Oxford Medieval Studies, Week 6, Hilary Term 2021

22 February 2021
Caroline Batten
oms red

Dear all,

Another Monday, another opportunity to fill your week with exciting medieval events and seminars! In a few weeks we’ll be able to drink coffee outdoors again, so the future looks bright. Remember you can see all medieval events in the booklet here.

A few announcements:

  • The Oxford Bibliographical Society will be hosting a seminar tomorrow, Tuesday 23 February, at 5 pm on Zoom. The speaker is Anna Contadini, on ‘Book Culture in the Arab World: An Illustrated Herbal of the Thirteenth Century’. Contact sarah.cusk@lincoln.ox.ac.uk for the link.
  • DALME (Documentary Archaeology of Late Medieval Europe) recently launched its new website on material culture in documentary archives. The website is here.
  • As advertised last week, the History of Domestic Violence seminar will be held today at 2 pm. You can still register here.

Soð bið swicolost, seminares deorost. [Truth is most treacherous, seminars most beloved.] - Old English Maxims II, I’m pretty sure

MONDAY 22 FEBRUARY

  • The Oxford Byzantine Graduate Seminar meets at 12:30 pm on Teams. To join and for information, please contact the organiser at james.cogbill@worc.ox.ac.uk. This week’s speaker is Stephanie Novasio (University of Birmingham), ‘The Sociology of Graffiti in Late Antiquity’.
  • The Medieval Latin Reading Group meets at 1 pm on Teams, continuing with Abelard. Submit your email address here to receive notices.
  • The reading group GLARE (Greek, Latin, and Reception) meets at 5 pm on Teams. Email john.colley@ell.ox.ac.uk and jenyth.evans@ell.ox.ac.uk to be added to the mailing list. This week readers will tackle Horace’s Ars poetica.
  • The Medieval History Seminar meets on Teams at 5 pm (search for the seminar in Teams with code rmppucs and then click ‘join’). This week’s speaker is Marek Jankowiak (Corpus Christi, Oxford), ‘What If Our Chronological Framework is Wrong? Misdated Popes, the Mission to Northumbria, and a Puzzling Merovingian Charter’.

TUESDAY 23 FEBRUARY

  • The Late Medieval Seminar meets at 2 pm on Zoom (Meeting ID: 962 7053 8553, passcode: 078931). This week’s speaker is Ulinka Rublack (Cambridge), ‘Renaissance Clothes and Colour’.
  • At 3:30 pm on Google Meet  we have the Medieval Book Club (for more information, get in touch at oxfordmedievalbookclub@gmail.com). This week’s theme is Gluttony and Drunkness, getting to grips with Dante’s ever-exciting Inferno VI and Purgatorio XXII.
  • The Early Slavonic Seminar meets at 5 pm on Zoom (register here). This week’s speaker is Florin Curta (University of Florida), ‘The Early Slavs and their Ethnogenesis in Soviet and Post-Soviet Archaeology’. 
  • The Oxford Pre-Modern Middle Eastern History Seminar meets at 5:30 pm on Zoom (register here). This week’s speaker is Zeynep Yürekli (Oxford), ‘Ottoman Historiography and Topographical Illustration in Manuscripts Attributed to Matrakçı Nasuh’, with respondent Serpil Bağcı (Hacettepe).

WEDNESDAY 24 FEBRUARY

  • The Medieval German Seminar meets at 11:15 am on Teams, with the graduate reading group meeting at 11, reading Arnold von Harff. Email henrike.laehnemann@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk for details.
  • Remember that the In via Dante Network Colloquium (Dante and Conceptions of Space and Architecture) will be held on Zoom at 3 pm. Register here.
  • The Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar meets at 5 pm on Google Meet (link here). This week’s speaker is Rei Hakamada (Okayama/Oxford), ‘Deification for All: Rethinking the Role of Palamas in the History of Hesychasm’.
  • The Medieval English Research Seminar meets at 5:15 pm on Teams. This week’s speaker is Claudia di Sciacca (University of Udine), ‘Wolfing it Down: the Motif of the Swallowing Dragon in Early Medieval England and Scandinavia’.
  • The Hebrew Bible in Medieval Manuscripts reading group will meet at 7 pm on Zoom; email judith.schlanger@orinst.ox.ac.uk for further information. 

THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY

  • The Aquinas Seminar Series (De Magistro: Aquinas and the Education of the Whole Person) meets at 4:30 pm on Zoom. This week’s speaker is Rev Prof Vivian Boland, OP (Angelicum), ‘Can Aquinas’ sana doctrina on Learning and Teaching Be Extracted from its Place in sacra doctrina?’ Register here.
  • The Celtic Seminar meets at 5:15 pm on Teams. Contact david.willis@ling-phil.ox.ac.uk for a link. This week’s speaker is Paul Widmer (University of Zürich), ‘Socio-Cultural History in the Language Change: Celtic and its Neighbours since the Late Middle Ages’.
  • The OCHJS David Patterson lectures will be held at 6 pm on Zoom. This week’s speaker is Ron Tappy (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary), ‘Letters from Tel Zayit: The Hebrew Alphabet Carved in Stone’. Register here.
  • The Medieval Trade Reading Group meets at 7 pm. To be added to the team and have access to the materials and meetings, email Annabel Hancock at annabel.hancock@history.ox.ac.uk.

FRIDAY 12 FEBRUARY

  • The work in progress workshop Pre-Modern Conversations meets at 11 am on Teams. Email lena.vosding@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk for further information.
  • The Seminar in the History of the Book meets at 2:15 pm. To register, email bookcentre@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. This week’s speaker is Kanupriya Dhingra (SOAS, University of London), ‘Streets and Serendipity: “Locating” Daryaganj Sunday Patri Kitab Bazar’. 

It’s been a long winter, but spring is on its way. Take an evening walk now that the sun doesn’t set until 5:30! Get a head start on Tesco Easter candy! Dream of the socially distanced picnic you’ll have with someone on 9 March! Just think of all the possibilities.