Invitation to a tea party with LIVING STONESonSATURDAY 15 MARCH 3.00-4.30in the Church Hall, Church Way, Iffley OX4 4EG. Come along and find out about LIVING STONES. Meet the Living Stones volunteers. Join in: Living Stones is looking for volunteers of any age, background or beliefs
Living Stones is the heritage and educational arm of St Mary’s, the church at the heart of Iffley village, Rose Hill and Donnington. Volunteers welcome visitors to the church. They also run activities, events and talks on its history and architecture. They will start welcoming visitors to the church on Sunday afternoons on Palm Sunday, 13 April. They also have three events planned:
SATURDAY 10 MAY 10.00-4.30 – Drawing Iffley Church, day-school with artist Micah Hayns.
SATURDAY 17 MAY 11.00-7.15 – Day of chant in celebration of St Dunstan, patron saint of bellringers and music. The day ends with a special service in the church sung to music composed by St Dunstan and first written down in the 12th century.
SUNDAY 7 SEPTEMBER – Patronal Festival for St Mary the Virgin, picnic and family fun.
The Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures’ Hilary Term ‘Work-in-Progress’ colloquium – Tuesday 18th February (5.15-6.45pm, the Memorial Room at Queen’s)
The CMTC is delighted to be hosting the following speakers:
Dr Riccardo Montalto (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II): From manuscripts to history: The reconstruction of the Greek manuscript library of Achilles Statius (1524-1581)
Achilles Statius was a Portuguese humanist active in Rome in the second half of the sixteenth century. Committed to editorial and propaganda activities and, in particular, in the edition of the texts of the Fathers of the Greek Church, Statius set up one of the largest private libraries in Renaissance Rome, peculiar for its size and intellectual value. Starting from the material data detectable from the manuscripts, compared with the data available from different sources – primarily historical, archival and library science – the research aims to reconstruct a part of Achilles Statius’s library and to identify some methods and working practices of the late Renaissance humanists.
Holly Dempster-Edwards (University of Liverpool): Emotions, Gender and Crusading in Fifteenth-Century Burgundian Prose Epics and Chronicles
This paper will give an overview of my PhD thesis, which examines the social function of emotions at the fifteenth-century court of Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy (r. 1419-1467). My methodology is based on that of the historian Barbara Rosenwein, whose concept of ‘emotional communities’ has been highly influential within Medieval Studies. My study is based on emotion words in three Burgundian mises en prose Les Croniques et Conquestes de Charlemaine by David Aubert, La Belle Hélène de Constantinople by Jehan Wauquelin, and Mabrien (attrib. Aubert). I have built on Rosenwein’s framework by employing quantitative analysis of the gendered and ‘racial-religious’ distribution of emotions within each text, alongside qualitative textual analysis and examination of text-image relations. This paper demonstrates how emotions have a social function within this specific emotional community of Burgundian knights and would-be crusaders in response to the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, and how these texts function as literary propaganda which presents itself as didactic; in so doing they attempt to achieve their more subtle aim of maintaining emotion norms within the context of Burgundian chivalric masculinity, hoping to persuade Philip’s courtiers to go on crusade with him in response to the defeat of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks.
1. A. D’Angelo (Rome ‘Sapienza’), ‘Catullan marginalia in the 16th century: the books of Piero Vettori’.
The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich preserves three printed editions of Catullus’ Liber with marginal notes by Piero Vettori (1499-1585). This important scholar edited dozens of Classical authors, but never published anything on Catullus: thus, these books are the main extant evidence of his work on this poet. The notes contain variant readings, original conjectures and loci similes, and they offer new insights on Vettori’s philological method and his library. Through these marginalia, I will try to point out Vettori’s main interests in Catullus’ poetry and the sources he used for his Catullan studies.
2. Marlene Schilling (Oxford), ‘A special form of devotion – personifications of time in late medieval prayer books from Northern Germany’.
Addressing liturgical holidays, for example welcoming Mr Easterday, is a particular characteristic of late medieval vernacular prayer-books from North German female convents. They highlight a distinct form of poetics, because describing and interacting with specific points in time – personifying them – allows an intercommunication with the divine that conveys a certain form of agency to the speaker. In this paper, we explore the particular type of prayer-books these personifications are found in, talk about their material indicators within the text, and think about the special role of the prayer-books from the Cistercian convent Medingen within this distinct manuscript landscape.
The sun is out (for how long remains unclear), and third week is upon us. Please find below the events and opportunities for this week: the full booklet, as always, can be found here. Let me draw your particular attention to Brepols’ upcoming webinar introducing their International Medieval Bibliography (12th Feb at 4pm, see below). There is still time to sign up for the Medieval Mystery Plays on 26 April – just contact Antonia Anstatt and Sarah Ware who are finalising the list of plays this week!
Events
Monday
French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10.30am in the Weston Library. Those interested should email Laure Miolo.
Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Alice Rio (KCL) will be speaking on ‘Twelve Migrant Women and the History of Early Medieval Europe’
Tuesday
Old Norse Seminar – 12.15 in the English Faculty’s History of the Book room. Ela Sefcikova (Berlin) will be speaking on ‘læ, lygð and slǿgð: Loki in Old Norse Literature’. The seminar will be followed by a sandwich lunch in the Graduate Common.
The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
Medieval Church and Culture – 5pm in the Horton Room, Weston Library (NB. change of location! orginal manuscripts will be shown!) Lesley Smith (HMC) will be speaking on ‘The Repair Shop: How We Took Apart a Manuscript of Henry VIII and How We Put it Back Together’.
Medieval French Research Seminar – 5pm in the Maison française d’Oxford. Chimene Bateman, University of Oxford will be speaking on ‘Flight, Founding and Foreignness in the Roman d’Eneas’,
Wednesday
Medieval German Graduate Seminar on ‘Geistliche Spiele’ on the ‘Eisenacher Zehn-Jungfrauenspiel’ with Rebecca Schleuß – 11.15am in the Old Library of St Edmund Hall. Contact Henrike Lähnemann if you would like to be added to the teams group
History and Materiality of the Book Seminar – 2pm in the Weston Library, Horton room. Julia Bearman and Robert Minte will be speaking on ‘Inks and Pigments’.
Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pm, online, please contact Michael Stansfield.
Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. Dan Gallaher (Oxford), ‘Beyond a Boundary: Armenia and Byzantium in the Ninth Century’
Medieval English Research Seminar – 5.15pm, Lecture Theatre 2, St. Cross Building. Marilina Cesario (Queen’s University, Belfast) will be speaking on ‘The windsele in Christ and Satan: Demonic Winds in Medieval Literature’.
Thursday
Medieval Hebrew Reading Group – 10am in the Clarendon Institute.
Middle English Reading Group – 4pm, Beckington Room, Lincoln College. The text this term will be the ‘double sorwe’ of Troilus and Criseyde.
Germanic Reading Group ‒ 4pm on Teams. Speaking names in Werner’s ‘Helmbrecht’ and Hugo von Trimberg’s ‘Der Renner’ with Bradley G. Weiss (Texas). Please contact Howard Jones to request the handout and to be added to the list.
Ford Lecture – 5pm in the Examination Schools. Jocelyn Wogan-Browne will be giving the third of her lectures, titled ‘Expansions: ‘Everyone knows that French is better understood and more widely used than Latin’: Matthew Paris (in French, 1253×59).
Seminars in Medieval and Renaissance Music – 5pm on Zoom. James Tomlinson (University of Oslo) will be speaking on ‘A Reassessment of Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 512/543 and its Implications for the Production and Transmission of Polyphony in Late Medieval England’.
The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5.15pm in the in the Ioannou Centre/Faculty of Classics’ Lecture Theatre. Tuğrul Acar (Harvard University) will be speaking on ‘Enacting the Divine Love and Remembering the Dervish-Sultan Murad II: the Inscriptions of the Muradiye Mevlevi Lodge in Edirne (1435–36)’.
Friday
Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided. This week, Alyssa Steiner (BL) will speak on the extensive Ship of Fools collection of Francis Douce.
Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.
Medieval Manuscripts Support Group – 2pm in the Horton Room. Come along or contact Matthew Holford in beforehand if you have a manuscript to discuss!
Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group – 3pm. This week, the group will be visiting the The Queen’s College Library.
Anglo-Norman Reading Group – 5pm in the Farmington Institute in Harris Manchester College and online. For more information on the texts, email Jane Bliss.
Upcoming
Brepols are running a short online webinar introducing their International Medieval Bibliography, on the 12th Feb at 4pm. This is a great chance to get to grips with this useful resource, and is especially recommended for MSt/ MPhil students.
“The Jewish Recipes in a 13th C Andalusian Cookbook” by Hélène Jawhara Piñer will be on Zoom at 5 pm Wednesday 19 February. Event details and the link to register is here.
The Ashmolean is looking for a University Engagement Lead. This is a parttime fixed term role to research and possibly pilot opportunities for University Engagement. This is a good role for someone that knows the students in Oxford and is looking at a parttime role – and, obviously, loves museum collections! Full job description
The CfP for the ‘Sorrowful Virgin’ is now closed; contact Anna Wilmore if you missed the deadline or simply would like to take place in the workshop at St Hughs, 24 March 2025
Jocelyn Wogan-Browne on Cultural Politics and Social History, c. 1100-c. 1500
Thursdays at 5pm, Weeks 1-6 Hilary, Examination Schools
French played a major, though not the only role, in the pervasive multilingualism of British history and culture. As Britain’s only medieval ‘global’ vernacular, it was also important to a wide range of people for their participation in external theatres of empire, trade, culture, conflict, and crusade. Displacing the long shadow of nineteenth-century nationalizing conceptions of language and their entrenchment in modern university disciplinary divisions, emerging histories of French in England and increasingly of French in Ireland, Wales, and Scotland offer new ways of understanding language and identity. These lectures trace francophone medieval Britain in a chronological sequence across its four main centuries, interpolating two thematic lectures on areas especially needing integration into our histories, medieval women and French in Britain, and French Bible translation in medieval England.
About the Lecture Series: The Ford Lectures in British History were founded by a bequest from James Ford, and inaugurated by S.R.Gardiner in 1896-7. Since then, an annual series has been delivered over six weeks in Hilary term. They have long been established as the most prestigious series in Oxford and an important annual event in the University’s calendar.
Jocelyn Wogan-Browne in her allotment on Osney Island in Oxford
About the speaker: Professor Jocelyn Wogan-Browne is Professor emerita of both the University of York, where she held the Chair of Medieval Literature from 2005 to 2010, and Fordham University in New York, where she was the Thomas F.X. and Theresa Mullarkey Chair in Literature from 2010 to 2019.
Her wide-ranging scholarship has most recently focused on the reconceptualization of English medieval literary culture as a multilingual community. She has created a fundamentally new understanding of the importance attached to knowing, speaking, reading and/or writing French in later medieval England: work on the culture of late medieval England is now unthinkable without taking her insights into account. The approach was spearheaded in her Vernacular Literary Theory from the French of Medieval England: Texts and Translation (with Thelma Fenster and Delbert Russell) (Cambridge, D. S. Brewer, 2016), which built on the earlier The Idea of the Vernacular: Middle English Literary Theory c. 1280-1520, with Nicholas Watson, Andrew Taylor, and Ruth Evans. A book of essays, The French of Medieval England: Essays in Honour of Jocelyn Wogan-Browne(2017), speaks to the extensive influence of her work and the esteem in which she is held by the scholarly community.
Jocelyn came to Oxford from Australia to study for the BPhil in Medieval Language and Literature at St Hilda’s College under the supervision of Elspeth Kennedy, one of Oxford’s most inspirational teachers. Her fellow countryman, Bruce Mitchell, another medievalist, became her mentor, and she became established in Oxford at the events he hosted for students from the southern hemisphere. Jocelyn started a DPhil in Old Norse and Old French, but accepted a lectureship in Early Middle English and Anglo-Norman at Liverpool, later receiving a doctorate on the strength of her numerous publications. Liverpool was followed by positions at York and Fordham, where her dedication to students and teaching won her a basket of teaching awards, in addition to her distinguished research profile.
Now living in Oxford and a member of St Edmund Hall, Jocelyn Wogan-Browne remains a dynamo of multi-disciplinary research. Her Ford Lectures will undoubtedly turn our concept of ‘English History’ on its head.
On Friday 8th and Saturday 9th November, the online workshop Epiros: The Other Western Rome was held, platforming twenty-one papers from sixteen universities. As the second phase of a new international project, the workshop investigated the Byzantine successor-state of Epiros (1204–1444). Formed from the Fourth Crusade, this Balkan state existed as an alternative narrative and third Byzantine-Roman context, encompassing a vast variety of peoples of the former empire.
Originally envisioned as a one-day workshop, the programme was expanded to two days to accommodate so many excellent submissions. As a result, we were able to offer panels on, The ‘Post-Komnenian System’, ‘Epiros and Bulgaria’, ‘Epiros and its other Neighbours’, ‘Network Analysis,’ ‘Hybrid Material Culture,’ and more. The workshop’s convenors are hugely grateful for the participation of speakers and attendees, as well as the support of both The Oxford Centre Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH) and the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research (OCBR).
An edited volume of papers is planned, and a selection of images below.
Date: Tuesday 21 January, 13.00-14.00, with lunch provided from 12.30 Location: Colin Matthews Room, Radcliffe Humanities (and online via MS Teams)
As part of the preparations for annual ‘Cultural Seasons’ in the new Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, this is an invitation to brainstorm ideas for a Cultural Programme Season on Medieval Afterlives. From Oxford Medieval Studies, Prof. Marion Turner (English), Prof. Henrike Lähnemann (MML), Prof. Nancy Thebaut (History), and Prof. Elizabeth Eva Leach (Music) are already collaborating with the Cultural Programme on possible opportunities for the season and John Fulljames, Director of Oxford University’s Humanities Cultural Programme, is keen now to extend an invitation to others to join the conversation to explore and test the potential for the season and bring together researchers who could be involved in shaping and delivering it. The focus of the season will be on contemporary creativity, while also centring Oxford’s extraordinary medieval resources where appropriate – our manuscripts, instruments, objects, architecture, and spaces. This season might engage with novelists, poets, musicians, graphic artists, puppeteers, playwrights, actors, composers, designers, children’s book writers, textile workers, cartoonists, computer game programmers, AI technology, and more. We would like the season to be ambitious and international while also engaging grass-roots, local communities, especially schools and young people. It will be wide-ranging, inclusive, accessible, innovative, and fun. We also want to be open about the dark side of medieval appropriations in recent years, especially by the far right (see the previous TORCH OMS workshop on Medieval Studies and the Far Right), and to examine and counter these narratives. While we want to bring in high-profile writers and artists, we also want to celebrate the creativity of everyone, including students. The season would be likely to take place circa 2028. One overarching question might be whether this kind of contemporary creativity is an end in itself, or a gateway to the medieval past. Please come along to this initial group meeting for all interested parties, which will be structured around the question: What has medieval research to do with contemporary creativity?
If you have something you would like to share or discuss in advance, please feel free to reach out to the researchers who are already involved or the Cultural Programme via Justine Shaw. Please RSVPto: Cultural Programmes with ‘Medieval Afterlives Workshop’ (culturalprogramme@humanities.ox.ac.uk) in the subject line by 7 January 2025.
Image: ‘Serenade to Chaucer’, a pop-up version of Chaucer’s ‘Miller’s Tale’ by Paul Johnson, runner-up of the Redesigning the Medieval Book competition by the Bodleian Library.
On 22 November, the ‘Crafting the Book’ Workshop was organised by Alison Ray (St Peter’s College) with talks and practical activities led by Sara Charles (University of London) and Eleanor Baker (Balliol College). Attended by university students, researchers, as well as library and archives staff, the workshop engaged with the history of the book and material culture of medieval manuscripts and early printed works, including their production, decoration, and provenance through signs of ownership.
The lunchtime lecture featured talks in the Weston Library by Sara and Eleanor on their recently published research on book history. First, Sara presented three case studies of early female scribes from her trade publication, The Medieval Scriptorium: Making Books in the Middle Ages (Reaktion Books, August 2024). Next, Eleanor shared a range of book curses from the Middle Ages onwards, and the research process behind her new work, Book Curses (Bodleian Publishing, November 2024). The lecture was a stimulating look at the human agency involved in the lifecycle of manuscripts and early books, from production and use to their survival today.
The afternoon continued with practical workshops in the Bodleian Bibliographical Press led by Sara and Eleanor, in which participants developed a deeper understanding of contemporary artistic and reader practices through taking part in hands-on craft methods. In our first workshop, Sara guided participants in the preparation of iron gall ink and quills to practice medieval writing, and they additionally tested pigments used in illumination. For our second workshop, Eleanor led groups of participants to prepare their own book curses on bookmarks using letterpress printing and the session was accompanied by an introduction to printing techniques by press supervisor Richard Lawrence. Attendees greatly enjoyed engaging with the materiality and craft methods in manuscript and print culture.
The ‘Crafting the Book’ Workshop was held in association with Oxford Medieval Studies, sponsored by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH). We are also grateful for assistance in planning and supporting the workshop on the day by Alex Franklin (Bodleian), Richard Lawrence, Tianqi Wang (St Peter’s) and Holly Smith (St Anne’s).
Much like Bob Dylan, we have all spent the last week Blowin’ in the Wind: here are this week’s medieval events to help you through. As always, a PDF version of the booklet can be found here.
A reminder that this Friday – 5pm at St Edmund Hall – there will be an event for those interested in this year’s Medieval Mystery Plays. All are welcome, even (/ especially) if you are unsure how to get involved.
EVENTSTHIS WEEK
Monday
French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10.30am in the Weston Library. Those interested should email Laure Miolo.
Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Fouzia Farooq Ahmed (All Souls / Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad) will be speaking on ‘Gender Ventriloquism in Medieval India: the Writings of Amir Khusro’. Drinks to follow.
Tuesday
The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
Medieval Church and Culture – 5.15pm (coffee from 5pm) in the Wellbeloved Room, Harris Machester College. Edward Shawe-Taylor (St Cross) will be speaking on ‘The Qur’an of Mūsā b. Bughā: Reassembling a Lost Egyptian Manuscript’.
Medieval French Research Seminar – 5.15pm at the Maison Française d’Oxford. The theme this week is ‘Otherworld Objects between [REF] and [FIC]’.
Wednesday
Reading Jews in Late Antiquity – 10am in Room 207 of The Clarendon Institute. The theme for this week is: Eating and Sharing Meals with the Religious Other.
Medieval German Seminar: Konrad von Megenberg ‘Buch der Natur’ – 11.15am at Somerville College. To be added to the Teams group for updates, please email Almut Suerbaum.
Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pm online. To join, please email Michael Stansfield.
Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. Alberto Rigolio (Durham) will be speaking on ‘The Rise of the Memrā in Syriac Literature’.
Prof Dr Hermann Parzinger, President of the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, lecture at 17.15. at the Weston Library on the history of the Prussian Heritage Foundation along with the importance of sustainability and the contemporary, post-colonial responsibilities and challenges faced by the heritage sector. A drinks reception will follow.The sign up is here.
Thursday
Medieval Hebrew Reading Group – 10am in the Clarendon Institute. For more information, please email Joseph O’Hara.
British Archaeological Association Post-Graduate Online Conference – 12.20pm online. Register here.
Greek and Latin Reading Group – 3pm in the Stapledon Room, Exeter Collge. The text this week is ‘on writing Lives’ (Tacitus, Annals 4.34).
Torch Talk: ‘Locating Silences: The Status and Agency of Women in the Delhi Sultanate’ – 4pm in St Luke’s Chapel, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter.
Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies seminar – 5.15pm at Jesus College and online. Tanguy Solliec (LACITO, CNRS, Paris) will be speaking on ‘Breton Dialect Variation: An Opportunity to Reflect on the Emergence and Formation of a Language’.
Compline in the Crypt (in English) – 9.30pm in the Crypt of St-Peter-in-the-East (!), the library church of St Edmund Hall.
An Introduction to Greek Manuscript Culture – 2pm in the Horton Room, Weston Library. First come, first served: email almut.fries@classics.ox.ac.uk for more info.
Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.
Middle English Reading Group – 3pm in the Beckington Room, Lincoln College.
Medieval Mystery Plays Meeting of the Minds Workshop – 5pm at St Edmund Hall. More information here.
Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group – 5pm in the Mure Room, Merton College. Eleanor Jackson (British Library, Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts) will be speaking on ‘Medieval Women in Their Own Words: Curating the British Library Exhibition’.
Anglo-Norman Reading Group – 5pm in the Farmington Institute in Harris Manchester College. For more information, please contact Jane Bliss (jane.bliss@lmh.oxon.org).
OPPORTUNITIES (new items highlighted)
CHASE-DTP funded PhD opportunity between MEMS Kent and Westminster Abbey to investigate medieval manuscript fragments in the Abbey’s archives, application deadline 17 February 2025. More info here.
Head of Performance sought for Medieval Mystery Plays to pull the strings for the 2025 performance of the Medieval Mystery Plays. Henrike Lähnemann and Lesley Smith, the Co-Directors, are looking for an enthusiastic, creative and, above all, well-organised graduate student or postdoc. There will be a reward of £300. See here the advertisement.
4-year funded Collaborative Doctoral Award(CDA), co-supervised between the University of Nottingham and the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford: ‘Digital Approaches to Medieval Chant and Local Religious Heritage’. Deadline 13 January 2025: more information here.
The Medieval Academy of America’s Graduate Student Committee seeks new committee members for the 2025-2027 term. Submit self-nomination forms here.
Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference 2025 CfP – seeking 20 minute papers from graduate students on the theme of ‘Rituals and Ceremonies’, for a conference held 24th and 25th of April, 2025. More info here.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln are seeking an assistant professor specializing in visual or material cultures between c. 700 and 1750 CE. More Info here.
The Central European University are advertising a number of funded PhDs and Masters – see the blog post here.
University College Dublin are advertising a funded PhD in Early medieval political and/or intellectual culture (c.500-c.1000 CE) which will be supervised by Dr Megan Welton. See the blog post here.
An opportunity has arisen to translate Alice in Wonderland into Old Norse – The translator would own the copyright and receive a royalty for copies sold. Those interested should email Sarah Foot.
PRAGESTT German Studies Student Conference will take place on the 21st and 22nd March 2025 at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic) – please see https://pragestt.ff.cuni.cz/en/home/
The Oxford University Byzantine Society has issued a Call for Papers for their 27th International Graduate Conference, held on the 1st-2nd March 2025, in Oxford and Online. More information can be found here.
The Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literatures invites graduate students from across the globe to submit to the annual Medium Ævum Essay Prize. Deadline 2 December. More information can be found here.
Check out this handy guide to how to blog – including a call for authors for the OMS blog – by Miles Pattenden.
The days are getting colder and the nights are drawing in: fear not, for the medieval events roll ever on and on. As always, a PDF version of the booklet can be found here, and do check the Oxford Medieval Studies blog for reports of recent medieval events; also worthwhile checking out is the History of the Book blog with a report e.g. last week on a palaeography class with Laure Miolo and Alison Ray (including a “bat book”!). Do send in your own suggestions for blog posts to Miles Pattenden!
EVENTSTHIS WEEK
Monday
French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10.30am in the Weston Library. Those interested should email Laure Miolo.
Medieval Archaeology Seminar – 3pm at the Institute of Archaeology. Lyn Blackmore (Museum of London Archaeology) will be speaking on ‘The Seventh-Century Bed Burial at Harpole: Aspects of Recent work’.
Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Teresa Barucci (Magdalen) will be speaking on ‘Identity and Geographical Origin at the Late Medieval University of Paris: An Analysis of Manuscript Decoration’.
Old Norse Reading Group – 5.30pm in the English Faculty Graduate Common Room.
Tuesday
Medieval English Research Seminar – 12.15pm at Lecture Theatre 2 of the St Cross Building. Francis Leneghan (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘A Perilous Task? The Making of the Old English Heptateuch (Bodleian Library MS. Laud Misc. 509)’
The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
The Germanic Reading Group – 4pm online. This week, the focus will be on extracts from Physiologus, the elephant. Contact Howard Jones if you would like the zoom link and handout.
Medieval Poetry Reading Group – 4.30pm in the Colin Matthew Room, Radliffe Humanities Building. The theme this week is Light without Sun or Moon: The Poetry of Kabīr.
Early Modern Graduate Forum – 5.15pm in Seminar Room B at the English Faculty. Jacob Ridley (DPhil candidate, Univ) will be talking on the topic of ‘Androcracy and Personification from Everyman to Spenser’. Wine and soft drinks provided.
Medieval Church and Culture – 5.00pm in the Wellbeloved Room, Harris Machester College. Helen Flatley (Somerville) will be speaking on ‘Ties that Bind: Partnership, Surety and Social Bonds between Christians, Muslims and Jews in Toledo, 1085-c.1300’.
Wednesday
Reading Jews in Late Antiquity – 10am in Room 207 of The Clarendon Institute. The theme for this week is Angelology and Demonology.
Medieval German Seminar: Konrad von Megenberg ‘Buch der Natur’ – 11.15am at Somerville College. To be added to the Teams group for updates, please email Almut Suerbaum.
Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pm online. To join, please email Michael Stansfield.
Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. Arkadiy Avdokhin (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Gone with the Wind: Ambition, Scatology, and Violence in Acclamations for Albinos at Aphrodisias’.
VRF in the Creative Arts: Inks & Paints of the Abbasids – 5.15pm in the Eliot Theatre, Merton College. This talk will take us through the pigments and dyes that made up the Islamic scribe’s colour palette. Joumana Medlej will describe their preparation and behaviour from a practitioner’s perspective, and share process photos from her re-creation of ink recipes from the tenth to thirteenth centuries, along with insights into inkmaking practices gleaned from these texts.
Thursday
Medieval Hebrew Reading Group – 10am in the Clarendon Institute. For more information, please email Joseph O’Hara.
Greek and Latin Reading Group – 3pm in the Stapledon Room, Exeter Collge. The text this week is Caesar (Plutarch, Life of Caesar 63–66).
Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies seminar – 5pm online.Elizabeth Boyle (Maynooth) will be speaking on ‘Psychology and the Individual in Medieval Ireland’.
Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5pm in the Arumugam Building, St Catz. Elena Lichmanova (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Religious Storytelling and the Rise of Marginalia’.
Friday
Oxford Medieval Society ‘Shut Up and Write’ – 9.30 to 12 in Blackwell’s Cafe.
Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.
Middle English Reading Group – 3pm in the Beckington Room, Lincoln College.
Inaugural Lecture of the Gad Rausing Associate Professor of Viking-Age Archaeology, held at St Cross College at 3pm on Friday 8th November. Dr Jane Kershaw will be speaking on ‘The Viking Diaspora: Causes, Networks and Cultural Identity’. Tickets are available here.
Saturday
Reading in the Woods: A Day of Learning About Wood in the Library. 11am at the Weston Library and online. More info here.
UPCOMING
To register for the ‘Crafting the Book’ one-day workshop, held on 22 November at the Bodleian Bibliographical Press, please follow this link.
700 Years of the Thames at The National Archives – The National Archives (London), Thursday November 7 – drop in between 15:00 and 19:00. Tickets here.
Tickets are available here for the Society of Medieval Archaeology Student Colloquium (4th-6th November 2024).
The LGBTQ+ History Hackathon is happening on November 29th 2-5.30pm at the History Faculty. Register here.
OPPORTUNITIES (new items highlighted)
Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference 2025 CfP – seeking 20 minute papers from graduate students on the theme of ‘Rituals and Ceremonies’, for a conference held 24th and 25th of April, 2025. More info here.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln are seeking an assistant professor specializing in visual or material cultures between c. 700 and 1750 CE. More Info here.
The Central European University are advertising a number of funded PhDs and Masters – see the blog post here.
University College Dublin are advertising a funded PhD in Early medieval political and/or intellectual culture (c.500-c.1000 CE) which will be supervised by Dr Megan Welton. See the blog post here.
An opportunity has arisen to translate Alice in Wonderland into Old Norse – The translator would own the copyright and receive a royalty for copies sold. Those interested should email Sarah Foot.
PRAGESTT German Studies Student Conference will take place on the 21st and 22nd March 2025 at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic) – please see https://pragestt.ff.cuni.cz/en/home/
The Oxford University Byzantine Society has issued a Call for Papers for their 27th International Graduate Conference, held on the 1st-2nd March 2025, in Oxford and Online. More information can be found here.
The Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literatures invites graduate students from across the globe to submit to the annual Medium Ævum Essay Prize. Deadline 2 December. More information can be found here.
Check out this handy guide to how to blog – including a call for authors for the OMS blog – by Miles Pattenden.
First week is upon us! Welcome back, and a particular welcome to those joining us for the first time. I hope you’ve all had a chance to flick through the booklet of medieval events this term – if not, a PDF version can be found here. I’d like to draw your attention to the OMS Welcome Event this Tuesday at 5pm – I look forward to meeting lots of you there, and hearing more about the events you are running.
And: check out this handy guide to how to blog – including a call for authors for the OMS blog – by Miles Pattenden.
EVENTSTHIS WEEK
Monday
French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10.30am at the Weston Library.
Medieval History Seminar – 5pm in the Wharton Room, All Souls. Edward Zychowicz-Coghill (KCL) will be speaking on ‘Writing the Conquest of Egypt: A case study in the Formation of Islamic Historical Writing’.
Tuesday
Medieval English Research Seminar – 12.15pm in Lecture Theatre 2, St Cross Building. Amy Appleford (Boston University) will be speaking on ‘Ascetic Theory and the Impaired Christ: Peter Damian, Richard Rolle, Julian of Norwich’.
Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2pm in the Weston Library.
Oxford Medieval Studies Welcome Event – 5pm in the Wellbeloved Room, Harris Manchester College. A welcome event for all medievalists, old and new – all those running a seminar/group are encouraged to come along to pitch their event to the community!
Wednesday
Reading Jews in Late Antiquity – 10am in Room 207, The Clarendon Institute, Walton St. The topic this week will be Jewish Women and Communal Roles.
Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11.15am at Somerville College. The topic for this term is Konrad von Megenberg: ‘Buch der Natur’. The 1861 edition by Pfeiffer is open access online, 2003 edition by Luff/Steer is accessible via SOLO. This will be a short organisational meeting – contact Henrike Lähnemann for more information.
Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pm on Teams. To join and/or to find out more, please contact Michael Stansfield.
Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies. Alexander Sherborne (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘The Extraordinary Medieval Monuments of Georgia: A Report by the Oxford University Byzantine Society Research Trip, July 2024’.
Dante Reading Group – 5.30pm in Seminar Room 11, St Anne’s College
Thursday
Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar – time TBC, Online. Arnisha Ashraf (Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi) will be speaking on ‘Woman’s Body as ‘Commodity’: Matrimonial Alliances and Political Dynamics in Medieval Assam (c.1600-1800)’.
Greek and Latin Reading Group – 3pm in the Stapeldon Room, Exeter College. The theme this term is ‘Greek and Roman Lives’.
Medieval and Renaissance Music – 5pm on Zoom. Please register here.
‘The Winter Sun in Capricorn: Portal Imagery in Chaucer & Chartres Cathedral’, with the American Friends of Chartres – 7:30, held Online. Tickets here.
Friday
Beowulf Study Day – 10pm in the Study of the Book Room, Faculty of English. Booking required.
Medievalists Coffee Morning10.30-11.30am in the Visiting Scholars Centre of the Weston Library. All welcome.
Middle English Reading Group – 3pm in the Beckington Room, Lincoln College. This term, the group will be reading Troilus and Criseyde – please bring a copy of the Riverside Chaucer if possible.
Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group – 5pm at the Weston Library. Andrew Honey will be speaking on ‘Cataloguing Medieval Bookbindings at the Bodleian: Manuscripts from Reading Abbey as a case study’. Spaces are limited: please email Elena Lichmanova by 16/10/2024.
Anglo-Norman Reading Group – 5pm in the Farmington Institute in Harris Manchester College.
UPCOMING
Tickets are still available here for the inaugural lecture of the Gad Rausing Associate Professor of Viking-Age Archaeology, held at St Cross College at 3pm on Friday 8th November. Dr Jane Kershaw will be speaking on ‘The Viking Diaspora: Causes, Networks and Cultural Identity’.
