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Medieval Matters MT26, Wk5

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09/11/2026

09:18

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

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Welcome to 5th week – please find attached the booklet of events for this term. 

We have a bumper crop of events this week, and a number of opportunities to call your attention to:

  • The Call for Papers for the Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference 2027 is now open! More information.
  • GLAMorous work: Medievalist Pathways in Libraries, Book Trade, and Heritage Sector – 5-6pm,  Careers talk for medievalists, Old Library, St Edmund Hall. More information here.
  • Save the Date: on 7-10 July 2027, Oxford is hosting an international symposium on Franciscus Junius and his Books. You can find out more here.
  • Friday sees St Johns host the St Brice’s Day Commemorations with a set of talks. For more information, and to register, see here.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library. If you are interested in joining the group or would like more information, please email the convenor Laure Miolo.
  • Greek Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 15:00, Horton Room Weston Library. Contact Péter Tóth for further details.
  • IHR History of Liturgy Seminar – 3:00, Schwarzman Centre S2.402 (and online). Rhiannon Warren (University of Cambridge) on ‘Liturgy and Liturgical Books of Medieval Iceland’.
  • Medieval History Seminar: – 5:00, All Souls College. Muhammad El Fiky (King’s College London) on ‘Contesting Cheese: Islamic Law and the Limits of Legal Authority in the Medieval Egyptian Market’.
  • Medieval Latin Reading Group – 5.30pm in Merton College. The text this term is Ysengrimus.

Tuesday

  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2pm, Weston Library. Those who are interested can email the convenor Laure Miolo.
  • Byzantine Literature Lectures – 4:00, Kloppenburg Room, Exeter College.
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5:00, Maison française d’Oxford. Sebastian Dows -Miller (University College, London) on ‘Scribal abbreviation in French manuscripts and its role as a source of data for quantitative palaeography’.
  • Lincoln Unlocked Lecture – 5:15, Lower Lecture Room, Lincoln College. Jo Story on ‘Luke’s Calf: Rethinking the 8th-C Insular gospel leaves in Lincoln College MS Lat.92’.

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11:15, Somerville College. The topics for the term will be Frauenlob, Kreuzleich and Minneleich. If you are interested to be added to the teams group for updates, please contact Almut Suerbaum
  • Byzantine Text Seminar – 3:00, Kloppenberg Room, Exeter College.
  • Old Norse Reading Group – 4:00. Please email Brooklyn Arnold for the location
  • The Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online. To join and/or to find out more about this and the possibility of some hands-on experience of cataloguing such documents to develop further your research skills, please contact  Michael Stansfield.
  • GLAMorous work: Medievalist Pathways in Libraries, Book Trade, and Heritage Sector – 5-6pm,  Careers talk for medievalists, Old Library, St Edmund Hall. More information here.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies. Peter Toth on ‘A New Byzantine Apocryphon: The Epistle of the Apostle James on Unleavened Bread’.
  • ‘St. Laurence O’Toole and the Anglo -Norman Conquest of Ireland’ Lecture – 5:00, St Catherine’s College. Jesse Patrick Harrington on ‘Ireland, the Papacy, and Renovatio Imperii’. More information here.
  • Bede Reading Group – 6:00, Blackfriars. Bede, wine, and merriment – all are welcome.

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group (MERG) – 10:00, Beckington Room, Lincoln College. The text this year is Troilus and Criseyde. Please contact Rebecca Menmuir.
  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, room 00.018 in the Humanities Centre. Anthony Bale (U of Cambridge) on ‘Towards understanding the literary tastes of later medieval English Knights Hospitalle’
  • Hebrew Bible Pop Up Display – 12:00 to 2pm, Christ Church Upper Library.
  • Older Scots Reading Group is CANCELLED this week.
  • Seminars in Medieval and Renaissance Music – 5:00, online. Davitt Moroney (University of California, Berkeley) on ‘Precursive canons, 1450–1600: Notation, Renotation, and Function’.
  • E A Lowe LEcture – 5:00, Al Jaber Auditorium, Corpus Christi College. Julia Crick (KCL) on ‘Displacement’.
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5:00,Arumugam 2.2, St Catz. Prof. Eric Palazzo on ‘Vivarium as a locus amoenus: Cassiodorus and his conception of Paradise’.
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:15, online. Ffion Mair Jones (CAWCS) on ‘Arglwyddesau, ofyddesau a chwiorydd: Cysylltiadau benywaidd Angharad Llwyd (1780–1866’.
  • Old English Graduate Reading Group – 5.15. Email for location.
  • Compline in the Crypt (Reformation music from 1524) – 9:30, St Edmund Hall

Friday

  • St Brice’s Day Commemorations 2026 – 10:00, St John’s College. More information here.
  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Weston Library. Elizabeth Solopova will speak on Peter Payne using Bodleian material. Check out the report on the recent Peter Payne workshop with video recordings for a sneak preview.
  • Hebrew Bible Pop Up Display – 12:00 to 2pm, Christ Church Upper Library.
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 2:00, Horton Room, Weston Library. Prof. Eric Palazzo on ‘A Sacramentary from Reichenau at Oxford’ (Manuscript Workshop)’
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Magdalen College. As space is limited, registration is required. Those interested in participating are invited to contact Laure Miolo
  • Church historian pub trip – 6:00, The Chequers.

Opportunities (see booklet for more info)

St Brice’s Day Commemorations 2026

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09/11/2026

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 13 November 2026 – 10.00 a.m. – 4.30 p.m.

St John’s College

On 13 November 1002, King Æthelred II of England ordered the massacre of Danes living in England, fearing that they meant to kill him and his advisers and take over the kingdom. In Oxford, Danes sought sanctuary in St Frideswide’s Church, which was set upon and burnt down by their pursuers.

The remains of at least thirty-five men and boys likely killed during the massacre were discovered in central Oxford in 2008, when St John’s College was preparing to build its Kendrew Quadrangle. Since then, the College has marked St Brice’s Day with various public-facing talks and events that have reflected on the Oxford massacre and eleventh-century England and Europe.

We look forward to welcoming visitors for our St Brice’s Day commemorations on Friday 13 November 2026, where leading researchers will share their insight into Oxford’s Viking past and what we can learn today from this violent local history.

The full programme is available below and on Eventbrite, where you can register to attend. All events are free, but advance registration is essential. Lunch and refreshments will be provided free of charge.

Old Frisian Summer School

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08/11/2026

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Old Frisian: a gem within the Old Germanic languages

12-17 July 2027, University of Oxford, St Edmund Hall

What is the OFSS about?

Link to the page on the site of the Faculty of Linguistics here. For anybody interested, watch a lecture by the organiser Dr Johanneke Sytsema:

Introductory Lecture as part of the series Topics in German Historical Linguistics

Students will learn about Old Frisian language, text corpus, culture and history in the context of Old Germanic languages. Linguistic comparisons will be drawn between Old Frisian and the other (West) Germanic languages. Settlement history of Frisians in Britain, Old Frisian Law and Literature and Old Frisian manuscripts will be discussed in lectures. Library visits will focus on the Old Frisian manuscripts in Oxford. The OFSS will close with a social day in Oxford. The OFSS is about learning to read Old Frisian and to place Old Frisian in a wider linguistic, literary and historical context.

Who is the summer school for?

The summer school is aimed at students, PhD candidates and early career researchers with an interest in (Old) Germanic languages who want to familiarise themselves with Old Frisian.

What will the day programme look like?

There will be two lectures in the mornings and a translation workshop or library visit in the afternoons. The programme will cover the Old Frisian grammar in lectures by experts in the field and in translation workshops. Students will read Old Frisian texts in the afternoon workshops with help of modern handbooks and learn about the Old Frisian text corpus

By the end of the week, students should be able to translate a medium level Old Frisian text with the help of handbooks and have gained a good level of knowledge of the place and importance of Old Frisian within the Old Germanic language family

A visit to the Bodleian Library will enable students to view the Old Frisian manuscripts that are kept at Oxford.

Blog about the 2023 OFSS in Oxford https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/taylorian/2023/11/13/old-frisian-summer-school-2023-a-students-perspective/

Confirmed speakers:

  • Dr Alexia Elise Kerkhof
  • Prof em. Rolf H. Bremmer Jr
  • Mr Anne Popkema MA, Groningen University/Tresoar
  • Dr Johanneke Sytsema, University of Oxford

What does it cost?

  • In person fees: £450 (Early bird rate £400 if booked by May 1st)

Fees for in person attendance will include

  • Tuition and workshops
  • Study materials
  • Coffee/tea
  • Lunch
  • Saturday social activities
  • Library visits
  • Conference dinner

Accommodation:

Participants can book accommodation in student halls belonging to St Edmund Hall a 20 minute walk away from the College (email address SEH conferences first come first served) or find accommodation in another college in Oxford via https://www.universityrooms.com/

For further information about the Summer School please contact: oldfrisian@ling-phil.ox.ac.uk (for all interested) or ofss@rug.nl (for students of Groningen University)

Deadline for registration:

  • 1st May for early birds – (in-person)
  • 31st May for in-person participation.

Register

Please complete the application form and payment details will be sent to you by email.

Report on the previous summerschool 9-16 July 2023, University of Oxford, St Edmund Hall

Blog about the 2019 OFSS http://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/taylorian/2019/09/25/the-first-oxford-groningen-old-frisian-summer-school/

And video report https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIkV2PkKf48 (by Fardau Visser)

Speakers were:

  • Prof Andreas Deutsch, Deutsches Rechtswörterbuch, Heidelberg
  • Dr Peter-Alexander Kerkhof, Frisian Academy, Ljouwert/Leeuwarden
  • Prof Simon Horobin, University of Oxford
  • Dr Rafael Pascual, University of Oxford
  • Mr Hilbert Vinkenoog (YouTube channel History with Hilbert)
  • Mr Anne Popkema MA, Groningen University
  • Dr Johanneke Sytsema, University of Oxford

Travel and Venue

Heathrow Airport is most convenient for Oxford. The Airline Bus Service to Oxford is frequent and cost-effective.

Directions from the train station

Most lectures and workshops will be held at St Edmund Hall. Information about travel to St Edmund Hall can be found here.

Medieval Matters MT26, Wk 4

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02/11/2026

09:21

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events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities

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Welcome to Week 4 – please find attached the new booklet of events for this term. 

Two notes for this week. The first of the E A Lowe Lectures by Prof. Julia Crick takes place on Thursday 5:00 at Corpus Christi College, on the theme of ‘Script and politics: problems in the palaeography of a multilingual island’. This series provides an opportunity to reflect on the implications for traditional palaeography in a politically contested space.

Next week, Christ Church are hosting an exhibition on translating the Bible featuring, among others, Brasenose College’s 13th century Founder’s Bible. More information here.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library. If you are interested in joining the group or would like more information, please email the convenor Laure Miolo.
  • Books Medievalists Should Know – 2:00, Lincoln College. The focus this weeks is The Bible and associated texts.
  • Greek Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 15:00, Horton Room Weston Library. Contact Péter Tóth for further details.
  • Medieval Archaeology Seminar – 3;00, Instittue of Archaeology. Duncan Wright on ‘Cada’s minster and S ǣwine’s burh: the evolution of an early medieval power centre at Saintbury (Glos)’.
  • Medieval History Seminar: – 5:00, All Souls College. Clare Downham (Liverpool) on “The genealogy of Ívarr the Boneless”
  • Medieval Latin Reading Group – 5.30pm in Merton College. The text this term is Ysengrimus.

Tuesday

  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2pm, Weston Library. Those who are interested can email the convenor Laure Miolo.
  • Byzantine Literature Lectures – 4:00, Kloppenburg Room, Exeter College

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11:15, Somerville College. The topics for the term will be Frauenlob, Kreuzleich and Minneleich. If you are interested to be added to the teams group for updates, please contact Almut Suerbaum
  • Christine de Pizan & Gender in the Late Middle Ages Seminar – 2:00, Weston Library. Estelle Guéville (Yale) on “How Exceptional Was Christine de Pizan ? Scribal Practices and Women’s Book Production in Late -Medieval Europe”; Prof. Sophie Marnette (Oxford) on “How Exceptional Was Christine de Pisan? Writing Women in the 12th and 13th centuries”.
  • Byzantine Text Seminar – 3:00, Kloppenberg Room, Exeter College.
  • Old Norse Reading Group – 4:00. Please email Brooklyn Arnold for the location
  • The Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online. To join and/or to find out more about this and the possibility of some hands-on experience of cataloguing such documents to develop further your research skills, please contact  Michael Stansfield.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies. Gaetano Spampinato on ‘An “Excluded” or”Included” Third? Jews and Judaism in John of Damascus’s Writings on Islam’.
  • Oxford Centre for Early Medieval Britain and Ireland ‘A Celebration of New Books’ – 5:00, Balliol, Old Common Room. A discussion and Q &A with Robert Gallagher (Kent), Ryan Lavelle (Winchester), Francis Leneghan (Oxford) &Alex Traves (Oxford) talking about their new books, the arguments they make, the stories they contain, and how they came to write them. Chaired by Jo Story. All Welcome
  • Mearcstapan – 5:30, Jesus College. Georgie Anderson on ‘Black Knights’.

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group (MERG) – 10:00, Beckington Room, Lincoln College. The text this year is Troilus and Criseyde. Bring any edition of the original text! There will be tea and biscuits. For more information or to be added to the mailing list, please email Rebecca Menmuir.
  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, room 00.018 in the Humanities Centre. Amy Faulkner (UCL) on ‘The lives of the Evangelists in Old English’.
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar – 4:00, Magdalen College (meet at lodge). – Social Commentary, including extracts from the works of Kassia of Constantinople and Teresa de Cartagena.
  • E A Lowe lecture – 5:00, Al Jaber Auditorium, Corpus Christi College. Julia Crick on ‘Two Islands’. This lecture takes another look at the palaeography of post -Roman Britain and Ireland, at some of its troubled twentieth -century history, and at major shifts in understanding over the last three decades. In particular it asks where we stand on the fraught question of the identification of Irish and English script.
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:15, Room 00.056 in the Humanities Centre and online. Kit Kapphahn (Aberystwyth) on ‘Love and praise in medieval Welsh panegyric’.
  • Compline in the Crypt – 9:30, St Edmund Hall#

Friday

  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Weston Library. Gary Rendsburg will speak on Queen Elizabeth’s Book of Oxford. Coffee and tea provided
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Magdalen College. As space is limited, registration is required. Those interested in participating are invited to contact Laure Miolo
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group (OMMG) – 4:00. Library Visit: Wren Library, Cambridge Manuscript workshop and tour of the Wren Library at Trinity College, Cambridge. Limited places.
  • Church historian pub trip – 6:00, The Chequers.

Opportunities (see booklet for more info)

  • CfP – Unexpected Journeys: New Pathways through Iberian History. More information here.
  • Call for Committee Members: Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference 2027 – contact oxgradconf@gmail.com.
  • OMS Small Grants open. Closing date for applications: Friday of Week 4. More information.
  • Medieval Afterlives: Cultural Programme Open Call – investment of up to £10,000, see booklet.
  • Medieval Manors Research Network/Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program at the University of Notre Dame. Art (History), English, German / Slavic / Eurasian, History and Philosophy of Science, Initiative on Race and Resilience, Philosophy, Romance Languages, Theology; international applications and medievalists welcome!
  • Publishing with the Journal Manuscript and Text Cultures – see booklet for details.
  • John W. Baldwin Post -Doctoral Fellowship. A two-year position beginning July 1, 2027, for recent Ph.D. recipients whose work focuses on European medieval studies within a global comparative context. The application deadline is November 13, 2026 .

Medieval Matters MT26, Wk3

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26/10/2026

08:48

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

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Welcome to week 3, and the return of the rain. As always, please find attached the new booklet of events for this term. 

We’d like to draw your attention to Mearcstapan, a student medievalist society at Oxford focused on making medievalism more accessible and inclusive. You can find out a little more about the society here – do encourage your students to get involved, and do consider getting involved yourself!

Ever behind the times (see 1209), Cambridge have taken a leaf (or, perhaps, an entire bough) from our book and established their own interdisciplinary network for medieval studies. You can access their booklet of upcoming events, and their new website, here.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library. If you are interested in joining the group or would like more information, please email the convenor Laure Miolo.
  • Greek Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 15:00, Horton Room Weston Library. Contact Péter Tóth for further details.
  • Medieval History Seminar: – 5:00, All Souls College. Catherine Holmes (University College, Oxford) on “Byzantium: A Kinetic Commonwealth?”
  • Medieval Latin Reading Group – 5.30pm in Merton College. The text this term is Ysengrimus.

Tuesday

  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2pm, Weston Library. Those who are interested can email the convenor Laure Miolo.
  • Byzantine Literature Lectures – 4:00, Kloppenburg Room, Exeter College.
  • Lecture – 4:00, Weston Library. Christophe Masson (University of Liège) on ‘A look into Avignon libraries. Books written or owned by cardinals during the Great Western Schism (1378-1403)’
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5:00, Maison française d’Oxford. Mireille Seguy (Université Paris, Sorbonne Nouvelle) on ‘Quelle foi accordait -on aux fictions au Moyen Âge ? Le lecteur au miroir de la métalepse (XII e-XV e siècles)’

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11:15, Somerville College. The topics for the term will be Frauenlob, Kreuzleich and Minneleich. If you are interested to be added to the teams group for updates, please contact Almut Suerbaum
  • Oxford Centre for Medieval Britain and Ireland Welcome Lunch – 12:45, Balliol. Sign-up sheet here.
  • Byzantine Text Seminar – 3:00, Kloppenberg Room, Exeter College.
  • Old Norse Reading Group – 4:00. Please email Brooklyn Arnold for the location
  • The Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online. To join and/or to find out more about this and the possibility of some hands-on experience of cataloguing such documents to develop further your research skills, please contact  Michael Stansfield.
  • Guild of Medievalist Makers – 5:00, Goodhart Seminar Room at University College. Workshop: Creating Medieval Criticism Now Series by Laura Varnam . ‘The Forms of Criticism’ with Susie Campbell (poet), Nik Gunn (historical novelist), and Esther McManus (cartoonist/illustrator) . Registration required: event page
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies. Anna Lampadaridi, on ‘Translating and Rewriting a Latin Legend into Greek: the Life of Hilarion by Jerome (BHL3879)’.
  • Bede Reading Group – 6:00, Blackfriars. Bede, wine, and merriment – all are welcome.

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group (MERG) – 10:00, Beckington Room, Lincoln College. The text this year is Troilus and Criseyde. Please contact Rebecca Menmuir.
  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, room 00.018 in the Humanities Centre. Patrick Outhwaite (U of Groningen) on ‘Doctor-patient interaction in late-medieval England’.
  • SCRIPTORIUM: Understandig the Medieval Page – 2:00, Weston Library. More info here.
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 3:00, Room 30.401 in the Schwarzman Centre.
  • Court Studies Book Launch – 5:00, Habakkuk Room, Jesus College. ‘The Networked Court: Transdisciplinary
  • Perspectives on Late Medieval Court Cultures’.
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:15, Room 00.056 in the Humanities Centre and online. Ned Tomos on ‘Hawliau iaith a chwalu’r drefn ryngwladol’.
  • Compline in the Crypt (Reformation music from 1524) – 9:30, St Edmund Hall

Friday

  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Weston Library. Henrike Lähnemann and Tim Powell will speak on Reading Reformation Pamphlets, from 16th cent. Nuremberg to the GDR
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Magdalen College. As space is limited, registration is required. Those interested in participating are invited to contact Laure Miolo
  • Launch of Hans Sachs: Dialogue on Greed – 5:00, Taylorian Institute. More info here.
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group (OMMG) – 5:00, Merton College (Mure Room). Professor James Marrow (Princeton University) on ‘The Cleves-Mark Prayer Book: A Dismembered Work of Lower Rhenish Manuscript Illumination of ca.1500. Please join us for a drinks reception.
  • Guild of Medievalist Makers making space session – 5:30, online. Optional theme: horrors.
  • Church historian pub trip – 6:00, The Chequers.

Opportunities

  • The German Historical Institute Medieval History Seminar. Deadline 31 January 2027. More info here.
  • CfP – Unexpected Journeys: New Pathways through Iberian History. More information here.
  • Call for Readers of Early New High German for the launch of a Hans Sachs dialogue on 30 October. More information
  • Call for Committee Members: Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference 2027 – contact oxgradconf@gmail.com.
  • OMS Small Grants open. Closing date for applications: Friday of Week 4. More information.
  • Medieval Afterlives: Cultural Programme Open Call – investment of up to £10,000, see booklet.
  • The Multicultural Middle Ages podcast proposal for 6th season. Applications are due October 15th.
  • Medieval Manors Research Network/Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program at the University of Notre Dame. Art (History), English, German / Slavic / Eurasian, History and Philosophy of Science, Initiative on Race and Resilience, Philosophy, Romance Languages, Theology; international applications and medievalists welcome!
  • Publishing with the Journal Manuscript and Text Cultures – see booklet for details.
  • John W. Baldwin Post -Doctoral Fellowship. A two-year position beginning July 1, 2027, for recent Ph.D. recipients whose work focuses on European medieval studies within a global comparative context. The application deadline is November 13, 2026 .

Medieval Matters MT26, Wk2

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19/10/2026

09:09

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

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Welcome to week 2, and another full set of events.  As always, please find attached the new booklet of events for this term. 

We are very sorry to have to mark the death, far too young, of Professor Chris Wickham, former Chichele Professor of Medieval History and supporter and friend to medieval studies at Oxford.  Chris treated everyone in the medieval community alike, whether they be first-year undergraduates or fellow professors, and he was interested in (and tried to attend, as much as he could) everything that was going on. You can read the OMS obituary here.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library. If you are interested in joining the group or would like more information, please email the convenor Laure Miolo.
  • Books Medievalists Should Know – 2:00, Lincoln College. The focus this weeks is The Bible, introduced by Dr Cosima Gillhammer.
  • Greek Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 15:00, Horton Room Weston Library. Contact Péter Tóth for further details.
  • Medieval Archaeology Seminar – 3;00, Instittue of Archaeology. Jessica Nutt on ‘Passive or Peripheral? Rethinking Viking Conflict in Early Medieval Wales’.
  • Medieval History Seminar: – 5:00, All Souls College. Rory Naismith (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge) on “Rethinking Offa of Mercia”.
  • Medieval Latin Reading Group – 5.30pm in Merton College. The text this term is Ysengrimus.

Tuesday

  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2pm, Weston Library. SPECIAL SESSION – Dr Sofia Orsino (Richard Sharpe Memorial Visiting Fellow at the Weston Library) on  ‘From Twelfth-Century French Classrooms to Italian Humanistic Libraries. Texts ad travels of a Latin manuscript in the Canonici collection’. Those who are interested can email the convenor Laure Miolo.
  • Byzantine Literature Lectures – 4:00, Kloppenburg Room, Exeter College.

Wednesday

  • Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures – 11:00, Weston Library. Chinese Special Collections Masterclass with Mamtimyn Sunuodula (Head of East Asian Materials, Bodleian Libraries). (NB: No bags, food or drink allowed; please leave in lobby lockers)
  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11:15, Somerville College. The topics for the term will be Frauenlob, Kreuzleich and Minneleich. If you are interested to be added to the teams group for updates, please contact Almut Suerbaum
  • Christine de Pizan & Gender in the Late Middle Ages Seminar – 2:00, Weston Library. Prof. Helen Swift (Oxford) on “Encountering Christine de Pizan in 2026”; Prof. Andrea Valentini (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle), on ‘ Lire les textes de Christine de Pizan autrement ‘ (please note that Prof. Valentini’s presentation will be in French).
  • Byzantine Text Seminar – 3:00, Kloppenberg Room, Exeter College.
  • Old Norse Reading Group – 4:00. Please email Brooklyn Arnold for the location
  • The Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online. To join and/or to find out more about this and the possibility of some hands-on experience of cataloguing such documents to develop further your research skills, please contact  Michael Stansfield.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies. Hallie G. Meredith on ‘Women’s Work: A Social History of Late Antique Industrial Glass Producers’.
  • Bede Reading Group – 6:00, Blackfriars. Bede, wine, and merriment – all are welcome.

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group (MERG) – 10:00, Beckington Room, Lincoln College. The text this year is Troilus and Criseyde. Bring any edition of the original text! There will be tea and biscuits. For more information or to be added to the mailing list, please email Rebecca Menmuir.
  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, room 00.018 in the Humanities Centre. Laura Kalas (U of Swansea) on ‘A reproductive imaginary: the medieval Pinea and women ’s visionary writings’.
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar – 4:00, Magdalen College (meet at lodge). The Art of Storytelling, including extracts from the works of Murasaki Shikibu and Marie de France
  • Seminars in Medieval and Renaissance Music – 5:00, online. David Catalunya (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) on ‘Divine Harmony in Bronze Pipes: The Bethlehem Organ as a Practical Source for Pythagorean Theory’. See booklet for sign-up form.
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:15, Room 00.056 in the Humanities Centre and online. Brendan Kane (Connecticut) on ‘An early modern Gaelic Atlantic? Center and periphery in Irish political thought, c. 1600–1840’.
  • Compline in the Crypt – 9:30, St Edmund Hall

Friday

  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Weston Library. Gary Rendsburg will speak on Queen Elizabeth’s Book of Oxford. Coffee and tea provided
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Magdalen College. As space is limited, registration is required. Those interested in participating are invited to contact Laure Miolo
  • Church historian pub trip – 6:00, The Chequers.

Opportunities (see booklet for more info)

  • CfP – Unexpected Journeys: New Pathways through Iberian History. More information here.
  • Call for Readers of Early New High German for the launch of a Hans Sachs dialogue on 30 October. More information
  • Call for Committee Members: Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference 2027 – contact oxgradconf@gmail.com.
  • OMS Small Grants open. Closing date for applications: Friday of Week 4. More information.
  • Medieval Afterlives: Cultural Programme Open Call – investment of up to £10,000, see booklet.
  • The Multicultural Middle Ages podcast proposal for 6th season. Applications are due October 15th.
  • Medieval Manors Research Network/Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program at the University of Notre Dame. Art (History), English, German / Slavic / Eurasian, History and Philosophy of Science, Initiative on Race and Resilience, Philosophy, Romance Languages, Theology; international applications and medievalists welcome!
  • Publishing with the Journal Manuscript and Text Cultures – see booklet for details.
  • John W. Baldwin Post -Doctoral Fellowship. A two-year position beginning July 1, 2027, for recent Ph.D. recipients whose work focuses on European medieval studies within a global comparative context. The application deadline is November 13, 2026 .

In Memoriam Chris Wickham

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18/10/2026

15:47

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Around Oxford, News

Chris Wickham who died on 9 October 2026, aged 76, was from 2005 to 2016 Oxford’s Chichele Professor of Medieval History. He was not only a hugely influential medievalist but also the founding father of Oxford Medieval Studies as an interdisciplinary endeavour. He set up the first website for Oxford medievalists from his research funds at All Souls under the address medieval.ox.ac.uk under which we still operate. At the launch event for Oxford Medieval Studies as TORCH Network which turned OMS into a permanent institution at the University of Oxford, he was one of the key speakers, taking on the challenge to talk about an area outside one’s own research specialism, in his case delivered a characteristically pointed reappraisal of the historical value of Icelandic sagas. Focusing on a single, difficult-to-translate word (virðing: ‘credit/honour’) in the saga of Hrafnkell, he convincingly argued that the (obviously fictional) sagas, when carefully handled by historians and philologists, allow us to capture something of the distinctive nature of medieval Icelandic society.

Chris Wickham at the launch event for Oxford Medieval Studies as a TORCH Network. Watch the full presentation

From the History Faculty’s obituary

Chris, whose death was announced last Friday, was one of the world’s leading early medievalists. He was the author of a series of major monographs, beginning with Early Medieval Italy (1981) and The Mountains and the City (1988). These focused on primarily Italian subjects and archives; but his subsequent work, most notably Framing the Early Middle Ages (2005) (which was awarded the Wolfson Prize in 2006) and The Inheritance of Rome (2009), had a much wider scope. His work always started from the socio-economic realities of the world that followed the collapse of Roman imperial power. Landholding, lordship, and commercial exchange, were always central themes in his work. But their implications were always much wider, embracing the relations within and between communities, and the nature of political and dynastic power. His geographical and thematic reach was always immense, encouraged too by by his close intellectual partnership with his wife, Leslie Brubaker, a prominent authority on Byzantine culture and imagery. In an age of specialisation, he was a historian who always embraced the widest and most important themes. 

Chris’s influence – both personal and intellectual – was enormous. But for us in Oxford, he was above all a colleague and a friend. He had studied in Oxford as a doctoral student, before going on to a distinguished career in the University of Birmingham. He returned to Oxford, as the Chichele Professor of Medieval History from 2005 to 2016. Over that decade, he was an omnipresent figure, galvanising the world of Medieval History and supervising numerous doctoral students. He was Director of Research from 2006 to 2009, Vice Chair of the Faculty in 2008-09, and then Chair of the History Faculty Board for three years from 2009 to 2012. In all of these roles, he encouraged colleagues to launch new projects, and made a series of important appointments, as well as acting as the interim Chair of the Humanities Division for a year prior to his retirement. In all of this, he was always an unmistakable and deeply human figure, who knew instinctively when to reach out to colleagues, and how to cut through the formality of meetings with a timely piece of humour.

In his latter years at Oxford, and during his retirement, Chris undertook an imposing range of service to the wider world of History, through his membership of REF panels, and roles at the British Academy, the British School in Rome, and the AHRC, as well as in campaigns to mitigate the impact of the move to open-access publications. Above all, he was tireless in his advocacy for the interests of the historical profession, and for the people at all levels who compose it.

We shall miss him greatly, as a person and an inspiration. We shall post news of any memorial service here in due course.

Martin Conway

Chair, History Faculty Board

12 October 2026

Medieval Matters MT26, Wk1

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11/10/2026

17:25

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Medieval Matters, News

, ,

It’s a new year! Welcome to all newcomers, and welcome back to the more seasoned members of the community. As always, we have a new booklet of events for this term. Please note the Oxford Medieval Studies Welcome Event this Tuesday at 5, held at Harris Manchester. Tea and Coffee provided, and a chance to meet new people and to get the term off to a great start!

Two further announcements: 1) Keep an eye open for anybody who would like to be on the mailing list (particularly new graduate students) – anybody from around the world can join by simply pressing the subscribe button on our homepage. 2) Consider writing a blog post announcing any event you are organising or about your research; see the blogpost on Peter Payne: A Forgotten Great European for the documentation on the fascinating Oxford character of the learned English Hussite Peter Payne (includes some recorded talks and a surreal animated film).

One final bit of housekeeping: if there are changes to the events after the email has been sent, we will update this both in the Google calendar and in the weekly blogpost on which the emails are based but won’t send round further emails to keep this a low-traffic mailing list.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library. If you are interested in joining the group or would like more information, please email the convenor Laure Miolo.
  • Greek Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 15:00, Horton Room Weston Library. Contact Péter Tóth for further details.
  • Medieval History Seminar: – 5:00, All Souls College. Erin Daley (Leicester) and Seth Stadel (AMES, Oxford) will be speaking on “Domestic Slavery and Sexual Exploitation in the Households of Late Antiquity: Conclusions and
  • Questions after Five Years of Collaborative Research’. Alternatively, see booklet to join online.
  • Medieval Latin Reading Group – 5.30pm in Merton College. The text this term is Ysengrimus.

Tuesday

  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2pm, Weston Library. Those who are interested can email the convenor Laure Miolo.
  • Byzantine Literature Lectures – 4:00, Kloppenburg Room, Exeter College.
  • Oxford Medieval Studies Welcome Event – 5:00, Harris Manchester College. Tea, coffee, biscuits, catching up and making new friends – everyone warmly welcome!

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11:15, Somerville College . This first meeting is a short planning session – the topics for the term will be Frauenlob, Kreuzleich and Minneleich. If you are interested to be added to the teams group for updates, please contact Almut Suerbaum
  • Byzantine Text Seminar – 3:00, Kloppenberg Room, Exeter College.
  • Old Norse Reading Group – 4:00. Please email Brooklyn Arnold for the location
  • The Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online. To join and/or to find out more about this and the possibility of some hands-on experience of cataloguing such documents to develop further your research skills, please contact  Michael Stansfield.
  • Bede Reading Group – 6:00, Blackfriars. Bede, wine, and merriment – all are welcome.

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group (MERG) – 10:00, Beckington Room, Lincoln College. The text this year is Troilus and Criseyde. Bring any edition of the original text! There will be tea and biscuits. For more information or to be added to the mailing list, please email Rebecca Menmuir.
  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, room 00.018 in the Humanities Centre. Nicola McDonald (York) will be speaking on ‘Writing exercises, pious and obscene, in Oxford, University College, MS 142’.
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 3:00, Room 30.401 in the Humanities Centre. No preparation required. All are welcome. There may be snacks!
  • Celtic Seminar – Room 00.056 in the Humanities Centre and online. Mary-Ann Constantine, Elizabeth Edwards, Rhys Kaminski-Jones & Ffion Mair Jones will be speaking on ‘Thomas Pennant 300: Launching new digital editions of the Tours in Wales (1778 & 1781)’.
  • Compline in the Crypt – 9:30, St Edmund Hall

Friday

  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Weston Library. Laura Cracknell will be speaking on ‘History of photography at the Bodleian’. Coffee and tea provided
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Magdalen College. As space is limited, registration is required. Those interested in participating are invited to contact Laure Miolo

Opportunities (see booklet for more info)

  • Call for Readers of Early New High German for the launch of a Hans Sachs dialogue on 30 October. More information
  • Call for Committee Members: Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference 2027 – contact oxgradconf@gmail.com.
  • OMS Small Grants open. Closing date for applications: Friday of Week 4. More information.
  • Medieval Afterlives: Cultural Programme Open Call – investment of up to £10,000, see booklet.
  • The Multicultural Middle Ages podcast proposal for 6th season. Applications are due October 15th.
  • Medieval Manors Research Network/Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program at the University of Notre Dame. Art (History), English, German / Slavic / Eurasian, History and Philosophy of Science, Initiative on Race and Resilience, Philosophy, Romance Languages, Theology; international applications and medievalists welcome!
  • Publishing with the Journal Manuscript and Text Cultures – see booklet for details.
  • John W. Baldwin Post -Doctoral Fellowship. A two-year position beginning July 1, 2027, for recent Ph.D. recipients whose work focuses on European medieval studies within a global comparative context. The application deadline is November 13, 2026 .

Reformation Pamphlet Launch

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06/10/2026

07:27

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Around Oxford, events, News

When: Friday, 30 October 2026, 5-6:30pm
Where: Taylor Institution Library, Room 2

Launch of Hans Sachs’ ‘Dialogue on Greed’

450 years ago, Hans Sachs (1494–1576), one of the most influential German authors intervening in the Reformation debate, died. In 1524, he had published four highly successful polemical dialogues in pamphlet form. The first of these, the debate between a canon and a cobbler, the alter-ego of Hans Sachs, was published in 2024 on the Taylor Editions website and as print-on-demand, including its contemporary Dutch and English translations. For this year’s Reformation pamphlet edition, the last of the four dialogues is published, the topical debate on greed: Ein Dialogus/ des inhalt/ ein argument der Roͤmischen[/ wider das Christlich heüflein[/ den Geytz/ auch ander offenlich laster &c. betreffend (A dialogue containing an argument of the Roman Catholics against the little Christian flock; concerning greed, also other public vices, etc.). The edition and translation are available here as part of the Taylor Editions and as eBook.

In the debate, the characters ‘Romanus’ (a Catholic monk) and ‘Reichenburger’ (a merchant aptly named ‘rich citizen’) argue about all the topics which should be avoided at an Oxford dinner table: money, religion, and politics, while liberally quoting from the Bible, making use of Martin Luther’s then brand-new translation of the New Testament.

As with the previous Taylor Reformation Pamphlets, the launch included a themed compline, a coffee morning presentation and a full relay reading of the original text with English subtitles. Watch the podcast of the full relay reading of the pamphlet which featured speakers from a wide variety of background and accents; read the introduction into Early Modern German on the website. Watch / listen to a test reading to prepare for the launch with Henrike Lähnemann as Romanus and Timothy Powell as Junker Reichenburger

Zoom recording of the launch with the relay reading and an introduction by Timothy Powell on the ‘Dialogue on Greed’ in the GDR

Coffee Morning Presentation at 10.30am

To celebrate the publication of ‘Hans Sachs: Dialogue on Greed‘, Henrike Lähnemann and Timothy Powell present 502 years of reading Reformation pamphlets in volumes of the Bodleian and of Tim’s collection of GDR editions of Hans Sachs, the Nuremberg cobbler turned celebrity author.

Three volumes shown from the Bodleian Collection:

  • Tr.Luth. 34: A Sammelband with nine copies of different editions of the four 1524 dialogues by Hans Sachs as no. 53–61, showing different readers’ interventions.
  • Tr.Luth. 36: A Sammelband featuring as no. 93 a diatribe against usury by the Reformation author Jacob Strauß, also from 1524 Das wucher zu nemen vnd gebē vnserm Christlichem glauben vnd brüderlicher lieb … entgegen yst, vnuberwintlich leer, vnnd geschrifft.
  • Tr.Luth. 50: A Sammelband which contains as no. 19 a series of enigmatic woodcuts from 1527 with verses by Hans Sachs interpreting them as ‘prophecy about the fate of the papacy’ (Ein wunderliche weissagung von dem Bapstumb, wie es yhm bis an das ende der welt gehen sol, ynn figuren odder gemelde begriffen, gefunden zu Nurmberg. Ein vorred A. Osianders. Mit gutter verstendlicher auslegung, wilche H. Sachs yn deudsche reymen gefasset.)

Books presented by Timothy Powell:

  • Flugschriften der Bauernkriegszeit, ed. by Adolf Laube/Hans Werner Seiffert (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1975).
  • Ein wünderlicher Dialogus und newe Zeitung: Die Prosadialoge des Hans Sachs, ed. by Ingeborg Spriewald (Leipzig: Insel, 1976).
  • Klaus Wedler, Hans Sachs (Leipzig: Reclam, 1976).
  • Günter Vogler, Nürnberg 1524/25 (Berlin: Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1982). 
  • Buch der Reformation, ed. by Günter Vogler (Berlin: Union-Verlag, 1989): Taylorian Teaching Collection BR301.B83 BUC 1989

For more videos in the series, see http://tinyurl.com/coffeemorningsWeston

Schedule of the Presentation 5-6:30pm

5pm Tea and sound checks
5:15pm Introduction to the new edition and translation (Henrike Lähnemann)
5:30pm Relay Reading of the ‘Dialogue on Greed’
6:15pm Show-and-tell of editions of Hans Sachs’s works from the 16th and 20th centuries (Timothy Powell)

For further information on the Reformation Pamphlets, consult the Taylor Editions site.

Image from one of the three editions of the pamphlet in the Bodleian Library, Tr. Luth. 34 (53)
Ein Dialogus / des inhalt / ein argumēt | der Roͤmischen / wider das Christlich heüflein / den | Geytz / auch ander offenlich laster ꝛc. betreffend. [Nuremberg: Jobst Gutknecht,] 1524.
14 folios in 4to. Quire signatures: B, C, D, with C being a half-sheet
(Weller 1868: 18(a); KG, vol. 22: 9a; Pegg 1973: 3550; Köhler 1996: 3989; VD 16 S 211.)

Compline in the Crypt on the eve of the launch

Medieval Matter TT26, Wk 8

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15/06/2026

09:13

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events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities, Uncategorized

,

At last, week 8!

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

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

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library. If you are interested in joining the group or would like more information, please email the convenor Laure Miolo.
  • Runic Germanic Inscriptions and Language Lectures – 2:00, room 30.445 (Anna Morpurgo Davies Room) of the Schwarzman Centre.
  • Medieval History Seminar: – 5:00, All Souls College. Serena Ferente (University of Amsterdam) will be speaking on ‘Girls in the Global Middle Ages: three case-studies from the 13th to the 15th centuries’. Prosecco will be served to celebrate the end of term.
  • Inaugural Lecture of theologian and medievalist Andrew Davison on ‘the Creed in Music’ – 5pm, in the Concert Hall of the Humanities Centre (currently sold out but try your luck at the door).
  • Italian Research Seminars – 5:15, Taylor Institute Library. Arielle Saiber (Johns Hopkins) will be speaking on ‘Neither Here, Nor There: Directionality in Dante’s Paradiso‘.

Tuesday

  • Forgotten Libraries (Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures: International Workshop) – 9:00, The Queen’s College. For more information: https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/forgotten-libraries/
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2pm, Weston Library. Those who are interested can email the convenor Laure Miolo.
  • Early Modern Diplomacy Seminar 1400-1800 – 4.15, Schwartzman 20.402. Marcos Marinho Fernandes (Aix-Marseille Université) will be speaking on ‘Comparing Royal Matrimonial Diplomatic Strategies between Portugal, Spain, France, and the Habsburgs, 1490-1519’. 
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 4:30, The Queen’s College. Ben Saltzman (University of Chicago) will be speaking on ‘Turning Away: The Poetics of an Ancient Gesture’. Co-sponsored with the Early Medieval Britain & Ireland + the Medieval English Research Seminars.

Wednesday

  • Forgotten Libraries (Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures: International Workshop) – 9:00, The Queen’s College. For more information: https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/forgotten-libraries/
  • Methods in Arabic and Islamic Studies Class – 10:30, LMH Library.
  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11:15, Oriel College. For the final session of the Medieval German Graduate Seminar, Prof. Markus Stock (Toronto) will talk about his project Medieval Undergrounds under the title “Lithic Enclosures: Limitations and Expansions im wilden steine  in Medieval German Romance”, dealing with Trevrizent’s cell in Wolfram’s ‘Parzival’, the Minnegrotte in Gottfried’s ‘Tristan’, Jerome’s realm in Friedrich von Schwaben etc.
  • Old Norse Reading Group – 4:00, Merton College, Americas Room. This term we are reading Völsunga saga. If you are interested in joining the group, please contact one of the group convenors via email Brooklyn Arnot or Zeynep Kirca. 
  • The Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online. To join and/or to find out more about this and the possibility of some hands-on experience of cataloguing such documents to develop further your research skills, please contact  Michael Stansfield.
  • Magdalen Lecture – 5:00, Magdalen College Auditorium. Professor Benjamin Pohl will be speaking on ‘Food for Thought—The Bayeux Tapestry Revisited’. Free tickets can be booked here.
  • David Patterson Lecture – 5:00, Clarendon Institute. Elisheva Baumgarten (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) will be speaking on ‘Shared Words: Jews, Christians and Prayer in Medieval Europe’.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar, Ioannou Centre. Tassos Papacostas (London) will be speaking on ‘The Cult of Saint Mamas between Cyprus and Venice in the 16th Century: A Patron Saint of Shepherds Promoted by the Urban Elite’.
  • Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Seminar – 5:00, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Dr Afifi Al-Akiti (University of Oxford) will be speaking on ‘The Imago Dei and Human Dignity in Islamic Tradition’.

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group (MERG) – 11:00, Lincoln College, Beckington Room. All are welcome as we finish Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Bring any edition of the original text! There will be tea and biscuits. For more information or to be added to the mailing list, please email Rebecca Menmuir. 
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar- 4:00, Somerville College. Celebration and Praise, including extracts from the works of Christine de Pizan and Sara al-Halabiyya.
  • Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures: Global Manuscript and Text Cultures Seminar – 5:15, The Queen’s College. Jessica Rahardjo (Khalili Research Centre) will be speaking on ‘A Critical Edition and Translation of Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm: a 17thc Malay Shāfi’ī Legal Text’; Shane Patrick (Wolfson) will be speaking on ‘The Debate of Abu Qurrah and its Manuscript Circulation’.
  • The Khalili Research Centre Seminar – 5:15, KRC Lecture Room. Jun Muzaffer Özgüleş (Barakat Trust Postdoctoral Fellow, KRC ) will be speaking on ‘Historicising and Visualising the Evolution of Ottoman Architecture in Istanbul from the Mid-fifteenth to the Early Twentieth Century’.
  • Bede Reading Group (or, ‘Bede-ing Group’) – 6:00, Blackfriars. To sign up, email Maura McKeon. Don’t stop Bede-lieving.
  • Special Compline i– 9.30pm in the crypt of St-Peter-in-the-East (St Edmund Hall), devised by Henry Parkes.

Friday

  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 3:00, Schwarzman room 30.401. No intensive preparation required. All are welcome and there are usually snacks. This week the theme is Orpheus and Eurydice. Contact megan.bushnell@ling-phil.ox.ac.uk for further details.
  • Medieval Latin Reading Group – 5:30, Christ Church. This term, we will be reading the Cosmographia of Bernardus Silvestris in the original. For more information, please contact Clara Bykvist or Monty Powell. 

Opportunities (see Medieval Studies booklet for full details)

  • Sir John Rhŷs Prize for the study of the Celtic languages, literature, history, and antiquities. Entries should be submitted by email, with the subject line “Sir John Rhŷs Prize”, to the English Faculty Office, no later than Monday of Week 8 of Trinity Term (15 June 2026).
  • 20th MEMSA Anniversary Conference. More information here. Deadline: 20 June 2026.
  • CfP – 2026 Journal of the History of Ideas Graduate Student Symposium on ‘Prophecy, Prediction, and the Politics of Futurity’. Deadline: June 22, 2026. More information here.
  • The Mortimer History Society will once again be offering two Research Bursaries (each of £1000) for the academic year 2026 to 2027, for PhD and MA students whose research includes any aspect of the medieval Welsh Marches or the Mortimers. More information here. Deadline: 30 June 2026.
  • CfP – Representations of Women and/as Animals in Literature, Arts, and Other Media. Deadline: 15 July 2026.
  • Call for book chapters in ‘Times of Change: Norway in the 13thC‘. Deadline: 31 July 2026.
  • CfP – Ars Inquirendi 2026. Deadline: 31 August 2026.
  • Publishing with the Journal Manuscript and Text Cultures. Are you interested in submitting to the journal Manuscript and Text Cultures? Please review the About the Journal page.
  • Bodleian Purchasing Opportunity. Do you know of books that would aid your work but are not in the Bodleian? Help us strengthen the university’s collections. You can submit details of suggested books via https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/collections-and-resources/recommend-a-purchase or by email to medieval@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.