated to furthering creative-critical practice in the humanities and making space for creative play.

The Guild’s founders are medievalists who make: Eleanor Baker is a linocut artist (who produced the cord in our Guild logo, more on that below!), Kristen Haas Curtis is a cartoonist and creative writer, and Laura Varnam is a poet. We founded the Guild in order to connect with other creative medievalists, to foster future collaborations, and to promote the burgeoning field of creative criticism in the humanities.

Our mission statement is embodied by the acronym CORD: Community, Outreach, Recognition, Development. Our website fosters Community by providing a dedicated and accessible online space for medievalist creatives to find each other and for academics who might be looking for creative partners to get in touch with us.

Finally, we support the Development of members’ creative-critical skills by running online and in person events, including co-working events and workshops, as well as maintaining an online bibliography of resources and scholarship.

This summer, co-founder Laura Varnam represented the Guild at two important conferences in Medieval Studies: the Middle Ages in the Modern World at King’s College, London (https://themamo.org/) and the Gender and Medieval Studies conference at Christ Church Canterbury (https://medievalgender.co.uk/2025-canterbury/)

At MAMO, Laura ran a stall advertising the Guild and she had chats with lots of delegates about their creative-critical work in medievalism. We’re very grateful to everyone who subsequently signed up to join the Guild at MAMO! (Our sign-up page is here: https://www.guildmedmak.com/join-the-guild)

Bunting (designed by Eleanor Baker), postcards, and Kristen’s *Nun’s Priest’s Tale* cartoon (https://hellomizk.com/comics/the-nuns-priests-tale/) at the MAMO Guild stall

At the Gender & Medieval Studies conference, Laura also shared our newly printed Guild postcards and pin badges, and she advertised the Guild to delegates.

If you’d like to join the Guild please visit our website. And we’re very grateful once again to OMS for their financial assistance in launching the Guild!

Medieval Libraries of Great Britain Project Researcher

by Andrew Dunning

30/06/2025

16:34

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catalogue, job, manuscripts

Full-time, fixed-term postdoc position for 6 months to work with Andrew Dunning on redeveloping the Medieval Libraries of Great Britain project as a sustainable, open-access digital resource for manuscript studies. Apply by 14 July 2025
Full job advert and Further Particulars

The Bodleian Libraries are seeking to appoint a researcher to join the Medieval Libraries of Great Britain project, funded by the British Academy.Based in Bodleian Special Collections at the Weston Library, the successful applicant will contribute to the redevelopment of MLGB as a sustainable, open-access digital resource for manuscript studies. This is an exceptional opportunity to work with a leading team in historical bibliography, digital humanities, and medieval library history.You will take a leading role in the reconciliation, enhancement, and integration of the MLGB dataset, working with legacy print, manuscript, and digital sources. You will apply and adapt digital methods (especially TEI XML), analyse provenance data, disambiguate historical agents, and contribute to collaborative scholarly outputs. You will present your findings at conferences and help shape the project’s intellectual direction and future development.

This is a full-time, fixed-term post for 6 months. The role is based in the Weston Library, Oxford, with up to two days of remote working per week by agreement with the line manager. The Chair of this recruitment panel will be Dr Andrew Dunning, R.W. Hunt Curator of Medieval Manuscripts, who can be contacted with enquiries relating to the role (andrew.dunning@bodleian.ox.ac.uk).

About You You will have a PhD/DPhil (or have submitted a thesis) in a field such as medieval studies, book history, or digital humanities. You will have excellent reading knowledge of Latin and expertise in manuscript studies, including palaeographical and codicological skills. You will be able to manage your own research activities independently and will have contributed to academic publications or digital research outputs. You will have excellent communication skills and be able to work collaboratively in a research team.

What We Offer: As an employee of the University of Oxford, you will enjoy a wide range of benefits, including 38 days’ paid annual leave, membership of a generous pension scheme, family-friendly policies, access to childcare services, and opportunities for flexible and hybrid working. You will have access to the University Club and sports facilities, professional development through the Researcher Hub, and a vibrant academic and cultural environment in central Oxford. More information is available at https://hr.admin.ox.ac.uk/staff-benefits

Diversity: Our staff and students come from all over the world, and we proudly promote a friendly and inclusive culture. Diversity is positively encouraged through diverse groups and champions, as well as a number of family-friendly policies, such as the right to apply for flexible working and support for staff returning from periods of extended absence, for example, shared parental leave.We are committed to ensuring that our recruitment processes are inclusive and accessible. If you require the job description or any other materials in an alternative format, or if you would like to request any adjustments to support you through the application or interview process, please contact the recruitment team at recruitment@glam.ox.ac.uk.How to applyYou will be required to upload your CV and a supporting statement. Your supporting statement should list each of the essential and desirable selection criteria, as listed in the job description, and explain how you meet each one. Both documents must be submitted to be considered.We aim to provide a supportive working environment and are happy to discuss training and professional development opportunities.

Only applications received online before 12:00 midday (BST) on Monday 14 July 2025 can be considered. Interviews are expected to take place during the week commencing 28 July 2025.

Contact Person : GLAM Recruitment, Vacancy ID : 180432
Closing Date & Time : 14-Jul-2025 12:00
Pay Scale : RESEARCH GRADE 6
Contact Email : recruitment@glam.ox.ac.uk
Salary (£) : £34,982 – £40,855 per annum

180432 Job Description and Selection Criteria.pdf

On the background of the project

Consult the Holding page: Medieval Libraries of Great Britain. The Bodleian Libraries write: In October 2024, we had to take a number of specialist digital resources offline. This was a precautionary step in line with University guidance to ensure we were protected from a hostile cyber-attack.

Alternative ways to access the material

Digitised copies of the print catalogue can be found on HathiTrust:

1964 edition: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uva.x000937945

1987 supplement: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015021966216

[1941 edition:] https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.30112113075359

An archived static version of the site is available at the Internet Archive, which allows you to browser the records. Date when website was withdrawn: 24 October 2024

Medieval Matters TT25 Week 7

by Tristan Alphey

09/06/2025

07:52

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Around Oxford, events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities

Welcome to Week 7: the full Medieval Studies booklet is available here. First, a number of important reminders.

The Centre for Early Medieval Britain and Ireland is hosting an online exhibition of artefacts and manuscripts that explore the lives of early medieval women. To submit an item, or to attend the even, follow this link.

The Medieval History research seminar in Week 8 (16 June) has been moved to the Old Library in All Souls. There will be a drinks reception afterwards, 6.30-7.30pm, in the Great Quad, to mark Julia’s retirement. For catering purposes, people planning to attend should RSVP using this form: https://forms.office.com/e/Mr92xB66jh

Monday

French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30 pm in the Weston Library.
Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Andrew Dunning (Bodleian Library Oxford) will be speaking on ‘The Cult of Saint Frideswide in Medieval Oxford’.

Tuesday

The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
EMBI ‘Women in Early Medieval Britain and Ireland’ online exhibition – 3.30pm, Massey Room, Balliol College.
Medieval Church and Culture – 5pm in the Wellbeloved Room. Francesca Peacock (Lincoln) will be speaking on ‘Thu and thi wyff arn barrany and bare!’: the experience of infertility and the cult of St Anne in medieval East Anglia, c. 1100 – 1500′; Isabelle Amy Job (St Anne’s) will be speaking on ‘Blanche of Castile and Le Miroir de l’Ame’; Molly Bray (Lincoln) will be speaking on ‘Conspicuous Materiality, Collective Devotion: making and exchanging textiles in the Lüneburg Heath c. 1500’.
Medieval French Research Seminar – 5pm in the Maison française d’Oxford. Bastien Racca (Université de Fribourg, Switzerland) will be speaking on ‘‘L’amour rêvé: des métalepses dans le Songe Vert ?’’

Wednesday

The Medieval German Graduate Seminar meets Wednesdays 11.15am–12.45pm in Oriel College, Harris Lecture Room. The topic for this term is the ‘Alexanderroman’. If you are interested to be added to the teams group for updates, please contact Henrike Lähnemann.
The ‘science of the stars’ in context: an introduction to medieval astronomical and astrological manuscripts and texts – 2pm in the Horton Room (Weston Library). Session 6: Horoscope: dating and interpretating medieval horoscopes.
Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pm, online, please contact Michael Stansfield.
June & Simon Li Lecture in the History of Art – 5pm at Lincoln College. Aden Kumler (University of Basel) will be speaking on ‘Vera mensura. Dimensional realism in medieval manuscripts’.
Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. John-Francis Martin (Oriel) will be speaking on ‘“The Last Byzantine Controversy” — Politics, Rhetoric, and Religion from the Council of Ferrara-Florence to the Fall of Constantinople’.
Medieval Society and Landscape Seminar Series – 5pm in the Department for Continuing Education. Simon Townley (Victoria County History of Oxfordshire) will be speaking on ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once: Exploring Medieval Place and Society through Local History’. Book here.
Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies Seminar – 5pm in the Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies. Dr Sophia Vasalou (University of Birmingham) will be speaking on ‘Al-Ghazālī and the Ideal of Godlikeness’.
Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar– 5pm, Lower Lecture Room, Lincoln College. Kat Smith (University of Oxford) will be speaking on ‘The Virgin Mary in Medieval and Early Modern Women’s Writing’.

Thursday

Oxford Environmental History Working Group – 12:30 online. Bill Smith (DPhil History) will be speaking on “Chains of Control and Reins of Resistance: Nonhuman Animals and the Plantationocene in the American South”.
‘Big Data’ and Medieval Manuscripts – 1–5pm.

Friday

Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
Medieval Manuscripts Support Group – 11:30 in the Horton Room. Readers of medieval manuscripts can pose questions to a mixed group of fellow readers and Bodleian curators in a friendly environment. Come with your own questions, or to see what questions other readers have!
Anglo-Norman Reading Group – 5pm in the Farmington Institute in Harris Manchester College and online. For more information on the texts, email Jane Bliss.
Research Workshop: Working with modern theory on Medieval Women’s Writing – 5pm in the Lower Lecture Room, Lincoln College.
Oxford Translation Day 2025 – 6pm at the Taylor Institute. More info here.

Opportunities (new additions in bold)

The Latin Hymn as Scriptural Exegesis – from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages – 25–26 September 2025. Registration is free but compulsory. Futher details here: https://classics.web.ox.ac.uk/event/the-latin-hymn-as-scriptural-exegesis-from-late-antiquity-to-the-middle-ages
Essay Prize for Review of English Studies seeking applications – more information here.
A number of roles are available at Hamburg’s ‘Understanding Written Artefacts’: Doctoral Researchers, post-docs, and advanced post-docs.
London Medieval Society’s 80^th anniversary colloquium on ‘Memory and Commemoration’ is being held at on Saturday 28^th June at The Warburg Institute.
‘Big Data’ and Medieval Manuscripts Exploring the Potential of Large-Scale Catalogue Data – Thursday 26th June, 1–5pm, Weston Library. More information here.
The Terence Barry Prize for Best Graduate Paper in Irish Medieval Studies – deadline May 30, 2025. More information here.
Anglo-Israeli Archaeological Society Travel Grant – more info here.
Call for Submissions: Taube Prizes for Student Writing in Hebrew & Jewish Studies – see blog post.
National Archives Skills Courses – see blog post.
CfP for ‘Staging Silence from Antiquity to the Renaissance’ – more information here.
CfP for ‘Music and Reformation: A Symposium at Lambeth Palace Library, 16 September 2025’
A regular pub trip is being organised on a Friday at 6pm at the Chequers, from 0th week to 8th week, for all medievalists at Oxford. Email maura.mckeon@bfriars.ox.ac.uk
Additional spaces are available on the ‘Big Data’ and Medieval Manuscripts workshop – please sign up here.
Registration for the Masterclass by Patrick Boucheron – Pourquoi des médiévistes ? Penser le contemporain depuis le Moyen Âge – 29 May, 2:30pm, Maison Française d’Oxford.
Registration for Patrick Boucheron’s lecture entitled ‘The Birth of the Black Death: New Approaches in World History’ – 29 May, 5:00pm, Pembroke College.
The Digital Medieval Studies Institute is hosting a set of workshops on digital scholarly methods specifically tailored for medievalists as part of the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds. More information can be found here.

‘Art of the Book’ Exhibition at New College, Oxford

by Will Shire

02/06/2025

14:35

Comments Off on ‘Art of the Book’ Exhibition at New College, Oxford

Around Oxford, events

events, exhibition, manuscripts, medieval, trinity 25

Friday 13 June 2025, 12 noon–5PM
Lecture Room 4, New College, Oxford

New College Library is pleased to announce our exhibition for Trinity Term!

Clockwise: New College Library, Oxford, BT3.275.1, MS 281, MS 369

In ‘Art of the Book’, we explore the beauty of all things bibliographical through our wonderful special collections—from the medieval period to the present day. Expect fabulous illumination, exquisite illustrations, beautiful bindings, and some outstanding private press works.

The items will be on display in Lecture Room 4 in New College on 13 June, between 12pm and 5pm. For those unfamiliar with New College, just head to the Porters’ Lodge (located halfway down Holywell Street). There will be signs to direct visitors to the exhibition.

The exhibition is free and open to all, so please do spread the word . . .