Oxford Medieval Studies is saddened to hear of the death last week of Tony Hunt (1944-2025), Faculty Lecturer in Medieval French and Fellow of St Peter’s College (1990-2009).
Tony’s contributions to Anglo-Norman and Medieval French research were prolific and ground-breaking, recognised by Fellowship of the British Academy in 1999; he was decorated Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques in 2009. A brilliant scholar with a razor-sharp intellect he was also a generous and much valued tutor, supervisor, mentor, and colleague. A pillar of the Anglo-Norman studies community, he was President of the Anglo-Norman Texts Society from 2011 until his death; his editions of texts ranged remarkably, from chess treatises and the teaching and learning of Latin in England to medicine and botany.
As part of the Italian Research Seminar, Ryan Pepin will speak on ‘Dietro la memoria non può ire’: Copyists’ Slips in the Textual Tradition of the Commedia.
Time and Place: Monday, November 10th (5th week), Taylorian, Room 2, 1-2:30 PM
Abstract: The enormous textual tradition of Dante’s Commedia – over 600 complete manuscripts – is a mine of data on how scribes worked in late medieval Italy. Thanks to the efforts of palaeographers and codicologists over the last twenty years, we have learned about the difference between professional and amateur milieux (Pomaro), the development of collaborative, serial book production in Florence (De Robertis, Ceccherini), copyists’ efforts to compare and correct their texts (Tonello) – even about the ‘habits’ of individual scribes (Marchetti).
This paper studies a type of error which to which Dante’s copyists were especially prone: errors that resulted from a good memory of the poem. By studying scribal innovations that ‘echo’ other lines in the text (Petrocchi), we come as close as we can to early readers’ ear for the poem: what they attended to, how they understood the poet’s style – and even, I will suggest, how they understood the poet’s own compositional practice.
Bio: Ryan is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of York. He is currently studying medieval Latin rhythmical poetry that circulated in Italy during the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries.
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’.
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.
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.
New directions in the study of written artefacts from Antiquity to the late Middle Ages. Organised by the Crafting Documents project (AHRC-DFG) and co-sponsored by the Centre for Manuscripts and Text Cultures, University of Oxford. 13-14 NOVEMBER 2025, SHULMAN AUDITORIUM. THE QUEEN’S COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD Register for free here
9:30 Arrival and registration (coffee and tea available for all attendees) 9:45 Welcome Julia M. H. Smith (Crafting Documents co-PI, All Souls College, University of Oxford) Martin Kauffman (Head of early and rare collections, Special Collections, Bodleian Library) Dirk Meyer (Director of the Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures, The Queen’s College, Oxford) 10:00 Brent Seales (University of Kentucky): UnLost: uncovering lost knowledge from the ancient library of Herculaneum 10:50 Richard Gameson (Durham University): The Hereford palimpsest psalter 11:40 Jess Hodgkinson (University of Leicester) Insular manuscripts and their readers: using photometric stereo imaging to study drypoint writing 12:30 Lunch Break TECHNOLOGIES TO RETRIEVE WRITING (Chair Lesley Smith, Harris Manchester College, Oxford) INKS AND PARCHMENT (Chair Martin Kauffman, Bodleian Library) 2:30 Kristine Rose-Beers (University Library Cambridge) Early Islamic manuscripts on parchment: surface preparation and practice-based research 3:20 Andy Beeby (Durham University) On the variation in the density of writing as seen by multi and hyper-spectral imaging: looking over the scribe’s shoulder 4:10 Coffee and tea break 5:00 Ira Rabin (Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung) Ana de Oliveira Dias (University of Oxford) Ink analysis of early medieval relic labels Wine reception sponsored by the Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures, The Queen’s College, Oxford (6:00 – 7:00)DAY 2 MATERIAL SCIENCE AND HERITAGE RESEARCH 9:30 Alberto Campagnolo (Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven) Approaches to heritage science for manuscripts in the Digital Humanities 10:20 Michael Marx, Institut für Studien der Kultur und Religion des Islam Goethe-Universität Frankfurt / Institute of Advanced Studies Jerusalem Results of carbondating of early Qurʾānic manuscript and their implications for our understanding of the history of the Qurʾān 11:10 Coffee and tea break 11:40 Matthew Collins (University of Copenhagen/University of Cambridge) Proteomics analysis of parchment samples 12:30 Colloquium pause (Chair Dirk Meyer, The Queen’s College, Oxford) 4:00 Coffee and tea 4:30 Tessa Webber (Trinity College, University of Cambridge) Early medieval written artefacts: a palaeographical perspective 5:00 Round table discussion BROADER PERSPECTIVES (Chair Julia Smith, All Souls College, University of Oxford)
It was an exciting time being one of this years MML History of the Book students as we met up for the second time this term to have a three hour introduction to medieval Latin Palaeography. Dr Laure Miolo and Dr Alison Ray set up a programme that not only gave a well-rounded overview (even though we know that we barely scratched the surface of what there is to uncover) over everything related to palaeography, but also allowed students to examine exactly what they had just learned on the actual books.
So why would I want to study old books and their handwriting, you might ask? This question seems a little unlikely regarding the fact that you seem to have found this blog and have started to read this very entry – but surely you live a busy life and might think to yourself: “This all seems interesting, but do I really need to concern myself with this?” So here are three of the many reasons, why Palaeography is absolutely worth your precious time:
First of all, there is a lot to do! You can find a wide range of different handwriting starting with the earlier handwritings like the Capital script and the Roman cursive script and ending with the Humanistic script in the 16th century. (Medieval) Latin palaeography presents the opportunity to uncover over a thousand years of written history. So let’s start the journey with an overview over about 700 years in under two minutes, presented by Dr Alison Ray
And let me assure you, there is a lot more to unpack here. How about a roll from the early 16th century (MS. e. Museo 245) for example, that is not only impressive due to its size but also is said to have magical powers. Or how about a so-called bat book (MS. Ashmole 6), that was probably owned by a physician and that could be attached to the belt. Why is it called a bat book? Have a look
But the journey doesn’t end here as Palaeography entails much more than just the different kinds of books and handwritings. Have you ever gotten tired of looking at letters and words all day long? Well, how about looking at pictures instead, because with Palaeography you can call this research now. And unsurprisingly there is a lot of fun to have with this. How about for example the Aspremont Psalter (MS. Douce 118), where you can find a miniature of one of the illuminators, thus: a medieval selfie (see the header image of the disabled scribe with a Jew’s hat who holds the scroll ‘Nicolaus me fecit qui illuminat librum’ on fol. 142r; it is very small indeed, but the word miniature actually comes from the word minium, which refers to the type of colour that was used to outline the different pictures by the illuminator). Or in case you have ever asked yourself what your urin should and shouldn’t look like, you may (or rather may not) refer to the urin wheel depicted in an Astronomical Calendar from the 14th century (MS. Ashmole 789)
Last but most certainly not least you will not only uncover history on a great scale and be able to look at pretty and fun miniatures, but you will also get to look behind the book and uncover its sometimes very individual story. For example if you shine light on the Liber mortis et vitae (MS. Rawl. D. 403) from the late 15th/ early 16th century with a flashlight, you will find a unicorn shining through the pages. Even though this is great just for any reason, the unicorn here actually serves a function: it is a medieval watermark. So, if you ever wondered why some books have holes in their bindings (see for example MS. Bodl. 192), who the poodlemaster was or how books could be protected during travel (see for example MS. Rawl. D. 403), Palaeography will be the answer to all of your questions
To sum up, a huge thank you to Dr. Laure Miolo and Dr Alison Ray for this wonderful introduction to Palaeography and for giving us so many reasons to study this inspiring subject!
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/.
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”.
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
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
There are a number of palaeography offers available for anybody interested in Oxford happening in Michaelmas 2025, coordinated by Dr Laure Miolo, Lyell Career Development Fellow in Latin Palaeography and Dilts Fellow at Lincoln College, historian of late medieval Europe, specialising in manuscript studies and history of early libraries with a special focus on scientific books and practices. Contact her for any of the below under laure.miolo@history.ox.ac.uk.
Header Image: Lincoln College/EL/OAS/D1
French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group, Mo 10.30-12
Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives, Fr 2-3pm
Latin Palaeography Manuscript ReadingGroup, Tue 2-3.30pm
1. French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group
This group is open to anyone with an interest in Old French, Middle French and Anglo-Norman manuscripts. We study and read manuscripts from the 12th century to the 16th century with a special focus on palaeography. We meet every Monday between 10.30am-12pmin the Weston Library.
If you are interested in joining the group or would like more information, please write to Laure Miolo.
The seminar comprises brief lectures on the morphology and function of scripts, as well as the evolution of script shapes and graphic systems in context, followed by transcription practice using original manuscripts and documents. Sessions are structured around the historical development of scripts, progressing from simpler shapes and strokes with minimal ligatures and abbreviations to more cursive and complex forms. A study of the diverse scripts found between the twelfth and early sixteenth centuries in manuscripts and documents written in Old French, Middle French, and Anglo-Norman — and produced in various geographical areas —will allow participants to gain familiarity with a wide range of scripts and abbreviations. The reading of literary texts in parallel with the analysis of manuscripts and their scripts serves to complement both the lectures and transcription practice.
Oxford, St John’s College MS 164, fol. 1r
2. Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives
Every Friday 2-3pm Weston Library (Horton Room)
This weekly one-hour seminar offers participants the opportunity to work directly with original documents from various Oxford parishes, held in the Bodleian Libraries. Focusing primarily on thirteenth-century deeds, these documents provide rich insight into everyday life in medieval Oxford. Open to undergraduates, postgraduates, and early career researchers, the seminar welcomes all those interested in working with primary sources and conducting in-depth contextual analysis of historical records
Working individually or in pairs on a self-selected original document, participants will closely examine its physical and material features (such as writing surface, layout, and signs of use), carry out transcription and translation, and identify the individuals and locations mentioned in order to situate the document within its historical context. Particular emphasis will be placed on the seals attached to the documents.
Alongside collaborative work on these unpublished or little-studied sources, participants will gain experience in the digitisation and cataloguing of archival materials, and will have the opportunity to present their research and original documents to a wider audience during a one-day workshop in Trinity Term.
This seminar is held at the Weston Library (Horton Room) in collaboration with Matthew Holford, Tolkien Curator of Medieval Manuscripts. Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo via email: laure.miolo@history.ox.ac.uk. Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo
3. Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group
(advanced beginner, intermediate and advanced levels)
For those wishing to develop, deepen or maintain their skills in Latin palaeography, we meet every Tuesday between 2pm and 3.30pm in the Weston Library (Horton Room or Visiting Scholars Centre). We explore a wide variety of medieval manuscripts and documents dating from the 9th to the 15th centuries. Each session combines hands-on analysis of different scripts, abbreviations, and codicological features. Regular practice is key to building palaeographical skills and gaining confidence in reading a range of scripts, from clear book and documentary hands to more cursive and heavily abbreviated ones. This reading group is designed to introduce the essential features of each script and abbreviation, enabling participants to read and interpret manuscripts directly and with confidence. Those who are interested can contact the convenor, Laure Miolo
For more information on the programme and how to apply, please consult the OSRJL page and our News/Announcements page on our website. If you have questions, please email us at osrjl@ochjs.ac.uk.
Jewish languages are essential and incorporeal parts of Jewish history, creativity, culture and identity. Most of them are currently in danger of extinction while others are already dead, known only from early writing. Various research programmes stress the immense role of vernacular languages in Jewish life and culture as well as point to their fragility, yet universities offer very few learning opportunities for most of these rare Jewish languages.
Created in August 2021 by the Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies (OCHJS) in collaboration with the Institut des Langues Rares (ILARA) at Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE), Paris, the Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages (OSRJL) offers free, online teaching of rare Jewish languages and their cultural-historical contexts—along with a public lecture series, academic blog, Visiting Fellows programme, Jewish music classes (this year focusing on the history of Yiddish music!) and language Cafés—accessible at no cost to accepted students and members of the general public around the globe. By doing so, the OSRJL aims to preserve, spark interest in, enable access to and reflect on the nature and role of Jewish languages as rich linguistic facets of Jewish life and history. It is the first school of its kind globally.
You can read about the OSRJL’s second year, 2022–23, in the Impact Report:
In 2023–24, expanded the language offerings to include classes on 3 languages new to the programme—Haketia, Judeo-Hamadani and Kivruli, teaching a record 18 languages. Languages taught through the OSRJL in 2023–24 included:
Haketia (Dr Carlos Yebra López, University College London)
Baghdadi Judeo-Arabic (Dr Assaf Bar Moshe, Freie Universität Berlin)
Judeo-Greek (Dr Julia G. Krivoruchko, University of Cambridge)
Judeo-Hamadani (Professor Dr Saloumeh Gholami, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)
Judeo-Italian (Dr Marilena Colasuonno, University of Naples)
Judeo-Moroccan (Haviva Fenton)
Judeo-Neo-Aramaic (Dr Dorota Molin, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge)
Judeo-Persian (Dr Ofir Haim, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, & Maximilian Kinzler)
Judeo-Provençal (Dr Peter Nahon, Université de Neuchâtel)
Judeo-Tat (Professor Gilles Authier & Dr Murad Suleymanov, EPHE, Paris)
Judeo-Turkish (Professor Laurent Mignon, University of Oxford)
Karaim (Professor Henryk Jankowski, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań)
Kivruli (Dr Hélène Gérardin, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales/EPHE)
Ladino (Dr Carlos Yebra López, University College London)
Old Yiddish (Dr Diana Matut)
Yiddish (Dr Beruriah Wiegand, OCHJS, University of Oxford)
Some of the languages we teach—such as Classical Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-French, Judeo-Provençal, Judeo-Persian and Judeo-Greek—are extinct, and our teaching is therefore based, at least in part, on medieval texts and manuscripts written in these languages.
