The skin has recently gained attention within body studies for its many specific cultural and social associations, in addition to its biology. This project aims to examine the different layers of meaning and the functions invested in the skin in ancient Greece: how did ancient Greek literary and medical…

What can a doodle tell us about the person who drew it? Erik Kwakkel is a Dutch book historian at Leiden University who searches for the secret meanings of doodles and scribbles in medieval manuscripts. He talks to BBC World Service about his passion for books.

Long-distance Trade in Early Medieval Landscapes (ca. 6th-12th centuries)

This project examines the intriguing relationship between Greek literary criticism and Latin literature in Rome (first centuries BC and AD).

This special issue of the peer-reviewed journal Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik (Brill, 2021) brings together articles that explore new digital ways of analyzing and annotating Old English vocabulary.

The archaeology of food is in all sorts of ways ‘hot’. To illustrate this, recently the book Medieval MasterChef was published, focusing on cuisine and foodways in the Mediterranean and north-western Europe during Medieval and Post-Medieval times.

The recent rise in global migration movements and the simultaneous attempts to prevent migrations to the Global North in general and Europe in particular have produced numerous images and narratives that try to record and convey these events and their actors.

The eighth issue of the JLGC explores the diverse and interdisciplinary research on our multifaceted relationship with animals which is currently taking place, re-examining the relationship between humans and animals, and the definitions involved.

Erik Kwakkel, researcher at the Faculty of Humanities, has found an extraordinary manuscript in the University Library’s extensive collection of medieval books. The book in question dates back to the first half of the eleventh century and is made entirely out of waste left over from the production of…

As Scaliger professor, Erik Kwakkel is responsible for the academic context of the complete Special Collections of the Leiden University Library. His inaugural lecture on 15 May will focus mainly on the section closest to his heart: Medieval books.

Did you know that Arabic was for centuries the lingua franca in an area stretching from the south of Spain to the Chinese border? And that the Middle East under Muslim rule was the world’s beating heart of trade, but also of science and scholarship? Want to learn more? Then sign up for the new MOOC…

On October 9th, Peter Alexander Kerkhof succesfully defended his doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Peter Alexander on this great result.

The KB has launched a meme generator containing medieval imagery.

The Digital Medievalist has recently created a curated Zenodo community, called the Digital Medieval Webinar Repository (DMWR) to house recorded presentations on medieval topics.

The registration for the Medieval Studies Day on 17 December 2021 is now open.

Submit your paper, session or business proposal for the International Medieval Meeting in Lleida until 31 March 2023.

Cat Paw Tweet Goes Viral

On 4 November 2022, the University of Amsterdam will organize the Medieval Studies' Day! More information coming soon.

Central to the research of several cluster members are the social function and contexts of the production and consumption of medieval and early modern art, literature and media:

On 17 December 2021 the Medieval Studies Day will take place in Amsterdam. Keep this date free! More information will follow soon.

On 2-3 June 2023, the University of Bucharest organizes the conference 'Medieval accountability: normativity, numeracy, and rhetoric from the institutional to the domestic sphere'. Proposals of circa 300 words outlining the source material, methodology, and anticipated findings should be emailed to…

From as early as classical antiquity there has been an interplay between literature and medicine.

What was the stringed instrument known in medieval and early Renaissance Italy as “cetra”?

The basic program comprises a total of thirteen courses organized by the Research School, that have been purpose-developed for training and support of PhD students and Research MA students who specialize in Medieval Studies (history, art history, and literary history, in particular). The courses have…

This research investigates the impact of socioeconomic developments on the physical condition of medieval populations in Holland and Zeeland between AD 1000 and 1600 through the analysis of human skeletal remains from three archaeological sites.

The Rise and Decline of an Iberian Bourgeoisie is one of the first long-term studies in English of an Iberian town during the late medieval crisis. Focusing on the Catalonian city of Manresa, Jeff Fynn-Paul expertly integrates Iberian historiography with European narratives to place the city's social,…

Lecture

Kralen spreken tot de verbeelding. Ze zijn aantrekkelijk en persoonlijk vanwege hun kleuren, materialen, patronen en associaties. Je draagt ze op je lichaam, waar je ze voelt en anderen ze zien. Kralen zijn waardevol en verplaatsbaar, tegelijkertijd reizigers en souvenirs.

Settlement burials in the pagus Texandrië and the transformation of Merovingian society c. 700 AD (Southern Netherlands)

The Gennadius Library of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens announces the summer session focused on the study of Medieval Greek, from June 26 to July 27, 2023. The Library invites applications for a month-long Summer Session for Medieval Greek at the Intermediate to Advanced Level. The…

The theme of the Research School for Medieval Studies' Medieval Studies' Day 2022 (UvA, Amsterdam, 4 November 2022) is Reflections. We welcome 15-minute papers on topics connected to the theme, with a medieval focus, in all humanities disciplines. We particularly invite proposals from PhD students and…

The course "Presenting Medieval Research at International Conferences" is open for registration. The deadline for registration is 10 September 2020.

In the summer school 'Medieval Religion' students will be challenged by specialists in the field of medieval religion to position and develop their own research in relevant scholarly and cultural contexts. The instructors will give masterclasses from their own specialties. Deadline for registrations:…

What follows is a survey of existing programs and current projects for each of the participating universities.

The first of the two volumes of this co-authored study has just been published by Metzler. The study explores the history of the concept ‘barbarism’ from the 18th century to the present and illuminates its foundational role in modern European and Western identity.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the pressing question is how this global health emergency impacted the research agendas of the field of crisis and disaster science. This article reviewed contributions in ten important crisis and disaster journals in the two and a half years following the COVID-19…

To our regret we have to postpone the annual Medieval Studies Day of the Dutch Research School for Medieval Studies, the Reflection Symposium, which was planned for December 17, to the spring of 2022. (Exact date to be decided). The present Covid-19 situation does not allow for a safe and productive…

The rise and fall of the cesspit in an urban context

The urban graveyard presents several studies in which the results of older archaeological and osteoarchaeological research are compared to more recent excavation data from several Dutch, Belgian and Danish cities and towns.

The programme for the Medieval Studies' Day (4 November, Amsterdam) is now available online!

Material culture and the role of rural communities in exchange systems of the eighth and ninth centuries

Subproject of

On 19 January (15:30-16:30), the Nicholas Brunmayr (Bruxelles) will give a talk on medieval butter trade at the Amsterdam Centre for Urban History.

On 4 and 5 December 2023, the National Library of Luxembourg organizes a workshop on medieval armorials. Proposals for contributions can be submitted until 30 June 2023.

Medieval Memoria Research has published its final newsletter. This special MeMO-themed issue contains several articles about the MeMO project and its influence on the work of various scholars.

A shepherd, but also a comparativist and historian with very broad interests. That is how Professor Philippe Buc describes himself. As of 1 August 2021, he will hold the chair of professor of Medieval History at the university. In an introductory interview, Buc introduces himself, his research and his…