Julia Szirmai is a guest lecturer at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society.

More information about Julia Szirmai

Research

My research includes the editing and study of Old French Bible texts from the 13th and 14th centuries. This study continues in the tradition of the “Equipe de Leyde”, an initiative of Professor Dr J-R. Smeets (†). At present, I am preparing an edition of the Anglo-Norman Bible stories, the contents of which show some correspondances with the Fragment de la Genèse en vers which I edited in 2005. I am also working on the edition of the last ‘Bible intégrale’, la Bible des sept estaz du monde by Geffroi de Paris (13th century), a text of more than 20,000 verses which consists of seven parts: Ancien Testament, Nouveau Testament, Descente de saint Paul en enfer, Purgatoire, Condition humaine, Antéchrist and Jugement dernier. The study of these texts will result in several articles on medieval biblical legends (youth of Moses, Pharaoh’s crown, passage of the Red Sea, the story of Joseph).

Curriculum Vitae

Born in Amsterdam 12-10-1954
After the Athenaeum, study of French in Leiden and Doctoral examination in 1979.
1977-1981 Teacher of French in secondary education
1979-1981 PhD scholarship student, Groningen
1985 Dissertation on ‘ La bible anonyme du Ms B.N.f.fr.763, édition critique’ , at Leiden University.
1982-1984 PhD assistant, Department of French at Leiden University
From 1985 employed as University lecturer in the French Department, first in the Linguistics department (historic linguistics) followed by the Literature department (medievalism)

Also:
1992-1996 Teacher of French (Medievalism) at the Hogeschool Amsterdam
1993-1996 Extracurricular teacher of French at Utrecht University
1979 Member of Workshop on Medievalism, Leiden University
1993 Member of study group on Medieval Literature (Literary Science Foundation) NWO
1991-2005 Member of University Council, Leiden University
2000 External adviser, research group on Old French Bibles, Université de Franche-Comté (Professor P. Nobel)
2001 Fellow founder and editor of the MemoranduM series (translation of Old French texts into Dutch)
1997 Board member of the Foundation ‘ De Romaanse Wortel’

Teaching activities

Introductory lecture Medieval Literature Lecture Old French Lecture Diachronic Linguistics Master course ’Language and symbol, reading Medieval French handwriting’(2006) Master’s course ‘Le bestiaire médiéval. Les animaux dans la littérature française du Moyen Âge’(2007) ( Eng. Translation: The medieval bestiary. Animals in French Medieval Literature) Optional course Medievalism

Publications

- La Bible anonyme du Ms B.N.f.fr.763, édition critique, Amsterdam, Rodopi 1985 [thèse]

- 'Un manuscrit redécouvert de la Bible anonyme du XIIIe siècle', in: Revue de Linguisti­que romane, T.53, no.211-12, Strasbourg 1989, pp.435-42.

- ‘Les ‘braies’de saint François. Critique médiévale de la vénération des reliques. Une approche socio-culturelle et littéraire’, in : Nederlands archief voor kerkgeschiedenis/ Dutch Review of Church History, vol. 79, 2, Leiden, Brill 1999, pp.226-243.

- ‘La transmission de l’ Aurora de Petrus Riga dans un fragment biblique du XIVe siècle’, in : La transmission des savoirs au Moyen Âge et à la Renaissance (Ed. P. Nobel), Presses Universitaires de Franche-Comté 2005, Vol. 1, pp. 119-141.

- Un Fragment de la Genèse en vers(fin XIIIe-début XIVe siècle), Edition du Ms. Brit. Libr. Harley 3775, Genève, Droz 2005.

Publications