Tag: medieval matters

Medieval Matter HT26, Week 4

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08/02/2026

16:04

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Call for Papers, conference, events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities

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Welcome to Week 4. An updated version of the OMS Booklet is linked here, and is available on the OMS website throughout the term. For your diary: The 2026 OMS Lecture will take place on Thursday 19 February 5–6.30pm in the Old Dining Hall of St Edmund Hall. Prof. Ian Forrest (Glasgow) will be speaking on ‘Telling Tails: Weaponizing Gender in the Late Medieval Church‘. Drinks to follow. More information and register for dinner. Tony Hunt’s memorial service is will be held on 16th May, 2.30, St Peter’s College Chapel (booking etc in due course).

Events

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library
  • Seminar in Palaeography and Manuscript studies – 2:15, Weston Library. Emily Guerry (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘The Bodleian’s Gaignières Collection: A paper museum for Gothic tombs’.
  • Medieval Archaeology Seminar – 3:00, Archaeology Faculty. Matthew Johnson will be speaking on ‘New World Settlement and the English Middle Ages’.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5:00, All Souls College. Cordelia Heß (Aarhus) will be speaking on “Medieval Racism? Social Practices in Colonial Contact Zones in Greenland and Sápmi (900-1500)
  • General Linguistics Seminar – 5.15, Humanities Centre 30.400. Henrike Lähnemann will be speaking on The nuns’ language: Latin-German code-mixing in the Lüne letters
  • Theory and Play: Comparative Medievalisms – 5.15, Lady Margaret Hall. Selections from: Anandavardana’s Dhvanyaloka (9th century CE, tr. The Light of Suggestion); Mechthild of Magdeburg’s Das fließende Licht der Gottheit (13th century CE, tr. The Flowing Light of the Godhead); Cywydd Ymry

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, Room 00.079 (Humanities Centre). Kirsty Bolton (University of Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Power and conversion in middle English romance’.
  • Europe in the Later Middle Ages Seminar – 2:00, New Seminar Room, St John’s College. Simon Egan, Queen’s University Belfast will be speaking on ‘God forebede that a wylde Yrishe wyrlynge shulde be chosene for to be there kynge’: Gaelic Recovery in a North Atlantic Context, c.1350-c.1550′
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room). Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo.
  • Medieval Church and Culture, theme: TRANSLATION(S) – tea and coffee from 5:00, Harris Manchester College. Clément Salah (Queen’s) will be speaking on ‘Materialising Translation: manuscripts and the movement of knowledge in tenth-century North Africa’.
  • Heraldry Society – 5:00, MacGregor Room, Oriel College. Patric Dickinson, CVO (Clarenceux 2010-21) will be speaking on ‘Symbolism in Heraldry: Mysterious or Manifest?’
  • Old English Hagiography Reading Group – 5:15, Jesus College Memorial Room. The first text is the anonymous Life of Saint Giles – email Luisa Ostacchini for a copy.
  • 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. Céline Delattre and Robert Minte will be speaking on ‘Inks and Pigments’
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 (Humanities Centre). Palyce of Honour, First Part, ll. 127-771 
  • The Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies. Pamela Armstrong (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘The Excavations of the Church of St Polyeuktos at Sarachane Revisited’
  • Islamic Studies Seminar: ‘Hajj the Art of Pilgramage’ – 5:00, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies.
  • John Lydgate Book Club – 5:15pm. All Souls College, Hovenden Room. Mary Wellesley will speak on Lydgate and devotion.

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. Pilgrims and Travellers, including extracts from the works of Egeria, Margery Kempe and Lady Nijo.
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:15, Room 20.306 (Humanties Centre) and Online. Llion Wigley (University of Wales Press) will be speaking on ‘Ynysoedd Gobaith: Adeiladu Iwtopia yng Nghymru’r Ugeinfed Ganrif’.
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5:15, The Khalili Research Centre. BOOK LAUNCH — Islamic Objects in Seventeenth-Century Italy: Ferdinando Cospi, the Bologna Collection and the Medici Court.
  • A Medieval Saint in the Modern World: Oswald of Northumbria in Words and Music – 6:15, The Chapel at King’s College London.
  • Compline in the Crypt – 9:30, St Edmund Hall.

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. Translations of the Bible in the Eastern Mediterranean: Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic and Arabic. 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.
  • EMBI ‘Databases: A Skills Workshop’ – 4.00, Humanities Centre, History of Art Seminar Room.
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group – 5:00, Sir Howard Stringer Room at Merton College, Emma J. Nelson (No take-backsies? Gerald of Wales and the Boundaries of Book Donation) and Elliot Cobb (Miraculous and Marginal Women in the Metz Psalter-Hours).

Opportunities and Reminders

Medieval Matter HT26, Wk 3

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02/02/2026

08:26

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Call for Papers, conference, events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities, Uncategorized

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The OMS Booklet is linked here, and is available on the OMS website throughout the term. The 2026 OMS Lecture will take place on Thursday 19 February 5–6.30pm in the Old Dining Hall of St Edmund Hall. Prof. Ian Forrest (Glasgow) will be speaking on ‘Telling Tails: Weaponizing Gender in the Late Medieval Church‘. Drinks to follow. More information and register for dinner. Also: OMS sends condolences to our colleague Anna Abulafia (former Professor of Abrahamic Religions) for the death of her husband, Prof. David Abulafia FBA

Events

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5:00, All Souls College. Anna Molnár (Reading) will be speaking on “Nuns’ Financial Literacy and the Private Banking Activities of Female Religious Organisations in the Later Middle Ages”

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, Room 00.079 (Humanities Centre). Joe Stadolnik (University of Chicago) will be speaking on ‘Bad books in medieval Bristol: alchemy, liturgy and Thomas Norton’s ordinals’.
  • Europe in the Later Middle Ages Seminar – 2:00, New Seminar Room, St John’s College. Tom Johnson, Oxford will be speaking on ‘‘He hath payd his part’: The Political Economy of Fishing Doles in Late-Medieval England’
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room). Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo.
  • Medieval Church and Culture, theme: TRANSLATION(S) – tea and coffee from 5:00, Harris Manchester College. Eugenia Vorobeva (St Anne’s) will be speaking on ‘Devil’s Laughter, Language, and Sin in the Old Norse-Icelandic ‘Passio Domini’ Homily’
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5:15, Maison Française d’Oxford. Cat Watts (St Anne’s College, Oxford) will be speaking on ‘”Nothing  Of  Thine Own”: Fandom, Devilry, and Rewriting Holy Tales’ .
  • Old English Hagiography Reading Group – 5:15, Jesus College Memorial Room. The first text is the anonymous Life of Saint Giles – email Luisa Ostacchini for a copy.
  • 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. Martin Kauffmann will be discussing Decoration
  • The Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies. laudia Rapp (Vienna) and Michael Whitby (Birmingham) will be speaking on ‘Mark the Deacon: The Life of Porphyrius of Gaza (in collaboration with Translated Texts for Historians and LUP)’
  • Islamic Studies Seminar- 5:00, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. James McDougall (University of Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Worlds of Islam: A Global History’.

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group (MERG) – 11:00, Lincoln College, Beckington Room. All are welcome as we read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: bring any edition of the original text.
  • Environmental History Working Group – 12:30–2:00pm, Humanities Centre History Hub Room 20.421. Louis James Henry (PhD Medieval Environmental History, University of Stavanger, Visiting Student at KCL) will be speaking on “Timely Courts and Immediate Responses: Waste Management as a Temporal Issue in Late Medieval England”
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5:00, St Catherine’s College. Millie Horton-Insch (British Museum & Trinity College Dublin) will be speaking on “Technologies of Reproduction and Sonderauftrag Bayeux: Re-Creating the Bayeux Tapestry for the Third Reich”
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:15, Room 20.306 (Humanities Centre and Online). Rhiannon Marks (Cardiff) will be speaking on ‘Envisaging the end: the representation of language decline in contemporary Welsh writing’
  • Old English Graduate Reading Group – 5:15. Email Harriet Carter for location.
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5:15, The Khalili Research Centre. Maria Judith Feliciano (CSIC, Madrid) will be speaking on ‘the silk core, or lessons from medieval Iberian textile studies’
  • Guild of Medievalist Makers, Making Space Session  – 5:30, online. Optional theme: birds.
  • Compline in the Crypt – 9:30, St Edmund Hall.

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. The theme this week is ‘The New Testament’ Places are limited. To register interest and secure a place, please contact the lecturer at Péter Tóth  
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room). Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo.

Opportunities and Reminders

Medieval Matters HT26, Week 2

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25/01/2026

16:16

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Call for Papers, conference, events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities

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OMS is deeply saddened by the passing of Stephen Baxter (Professor of Medieval History). To view a number of touching memories of Stephen, and to contribute your own, please visit the memorial page. Further plans for remembering Stephen at St Peter’s will be announced in due course.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library
  • Seminar in Palaeography and Manuscript studies – 2:15, Weston Library. Kees Dekker (Groningen) will be speaking on ‘Manuscripts in the hands of Franciscus Junius (1591-1677)’
  • Medieval Archaeology Seminar – 3:00, Archaeology Faculty. Jennifer Coulton (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Structural Depositions, Haunted Houses, and Domestic Protection in England c.800-1250’
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5:00, All Souls College. Rob Portass (Robinson College, Cambridge) will be speaking on “Estate Management and the Beginnings of Specialised Production in Early Medieval Iberia”.

Tuesday

  • ‘A Quiet Revolution’: Engaging Heritage Audiences with West Horsley Place’s Historic Landscape – 11:00, Learning Centre (Room 00.018), Humanities Centre. Book a place.
  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, Room 00.079 (Humanities Centre). Rachel Moss (University of Northampton) will be speaking on ‘Chivalry is a code for men willing to fight’: medievalism, masculinity and the modern far-right’.
  • Europe in the Later Middle Ages Seminar – 2:00, New Seminar Room, St John’s College. Annabel Hancock (Trinity College Dublin) will be speaking on ‘Negotiating Uncertain Waters: Trust in trade and diplomacy in the Mediterranean’
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room). Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo.
  • Medieval Church and Culture, theme: TRANSLATION(S) – tea and coffee from 5:00, Harris Manchester College. Natasha Bradley (Lincoln) will be speaking on ‘Trans Saints in Old Norse Translation: Marina*us the Monk and Pelagia*us the penitent in the medieval North’
  • Maghrib History Seminar – 5:00, The Queen’s College. Amira Bennison (University of Cambridge) will be speaking on ‘Power and Peace: Re-viewing the Dynastic History of the Western Maghrib through an Urban Lens’.
  • Heraldry Society – 5:00, MacGregor Room, Oriel College. Mr Mark JR Scott (Somerset Herald) will be speaking on “British Royal Heraldry: 1800-2025”.
  • Old English Hagiography Reading Group – 5:15, Jesus College Memorial Room. The first text is the anonymous Life of Saint Giles – email Luisa Ostacchini for a copy.
  • 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 – 2:00, Weston Library. Andrew Honey & Matthew Holford will be discussing ‘Writing supports (parchment and paper) and manuscript structure’.
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 (Humanities Centre). Palyce of Honour, First Part, ll. 127-771.
  • The Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies. Julian Baker (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Medieval Epiros and Albania: Geopolitical and Economic Reflections in the Light of Coinage’.

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group (MERG) – 11:00, Lincoln College, Beckington Room. All are welcome as we read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: bring any edition of the original text.
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar – 4:00, Somerville College. The Debate on Women – extracts from the works of Christine de Pizan, Teresa de Cartagena and Lady Murasaki.
  • Seminars in Medieval and Renaissance Music – 5:00, online. Kévin Roger (University of Lorraine) will be speaking on ‘Latin Motets and Literary Networks in the Late Middle Ages: Intertextuality, Rhetoric, and Digital Reading’. Discussants: Yolanda Plumley (University of Exeter) and Karl Kügle (Universities of Oxford and Utrecht).
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5:00, St Catherine’s College. Robert Mills (University College London) will be speaking on “Wild Forms: Hermits, Saints and Rock Art in Medieval England” 
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:15, Room 20.306 (Humanties Centre) and Online. Elizabeth Edwards (CAWCS) will be speaking on ‘Home Circuits: the Ladies of Llangollen, queer temporalities and Welsh landscapes’.
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5:15, The Khalili Research Centre. Joumana Medlej (Independent Scholar) will be speaking on ‘The hidden life of Kūfī scripts: practice-based insights and theories’.
  • Compline in the Crypt – 9:30, St Edmund Hall.

Friday

  • In Tesserae workshop – details TBC.
  • 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. The theme this week ‘The Septuagint and its Transmission’. Places are limited. To register interest and secure a place, please contact the lecturer at peter.toth@bodleian.ox.ac.uk  
  • 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, online.

Opportunities and Reminders

The OMS Booklet is linked here, and is available on the OMS website throughout the term. The 2026 OMS Lecture will take place on Thursday 19 February 5–6.30pm in the Old Dining Hall of St Edmund Hall. Prof. Ian Forrest (Glasgow) will be speaking on ‘Telling Tails: Weaponizing Gender in the Late Medieval Church‘. Drinks to follow. More information and register for dinner.

Medieval Matters HT26, Week 1

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19/01/2026

08:43

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Call for Papers, conference, events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities, Uncategorized

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Welcome to Week 1. Thanks to all those who submitted their events for the upcoming term. An updated version of the OMS Booklet is linked here, and is available on the OMS website throughout the term.

For your diary: The 2026 OMS Lecture will take place on Thursday 19 February 5–6.30pm in the Old Dining Hall of St Edmund Hall. Prof. Ian Forrest (Glasgow) will be speaking on ‘Telling Tails: Weaponizing Gender in the Late Medieval Church‘. Drinks to follow. More information and register for dinner.

Tony Hunt’s memorial service is will be held on 16th May, 2.30, St Peter’s College Chapel (booking etc in due course).

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5:00, All Souls College. John Sabapathy (UCL) will be speaking on “Humanism and bestiality in the land of Cockagne”.
  • Celtic Language Teaching continues throughout the week – please consult the booklet, p. 39 for a full table of dates and locations.

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, Room 00.079 (Humanities Centre). Stacie Vos (University of California, San Diego) will be speakin on “Norfolk Broads, or Discovering medieval women with twentieth-century collectives”.
  • Europe in the Later Middle Ages Seminar – 2:00, New Seminar Room, St John’s College. Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell (Oxford) will be speaking on “Beyond the Mediterranean by land and sea: Two medieval cases in a (very) broad context”.
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room). Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo.
  • Medieval Church and Culture, theme: TRANSLATION(S) – tea and coffee from 5:00, Harris Manchester College. John Mulhall (Purdue University) will be speaking on “‘Blessings on All the Prophets’: Islamic prayers in the Latin scientific translations of the twelfth century”.
  • 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 first week will be a shortish planning meeting. The topic for this term is the ‘Liederbuch der Clara Hätzlerin’. 
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 (Humanities Centre). Theme: ‘Palyce of Honour, Prologue, ll. 1-126’.
  • The Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies. John Mulhall (Purdue) will be speaking on “The Republic of Translators: Translating from Greek and Arabic into Latin in the Twelfth-Century Mediterranean”.

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group (MERG) – 11:00, Lincoln College, Beckington Room. All are welcome as we read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: bring any edition of the original text.
  • Environmental History Working Group (EHWG) – 12:30, Room 20.421 (Humanities Centre). Niklas Groschinski (DPhil History) “Environing from Below — Supplications, Denunciations, and Other Sources for Rewriting Early Modern Environmental History”
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:15, Room 20.306 (Humanties Centre) and Online. Brigid Ehrmantraut (St Andrews) will be speaking on “Death of the author? Authorship and authority in the Middle Irish classical adaptations”.
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5:15, The Khalili Research Centre. Yusuf Tayara (Wolfson College) will be speaking on “Timekeeping between art and science: integrated approaches to the history of Mamluk astronomy”.
  • Old English Graduate Reading Group – 5:15. Location is variable so please email Hattie Carter or James Tittering if you’re interested. This term’s text is Apollonius of Tyre.
  • Compline in the Crypt – 9:30, St Edmund Hall. Sung by the College Choir in English

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. The theme this week is ‘The Hebrew Bible”. Places are limited. To register interest and secure a place, please contact the lecturer, Péter Tóth.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room). Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo
  • EMBI ‘Databases: A Skills Workshop’ has been POSTPONED until Week 4 on 13 February, 16:00-17:15.

Opportunities (see booklet for further details)

Medieval Matter HT25, Week 0

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12/01/2026

17:02

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Medieval Matters

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Welcome back to Oxford – I hope you all had a restful vac. Please find below the first draft of the upcoming medieval Hilary Term Booklet, which includes a range of seminars, reading groups and opportunities.

PLEASE:

  • If you have submitted an event, check that the details are correct and  provide any corrections ASAP.
  • Note that a large number of entries have no information (noted by the symbol ##). If you are in charge of one of these events, or have previously been so, please reply to this email address ASAP with further information, or informing us that the event is not running this term.

Finally, a few upcoming events and deadlines for week 0:

  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – Friday 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.

Medieval MSS Support Group at the Weston Library

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20/11/2025

16:11

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Around Oxford

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We are pleased to trial a new format, once or twice a term, in which readers of medieval manuscripts can pose questions to a mixed group of fellow readers and Bodleian curators in a friendly environment. Come with your own questions, or to see what questions other readers have!

The sort of questions you might bring are:

  • What is the place and date of origin of this MS?
  • What is the place and date of origin of this binding?
  • What does the decoration of this MS suggest?
  • What does this semi-legible inscription say?
  • Whose bookplate is this, or how could I find out?

Meetings will typically be held in the Horton Room (just across the corridor from the manuscripts reading room on the 1st floor). If you wish to pose a question, please order the relevant manuscript to the issue desk, and email the details to Matthew Holford, Tolkien Curator of Medieval Manuscripts, the day before, so that he can arrange for it to be transferred across to the Horton Room for the session. Alternatively, provide a good quality digital image that we can display on a large monitor.

In the expectation that many readers will be at the Weston Library on Fridays for the weekly Coffee Morning in the Visiting Scholars’ Centre, the next such sessions are scheduled for the following dates:

  • Friday, 28 November 2025 (Horton Room) 11.30-12:30pm
  • Friday, 5 December 2025 (Horton Room) 11.30-12:30pm

Please sign up using this form. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Manuscript support group Friday 28 November – Fill in form

Header image: Bodleian Library, MS. Bodl. 264, f. 96r.

Medieval Matter MT25, Week 4

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03/11/2025

08:25

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Call for Papers, events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities

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Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Introduction to Arabic Palaeography – 2:00, Khalili Research Centre
  • Medieval Archaeology Seminar – 3.00, Institute of Archaeology, Lecture Room. Wyatt Wilcox will be speaking on ‘Isolated Barrows in Early Medieval England: A Spatial Analysis’
  • 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. Anna Chrysostomides (Queen Mary, University of London) will be speaking on “Non-Binary Gender in Abbasid Baghdad: Reality vs. Fiction”

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, Margaret Thatcher Centre, Somerville. Kathy Lavezzo (U of Iowa) will be speaking on ‘The Darker Side of the Middle Ages’.
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Medieval Church and Culture Seminar – 5:00, Harris Manchester College. Clare Whitton (Blackfriars) will be speaking on ‘Resurrecting a Patron Saint: The Feast of San Gennaro in 14th century Naples’

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).
  • Centre for Early Medieval Britain and Ireland Welcome Lunch – 12.30, Balliol College
  • 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. Erin Thomas Dailey (Leicester) will be speaking on ‘Why Did the Byzantine Empire Forbid SlaveOwners from Making Eunuchs of their Slaves? Castration, Masculinity, and Identity in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages’

Thursday

  • Medieval Hebrew Reading Group – 10:00, Catherine Lewis Lecture Theatre, Clarendon Institute and online.
  • Middle English Reading Group – 11:00, Beckington Room (Lincoln College).
  • Chronicling the Self: including extracts from the memoirs of Lady Nijo and Leonor López de Córdoba
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:00, online. Lloyd Bowen (Cardiff) will be speaking on ‘London Puritan networks and the publication of the 1630 Welsh Bible’
  • David Patterson Lecture – 6:00, Clarendon Institute, Walton St. Dr Emily Rose (Academic Visitor, OCHJS) will be speaking on “A Bleeding Corpse, A Grim Grimm Fairy Tale with Early Modern Shivers: The Dubious Margaret of Pforzheim (1267?), A Singular Female Blood Libel”. In order to participate in this lecture via Zoom, please register at this link.
  • Latin Compline in the Crypt – 9:30pm, in the crypt below St-Peter-in-the-East, St Edmund Hall

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).
  • Oxford University Heraldry Society Lecture – 4:30, Harris Seminar Room of Oriel College. Professor Yorick Gomez Gane will be speaking on “The Italian Language in British Heraldry,” followed by a drinks reception.

Opportunities

Medieval Matters, MT25 Week 1

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13/10/2025

09:29

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events, News

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Welcome to Michaelmas 2025 and to the definite version of the Oxford Medieval Studies Booklet! And greetings from the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities. Among the many superlatives it boasts, there can probably be added the claim that this is the largest grouping (a madness?) of medievalists in the world, allowing encounters across the Humanities faculties. We’ll start this year and term in the traditional way with a social in Harris Manchester College on Tuesday of week 1, 13 October, from 5pm – everybody welcome. 

This email will arrive every Monday in your inbox; any changes after that 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. James Miller  (Christ Church, Oxford) will be speaking on “Imagining Monastic Perfection: Benedict, Fleury, and Beyond in the Central Middle Ages”.

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, Margaret Thatcher Centre, Somerville. Richard Dance (Cambridge) will be speaking on “Mirror Man: Ormm and his Words”.
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room)
  • Medieval Studies Social – 5:00, Harris Manchester College. All welcome – come and meet your fellow medievalists!
  • James Ford Special Lecture 2025 Oxford Centre for Early Medieval Britain & Ireland (EMBI) – 5:15, Shulman Auditorium, Queen’s College. Francesca Tinti (University of the Basque Country) will be speaking on “Long-Distance Travel from Early Medieval Britain”.
  • Old English Graduate Reading Group – 5:15, location TBC, contact Hattie Carter

Wednesday

  • Early Medieval ‘Global Britain’: A Workshop by the Oxford Centre for Early Medieval Britain & Ireland (EMBI) – 9:15, The Memorial Room (Queen’s College). Booking required.
  • John Lydgate Book Club – 11:00, Smoking Room (Lincoln College).
  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar, planning meeting – 11:15, Somerville College.
  • 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, Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar.

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group – 11:00, Beckington Room (Lincoln College).
  • Environmental History Working Group – 12:00, Room 20.421 in the Schwarzman Centre. Stephanie Holt (Oxford) will be speaking on “Curious Minds: Gilbert White and Thomas Pennant”.
  • Celtic Seminar – 5:00, online. Elisabeth Chatel (CRBC) will be speaking on “The Joseph Loth Dilemma: Scientific Authority and Cultural Identity in Brittany”.
  • Old Norse Welcome Event – 6:00, Gardeners’ Arms (Plantation Road).

Friday

  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided. This week, Christina Ostermann and Henrike Lähnemann will speak on the ‘Girl Who Lived in the Library‘, the memoirs of Luisa Hewitt, born in the basement of the Taylorian in the 1880s
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room).

Opportunities

Medieval Matter TT25, Week 2

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05/05/2025

08:13

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events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities

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Welcome to week 2! Please find below all of the medieval events across Oxford in the coming week.

The wonderful team behind the medieval mystery plays that took place at the beginning of this term have put together a full report of the event, which includes a number of amazing photos. A video of last week’s performance of The Netherhold Martyr is now available here.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30 pm in the Weston Library.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Amanda Power (St Catherine’s College Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Salvation, alienation and sacrifice zones from medieval to modern thought’.

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12.15 in the English Faculty. Raphaela Rohrhofer (University of Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Nothing Matters: The Contemplative Poetics of Nought in Julian of Norwich and Beyond’.
  • The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Centre for Early Medieval Britian and Ireland Seminar ‘Sacrilizing the Everyday’ – 4pm in the Rees Davies (History Faculty).
  • Medieval Church and Culture –  tea and biscuits from 5pm in the Wellbeloved Room, with talks from 5.15. Shaw Worth (Magdalen) will be speaking on ‘‘Bien est avoiré sur vous le langage’: practising allegory between text and image in three manuscripts of Alain Chartier’s Livre d’Espérance, 1450–1470’. Sophie Boehler (St Hugh’s) will be speaking on ‘Seeress to Abbess: women’s evolving dreams, visions and prophecies during the Icelandic conversion period’.

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar – NB In second week, the seminar will not take place. Instead there will be a workshop on Christiane Mariane von Ziegler, the first female German Poet Laureate, in St Edmund Hall, starting at 10am. If you are interested to participate, please contact Henrike Lähnemann.
  • The ‘science of the stars’ in context: an introduction to medieval astronomical and astrological manuscripts and texts – 2pm in the Horton Room (Weston Library). Session 2: The daily rotation of the celestial sphere (primum mobile) [1/2].
  • Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pm, online, please contact Michael Stansfield.
  • Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies Seminar – 5pm in the Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies.  Professor Christophe Jaffrelot (Kings College London) will be speaking on ‘Beyond Castes and Regions: The Socio-Economic Decline of Muslims in Contemporary India’.
  • Merton College History of the Book Group Lecture – 5pm, Mure Room (Merton College). Professor Orietta Da Rold (Professor of Medieval Literature and Manuscript Studies, University of Cambridge) will be speaking on “The many crafts of paper”. Attendees will have the opportunity to view medieval works on paper from the Merton Library and Archives. The talk will be followed by refreshments. All are welcome, and we would appreciate an RSVP to julia.walworth@merton.ox.ac.uk

Thursday

  • Middle English Reading Group (MERG) – 2pm in the Beckington Room (Lincoln College). Join us to read the ‘double sorwe’ of Troilus and Criseyde in a weekly reading group. We will be reading from the end of Book IV. For more information or to be added to the mailing list, please email rebecca.menmuir@lincoln.ox.ac.uk.
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5.15 in the KRC Lecture Room. Richard Piran McClary (University of York) will be speaking on ‘Lajvardina: A Re-evaluation of Distinctive Ilkhanid and Golden Horde Overglaze Painted Wares’.

Friday

  • Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.

Upcoming

  • Additional spaces are available on the ‘Big Data’ and Medieval Manuscripts workshop – please sign up here.
  • Registration is open for the Masterclass by Patrick Boucheron – Pourquoi des médiévistes ? Penser le contemporain depuis le Moyen Âge – 29 May, 2:30pm, Maison Française d’Oxford.
  • Registration is open for Patrick Boucheron’s lecture entitled ‘The Birth of the Black Death: New Approaches in World History’ – 29 May, 5:00pm, Pembroke College.
  • The Digital Medieval Studies Institute is hosting a set of workshops on digital scholarly methods specifically tailored for medievalists as part of the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds. More information can be found here.

Opportunities

  • CfP for ‘Staging Silence from Antiquity to the Renaissance’ – more information here.
  • CfP for ‘Music and Reformation: A Symposium at Lambeth Palace Library, 16 September 2025’
  • A regular pub trip is being organised on a Friday at 6pm at the Chequers, from 0th week to 8th week, for all medievalists at Oxford. Email maura.mckeon@bfriars.ox.ac.uk

Medieval Matters TT25, Week 1

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28/04/2025

08:59

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Medieval Matters, News

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Let us begin by toasting the great success that was the Medieval Mystery Plays! I’m sure you will all join me in thanking the great host of people that made the day possible, not least of all the many actors, musicians, directors, and props-people who put on such a spectacle. Particular thanks must go to the organisers – Antonia and Sarah – and, of course, the wonderful Henrike. A full report of the day will be available soon on the OMS blog, so watch this space.

Week One of Trinity term brings a full list of events for you all to enjoy. The full Medieval Studies booklet is available here and always updated on the Oxford Medieval Studies blog – to which you are all invited to contribute! A special call-out to current Oxford Graduate students: please see the opportunities at the end of the booklet for a) the role of Social Media Officer (deadline Friday of week 2 – read the blogpost by our outgoing Social Media Officer Ashley Castelino about what the role entails) and b) for Small Grants (deadline Friday of week 4).

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30 pm in the Weston Library.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Graeme Ward (Tübingen) will be speaking on ‘Biography, Textual Authority, and the Transformation of the Carolingian World’.

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12.15 in the English Faculty. Helen Appleton (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Salvation and the Land in the Old English Andreas’.
  • The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Medieval Church and Culture –  5pm in the Wellbeloved Room. This week is the MMC Social – everyone welcome to meet old friends and make new ones.
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5pm in the Maison française d’Oxford. Tina Montenegro (Boston College) will be speaking on ‘vategories of Knowledge: from Rhetoric to Theology through Brunetto Latini’s Tresor’

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11.15am in Oriel College, Harris Lecture Theatre. The first week will be a shortish planning meeting. The topic for this term are ‘Alexanderroman’. If you are interested to be added to the teams group for updates, please contact Henrike Lähnemann.
  • The ‘science of the stars’ in context: an introduction to medieval astronomical and astrological manuscripts and texts – 2pm in the Horton Room (Weston Library). Session 1: Introduction to the relationship between astronomy and astrology from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance.
  • Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pm, online, please contact Michael Stansfield.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre.
  • Medieval Society and Landscape Seminar Series – 5pm in the Department for Continuing Education. Chris Dyer (University of Leicester) will be speaking on ‘Winchcombe Abbey and 2,000 Peasants: Documenting a Crisis, 1340-1381’. Book here.
  • Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies Seminar – 5pm in the Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies. Professor Sevket Pamuk (Bogaziçi University) will be speaking on ‘Political Economy and Economic Institutions of the Ottoman Empire in Comparative Perspective’.

Thursday

  • Environmental History Working Group – 12:30 in the Colin Matthew Room, History Faculty. Thomas Laskowski (MPhil Islamic Studies and History) will be speaking on ‘Writing the Environmental History of the Medieval Islamic East’.
  • Middle English Reading Group (MERG) – 2pm in the Beckington Room (Lincoln College). Join us to read the ‘double sorwe’ of Troilus and Criseyde in a weekly reading group. We will be reading from the end of Book IV. For more information or to be added to the mailing list, please email rebecca.menmuir@lincoln.ox.ac.uk.

Friday

  • Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Medieval Manuscripts Support Group – 11:30 in the Horton Room. Readers of medieval manuscripts can pose questions to a mixed group of fellow readers and Bodleian curators in a friendly environment. Come with your own questions, or to see what questions other readers have!
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Anglo-Norman Reading Group – 5pm in the Farmington Institute in Harris Manchester College and online. For more information on the texts, email Jane Bliss.
  • Henry Bradshaw Lecture – 5pm in the Collier Room (Regent’s Park College). Helen Gittos will be speaking on ‘Christianity Before Conversion: The Archaeology of Liturgy’
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar – 5pm in person & online (Lower Lecture Room, Lincoln College). Saudamini Siegrist (NYU graduate) will be speaking on ‘Julian of Norwich and Modern Philosophy’. registration details via their website.
  • O’Donnell Lecture – 5pm in Lecture Theatre 2 of the English Faculty. Ronald Hutton (Bristol) will be speaking on ‘The Morrigan Revisited’
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group – 5pm. Merton College Library Visit. Previous experience of handling medieval manuscripts is desirable. Limited places, write to the Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group email by 30/04/2025
  • The Netherhole Martyr – A Dramatic Reading – 6pm at St Edmund Hall. This semi-staged reading of the play by Good Friends for a Lifetime (Maeve Campbell, Minna Jeffery and Lily Levinson) celebrates its recent publication by Strange Region Press. The event is free to attend and no booking is required. The event will begin with drinks at 6pm, followed by a performance in the Crypt that will last until ca. 8pm.

Opportunities

  • CfP for ‘Staging Silence from Antiquity to the Renaissance’ – more information here.
  • CfP for ‘Music and Reformation: A Symposium at Lambeth Palace Library, 16 September 2025’
  • A regular pub trip is being organised on a Friday at 6pm at the Chequers, from 0th week to 8th week, for all medievalists at Oxford. Email maura.mckeon@bfriars.ox.ac.uk