Category: News

Medieval Matter MT25, Week 8

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30/11/2025

23:07

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Medieval Matters, News

Welcome, finally, to week 8. Today is the last day to enter your paper for the Medium Ævum Essay Prize and to register for Ars Inquirendi – Querying the Pre-Modern in the Age of Large Multimodal Models (including a free conference dinner at St Edmund Hall on Saturday!). As always, you can find a complete copy of the Oxford Medieval Studies Booklet here.  Any last-minute changes will be updated in the weekly blogpost and in the calendar, both accessible via https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/. As a little Oxmas gift, have a look at Péter Tóth explaining the layout of this early polyglot Bible fragment in the Bodleian Library, the newest contribution to the OMS Youtube channel.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Introduction to Arabic Palaeography – 2:00, Khalili Research Centre
  • Medieval Archaeology Seminar – 3.00, Institute of Archaeology, Lecture Room. Aleks Pluskowski, will be speaking on ‘Re-thinking the “Green Revolution” in the Medieval Western Mediterranean (6th-16th centuries)’
  • Carmina Burana: Graduate Text Seminar – 5:00, Harris Lecture Theatre, Oriel College.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5:00 with drinks reception to follow, All Souls College. Robert Swanson (University of Birmingham) will be speaking on “Margins, marginality, and marginalisation: drawing lines within and around late medieval Catholicism”

Tuesday

  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Medieval Church and Culture Seminar:  5:15pm, Harris Manchester College (tea & coffee from 5.00). Antonia Anstatt (Tübingen): ‘Holy Emotions? Love, Grief, and Anger in the Later Medieval Lives of Elizabeth of Hungary’

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11:15, Somerville College. The topic for this term is Ulrich von Richental, Chronik des Konzils zu Konstanz (1414-1438).
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 in the Schwarzman Centre.
  • Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre. Olivier Delouis (Paris) will be speaking on ‘Byzantium in Correspondence: 171 Letters of Athanasios Papadopoulos-Kerameus to Non-Greek Byzantinists (1875–1911)’

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group – 11:00, Beckington Room (Lincoln College).
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar – 4:00, Somerville College. – Poetic Exchanges, Including poems by Wallada bint al-Mustakfi, Muhja bint al-Tayyani, Tecla de Borja and ‘Vayona’
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5:00, St Catherine’s College. Kristine Tanton (U of Montreal) will be speaking on ‘Seeing Anew: Digital Methods and the Return of the Medieval Object’.
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:00, hybrid. Merryn Davies-Deacon (Belfast) will be speaking on ‘Lexical prescription in Breton: what does it involve and who is taking notice?’
  • Book Launch: Landscapes and Producers in Medieval England – 5:30, Main Lecture Theatre, Rewley House. A wine reception, with opportunity to purchase copies of the volume, will follow. More information here.

Friday

  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Followed by the Medieval Manuscript Support Group 11:30, also in the Weston Library, Horton Room – to get help with a manuscript from a panel of experts, use the form on the website
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room).
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group ‘Reading Group’ – 5:00, online

Opportunities

Medieval Matter MT25, Week 7

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24/11/2025

08:54

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events, Medieval Matters, News

Week 7, and the prospects of the vac creeps ever closer! Two particular items of note this week. First, there is no Medieval History Seminar this week. Second, Prof. Roberta Mazza’s lecture for the Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures has been postponed until next term. If you are looking for an alternative manuscript fix: come to the Medieval Manuscripts Support Group, following the Friday coffee morning this and next week.

As always, you can find a complete copy of the Oxford Medieval Studies Booklet here.  Any last-minute changes will be updated in the weekly blogpost and in the calendar, both accessible via https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/.

Monday

Tuesday

  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Medieval Church and Culture Seminar – 5:00, Harris Manchester College. Mark Vessey (UBC) will be speaking on ‘Some Problems in the Earliest History of the Latin Life of Antony’.
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5:00, Maison Française d’Oxford. Prof. Francis Gingrass (University of Montreal) will be speaking on ‘Luttes fratricides dans l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César’.
  • Old English Graduate Reading Group – 5:15, location TBC, contact Hattie Carter

Wednesday

  • Medieval Hebrew Reading Group – 10:00, Clarendon Institute.
  • John Lydgate Book Club – 11:00, Smoking Room (Lincoln College).
  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar on the Constance Chronicle – 11:15, Somerville College.
  • EMBI Mapping Workshop – 2:00 in room 00.056 of the Schwartzman Centre. A few spaces are still available – sign up here.
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 in the Schwarzman Centre.
  • Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre. Thomas Laver (Cambridge) will be speaking on ‘Estates, Economy, and ‘Holy Men’ in Late Antique Egyptian Monasteries’

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group – 11:00, Beckington Room (Lincoln College).
  • Environmental History Working Group – 12:30, Room 20.421 in the Schwarzman Centre. Meeting details to be announced.
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:00, hybrid. Gwen Angharad Gruffudd & Arwel Vittle will be speaking on ‘‘Dros Gymru’n Gwlad’: hanes sefydlu’r Blaid Genedlaethol’
  • King Faisal Lecture – 5:00, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Professor Muhsin Jassim al-Musawi (Columbia University) will be speaking on ‘The Medieval Islamic Republic of Letters: Arabic Knowledge Construction’. All Welcome. No registration is required.
  • Compline in the Crypt – 9:30pm, St Edmund Hall.

Friday

Opportunities

Medieval Matter MT25, Week 6

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17/11/2025

08:41

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

An extra large offering of medieval events for sixth week, and a particularly busy Monday! As always, you can find a complete copy of the Oxford Medieval Studies Booklet here.  Any last-minuted changes will be updated in the weekly blogpost and in the calendar, both accessible via https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Introduction to Arabic Palaeography – 2:00, Khalili Research Centre
  • Medieval Archaeology Seminar – 3.00, Institute of Archaeology, Lecture Room. Roberta Gilchrist will be speaking on ‘The medieval ritual landscape: Persistence and place-making in later medieval England’
  • Historical and Systematic Theology Research Seminar – 3:30, Campion Hall. Professor Thomas Joseph White (Rector of the Angelicum, Rome) will be speaking on ‘‘How can one say that God has become human? John of Damascus and Thomas Aquinas on the Semantics of the Incarnation’
  • Carmina Burana: Graduate Text Seminar – 5:00, Harris Lecture Theatre, Oriel College.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5:00 with drinks reception to follow, All Souls College. Angus Russell (King’s College, Cambridge) will be speaking on “Between truth and justice: towards an intellectual history of post-Mongol Rus”.
  • History of Liturgy Seminar (IHR) – 5:30, Balliol College and online. Cosima Gillhammer will be speaking on ‘Writing about liturgy for a general audience: some reflections’; Molly Bray will be speaking on ‘Statue Dresses, Rituals and Kinship at Kloster Wienhausen c. 1469-1530’. The poster for the event can be viewed here.
  • Thomistic Institute Lecture – 7:30, Balckfriars. Sr. Catherine Joseph Droste, O.P. (Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas) will be speaking on ‘Virtue and Self-Knowledge in St. Catherine of Siena’

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, Margaret Thatcher Centre, Somerville. Caroline Batten (U of Pennsylvania) will be speaking on ‘Vulnerable Bodies: The Old English Verse Charms, Again’
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Medieval Church and Culture Seminar:  5:15pm, Harris Manchester College (tea & coffee from 5.00). In a change of topic, Alice Rio (All Souls) will be speaking on ‘Otherworldly Tribunals and the State (9-10th c):  Wetti, Theodora, Mulien’.

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11:15, Somerville College. The topic for this term is Ulrich von Richental, Chronik des Konzils zu Konstanz (1414-1438).
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 in the Schwarzman Centre.
  • Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre. Peter Frankopan and Jonathan Shepard (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Revisiting the Byzantine Commonwealth: A Discussion’.

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group – 11:00, Beckington Room (Lincoln College).
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar – 4:00, Somerville College. Including extracts from the letters of Hildegard von Bingen, Catherine of Siena, Violant de Bar and María de Castilla
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5:00, Khalili Research Center (NB. change of location). Mariam Rosser-Owen (V&A) & Ashley Coutu (Pitt Rivers) will be speaking on “New directions in the study of ivories from the Islamic world: A talk and handling session” Co-sponsored with the Khalili Research Center.
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:00, hybrid. Roan Runge (Glasgow) will be speaking on ‘‘Turn and face the strange’: Analysing animal species present in medieval Irish narratives of transformation’
  • Multilingual Medieval Compline in the Crypt – 9:30pm, in the crypt below St-Peter-in-the-East, St Edmund Hall (see below).

Friday

  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room).
  • Oxford Medieval Mansucript Group ‘Reading Group’ – 5:00, online. J. E. Murdoch and and Laure Miolo will both present; the deadline for attendance has passed.

Opportunities

Tony Hunt Obituary

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14/11/2025

10:45

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News

Oxford Medieval Studies is saddened to hear of the death last week of Tony Hunt (1944-2025), Faculty Lecturer in Medieval French and Fellow of St Peter’s College (1990-2009).

Tony’s contributions to Anglo-Norman and Medieval French research were prolific and ground-breaking, recognised by Fellowship of the British Academy in 1999; he was decorated Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques in 2009. A brilliant scholar with a razor-sharp intellect he was also a generous and much valued tutor, supervisor, mentor, and colleague. A pillar of the Anglo-Norman studies community, he was President of the Anglo-Norman Texts Society from 2011 until his death; his editions of texts ranged remarkably, from chess treatises and the teaching and learning of Latin in England to medicine and botany.

ANTS website Tony Hunt (1944-2025) | Anglo-Norman Text Society

Medieval Matter MT 25, Week 5

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10/11/2025

08:48

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

A medieval event a day keeps the blues away – meet week 5 head-on with another set of seminars and events! As always, you can find a complete copy of the Oxford Medieval Studies Booklet here.  Any last-minuted changes will be updated in the weekly blogpost and in the calendar, both accessible via https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/.

This week, on the 13th and 14th of November, the Crafting Documents project, alongside the Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures, is hosting the ‘Heritage Science and Manuscript Conference‘. Registration is free, and the full programme of events is available here.

Monday

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar AND Medieval French Seminar – 12:15, Margaret Thatcher Centre, Somerville. Juluan Mattison (U of Georgia) will be speaking on ‘What is an English book? French Scribes, Scripts and Texts in England’
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Medieval Church and Culture Seminar – 5:00, Harris Manchester College. Nancy Thebaut (Catz) will be speaking on ‘Gender, Nature, and the Limits of Art: A Close Reading of ‘Two Riddles of the Queen of Sheba’, a Late Medieval Tapestry at the Met Cloisters‘.
  • Old Norse Research Seminar – 5:00, New Seminar Room, St. John’s College. Caz Batten (Pennsylvania) will be speaking on ‘Unmaking a Man: The Contested Bodies of the Völundr Legend’. Drinks to follow.
  • Old English Graduate Reading Group – 5:15, location TBC, contact Hattie Carter

Wednesday

  • John Lydgate Book Club – 11:00, Smoking Room (Lincoln College).
  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar on the Constance Chronicle – 11:15, Somerville College.
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 in the Schwarzman Centre.
  • Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre. Marlena Whiting (Groningen) will be speaking on ‘Hodology, Wayfinding, and Geographical Knowledge in Late Antique Pilgrimage Accounts’

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group – 11:00, Beckington Room (Lincoln College).
  • Environmental History Working Group – 12:30, Room 20.421 in the Schwarzman Centre. Ryan Mealiffe will be speaking on ‘What are White Storks (Ciconia ciconica) Doing in High and Late Miedieval Calendars’?
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:00, hybrid. Simon Rodway (Aberystwyth) will be speaking on ‘Gwlithod Blewog a Mygydau Barddol: Golwg Newydd ar Garchariad Aneirin yn y Tŷ Deyerin’
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5:00, St. Catherine’s College. Carly Boxer (Bucknell University) will be speaking on ‘Abstract Figures and Bodily Change: Giving Form to Unseen Things in Late Medieval England’
  • Seminars in Medieval and Renaissance Music – 5:00, online. Elina Hamilton, Peter Lefferts and Elzbieta Witkowska-Zaremba will be speaking on ‘Theinred of Dover (fl. c. 1300): A New Context for him in Fourteenth-Century Music Theory’
  • Compline in the Crypt – 9:30pm, St Edmund Hall.

Friday

  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room).
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group: Library Visit (Merton) – 5:00. Sign-up required.

Saturday

Opportunities

Medieval Matter MT25, Week 4

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03/11/2025

08:25

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

,

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Introduction to Arabic Palaeography – 2:00, Khalili Research Centre
  • Medieval Archaeology Seminar – 3.00, Institute of Archaeology, Lecture Room. Wyatt Wilcox will be speaking on ‘Isolated Barrows in Early Medieval England: A Spatial Analysis’
  • Carmina Burana: Graduate Text Seminar – 5:00, Harris Lecture Theatre, Oriel College.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5:00 with drinks reception to follow, All Souls College. Anna Chrysostomides (Queen Mary, University of London) will be speaking on “Non-Binary Gender in Abbasid Baghdad: Reality vs. Fiction”

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, Margaret Thatcher Centre, Somerville. Kathy Lavezzo (U of Iowa) will be speaking on ‘The Darker Side of the Middle Ages’.
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Medieval Church and Culture Seminar – 5:00, Harris Manchester College. Clare Whitton (Blackfriars) will be speaking on ‘Resurrecting a Patron Saint: The Feast of San Gennaro in 14th century Naples’

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11:15, Somerville College. The topic for this term is Ulrich von Richental, Chronik des Konzils zu Konstanz (1414-1438).
  • Centre for Early Medieval Britain and Ireland Welcome Lunch – 12.30, Balliol College
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 in the Schwarzman Centre.
  • Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre. Erin Thomas Dailey (Leicester) will be speaking on ‘Why Did the Byzantine Empire Forbid SlaveOwners from Making Eunuchs of their Slaves? Castration, Masculinity, and Identity in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages’

Thursday

  • Medieval Hebrew Reading Group – 10:00, Catherine Lewis Lecture Theatre, Clarendon Institute and online.
  • Middle English Reading Group – 11:00, Beckington Room (Lincoln College).
  • Chronicling the Self: including extracts from the memoirs of Lady Nijo and Leonor López de Córdoba
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:00, online. Lloyd Bowen (Cardiff) will be speaking on ‘London Puritan networks and the publication of the 1630 Welsh Bible’
  • David Patterson Lecture – 6:00, Clarendon Institute, Walton St. Dr Emily Rose (Academic Visitor, OCHJS) will be speaking on “A Bleeding Corpse, A Grim Grimm Fairy Tale with Early Modern Shivers: The Dubious Margaret of Pforzheim (1267?), A Singular Female Blood Libel”. In order to participate in this lecture via Zoom, please register at this link.
  • Latin Compline in the Crypt – 9:30pm, in the crypt below St-Peter-in-the-East, St Edmund Hall

Friday

  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room).
  • Oxford University Heraldry Society Lecture – 4:30, Harris Seminar Room of Oriel College. Professor Yorick Gomez Gane will be speaking on “The Italian Language in British Heraldry,” followed by a drinks reception.

Opportunities

Medieval Matters, MT25 Week 3

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27/10/2025

08:50

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

Week 3 is upon us – please find below the weekly offering of events, groups, and opportunities. As always, you can find a complete copy of the Oxford Medieval Studies Booklet here.  Any last-minuted changes will be updated in the weekly blogpost and in the calendar, both accessible via https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Introduction to Arabic Palaeography – 2:00, Khalili Research Centre
  • Carmina Burana: Graduate Text Seminar – 5:00, Harris Lecture Theatre, Oriel College
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5:00 with drinks reception to follow, All Souls College. Lucy Donkin (University of Bristol) will be speaking on “Ex urbe et ab Hierosolomis: The Materiality and Portability of Place in Pre-Reformation Europe”.

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, Margaret Thatcher Centre, Somerville. A range of contributors will be speaking on ‘On the Life and Works of Vincent Gillespie’
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Medieval Church and Culture Seminar – 5:00, Harris Manchester College. Susanna Heywood (KCL): will be speaking on ‘A Practical Guide to Kingship?: the virtue of prudence in Giles of Rome’s De Regimine Principum’
  • Medieval French Researsh Seminar – 5:00, Maison Française d’Oxford. Prof. Ellen Delvallée (Université Grenoble Alpes) will be speaking on ‘‘Éclats de la Chronique française de Guillaume Cretin: de l’inachèvement aux explorations esthétiques’
  • Old English Graduate Reading Group – 5:15, location TBC, contact Hattie Carter
  • Oxford Architectural and Historical Society – 5:30, Rewley House. Duncan Taylor will be speaking on ‘A New Understanding of Oxford’s Divinity School Vault’

Wednesday

  • John Lydgate Book Club – 11:00, Smoking Room (Lincoln College).
  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11:15, Somerville College.
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 in the Schwarzman Centre.
  • Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre. Stratis Papaioannou (Athens) will be speaking on ‘The Synaxarion of Constantinople as Historiography’
  • Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures Lecture – 5:15, Memorial Room (The Queen’s College). Daniel Schwemer (Würzburg) will be speaking on ‘Ancient Kings, a New Language (and sometimes wheelbarrows): a decade of field epigraphy at the Hittite capital Boğazköy-Ḫattuša’

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group – 11:00, Beckington Room (Lincoln College).
  • Environmental History Working Group – 12:00, Room 20.421 in the Schwarzman Centre. Madeleine Fyles (UToronoto) will be speaking on ‘More than Kindling: Algarrobo Posts and Social Memory on the Peruvian North Coast’.
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:00, hybrid. Jaione Diaz Mazquiaran (Alan R King Etxepare Chair 2025) will be speaking on ‘Language, Beliefs, and Belonging: Immigrant Students in Basque-Medium Education’
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5:00, St. Catherine’s College. Hannele Hellerstedt (Ox.) will be speaking on ‘Seeing Double: Visualizing La Cité des dames and La Cité de Dieu‘.
  • Seminars in Medieval and Renaissance Music – 5:00, online. Anne Walters Robertson (The University of Chicago) will be speaking on ‘a cycle of masses for all seasons in the Burgundian court’
  • Spooktacular Manuscripts – 3:00, Visiting Scholars’ Centre (Weston Library). To celebrate Halloween, Alison Ray will present a range of spooktacular medieval manuscripts, from magical spell books and alchemical texts to depictions of black cats and a witches’ sabbath. Costumes are optional! NOTE that a University or Bodleian reader card is required for access, which is via the Readers’ entrance to the Weston Library
  • Compline in the Crypt – 9:30, St Edmund Hall.

Friday

  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room).
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group: Library Visit (Merton) – 5:00. Sign-up required.

Opportunities

Medieval Matters MT25, Week 2

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19/10/2025

16:34

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

Welcome to week 2, and the Medieval Matters email – a day early this time to coincide with St Frideswide’s Day! In honour of the occasion, Jesus College has paid for the Pershore Legendary to appear on Digital Bodleian, which includes the most accurate copy of Robert of Cricklade’s Life of St Frideswide. Browse away!

As always, you can find a complete copy of the Oxford Medieval Studies Booklet here.  Any last-minuted changes will be updated in the weekly blogpost and in the calendar, both accessible via https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Introduction to Arabic Palaeography – 2:00, Khalili Research Centre
  • Carmina Burana: Graduate Text Seminar – 5:00, Harris Lecture Theatre, Oriel College.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5:00 with drinks reception to follow, All Souls College. Peter Jones (King’s College, Cambridge), will be speaking on ‘Event, story and image in writings of John Arderne (1307-c.1380), English surgeon’.

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, Margaret Thatcher Centre, Somerville. David Scott-Macnab (North-West U) will be speaking on ‘Edward, Second Duke of York’s Master of Game: A New Edition for EETS
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Medieval Church and Culture Seminar – 5:00, Harris Manchester College. John Merrington (All Souls) will be speaking on ‘Reading the Five Thousand: gender, the body and the interpretation of John 6 in medieval Europe’.
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5pm at the at the Maison Française d’Oxford. Prof. Johannes Junge Ruhland (University of Notre Dame) will be speaking on ‘The Bookishness of French Prose Histories’.

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11:15, Somerville College. The topic for this term is Ulrich von Richental, Chronik des Konzils zu Konstanz (1414-1438).
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 in the Schwarzman Centre.
  • Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre. Johannes Pahlitzsch (Mainz) will be speaking on ‘Concepts of Space and Orthodoxy beyond Byzantium’.

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group – 11:00, Beckington Room (Lincoln College).
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar – 4:00, Somerville College (meet at Lodge). Authorising the Text: including extracts from the prose works of Teresa de Cartagena and Anna Komnene.
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:00, hybrid. Rhys Kaminski-Jones (CAWCS) will be speaking on ‘Bardic liberties: Bardism and slavery in the poetry of Iolo Morganwg’.
  • Guild of Medievalist Makers – 5:30, online. Making Space Session.
  • Oxford University Heraldry Society – 6:30, online. Mike Rumble will be speaking on ‘The Heraldry of Kensington and Chelsea, London’.

Friday

  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room).
  • Memorial Service for Professor Vincent Gillespie – 2:00, Keble College Chapel.
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group Workshop – 5:00, Merton College. Workshop with Joumana Medlej.

Opportunities

Medieval Matters, MT25 Week 1

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13/10/2025

09:29

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events, News

,

Welcome to Michaelmas 2025 and to the definite version of the Oxford Medieval Studies Booklet! And greetings from the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities. Among the many superlatives it boasts, there can probably be added the claim that this is the largest grouping (a madness?) of medievalists in the world, allowing encounters across the Humanities faculties. We’ll start this year and term in the traditional way with a social in Harris Manchester College on Tuesday of week 1, 13 October, from 5pm – everybody welcome. 

This email will arrive every Monday in your inbox; any changes after that will be updated in the weekly blogpost and in the calendar, both accessible via https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Introduction to Arabic Palaeography – 2:00, Khalili Research Centre
  • Carmina Burana: Graduate Text Seminar – 5:00, Harris Lecture Theatre, Oriel College
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5:00 with drinks reception to follow, All Souls College. James Miller  (Christ Church, Oxford) will be speaking on “Imagining Monastic Perfection: Benedict, Fleury, and Beyond in the Central Middle Ages”.

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, Margaret Thatcher Centre, Somerville. Richard Dance (Cambridge) will be speaking on “Mirror Man: Ormm and his Words”.
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Medieval Studies Social – 5:00, Harris Manchester College. All welcome – come and meet your fellow medievalists!
  • James Ford Special Lecture 2025 Oxford Centre for Early Medieval Britain & Ireland (EMBI) – 5:15, Shulman Auditorium, Queen’s College. Francesca Tinti (University of the Basque Country) will be speaking on “Long-Distance Travel from Early Medieval Britain”.
  • Old English Graduate Reading Group – 5:15, location TBC, contact Hattie Carter

Wednesday

  • Early Medieval ‘Global Britain’: A Workshop by the Oxford Centre for Early Medieval Britain & Ireland (EMBI) – 9:15, The Memorial Room (Queen’s College). Booking required.
  • John Lydgate Book Club – 11:00, Smoking Room (Lincoln College).
  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar, planning meeting – 11:15, Somerville College.
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 in the Schwarzman Centre.
  • Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar.

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group – 11:00, Beckington Room (Lincoln College).
  • Environmental History Working Group – 12:00, Room 20.421 in the Schwarzman Centre. Stephanie Holt (Oxford) will be speaking on “Curious Minds: Gilbert White and Thomas Pennant”.
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:00, online. Elisabeth Chatel (CRBC) will be speaking on “The Joseph Loth Dilemma: Scientific Authority and Cultural Identity in Brittany”.
  • Old Norse Welcome Event – 6:00, Gardeners’ Arms (Plantation Road).

Friday

  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided. This week, Christina Ostermann and Henrike Lähnemann will speak on the ‘Girl Who Lived in the Library‘, the memoirs of Luisa Hewitt, born in the basement of the Taylorian in the 1880s
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room).

Opportunities

The Challenge of Historical Distance: Historicism and Anachronism in the Study of Art

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11/10/2025

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News

6-7 November 2025
Nederlands Interuniversitair Kunsthistorisch Instituut (NIKI), Florence, Italy (In Person and Online)

How can art historians explore, understand, or even ‘feel’ the material evidence of the past? How can we approach the problem of historical distance, of our anachronistic nostalgia and our intellectual desire for pre-modern periods and artefacts? Can we inhabit the time of past artworks, or do artworks constantly re-construct their own times? And what role do contemporary concerns play in our interpretations of the ancient, medieval, and early modern periods?

Numerous recent publications have explored the study of the past through different lenses. They have complicated the idea of ‘historical contexts’ by showing the ability of artworks to simultaneously refer to various time periods. They have also encouraged cross-temporal and sometimes ahistorical interpretations of premodern artefacts in the light of modern theories and concerns. This conference will bridge the ‘historicist’ and ‘anachronist’ camp in an attempt to theorise the thorny issue of time which sits at the core of both history and art history.

The conference is organised in celebration of the scholarship of Prof. Gervase Rosser and in honour of his retirement from the University of Oxford. One aspect of Rosser’s career that we particularly want to celebrate is his prominence as both historian and art historian, and his inspirational interrogation of both disciplines.

Speakers include: Armin Bergmeier (University of Leipzig); Saida Bondini (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz); Donal Cooper (University of Cambridge); Heiko Droste (Stockholm University); Jas Elsner (University of Oxford); Michael Ann Holly (Clark Institute); Maria Loh (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton); Keith Moxey (Barnard College); Susie Nash (The Courtauld Institute of Art); Caspar Pearson (The Warburg Institute); Hannah Skoda (University of Oxford); Nancy Thebaut (University of Oxford); Ben Thomas (Trinity College Dublin).

The conference is organised by Costanza Beltrami (Stockholm University), Lia Costiner (Utrecht University), Elena Lichmanova (University of Oxford/British Library) and Michael W. Kwakkelstein (NIKI/Utrecht University).

View the programme here

Click here to register for online attendance via Teams.

Click here to register for in-person attendance at the NIKI, located at Viale Evangelista Torricelli 5 in Florence.