When: 13-14 January, 2023
Where: Faculty of History, Oxford / Online (a hybrid event with virtual attendance option)
Virtual attendance registration is still open (deadline 23:00 12 January 2023). Virtual registration fee is £15 and you can sign up here.
All Souls College, Oxford
Hilary Term, 2023
Led by Dr Margaret Bent (Convenor, All Souls College, Oxford) and Matthew Thomson (University College Dublin)
The seminars are all held via Zoom on Thursdays at 5 p.m. GMT. 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 matthew.thomson@ucd.ie.
Seminar programme
Thursday 26 January, 5pm GMT
Julia Craig-McFeely (DIAMM, University of Oxford)
The Sadler Sets of Partbooks and Tudor Music Copying
Discussants: Owen Rees (University of Oxford) and Magnus Williamson (University of Newcastle)
The digital recovery of the Sadler Partbooks has revealed considerably more than simply the notes written on the pages. Surprisingly more in fact. It has led to a re-evaluation of pretty much everything we thought we knew about the books and their inception, and indeed the culture of music copying in England in the mid- to late-16th century. This paper examines the question of who was responsible for copying Bodleian Library Mus. e. 1–5. Some tempting speculations are explored, and some new paradigms proposed.
Thursday 16 February, 5pm GMT
Martin Kirnbauer and the project team Vicentino21: Anne Smith, David Gallagher, Luigi Collarile and Johannes Keller (Schola Cantorum Basiliensis / FHNW)
Soav’ e dolce – Nicola Vicentino’s Intervallic Vision
The musical ideas and visions that Vicentino sets out in his writings L’antica musica ridotta alla moderna prattica (Rome 1555) and the Manifesto for his arciorgano can only be concretely traced on the basis of a few, mostly fragmentary, surviving compositions. However, the research carried out within the framework of the SNSF-funded research project “Vicentino21” (https://www.fhnw.ch/plattformen/vicentino21/), with the aim of creating a digital edition of Vicentino’s treatise, now provides concrete findings. Using the example of the madrigal Soav’ e dolce ardore (III:51, fol. 67), questions concerning Vicentino’s musical visions and the edition will be discussed.
Thursday 9 March, 5pm GMT
Emily Zazulia (University of California at Berkeley)
The Fifteenth-Century Song Mass: Some Challenges
Discussants: Fabrice Fitch (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) and Sean Gallagher (New England Conservatory)
Love songs and the Catholic Mass do not make easy bedfellows. The earthly, amorous, even carnal feelings explored in fifteenth-century chansons seem at odds with the solemnity of Christian observance’s most central rite. Recent scholarship has attempted to bridge this divide, showing how some of these genre-crossing pieces conflate the earthly lady with the Virgin Mary, thereby effacing the divide between sacred and secular. But a substantial body of song masses survives whose source material is decidedly not amenable to this type of interpretation—masses based on songs that are less “My gracious lady is without peer” and more “Hey miller girl, come grind my grain”—or, as we shall see, worse. This paper turns an eye toward these misfit masses, surveying the corpus for a sense of what there is—the Whos, Whats, Wheres, and Whens—as a first step toward the Hows and Whys of these puzzling pieces. One particularly tricky example, the mass variously referred to as Je ne demande and Elle est bien malade, suggests that it may be time to replace prevailing sacred–secular interpretative models with a new approach.
It’s only November, but the Oxford Christmas lights are up, and the Christmas market has come to Broad Street! It strikes me as a little early for Christmas celebrations just yet, particularly as we still have two whole weeks of term. Here is some advice from Alcuin on not getting ahead of ourselves:
Omnia vestra honeste cum ordine fiant. Tempus statuatur lectioni.
[Do all of your tasks decently and in order. Fix a time for reading, Ep. 72]
Of course, as well as fixing reading time, you should also fix time to attend some of our wonderful range of events. To help you keep your diary decently and in order, please see below for a list of the week’s happenings:
EVENTS THIS WEEK:
Monday 21st November:
Tuesday 22nd November:
Wednesday 23rd November:
Thursday 24th November:
Friday 25th November:
OPPORTUNITIES:
Finally, for anyone eagerly looking forward to the Christmas season, when things are not so busy: some advice from Alcuin on enjoying the present and not hoping too much for the future (even when you are very busy with admissions or MSt essay writing):
Tempus huius vitae velociter currit… ideo pretiosa nobis debent esse tempora
[This life passes quickly… so we should hold our time as precious, Ep. 78]
In other words, enjoy the last couple of weeks of term. May you have a week filled with precious times!
‘Poem, Story, and Scape in the work of Kevin Crossley Holland’: An exhibition in the Old Library of St Edmund Hall
Open to the public on Monday 24 and Friday 28 October from 10:00-16:00
Or by appointment: Library@seh.ox.ac.uk
This exhibition explores the work of Kevin Crossley-Holland, Honorary Fellow and alumnus of St Edmund Hall, prize-winning children’s author, translator, poet, librettist, editor and professor. Kevin engages creatively with language and poetry, place, history and legend. He captivates us by telling stories deeply rooted in past cultures, which he remakes to be compellingly contemporary and relevant. For this exhibition, Kevin has generously loaned items from his private collection to add to material from St Edmund Hall’s Archives and Special Collections; we gratefully acknowledge his help.
Early in his career, Kevin established himself as a poet and as a translator and re-teller of Old and Middle English poetry, romance, and folklore for all ages, and as an enthusiastic collaborator with composers and visual artists. His Arthur trilogy has sold over one million copies worldwide and is available in twenty-six languages; it has inspired young readers to become medievalists and writers themselves. Recent works, such as Norse Tales: Stories from Across the Rainbow Bridge (2020) demonstrate how Northern European myth and legend continue to beguile him.
Kevin is passionate about how history, landscape and poetic language shape and inform one another. This exhibition explores continuities from Kevin’s childhood in how he sees, interprets, and responds to these creative stimuli. It also reveals how meticulously he researches the past to create his imaginary yet historically accurate worlds, and how carefully he crafts his poetry.
The exhibition is based on and inspired by ‘Poem, Story & Scape in the Work of Kevin Crossley-Holland’ which ran at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery at the University of Leeds from 29 March— 20 August 2022, curated by Dr Catherine Batt, Senior Lecturer in Medieval Literature at the University of Leeds. Many thanks to Sarah Prescott and the University of Leeds for their generous help and support in staging this version.
The next performance of the Medieval Mystery Plays is held on Saturday 22 April 2023 at St Edmund Hall, 12noon-3:30pm. All welcome! The full programme is available here.
12.00: Extracts from Piers Plowman (Swonken ful harde) Middle English
12.30: The Nativity and Salutation (English Faculty) Middle English
13.00: The Innocents (Les perles innocentes) 16th-century French
—13.30 BREAK—
14.00: The Passion (Sorores Sanctae Hildae) Latin and German
14.30: The Harrowing of Hell (Medieval Germanists) Middle High German
15.00: The Last Judgement (Past and Present Teddy Students) Modern English
Welcome to the third incarnation of the Oxford Medieval Mystery Cycle! As in 2019 and 2022, this highlight of the Oxford medieval calendar offers a variety of plays in different medieval and modern languages, staged at several stations in the beautiful grounds of St Edmund Hall. Cycles of plays retelling stories from the Bible were a popular form of entertainment in the Middle Ages, which we are only too happy to revive for modern audiences. Admission is free and you are welcome to turn up at any time.
Read the original call for participation: Sign-up is now open for the Oxford Medieval Mystery Cycle! Just follow this link to propose a play and to join one of the highlights of the Oxford Medieval Studies calendar, which will be held on Saturday 22 April 2023 at St Edmund Hall.
Following a hugely popular medieval tradition, we are looking for groups to perform a series of short plays retelling stories from the Bible. We are keen to cover a wide variety of (medieval) languages, but you don’t have to be a theatre professional or even a medievalist – all you need is lots of enthusiasm for what is above all a fun and unique experience. In the last years, plays have included:
Feel free to propose other plays, or even to write your own – as long as the topic is not already taken, so don’t wait too long! You can see which plays have already been proposed here.
We have previously had plays in English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian, but offers for plays in other languages, including Welsh, Dutch, Latin, or Hebrew are also very welcome! Some mystery plays are easily accessible online: this includes plays in Middle English (the York, Towneley, and N-Town plays), Old French (the Seinte Resurreccion), Middle High German (the Innsbrucker Osterspiel), or Old Spanish (the Auto de los Reyes Magos). And don’t worry if you don’t have enough actors or haven’t found a group yet: we can help you put out a call for actors and link you up with other people interested in participating. All you have to do is get in touch.
For inspiration, have a look at the mystery cycles of the last few years! You can even watch recordings of the cycles in 2019 and 2022 on YouTube. (Or, alternatively, you can watch the much more professional recordings of the 1985 National Theatre Mysteries.) A small budget is available for props and costumes.
Timeline:
Cake sale: we are also looking for people to bake cake and help run a charity cake stall on the day – if you’re interested, please get in touch!
To sign up, visit the eventbrite page.
When: Monday 31 October, 5.15pm
Where: Lecture Theatre 2, English Faculty (St Cross Building)
What: Michaelmas Medieval Studies Lecture by Professor Ardis Butterfield (Yale University) as Astor Visiting Lecturer
Ardis Butterfield is Marie Boroff Professor of English and (by courtesy) Professor of French and Music at Yale University. Her many published works investigate medieval literature and music across languages and national boundaries. Her books include Poetry and Music in Medieval France, and The Familiar Enemy: Chaucer, Language and the Nation in the Hundred Years War. She is currently completing a major new edition of medieval English lyrics.
‘Do we mean lyric or song? Modern lyric theory in history‘
Is ‘lyric’ something that has always existed as a category of poetry or music, or has it been created through a process of study and academic debate from the nineteenth century onwards – a process that Virginia Jackson has called ‘lyricization’? If that’s the case, where does medieval lyric fit in?
This lecture argued that medieval lyric is not on the edge of that debate, but at its centre. It does this by investigating the missing ingredient in many literary discussions of lyrics: their music. Thinking about the music for medieval lyrics (which in so many cases has not survived) can have an impact on modern theoretical discussions of poetry, requiring all of us to rethink our categories and assumptions.
Featured manuscripts (in order of appearance):
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson C. 670, f.148v
British Library, Harley MS 978, f.11v
British Library, Arundel MS 248, f.154r
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce 302, f.24r (John Audelay’s book)
Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Advocates MS 18.7.21,ff. 116r-121v (John of Grimestone’s preaching book)
Professor Butterfield also gave a manuscripts masterclass in the Weston Library’s Sir Victor Blank Lecture Theatre, 2–4pm on Tuesday 1 November: ‘Manuscripts of medieval lyric and song in the Bodleian Library’
St John’s Film Club presents two new short films on Love, Hope, Death and Eternity. The first of these, Complete Surrender (dir. Louise Nelstrop) will be of particular interest to Medievalists.
When: Wednesday 26th October, 5pm-6.30pm
Where: St John’s College, the Mark Bedingham Room (located in St John’s Library)
Film Synopsis
Complete Surrender 2020 (29 mins), directed by Louise Nelstrop (UK) and Pol Herrmann (Belgium), is a short documentary that explores what love is through the eyes of five celebrated Belgian artists and three religious sisters as they engage with the erotic mysticism of the female medieval mystics Hadewijch and Marguerite Porete.
Official Trailer: https://bit.ly/3ywk4Bm
Facebook: https://bit.ly/3epZYSk
Bizzarro e Fantastico 2020 (26 mins), directed Kris Krainock (USA), by is a dark comedy that explores the meaning of life and morality. A Roman everyman discovered a violently ill intruder on his sofa after returning from the market, who he must to health. He discovers his mysterious guest has otherworldly intentions — a reminder that life is for the living.
Official Trailer: https://imdb.to/3Mrs1gB
Facebook: https://bit.ly/3Crmylx
Review: https://filmthreat.com/reviews/bizzarro-e-fantastico/
About the Directors
Louise Nelstrop is a member of the Department of Theology and a non-stipendiary lecturer in theology at John’s College, where she teaches papers on Mysticism, Medieval Religions and Jesus through the Centuries. This is her first short film made in collaboration with Belgian filmmakers, including cinematographer Pol Herrmann, who co-directed and shot the film.
Kris Krainock is an American filmmaker and playwright, who began his professional career with the publication of poetry and short stories in local and national literary journals. Krainock’s major upcoming projects include the feature motion picture ‘Madame X,’ where he’s been able to collaborate with legends in the field such as Stanley Kubrick’s director of photography Douglas Milsome and Stanley’s widow, the artist Christiane Kubrick. Krainock is also developing the television series ‘The Idiot’ and the darkly comedic web series ‘It’s All Downhill From Here.'” (https://www.kriskrainock.com/)
The screening is open to anyone interested. Please email Louise Nelstrop if you have any questions: louise.nelstrop@theology.ox.ac.uk
Michaelmas: Fridays at 4 pm. Week 2, 4 — online. Week 6 — hybrid. Week 8 — in person (venue TBC).
Friday, 21 October. Old Dutch/Old Low Franconian — Johanneke Sytsema leading
Friday, 4 November. Old Saxon — Will Thurlwell leading
Thursday (!), 17 November. Gothic: ‘The linguistic relationship between the Gothic Bible and its Greek source’, by Professor Carla Falluomini (University of Perugia)
Where: Oxford Linguistics Faculty, Common Room / via Zoom
Friday, 2 December. Modern Bernese German (Bärndütsch) — Philomen Probert leading
To join the mailing list or receive the zoom-link, email howard.jones@sbs.ox.ac.uk.
The handouts will be circulated a few days before each meeting.
Header image: Page from the Codex Argenteus showing part of the Gothic (Wulfila) Bible (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Michaelmas: Mondays at 3pm, weeks 2, 4, 6 and 8, Univ College (room TBC)
This informal reading group will explore queer and trans themes in medieval texts. In Michaelmas, we’ll be thinking about queer/trans sanctity across medieval Christian, Jewish and Sufi traditions.
Week 2: Queer longings for God
Week 4: Transfemme prayer: Kalonymus ben Kalonymus
Week 6: Transmasc sainthood: Euphrosyne/Smaragdus
Week 8: The trial of Joan of Arc
All extremely welcome! To join the mailing list and get texts in advance, or if you have any questions, email rowan.wilson@univ.ox.ac.uk