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

As always, you can find a complete copy of the Oxford Medieval Studies Booklet here. Any last-minuted changes will be updated in the weekly blogpost and in the calendar, both accessible via https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/.
Monday
- French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library (Horton Room)
- Introduction to Arabic Palaeography – 2:00, Khalili Research Centre
- Carmina Burana: Graduate Text Seminar – 5:00, Harris Lecture Theatre, Oriel College.
- Medieval History Seminar – 5:00 with drinks reception to follow, All Souls College. Peter Jones (King’s College, Cambridge), will be speaking on ‘Event, story and image in writings of John Arderne (1307-c.1380), English surgeon’.
Tuesday
- Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, Margaret Thatcher Centre, Somerville. David Scott-Macnab (North-West U) will be speaking on ‘Edward, Second Duke of York’s Master of Game: A New Edition for EETS
- Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room)
- Medieval Church and Culture Seminar – 5:00, Harris Manchester College. John Merrington (All Souls) will be speaking on ‘Reading the Five Thousand: gender, the body and the interpretation of John 6 in medieval Europe’.
- Medieval French Research Seminar – 5pm at the at the Maison Française d’Oxford. Prof. Johannes Junge Ruhland (University of Notre Dame) will be speaking on ‘The Bookishness of French Prose Histories’.
Wednesday
- Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11:15, Somerville College. The topic for this term is Ulrich von Richental, Chronik des Konzils zu Konstanz (1414-1438).
- Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 in the Schwarzman Centre.
- Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
- Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre. Johannes Pahlitzsch (Mainz) will be speaking on ‘Concepts of Space and Orthodoxy beyond Byzantium’.
Thursday
- Middle English Reading Group – 11:00, Beckington Room (Lincoln College).
- Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar – 4:00, Somerville College (meet at Lodge). Authorising the Text: including extracts from the prose works of Teresa de Cartagena and Anna Komnene.
- Celtic Seminar – 5:00, hybrid. Rhys Kaminski-Jones (CAWCS) will be speaking on ‘Bardic liberties: Bardism and slavery in the poetry of Iolo Morganwg’.
- Guild of Medievalist Makers – 5:30, online. Making Space Session.
- Oxford University Heraldry Society – 6:30, online. Mike Rumble will be speaking on ‘The Heraldry of Kensington and Chelsea, London’.
Friday
- Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
- Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room).
- Memorial Service for Professor Vincent Gillespie – 2:00, Keble College Chapel.
- Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group Workshop – 5:00, Merton College. Workshop with Joumana Medlej.
Opportunities
- MEMRN Winter Conference 2025 signups open.
- Call for Committee Members for the Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference.
- Medium Ævum Essay Prize welcomes applications. Deadline 1 December 2025.
- Medieval Insular Romance Conference CfP. Deadline 31 October 2025.
- Special Issue: Points of Friction CfP. Deadline 2 November 2025.
- Data Visualization in the Humanities: Nodegoat Open Workshop.

