Category: Around Oxford

Your OMS Team for 2022/23

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23/10/2022

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The cover image shows the new OMS team united on the roof terrace of the Weston Library with the Sainte Chapelle architectural quotation as backdrop. From left to right: Coral Kim, Luisa Ostacchini, Lesley Smith, Henrike Lähnemann, Ashley Castelino, Michael Angerer, Eugenia Vorobeva

Henrike Lähnemann (Professor of Medieval German Literature and Linguistics) and Lesley Smith (Professor of Medieval Intellectual History) are Co-Directors of the Oxford Medieval Studies Programme at TORCH. They also co-direct, now for the third time, the Medieval Mystery Cycle! Henrike is a German medievalist, currently mainly working on the rich material and textual legacy of the North German convents Medingen and Lüne, including editing 1.800 letters exchanged by the nuns of Lüne between 1480 and 1550. Lesley works on the medieval Bible, as both a physical and intellectual object. This ranges from close technical work with manuscripts of Bibles, biblical commentary, theology and pastoralia, to the exposition of commentary and theology, to investigation of the intellectual milieu of the schools in which the Bible was studied – the people and the products of this early university system, from the twelfth century onwards.  In particular, Lesley explores the two-way link between the manuscript evidence and the intellectual evidence of these early schools – in modern terms, how technology affects what we learn and know, and vice versa.  The study of the Bible has also led them to contribute to the study of medieval Jewish-Christian scholarship and relations.

The new OMS teams presents itself at the Coffee Morning in the Weston Library on 14 October 2022

Dr Luisa Ostacchini: Communications Officer

Luisa is the Communications Officer for Oxford Medieval Studies, and is responsible for the weekly Medieval Matters email/blog posts, the Google calendar, and the termly Medieval Booklet.

Luisa read her BA in English Literature at the University of Warwick. She then studied for a Masters in Medieval English Literature (650–1550) at Wolfson College, Oxford, and remained there for her subsequent DPhil in Old English and Latin Literature. She is now a stipendiary lecturer in Medieval Literature at St John’s and Exeter colleges and teaches Medieval Latin at the English Faculty. She is also a mentor for MSt/ MPhil/ DPhil students in the English Faculty and MSt students on the Humanities interdisciplinary Medieval MSt. Her research interests include the cult of saints, Medieval travel, and the global world in Early Medieval literature.

Michael Angerer: Graduate Convenor (Mystery Cycle)

Michael is a first-year DPhil student in English at Corpus Christi College. His research, funded by the E. K. Chambers Studentship, considers the changing culture of verse translation in England across the Norman Conquest and its impact on vernacular history-writing. He is also more generally interested in translation theory and multilingualism. As graduate convenor for the Medieval Mystery Cycle 2023, he will be coordinating one of the highlights of Oxford’s medieval calendar: the all-day performance of a cycle of short biblical plays, by a variety of groups and in a variety of medieval and modern languages, at St Edmund Hall on 22 April 2023. Please get in touch if you are interested in taking part or if you have any questions – and definitely have a look at the recordings of the plays from 2019 and 2022!

Eugenia Vorobeva: Events Coordinator

Eugenia graduated MSt in Medieval Studies in 2019, and now is a third-year DPhil Student in Old Norse at Jesus College. She is passionate about all things medieval and is joining the OMS team as its Events Coordinator to ensure everything runs smoothly and is on your medieval calendars!

Ashley Castelino: Social Media Officer

Ashley Castelino is a second-year DPhil student at Lincoln College working on supernatural dogs in Old Norse and other medieval literature. He is passionate about anything and everything medieval, and brings this to his role as Social Media Officer for OMS. In this role, he manages all social media accounts for OMS, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, all accessible via our Beacons page. Ashley is responsible for spreading the word about all of the wonderful medieval events, lectures, seminars, reading groups and other activities at Oxford, so if you have something you’d like advertised, do get in touch!

Coral Kim: Administrative Assistant

Coral Kim is an MSt English (650-1550) student at Exeter College, who just completed her BA in English (Course II) at Oxford. She enjoys reading about Anglo-Saxon metalwork and inscriptions, with an additional interest in early medieval Cumbrian history following her research internship in the region. She has joined the OMS as support for the team, helping with administrative work and the running of the OMS website.

OMS Lecture: Prof. Ardis Butterfield (Yale), ‘Do We Mean Lyric or Song?’

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20/10/2022

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When: Monday 31 October, 5.15pm

Where: Lecture Theatre 2, English Faculty (St Cross Building)

What: Michaelmas Medieval Studies Lecture by Professor Ardis Butterfield (Yale University) as Astor Visiting Lecturer

Ardis Butterfield is Marie Boroff Professor of English and (by courtesy) Professor of French and Music at Yale University. Her many published works investigate medieval literature and music across languages and national boundaries. Her books include Poetry and Music in Medieval France, and The Familiar Enemy: Chaucer, Language and the Nation in the Hundred Years War. She is currently completing a major new edition of medieval English lyrics.

‘Do we mean lyric or song? Modern lyric theory in history‘

 Is ‘lyric’ something that has always existed as a category of poetry or music, or has it been created through a process of study and academic debate from the nineteenth century onwards – a process that Virginia Jackson has called ‘lyricization’? If that’s the case, where does medieval lyric fit in?

This lecture argued that medieval lyric is not on the edge of that debate, but at its centre. It does this by investigating the missing ingredient in many literary discussions of lyrics: their music. Thinking about the music for medieval lyrics (which in so many cases has not survived) can have an impact on modern theoretical discussions of poetry, requiring all of us to rethink our categories and assumptions.

Featured manuscripts (in order of appearance):
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson C. 670, f.148v
British Library, Harley MS 978, f.11v
British Library, Arundel MS 248, f.154r
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce 302, f.24r (John Audelay’s book)
Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Advocates MS 18.7.21,ff. 116r-121v (John of Grimestone’s preaching book)

Professor Butterfield also gave a manuscripts masterclass in the Weston Library’s Sir Victor Blank Lecture Theatre, 2–4pm on Tuesday 1 November: ‘Manuscripts of medieval lyric and song in the Bodleian Library’

Special Event. Library Lates: Sensational Books

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17/10/2022

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When: 7 – 9.30pm on Friday, 21 October 2022

Where: Blackwell Hall, Weston Library

The event is free but booking is required. When you have booked your place, the ticketing system will send you an automated confirmation.

About the event

Join us in October at the Weston Library for a Library Late celebrating our exhibition Sensational Books.

From ‘living books’ and historic scents to conductive ink and tactile pages, enjoy taster talks, discussions, hands-on activities and live music to engage the five senses of sight, sound, taste, smell, touch and beyond.

Drop-in activities: 7 – 9.30pm, Blackwell Hall

Meet the Guide Dogs team of handlers and guide dogs and try simulation activities to explore the impact of sight loss.

Write beautiful calligraphy with a sensory twist.

Try embossing natural patterns and your initials in Gothic font.

Make a mini concertina book full of colour to explore the senses.

Print a ‘sensational’ keepsake to take away.

Senses in Conservation: discover tools and techniques using the senses with Bodleian Conservation.

Go on a scent journey with Dr Alexy Karenowska (Department of Physics, University of Oxford)

Meet artist Sam Skinner and discover how touch can make text speak

Discover Lit Hits and get a literary prescription with a sensory flavour.

Borrow a ‘living book’ from the Living Library to explore topics including:

  • Making Sense of Sound with Professor Andrew King (Neurophysiology, University of Oxford) and Dr Kerry Walker (Neuroscience, University of Oxford)
  • Books and Us: a 2000 year relationship with Professor Emma Smith (Professor of Shakespeare Studies, University of Oxford)
  • Your Brain is not a Black Box with Professor Randy Bruno (Professor of Neuroscience, University of Oxford)
  • Learning to Read the Whole Book with Professor Michael Suarez (Professor and Director of Rare Book School, University of Virginia)
  • Touching the Alphabet with Dr Vaibhav Singh (Visiting Research Fellow in Typography & Graphic Communication, University of Reading)
  • Multisensory books: on the enduring appeal of analog with Professor Charles Spence (Professor in Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford)

Taster talks 

7.30 – 7.50pm: Multisensory books – on the enduring appeal of analog
Charles Spence, Professor in Experimental Psychology and author of Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating

The predicted emergence of ebooks has not happened. And that is not just because the younger generations like an academic-looking backdrop to their social media posts. Books engage the senses in a way that is closely linked to nostalgia and memories. While the smell of books can be hugely evocative, the weight and feel of books, and even the sound of the pages turning have been shown to influence people’s perception of the contents. Books, then, are multisensory objects capable of stimulating the senses in ways that are both universal but also culturally-determined.

8.00 – 8.20pm: Senses and Sensibilities – approaches to bookbinding in recent accessions to the Bodleian Library
Andrew Honey, Book Conservator at the Bodleian Library

This taster talk will explore recent accessions to the Bodleian and the often-playful ways that book artists have approached concepts of both books and book bindings. It will also consider the challenges that these may pose for research libraries and conservators.

9.00 – 9.20pm: Sensory books – coming back to our senses to transform children’s digital reading
Natalia Kucirkova, Professor of Early Childhood Education and Development at the University of Stavanger, Norway

This taster talk will explore a cutting-edge project researching the power of smells and scents to transform children’s reading.  The project includes a scented adventure trail which engaged children’s sense of smell in their exploration of the story ‘The Three Little Pigs’.

More highlights

The Smell Archive
Dr Cecilia Bembibre Jacobo, UCL Institute for Sustainable Heritage and Sarah McCartney, Perfumer
Space for Reading, 20-minute sessions at 7.15pm, 8.00pm and 8.45pm – sign up on arrival

After decades of engaging with history in museums and archives primarily through our eyes, we are rediscovering the value of a multi-sensory approach to cultural heritage. Smells, for example, are linked to aspects of heritage like traditions and tourism; they stand as symbols of a shared past and enhance visitors’ museum experience. In this session, we will share a framework to document scents and their meaning as personal or collective heritage. Sarah McCartney will provide creative context for the smell archival framework. Please join us for a nose-on evening, where we will develop an archive for a particular scent and explore its collective meanings and significance.

When Air Becomes Breath and Breath Becomes Spirit
Áine O’Dwyer and Hannah White, artist-performers
Blackwell Hall, 8.30pm – 8.45pm

Coupling the corporeal and ritual elements of mediaeval manuscript culture, and drawing from the agency of matter artist-performers, Áine O’Dwyer and Hannah White interpret the visual score element of Helen Frosi‘s installation, When Air Becomes Breath and Breath Becomes Spirit. Here, the body magics air into creative potential (inspiration), and the breath becomes a potent symbol of life itself.

B42 (Surrogate)
David Gauthier and Sam Skinner
Blackwell Hall, 7 – 9.30pm (drop-in)

Meet the artist Sam Skinner (Oxford Brookes University) and explore the leporello style book he produced in collaboration with David Gauthier (Utrecht University) which reproduces a section of the Gutenberg Bible using conductive ink, transforming the page into a capacitive sensor and enabling the reader’s touch to trigger recorded readings of the text.

Singing from the St Edmund Consort
Blackwell Hall, 7.30pm and 9pm

A Narrative Approach to Early Chinese Buddhist Prose

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16/10/2022

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Speaker: Professor Antje Richter, University of Colorado Boulder
Chair: Dr Xiaojing Miao, Pembroke College
Location: Harold Lee Room, Pembroke College
Time: December 1st, 2022, 14:00-16:00


The silence of Vimalakirti is a famous moment in Mahayana Buddhism. The householder’s decision to
respond with “thundering silence” when asked to explain his understanding of non-duality forms the
doctrinal and narrative culmination of the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa-sūtra, a text that mostly consists of a lively
and occasionally even humorous back and forth in conversation in front of various audiences. The
“scripture of the teaching of Vimalakirti” emerged in India in the first or second century CE and gained
immense literary, religious, and cultural currency in East Asia, through Chinese translations that started
circulating since the late second century. Scholars have discussed the sutra from many angles, but its
narrative form has received little scholarly interest so far.


This talk analyzes Vimalakirti’s silence against two foils that the sutra itself sets up. The first foil
is one of non-silence: the conversational pattern that underlies the sutra’s narrative and discursive
progression. Turn-taking in this text is both highly formalized and open to surprising twists, not least
because the setting of the conversation moves several times, both in this world and to alternative
universes, along with the composition of the internal audience. The second foil is one of silence, because
Vimalakirti’s celebrated silence is not the only occasion a main protagonist of the text chooses not to
answer a question asked of him. Both foils contribute to the performative effect of Vimalakirti’s silence,
in narrative as well as doctrinal terms. The talk will embed reflections on the narrative role of silence in
the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa-sūtra into native Chinese notions of speaking and not speaking, which both
precede and postdate the introduction of the sutra in China. On a metalevel, the talk hopes to contribute
to the extension and establishment of narrative approaches to Buddhist texts and medieval Chinese
literature.


Antje Richter, Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder,
received her PhD from LMU Munich 1998. Her publications include Letter
Writing and Epistolary Culture in Early Medieval China (2013), A History of Chinese
Letters and Epistolary Culture (2015), several co-edited volumes, and more than
30 articles. She is currently completing a monograph on notions of health and
illness in medieval Chinese literature.


To sign up, please contact Dr Xiaojing Miao (xiaojing.miao@pmb.ox.ac.uk) or Dr Christopher
Foster (cf44@soas.ac.uk)

Short Films on Love, Hope, Death Eternity

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16/10/2022

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St John’s Film Club presents two new short films on Love, Hope, Death and Eternity. The first of these, Complete Surrender (dir. Louise Nelstrop) will be of particular interest to Medievalists.

When: Wednesday 26th October, 5pm-6.30pm

Where: St John’s College, the Mark Bedingham Room (located in St John’s Library)

  • Both films have won numerous awards in recent film festivals and are not currently on general release.
  • There will be an opportunity to discuss the films with the directors after the screening.

Film Synopsis

Complete Surrender 2020 (29 mins), directed by Louise Nelstrop (UK) and Pol Herrmann (Belgium), is a short documentary that explores what love is through the eyes of five celebrated Belgian artists and three religious sisters as they engage with the erotic mysticism of the female medieval mystics Hadewijch and Marguerite Porete.

Official Trailer: https://bit.ly/3ywk4Bm

Facebook: https://bit.ly/3epZYSk

Bizzarro e Fantastico 2020 (26 mins), directed Kris Krainock (USA), by is a dark comedy that explores the meaning of life and morality. A Roman everyman discovered a violently ill intruder on his sofa after returning from the market, who he must to health. He discovers his mysterious guest has otherworldly intentions — a reminder that life is for the living.

Official Trailer: https://imdb.to/3Mrs1gB

Facebook: https://bit.ly/3Crmylx

Review: https://filmthreat.com/reviews/bizzarro-e-fantastico/

About the Directors

Louise Nelstrop is a member of the Department of Theology and a non-stipendiary lecturer in theology at John’s College, where she teaches papers on Mysticism, Medieval Religions and Jesus through the Centuries. This is her first short film made in collaboration with Belgian filmmakers, including cinematographer Pol Herrmann, who co-directed and shot the film.

Kris Krainock is an American filmmaker and playwright, who began his professional career with the publication of poetry and short stories in local and national literary journals. Krainock’s major upcoming projects include the feature motion picture ‘Madame X,’ where he’s been able to collaborate with  legends in the field such as Stanley Kubrick’s director of photography Douglas Milsome and Stanley’s widow, the artist Christiane Kubrick. Krainock is also developing the television series ‘The Idiot’ and the darkly comedic web series ‘It’s All Downhill From Here.'” (https://www.kriskrainock.com/)

The screening is open to anyone interested. Please email Louise Nelstrop if you have any questions: louise.nelstrop@theology.ox.ac.uk

Palaeography Self-Help Groups

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11/10/2022

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Students in the history and MML faculties are working together on two palaeography groups, one every week of term, alternating between French and Iberian palaeography. They are both student run, collaborative groups where people can bring something they’re working on to get help from others and work through things together, and improve their skills. We also share resources and course recommendations.

The Iberian Palaeography group will meet weeks 2, 4, 6, and 8, on Tuesdays at 5pm, via Teams.

We will be scheduling the French Palaeography group based on members’ availability.

If you’d like to be involved please email Clare Burgess at clare.burgess@univ.ox.ac.uk, and state which group (or both!) you’re interested in.

Header image: Livre de Merlin (Arras, 1310), Add MS 38117, f. 76r(Source: British Library)

Germanic Reading Group

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06/10/2022

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Michaelmas: Fridays at 4 pm. Week 2, 4 — online. Week 6 — hybrid. Week 8 — in person (venue TBC).

Friday, 21 October. Old Dutch/Old Low Franconian — Johanneke Sytsema leading

Friday, 4 November. Old Saxon — Will Thurlwell leading

Thursday (!), 17 November. Gothic: ‘The linguistic relationship between the Gothic Bible and its Greek source’, by Professor Carla Falluomini (University of Perugia)
Where: Oxford Linguistics Faculty, Common Room / via Zoom

Friday, 2 December. Modern Bernese German (Bärndütsch) — Philomen Probert leading

To join the mailing list or receive the zoom-link, email howard.jones@sbs.ox.ac.uk.
The handouts will be circulated a few days before each meeting.

Header image: Page from the Codex Argenteus showing part of the Gothic (Wulfila) Bible (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Workshop with Prof. Ardis Butterfield: Song and Lyric

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04/10/2022

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Thursday 3 November, 3-5pm, in New College, Lecture Room 4

We are looking for postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers who are working on a medieval song or lyric text that they would like to discuss in the workshop with Professor Butterfield.

All that is required is to provide an edition of the text of the song or lyric, ideally with a translation and edition of the music (if there is any). The workshop will be an informal opportunity to workshop songs/lyric texts together and benefit from Professor Butterfield’s expertise.

If you would like to contribute a song/lyric, please send your suggestion to joseph.mason@new.ox.ac.uk by Friday 14th October.

You are very welcome to attend the workshop without bringing along a text to discuss. If you wish to attend, please RSVP to joseph.mason@new.ox.ac.uk by Friday 28th October for catering purposes.

Header image: Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, Cod. Pal. germ. 848
Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift (Codex Manesse) fol. 124r

Queer and Trans Medievalisms: A Reading Group

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02/10/2022

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Michaelmas: Mondays at 3pm, weeks 2, 4, 6 and 8, Univ College (room TBC)

This informal reading group will explore queer and trans themes in medieval texts. In Michaelmas, we’ll be thinking about queer/trans sanctity across medieval Christian, Jewish and Sufi traditions.

Week 2: Queer longings for God

Week 4: Transfemme prayer: Kalonymus ben Kalonymus

Week 6: Transmasc sainthood: Euphrosyne/Smaragdus

Week 8: The trial of Joan of Arc

All extremely welcome! To join the mailing list and get texts in advance, or if you have any questions, email rowan.wilson@univ.ox.ac.uk                                                     

Call for Papers: Memorial Symposium for Nigel F. Palmer

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29/09/2022

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Update: Registration for the Memorial Event is now open! Please register by 23 April 2023.

What: Literary, religious and manuscript cultures of the German-speaking lands: a symposium in memory of Nigel F. Palmer (1946-2022)

When: 19/20 May 2023

Where: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Taylor Institution Library, St Edmund Hall

To celebrate the life and scholarship of Nigel F. Palmer, Professor of German Medieval Literary and Linguistic Studies at the University of Oxford, we invite expressions of interest from those who wish to honour his memory with an academic contribution to speak at a symposium in Oxford that is to take place 19-20 May 2023. Presentations of twenty minutes’ length are sought. They should speak to an aspect of the wide spectrum of Nigel’s intellectual interests, which ranged extensively within the broad scope of the literary and religious history of the German- and Dutch-speaking lands, treating Latin alongside the vernaculars, the early printed book alongside the manuscript, and the court and the city alongside the monastery and the convent. His primary intellectual contributions were methodological rather than theoretical, and he brought together a study of the book as a material object with the philological and linguistic discipline of the Germanophone academic tradition.

The first session planned for the afternoon of Friday 19 May will take place consequently in the Weston Library, and will consider the manuscript cultures of the German-speaking lands; presentations may take a workshop format, and may – though need not – focus upon one or more manuscripts in the Bodleian collections. The second and third sessions will take place on Saturday 20 May in the Taylorian Library, and will consider the religious and literary history of the German-speaking lands in relation to the questions, issues and working methods central to Nigel’s published scholarship.

We would request expressions of interest, of not more than one full page, to be received by 11 November 2022, to be sent to Stephen Mossman. We ask in advance for the understanding of all who submit that we anticipate receiving many more expressions of interest than we can accommodate within the schedule. A reception will be held at St Edmund Hall on the Saturday afternoon, to which all are cordially invited and welcome, followed by a dinner in College. Those planning to attend are advised to reserve accommodation in good time, e.g. via universityrooms. We hope to secure funding to support early career researchers in attending the symposium, but anticipate that participants will need to cover their travel and accommodation expenses. Details of the symposium and registration will be available through the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages web-site in early 2023.

For the organising committee: Racha Kirakosian, Henrike Lähnemann, Stephen Mossman, Almut Suerbaum

Image: Nigel F. Palmer studying the facsimile of the Osterspiel von Muri on the gallery of the Taylor Institution Library. Photograph by Henrike Lähnemann