The beginning of another term means a new set of exciting events to put in your calendars. The first version of the new Medieval Booklet of events can be found here. If you are organising an event or series this term, please have a quick check through: addenda and corrigenda to medieval@torch.ox.ac.uk.
Each week I will be emailing out a list of that week’s events and opportunities, bright and early on a Monday morning. This week’s selection can be found below.
EVENTS THIS WEEK:
Thursday 10th October:
The Celtic Seminar starts at 5pm in the Memorial Room at Jesus College.
The NEW Medieval MSS Support Group 11:30-12:30 in the Horton Room in the Weston Library: 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! 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. A second date this term will be on 6 December.
COMING UP
On Tuesday, 15 October, there will be a chance to meet together as a community with the Welcome Social, held in the Wellbeloved Room at Harris Manchester College. If you are hosting a reading group/ lecture series/event this year we highly encourage you to come along to help spread the word. See you all there!
OPPORTUNITIES
University College Dublin is advertising a PhD studentship in Early medieval political and/or intellectual culture (c.500-c.1000 CE), supervised by Dr Megan Welton. For more information, please see the recent blog post here.
If you know of anybody interested in the medieval who is not on this mailing list, please encourage them to register here for the mailing list.
‘Crafting the Book’ is a one-day workshop aimed at current Oxford University students with an academic interest in the history of the book and material culture of medieval manuscripts and early printed texts, including their production, decoration, and provenance through signs of ownership. They will engage with historic materials and develop a deeper understanding of contemporary artistic and reader practices through taking part in hands-on activities with craft methods.
Lunchtime Lecture: Sir Victor Blank Lecture Theatre at the Weston Library, 1-2pm (BOOK HERE)
Talks by expert speakers Sara Charles and Eleanor Baker with focus on their wide-ranging research on medieval illumination, calligraphy, and early printing techniques. Sara is currently a PhD student at the Institute of English Studies studying manuscript production in the Latin Christian world, and has a forthcoming trade history book, The Medieval Scriptorium: Making Books in the Middle Ages (Reaktion Books, August 2024). Eleanor is currently the English Subject Lead for the University of Oxford’s Astrophoria Foundation Year, with a forthcoming trade history book, Book Curses (Bodleian Publishing, November 2024). The lunchtime lecture is free to attend.
Practical Workshops: Bodleian Bibliographical Press (FULLY BOOKED – contact the organiser to be added to the waiting list)
Workshop 1: Calligraphy Workshop led by Sara Charles taking place at 2.15pm on Friday, 22 November 2024 in the Bibliographic Press room located in the Old Bodleian Library. Sara is leading a practical session on making and writing with iron gall ink as well as painting on parchment.
Workshop 2: Letterpress Workshop led by Eleanor Baker taking place at 4pm on Friday, 22 November 2024 in the Bibliographic Press room located in the Old Bodleian Library. Eleanor is leading a practical session on crafting book curses with early printing techniques.
There is a £6 registration fee to attend each workshop or £12 for both (please bring cash or contact organiser) and each workshop will last roughly 1.5 hours.
Please contact event organiser Alison Ray (St Peter’s College Archivist) with any questions.
‘Crafting the Book’ is generously supported by the Oxford Medieval Studies Small Grant Scheme.
I hope you are all well, and are enjoying a summer that is equal parts restful and productive. I come bearing various summer announcements.
Firstly, a sad announcement: this will be my final email in your inbox! After three years, the time has come for me to pass on the torch (or should that be TORCH?) in my role as Communications Officer and mentor for the MSt Medieval students. I will still be around Oxford, as I take up a new role at Jesus College in September, so I hope to still see many of you at events and seminars – but I pass the Medieval Matters torch into new hands. The role has been advertised by the Humanities Division with an application deadline of 2 September for a start with the new academic year. This is also an early alert for everybody to send entries to the booklet to the generic address medieval@torch.ox.ac.uk, not to my personal email.
I’ve loved doing this work: it’s not only been a great way to meet and engage with Oxford’s medievalists at every level, but also a way to foster the sense of community that makes Oxford so unique and so special. To my knowledge, nowhere has such a large, vibrant, active, and linked community. If you are an early career researcher, I really encourage you to apply for this role straight away! It’s a fantastic opportunity to meet and work alongside medievalists across the university and beyond, and to work alongside our newest medievalists on the MSt. I’ve been so inspired by our recent cohorts of graduate students, and it’s been such an honour to be a part of their development as scholars. If you want to get a feel for what the job involves, you can read about my experience in my post A Medieval Monologium, and the reflection by one of my predecessors, Karl Kinsella, on his time heralding Medieval Studies.
Read on for summer announcements, opportunites and a list of new book publications:
OMS Matters:
Medieval Booklet Submissions: As we look towards the new year, please start thinking about your submissions for the Medieval Booklet. This year, all entries must be sent to medieval@torch.ox.ac.uk.
New blog post: The TORCH Network Poetry in the Medieval World after Two Terms of Activity. Ugo Mondini reflects on the initial activities of the TORCH Network Poetry in the Medieval World. He shares the network’s journey so far, which has taken participants through the forms, languages, communities, and geographies of medieval poetry and the challenges its comparative study poses. To read all about the first two terms of the network, and to find out how to get involved next year, please click here.
New blog post: Discoveries from New College’s Books of Hours. Caitlín Kane, Special Collections Curatorial Assistant New College writes about the showcase of the College’s collection of Books of Hours back in February of this year. To discover this collection, to find our more about Caitlín’s work on these manuscripts, and to read what happened at the workshop, please click here.
Opportunities and Announcements:
The Medievalist Coffee Morning is restarting well ahead of term on Friday, 6 September in the Visiting Scholars Centre 10.30-11.30. Follow the link for instructions how to find it and a playlist of previous manuscript showcases. The first autumn coffee morning will be followed by the
Medieval MSS Support Group at the Weston Library: We are pleased to trial a new session, once or twice a month, 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! 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. The next session will be held on Friday, 6 September (Horton Room) 11.30-12.30. To find out more, click here.
Winter School in Digital Humanities: The Institute for Medieval Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences is organising a Winter School in Digital Humanities in Vienna in November-December 2024. The Winter School will take a hands-on approach to tools for handwritten text recognition in medieval documents. They will have sub-groups for Carolingian Latin, Late Latin, Byzantine Greek, Syriac, Medieval Czech and Medieval German. They have planned three virtual sessions starting in November 2024 and a three-day meeting in Vienna in December. To read more, and to apply, please click here. The deadline for applications is 15 September.
CfP: Staging Silence from Antiquity to the Renaissance: 3–4 July 2025 / St John’s College, Cambridge. This two-day, in-person conference will explore developing traditions of silence in dramatic texts from antiquity to the Renaissance. Papers are sought from scholars across a range of fields, including classical reception, comparative literature, and medieval and/or early modern English literature. Please submit a 250-word abstract for a 20-minute paper to John Colley (stagingsilence@gmail.com) by noon on Thursday 9 January 2025. To read the full CfP, please click here.
The last of the events organised by Living Stones, St Mary the Virgin, Iffley is coming up on Saturday 8 September, 2.00 – 5.00 Iffley Church Hall OX4 4EG. We explore the explosive influence of communication with the Arab world with Teresa Whitcombe, and the spread of secular music with Ian Pittaway. We hope to continue the theme next year with a focus on the symbolism of the architectural features and carvings around the church. Please get in touch if you are interested in sharing your research! For contact details and this year’s programme see https://livingstonesiffley.org.uk/events. To read more, please see the blogpost here.
New Publications:
The Cambridge Anthology of British Medieval Latinby Carolinne White (Cambridge University Press). This anthology presents in two volumes a series of Latin texts (with English translation) produced in Britain during the period AD 450–1500. Excerpts are taken from Bede and other historians, from the letters of women written from their monasteries, from famous documents such as Domesday Book and Magna Carta, and from accounts and legal documents, all revealing the lives of individuals at home and on their travels across Britain and beyond. For more information, and to order with 20% off, click here and enter the code WHITE2023 at the checkout.
From Fingal’s Cave to Camelotby Douglas Gray, edited by Jane Bliss(Independent Publishing Network, Oxford). Contact Jane Bliss for further details and/or to buy a copy. The book costs £17.00 plus postage for those outside Oxford, or free delivery via University Messenger Service to those within the University.
Introduction to Middle High German by Howard Jones and Martin H. Jones (Oxford University Press). This book is a dedicated student edition of The Oxford Guide to Middle High German, designed for taught courses and self-study. It provides an accessible overview of the grammar and lexis of the language suitable for introductory-level students and includes thirty extensively-annotated texts with explanatory notes suitable for use in teaching. It is accompanied by a companion website which gives open access to further online resources for the study of Middle High German. There will be a free workshop day with a translatathon on 2 November 2024, introducing the book for anybody interested in Middle High German. Order online at global.oup.com/academic with promotion code AAFLYG6 to save 30%.
The Life of Nuns: Love, Politics, and Religion in Medieval German Convents by Henrike Lähnemann and Eva Schlotheuber, trans. by Anne Simon (Open Book Publishers). Henrike Lähnemann and Eva Schlotheuber offer readers a vivid insight into the largely unknown lives and work of religious women in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Using previously inaccessible personal diaries and letters, as well as tapestries, painting, architecture and music, the authors show that the nuns were, in fact, an active, even influential part of medieval society. Watch the launch during the Medieval Coffee Morning here. To read the book open access, click here. To purchase a paper copy with a 20% discount, use the code LONHL_24 at checkout. There will be a Book at Lunchtime event at TORCH on 13 November 2024 at 1pm.
Translating Europe in Ælfric’s Lives of Saints by Luisa Ostacchini (Oxford University Press). This book offers the first book-length study of Ælfric’s Lives of Saints as a unified collection, provides new insight into Ælfric’s translation practices and the ways in which Latin materials were adapted for a vernacular audience, and presents important new insights into the role of Europe in the early medieval English imaginary, and into pre-modern insular-continental relations. For more information, and to order with 30% off, click here and enter code AAFLYG6 at the checkout.
The Battle of Maldon: A New Critical Edition by Mark Griffith (Liverpool University Press). Mark Griffith’s new critical edition of the surviving Old English poem about the 991 AD Battle of Maldon offers a striking re-analysis of its marriage of old and new features of alliterative poetry. With an introduction, detailed commentary, and full glossary, it responds to the poem’s varied criticisms, and considers the reliability of the sole surviving manuscript. 20% discount when purchased directly from the LUP website: www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk
The Age of Alfred: Rethinking English Literary Culture c. 850–950, Edited by Francis Leneghan and Amy Faulkner (Brepols). This volume takes stock of recent developments and debates in the field of Alfredian scholarship and showcases new directions in research. Individual chapters consider how English authors before, during, and after Alfred’s reign translated and adapted Latin works, often in innovative and imaginative ways. Other contributions provide new contexts and connections for Alfredian writing, highlighting the work of Mercian scholars and expanding the corpus beyond the works traditionally attributed to the king himself. Together, these essays force us to rethink what we mean by ‘Alfredian’ and to revise the literary history of the ‘long ninth century’.
Beowulf: Poem, Poet and Hero by Heather O’Donoghue (Bloomsbury). The Old English epic poem Beowulf has an established reputation as a canonical text. And yet the original poem has remained inaccessible to all but experienced scholars of Old English. This book aims to present the poem to readers who want to know what makes it such a remarkable work of art, and why it is of such cultural significance. To purchase at 30% off, please click here.
All that’s left is to say a huge thank you: to my immediate colleagues Henrike and Lesley at OMS, but also to all of you for your submissions, emails, and blog posts over the last three years. I really believe in the work we’ve done over the past three years that I’ve been working at OMS, and am sure it will only go from strength to strength in the years to come. I’m so grateful for the time I got to spend heralding all things medieval, and gracing your emails every Monday. I leave you with a customary Medieval Matters quote – this one from Alcuin.
omnibus est locuples, qui rebus abundat amicis [He who is rich in friends is rich in everything] Alcuin, Carm. LXXII
[The Communications Officer passes the torch!] St John’s College MS. 61, f. 15 v. By permission of the President and Fellows of St John’s College, Oxford Viewable in full at Digital Bodleian
The Humanities Division Interdisciplinary Master’s Programmes are advertising an Academic Mentor & Communications Officer Joint Position for the MSt in Medieval Studiesand Oxford Medieval Studies (OMS). The deadline for applications is 2 September 2024. For an insight into the duties involved, read the blog post by two previous postholders, Dr Luisa Ostacchini: A Medieval Monologium, and Dr Karl Kinsella Heralding Oxford Medieval Studies.
The role of the Academic Mentor is to support the work of the programme convenors by fostering a group identity for the incoming cohort of students. The Academic Mentor will make an important contribution to the experience of students on this course.
The role of Oxford Medieval Studies (OMS) Communication Officer is to prepare the termly Medieval Booklet, send out a weekly news bulletin, and coordinate graduate students working with OMS.
The position will be offered for one year in the first instance. The holder will be expected to work 64 hours during Michaelmas term and 56 hours during each of Hilary and Trinity terms (for a total of 176 hours over the year). The hours should be divided flexibly between the MSt and OMS portions of the job, with a typical split of two-thirds MSt and one-third OMS. The remuneration offered is at point 7.1 of the casual pay spine; in 2023-24 this was £18.98 per hour.
Duties of the joint position
The role of the Academic Mentor is to:
help foster a sense of group identity and cohesion
contribute to the research mentoring and professional development of the students during the course
establish an informal space for group interaction
This will involve:
directing students towards relevant events and activities and helping them to navigate sources of information, including signposting to relevant learning opportunities and skills development provision
providing information and guidance on academic choice, including programme options and further study
discussing with students their future plans (whether professional or academic) and offering appropriate guidance by directing students towards relevant offices in the University
leading group discussions of academic and professional topics as may be relevant, depending on students’ needs
providing appropriate guidance on drafting research proposals for doctoral applications
coaching students in study skills (e.g., writing)
readiness to serve as ‘a helpful ear’ to students’ academic concerns or anxieties, liaising with the convenors where appropriate and/or where the mentor’s own concerns arise about a student. The mentor will not act as a welfare officer; however, they are advised to consult the convenors or the course administration should welfare issues arise so that students may be directed to the proper sources of support
The role will support the more formal work of the programme convenor to whom the Academic Mentor should report regularly and consult for guidance on offering advice to students (e.g., on University procedures)
The above is meant to act as a broad guidance; it is expected that the role will be flexible and responsive to the needs of individual cohorts.
The role of OMS Communications Officer is to:
Prepare the termly Medieval Booklet for publication two weeks before term starts
Write and circulate a weekly OMS email news bulletin
Coordinate graduate students working with OMS as events and social media officers
Help to administer the medieval.ox.ac.uk blog and the mailing list
Encourage graduate participation in blogging, application to OMS small grants, and so on
Work with the Directors of Oxford Medieval Studies to promote medieval studies
We welcome applications either from postdoctoral candidates, or candidates with relevant experience. Depending on availability and expertise, there might be scope for some collaborative teaching (for which additional payment would be made).
How to apply
Please write a letter of application outlining your suitability for the role, and send it, together with a CV, to interdisciplinary@humanities.ox.ac.uk by 2 September. Please ask two referees to send their references to the same address by the same date. Interviews for shortlisted applicants will take place in late August, and successful applicants will be expected to start from the beginning of Michaelmas term 2024.
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:
NEW Friday, 4 April (Horton Room) 11.30-12:30pm
NEW Friday, 2 May (Horton Room)11.30-12:30pm
NEW Friday, 16 May (Horton Room)11.30-12:30pm
NEW Friday, 30 May (Horton Room)11.30-12:30pm
NEW Friday, 13 June (Horton Room)11.30-12:30pm
NEW Friday, 1 August (Horton Room)11.30-12:30pm
NEW Friday, 5 September (Horton Room)11.30-12:30pm
Header image: Bodleian Library, MS. Bodl. 264, f. 96r
The Medieval Women’s Writing Research Group Conference 2024 will be held on 18th June 2024 with the theme of “Exchanging Words” in Room 2 of the Taylor Institution Library both in person (presenters/attendees) and online (attendees).
Tuesday 18 June 2024, 9am – 5pm Online and In-person, Room 2, Taylor Institution Library, Saint Giles’, Oxford OX1 3NA Free but registration required Register here for in-person attendance – Sold out Register here to join the conference online Online registration closes 15 minutes before the start of the event. You will be sent the joining link within 48 hours of the event, on the day and once again 10 minutes before the event starts.
The aim of this conference is to explore the concept of exchange, whether it be textual or material, to, for and between women in the global Middle Ages. As a research group based upon the concept of exchanging ideas, we wish to explore medieval women’s own networks of exchange and transmission, and the influence of this upon both the literature and culture of the period as well as the present day.
We are delighted to present the programme for the day:
9:00-9:30 Registration 9:30-9:45 Welcome and Opening Remarks 9:45-11:15 Session 1 “Scholarly Networks” Katrin Janz-Wenig (SUB Hamburg) & Lenka Panušková (The Czech Academy of Sciences) | Communication Strategies Through Change: Translations, Compilations and Ekphrasis Ved Prabha Sharma (Independent Researcher) | Women Scholars and Knowledge Exchange in Medieval Indian shāstrārth Tradition Tatiana Barkovskiy (University of Cambridge) | A Beguinian Learning Network, or How to Approach ‘Medieval Women Mystics’ as Philosophers 11:15-11:45 Break with Refreshments 11:45-13:15 Session 2 “Relationships With and Between Women” Costas Gavriel (University of Oxford) | Gaining the Queen’s Confidence: The Relationship Between Leonor López de Córdoba and Catherine of Lancaster, Queen of Castile Lucia Akard (University of Oxford) | Talking About Rape and Exchanging Knowledge in Medieval Dijon Meg Greenough (Independent Researcher) | The Wilton Matrix: Mothering in Goscelin of Saint Betin’s Liber Confortatorius 13:15-14:30 Lunch Break Exploring the Taylorian’s Treasures, with Professor Henrike Lähnemann (University of Oxford) 14:30-15:45 Keynote Address Professor Diane Watt (University of Surrey) | Medieval Women Writers: Troubling a Feminist History of British Women’s Writing 15:45-16:15 Break with Refreshments 16:15-17:45 Session 3 “Nuns’ Words” Francesca Maria Villani (University of Bari) | Eloise’s Psalmody: Body and Voice Through the Epistles Jane Bliss (Independent Researcher) | The Nun Changes her Library Book Hilary Pearson (Independent Researcher) | Teresa de Cartagena’s Models of Female Authority 17:45 Closing Remarks 18:00 End of Conference
The research group and the conference are generously funded by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH) and their “Critical-Thinking Communities” Initiative.
It feels like only yesterday that I was welcoming you all to Oxford for the academic year, and yet here we are at the very end of Trinity Term. It has been such a fantastic and busy year, and it’s hard to believe that it’s almost over. Here is some wisdom on endings, specially for the occasion, taken from the Epistolae project:
vespere autem hora diei ultima terminatur. [The final hour of the day is concluded in the evening.] A letter (1156-57) from Osbert of Clare to Adelidis of Barking
I take this to mean that though the end of teaching term is in sight, there are still some hours of ‘evening’ left! You will find below a whole range of delights for this last week of full term.
This of course means that today’s email is the last proper Medieval Matters Newsletter of the academic year. In honour of this occasion, today’s guest blog is not written by a guest at all, but by me. This has been my third year as the OMS Comms Officer, and I was asked to reflect on some of the work that I do in this role and my twinned role as the Academic Mentor for the Interdisciplinary MSt in Medieval Studies. I of course answer pressing questions such as “when do you choose the manuscript images” and “what do Medievalists do in August?”, but in many ways this is less a report on the work that I do and more a celebration of some of the fantastic things Oxford’s medievalists have been up to this year. You can read the post here.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The Medieval Mystery Cycle is coming back! Mark your diaries for 26 April 2025! There will be small grants available for student groups putting on plays.
Double thanks are due to St Edmund Hall: the College has agreed to host both the plays (including catering!) AND this blog. This means that – after a time when we had to ration images due to server space problems – we can now illustrate posts to our hearts content. Please do consider writing a blog post for us – on your research, an upcoming event or a new publication. Write to Luisa or Henrike to be set up as an author on the blog.
Living Stones has two events coming up very soon: On Saturday 29 June artists Sally Levell and Phil Whiting are leading a day-school in drawing at Iffley Church. This is a very popular annual event and spaces are limited. See https://livingstonesiffley.org.uk/events for details and tickets. Tickets are only available online, and the closing date for bookings is 17 June. On Saturday 13 July the second of our three ’12th-Century’ days includes a participatory workshop on manuscript illumination along with a talk about how the builders of Iffley Church saw themselves as inheritors of Rome. Tickets can be booked online and at the door. An appetite-whetter can be found on https://livingstonesiffley.org.uk/past-events/f/oxford-in-1160-scholars-and-pilgrims-at-st-frideswide%E2%80%99s-priory where you can listen to the thrilling talks given by Andrew Dunning and Anne Bailey on Oxford in 1160: Scholars and Pilgrims at St Frideswide’s Priory.
EVENTS THIS WEEK:
Monday 10th June:
The Tolkien 50th Anniversary Seminar Series meets at 5pm in the Summer Common Room, Magdalen College. This week’s speaker will be John Holmes (University of Birmingham), Riddles in the Grass: the characterisation and narrative value of landscape over the fields of Rohan. For more information, please see https://tolkien50.web.ox.ac.uk/.
The Medieval History Seminar meets at 5pm in the Old Library, All Souls College and on Teams. The Teams session can be accessed by logging in to Teams with your .ox.ac.uk account and joining the group “Medieval History Research Seminar” (team code rmppucs). Alternatively, you can use this link. If you have any difficulties please email: medhistsem@history.ox.ac.uk. This week’s speaker will be Katherine Jansen (Catholic University of America) ‘The Relics of Rome’.
Tuesday 11th June:
The Medieval Church and Culture Seminar meets at 5.15pm in the Wellbeloved Room, Harris Manchester College. This week’s speakers will be A Book Launch: New Zealand Medievalism: reframing the medieval, edited by Anna Czarnowus and Janet Wilson (Routledge). Everyone is welcome at this informal and friendly graduate seminar.
Wednesday 12th June:
The Medieval German Graduate Seminar meets at 11.15am in Oriel College King Edward Street 7 (Annette Volfing’s office; press the intercom buzzer to be let in). This week will be a project presentation by Mary Boyle.
The Medieval Latin Document Reading Group meets at 4-5pm on Teams. A document is sent out in advance but homework is not expected. Please contact Michael Stansfield for further details and the Teams link.
Thursday 13th June:
The All Souls Seminar in Medieval and Early Modern Science meets at 2-3.30pm in the Hovenden Room, All Souls College. This week’s speaker will be Zoe Screti (Harris Manchester College, Oxford), Alchemy during the English Reformation: The Troubled Times of Thomas Charnock.
The Germanic Reading Group meets at 4pm online. Please contact Howard Jones Howard.Jones@sbs.ox.ac.uk to request the handouts and to be added to the list. This week will be on the Old Saxon Hêliand (Bradley leading).
The Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research Annual lecture will take place at 5pm at Danson Room, Trinity College. This year’s speaker will be Peter Sarris (University of Cambridge) – ‘Justinian: Between East and West’.
At 9.30pm, the St Edmund Consort sings Latin Compline at candlelight in the Crypt of St-Peter-in-the-East (the library church of St Edmund Hall, Queen’s Lane). No registration is needed but please be advised that the space is only accessible via uneven steps and dimly lit, and only a limited number of people can be accommodated on a first-come-first-served basis.
Friday 14th June:
The Medieval Coffee Morning meets as usual 10:30am in the Visiting Scholars Centre of the Weston Library (instructions how to find it) with presentation of items from the special collections, coffee and the chance to see the view from the 5th floor terrace.
OPPORTUNITIES:
CAT – Conversations Across Time. Preview 11am, Premiere 3:20pm, second performance Saturday 16 June 3:20pm. After a successful run in June 2023, artist in residence at the Physics Department Pam Davis has developed a second art-piece which links medieval theatre, women in science, and Quantum future. Free tickets for the performances moving from the Ashmolean to a second secret hidden location are available via the website https://www.citizensai.com/
Waddesdon Internship Scheme: In 2023 Waddesdon launched Waddesdon Pathways, a brand-new, year-long internship programme. They are now looking for our second cohort to start in September 2024. Please find out more information about this, including how to apply here.
There will be a brief final email next week with some events and opportunities to look forward to over the summer, and some guidance on how to stay in contact if you are leaving. Please do send me anything you would like disseminated! But for now, I give you some fitting words from the Epistolae project, for those who hate goodbyes and endings as much as I do:
quin immo vere dilectionis ligatura reliquum nodetur in aevum [May the bond of our true affection be knit ever more closely for all time.] A letter (c. 732) from Lioba, abbess of Tauberbischofsheim
In other words: stay in touch! Whether you are leaving Oxford for the summer or for the long-term, the community is always here to welcome you back with open arms.
It is an honour and a priveledge to have been your herald for yet another year, and to guide you through the busy schedule of the Oxford academic term. Thank you so much for everything you have done this year: to everyone who has organised an event or seminar; given a paper; attended any number of reading groups or events; brought opportunities and CFPs to my attention; or turned up at the coffee mornings. Oxford’s medieval community is unbelievably special, and it is always such a joy to be a part of it. Long may it prosper!
[The busy, bustling, flourishing world of Medieval Studies at Oxford!] St John’s College MS. 61, f. 59 v. By permission of the President and Fellows of St John’s College, Oxford Viewable in full at Digital Bodleian
I don’t quite understand how it’s come around so quickly, but here we are in Week 7. For those who need a bit of a boost at this late stage in the term, some wisdom on the joys of (medieval) texts, taken from the Epistolae project:
In nullis nobis desit doctrina legendi, Lectio sit nobis et liber omne quod est. [Let us not miss reading’s lesson in any [languages]; Let everything there is be a book and a text for us.] A poem from Baudri to Constance of Le Ronceray
As Oxford medievalists we are of course extremely lucky to be surrounded by so many opportunities to read and encounter literatures in various medieval languages. But we are also a highly interdisciplinary community, and this week we have a whole host of delights, including Eclipse prediction, Byzantine dining, 19th century manuscript scrapbooks, and an exhibition on medieval monsters!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The Medieval Women’s Writing Research Group Conference 2024 will be held on 18th June 2024 with the theme of “Exchanging Words” in Room 2 of the Taylor Institution Library both in person (presenters/attendees) and online (attendees). Free but registration required. All info, including the link to registration, can be found here: https://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/event/medieval-womens-writing-research-group-conference-2024-exchanging-words
A workshop on Reconsidering Contrafacts: Practices of Contrafacture in Monophonic Song (1150–1550) will take place on 20th June, 10am-7pm. Looking at different repertories of monophonic song between 1150 and 1550, the aim of this workshop is to explore different approaches to the widespread spectrum of practices and concepts of contrafacture: composing new texts for pre-existing melodies. If you want to attend or if you have questions, please email Philip Wetzler. To read more and see the schedule, please click here.
Oxford Translation Day 2024: Saturday, June 15, 2024, St Anne’s College. Every June, St Anne’s College runs Oxford Translation Day, a celebration of literary translation consisting of a vibrant range of workshops and talks. The day culminates in the award of the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. The Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize is for book-length literary translations into English from any living European language. It aims to honour the craft of translation, and to recognise its cultural importance. It was founded by Lord Weidenfeld and is funded by New College, The Queen’s College, and St Anne’s College. The full programme is available on the Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation (OCCT) Research Centre website, here: https://occt.web.ox.ac.uk/oxford-translation-day-2024. All Oxford Translation Day events are free, but require registration. Please register via the Eventbrite links provided on the Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation (OCCT) Research Centre website. https://occt.web.ox.ac.uk/oxford-translation-day-2024
EVENTS THIS WEEK:
Monday 3rd June:
The Tolkien 50th Anniversary Seminar Series meets at 5pm in the T. S. Eliot Theatre, Merton College. This week’s speaker will be Michael G.R. Tolkien (Poet and Critic), “A grandson’s reflections on J.R.R. Tolkien. For more information, please see https://tolkien50.web.ox.ac.uk/.
The Medieval History Seminar meets at 5pm in the Old Library, All Souls College and on Teams. The Teams session can be accessed by logging in to Teams with your .ox.ac.uk account and joining the group “Medieval History Research Seminar” (team code rmppucs). Alternatively, you can use this link. If you have any difficulties please email: medhistsem@history.ox.ac.uk. This week’s speaker will be Peregrine Horden (All Souls, Oxford) ‘A room with a view: Chichele’s college’.
Tuesday 4th June:
The Mythical and Monstrous exhibition takes place from 12 noon–4pm, Lecture Room 6, New College, Oxford. Hunt for weird and wonderful beasts in items from our fabulous special collections, from dragons and unicorns, to centaurs, blemmyes, and merpeople. Among the wide variety of items on display will be a beautiful thirteenth-century Psalter, a fantastic fourteenth-century apocalypse manuscript, a famous fifteenth-century chronicle, and a spectacular sixteenth-century astronomical text. The exhibition is free and open to all. Signs will be in place to direct visitors to the exhibition from the Porters’ Lodge, located halfway down Holywell Street. If you have any questions, please email library@new.ox.ac.uk.
The Medieval French Seminar meets at 5pm at the Maison Francaise. Drinks will be served from 5pm; the presentations will start at 5:15pm. All are welcome! This week’s speaker will be Jonathan Morton (Tulane University), ‘Integuments, Astral Magic, and Robots: Virgil and Medieval Technologies of Literature‘.
The Medieval Church and Culture Seminar meets at 5.15pm in the Wellbeloved Room, Harris Manchester College. This week’s speakers will be Charlie West (Regent’s), Cruising Hell: seeing and writing Dante’s sodomites and Fergus Bovill (Merton), Cut and Paste: the album of illuminated manuscript cuttings in the 19thc. Everyone is welcome at this informal and friendly graduate seminar.
Wednesday 5th June:
The Medieval German Graduate Seminar meets at 11.15am in Oriel College King Edward Street 7 (Annette Volfing’s office; press the intercom buzzer to be let in). The topic for this term is Konrad von Würzburg: ‘Der Schwanritter’; this week we will discuss ‘human-animal interaction’Kampf & Körper’ with Julia Lorenz presenting. Open access edition here. If you are interested to be added to the teams group for updates, please contact Henrike Lähnemann.
The Medieval Latin Document Reading Group meets at 4-5pm on Teams. A document is sent out in advance but homework is not expected. Please contact Michael Stansfield for further details and the Teams link.
Thursday 6th June:
The All Souls Seminar in Medieval and Early Modern Science meets at 2-3.30pm in the Hovenden Room, All Souls College. This week’s speaker will be Laure Miolo (Lincoln College, University of Oxford), Eclipse Prediction in Late Fifteenth-century England: the Case of Lewis Caerleon.
The Medieval Visual Culture Seminar meets at 5pm at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, Arumugam Building. All welcome! This week’s speaker will be Lara Frentrop, University of Heidelberg, ‘Objects of Desire: The Byzantine Art of Dining as Social and Romantic Agents‘.
Friday 7th June:
The Medieval Coffee Morning meets as usual 10:30am in the Visiting Scholars Centre of the Weston Library (instructions how to find it) with presentation of items from the special collections, coffee and the chance to see the view from the 5th floor terrace.
The Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group (OMMG) meets at 5pm in the Sir Howard Stringer Room, Merton College. Antonia Della Fratte, University of Padua will speak on Gustav F. Waagen Tours of Britain: Describing Illuminated MSS in Oxford.
The Anglo-Norman Reading Group will meets at 5-6.30pm. Please note that this final session of the will be Zoom ONLY, as our convenor is unable to attend for our final meeting of the academic year. We shall continue reading from Mandeville, and will also discuss plans for next term. If you wish to join us and are not already on our mailing-list, please contact Stephanie Hathaway or Jane Bliss to be sent the link.
OPPORTUNITIES:
Free books for medievalists! Professor Richard Sharpe (1954–2020) was Professor of Diplomatic in the University and one of the country’s foremost medievalists, whose research ranged from the early Irish church to Anglo-Norman royal acts to the transmission of medieval Latin texts and medieval books and libraries. He was also a large presence in the History Faculty and much involved in graduate tuition. Books from Professor Sharpe’s library are now being offered gratis to local medievalists – please see the list here. A great encourager of others, he would have been delighted to know that his books could be helping the next generation. For more information, please contact Elizabeth Champion to reserve books and arrange collection.
CFP: Unlocking the Exeter Book – New Perspectives: Paper proposals are invited for a conference to be held at The University of Oxford, on 16–17 April 2025. The Exeter Book or Exeter Anthology is a cornerstone of Old English poetry. From saints’ lives to wisdom poetry, lyrics and laments to riddles and prayers, this fascinating juxtaposition of genres, styles and themes invites constant re-reading and re-evaluation. The conference will bring together established scholars and new voices to bring fresh insights to this rich and enigmatic manuscript. Please send abstracts of no more than 150 words to Rachel Burns and Francis Leneghan by 1st August 2024
Finally, some more wisdom from the Epistolae Project, and from Baudri, on the joys of reading:
quaevis mundi littera nos doceat [Every literature of the world teaches us.] A poem from Baudri to Constance of Le Ronceray
I of course take this broadly, in the spirit of this week’s first wisdom quotation, to mean that every facet of medieval studies teaches us! I wish you a week of productive reading, teaching and learning.
[A Medievalist who “missed reading’s lesson“ in Latin is now a little puzzled…] St John’s College MS. 61, f. 10 r. By permission of the President and Fellows of St John’s College, Oxford Viewable in full at Digital Bodleian
As we near the end of the teaching year I am driven to reflect on all of the fantastic things we’ve seen at OMS during the course of the year. I’m always struck by the phenomenal range of our medievalist activities: particularly by the huge number of languages represented! Some wisdom this week, then, on a common medievalist problem: that of translation between languages – taken, as always, from the Epistolae project: :
Scito, filia, quod sententia cujuslibet dicti, si de lingua in linguam translata fuerit, vix in peregrino idiomate, sua ei sapiditas vel compositio remanebit. [Know, daughter, that the meaning of any saying, if it is translated from one tongue to another, will barely retain its savour or composition in a foreign language.] A letter from A letter from Adam, abbot of Perseigne to Blanche of Navarre
Luckily for us all, there are ample opportunities to learn new medieval languages or to cement our understanding of existing ones at any number of reading groups! This week we have, for example, opportunities to hear about medieval English, Hebrew, Latin, German, Old Norwegian, and Japanese – and I’m sure, with apologies, that there are further languages that have escaped my immediate notice! Please see below for the weekly roundup, and to take full advantage of this embarrassment of linguistic riches.
The Queer and Trans Medievalisms Reading Group meets at 3pm in Univ. This informal reading group will explore queer and trans themes in medieval texts. In Trinity, we’ll be thinking about queerness and transness on trial in the Middle Ages. This week’s theme will be The trial of Katherina Hetzeldorfer (Speyer, 1477). All extremely welcome, both in-person and online! To join the mailing list and get texts in advance, or if you have any questions, email Rowan Wilson (rowan.wilson@univ.ox.ac.uk).
The Tolkien 50th Anniversary Seminar Series meets at 5pm in the Summer Common Room, Magdalen College. This week’s speaker will be David Bernabé (University of Oxford/University of the Basque Country), Riddles in the Grass: the characterisation and narrative value of landscape over the fields of Rohan. For more information, please see https://tolkien50.web.ox.ac.uk/.
The Medieval History Seminar meets at 5pm in the Old Library, All Souls College and on Teams. The Teams session can be accessed by logging in to Teams with your .ox.ac.uk account and joining the group “Medieval History Research Seminar” (team code rmppucs). Alternatively, you can use this link. If you have any difficulties please email: medhistsem@history.ox.ac.uk. This week’s speaker will be Laure Miolo (Lincoln, Oxford) ‘Establishing a school of astronomy and astrology in the fourteenth century? The case of the universities of Paris and Oxford’.
Tuesday 28th May:
The Medieval English Research Seminar meets at 12.15pm in Lecture Room 2, English Faculty. This week’s speaker will be Alex Paddock, Keble College, Oxford, Patience, the Middle English Physiologus, and the deep sea of experience. Seminars followed by a sandwich lunch. All welcome!
The Medieval Poetry Reading Group meets at 4pm in the Colin Matthew Room, Radcliffe Humanities Building. This week’s theme will be Japanese Poetry This is an activity of the TORCH Network Poetry in the Medieval World. For more information, you can refer to our website https://torch.ox.ac.uk/poetry-in-the-medieval-world; you can also contact Ugo Mondini.
The Medieval Church and Culture Seminar meets at 5.15pm in the Wellbeloved Room, Harris Manchester College. This week’s speakers will be Marion Ryley (Wadham), Envisioning Division: marginal medallions in medieval Judaic and Islamic manuscripts and Maya Smith (St Cross), Using Pigment Analysis of Pre-Conquest Manuscripts to Illuminate Trade and Commerce. Everyone is welcome at this informal and friendly graduate seminar.
The Medieval German Graduate Seminar meets at 11.15am in Oriel College King Edward Street 7 (Annette Volfing’s office; press the intercom buzzer to be let in). The topic for this term is Konrad von Würzburg: ‘Der Schwanritter’; this week we will discuss human-animal interaction with Philip Flacke presenting. Open access edition here. If you are interested to be added to the teams group for updates, please contact Henrike Lähnemann.
The Medieval Latin Document Reading Group meets at 4-5pm on Teams. A document is sent out in advance but homework is not expected. Please contact Michael Stansfield for further details and the Teams link.
Dr Peter Tóth (Cornelia Stark Curator of Greek Collections at the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford) will speak on as term lecture for the Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures “In Quest of a Medieval Best-Seller: The Authorship of the Meditationes Vitae Christi” 5.15-6.45 Memorial Room: The Queen’s College, Oxford
Thursday 30th May:
The Environmental History Working Group meets at 12.30-2pm in the Merze Tate Room, History Faculty. This week’s speaker will be Ruka Hussain, “Science, Ecology and Romanticism in George Catlin’s travelling ‘Indian Gallery’”. We try to keep discussions informal, and we encourage anyone at all interested in these kinds of approaches to join our meetings, regardless of research specialism or presumed existing knowledge. For updates on meeting details, refer to the EHWG tab on the Environmental History website. For further information or to join the EHWG mailing list, please email environmentalhistoryworkinggroup-owner@maillist.ox.ac.uk
The All Souls Seminar in Medieval and Early Modern Science meets at 2-3.30pm in the Hovenden Room, All Souls College. This week’s speaker will be Lawrence Principe (Johns Hopkins University), Franciscan Spirituality, Transmutation, and the Antichrist: John of Rupescissa’s Alchemical Thought and Practices.
The Germanic Reading Group meets at 4pm online. Please contact Howard Jones Howard.Jones@sbs.ox.ac.uk to request the handouts and to be added to the list. This week will be on Old Norwegian (Nelson leading).
The Medieval Visual Culture Seminar meets at 5pm at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, Arumugam Building. All welcome! This week’s speaker will be Gervase Rosser, University of Oxford, ‘Irrational, Feminine, Subversive: The Cult of Miraculous Images in Medieval England’.
Friday 31st May:
The Medieval Coffee Morning meets as usual 10:30am in the Visiting Scholars Centre of the Weston Library (instructions how to find it) with presentation of items from the special collections, coffee and the chance to see the view from the 5th floor terrace.
Assistant Professor of Early Medieval History [Temporary Cover]: The University of Cambridge Faculty of History wishes to recruit a Temporary Assistant Professor in Medieval History. This is a 2 year Temporary Assistant Professorship to cover the the absence of Professor Caroline Goodson, while she is seconded to the American Academy in Rome. The role will include teaching and examining at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels across a range of early medieval European topics; expertise relating to the medieval Mediterranean may be an advantage. For full details, please click here.
College Lectureship in Medieval History (part-time): St. Peter’s College invites applications for a one-year, 7-hour College Lectureship in Medieval History for one year from 1 October 2024, to provide teaching during Prof Stephen Baxter’s sabbatical leave. The position will be particularly suitable for either a doctoral research student nearing the completion of their thesis, or an early career scholar, seeking experience in college teaching and administration. For full details, please click here.
Transcription Opportunity: Katherine Turley requires a transcription of a fairly short item in English, in Oxford, Queens College MS 357 (fols. 83v–88v). If you are interested in undertaking this work (obviously for payment) please contact Katherine directly.
Finally, learning languages is all well and good, but of course the real joy (if I may be so bold to suggest, as a literature scholar…) comes in being able to use them for reading. So here is some wisdom on the joys of reading:
Ille liber mihi gratus erat, gratissima dicta. Ergo consumpsi saepe legendo diem. [That book was welcome to me, the words most welcome, So I spent the day reading them often.] A poem to Baudrifrom Constance of Le Ronceray
I hope that however you are spending this bank holiday Monday, you are able to enjoy welcome words, and to spend a day reading things that bring you delight!
[A Medievalist tries to get to grips with a new language… just because it’s a delight it doesn’t mean that it’s easy!] St John’s College MS. 61, f. 64 v. By permission of the President and Fellows of St John’s College, Oxford Viewable in full at Digital Bodleian
The end of the teaching year is fast approaching! We’ve had such a busy and exciting year that I’m sure many of us are feeling rather exhausted – especially when it’s so warm outside! But there are still four more weeks of official term, and a medievalist’s work is never truly done – if you need some inspiration, heed this advice from Aldhelm, taken from the Epistolae project:
carissimi, si quamlibet parum a vestra bona consuetudine aliquando vel semel sentitis declinare: gravem casum gemendo vos incurrisse iudicate. [dearest friends, if you ever feel that you are slipping occasionally or even once, from your good habits, however little it may be, consider with groans that you have incurred a serious fall.] A letter (1102) from Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury to Edith
I take this to mean “no slacking in fifth week”! If you’re feeling weary and in need of perking up as we approach the end of the year, our blog post this week is sure to raise your spirits. The blog post about the first of three 12th Century Study Days at Iffley gives a fantastic insight into local history and sainthood, and a wonderful sense of our Medievalist community’s work outside of the University walls! To watch recordings of the talks by Andrew Dunning and Anne E. Bailey, read about future events from Living Stones, and sign up for the Pilgrimage walk along St Frideswide’s Way (26-29 June 2024), please visit the blog post here.
It’s also easier to keep up your “good habits” when you’re surrounded by such a wonderful community of medievalists – please see below for the week’s opportunities to keep up the good work:
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
On 25 May, there will be a workshop on The Reading and Reception of the Homeric Poems and the Nibelungenlied in Germany and Europe from the Eighteenth Century to the Present, at the Taylorian and the Bodleian; papers in the morning, manuscript sessions and an exhibition opening in the afternoon. The workshop is open to all with no attendance fee. The papers will also be livestreamed. Please register your interest before Thursday night by emailing John Butcher; for online attendance, a link will be sent out 24 hours in advance. A selection of the papers and the two guided tours will also later be made available as podcasts. The exhibition Epic! Homer and Nibelungenlied in Translation to coincide with the workshop will be open just for a week, so make sure to catch it between 22 and 29 May and / or download the exhibition catalogue which comes out as an open access publication as part of the ‘Cultural Memory’ series by Taylor Editions.
All are welcome to a new Latin palaeography group, organised by William Little and Rebecca Menmuir with the Societas Ovidiana. Our aim is to transcribe previously unedited material from a range of medieval manuscripts, beginning with a 12th-century commentary of Ovid’s Heroides 12 (Medea to Jason). This will be a friendly and informal group open to everyone interested in improving (or maintaining) their Latin and palaeography skills, encountering a range of medieval manuscripts, or learning more about classical reception. We will meet on Zoom every Wednesday, 10am EDT / 3pm BST / 4pm CEST, beginning Wednesday 29th May. Please email Rebecca Menmuir for more information and a joining link.
OCHJS: Concert – Blind Far Out at Sea: Eran Tzur in Conversation and Concert: 4th of June 2024, 18:00-20:00, Maison Française d’Oxford, 2 Norham Rd, Oxford. Tzur will reunite with his old friend, Elad Uzan, a member of Oxford’s Faculty of Philosophy. Together, they will explore the connection between the Hebrew language, medieval texts and musical expression, and the art of composing poetry, playing together from different periods of Tzur’s artistic catalogue. Register for Tickets here. The event is free, but space is limited, so book your tickets soon. For further information, please click here.
EVENTS THIS WEEK:
Monday 20th May:
The Medieval Latin Manuscript Reading Group meets at 1-2pm on Teams. A friendly venue to practice your Latin and palaeography on a range of texts and scripts. We will read a very entertaining account of the legendary foundation of Cambridge University by the Carmelite friar Nicholas Cantlow. Sign up to the mailing list to receive weekly updates and Teams invites.
The Tolkien 50th Anniversary Seminar Series meets at 5pm in the T. S. Eliot Theatre, Merton College. This week’s speaker will be Will Sherwood (University of Glasgow), “I am a link in the chain”: Victorian Transformations of British Romanticism and their Influence on Tolkien. For more information, please see https://tolkien50.web.ox.ac.uk/.
The Medieval History Seminar meets at 5pm in the Old Library, All Souls College and on Teams. The Teams session can be accessed by logging in to Teams with your .ox.ac.uk account and joining the group “Medieval History Research Seminar” (team code rmppucs). Alternatively, you can use this link. If you have any difficulties please email: medhistsem@history.ox.ac.uk. This week’s speakers will be Charles West (Edinburgh), Helen Gittos (Balliol) and Mirela Ivanova (Sheffield), in discussion: Inventing Slavonic Cultures of Writing Between Rome and Constantinople.Please note the change of room.
Tuesday 21st May:
The Medieval English Research Seminar meets at 12.15pm in Lecture Room 2, English Faculty. This week’s speakers will be Alicia Smith (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge), Negotiating shame through the ‘harlot saint’ Thais and Nancy Jiang (University of Warwick) Medieval Penitential Piety and the Virtues of Debt Suretyship. Seminars followed by a sandwich lunch. All welcome!
CMTC presents — “Work in Progress” Colloquium (Trinity Term 2024) 5.15–6.45pm Memorial Room, The Queen’s College: Carolin Gluchowski (New College, Oxford), ‘Revising Devotion: Exploring Church Reform through Prayerbook MS. Lat. liturg. f. 4’ and Paola Rea (Scuola Superiore Meridionale, Napoli / Universitat de València), ‘Non ti maravigliare che io non mi distenda nelo scrivere: Female Autographs and Kinship in an Early-Modern Italian Epistolary Corpus’. Abstracts on https://cmtc.queens.ox.ac.uk/seminars/
The Medieval Church and Culture Seminar meets at 5.15pm in the Wellbeloved Room, Harris Manchester College. This week’s speakers will be Alex Still (BNC), Hrothgar’s horse: the evidence for an interconnected elite across the North Sea world and Elizabeth Williams (LMH), Heavenly Sensations: multisensory encounters with the liturgy in medieval Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulchre, c. 1099-1215. Everyone is welcome at this informal and friendly graduate seminar.
Wednesday 22nd May:
The Medieval German Graduate Seminar meets at 11.15am in Oriel College King Edward Street 7 (Annette Volfing’s office; press the intercom buzzer to be let in). The topic for this term is Konrad von Würzburg: ‘Der Schwanritter’. Open access edition here. If you are interested to be added to the teams group for updates, please contact Henrike Lähnemann.
The Medieval Latin Document Reading Group meets at 4-5pm on Teams. A document is sent out in advance but homework is not expected. Please contact Michael Stansfield for further details and the Teams link.
The Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar meets at 5.15pm at Auditorium, Corpus Christi College, and online via Teams. Teams link: https://msteams.link/FW0C. This week’s speakers will be Maximilien Durand (Musée du Louvre) and Jannic Durand (Musée du Louvre) – ‘Creating the Louvre’s New Department of Byzantine and Eastern Christian Art: Issues and Challenges in a Turbulent World’. Please note the change in venue and start time!
The Book launch of Siân E. Grønlie’s The Old Testament in Medieval Icelandic Texts. Translation, Exegesis and Storytelling takes place at 5.30-7pm in Seminar Room 9, St Anne’s College. We celebrate the launch of the book (Boydell and Brewer, 2024), with a panel discussion with Prof Heather O’Donoghue, Prof Henrike Laehnemann, and Dr Rachel Burns, followed by a drinks reception. For further details, please see here.
Thursday 23rd May:
The All Souls Seminar in Medieval and Early Modern Science meets at 2– 3pm in the Hovenden Room, All Souls College. This week’s speaker will be Michael Hunter (Birkbeck, University of London), Robert Boyle’s Strange Reports: From the Outlandish to the Supernatural. To be added to our mailing list please email Dan Haywood mailto:daniel.haywood@sjc.ox.ac.uk
Friday 24th May:
Recording Oxford’s Medieval Lives. A Mise en Perspective of Lincoln Documents takes place from 10am-7pm at Lincoln College. The conference will include academic papers and presentations by students and participants in the year-long seminar ‘Exploring medieval Oxford through Lincoln Archives’. They will be presenting their work and discoveries at the conference alongside papers by David d’Avray (UL/Jesus College), Philippa Hoskin (CCC, Cambridge), Richard Allen (Magdalene College), Michael Stansfield (New College) and Alison Ray (St Peter’s and All Souls). Anyone with an interest in the history of medieval Oxford and medieval documents more generally is welcome to attend and can register by writing to Laure Miolo and Lindsay McCormack.
The Medieval Coffee Morning meets as usual 10:30am in the Visiting Scholars Centre of the Weston Library (instructions how to find it) with presentation of items from the special collections, coffee and the chance to see the view from the 5th floor terrace. This week, Thea Gomelauri will present medieval Hebrew manuscripts.
The Anglo-Norman Reading Group will meets at 5-6.30pm at the Julia Mann Room in St Hilda’s College, with the option to join remotely online. Those attending in person please be at the Lodge BY 5.00, where we will meet you and take you to the room in South Building. The texts, together with supplementary material, can be found on TT Padlet Please ensure you print the text (or bring it electronically), as we do not provide paper copies. Wine and soft drinks are available as usual!
Finally, for further inspiration to keep working hard through this last stretch of the teaching year, here is some further advice from Anselm:
Nullus enim potest vitare defectum, nisi qui se semper extendit ad profectum. [For nobody can avoid falling back except one who always strains towards progress.] A letter (1094/1095) from Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury to Nun M.
The sun should help to ward off any fifth week blues, and to ensure no “falling back” happens, but if you need further assistance, please do come along to the very friendly medievalists coffee morning. In the meantime, I wish you all a week of research and teaching progress!
[Medievalists diligently striving towards progress together…] St John’s College MS. 61, f. 2 r. By permission of the President and Fellows of St John’s College, Oxford Viewable in full at Digital Bodleian
