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Medieval Matters TT25, Week 3

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12/05/2025

08:10

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Around Oxford, events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities, Uncategorized

Welcome to Week 3: the full Medieval Studies booklet is available here

Deadline for Social Media Officer expanded! Calling Graduate Students. We are looking for a successor for Ashley Castelino; check out Ashley’s report (and the report of his predecessor Llewelyn Hopwood) on what the role entails. Please do send in your application to Lesley Smith and Henrike Lähnemann under medieval@torch.ox.ac.uk by Friday, 16 May 2025, 12noon, with your CV and your ideas how to built on the social media presence in the future.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30 pm in the Weston Library.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Stephen Mossman (Manchester) will be speaking on ‘Lessons for Late Medieval Literary History from Strasbourg’.

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12.15 in the English Faculty. Eleni Ponirakis (University of Nottingham) will be speaking on ‘Greek Mystical Theology in Old English Texts’.
  • The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Medieval Church and Culture –  5pm in the Wellbeloved Room. Umberto Bongianino (AMES) will be speaking on ‘Nuggets of Ancient Wisdom’: an early Andalusi fragment of the Almagest and its context’.
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5pm in the Maison française d’Oxford. Phil Knox (Cambridge) will be speaking on ‘Imagining Sexual Politics in Late Medieval France: Aristotle, Giles of Rome, Jean de Meun, Christine de Pizan’.

Wednesday

  • Curating Medieval and Early Modern Women’s Lives Today – 11am online. Booking required.
  • NO Medieval German Graduate Seminar this week. Instead, Irene Van Eldere will present her project on Middle Dutch prayer books this Friday (15 May) 5pm at the Medieval Women’s Writing seminar in the Lincoln Lower Lecture Room (see below) (with the added advantage of snacks!). The Alexanderroman will then commence in week 3. 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 3: The daily rotation: understanding the stereographic projection of the celestial sphere [2/2]
  • Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pm, online, please contact Michael Stansfield.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. Lorenzo Saccon (Wolfson) will be speaking on ‘Pro Meliori et pro Utilitate Terre: Venetian Crete and the Exploitation of the post-Byzantine Aegean’.
  • Medieval Society and Landscape Seminar Series – 5pm in the Department for Continuing Education. Tom Johnson (Oriel College) will be speaking on ‘Building a Church out of Herring: Doles, Shares, and Maritime Community in a Fifteenth-Century Fishing Village’. Book here.
  • Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies Seminar – 5pm in the Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies. Mr Ali Allawi (Former Minister of Finance, Defense, and Trade of Iraq) will be speaking on ‘Rich World, Poor World: The Struggle to Escape Poverty in Muslim Societies’.
  • Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures Seminar – 5.30pm in the Memorial Room, The Queen’s College. Tamara Atkin (English Faculty & The Queen’s College) will deliver a paper titled ‘On Fragments’.

Thursday

Friday

  • Digital Byzantine Studies: Current Methods and Future Applications – 9:30am – 7:30pm in the Maison Française d’Oxford.
  • 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!
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Anglo-Norman Reading Group – 5pm in the Farmington Institute in Harris Manchester College and online. For more information on the texts, email Jane Bliss.
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar – 5pm, Lower Lecture Room, Lincoln College. Irene Van Eldere (University of Leiden) will be speaking on the Middle Dutch Books of Hours.

Saturday

***

Opportunities (new additions in bold)

  • Social Media Officer: See announcement at the start of this post and apply by this Friday!
  • Call for Submissions: Taube Prizes for Student Writing in Hebrew & Jewish Studies – see blog post.
  • National Archives Skills Courses – see blog post.
  • Queen Mary London New Research on Late Medieval England – more information here.
  • 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 is open 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 is open 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.

Medieval Offerings at the Maison Française

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06/05/2025

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Concert: ‘The Oxford Troubadors Return to the Maison Française’

9 May, 7:00pm, Maison Française d’Oxford

We are delighted to welcome back The Oxford Troubadors for an evening of medieval and modern songs in Occitan. The ensemble will perform iconic medieval troubadour pieces, including La Sestina by Arnaut Daniel and Lo riu de la Fontana by Jaufre Rudel, as well as popular modern songs from the repertoires of Peiraguda and Nadau. Expect an interactive experience with audiences often joining in the choruses of these catchy tunes. This event is free, but registration on TicketSource is required.

Lecture: ‘The Birth of the Black Death: New Approaches in World History’ by Patrick Boucheron

29 May, 5:00pm, Pembroke College

We are delighted to welcome Professor Patrick Boucheron for the 2025 Collège de France – Maison Française d’Oxford – Pembroke College lecture. Professor Boucheron will give a lecture on ‘The Birth of the Black Death : New Approaches in World History’. For more details and to register for this lecture, visit this page.

Masterclass: ‘Pourquoi des médiévistes? Penser le contemporain depuis le Moyen Âge’

29 May, 2:30pm, Maison Française d’Oxford

Earlier that day, Patrick Boucheron will be teaching a masterclass at the Maison Française on what medieval history teaches us. Please note that the masterclass will be given in French. Fore more details and to register for this event, visit this page.

Medieval Matter TT25, Week 2

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05/05/2025

08:13

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Welcome to week 2! Please find below all of the medieval events across Oxford in the coming week.

The wonderful team behind the medieval mystery plays that took place at the beginning of this term have put together a full report of the event, which includes a number of amazing photos. A video of last week’s performance of The Netherhold Martyr is now available here.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30 pm in the Weston Library.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Amanda Power (St Catherine’s College Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Salvation, alienation and sacrifice zones from medieval to modern thought’.

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12.15 in the English Faculty. Raphaela Rohrhofer (University of Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Nothing Matters: The Contemplative Poetics of Nought in Julian of Norwich and Beyond’.
  • The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Centre for Early Medieval Britian and Ireland Seminar ‘Sacrilizing the Everyday’ – 4pm in the Rees Davies (History Faculty).
  • Medieval Church and Culture –  tea and biscuits from 5pm in the Wellbeloved Room, with talks from 5.15. Shaw Worth (Magdalen) will be speaking on ‘‘Bien est avoiré sur vous le langage’: practising allegory between text and image in three manuscripts of Alain Chartier’s Livre d’Espérance, 1450–1470’. Sophie Boehler (St Hugh’s) will be speaking on ‘Seeress to Abbess: women’s evolving dreams, visions and prophecies during the Icelandic conversion period’.

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar – NB In second week, the seminar will not take place. Instead there will be a workshop on Christiane Mariane von Ziegler, the first female German Poet Laureate, in St Edmund Hall, starting at 10am. If you are interested to participate, 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 2: The daily rotation of the celestial sphere (primum mobile) [1/2].
  • Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pm, online, please contact Michael Stansfield.
  • Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies Seminar – 5pm in the Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies.  Professor Christophe Jaffrelot (Kings College London) will be speaking on ‘Beyond Castes and Regions: The Socio-Economic Decline of Muslims in Contemporary India’.
  • Merton College History of the Book Group Lecture – 5pm, Mure Room (Merton College). Professor Orietta Da Rold (Professor of Medieval Literature and Manuscript Studies, University of Cambridge) will be speaking on “The many crafts of paper”. Attendees will have the opportunity to view medieval works on paper from the Merton Library and Archives. The talk will be followed by refreshments. All are welcome, and we would appreciate an RSVP to julia.walworth@merton.ox.ac.uk

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group (MERG) – 2pm in the Beckington Room (Lincoln College). Join us to read the ‘double sorwe’ of Troilus and Criseyde in a weekly reading group. We will be reading from the end of Book IV. For more information or to be added to the mailing list, please email rebecca.menmuir@lincoln.ox.ac.uk.
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5.15 in the KRC Lecture Room. Richard Piran McClary (University of York) will be speaking on ‘Lajvardina: A Re-evaluation of Distinctive Ilkhanid and Golden Horde Overglaze Painted Wares’.

Friday

  • Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.

Upcoming

  • Additional spaces are available on the ‘Big Data’ and Medieval Manuscripts workshop – please sign up here.
  • Registration is open 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 is open 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.

Opportunities

  • 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

The Oxford Medieval Mystery Plays 2025

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05/05/2025

04:47

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From the Creation to Judgement Day

The Oxford Medieval Mystery Plays 2025 are over – thank you to everyone who made this day possible! Read on for some pictures and impressions of a wonderful day. You can access the full programme and scroll through film stills by the camera team.

The fourth iteration of the Oxford Medieval Mystery Plays took place on 26 April at St Edmund Hall. And it was a truly marvellous day! A total of 13 plays were put on by about 150 participants – actors, directors, singers, costume designers, musicians, and many more. Throughout the day, about 350 audience members popped in and out of Teddy Hall, some staying for shorter periods, others for several hours or the whole day. Audience members and participants included a wonderful range: undergraduate and graduate students and academics from within and without Oxford, a full children’s choir, tourists, and members of the public found their way to Teddy Hall and partook in the medieval shenanigans. 

And what shenanigans they were! This year, we are particularly proud of the incredible diversity of languages, plays, and different approaches on display. But see for yourself … (All photo credits are at the bottom of the post)

The day started – how could it be otherwise – with a trumpet blast from Henrike Lähnemann herself (Picture 1).

Once again, we were expertly guided through the day by Jim Harris, the Master of Ceremonies. Armed with Bruce Mitchell’s doctoral gown and the ceremonial scroll (consisting of the baking roll to the chaplain of St Edmund Hall, half a coat hanger and numerous layers of paper and sellotape), he introduced each play with a modern English prologue (Picture 2).

We began at the beginning, with the creation of the world and The Fall of the Angels, performed mostly in Middle English, but with modern English elements, and in a modern office setting. 

Picture 3: The Holy Trinity is being fawned over by the two good angels … but trouble awaits: the two bad angels are getting arrogant, before their inevitable ejection from Heaven.

From the angels, we moved swiftly on to humans: next was the German Adam and Eve play by Hans Sachs, featuring a particularly good use of the well (the two humps underneath the spare green coat are Adam and Eve, about to be created).

Picture 4: All could be well in Eden, if it wasn’t for Lucifer, Belial, Satan, and the Serpent conspiring. 

Picture 5: Adam and Eve might have fallen into desperation, but the cast have good reason to be proud of themselves, having made it to the front page of both the Oxford Mail and Oxford Times. 

Skipping a few biblical ages, we next saw the Flood, presented in the Middle English Chester version.

Picture 6: The flood has come! Luckily, Noah and his family are safe on the ark, together with the animals – expertly made and portrayed by the children of St Giles’ and St Margaret’s churches.

The Old Testament concluded with the Middle English York version of Abraham and Isaac.

Will he really do it? Abraham is getting ready to sacrifice his oldest son, Isaac (Picture 7) … but fear not! The angel of the lord approaches and shows him a sheep to sacrifice instead – the little guy, hand-crocheted by one of the cast members, rapidly became the true star of the day (Picture 8).

After a refreshing tea break, we moved from the Front Quad into the Churchyard, and from the Old to the New Testament. The fifth play of the day was the Annunciation, or rather Die Eerste Bliscap van Maria (‘The First Joy of Mary’). It was performed in Middle Dutch: a first (but hopefully not last) for the Oxford Medieval Mystery Plays!

Picture 9: The angel Gabriel announces the happy news to the reading Mary.

True to the Gospels, the Annunciation was followed by the Nativity. It was a particular pleasure to welcome back Les Perles Innocentes, who travelled all the way from Fribourg to wow us with their expert performance of the Comédie de la Nativité, written by none other than Marguerite de Navarre.

Picture 10: Mary and Joseph are desperately looking for a place for Mary to give birth. – Picture 11: If the stable looked as gorgeous as the library of Teddy Hall, it surely wasn’t the worst place to be born in!

Our next play skipped ahead, showing us the grown-up Christ at the Wedding at Cana. This play was a world premiere, reconstructed from only 1.5 surviving lines in the York cycle!

Picture 12: Panic at Cana – the wine has run out at the wedding! What to do?

Picture 13: Christ is there to save the day and transforms the water into wine. The servants are amazed!

From Cana, we moved straight to Golgotha and a Middle English performance of the Crucifixion. The York Crucifixion, strangely, is a comedy, and the four soldiers crucifying Christ were accordingly equipped with ‘Cross flatpack instructions’ and giant inflatable hammers. Certainly not inflatable, however, was the cross, which was purpose-built just for this production and turned into a much-coveted prop for numerous plays.

Picture 14: The poor, overworked soldiers struggle to lift up the heavy cross.

Once the soldiers had vacated the grassy mound in Teddy Hall’s Churchyard, the mourners came: the three Marys (the Virgin, Mary Magdalen, and Mary, Mother of John) and John arrived for the Lamentation, represented by the Bordesholmer Marienklage and beautifully sung in a mixture of Latin and Low German.

Picture 15: Owe, owe nu ys he dot…

Moving directly from the cross to the crypt, we were told about the Harrowing of Hell by the Choir of St Edmund Hall through sung Latin sequences.

Hell having been harrowed, it was time for another tea break, after which we were welcomed back by the angelic hosts of the Choir (Picture 16). And then it was time for some good news: the Resurrection! Performed in the Middle English of the York version, this play truly had it all: sleeping soldiers, lamenting Marys, bickering priests, and a highly enthusiastic angel.

Picture 17: An outraged Pilate commands the soldiers to find out the truth about the rumours concerning Christ’s resurrection. At least Caiaphas and Annas, the extremely well-dressed high priests, are there to back him up. Picture 18: Mary lamenting at the tomb – thankfully, she, too, receives moral support from the angel.

Leaving the Gospels behind, we moved on to the only non-biblical story of the day: The Martyrdom of the Three Holy Virgins by Hrosvitha of Gandersheim, performed mostly in (absolutely flawless!) Latin, with a few bits in modern English.

Picture 19: Governor Dulcitius has been ridiculed by his prisoners, the holy virgins Agape, Chionia, and Irena … his embarrassment will not go unpunished.

Picture 20: The two older sisters are burned, while the youngest is forced to watch. But never fear: all three will be rewarded in Heaven for their martyrdom.

Last, but by no means least, it was time for … the Last Judgement! Performed in a modern English adaptation of different Middle English versions, this wonderfully cheerful and funny play was the perfect end for a fantastic day.

Picture 21: Hey guys, it’s Gabe! The archangels Gabriel and Michael open Judgement day, while the soon-to-be-raised souls rest in the ditch between library wall and lawn.

Picture 22: Who will get more souls? Jesus and the angels, or Lucifer and the demons?

And … that was it! Thirteen plays, five languages, two tea breaks, and five hours later, we had travelled all the way from the Creation to Judgement Day, from Heaven to Hell, from Bethlehem to Golgotha, and from Front Quad to the far side of the library.

Our heartfelt thanks goes to everyone who made this day possible: on and off stage, casts, crews, organisers, helpers, and so many more. We are particularly grateful to Jim Harris, our Master of Ceremonies; David Maskell, who wrote the modern English prologues; and Tristan Alphey and the other helpers for their support during the day. This year’s Medieval Mystery Plays are by far the best-documented yet: Ben Arthur, James May, Archie Dimmock, and Tea Smart filmed the entire day; their recordings will be released on the St Edmund Hall Mystery Cycle page at a film launch party at the end of Trinity Term. Ashley Castelino took many fantastic pictures, and Robert Crighton and Liza Graham recorded impressions from audiences and participants for their podcast Beyond Shakespeare.

Of course, what a play really needs is its audience. We were delighted to see so many of you there, and overwhelmed by the amount of positive feedback we received. Here are just some of the comments we collected in our visitor book – many audience members had their favourite play from the host of performances: 

“Brilliant! Loved the Nativity especially!” 

“Great job! Love the Wedding feast!” 

“Terrific! Thank you very much. I particularly enjoyed Adam and Eve, and Satan with his acolytes in [the Last Judgement]!” 

“Really enjoyed the camp Satan!”  

“The singing [in the Nativity, Lamentation, and Harrowing of Hell] was superb. Altogether a delightful event!” 

The best audience members are naturally those who were themselves surprised by how much they enjoyed themselves: one person wrote that they had a “very unexpectedly enjoyable day supporting a friend in one play, but then enjoy[ed] all the others!” Many also appreciated the use of medieval languages in keeping these plays “alive” through modern performance and praised the “pace, diversity, and inventiveness” of the troupes, the beautiful medieval setting of St Edmund Hall, and the overall “vibrant and entertaining” environment of the Cycle. One particularly nice comment described our day of performances as “full of whimsy” – made even more whimsical by the little stars they drew around their comment. Thank you very much to each and everyone of you!  

Are you sad you missed out? Can you not wait to get back into medieval drama? Watch this space! The Oxford Medieval Mystery Plays will be back …

Picture Credits

  • Pictures 2 and 8: Ashley Castelino
  • Picture 6: Rahel Micklich
  • Picture 17: Antonia Anstatt
  • Header and Pictures 1, 3, 4-6, 9-16, 18-22: Stills from the video recordings made by Ben Arthur, James May, Archie Dimmock, and Tea Smart.
The film crew after the day in Queen’s Lane

Medieval Matters TT25, Week 1

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28/04/2025

08:59

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Let us begin by toasting the great success that was the Medieval Mystery Plays! I’m sure you will all join me in thanking the great host of people that made the day possible, not least of all the many actors, musicians, directors, and props-people who put on such a spectacle. Particular thanks must go to the organisers – Antonia and Sarah – and, of course, the wonderful Henrike. A full report of the day will be available soon on the OMS blog, so watch this space.

Week One of Trinity term brings a full list of events for you all to enjoy. The full Medieval Studies booklet is available here and always updated on the Oxford Medieval Studies blog – to which you are all invited to contribute! A special call-out to current Oxford Graduate students: please see the opportunities at the end of the booklet for a) the role of Social Media Officer (deadline Friday of week 2 – read the blogpost by our outgoing Social Media Officer Ashley Castelino about what the role entails) and b) for Small Grants (deadline Friday of week 4).

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30 pm in the Weston Library.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Graeme Ward (Tübingen) will be speaking on ‘Biography, Textual Authority, and the Transformation of the Carolingian World’.

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12.15 in the English Faculty. Helen Appleton (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Salvation and the Land in the Old English Andreas’.
  • The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Medieval Church and Culture –  5pm in the Wellbeloved Room. This week is the MMC Social – everyone welcome to meet old friends and make new ones.
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5pm in the Maison française d’Oxford. Tina Montenegro (Boston College) will be speaking on ‘vategories of Knowledge: from Rhetoric to Theology through Brunetto Latini’s Tresor’

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11.15am in Oriel College, Harris Lecture Theatre. The first week will be a shortish planning meeting. The topic for this term are ‘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 1: Introduction to the relationship between astronomy and astrology from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance.
  • Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pm, online, please contact Michael Stansfield.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre.
  • Medieval Society and Landscape Seminar Series – 5pm in the Department for Continuing Education. Chris Dyer (University of Leicester) will be speaking on ‘Winchcombe Abbey and 2,000 Peasants: Documenting a Crisis, 1340-1381’. Book here.
  • Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies Seminar – 5pm in the Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies. Professor Sevket Pamuk (Bogaziçi University) will be speaking on ‘Political Economy and Economic Institutions of the Ottoman Empire in Comparative Perspective’.

Thursday

  • Environmental History Working Group – 12:30 in the Colin Matthew Room, History Faculty. Thomas Laskowski (MPhil Islamic Studies and History) will be speaking on ‘Writing the Environmental History of the Medieval Islamic East’.
  • Middle English Reading Group (MERG) – 2pm in the Beckington Room (Lincoln College). Join us to read the ‘double sorwe’ of Troilus and Criseyde in a weekly reading group. We will be reading from the end of Book IV. For more information or to be added to the mailing list, please email rebecca.menmuir@lincoln.ox.ac.uk.

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!
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Anglo-Norman Reading Group – 5pm in the Farmington Institute in Harris Manchester College and online. For more information on the texts, email Jane Bliss.
  • Henry Bradshaw Lecture – 5pm in the Collier Room (Regent’s Park College). Helen Gittos will be speaking on ‘Christianity Before Conversion: The Archaeology of Liturgy’
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar – 5pm in person & online (Lower Lecture Room, Lincoln College). Saudamini Siegrist (NYU graduate) will be speaking on ‘Julian of Norwich and Modern Philosophy’. registration details via their website.
  • O’Donnell Lecture – 5pm in Lecture Theatre 2 of the English Faculty. Ronald Hutton (Bristol) will be speaking on ‘The Morrigan Revisited’
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group – 5pm. Merton College Library Visit. Previous experience of handling medieval manuscripts is desirable. Limited places, write to the Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group email by 30/04/2025
  • The Netherhole Martyr – A Dramatic Reading – 6pm at St Edmund Hall. This semi-staged reading of the play by Good Friends for a Lifetime (Maeve Campbell, Minna Jeffery and Lily Levinson) celebrates its recent publication by Strange Region Press. The event is free to attend and no booking is required. The event will begin with drinks at 6pm, followed by a performance in the Crypt that will last until ca. 8pm.

Opportunities

  • 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

Medieval Matters Week 0 Update

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21/04/2025

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With full term about to begin, I have three exciting developments for you all.

First, a final reminder that the Oxford Medieval Mystery Plays take place on the 26 April (this Saturday) from 12 noon at St Edmund Hall. The incredible booklet can be found at the end of this post, which illustrates just how many of our community are involved, and the feast of entertainment available on the day. See you all there!

Second, the first draft of the termly OMS booklet can be found here. If you have submitted an event, please cast a quick eye over the information to ensure that it is correct. If you are yet to submit your events but woul like them to be included, please do so ASAP.

Finally, OMS is seeking a new Social Media Officer. The Social Media Officer is in charge of connecting all of Oxford’s medievalists via the OMS Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts and also occasionally posting on here, the OMS blog. You will be responsible for posting across these platforms to advertise OMS events, opportunities and news. Familiarity with social media advertising is beneficial but not essential: this is an ideal way to gain technical know-how about social media, advertising and marketing that can be used in your academic career and beyond. The post usually comprises an hour or two a week. You can read a retrospective of the current Officer Ashley here. Those interested should reply to this email address before Saturday, where there will be the chance to shadow.

Mysteries2025-Programme-A4Download

Medieval Matters HT25, Week 8

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10/03/2025

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We have made it to 8th week, and the sun has come out in celebration. The full booklet of weekly events, as always, can be found here. A few brief notes to begin:

  • Please take a moment to fill in a short survey exploring the possibilities of turning the Bodleian’s TEI-encoded medieval manuscript catalogues into accessible tabular formats such as CSV. Posted by Seb Dows-Miller and Matthew Holford for a new DiSc-funded project within the Bodleian Libraries.
  • The 2025 Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference programme has now been released, and can be found here. The OMGC2025 will be followed directly by the Medieval Mystery Cycle on 26 April! Join us on Thursday for a brainstorming session if you want to get involved.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10.30am in the Weston Library. Those interested should email Laure Miolo.
  • Seminar in Palaeography and Manuscript studies – 2.15 in the Horton Room. Lucio del Corso will be speaking on ‘Greek papyri in the Bodleian Library. A tale of lost texts and forgotten books’.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Daisy Livingston (Durham) will be speaking on ‘How to qualify as a notary in the early-16th century Mamluk Sultanate’.
  • Old Norse Reading Group – 5.30, English Faculty Graduate Common Room. This term we will be reading Hrafnkels saga.

Tuesday

  • Europe in the Later Middle Ages – 2pm in the Dolphin Seminar Room, St John’s College. Katy Beebe (North Texas) will be speaking on ‘Movement in the Mind: A Typology, Critique, and New Interpretative Model of Imagined Pilgrimage’.
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2pm, Weston Library.
  • EMBI Lecture – 4pm in the Gillis Lecture Theatre, Balliol College. Sue Brunning (British Museum) will be speaking on ‘Silk Roads at the British Museum: A co-curatorial journey’.
  • Medieval Church and Culture –  5.15pm (coffee from 5pm) in the Wellbeloved Room, Harris Manchester College. Maria Czepiel (University of Warwick) will be speaking on ‘Hebraist Erudition in Spanish Renaissance Biblical Poetry’.

Wednesday

  • The Medieval German Graduate Seminar on ‘Geistliche Spiele’ – 11.15am in the Old Library of St Edmund Hall will conclude with a presentation by Irene Van Eldere on Middle Dutch texts: the Annunciation play which she is staging for the Medieval Mystery Cycle and on the prayerbook project in Leiden
  • History and Materiality of the Book Seminar – 2pm in the Weston Library, Horton room. Matthew Holford and Laure Miolo will be speaking on ‘Text Identification’.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre.  Michael Featherstone (Oxford) & Juan Signes Codoñer (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) will be speaking on ‘A Team of Palace Historians: the Final Redactions of Theophanes Continuatus and the De Cerimoniis’.

Thursday

  • Medieval Hebrew Reading Group – 10am in the Clarendon Institute.
  • Middle English Reading Group – 4pm, Beckington Room, Lincoln College. The text this term will be the ‘double sorwe’ of Troilus and Criseyde.
  • Seminars in Medieval and Renaissance Music- 7pm online. Paul Kolb (University of Leuven) will be speaking on ‘Contextuality and Irregularity in Late-Medieval Mensural Notation’.
  • Preparatory Meeting for the Medieval Mystery Cycle – 5pm at St Edmund Hall in the Principal’s Lodgings. Anybody welcome who would like a site-visit, meet other actors, directors, and survey the costume stock in Henrike Lähnemann’s office.
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5pm at St Catherine’s College. Eleanor Townsend (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘All the werkemanship and masonry crafte of a frounte’: The problem of the Jesse reredos in St Cuthbert’s, Wells’.
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5.15pm in the in the Ioannou Centre/Faculty of Classics’ Lecture Theatre. Edward Zychowicz-Coghill (King’s College London) will be speaking: title TBC.

Friday

  • Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided. A special treat to end the term: the German Blockbook Apocalypse will be out, combined with the performance of an extract from the Towneley Last Judgement Play.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Deadline today for The Ashmolean’s Krasis Scheme: ‘a unique, museum-based, interdisciplinary teaching and learning programme’. You can find out more about this wonderful opportunity here.

Opportunities

  • Eruditio Nummorum: Symposium on Coins in Honour of Hugh Pagan (29th March) – more info here.
  • Postdoctoral fellowship opportunity at the university of Notre Dame (deadline 31 March) – more information here.
  • The Oxford-Bloomsbury Fantasy Summer School (23–25 September 2025, Exeter College) is welcoming expressions of interest. More information can be found here.
  • CfP for ‘lluminating Nature: Explorations of Science, Religion, and Magic’ (21-22 July 2025 at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Durham Castle).
  • Register for ‘History, Eugenics, and Human Enhancement: How the Past Can Inform Ethical Debates in the Present’ (24 March 2025, 9am – 5.30pm).
  • Register now for the workshop on 21st March From Jean le Bon to Good Duke Humphrey to celebrate the arrival of the French New Testament which was recently recognised to have been owned by Humfrey, duke of Gloucester. The event is free (including tea and coffee).
  • CfP for the 35th International Conference of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature (University of Málaga, 24th-26th September 2025). More info here.
  • The Sorrowful Virgin workshop takes place at St Hughs, 24 March 2025
  • CfP for ‘Outsiders – Insiders’ (University of Reading), 2nd April 2025
  • The next deadline for OMS Small Grants applications is Friday of 4th Week.

Until next term,

Tristan

Medieval Matters HT25, Week 7

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02/03/2025

17:07

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

,

Welcome to week 7: the full booklet, as always, can be found here. A few important points to draw your immediate attention to:

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10.30am in the Weston Library. Those interested should email Laure Miolo.
  • Medieval Archaeology Seminar – 3pm in the Institute of Archaeology. Helena Hamerow will be speaking on ‘Feeding Medieval England: A long ‘agricultural revolution’’.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Simon MacLean (St Andrews) will be speaking on ‘Listing royal lands in the Carolingian Empire’.

Tuesday

  • Europe in the Later Middle Ages – 2pm, Dolphin Seminar Room, St John’s College. Sylvia Alvares Correa (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Sacred Connections: The Eleven Thousand Virgins and Family Networks in the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries’.
  • The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Lecture of Medieval Poetry – 5pm, Location: t.b.d. Zuzana Dzurillová (Czech Academy of Sciences) will be speking on ‘Late Byzantine Romance. On the Wings of Repetition’.
  • Medieval Church and Culture –  5pm in the Wellbeloved Room. Carolyn LaRocco (St John’s) will be speaking on ‘The Cult of Saints in Visigothic Iberia’.
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5pm in the Maison française d’Oxford. Charles Samuelson (University of Colorado, Boulder) will be speaking on ‘Consent in Old French Narratives of Female Martyrdom’.

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar on ‘Geistliche Spiele’ – 11.15am in the Old Library of St Edmund Hall. Contact Henrike Lähnemann if you would like to be added to the teams group.
  • History and Materiality of the Book – 2pm in the Visiting Scholars Centre. Matthew Holford and Laure Miolo will be speaking on ‘Medieval Libraries and Provenance’.
  • Germanic Reading Group ‒ 4pm on Teams. Extracts from Old Icelandic/Old Norse showing biblical style in sagas and saga style in Bible translations.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. Tommaso Giuliodoro (Durham University) will be speaking on ‘New Approaches to the Byzantine Army of North Africa in the 7th Century: Organisation, Strategies, and Challenges’.
  • Daisy Black, Medieval Storytelling Performance of Yde and Olive: A Medieval Lesbian Romance – 7pm in the Chapel at University College.

Thursday

  • Medieval Hebrew Reading Group – 10am in the Clarendon Institute.
  • Middle English Reading Group – 4pm, Beckington Room, Lincoln College. The text this term will be the ‘double sorwe’ of Troilus and Criseyde.
  • Jocelyn Wogan-Browne will be hosting an informal seminar discussion covering the topics she has discussed over the term- All Souls Old Library, 5pm on Thursday 6 March.
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5.15pm in the in the Ioannou Centre/Faculty of Classics’ Lecture Theatre. 
  • Zeynep Aydoğan (Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Rethymno) will be speaking on ‘Epicscapes of medieval Anatolia: geographical imagination and identity in Anatolian Turkish frontier narratives’.
  • Compline in the Crypt at 9.30pm: The St Edmund Consort is singing Latin Compline with some Reformation period settings in the crypt of St-Peter-in-the-East, the library church of St Edmund Hall. Everybody welcome with the only caveat being uneven steps and limited space.

Friday

  • Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided. This week, Péter Tóth, Curator of Greek Manuscripts, will bring out some special papyri for International Women’s Day!
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Anglo-Norman Reading Group – 5pm in the Farmington Institute in Harris Manchester College and online. For more information on the texts, email Jane Bliss.
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group – 5pm in Merton College, Mure Room. Nancy Thebaut (Art History Department and St Catherine’s College, Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Learning to Look: (Mis)reading the Visitatio sepulchri, ca. 900-1050’.

Upcoming

  • Alyce Chaucer Festival – Ewelme, 16th-18th May 2025. More info here.
  • The Reading Medieval History Postgraduate Research Forum is inviting registration for their upcoming conference – more info here.

Opportunities

  • The Ashmolean’s Krasis Scheme: ‘a unique, museum-based, interdisciplinary teaching and learning programme’. You can find out more about this wonderful opportunity here (deadline 14 March).
  • CfP for ‘lluminating Nature: Explorations of Science, Religion, and Magic’ (21-22 July 2025 at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Durham Castle).
  • Register for ‘History, Eugenics, and Human Enhancement: How the Past Can Inform Ethical Debates in the Present’ (24 March 2025, 9am – 5.30pm).
  • Register now for the workshop on 21st March From Jean le Bon to Good Duke Humphrey to celebrate the arrival of the French New Testament which was recently recognised to have been owned by Humfrey, duke of Gloucester. The event is free (including tea and coffee).
  • ‘Transcribing Old and Middle French (1300-1500)’ – a short online course from the University of London, 10th-11th March. More info here.
  • CfP for the 35th International Conference of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature (University of Málaga, 24th-26th September 2025). More info here.
  • Registration for the conference Byzantium and its Environment – 27th International Graduate Conference of the Oxford University Byzantine Society on 1/2 March now open
  • For all Graduate Students (Master & DPhil): fully funded Wolfenbüttel Summer School on Late Medieval Manuscripts (in English). Apply by the end of February. Call for Papers the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel
  • The Ashmolean is looking for a University Engagement Lead. This is a parttime fixed term role to research and possibly pilot opportunities for University Engagement. This is a good role for someone that knows the students in Oxford and is looking at a parttime role – and, obviously, loves museum collections! Full job description 
  • The CfP for the ‘Sorrowful Virgin’ is now closed; contact Anna Wilmore if you missed the deadline or simply would like to take place in the workshop at St Hughs, 24 March 2025
  • CfP for ‘Outsiders – Insiders’ (University of Reading), 2nd April 2025
  • OMS Small Grants are no longer open for applications – deadline was Friday of 4th Week. If you missed it, contact Lesley Smith.

Medieval Matters HT25, Week 6

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24/02/2025

00:39

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

,

Welcome to week 6: the full booklet, as always, can be found here. This week features the last of the Ford Lectures: Jocelyn Wogan-Browne will be giving a lecture entitles ‘“Et lors que parlerez anglois /Que vous n’oubliez pas le François” (manuscript dedication, c. 1445): Off-shoring French?’. Of special interest to many of you will be the Ashmolean’s Krasis Scheme: ‘a unique, museum-based, interdisciplinary teaching and learning programme’. You can find out more about this wonderful opportunity here.

Errata or changes to announcements will be corrected in the google calendar and on the blog post, so please check these regularly.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Reading Group – 10.30pm in the Horton Room. Malatenia Vlachou (IRTH, Paris) will talk about An Interpretable Deep Learning Approach for Palaeographical Description and Analysis. All Welcome!
  • Medieval Archaeology Seminar – Institute of Archaeology Lecture Room, 3pm. Gabor Thomas, Roland Smith, and Darko Maricevic will be speaking on ‘Old Windsor: A Reassessment’.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Alexandra Sapoznik (KCL) will be speaking on ‘Economic and Cultural Connections within Mediterranean Ecosystems’.
  • Old Norse Reading Group – 5.30, English Faculty Graduate Common Room. This term we will be reading Hrafnkels saga.

Tuesday

  • Europe in the Later Middle Ages – 2pm in the Dolphin Seminar Room, St John’s College. Aleksander Paroń (Warsaw/Wrocław) will be speaking on ‘Nomads or ‘Nomads’? Considerations on the Mode of Life of Medieval Populations of the European Steppe *** This meeting is online, but will take place at the normal time in the Dolphin Room ***
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2pm, Weston Library.
  • Medieval Church and Culture –  5.15pm (coffee from 5pm) in the Wellbeloved Room, Harris Manchester College. Alex Peplow (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Depicting the Unfamiliar: Scorpions in Northern Europe’.

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar on ‘Geistliche Spiele’ – 11.15am in the Old Library of St Edmund Hall, on the ‘Wiener Susannaspiel’ (Das leben der heyligen frawen Susanna). Contact Henrike Lähnemann if you would like to be added to the teams group.
  • History and Materiality of the Book Seminar – 2pm in the Weston Library, Horton room. Laure Miolo will be speaking on ‘Calendars and Time-reckoning’
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. Andy Hilkens (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften) will be speaking on ‘Dialogue and Debate between Syriac and Armenian Miaphysites in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries’.
  • Slade Lecture Series – 5pm at St John’s College. ‘Gaps in Artefacts’. Book a place.
  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 5.15pm, Lecture Theatre 2, St. Cross Building.
  • Cathy Hume (University of Bristol) will be speaking on ‘Biblical poetry and its place in medieval English culture’

Thursday

  • Medieval Hebrew Reading Group – 10am in the Clarendon Institute.
  • Middle English Reading Group – 4pm, Beckington Room, Lincoln College. The text this term will be the ‘double sorwe’ of Troilus and Criseyde.
  • Seminars in Medieval and Renaissance Music- 7pm online. Helen Coffey (The Open University) will be speaking on ‘Music for Dancing in the Empire of Maximilian I’.
  • Ford Lecture – 5pm in the Examination Schools. Jocelyn Wogan-Browne will be giving the final of her lectures: ‘“Et lors que parlerez anglois /Que vous n’oubliez pas le François” (manuscript dedication, c. 1445): Off-shoring French?’
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5pm at St Catherine’s College. Ana Días will be speaking on ‘Painting the Apocalypse in Medieval Iberia: The Making of the Beatus Illuminations’.
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5.15pm in the in the Ioannou Centre/Faculty of Classics’ Lecture Theatre. Sinem Eryılmaz (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona) will be speaking on ‘Knowledge and its transmission in Ottoman manuscript culture of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries: observations and propositions’.
  • Tolkien and the Organ – 7pm, Exeter College Chapel.

Friday

  • Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.

Upcoming

  • Dr Daisy Black’s medieval storytelling event in week 7 (5th March, 7pm, Univ chapel): Yde and Olive. Book tickets here.

Opportunities

  • The Ashmolean’s Krasis Scheme: ‘a unique, museum-based, interdisciplinary teaching and learning programme’. You can find out more about this wonderful opportunity here.
  • CfP for ‘lluminating Nature: Explorations of Science, Religion, and Magic’ (21-22 July 2025 at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Durham Castle).
  • Register for ‘History, Eugenics, and Human Enhancement: How the Past Can Inform Ethical Debates in the Present’ (24 March 2025, 9am – 5.30pm).
  • Register now for the workshop on 21st March From Jean le Bon to Good Duke Humphrey to celebrate the arrival of the French New Testament which was recently recognised to have been owned by Humfrey, duke of Gloucester. The event is free (including tea and coffee).
  • ‘Transcribing Old and Middle French (1300-1500)’ – a short online course from the University of London, 10th-11th March. More info here.
  • CfP for the 35th International Conference of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature (University of Málaga, 24th-26th September 2025). More info here.
  • Registration for the conference Byzantium and its Environment – 27th International Graduate Conference of the Oxford University Byzantine Society on 1/2 March now open
  • For all Graduate Students (Master & DPhil): fully funded Wolfenbüttel Summer School on Late Medieval Manuscripts (in English). Apply by the end of February. Call for Papers the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel
  • The Ashmolean is looking for a University Engagement Lead. This is a parttime fixed term role to research and possibly pilot opportunities for University Engagement. This is a good role for someone that knows the students in Oxford and is looking at a parttime role – and, obviously, loves museum collections! Full job description 
  • The CfP for the ‘Sorrowful Virgin’ is now closed; contact Anna Wilmore if you missed the deadline or simply would like to take place in the workshop at St Hughs, 24 March 2025
  • CfP for ‘Outsiders – Insiders’ (University of Reading), 2nd April 2025
  • OMS Small Grants are no longer open for applications – deadline was Friday of 4th Week. If you missed it, contact Lesley Smith.

Medieval Matters HT25, Week 5

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16/02/2025

18:58

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

Week 5 rolls around – stave off the blues with an extensive course of medieval events. The full booklet, as always, can be found here.

Events

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10.30am in the Weston Library. Those interested should email Laure Miolo.
  • Seminar in Palaeography and Manuscript studies – 2.15 in the Horton Room, Weston Library. Jo Edge will be speaking on ‘Working with divinatory texts and manuscripts’.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Michael Eber (Oxford/Cologne) will be speaking on ‘Re- and mis-gendering St Marina*us in high medieval Italy’.

Tuesday

  • Europe in the Later Middle Ages – 2pm, Dolphin Seminar Room, St John’s College. Aleksander Parón (Warsaw) will be speaking on ‘Nomads or ‘Nomads’? Considerations on
  • the Mode of Life of Medieval Populations of the European Steppe’. This meeting is online, but will take place at the normal time in the Dolphin Room.
  • The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Medieval Church and Culture –  5pm in the Wellbeloved Room. Teresa Barucci (Magdalen) will be speaking on ‘European Vernaculars at the Medieval University of Paris’.
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5pm in the Maison française d’Oxford. Mary Franklin-Brown, (University of Cambridge) will be speaking on ‘Oath, Song, and the Making of Community in Medieval France’.
  • CMTC “Work in Progress” colloquium – 5:15pm in the Memorial Room, The Queen’s College.
  • Lectures of Medieval Poetry – time and place TBD (email organiser). Ramunė Markevičiūtė (Freie University of Berlin) will be speaking.

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar on ‘Geistliche Spiele’ – 11.15am in the Old Library of St Edmund Hall. Contact Henrike Lähnemann if you would like to be added to the teams group.
  • History and Materiality of the Book – 2pm in the Visiting Scholars Centre. Matthew Holford will be speaking on ‘Manuscript Structures’.
  • Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pm, online, please contact Michael Stansfield.
  • Oxford University Numismatics Society – 4pm in the Ioannou Centre/Faculty of Classics’ Lecture Theatre. Dr. Mike Shott (Oxford): “Cuneator ad Rex; Quid tibi vis hic..?”. Design features in the Long Cross issues of Henry III; a research project’.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. Olivia Ramble (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Of Scripts and Scribes: Investigating Practices of Writing in Late Antique Iran’.
  • Slade Lecture Series – 5pm at St John’s College. ‘Gaps in Origins’. Check this page for recordings or to check whether places have become available.
  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 5.15pm, Lecture Theatre 2, St. Cross Building. Amy Faulkner (UCL) will be speaking on ‘Expecting the Worst: Beowulf and the End Times’.
  • Principal’s Research Seminar at St Hilda’s College – 5.30pm, the Pavilion, St Hilda’s College. Professor Wakelin’s title is ‘The everyday creatives’. For more information and to book click on link. All are welcome.

Thursday

  • Medieval Anglo-Jewish Texts and History – 9:30 am – 5.00 pm, Catherine Lewis Lecture Theatre (Clarendon Institute). This group convenes once a term to read together unpublished Hebrew and Latin documents from Medieval England as sources for the history of the Jews before the expulsion of 1290.
  • Medieval Hebrew Reading Group – 10am in the Clarendon Institute.
  • Magna Carta 1225: New Discoveries & Repercussions – 12pm in the Blackwell Hall, Weston Library. Dean Irwin will be speaking on ‘Magna Carta and Jewish communities’.
  • Middle English Reading Group – 4pm, Beckington Room, Lincoln College. The text this term will be the ‘double sorwe’ of Troilus and Criseyde.
  • Germanic Reading Group ‒ 4pm on Teams. Extracts from Chaucer showing switches between London and Northern dialects (Simon Horobin leading). Please contact Howard Jones to request the handout and to be added to the list.
  • Ford Lecture – 5pm in the Examination Schools. Jocelyn Wogan-Browne will be giving the fifh of her lectures, titled ‘“Lette Frenchmen in their Frenche endyten”(Thomas Usk, c.1384-87): French in the Multilingual Fourteenth Century;.
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5.15pm in the in the Ioannou Centre/Faculty of Classics’ Lecture Theatre. Umberto Bongianino (The Khalili Research Centre) will be speaking on ‘The Pink Qurʾān: a reverse biography’.

Friday

  • The Human Remains Digital Library (HRDL) Launch – 10am online. More information here.
  • Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided. This week, Alyssa Steiner (BL) will speak on the extensive Ship of Fools collection of Francis Douce.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Medieval Manuscripts Support Group – 2pm in the Horton Room. Come along or contact Matthew Holford in beforehand if you have a manuscript to discuss!
  • Old Frisian Taster Session – 2pm in the Taylor Library, room 2. Johanneke Sytsema will be speaking on ‘Strong Verbs Across English, Frisian, Dutch, Low German, High German, an introduction to the crucial place of Frisian in the history of Germanic Languages’.
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group – 5pm. This week, the group will be visiting the The Queen’s College Library.
  • Anglo-Norman Reading Group – 5pm in the Farmington Institute in Harris Manchester College and online. For more information on the texts, email Jane Bliss.
  • “The Jewish Recipes in a 13th C Andalusian Cookbook” by Hélène Jawhara Piñer will be on Zoom at 5 pm Wednesday 19 February. Event details and the link to register is here.

Opportunities

  • CfP for ‘lluminating Nature: Explorations of Science, Religion, and Magic’ (21-22 July 2025 at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Durham Castle).
  • Register for ‘History, Eugenics, and Human Enhancement: How the Past Can Inform Ethical Debates in the Present’ (24 March 2025, 9am – 5.30pm).
  • Register now for the workshop on 21st March From Jean le Bon to Good Duke Humphrey to celebrate the arrival of the French New Testament which was recently recognised to have been owned by Humfrey, duke of Gloucester. The event is free (including tea and coffee).
  • ‘Transcribing Old and Middle French (1300-1500)’ – a short online course from the University of London, 10th-11th March. More info here.
  • CfP for the 35th International Conference of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature (University of Málaga, 24th-26th September 2025). More info here.
  • Registration for the conference Byzantium and its Environment – 27th International Graduate Conference of the Oxford University Byzantine Society on 1/2 March now open
  • For all Graduate Students (Master & DPhil): fully funded Wolfenbüttel Summer School on Late Medieval Manuscripts (in English). Apply by the end of February. Call for Papers the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel
  • The Ashmolean is looking for a University Engagement Lead. This is a parttime fixed term role to research and possibly pilot opportunities for University Engagement. This is a good role for someone that knows the students in Oxford and is looking at a parttime role – and, obviously, loves museum collections! Full job description 
  • The CfP for the ‘Sorrowful Virgin’ is now closed; contact Anna Wilmore if you missed the deadline or simply would like to take place in the workshop at St Hughs, 24 March 2025
  • CfP for ‘Outsiders – Insiders’ (University of Reading), 2nd April 2025
  • OMS Small Grants are no lo open for applicationsnger – deadline was Friday of 4th Week. If you missed it, contact Lesley Smith.