Category: News

05/02/2024

14:19

Comments Off on Medieval Matters: Week 4

hilary 24, medieval matters

Here we are at the midpoint of term. This is usually the point where I realise that the term is going by very quickly, and has been so busy that many of the things I had promised myself to achieve ‘by February’ are still on my to-do list! If this sounds familiar, here is some motivation from the Epistolae project:

Vestrum enim propositum, semper debet niti ad profectum
[Your intention should always be to strive for progress]
A letter (1106) from Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury to Eulalia

Of course, Oxford’s medievalists have been consistently ‘striving towards progress’ this term. Our blog post this week comes from a collaboration between Annabel Hancock, Bee Jones, James Cogbill, and Susannah Bain, who last month hosted an international workshop on ‘Scales of Governance: Local Agency and Political Authority in Eurasia, 1000-1500’. The workshop was partially funded by OMS, and is a great example of the kind of thing that you can apply for small grant funding for. To read more about the fantastic range of papers at the workshop, and the organisers’ reflections on it, please click here.

There are so many exciting medieval events to help us strive towards research progress this week, and also many announcements for upcoming events. Please see the full listings below:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Special events on Saturday 10 February: 11am Interfaith Harmony: Singing from Medieval Manuscripts as part of the One World Festival at the Ashmolean, followed 2pm by a lecture on World Religions and Peace Education organised by the Oxford Interfaith Forum in the Taylorian.
Book Launch Invitation: Emperor John II Komnenos: Rebuilding New Rome 1118-1143: You are invited to the book launch for Emperor John II Komnenos: Rebuilding New Rome 1118-1143 (OUP) at 6pm on Friday 9th of February, to be held in the Naz Shah Centre, Worcester College Oxford, and supported by the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research. Please indicate your attendance by filling in this form by Wednesday 7^th February: https://forms.gle/wDA1HMoLXhThdy8P8
CMTC presents — “Work in Progress” Colloquium (Hilary Term 2024). Tuesday the 13th of February 2024, 5,15–6,45pm UK time, Memorial Room, The Queen’s College. For the programme, please click here.
Books of Hours: A Showcase: 19 February 2024, 5.30pm – 6.30pm. New College Library and Medieval Women’s Writing invite you to attend a workshop showcasing New College’s Books of Hours. Beginning with a talk by New College’s Special Collections Curatorial Assistant Caitlín Kane, we will view and discuss seven Books of Hours from the New College collection. For full details and to register, please click here.
Love Research Data – Find Your Perfect Research Data Management Match: Wednesday 14 February, 2pm – 5pm, Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. Join us to find your perfect match when it comes to storing and sharing your research data. For full information, please click here.
The Sleep and the Rhythms of Life Network is hosting a special event on Thursday 29 February 2024, 5.15pm on the topic of Sleep, Insomnia and Wellbeing: Historical Perspectives. The papers will be Brigitte Steger (University of Cambridge): “At night I lie in bed but cannot sleep” – Insomnia and loneliness in early Japanese literature ; and Megan Leitch (Cardiff University): ‘Sleeping it Off: Sleep, Wellbeing and the Emotions in Middle English Literature’. For full details and registration information, please click here.
Oxford University Byzantine Society Conference: We are delighted to announce the finalised programme (and opening of advance registration for online attendance) for the Oxford University Byzantine Society’s 26th Annual International Graduate Conference ‘Transgression in Late Antiquity and Byzantium’, taking place on the 24th-25th February, 2024 at the Faculty of History, George Street, OX1 2BE. To see the programme and read more, please visit our blog here.

EVENTS THIS WEEK:

Monday 5th February:

The Medieval French Palaeography Reading Group meets at 10.30-12 in the Weston Library. This group is open to anyone with an interest in Old French, Middle French and Anglo-Norman manuscripts. We study and read manuscripts from the 12^th century to the late 15^th century. If you are interested in joining the group or would like more information, please write to: Laure Miolo
The Seminar in Palaeography and Manuscript Studies takes place at 2.15-3.45pm, in the Weston Library, Horton Room. Today’s speaker will be Alison Ray (Oxford) – ‘Pecia manuscripts’. Access is by Bodleian/University card via the reader gates, Weston Library. Non-cardholders welcome but must email bookcentre@bodleian.ox.ac.uk at least 24 hours in advance.
The Medieval Archaeology Seminar meets at 3pm in the Institute of Archaeology, Lecture Room. This week’s speaker will be Kate Franklin (Birkbeck College), Making a World in Mongol Armenia: Vayots Dzor on the Silk Road.
The Medieval History Seminar meets at 5pm in the Wharton Room, All Souls College. This week’s speaker will be Emily Winkler (Oxford), ‘Thinking about Grief and Loss in the High Middle Ages’. The seminar will also be available via Teams: The Teams session can be accessed by logging in to Teams with your .ox.ac.uk account and joining the group “Medieval History Research Seminar” (team code rmppucs). Alternatively, it can be accessed via this link. If you have any difficulties please email: medieval history.
The Old Norse Reading Group meets at 5.30-7pm. We’ll be translating a range of exciting Old Norse texts! To join the mailing list, email Ashley Castelino.

Tuesday 6th February:

The Europe in the Later Middle Ages Seminar meets at 2-3.30pm in the Dolphin Seminar Room, St John’s College. Tea and coffee available from 1.45pm. Undergraduates welcome. This week’s speakers will be Jane Whittle and Grace Owen, University of Exeter, ‘Acknowledging the known unknowns: gender and wage labour in late medieval England‘.
The Old High German Reading Group will meet at 4pm in the Committee Room, 41 Wellington Square. If there is appetite amongst attendees, the group will migrate to the Lamb and Flag after the session. Handouts will be provided and no prior knowledge is required! This week will be Daily life (prose), Sangaller Schularbeit & Contra Paralysin Theutonice (handout to be provided) – “St Gallen School Work” & “Medicine for Gout”
The Medieval Poetry Reading Group meets at 4pm – 5pm in the Colin Matthew Room, Radcliffe Humanities Building. We warmly welcome academics and students of any level and with any background. Coffee, tea, and biscuits are offered to participants. This week’s topic will be Introduction to the Reading Group & Greek Romance in Verse. Registration is required: If interested, please send an email in advance to ugo.mondini@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.
The Medieval Church and Culture Seminar meets at Wellbeloved Room, Harris Manchester College. Tea & coffee from 5pm; papers begin at 5.15pm. This week’s speaker is Helena Hamerow (Institute of Archaeology), ‘Women of the Conversion Period: a biomolecular investigation of mobility‘. Everyone is welcome at this informal and friendly graduate seminar!
The Oxford Medieval Society Latin and Ancient Greek Reading Group meets at 5-6pm, in the ground floor lecture room 2 at 47 Wellington Square. Ancient Greek will be read in odd weeks, and Latin in even weeks. We hope to expand our understanding of these languages for the betterment of our own medieval studies by reading texts that are referenced or known of in the medieval world; please note that this is not a strict rule. Anyone from any background is welcome to attend. To register your interest, or for more information, please contact the society at Oxford Medieval Society.

Wednesday 7th February:

The Medieval German Seminar meets at 11.15, at St Edmund Hall, Old Library. In Hilary Term, we are going to discuss the writings by ‘Frau Ava’, the first women author whose name we know, transmitted in the Vorau Manuscript, discussing this week with Rebecca Schleuß the Latin phrases in the poems. Further information and reading recommendations via the teams channel; if you want to be added to that: please email Henrike Lähnemann.
The Medieval Latin Document Reading Group meets at 4-5pm on Teams. A document is sent out in advance but homework is not expected. Please contact Michael Stansfield for further details and the Teams link.
The Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar meets at 5pm at The Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies 66 St Giles and online via Microsoft Teams by clicking here. This week’s speaker will be Matt Canepa (University of California, Irvine) – ‘Festive Discipline and Punishment
in a Global Late Antiquity: The Iranian Political Sensorium as an Afro-Eurasian Technology of Power’.
The Medieval English Research Seminar will meet at 5.15pm in Lecture Theatre 2, St Cross Building. Today’s speaker will be Marco Nievergelt (Paris), ‘A Middle English Poetics of Experience? The Case of Reson and Sensuallyte’. The seminar will be followed by a wine reception. All welcome!
Dante Reading Group meets at 5.30-7pm in St Anne’s College, Seminar Room 11. Each week, we will be reading through and discussing a canto of the Divine Comedy in a relaxed and informal setting, delving into Dante’s language and imagination in manageable chunks. The group is open to those with or without a knowledge of Italian, the reading being sent out in the original and in translation. Refreshments, both alcoholic and otherwise, will be provided! To register or ask any questions, please email Charles West.

Thursday 8th February:

The Ethics of Textual Criticism Seminar meets at 10-12 in Harris Seminar Room, Oriel College. This week’s speaker will be Colleen Curran (Galway) – ‘A new transmission of Aldhelm’s Carmen de virginitate’.
The Environmental History Working Group meets at 12.30-2pm, in the History Faculty. For further information, please contact Ryan Mealiffe.
The Middle Welsh Reading Group meets at 2-4pm in Jesus College, Habakuk Room. No previous knowledge of Middle Welsh is assumed. Translations will be provided with plenty of time to ask questions at the end. We’ll read a selection of early and late Middle Welsh prose and poetry to offer everyone a chance to experience the richness of Middle Welsh and its literary tradition. Please email to register your interest so that Svetlana knows how many people to expect: Svetlana Ó Siochfhradha Prešern.
The Late Roman Seminar will meet at 4pm in the Seminar Room, Corpus Christi College. This week’s speaker will be Dorothee Schenk (Göttingen) ‘Character Networks, Semantic Networks and Social Network Analysis: Examples around Fulgentius of Ruspe’
The Medieval Visual Culture Seminar meets at 5pm in St Catherine’s College, Arumagam Building. This week’s speaker will be Jacopo Gnisci (University College London), ‘Sacred Space and Imperial Autority in ‘Medieval’ Ethiopia: The Portrait of Yekunno Amlak in Gannata Maryam.
The Medieval Women’s Writing Reading Group meets at 5-6.30pm in Lincoln College Lower Lecture Room. This week’s reading will be The Lais and Fables of Marie de France. Stay up to date with events by joining our mailing list or following us on X @MedievalWomenOx. Texts for the reading group are shared on the mailing list.
A Book Launch within the framework of the International Interfaith Reading Group on Manuscripts in Interfaith Contexts will meet at 6pm, online via Zoom. Dr Katherine Aron-Beller will be speaking on ‘Christian Images and Jewish Desecrators: The History of the Allegation in Manuscript Illustrations‘. To register, please click here.

Friday 9th February:

The Medieval Coffee Morning meets as usual 10:30am in the Visiting Scholars Centre of the Weston Library (instructions how to find it) with presentation of items from the special collections, coffee and the chance to see the view from the 5th floor terrace.
The Late Antique Latin Reading Group meets at 12-1pm, in the Hovenden Room, All Souls College, and is open to anyone engaged in research on the late antique world. Though prior knowledge of Latin is required, we welcome people with a range of abilities. We particularly welcome graduate students and early career academics. If you would like to attend, or you have any questions, feel free to contact either of the convenors. Please do RSVP if you intend to attend, so that we can gauge numbers and circulate the readings. Contact: David Addison and Alison John.
Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln Archives meets at 2-3pm, in Seminar Room 2, EPA Centre, Museum Road. Anyone interested in analyzing primary sources and conducting a comprehensive examination of the documents are welcome to attend. Those who are interested can contact Lindsay McCormack and Laure Miolo via email: Lindsay McCormack and Laure Miolo
The Tolkien 50th Anniversary Seminar Series meets at 4-5pm in Corpus Christi College Auditorium. This week’s speaker will be Holly Ordway (Word on Fire Institute), “Fundamentally religious and Catholic”? Authorial Intent and the Intentional Fallacy’. Free access (no need to book).

OPPORTUNITIES:

Call for Papers – International Courtly Literature Society British and Irish Branch Conference 2024: Court Cultures: Texts and Contexts, Trinity College, the University of Dublin, 18-19 June 2024. We invite proposals in French or in English (maximum 200 words) for either 20-minute papers or full panels of three papers (each of 20 minutes duration) to be submitted by 5 p.m. on Friday 16 February 2024 to Dr Sarah Alyn Stacey (salynsta at tcd.ie) and Dr Thomas Hinton (T.G.Hinton at exeter.ac.uk ). Acceptance of papers will be confirmed by Friday 1 March 2024.
The Mary Rose Trust are looking for volunteer speakers across the country who are able to conduct talks on the Mary Rose on our behalf in an authoritative and entertaining way. For full details, please see their blog post here.

Finally, a reminder that slow progress is still good progress:

Utique sicut verum est: “qui modica despicit, paulatim decidit,” ita verum est quia qui modica non despicit, paulatim proficit.
[As it is true that “one who despises the little things fails little by little” so it is true that one who does not despise the little things progresses little by little.]
A letter (1106) from Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury to Eulalia

I of course here take ‘modica’ to mean ‘footnotes’: those little things which can require such a lot of of time and effort in order to make seemingly very little progress! But, as Anselm reminds us: small progress is still progress! I wish you a week of many successful footnotes, and progress little by little.

*[Medievalist battling with a footnote]*
St John’s College MS. 61, f. 64 v.
By permission of the President and Fellows of St John’s College, Oxford
Viewable in full at Digital Bodleian

Medieval Matters: Week 3

29/01/2024

12:36

Comments Off on Medieval Matters: Week 3

hilary 24, medieval matters

The weather is slowly warming up, and this week marks the arrival of February: term is well and truly underway! Of course, research goes on all year round, and term time is above all about teaching. Here, then, is some fitting wisdom from the Epistolae project on the work of the teacher:

Proinde quaestiunculas quasdam discipulae doctori, filiae patri destinantes, supplicando rogamus, rogando supplicamus, quatenus his solvendis intendere non dedigneris
[As pupils to their teacher, daughters to their father, we are sending you some small questions, asking you as supplicants, supplicating as petitioners, that you will not disdain the task of answering them.]
A letter (716-20) from Egburg

This week’s blog post is something a little bit different: we have a call for Small Grants applications! The TORCH Oxford Medieval Studies Programme invites applications for small grants to support conferences, workshops, and other forms of collaborative research activity organised by researchers at postgraduate (whether MSt or DPhil) or early-career level from across the Humanities Division at the University of Oxford. Past small grants have supported reading groups, conferences, and creative-critical events! For full details, see the blog post here.

See below for this week’s roundup:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

We invite applications for small grants (normally £100-250) to support collaborative activities by researchers at postgraduate or early-career level, taking place between the beginning of Hilary term 2024 and the end of Trinity term. Closing date for applications is 9 February. Full advertisement and application form.

EVENTS THIS WEEK:

Monday 29th January:

The Medieval Church and Culture Seminar meets at Bodleian Weston Library at 3.30-4.30pm for a special session on Exploring astronomical instruments and manuscripts. Please NB the different meeting time. Places limited: please email Lesley Smith to sign on.
The Medieval History Seminar meets at 5pm in the Wharton Room, All Souls College. This week’s speaker will be Andrew Wathey (TNA/All Souls), ‘Philippe de Vitry in Clement VI’s Avignon’. The seminar will also be available via Teams: The Teams session can be accessed by logging in to Teams with your .ox.ac.uk account and joining the group “Medieval History Research Seminar” (team code rmppucs). Alternatively, it can be accessed via this link. If you have any difficulties please email: medieval history.
The Sacred Literature in Interfaith Contexts Reading Group will meet at 6pm, online via Zoom. This week will be led by Professor Aaron Koller, Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Yeshiva University, USA. Prof. Koller will be speaking on ‘The Talmud among Victorian Christians: Polemics and Humanism in Interfaith Encounters‘. To register, please click here.

Tuesday 30th January:

The Europe in the Later Middle Ages Seminar meets at 2-3.30pm in the Dolphin Seminar Room, St John’s College. Tea and coffee available from 1.45pm. Undergraduates welcome. This week’s speaker will be Jose Andres Porras, Oxford, ‘Florentine Orphans and their Parents‘.
The Medieval French Research Seminar will meet at the Maison Francaise d’Oxford on Norham Road. Drinks will be available from 5pm; presentations start at 5.15pm. This week’s speaker will be Professor Sarah Kay (NYU), ‘Nature and the landscape of adventure in Erec et Enide, a Macrobian perspective’ All are welcome! For more information or to be added to the seminar maillist, please contact Helen Swift
The Oxford Medieval Society Latin and Ancient Greek Reading Group meets at 5-6pm, in the ground floor lecture room 2 at 47 Wellington Square. Ancient Greek will be read in odd weeks, and Latin in even weeks. We hope to expand our understanding of these languages for the betterment of our own medieval studies by reading texts that are referenced or known of in the medieval world; please note that this is not a strict rule. Anyone from any background is welcome to attend. To register your interest, or for more information, please contact the society at Oxford Medieval Society.

Wednesday 31st January:

The Medieval German Seminar meets at 11.15, at St Edmund Hall, Old Library. In Hilary Term, we are going to discuss the writings by ‘Frau Ava’, the first women author whose name we know, this week reading the Last Judgement. We are meeting in the Principal’s Lodgings in St Edmund Hall. Tea and coffee are provided but please bring your own mug! Further information and reading recommendations via the teams channel; if you want to be added to that: please email Henrike Lähnemann.
The Medieval Latin Document Reading Group meets at 4-5pm on Teams. A document is sent out in advance but homework is not expected. Please contact Michael Stansfield for further details and the Teams link.
The Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar meets at 5pm at The Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies 66 St Giles and online via Microsoft Teams by clicking here. This week’s speaker will be Michael Shenkar (the Hebrew University of Jerusalem) – ‘The ‘Timeless Empire’:
Sasanian Iconography as a Historical Source’.
The Medieval English Research Seminar will meet at 5.15pm in Lecture Theatre 2, St Cross Building. Today’s speaker will be Elizabeth Archibald (Durham), ‘Bathing for Health and Pleasure in the Middle Ages – Literary and Social Attitudes’. The seminar will be followed by a wine reception. All welcome!
Dante Reading Group meets at 5.30-7pm in St Anne’s College, Seminar Room 11. Each week, we will be reading through and discussing a canto of the Divine Comedy in a relaxed and informal setting, delving into Dante’s language and imagination in manageable chunks. The group is open to those with or without a knowledge of Italian, the reading being sent out in the original and in translation. Refreshments, both alcoholic and otherwise, will be provided! To register or ask any questions, please email Charles West (Sponsored by TORCH).

Thursday 1st February:

The Ethics of Textual Criticism Seminar meets at 10-12 in Harris Seminar Room, Oriel College. This week’s speaker will be Harald Samuel (Oxford) – ‘Textual criticism of Hebrew texts in different textual cultures’.
The Middle Welsh Reading Group meets at 2-4pm in Jesus College, Habakuk Room. No previous knowledge of Middle Welsh is assumed. Translations will be provided with plenty of time to ask questions at the end. We’ll read a selection of early and late Middle Welsh prose and poetry to offer everyone a chance to experience the richness of Middle Welsh and its literary tradition. Please email to register your interest so that Svetlana knows how many people to expect: Svetlana Ó Siochfhradha Prešern.
The Late Roman Seminar will meet at 4pm in the Seminar Room, Corpus Christi College. This week’s speaker will be Bryan Ward-Perkins ‘Why saints were seen much more often in the late antique East than in the West’.
The Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar meets at 5-6.30pm at the Main Hall of the Taylorian. This week’s speaker is Sophie Bacchus-Waterman (St John’s College Library, Oxford), ‘The French Psalter of Anne Boleyn‘. Stay up to date with events by joining our mailing list or following us on X @MedievalWomenOx. Funded by the “TORCH Critical-Thinking Communities” fund.
The Celtic Seminar meets at 5pm, online via Zoom. Please contact a.elias@wales.ac.uk for the link. This week’s speaker will be Nathan Abrams (Prifysgol Bangor), ‘Capturing and preserving north Wales’s Jewish history’.

Friday 2nd February:

The Medieval Coffee Morning meets as usual 10:30am in the Visiting Scholars Centre of the Weston Library (instructions how to find it) with presentation of items from the special collections, coffee and the chance to see the view from the 5th floor terrace.
The Late Antique Latin Reading Group meets at 12-1pm, in the Hovenden Room, All Souls College, and is open to anyone engaged in research on the late antique world. Though prior knowledge of Latin is required, we welcome people with a range of abilities. We particularly welcome graduate students and early career academics. If you would like to attend, or you have any questions, feel free to contact either of the convenors. Please do RSVP if you intend to attend, so that we can gauge numbers and circulate the readings. Contact: David Addison and Alison John.
The Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group (OMMG) meets at 2pm at The Weston Library. This week’s seminar will be a study and discussion of illuminated manuscripts. Limited spaces, write to the email below. First come first served basis. To subscribe to our mailing list, participate in library visits, propose a presentation of your research for work in progress meetings, or submit any queries, please write to: Elena Lichmanova.
The Crafting Documents Project Launch will take place at 3-4pm in the Memorial Room, Queen’s College. The speakers will be Professor Julia Smith (All Souls’ College), Professor Ira Rabin (BAM, Berlin), Dr Ana de Oliveira Dias (Faculty of History), and Dr José Andrés Porras (Wadham College). To read more about the project, please click here.
Chaucer Now, with Patience Agbabi and Creation Theatre Company will take place at 6pm in the Weston Library. The prize-winning poet Patience Agbabi performs some of her versions of the tales, iand these poems are interspersed with excerpts from The Wife of Willesden, Zadie Smith’s 2021 version of The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale. The performances will be framed by an introduction and a Q&A. After the performance, the exhibition Chaucer Here and Now will be open for viewing with curator Marion Turner. Attendance is free but booking is essential: to book, and for further information, click here.
The Tolkien 50th Anniversary Seminar Series meets at 4-5pm in Merton College T.S. Eliot Lecture Theatre. This week’s speaker will be Bond West (University of Oxford), ‘Mr. Underhill: Topography and the Ring’s Temptation’. Free access (no need to book). Please email Julia Walworth if you need step-free access.
The Anglo-Norman Reading Group meets at 5-6.30pm, at St Hilda’s College, and on Zoom. Please let us know if you would like to attend, either in person or on Zoom. The text – some Jousting Letters from Edingburgh – will be provided via Padlet, and refreshments as usual to help us along. All welcome, at any level of Medieval French! Please contact Stephanie Hathaway <stephanie.hathaway@gmail.com> or Jane Bliss <jane.bliss@lmh.oxon.org>for further details.

Finally, some more wisdom on the importance of teaching and teachers:

non volvitur dies neque nox elabitur ulla sine memoria magisterii tui.
[Not a day nor a night goes by without some remembrance of your instruction.]
A letter (716-20) from Egburg

Whether you are teaching or being taught this week (and of course, we all do both to some degree!) I wish you a fruitful week. May all of your instruction be memorable!

*[Medievalists exchanging memorable instruction]*
St John’s College MS. 61, f. 103 v.
By permission of the President and Fellows of St John’s College, Oxford
Viewable in full at Digital Bodleian

Medieval Matters: Week 2

22/01/2024

14:25

Comments Off on Medieval Matters: Week 2

hilary 24, medieval matters

I do hope that everyone is enjoying being back in Oxford, and returning to seminars and reading groups. It’s lovely to see Oxford’s medievalists coming back together to think and talk about the middle ages: in all of its many facets and languages! We are so lucky to be able to collaborate across so many different faculties, and to discuss with colleagues from so many different disciplinary backgrounds. Here is some wisdom from the Epistolae project on the importance of community discussion:

Haec cogitate, haec inter vos die ac nocte, in secreto et in publico tractate.
[Consider these things, discuss them between yourselves day and night, in private and in public.]
A letter (1100) from Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury to Richeza

This week’s blog post, written by Prof. Marion Turner, also highlights the incredible diversity and variety of the “medieval”, and its potential to spark discussion across many different places and times. Prof. Turner writes about curating the ‘Chaucer Here and Now’ exhibition, which runs from 8 December 2023 to 28 April 2024 at the St Lee Gallery, Weston Library (Bodleian Libraries). The exhibition draws attention to the hugely diverse ways that Chaucer has been interpreted, imagined, and reimagined around the world. To read all about the fantastic exhibition and the rationale behind its curation, read Prof. Turner’s blog post here.

In the spirit of celebrating the plenitude of Oxford’s medieval offerings, we also have a second blog post this week! Elliot Vale explores the translation of Genesis B, the only verifiable example of a vernacular-to-vernacular translation from pre-conquest England. To learn more about the evolving relationship with the continental Saxons, read Elliot’s blog post here. Elliot will be exploring the translation of Genesis B in more detail at the first OCCT discussion group of Hilary Term: Monday 22nd February, 12.45–14.00, Seminar Room 10, St Anne’s College. Lunch provided.

Of course, nowhere is the diversity of Oxford’s medieval community more visible than in the Medieval Booklet! The finalised booklet is now available to view online here, in all of its glory. A reduced-quality pdf version is also attached to this week’s email, for your convenience. See below for the full list of events taking place this week.

EVENTS THIS WEEK:

Monday 22nd January:

The Medieval French Palaeography Reading Group meets at 10.30-12 in the Weston Library. This group is open to anyone with an interest in Old French, Middle French and Anglo-Norman manuscripts. We study and read manuscripts from the 12^th century to the late 15^th century. If you are interested in joining the group or would like more information, please write to: laure.miolo@history.ox.ac.uk
The Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation (OCCT) meets at 12:45-2pm in Seminar Room 10, St Anne’s College. Elliot Vale (University of Oxford) will speak on The Saxon ‘Other’ and the Saxon ‘Self’ in the Translation of Genesis B.
The Medieval Archaeology Seminar meets at 3pm in the Institute of Archaeology, Lecture Room. This week’s speaker will be Brandon Fathy (University of Reading), Becoming Ipswich: A Story of Urban Emergence in the Early Middle Ages.
The Medieval History Seminar meets at 5pm in the Wharton Room, All Souls College. This week’s speaker will be John Merrington (Oxford), ‘Did Charlemagne Worry about his Body?’. The seminar will also be available via Teams: The Teams session can be accessed by logging in to Teams with your .ox.ac.uk account and joining the group “Medieval History Research Seminar” (team code rmppucs). Alternatively, it can be accessed via this link. If you have any difficulties please email: medhistsem@history.ox.ac.uk.
The Old Norse Reading Group meets at 5.30-7pm. We’ll be translating a range of exciting Old Norse texts! To join the mailing list, email Ashley Castelino.

Tuesday 23rd January:

The Centre for Early Medieval Britain and Ireland Lecture takes place at 1pm at the Memorial Room, Worcester College. Today’s speaker will be Prof. Rory Naismith, University of Cambridge: ‘Silver Linings: Money, Plague and Economic Change in 7th and 8th c. England’. Any inquiries should be directed to Meredith Cutrer meredith.cutrer@worc.ox.ac.uk.
The Europe in the Later Middle Ages Seminar meets at 2-3.30pm in the Dolphin Seminar Room, St John’s College. Tea and coffee available from 1.45pm. Undergraduates welcome. This week’s speaker will be James Cogbill, Oxford, ‘A City of Dynasts? Patronage, Competition and Challenge in later medieval Constantinople‘.
The Old High German Reading Group will meet at 4pm in the Committee Room, 41 Wellington Square. If there is appetite amongst attendees, the group will migrate to the Lamb and Flag after the session. Handouts will be provided and no prior knowledge is required! This term the texts—with a different theme for each session—will be chosen from different sections of the Althochdeutsches Lesebuch (Braune 1994), alternating between verse and prose. This week will be Biblical (verse), Christus und die Samariterin (Braune XXXIV) – “Christ and the Samaritan Woman”.
The Medieval Church and Culture Seminar meets at Wellbeloved Room, Harris Manchester College. Tea & coffee from 5pm; papers begin at 5.15pm. This week’s speaker is Ana Dias (History Faculty), ‘Scribes and Scripts: the curious case of early medieval relic labels‘. Everyone is welcome at this informal and friendly graduate seminar!

Wednesday 24th January:

The Medieval German Seminar meets at 11.15, at St Edmund Hall. In Hilary Term, we are going to discuss the writings by ‘Frau Ava’, the first women author whose name we know, transmitted in the Vorau Manuscript. This will be a close reading session led by Dr Anna Wilmore and Dr Linus Ubl. Further information and reading recommendations via the teams channel; if you want to be added to that: please email Henrike Lähnemann.
The Medieval Latin Document Reading Group meets at 4-5pm on Teams. A document is sent out in advance but homework is not expected. Please contact Michael Stansfield for further details and the Teams link.
The Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar meets at 5pm at The Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies 66 St Giles and online via Microsoft Teams by clicking here. This week’s speaker will be Natalija Ristovska (University of Oxford) – ‘The Byzantine Craft of Enamelling and its Links with Islamic Metalwork, c. 800-1204’.
The Medieval English Research Seminar will meet at 5.15pm in Lecture Theatre 2, St Cross Building. Today’s speaker will be Miri Rubi (QMUL), ‘Black/Beautiful: the History of Song of Songs 1:5’. The seminar will be followed by a wine reception. All welcome!
The London Old and Middle English Research Seminar (LOMERS) takes place at 5.30-7.30pm at Senate House, London (Room 102) and online via Teams. Professor Francis Leneghan will speak on the topic of his new project, ‘Towards a New Literary History of Old English Prose’. To register, please visit: https://ies.sas.ac.uk/events/towards-a-new-literary-history-old-english-prose.
Dante Reading Group meets at 5.30-7pm in St Anne’s College, Seminar Room 11. Each week, we will be reading through and discussing a canto of the Divine Comedy in a relaxed and informal setting, delving into Dante’s language and imagination in manageable chunks. The group is open to those with or without a knowledge of Italian, the reading being sent out in the original and in translation. Refreshments, both alcoholic and otherwise, will be provided! To register or ask any questions, please email charles.west@regents.ox.ac.uk (Sponsored by TORCH).

Thursday 25th January:

The Ethics of Textual Criticism Seminar meets at 10-12 in Harris Seminar Room, Oriel College. This week’s speaker will be Alison Salvesen (Oxford) – ‘Hebrew authority, textual criticism, and translation technique: Symmachus and the Megillot’.
The Environmental History Working Group meets at 12.30-2pm, in the History Faculty. For further information, please contact Ryan Mealiffe.
The Middle Welsh Reading Group meets at 2-4pm in Jesus College, Habakuk Room. No previous knowledge of Middle Welsh is assumed. Translations will be provided with plenty of time to ask questions at the end. We’ll read a selection of early and late Middle Welsh prose and poetry to offer everyone a chance to experience the richness of Middle Welsh and its literary tradition. Please email to register your interest so that Svetlana knows how many people to expect: svetlana.osiochfhradhapresern@jesus.ox.ac.uk.
The Late Roman Seminar will meet at 4pm in the Seminar Room, Corpus Christi College. This week’s speakers will be David Addison, Martina Carandino, and John Merrington, ‘Soul and Embodiment in the Late Antique World: Three Case-Studies’
The Seminar in Medieval and Renaissance Music meets at 5pm via Zoom. If you are planning to attend a seminar this term, please register using this form. For each seminar, those who have registered will receive an email with the Zoom invitation and any further materials a couple of days before the seminar. If you have questions, please just send an email to all.souls.music.seminars@gmail.com. This week’s presenter will be Susan Forscher Weiss (Peabody Institute and the Johns Hopkins University), ‘Roman de Volvelles: A Story of Revolving Diagrams in Early Modern Quadrivial Texts’, and the discussants will be Mary Carruthers (Oxford and New York University) and Michael Dodds (North Carolina School for the Arts).
The Medieval Visual Culture Seminar meets at 5pm in St Catherine’s College, Arumagam Building. This week’s speaker will be Emily Guerry (University of Kent), ‘Diplomacy and Devotion in the Gothic Wall Paintings of Angers Cathedral.
The Medieval Women’s Writing Reading Group meets at 5-6.30pm in Lincoln College Lower Lecture Room. This week’s reading will be Frau Ava’s Poetry. Stay up to date with events by joining our mailing list or following us on X @MedievalWomenOx. Texts for the reading group are shared on the mailing list.
The Celtic Seminar meets at 5.15pm, in Memorial Room, Jesus College, and online via Teams. Please contact david.willis@ling-phil.ox.ac.uk if you need a link to join online. This week’s speaker will be Caitlyn Brinkman-Schwartz (University of Oxford), Race, Revival and Revolution: Defining the Irish ‘Celt’.

Friday 26th January:

The Late Antique Latin Reading Group meets at 12-1pm, in the Hovenden Room, All Souls College, and is open to anyone engaged in research on the late antique world. Though prior knowledge of Latin is required, we welcome people with a range of abilities. We particularly welcome graduate students and early career academics. If you would like to attend, or you have any questions, feel free to contact either of the convenors. Please do RSVP if you intend to attend, so that we can gauge numbers and circulate the readings. Contact: David Addison (david.addison@all-souls.ox.ac.uk) and Alison John (alison.john@all-souls.ox.ac.uk).
Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln Archives meets at 2-3pm, in Seminar Room 2, EPA Centre, Museum Road. Anyone interested in analyzing primary sources and conducting a comprehensive examination of the documents are welcome to attend. Those who are interested can contact Lindsay McCormack and Laure Miolo via email: lindsay.mccormack@lincoln.ox.ac.uk and laure.miolo@history.ox.ac.uk
The Tolkien 50th Anniversary Seminar Series meets at 4-5pm in Corpus Christi College Auditorium. This week’s speaker will be Elena Vermeer (University of Oxford), ‘Tolkien’s ‘Sellic Spell’ and Beowulfian Poetics: the Artist and the Critic‘. Free access (no need to book).

OPPORTUNITIES:

Finally, a little piece of wisdom to help us all cope with the horribly cold weather that we’ve been having this past week:

ex grandine pretiosi lapides procreentur
[precious gems may be generated from a hailstone]
A letter (1156-57) from Osbert of Clare to Adelidis of Barking

It’s true that the beauty of Oxford’s colleges in January, when the winter light hits them, almost makes up for the cold and rain! I hope that your week contains more precious gems than hailstones, and that you find joys even in unlikely places!

*[Medievalists find it easier to enjoy the ‘precious gemstone’ of Oxford in winter from the safety of indoors, where no hailstones can reach…]*
St John’s College MS. 61, f. 2 r.
By permission of the President and Fellows of St John’s College, Oxford
Viewable in full at Digital Bodleian

Medieval Matters: Week 1

15/01/2024

13:39

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events, hilary 24, news

On behalf of OMS, welcome back to Oxford, and to this term’s Medieval Matters newsletter! I hope you are all feeling well rested and ready for a busy term of medieval events. Oxford always feels very quiet in the first week of January, and this extract from the Epistolae project summarises the feeling of waiting for the medievalists to return for the new term:

Revertere […] ut […] in tuo reditu laetitia redeat universis
[Return […] so that […] by your return, happiness may return to all]
A letter from Rotrud of Rouen, archibishop, to Eleanor of Aquitane

It’s a delight and a happiness to welcome you all back. To bring further happiness, I come bearing New Year’s Gifts in the form of the Medieval Booklet, which lists all of the events, seminars and reading groups happening this term, alongside a whole host of opportunities, from CFPs to micro-internships. Click here to view the booklet. A final version will be attached to next week’s email as a pdf. New year, though, is a time for fresh things as well as old ones, and inside the booklet will find the return of many old favourites, but also some brand new groups and events joining us for the new year. A particularly warm welcome to the brand new Middle Welsh Reading Group, Oxford Medieval Studies Greek and Latin Reading Group, and Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group!

A further happiness and New Year’s Gift can be found on our blog. To herald the new year, poet and DPhil student, Clare Mulley, recounts her experience of interpreting, translating and performing one of the most famous poems in the Old Norse canon for the Old Norse Poetry in Performance 2023. Read Clare’s wonderful account on our blog here.

We have so much in store for you this term, and I for one am excited for it all to begin. In particular, please save the date for our termly OMS lecture, in which Peregrine Horden (All Souls) will speak on ‘Healthy Crusading in the Age of Frederick II: the puzzle of Adam of Cremona‘. The lecture will take place on Tuesday 5th March (8th Week), 5pm: mark it in your diaries and calendars! For now, here is this week’s roundup:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Save the Date: Oxford Medieval Society. Thurs 29 Feb / 7th week : “The hooly blisful martir for to seke: Manuscripts with Chaucer’s pilgrims”. Oxford Medieval Society talk and manuscript session with Andrew Dunning (Bodleian, Jesus) and Alison Ray (St Peter’s, All Souls). Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales tell the story of pilgrims ‘from every shires ende / Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende’. Experience these journeys, both real and imagined, at 15:00–16:30 at the Weston Library Lecture Theatre, where we’ll explore the Chaucer Here and Now exhibition at the Bodleian Library and enjoy a private showing of manuscripts relating to pilgrimage and Thomas Becket. Please register your attendance at Oxford Medieval Society.
Recordings of the Tolkien 50th Anniversary Seminars held in Michaelmas Term in Exeter College are now available here: https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/fantasy-literature.

EVENTS THIS WEEK:

Monday 15th January:

The Medieval French Palaeography Reading Group meets at 10.30-12 in the Weston Library. This group is open to anyone with an interest in Old French, Middle French and Anglo-Norman manuscripts. We study and read manuscripts from the 12^th century to the late 15^th century. If you are interested in joining the group or would like more information, please write to: laure.miolo@history.ox.ac.uk
The Medieval History Seminar meets at 5pm in the Wharton Room, All Souls College. This week’s speaker will be Conor O’Brien (Oxford), ‘The Rise of Christian Kingship and the De-Secularization of the Latin West’. The seminar will also be available via Teams: The Teams session can be accessed by logging in to Teams with your .ox.ac.uk account and joining the group “Medieval History Research Seminar” (team code rmppucs). Alternatively, it can be accessed via this link. If you have any difficulties please email: medhistsem@history.ox.ac.uk.

Tuesday 16th January:

The Europe in the Later Middle Ages Seminar meets at 2-3.30pm in the Dolphin Seminar Room, St John’s College. Tea and coffee available from 1.45pm. Undergraduates welcome. This week will be a discussion session.
The Medieval Church and Culture Seminar meets at Wellbeloved Room, Harris Manchester College. Tea & coffee from 5pm; papers begin at 5.15pm. This week’s speaker is Emma-Catherine Wilson (Hertford), ‘Crying Rich Folks’ Lauds: the social status of heralds in the late Middle Ages‘. Everyone is welcome at this informal and friendly graduate seminar!
The Old Occitan Literature Workshop meets at 5-6pm at Taylor Institution, Hall. In Hilary term, we will read and translate extracts from texts written in Old Occitan. All welcome! Please email the address below for details of the texts we will be working on. Interested members will be invited to translate short passages which we will then workshop in meetings 2 and 3. To sign up, or for any other queries, email Kate Travers.

Wednesday 17th January:

The Medieval German Seminar meets at 11.15, at St Edmund Hall, Old Library. This week we will have a shorter organisational meeting. In Hilary Term, we are going to discuss the writings by ‘Frau Ava’, the first women author whose name we know, transmitted in the Vorau Manuscript. We will work with the edition by Maike Claußnitzer and Kassandra Sperl. We will meet in the Old Library in St Edmund Hall. Tea and coffee are provided but please bring your own mug! Further information and reading recommendations via the teams channel; if you want to be added to that: please email Henrike Lähnemann.
The Medieval Latin Document Reading Group meets at 4-5pm on Teams. A document is sent out in advance but homework is not expected. Please contact Michael Stansfield for further details and the Teams link.
The Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar meets at 5pm at The Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies 66 St Giles and online via Microsoft Teams by clicking here. This week’s speaker will be Christian Sahner (University of Oxford) – ‘How Zoroastrians Debated Muslims in the Early Islamic Period‘.
The Medieval English Research Seminar will meet at 5.15pm in Lecture Theatre 2, St Cross Building. Today’s speakers will be Jasmine Jones (Oxford), ‘Monasticism, Mystery and the Mind: The Vernacular Theology of the Old English Daniel’ and Charlotte Ross (Oxford), ‘Manuscripts and Readers of Thomas Hoccleve’s The Regiment of Princes‘. The seminar will be followed by a wine reception. All welcome!
Dante Reading Group meets at 5.30-7pm in St Anne’s College, Seminar Room 11. Each week, we will be reading through and discussing a canto of the Divine Comedy in a relaxed and informal setting, delving into Dante’s language and imagination in manageable chunks. The group is open to those with or without a knowledge of Italian, the reading being sent out in the original and in translation. Refreshments, both alcoholic and otherwise, will be provided! To register or ask any questions, please email Charles West (Sponsored by TORCH).

Thursday 18th January:

The Late Roman Seminar will meet at 4pm in the Seminar Room, Corpus Christi College. This week’s speaker will be Ana Dias, ‘‘May the voice of the faithful resound’: colophons in early Iberian manuscripts’.
The Ethics of Textual Criticism Seminar meets at 10-12 in Harris Seminar Room, Oriel College. This week’s speaker will be Tristan Franklinos (Oxford) – ‘On whose authority? Editing ancient and medieval Latin texts – some examples’.
The Middle Welsh Reading Group meets at 2-4pm in Jesus College, Habakuk Room. No previous knowledge of Middle Welsh is assumed. Translations will be provided with plenty of time to ask questions at the end. We’ll read a selection of early and late Middle Welsh prose and poetry to offer everyone a chance to experience the richness of Middle Welsh and its literary tradition. This week Svetlana will be waiting at the porters’ lodge by the Turl Street entrance until about 2:05pm. For any late comers, please email the address below. Please email to register your interest so that Svetlana knows how many people to expect: Svetlana Ó Siochfhradha Prešern.

Friday 19th January:

The Ethics of Textual Criticism Seminar meets at 12-3.30 in Ioannou Centre, 66 St Giles. This week’s speaker will be Irene Peirano Garrison (Harvard) – ‘Latin grammar in the Age of Philology’.
The Late Antique Latin Reading Group meets at 12-1pm, in the Hovenden Room, All Souls College, and is open to anyone engaged in research on the late antique world. Though prior knowledge of Latin is required, we welcome people with a range of abilities. We particularly welcome graduate students and early career academics. If you would like to attend, or you have any questions, feel free to contact either of the convenors. Please do RSVP if you intend to attend, so that we can gauge numbers and circulate the readings. Contact: David Addison and Alison John.
Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln Archives meets at 2-3pm, in Seminar Room 2, EPA Centre, Museum Road. Anyone interested in analyzing primary sources and conducting a comprehensive examination of the documents are welcome to attend. Those who are interested can contact Lindsay McCormack and Laure Miolo via email: lindsay.mccormack@lincoln.ox.ac.uk and laure.miolo@history.ox.ac.uk
The Tolkien 50th Anniversary Seminar Series meets at 4-5pm in Merton College T.S. Eliot Lecture Theatre. This week’s speaker will be Mark Atherton (University of Oxford), ‘The Arkenstone and the Ring: wilful objects in Tolkien’s The Hobbit’’ Free access (no need to book). Please email Julia Walworth if you need step-free access.
The Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group (OMMG) meets at 5pm at Merton College, Hawkins Room. This week’s seminar will be Reading and discussion of Elina Gertsman, The Absent Image: Lacunae in Medieval Books (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2021). All welcome. Write to the email below if you do not have access to the online version of this book. To subscribe to our mailing list, participate in library visits, propose a presentation of your research for work in progress meetings, or submit any queries, please write to Elena Lichmanova.
The Anglo-Norman Reading Group meets at 5-6.30pm, at St Hilda’s College, and on Zoom. Please let us know if you would like to attend, either in person or on Zoom. The text – some Jousting Letters from Edingburgh – will be provided via Padlet, and refreshments as usual to help us along. All welcome, at any level of Medieval French! Please contact Stephanie Hathaway Stephanie Hathaway or Jane Bliss for further details.

OPPORTUNITIES:

Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group (OMMG): To sign up for the Weston library visit (Week 3) or to present work at the WIP meeting (Week 5), please email Elena Lichmanova by 21/01/2024.
CFP: Bristol Centre For Medieval Studies Graduate Conference DEADLINE: 22 January 2024. We encourage abstracts from postgraduates and early-career researchers, exploring aspects and approaches to bodies and boundaries in all relevant disciplines pertaining to the medieval period, broadly construed c.500- c.1500. Abstracts are 300 words for 20-minute papers. This year’s conference will be a hybrid event, taking place both online and on the campus of the University of Bristol. For full details see here.
CFP: Brut in Bristol, Thursday 27 June – Saturday 29 June 2024: The Centre for Medieval Studies at Bristol is very excited at the prospect of hosting the International Brut Conference, Thursday 27th – Saturday 29th June 2024. We invite proposals for 20-minute papers in English or French on the wider Brut tradition from all angles and disciplines, including medieval and Early Modern languages and literatures, and art, book, cultural, intellectual, political, religious, or any other kind of history. Proposals are welcome from academics at all career stages and from independent scholars. For more information contact: brut-conference2024@bristol.ac.uk.
CFP: COLSONOEL: After a four-year hiatus, we are excited to announce the rebirth of the Cambridge, Oxford and London Symposium for Old Norse, Old English and Latin! This symposium will take place on Friday 3 May at St. Hilda’s College, University of Oxford. We invite abstracts from postgraduates, both masters and PhDs, currently undertaking degrees or recently graduated from the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and from the London group. Papers will be twenty minutes in length and followed by questions. Please submit abstracts of no more than 250 words with a short biography to colsonoelsymposium@gmail.com. Deadline for abstract submissions is 31st January 2024.
CFP: International Courtly Literature Society British and Irish Branch Conference 2024: Court Cultures: Texts and Contexts, Trinity College, the University of Dublin, 18-19 June 2024. We invite proposals in English or in French (maximum 200 words) for either 20-minute papers or full panels of three papers (each of 20 minutes duration) to be submitted by 5 p.m. on Friday 16 February 2024 to Dr Sarah Alyn Stacey (salynsta@tcd.ie) and Dr Thomas Hinton (T.G.Hinton@exeter.ac.uk ). Acceptance of papers will be confirmed by Friday 1 March 2024.
Heritage Pathway Training Programme: Heritage Pathway is a series of training and engagement activities which run termly. Heritage Pathway is designed and delivered by Alice Purkiss and Dr Rachel Delman and organised through the Humanities Researcher Training and Development Programme. Sign up to this term’s sessions, which are open to all students and ECRs with an Oxford SSO, here: Heritage Pathway | TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities.

If you have forgotten to submit your Medieval Booklet entries, please do not worry: we will send a finalised version next week. Here is some final wisdom, which was almost certainly written with ‘Medieval Matters: Addendum’ emails in mind:

Miraculorum quaedam vel oblivioni tradita vel antea incognita nunc vero comperta notitiae vestrae praesentare cupio.
[ I desire to present to your notice certain miracles either forgotten or hitherto unknown which have truly now been discovered.]
A letter from Ubaldo, bishop of Mantova, to Matilda of Tuscany

I look forward to presenting you all with forgotten or hitherto unknown reading groups and seminars next week! In the meantime, may you have a week filled with productive research and welcoming back friends and colleagues!

*[A Medievalist realises that they forgot to submit their contribution to the HT Booklet…]*
St John’s College MS. 61, f. 50 r.
By permission of the President and Fellows of St John’s College, Oxford
Viewable in full at Digital Bodleian

Medieval Matters: Week 8

27/11/2023

12:32

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Somehow we are now at the very end of Michaelmas Term! It seems to have flown by so quickly. We’ve had such a wonderful range of talks, seminars and reading groups, representing an increasing number of disciplinary approaches, languages and thematic approaches. Thank you all so much for making this such a wonderful term!

This may be the end of term, but this week’s blog post celebrates new beginnings: namely the beginning of a new TORCH network! Dr Ugo Mondini’s blog post gives us an insight into exciting things to come from the new network Poetry in the Medieval World, which explores premodern literature from a global perspective. To find out more about this exciting new network and the opportunities it presents, check out Ugo’s post here.

For the full line up this week, please see below:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Call for Readers! For the relay-reading of two German pamphlets, see below Friday. Full instructions, audiofile, and pdf of the new edition
“A Modern Idea of a Medieval College: John Henry Newman’s Medievalism” Tuesday 28 November, 4–5 pm, Oriel College, 1^st Quad, Staircase 3 Room 3. All are welcome to this talk given by Dr Christopher Snyder, Senior Academic Visitor (Michaelmas Term 2023) and Professor of History, Mississippi State University. John Henry Newman’s brief time as a Tutorial Fellow at Oriel College (1826-32) was formative in many ways, not least in providing the young tutor and scholar with an intellectual and spiritual home that served as a collegiate ideal for him long after he left Oxford. This informal talk will raise issues of Newman’s interest in and understanding of the medieval university and of residential colleges as well as his arguments for the continuing relevance of “medievalist” ideals in modern higher education.
The British Archaeological Association Post-Graduate Online Conference take place on, 29 November 2023, 12.30pm – 17.35pm (GMT). The British Archaeological Association are excited to present a diverse conference which includes postgraduates and early career researchers in medieval history of art, architecture, and archaeology. See the conference programme here and register for the conference here.

EVENTS THIS WEEK:

Monday 27th November:

The Medieval Latin Manuscript Reading Group meets at 1-2pm66 on Teams. A friendly venue to practice your Latin and palaeography on a range of texts and scripts over the year. Sign up to the mailing list to receive weekly updates and Teams invites.
Queer and Trans Medievalisms: A Reading and Research Group meets at 3pm at Univ. All extremely welcome! This week is a Florilegium: bring in your own queer medievalisms to discuss! W. H. Auden! Leslie Feinberg! BBC Merlin! Lil Nas X’s ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)!’ Endless possibilities! To join the mailing list and get texts in advance, or if you have any questions, email Rowan Wilson.
The Medieval Archeology Seminar meets at 3pm at the Institute of Archaeology, Lecture Room. This week’s speaker will be Sarah Semple, Durham University, ‘People and place in the early medieval kingdom of Northumbria. New fieldwork.’
The Medieval History Seminar meets at 5pm in the Wharton Room, All Souls College. This week’s speaker will be Rory Naismith (Corpus, Cambridge), ‘Coined Money in the Early Middle Ages: did it matter?‘. The seminar will also be available via Teams: the Teams session can be accessed by logging in to Teams with your .ox.ac.uk account and joining the group “Medieval History Research Seminar” (team code rmppucs). Alternatively, it can be accessed via this link. If you have any difficulties please email: medhistsem@history.ox.ac.uk.
The Old Norse Reading Group meets at 5.30-7pm. We’ll be translating a range of exciting Old Norse texts! To join the mailing list, email Ashley Castelino.

Tuesday 28th November:

“A Modern Idea of a Medieval College: John Henry Newman’s Medievalism”, a talk given by senior academic visitor Dr Christopher Snyder, will take place at 4–5 pm, in Oriel College, 1^st Quad, Staircase 3 Room 3. All are welcome to this talk.
The Seminar in Medieval and Renaissance Music meets at 5-7pm, online via Zoom. This week’s speaker will be Peter Lefferts (University of Nebraska): ‘Disiecta Membra Musicae: A new facsimile edition of music manuscript fragments from 14th-Century England’. The discussants will be Andrew Wathey (The National Archives / University of Northumbria) and Jared Hartt (Oberlin College). If you are planning to attend a seminar this term, please register using this form. For each seminar, those who have registered will receive an email with the Zoom invitation and any further materials a couple of days before the seminar. If you have questions, please just send an email to all.souls.music.seminars@gmail.com. Please note, this address will now be the main point of contact for these seminars.
The Medieval Church and Culture Seminar meets at Wellbeloved Room, Harris Manchester College. Tea & coffee from 5pm; papers begin at 5.15pm. This week’s speaker is Eleanor Birch (Pembroke) ‘Medieval Misogyny: horned women and unhorned men‘. Everyone is welcome at this informal and friendly graduate seminar!

Wednesday 29th November:

The Medieval German Seminar meets at 11.15, at Somerville College. This week we have the chance to discuss with the forthcoming study edition by Christine Putzo of Konrad Fleck’s ‘Flore und Blancheflur’ with Christine herself. Please email Henrike Lähnemann if you would like to attend or if you have suggestions for next term’s theme!
The British Archaeological Association Post-Graduate Online Conference takes place from 12.30pm – 17.35pm (GMT). See the conference programme here and register for the conference here.
The Centre for Early Medieval Britain and Ireland meets at 12pm in the Memorial Room, Worcester College for this term’s lecture. This term’s speaker will be Dr Janina Ramirez FRSA FRHistS (Harris Manchester College), ‘Are Early Medieval Woman “Unrecoverable”?’. Everyone is welcome! Light refreshments beforehand in Worcester Cloisters. Please note the change of room!
The Medieval Latin Document Reading Group meets at 4-5pm on Teams. A document is sent out in advance but homework is not expected. Please contact Michael Stansfield for further details and the Teams link.
The Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar meets at 5pm at The Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies 66 St Giles and online via Microsoft Teams by clicking here. This week’s speaker will be Peter Bara (The Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest), ‘Translators, Patrons, Scholars: Greek Texts in Latin Translations from Production to Audience, ca. 1050–1350‘.
Dante Reading Group meets at 5.30-7pm in St Anne’s College, Seminar Room 11. The group is open to those with or without a knowledge of Italian, the reading being sent out in the original and in translation. Refreshments, both alcoholic and otherwise, will be provided! To register or ask any any questions, please email Charles West

Thursday 30th November:

The Medieval Hebrew Reading Group meets at 10-11am in Catherine Lewis Lecture Theatre, Clarendon Institute, and online via Zoom. In order to attend this reading group via Zoom, please register here. This reading group is an opportunity to practice reading directly from images of medieval Hebrew manuscripts in an informal setting. All skill levels are welcome! There will be coffee, tea and cake afterwards in the Common Room of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies for those attending in person. For further information, please email Joseph Ohara.
The Digital Editions Community of Practice Group meets at 1-2pm in the Taylor Institution Library Room 2. Each session will include a brief talk, followed by an opportunity for discussion. Hot water, tea, coffee, milk and biscuits will be provided. Please feel free to bring your own lunch (and a mug for the hot drinks!). This week’s speaker will be Emma Huber, PRISMS – linking data and creating knowledge with Digital Editions.
The Medieval Women’s Writing Reading Group meets at 3-4pm in Lincoln College Lower Lecture Room. This week’s reading will be Christine de Pizan’s Epistre a la reine. Please email katherine.smith@lincoln.ox.ac.uk to be added to the mailing list and get texts in advance, or to find out more.
The Medieval Visual Culture Seminar meets at 5pm in St Catherine’s College, Arumugam Building. This week’s speaker will be Alexandra Gajewski (The Burlington Magazine), ‘Theodechilde, Potentin and Osanna: Saints and Cult at Jouarre Abbey in the Middle Ages’. For queries, contact Elena Lichmanova.
The Celtic Seminar meets at 5.15pm, in the History of the Book Room, English Faculty, and online via Teams. Please contact David Willis if you need a link to join online. This week’s speaker will be Oliver Currie (Ljubljana), ‘The linguistic testimony of Early Modern Welsh manuscript sermons’.

Friday 1st December:

The Medieval Coffee Morning meets as usual 10:30am in the Visiting Scholars Centre of the Weston Library (instructions how to find it) with presentation of items from the special collections, coffee and the chance to see the view from the 5th floor terrace.
The Byzantine Text Seminar meets at Ioannou Centre, Outreach Room, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. We are reading passages from Medieval Greek historians. Intermediate knowledge of Greek is required.
The Lectures in Byzantine Literature take place in the Ioannou Centre, Seminar Room, 12:15 – 1:15 p.m. We are speaking about Byzantine education. No knowledge of Greek is required.
Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln Archives meets at 2-3pm, Seminar Room 2, EPA Centre, Museum Road, OX1 3PX. Anyone interested in analyzing primary sources and conducting a comprehensive examination of the documents are welcome to attend. As well as collaborating on unpublished sources, attendees will gain experience in digitisation of sources and publish their analysis online. Students will prepare their item for exhibition, and a one-day workshop on these sources will be held in Trinity Term. Those who are interested can contact via email: Lindsay McCormack and Laure Miolo
Monk-calf and Nuns on the Run: Launch of the new edition of two pamphlets by Martin Luther from 1523, Taylor Institution Library, Room 2, 3-4pm with a relay-reading of the two texts. Please email Henrike Lähnemann if you would be prepared to read a paragraph. Full instructions, audiofile, and pdf of the new edition available on the History of the Book blog!

OPPORTUNITIES:

PhD Opportunity at Ruhr-University Bochum (Germany) The Junior Professorship of Medieval Studies at the Department of English addresses different aspects of the English Middle Ages (c. 700-c. 1500) in both research and teaching and invites applications for a PhD Assistant. The successful candidate will conduct their own doctoral research project in the areas of Old and/or Middle English language, literature, and/or culture. For full details, please click here.
Acta Mediaevalia. Series nova – Call for papers The first issue of the journal, entitled “The Age of Transition. Crisis, Reform, and Renewal in Late Medieval Central and Eastern Europe,” will be devoted to the “long fifteenth century” (c. 1375–1525). The editors invite you to submit papers until the end of May 2024. For more details, please click here.

This is our last email of the term. Many of you will remain in Oxford, at least for another few weeks; others will be leaving the city to enjoy the vac whereve they call home. Wherever you are this vac, here is some wisdom from the Epistolae project for anyone gift-giving or receiving:

Huius muneris magnitudinem ut non consideres, sed spiritalis caritatis amorem adtende, poscimus.
[We pray you not to think of the size of the gift but to remember the loving spirit.]
A letter (732-42) from Denehard, Lul, and Burchard to Cuneburg

Thank you for all of your hard work organising, attending, and presenting at events this term. The medievalist community at Oxford is such an incredible gift, and your loving (intellectual) spirit is what keeps it going. So thank you to you all. I wish you all a wonderful vac, and hope you enjoy both gifts and loving spirit. See you again in January!

*[A Medievalist gives a gift that is small in size but large in loving spirit]*
St John’s College MS. 61, f. 2 r.
By permission of the President and Fellows of St John’s College, Oxford
Viewable in full at Digital Bodleian

Medieval Matters: Week 7

20/11/2023

15:46

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This coming Saturday brings us to Oxmas: Merry Oxmas to one and all! For those new to Oxford, ‘Oxmas’ refers to Christmas at Oxford, which takes place on 25 November – exactly one month before Christmas day. Here is some seasonal advice from the Epistolae project:

Libenter nanque atque gratanter vestrae salutationis munuscula suscepimus […] isdem digna reconpensare disideramus
[Willingly and gratefully we received the little gifts of your greeting and […] we desire to repay them worthily]
A letter (729-44) from Cuneburg, Cuneburga/Cuniburg to Coengils of Glastonbury

Of course, your seminar papers, reading group organisation, and participation are always willingly and gratefully received. What a wide array of gifts we have on offer, this week and every week! We have a particularly wonderful line-up this week, including a special guest lecture from Professor Miri Rubin (QMUL), organised by the newly re-established Oxford Medieval Society – this Thursday at 5pm.

Speaking of gifts, this week, our blog spot is a CFP for the Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference. This has long been an important event in the Oxford Medievalist calendar, and is a wonderful opportunity for our youngest and newest medievalists to meet each other and also medievalists outside of Oxford: please do disseminate this widely! For a taster of the kind of excitement that might lie in store, see the write-up from last year’s conference, by OMS’ own Ashley Castlino.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

In Memoriam: The community will be sorry to learn of the death (in her mid-nineties) of Pauline Matarasso, medievalist, literary scholar, translator, poet, Benedictine Oblate, on Nov 15, 2023, at Sobell Hospice. Although she had been ill for some time she was alert and working until the end. She was a singularly gracious, grace-filled woman and had many friends from various walks of life. The funeral will be at the Oratory, but the details and date have yet to be announced.
Oxford Medieval Society invites you to their Michaelmas lecture at 5pm on Thursday, in the Old Law Library, All Souls College. Professor Miri Rubin (QMUL) will be exploring medieval race, beauty, and biblical exegesis in her lecture: “Black/Beautiful: Song of Songs 1:5, A Verse with a Difference”, followed by a wine reception.

EVENTS THIS WEEK:

Monday 20th November:

The Medieval Latin Manuscript Reading Group meets at 1-2pm on Teams. A friendly venue to practice your Latin and palaeography on a range of texts and scripts over the year. Sign up to the mailing list to receive weekly updates and Teams invites. https://web.maillist.ox.ac.uk/ox/info/medieval-latin-ms-reading
Queer and Trans Medievalisms: A Reading and Research Group meets at 3pm at Univ. All extremely welcome! This week’s discussion will centre blood, saints, leprosy, AIDS (The medievalisms of Derek Jarman (1942-1994)). To join the mailing list and get texts in advance, or if you have any questions, email rowan.wilson@univ.ox.ac.uk.
The Medieval Archeology Seminar meets at 3pm at the Institute of Archaeology, Lecture Room. This week’s speaker will be Elisabeth Lorans (University of Tours), ‘Transformation of Roman capital cities in Gaul between the 4th and 10th centuries‘.
The Medieval History Seminar meets at 5pm in the Wharton Room, All Souls College. This week’s speaker will be Nadine Viermann (Durham) ‘Translating Holiness: Relics and the Dynamics of Empire in the Late Antique Mediterranean‘. The seminar will also be available via Teams: the Teams session can be accessed by logging in to Teams with your .ox.ac.uk account and joining the group “Medieval History Research Seminar” (team code rmppucs). Alternatively, it can be accessed via this link. If you have any difficulties please email: medhistsem@history.ox.ac.uk.

Tuesday 21st November:

The Medieval Church and Culture Seminar meets at Wellbeloved Room, Harris Manchester College. Tea & coffee from 5pm; papers begin at 5.15pm. This week’s speaker is Charlotte Wood (Univ), ‘Combs and Inhumations: the presence of combs in burials c. 700-1000‘. Everyone is welcome at this informal and friendly graduate seminar!
The Medieval French Research Seminar will meet at the Maison Francaise d’Oxford on Norham Road. Drinks will be available from 5pm; presentations start at 5.15pm. This week’s speaker will be Miranda Griffin (Cambridge): ‘Don’t look now: missing images and prohibited vision in Bodley 445‘. All are welcome! For more information or to be added to the seminar maillist, please contact helen.swift@st-hildas.ox.ac.uk

Wednesday 22nd November:

The Medieval German Seminar meets at 11.15, at Somerville College. In Michaelmas Term, we are going to discuss the forthcoming study edition by Christine Putzo of Konrad Fleck’s ‘Flore und Blancheflur’, this week the figure of Charlemagne with Karen Wenzel and Kira Kohlgrüber. Please also consider which text we should discuss next term! Further information and reading recommendations via the teams channel; if you want to be added to that: please email Henrike Lähnemann.
TORCH Book at Lunchtime meets at 12.30pm for lunch, 1pm- 2pm discussion in Seminar room, Radcliffe Humanities Building, Woodstock Road, Oxford. TORCH welcomes Nicholas Perkins, Professor of Medieval Literature and Fellow of St Hugh’s College to discuss his book The Gift of Narrative in Medieval England. The book places medieval narratives in dialogue with theories and practices of gift and exchange. Join Professor Perkins and an expert panel including Professor Helen Swift (Medieval French Studies, Faculty of Medieval & Modern Languages) and Dr Lucy Brookes (Fitzjames Research Fellow, Medieval English Language and Literature) to discuss The Gift of Narrative in Medieval England.
The Medieval Latin Document Reading Group meets at 4-5pm on Teams. A document is sent out in advance but homework is not expected. Please contact Michael Stansfield (michael.stansfield@new.ox.ac.uk) for further details and the Teams link.
The Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar meets at 5pm at The Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies 66 St Giles and online via Microsoft Teams by clicking here. This week’s speaker will be Paolo Sachet (L’Institut d’histoire de la Réformation, Geneva), ‘The Greek Fathers in Print: the AGAPE Database and the Early Modern Patristic Editions.‘
Dante Reading Group meets at 5.30-7pm in St Anne’s College, Seminar Room 11. The group is open to those with or without a knowledge of Italian, the reading being sent out in the original and in translation. Refreshments, both alcoholic and otherwise, will be provided! To register or ask any any questions, please email charles.west@regents.ox.ac.uk

Thursday 23rd November:

The Medieval Hebrew Reading Group meets at 10-11am in Catherine Lewis Lecture Theatre, Clarendon Institute, and online via Zoom. In order to attend this reading group via Zoom, please register here. This reading group is an opportunity to practice reading directly from images of medieval Hebrew manuscripts in an informal setting. All skill levels are welcome! There will be coffee, tea and cake afterwards in the Common Room of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies for those attending in person. For further information, please email joseph.ohara@ames.ox.ac.uk.
The Environmental History Working Group meets at 12.30-2pm, in the History Faculty, Gerry Marton Room. This week will be a discussion with Venus Bivar, Associate Professor of Environmental History post-1750. For further information, please contact ryan.mealiffe@wolfson.ox.ac.uk.
The Germanic Reading Group meets at 4pm, online via Zoom. Please contact Howard Jones Howard.Jones@sbs.ox.ac.uk to request the handouts and to be added to the list. This week’s reading will be Thor poetry in Norse (Nelson Goering leading).
The Oxford Medieval Society Lecture takes place at 5pm at All Souls College, Old Library. The lecture will be given by Prof. Miri Rubin (QMUL), speaking on ‘Black/Beautiful: Song of Songs 1:5, A Verse with a Difference’.
The Celtic Seminar meets at 5pm, online via Zoom. Please contact a.elias@wales.ac.uk for the link. This week’s speaker will be Sara Elin Roberts (Chester), ‘”O’r llyvrev gorev a kavas”: Cynnull y Llyfrau Cyfraith’.
The Old Occitan Literature Workshop meets at 5-6pm at St Hugh’s College, 74 Woodstock Road, Office A4. The topic of this week’s meeting will be Making a Tradition: Celebration and Satire (Peire d’Alvernhe (1149-68): Vida, “Cantarai d’aqestz trobadors”; Lo Monge de Montaudon (1193-1210): Vida, “Pus Peire d’Alvernh’ a cantat”). To sign up, or for any other queries, email Kate Travers: katherine.travers@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk.

Friday 24th November:

The Medieval Coffee Morning meets as usual 10:30am in the Visiting Scholars Centre of the Weston Library (instructions how to find it) with presentation of items from the special collections, coffee and the chance to see the view from the 5th floor terrace.
The Byzantine Text Seminar meets at Ioannou Centre, Outreach Room, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. We are reading passages from Medieval Greek historians. Intermediate knowledge of Greek is required.
The Lectures in Byzantine Literature take place in the Ioannou Centre, Seminar Room, 12:15 – 1:15 p.m. We are speaking about Byzantine education. No knowledge of Greek is required.
Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln Archives meets at 2-3pm, Seminar Room 2, EPA Centre, Museum Road, OX1 3PX. Anyone interested in analyzing primary sources and conducting a comprehensive examination of the documents are welcome to attend. As well as collaborating on unpublished sources, attendees will gain experience in digitisation of sources and publish their analysis online. Students will prepare their item for exhibition, and a one-day workshop on these sources will be held in Trinity Term. Those who are interested can contact Lindsay McCormack and Laure Miolo via email: lindsay.mccormack@lincoln.ox.ac.uk and laure.miolo@history.ox.ac.uk
Guest lecture by Julia Frick Zürich) ‘The Bible in Three Songs’, 3-4pm, Taylor Institution Library, Room 2 (part of Henrike Lähnemann’s lecture series ‘Poetry 1400-1600’). All welcome!
The Anglo-Norman Reading Group meets at 5-6.30pm, in the Julia Mann Room, St Hilda’s College, and Zoom. Please let us know if you would like to attend, either in person or on Zoom; reminders including the Zoom link will be sent to those who have expressed interest. To register interest, or for more information, please contact Jane Bliss jane.bliss@lmh.oxon.org and/or Stephanie stephanie.hathaway@gmail.com.

OPPORTUNITIES:

We are pleased to announce that the 26th Biennial SASMARS Conference will be held from 1 to 4 August 2024 at the Mont Fleur Conference Venue in Stellenbosch, South Africa. Papers may cover any time period within the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and deal with any area of interest or discipline that could be relevant to the topic “What Lies Beneath”. For full details, please click here.
The Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature warmly welcomes entries to the 2024 Medium Aevum Essay Prize. Please note that this year the deadline is on Monday 4 December 2023. For more information see https://aevum.space/EssayPrize
Neil Ker Memorial Fund 2023-2024: The object of this fund is to promote the study of western medieval manuscripts, in particular those of British interest. Applications are invited from early career and established scholars of any nationality, engaged on original research intended to produce monographs, editions or studies of documents, texts or illustrations, that include the analysis of the material features of original manuscripts. Applicants should be of postdoctoral status or have comparable experience. For full details, please click here.
St John’s College, Oxford, 5^th-7^th September 2024
CFP: The Fifteenth Century Conference 2024. This annual meeting brings together established scholars and new researchers in the field, acting as a showcase for current research and a forum for encouraging new directions of enquiry. We invite proposals for research papers on any subject relating to the history of the long fifteenth century in the British Isles, Ireland, or in the French territories of the English monarchy. Proposals on all kinds of history are welcome, as are interdisciplinary ones. For full details, please click here.

Finally, some advice from the Epistolae project ahead of this weekend’s festivities:

Nos tamen sanae ieiunamus cottidie praeter dies dominicos et Natalis.
[Those of us who are healthy fast every day except Sundays and Christmas.]
A letter (1238) from Clare of Assisi

I take this to mean: no work is so important that we cannot take at least a small break for Oxmas celebrations! I hope everyone takes this as a chance to rest, recuperate, and celebrate with our community before we go into the last week of term.

*[A Medievalist leaves their work desk for some festive celebrations]*
St John’s College MS. 61, f. 15 v.
By permission of the President and Fellows of St John’s College, Oxford
Viewable in full at Digital Bodleian

Medieval Matters: Week 6

13/11/2023

11:04

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The academic year is now well underway, and I am sure that everyone is feeling extremely busy. The days are getting very dark and cold, and at this point in term things can feel rather overwhelming. Here is some solidarity from the Epistolae project to remind us that even the greatest minds in history sometimes struggled to find their motivation and energy:

Sed utinam tantum mihi sapientia et potestas quae competit suppeterent
[If only enough wisdom and vigour as I need would come to me]
A letter (1102-03) from Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury to Matilda of Scotland

I’m afraid that bringing sufficient amounts of wisdom and vigour to you all lies outside of my remit as communications officer, but I can offer you a wonderful schedule, full of exciting papers and lectures, that are sure to inspire plenty of thought, and reinvigorate you during these cold, dark days. Please see below for the full round-up.

This week’s blog spot, by Luise Morawetz, explores times when manuscripts hold much more information than meets the eye, and grants a fascinating insight into the use of digital tools in manuscript work on the ARCHiOx project (ARCHiOx: research and development in imaging). In her blog post, Luise explains her use of the Selene scanner to investigate two puzzling glosses to the last words of bishop Cassius of Narnia in Bodleian Library, MS. Laud Misc. 429: ‘[…] braht’ and ‘upbraht’. To find out what these puzzling additions might have meant, learn about what they tell us about manuscript usage, and to see MS Laur Misc. 429 in ways you have never seen it before, visit Luise’s blog post here.

Please note the change in arrangements for this week’s Medieval Church and Culture Seminar: normal format to resume next week. Please also note that this week’s Medieval Archeology Seminar is cancelled due to illness.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Save the Date: Oxford Old English Work-in-Progress (WOOPIE) will meet at 5.15pm in St Cross Room, St Cross College on Thursday 29th February 2024, for a talk by Prof. Daniel Anlezark, (University of Sydney): ‘The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the eighth century’. The talk will be followed by a drinks reception.

EVENTS THIS WEEK:

Monday 13th November:

The Medieval Latin Manuscript Reading Group meets at 1-2pm on Teams. A friendly venue to practice your Latin and palaeography on a range of texts and scripts over the year. Sign up to the mailing list to receive weekly updates and Teams invites.
Queer and Trans Medievalisms: A Reading and Research Group meets at 3pm at Univ. All extremely welcome! This week’s discussion will centre Queer adaptations. (Alex Myers’ The Story of Silence (2020) with Le roman de silence (13^th c)). To join the mailing list and get texts in advance, or if you have any questions, email Rowan Wilson.
The Medieval Archeology Seminar is cancelled due to illness.
The Medieval History Seminar meets at 5pm in the Wharton Room, All Souls College. This week’s speaker will be Liesbeth van Houts (Emmanuel, Cambridge) ‘Towards a New Biography of Empress Matilda: what can be known about the women around her?‘. The seminar will also be available via Teams: the Teams session can be accessed by logging in to Teams with your .ox.ac.uk account and joining the group “Medieval History Research Seminar” (team code rmppucs). Alternatively, it can be accessed via this link. If you have any difficulties please email: medhistsem@history.ox.ac.uk.
The Old Norse Reading Group meets at 5.30-7pm. We’ll be translating a range of exciting Old Norse texts! To join the mailing list, email Ashley Castelino.

Tuesday 14th November:

The Medieval English Research Seminar will meet at 12.15 in Lecture Theatre 2. Today’s speaker will be Helen Fulton (University of Bristol), ‘Urban Humanism and Chaucer’s House of Fame’’. There will be a sandwich lunch provided afterwards. All welcome!

Wednesday 15th November:

The Medieval German Seminar meets at 11.15, at Somerville College. In Michaelmas Term, we are going to discuss the forthcoming study edition by Christine Putzo of Konrad Fleck’s ‘Flore und Blancheflur’. This week Patrick Leuenberger will talk on christians and heathens. Further information and reading recommendations via the teams channel; if you want to be added to that: please email Henrike Lähnemann.
The Medieval Latin Document Reading Group meets at 4-5pm on Teams. A document is sent out in advance but homework is not expected. Please contact Michael Stansfield for further details and the Teams link.
The Invisible East Group meets at 4-6pm in Basement Teaching Room 1, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Faculty, for a talk by Dr Rocco Rante (Louvre Museum, Paris): The Dynamics of Human Occupation during the First Millennium CE in Khorasan.
The Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar meets at 5pm at The Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies 66 St Giles and online via Microsoft Teams by clicking here. This week’s speaker will be Mike Humphries (Oxford University), ‘Punitive Mutilation in Byzantine Law: The case of nose amputation in Byzantium and beyond’.
The Medieval Church and Culture Seminar meets at 5.30pm at The Bodleian Library Printing Press. This week is a special session on the printint press, and numbers are limited to a maximum of 12; please email Sumner Braund (sumner.braund@hsm.ox.ac.uk) to take part.
Dante Reading Group meets at 5.30-7pm in St Anne’s College, Seminar Room 11. The group is open to those with or without a knowledge of Italian, the reading being sent out in the original and in translation. Refreshments, both alcoholic and otherwise, will be provided! To register or ask any any questions, please email charles.west@regents.ox.ac.uk

Thursday 16th November:

The Medieval Hebrew Reading Group meets at 10-11am in Catherine Lewis Lecture Theatre, Clarendon Institute, and online via Zoom. In order to attend this reading group via Zoom, please register here. This reading group is an opportunity to practice reading directly from images of medieval Hebrew manuscripts in an informal setting. All skill levels are welcome! There will be coffee, tea and cake afterwards in the Common Room of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies for those attending in person. For further information, please email Joseph Ohara.
The Environmental History Working Group meets at 12.30-2pm, in the History Faculty, Gerry Marton Room. This week’s speaker will be Jennifer Oliver, “Mineral Matters: Materials, Making, and Early Modern French Literature”. For further information, please contact Ryan Mealiffe.
The Centre for Gender, Identity, and Subjectivity (CGIS) meets at 1pm in the Merze Tate room of the History Faculty. Professor Hannah Skoda (St John’s) will be speaking on ‘Gendering nostalgia: fourteenth-century longing for the good old days‘. (Please note that this is different from the term card which states that Hannah is speaking on 23rd).
The Digital Editions Community of Practice Group meets at 1-2pm in the Taylor Institution Library Room 2. Each session will include a brief talk, followed by an opportunity for discussion. Hot water, tea, coffee, milk and biscuits will be provided. Please feel free to bring your own lunch (and a mug for the hot drinks!). This week’s speaker will be T.J. Reed, Thomas Mann.
The Medieval Women’s Writing Reading Group meets at 3-4pm in Lincoln College Lower Lecture Room. This week’s reading will be The Epistole of Catherine of Siena. Please email Katherine Smith to be added to the mailing list and get texts in advance, or to find out more.
The Medieval Visual Culture Seminar meets at 5pm in St Catherine’s College, Arumugam Building. This week’s speaker will be Liz James (University of Sussex), ‘The Remembrance of God’: Theologising Wall Mosaics’. For queries, contact Elena Lichmanova (elena.lichmanova@merton.ox.ac.uk).
The Eastern Christianity in Interfaith Contexts reading group will meet at 5-6pm, online via Zoom This week will be led by Dr Lisa Agaiby, Academic Dean at St Athanasius College, and Senior Lecturer in Coptic Studies at the University of Divinity, Australia. Dr Agaiby will be speaking on ‘The Manuscript Project at the Coptic Monastery of St Paul the Hermit at the Red Sea, Egypt‘. To register, please click here.
The Celtic Seminar meets at 5.15pm, online via Teams. Please contact david.willis@ling-phil.ox.ac.uk if you need a link to join online. This week’s speaker will be Myriah Williams (Berkeley), ‘Beginnings and endings: Moli Duw yn Nechrau a Diwedd and Cyntefin Ceinaf Amser’.
The WOOPIE (Oxford Old English Work in Progress) Seminar will meeet at 5.30pm in the Ian Skipper Room, St Cross College. This term’s speaker will be Simon Heller (University of Oxford), ‘Reclaiming Beowulf in the United States, from Nixon to Reagan’. All welcome! If you would like to attend, please contact francis.leneghan@ell.ox.ac.uk.

Friday 17th November:

The Medieval Coffee Morning meets as usual 10:30am in the Visiting Scholars Centre of the Weston Library (instructions how to find it) with presentation of items from the special collections, coffee and the chance to see the view from the 5th floor terrace.
The Byzantine Text Seminar meets at Ioannou Centre, Outreach Room, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. We are reading passages from Medieval Greek historians. Intermediate knowledge of Greek is required.
The Lectures in Byzantine Literature take place in the Ioannou Centre, Seminar Room, 12:15 – 1:15 p.m. We are speaking about Byzantine education. No knowledge of Greek is required.
Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln Archives meets at 2-3pm, Seminar Room 2, EPA Centre, Museum Road, OX1 3PX. Anyone interested in analyzing primary sources and conducting a comprehensive examination of the documents are welcome to attend. As well as collaborating on unpublished sources, attendees will gain experience in digitisation of sources and publish their analysis online. Students will prepare their item for exhibition, and a one-day workshop on these sources will be held in Trinity Term. Those who are interested can contact via email: Lindsay McCormack and Laure Miolo

OPPORTUNITIES:

Job advert: Departmental Lecturer in Medieval History: This is an opportunity to join our thriving History community and gain valuable teaching experience at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Although this is primarily a teaching role, you will also engage in advanced study and conduct independent research and play an active role in the interdisciplinary College community. The post is intended to fill a gap in our teaching coverage while Dr Benjamin Thompson is on leave following secondment as Associate Head of the Humanities Division. You will be based between the Faculty of History, George St, and Somerville College, Woodstock Road, Oxford. The deadline for applications is 12.00 noon on Monday 27th November 2023. Only applications submitted online through the University e-recruitment system and received before noon Monday 27th November 2023 can be considered. Committed to equality and valuing diversity. For full details, please click here.
Postdoc or PhD Opportunity: Historian (postdoc or Ph.D. candidate) or Latinist wanted in DISSINET (https://dissinet.cz/), an ERC-funded digital project on medieval inquisition and dissidence based in Brno, Czech Republic. Specific knowledge of the field or digital methods not needed, we only need Latin and a computer-friendly mindset. Deadline for applications: 4 December 2023. Expected start: 1 February 2024 (negotiable). Expected duration: 31 August 2026 Find out more: https://www.muni.cz/en/about-us/careers/vacancies/76846
Call for Applications for 2024-2025 Predoctoral Research Residencies at the Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia”: a collaboration between the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History, the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, the Amici di Capodimonte, and Franklin University Switzerland. We would be grateful if you would share the Call with colleagues and potentially interested PhD students in the earlier stages of the dissertation. We welcome applications from doctoral students in art and architectural history (as well as archaeology, history, musicology, cultural heritage, the digital humanities, and related fields) who work on periods from antiquity to the present and who will make meaningful use of research materials in Naples and southern Italy. full details.

Finally, here is some wisdom from the Epistolae project to remind us all that struggling to meet deadlines was a medieval problem too:

peccatis meis indulgere habes, quia propter instantes labores et itinera continua adhuc perfecte conscriptum, quod rogasti, non habeam
[you must excuse my remissness, for I have been prevented by pressure of work and by my continual travels from completing the book you ask for.]
A letter (before 738) from Boniface to Bugga

For everyone struggling to meet deadlines, or trying to carve out some research time in the middle of a busy teaching term: I wish you a week of productive and successful research!

*[A medievalist is chased down by the two greatest enemies of research: Pressure of Work and Teaching Obligation]*
St John’s College MS. 61, f. 12 v.
By permission of the President and Fellows of St John’s College, Oxford
Viewable in full at Digital Bodleian

Medieval Matters: Week 5

06/11/2023

13:48

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This week is, of course, the dreaded fifth week: the most notorious week of the Oxford term. The days are getting darker, workloads are building, and at this point in term many people may be feeling a little frazzled! If you feel in need of some cheering up, we have a stellar roundup of delights to offer you this week, starting with this week’s blogpost, by Ryan Mealiffe, on pigs and piggy banks. Have you ever wondered “who made the first piggy banks?”, or “how global is the piggy bank?”. For answers to these questions and many, many more, accompanied by an abundance of delightful images of rotund, puffy-cheeked pigs and piggy banks (many of which are held at Oxford’s own Ashmolean museum), check out Ryan’s blog post here. It’s sure to both raise a smile and give you new insight into global environmental history!

All of this is to say that despite this being Oxford’s most infamous week of the term, there is plenty of joy within our community to smile about! In the words of Clare of Assisi, from the Epistolae project:

Quis ergo de tantis mirandis gaudiis dicat me non gaudere?
[Who, then, would tell me not to rejoice about such great and marvellous joys?]
A letter (1238) from Clare of Assisi to Agnes of Prague

For a full list of this week’s great and marvellous joys, please see below:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

David Wiles (Emeritus Professor of Drama, University of Exeter) is looking for participants in a production of the pseudo-Senecan Octavia put together for the annual conference of the Classical Association in Warwick on March 24^th. You may have seen his previous productions in the garden of St Edmund Hall – last year, Mary Magdalene Play from the Carmina Burana. He will be exploring the exuberant rhetorical language of the 1561 translation. Rehearsing in Oxford on Monday evenings in the Hilary term. If interested, please contact d.wiles@exeter.ac.uk.
Medieval Archaeology Seminar: Change of Line-up The talk originally planned for the 27^th Nov. has been moved forward to 20^th November, and a new talk slotted in on the 27th. The new schedule is as follows: Wk 7 (20 Nov.) Elisabeth Lorans, University of Tours, Transformation of Roman capital cities in Gaul between the 4th and 10th centuries; Wk 8 (27 Nov). Sarah Semple, Durham University, People and place in the early medieval kingdom of Northumbria. New fieldwork.

EVENTS THIS WEEK:

Monday 6th November:

The Medieval Latin Manuscript Reading Group meets at 1-2pm on Teams. A friendly venue to practice your Latin and palaeography on a range of texts and scripts over the year. Sign up to the mailing list to receive weekly updates and Teams invites.
Queer and Trans Medievalisms: A Reading and Research Group meets at 3pm at Univ. All extremely welcome! This week’s discussion will centre Queer anachronisms (Robert Glück’s Margery Kempe (1994) with The Book of Margery Kempe (early 15^th c)). To join the mailing list and get texts in advance, or if you have any questions, email rowan.wilson@univ.ox.ac.uk.
The Medieval History Seminar meets at 5pm in the Wharton Room, All Souls College. This week’s speaker will be Alison Ray (St Peter’s College and Bodleian Library) ‘The Pecia System and the Medieval Oxford Book Trade‘. The seminar will also be available via Teams: the Teams session can be accessed by logging in to Teams with your .ox.ac.uk account and joining the group “Medieval History Research Seminar” (team code rmppucs). Alternatively, it can be accessed via this link. If you have any difficulties please email: medhistsem@history.ox.ac.uk.

Tuesday 7th November:

The Medieval English Research Seminar will meet at 12.15 in Lecture Theatre 2. Today’s speakers will be Sigrid Koerner (Jesus College), Christ’s Burial on the Late Medieval Stage and Shelley Williams (Jesus College), “Hevenysh Revoluciouns”: The Complaint of Mars in motion. There will be a sandwich lunch provided afterwards. All welcome!
The Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures: Work in Progress Seminar meets at 3.30pm in the Memorial Room, The Queen’s College. This term’s speakers will be Anthony Ellis (University of Bern): ‘Greek’ in the Medieval Latin manuscripts of Josephus: reconstructing the philological workings of a late antique translator, and Sara de Martin (Oxford): Reassessing the transmission of Strato com. fr. 1 K. A.
The Medieval Church and Culture Seminar meets at Wellbeloved Room, Harris Manchester College. Tea & coffee from 5pm; papers begin at 5.15pm. This week’s speaker is Andrew Honey (Bodleian Library Conservation) ‘Binding, if remarkable’: approaches to cataloguing medieval bookbindings at the Bodleian Library‘. Everyone is welcome at this informal and friendly graduate seminar!
The Medieval French Research Seminar will meet at the Maison Francaise d’Oxford on Norham Road. Drinks will be available from 5pm; presentations start at 5.15pm. This week’s speaker will be Luke Sunderland (Durham) ‘They travel together like knights”: Social Animals in Medieval French Encyclopaedias’. All are welcome! For more information or to be added to the seminar maillist, please contact helen.swift@st-hildas.ox.ac.uk

Wednesday 8th November:

The Medieval German Seminar meets at 11.15, at Somerville College. In Michaelmas Term, we are going to discuss the forthcoming study edition by Christine Putzo of Konrad Fleck’s ‘Flore und Blancheflur’. Further information and reading recommendations via the teams channel; if you want to be added to that: please email Henrike Lähnemann.
The Medieval Latin Document Reading Group meets at 4-5pm on Teams. A document is sent out in advance but homework is not expected. Please contact Michael Stansfield (michael.stansfield@new.ox.ac.uk) for further details and the Teams link.
The Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar meets at 5pm at The Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies 66 St Giles and online via Microsoft Teams by clicking here. This week’s speakers will be Georgi Parpulov (Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities), and Dimitris Skrekas (University of London/Oxford University), Positions of Considerable Emolument: Cataloguing Greek Manuscripts in Oxford.
Columbia University Seminar on Religion & Writing will take place on zoom on 5-7pm GMT. Our own Andrew Dunning, R.W. Hunt Curator of Western Manuscripts at the Bodleian, will discuss the origins of the twelfth-century cult of St. Frideswide. Please register by filling out this form TODAY. If you have any questions, please write to Heidi Hansen.
Dante Reading Group meets at 5.30-7pm in St Anne’s College, Seminar Room 11. The group is open to those with or without a knowledge of Italian, the reading being sent out in the original and in translation. Refreshments, both alcoholic and otherwise, will be provided! To register or ask any any questions, please email charles.west@regents.ox.ac.uk

Thursday 9th November:

The Medieval Hebrew Reading Group meets at 10-11am in Catherine Lewis Lecture Theatre, Clarendon Institute, and online via Zoom. In order to attend this reading group via Zoom, please register here. This reading group is an opportunity to practice reading directly from images of medieval Hebrew manuscripts in an informal setting. All skill levels are welcome! There will be coffee, tea and cake afterwards in the Common Room of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies for those attending in person. For further information, please email joseph.ohara@ames.ox.ac.uk.
The Germanic Reading Group meets at 4pm, online via Zoom. Please contact Howard Jones Howard.Jones@sbs.ox.ac.uk to request the handouts and to be added to the list. This week’s reading will be The Old English Riming Poem (Morgan leading).
The Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar meets at 5-6.30pm at Lincoln College, Lower Lecture Room. This week’s speaker is Mary Hitchman, Wolfson College, Tracing Women’s Correspondence in Late Antiquity. Please email katherine.smith@lincoln.ox.ac.uk to be added to the mailing list or to find out more.
The Celtic Seminar meets at 5pm, online via Zoom. Please contact a.elias@wales.ac.uk for the link. This week CAWCS and the National Library of Wales present an evening of talks, readings and performances to mark the tercentenary of Richard Price, Llangeinor – one of Wales’s most radical and influential thinkers.
The Old Occitan Literature Workshop meets at 5-6pm at St Hugh’s College, 74 Woodstock Road, Office A4. The topic of this week’s meeting will be Sad! Songs for Disappointed Men (Raimbaut D’Aurenga (1147-173), Vida, “Ar resplan la flors enversa”; Peirol (1188-1222) — Vida, “Per dan que d’amor mi veigna”). To sign up, or for any other queries, email Kate Travers.
‘No Jew Shall Have a Freehold’: The Prohibition on Landholding in the Statutum de Judeis of King Henry III (1271): As part of the David Patterson lecture series at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (OCHJS), Emily Rose will be speaking about English legislation from the time of King Henry III at 6pm in the Lecture Theatre, Clarendon Institute, Walton Street and online. Zoom link to register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUodO-sqjguHd2NE68XBpwenTwyfBQ2O7dg.

Friday 10th November:

The Medieval Coffee Morning meets as usual 10:30am in the Visiting Scholars Centre of the Weston Library (instructions how to find it) with presentation of items from the special collections, coffee and the chance to see the view from the 5th floor terrace.
The Byzantine Text Seminar meets at Ioannou Centre, Outreach Room, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. We are reading passages from Medieval Greek historians. Intermediate knowledge of Greek is required.
The Lectures in Byzantine Literature take place in the Ioannou Centre, Seminar Room, 12:15 – 1:15 p.m. We are speaking about Byzantine education. No knowledge of Greek is required.
Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln Archives meets at 2-3pm, Seminar Room 2, EPA Centre, Museum Road, OX1 3PX. Anyone interested in analyzing primary sources and conducting a comprehensive examination of the documents are welcome to attend. As well as collaborating on unpublished sources, attendees will gain experience in digitisation of sources and publish their analysis online. Students will prepare their item for exhibition, and a one-day workshop on these sources will be held in Trinity Term. Those who are interested can contact Lindsay McCormack and Laure Miolo via email: lindsay.mccormack@lincoln.ox.ac.uk and laure.miolo@history.ox.ac.uk
The Anglo-Norman Reading Group meets at 5-6.30pm, in the Julia Mann Room, St Hilda’s College, and Zoom. Please let us know if you would like to attend, either in person or on Zoom; reminders including the Zoom link will be sent to those who have expressed interest. To register interest, or for more information, please contact Jane Bliss jane.bliss@lmh.oxon.org and/or Stephanie stephanie.hathaway@gmail.com.

OPPORTUNITIES:

CFP: Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference 2024: ‘Signs and Scripts.’ The conference will be held in person on the 8^th and 9^th of April, 2024. We invite proposals relating to all aspects of the broad topic ‘Signs and Scripts’ in the medieval world. Submissions are welcome from all disciplinary perspectives, whether historical, literary, archaeological, linguistic, or interdisciplinary. Please send abstracts of 250 words to oxgradconf@gmail.com by 17th December, 2023. For full details, please see the Call for Papers.
Call for SSD EDI Associates 2023/24: We are seeking individuals from across the Division with a passionate commitment to advancing equality, diversity and inclusion, to join us as EDI Associates this year. We are seeking members of academic, research, or professional services staff, and DPhil students – each EDI Associate will receive a grant of up to £1,000 to be used towards their own research, training and development. Each EDI Associate would need to be able to commit approximately 35-40 hours over Hilary and Trinity terms, with the approval of their line manager/supervisor – but precise timings will be flexible, and can fit around EDI Associates’ other commitments. Please complete an Expression of Interest form by 24th November 2023. For further details, and EOI form, see: 2023/24 Call for EDI Associates | Social Sciences Division (ox.ac.uk)
Funded PhD Opportunity: The University of Cambridge and British Library are inviting applicants to propose a topic within the broader field of ‘Reading and Writing in Medieval Women’s Religious Communities’. The start date would be early October 2024, and the application deadline is 4 January 2024. This would be a wonderful chance for a student to work intensively with the BL’s collections—so if you know any prospective students who might be interested, please do pass this notice along! Here’s the full notice, with both intellectual and practical details: https://www.oocdtp.ac.uk/reading-and-writing-medieval-womens-religious-communities

Finally, here is some wisdom from the Epistolae project for this most notorious of Oxford weeks:

Tristitiae quippe nebulis quibus obvolvebar expulsis, verborum vestrorum me rivulus, tamquam novae lucis radius, perlustravit
[after the clouds of sadness in which I was wrapped were driven away, the stream of your words broke through to me like a ray of new light]
A letter (1104) from Matilda of Scotland, queen of the English to Anselm

I hope that the words of medievalist colleagues and the stream of seminars and reading group activity break through any clouds of sadness which you may be feeling this week!

*[A Medievalist catches the fifth week blues…]*
St John’s College MS. 61, f. 46 v.
By permission of the President and Fellows of St John’s College, Oxford
Viewable in full at Digital Bodleian

Medieval Matters: Week 4

30/10/2023

11:51

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