Welcome, all, to week 6 – it was lovely to see so many of you at the OMS lecture last week. An updated version of the OMS Booklet is linked here, and is available on the OMS website throughout the term.
Events
Monday
- French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library
- Seminar in Palaeography and Manuscript studies – 2:15, Weston Library. Eric Crégheur (Université Laval) will be speaking on ‘The Bruce Codex (MS. Bruce 96): Answering the Riddles of Coptic Gnostic Manuscript’.
- Medieval Archaeology Seminar – 3:00, Archaeology Faculty. Charlotte Wood will be speaking on ‘A cultural history of combs in Medieval England, c. 400-1400’.
- Medieval History Seminar – 5:00, All Souls College. Chris Wickham (Birmingham/Oxford) will be speaking on “International commerce and regional development: pepper in the Indian Ocean”.
- Theory and Play: Comparative Medievalisms – 5.15, Lady Margaret Hall. Selections from: Dhuoda’s Liber Manualis (9th Century CE, tr. Handbook for William); Boethius’ Consolatio (6th Century CE, tr. Consolation of Philosophy); Ode in Praise of al-Mansur Al-Amiri, Emir of Córdoba by Ibn Darradj al-Qastalli (10-11th Century CE)
- Oxford Thomistic Institute Lecture – 7:30, Blackfriars. Prof Rebecca Rist will be speaking on ‘Pope or Antipope?: Schism and the Medieval Papacy’
Tuesday
- Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, Room 00.079 (Humanities Centre). Elaine Treharne (Stanford University) will be speaking on ‘‘Motes of gold’: early English poetry and its modern recollection’
- Europe in the Later Middle Ages Seminar – 2:00, New Seminar Room, St John’s College. Tom Cousins (Bournemouth) will be speaking on’ The Mortar Wreck: A Thirteenth Century shipwreck outside of Poole Harbour, Dorset’.
- Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room). Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo.
- Early Modern Diplomacy Seminar 1400-1800: ‘Competition or Integration? Urban and Princely Diplomacy at times of Civil War in the Burgundian Low Countries (1380s vs. 1480s)’ – 4:15, University College. Michael Depreter (UC Louvain Saint Louis-Brussels) will be speaking on ‘Competition or Integration? Urban and Princely Diplomacy at times of Civil War in the Burgundian Low Countries (1380s vs. 1480s)’.
- Medieval Church and Culture, theme: TRANSLATION(S) – tea and coffee from 5:00, Harris Manchester College. Celeste Pan (Balliol) will be speaking on ‘Some issues of translation in an illuminated Hebrew bible manuscript from medieval Brussels (Hamburg, Staatsund Universitätsbibl., Cod. Levy 19)’
- Old English Hagiography Reading Group – 5:15, Jesus College Memorial Room. T
- Book Launch: Medieval Commentary and Exegesis – Interdisciplinary Perspectives – 5:30, Monson Room (LMH). More information.
- Church Historian Pub Night – 6:00 at the Chequers Inn. Contact Rachel Cresswell
Wednesday
- Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11:15, Old Library, St Edmund Hall. The topic for this term is the ‘Liederbuch der Clara Hätzlerin’.
- History and Materiality of the Book Seminar series – 2:15, Weston Library. Laure Miolo will be speaking on ‘Calendars and time-reckoning’.
- Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 (Humanities Centre). Palyce of Honour, Seconde Part, ll. 772-1287.
- The Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
- Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies. Robert Wiśniewski (Warsaw) will be speaking on ‘Mapping Unholy Places in Late Antiquity’
- Islamic Studies Seminar – 5:00, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Jocelyne Cesari (University of Birmingham) willbe speaking on ‘From Divine Sovereignty to National Legitimacy: Transformations in the Theology of Political Islam’
- John Lydgate Book Club – 5:15pm. All Souls College, Hovenden Room. Mishtooni Bose will be speaking on ‘Thinking with Lydgate’. Please email shaw.worth@all-souls.ox.ac.uk for a copy of the text.
Thursday
- Middle English Reading Group (MERG) – 11:00, Lincoln College, Beckington Room. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
- Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar – 4:00, Somerville College. Experiences of Captivity and Enslavement – including extracts from the works of Layla bint Lukayz, ‘Arib al-Ma’muniyya, Qamar, Uns al-Qulub and Leonor López de Córdoba
- Seminars in Medieval and Renaissance Music – 5:00, online. Andrew Kirkman (University of Birmingham) will be speaking on ‘Made to measure or prêt à chanter? The Court of Wilhelm IV and the Later Alamire Manuscripts’
- Celtic Seminar – 5:15, Online. Malo Adeux (CRBC) willbe speaking on ‘Ystoria Daret: sources, circulation, reception’
- The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5:15, The Khalili Research Centre. Eva Schreiner (Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence) will be speaking on ‘Debt in stone: architectures of finance in late Ottoman Istanbul’.
Friday
- Medievalist Coffee Morning – Friday 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
- The History of the Bible: From Manuscripts to Print – 12:00, Visiting Scholars Centre at the Weston Library. Week 6: The Bible in Medieval Europe. Places are limited. To register interest and secure a place, please contact Péter Tóth.
- Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room). Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo.
- Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group – 5:00, Sir Howard Stringer Room at Merton College. Tour of the All Souls College library with Peregrine Horden, Fellow Librarian. The deadline to register has passed. To be put on a waiting list, write to oxfordmedievalmss@gmail.com.
Opportunities and Reminders
- Dies Legibiles, Smith College’s undergraduate journal of Medieval Studies, is looking for submissions for the 2025-2026 edition, deadline 3 March 2026 (website)
- Submission welcome to the journal Manuscript and Text Cultures.
- Doctoral studentship on Carolingian Latin poetry (Toronto-Melbourne).
- ‘Describing the British Library’s Illustrated and Illuminated Incunabula’ PhD placement opportunity at the British Library. Deadline: 27th Feb.
- Donald J. Keefe, S.J. Summer Research Fellowship. Deadline 1st March
- CfP: 20th Annual MEMSA Conference: Connection, Conversation, Contention: Encounters in the Medieval and Early Modern World – deadline 9 March 2026
- CfP: Forgotten Libraries: Lost, Dispersed, and Marginalised Manuscript Collections – deadline 14 March 2026
- CfP: Crossing Intellectual Boundaries in English Legal History. Proposals for papers should be no more than 400 words and should be sent to Ciara Kennefick and Ian Williams by 5pm on 23 March 2026.
- CfP: Gender and Medieval Studies conference 2026: Gender and Creativity. The conference will take place at University College, Oxford, 8-10 September. Deadline 13 April.
- CfP: Summer Conference of the Ecclesiastical History Society on the theme “The Church and Race. Deadline 15 April.
- Call for submissions for a special issue of Public Humanities journal on the topic ‘Creating the Medieval Now.’ Edited by Laura Varnam and Eleanor Barraclough. Short essays of 2,000-3,000 words, due 1 May 2026, by medievalists who are also creative practitioners.
- CfP: The Body in History. Deadline 6th July.