In this lecture, Evan Freeman, Simon Fraser University, will consider the use of ivory pyxides for receiving Communion in church. A large body of these round ivory boxes survive from late antiquity. Several boxes display motifs associated with the Eucharist.
Category Archives: Lecture
Lecture: ‘A Spectrum of Desires: Queering Medieval Art at The Met Cloisters’, with Nancy Thebaut, 17 Dec 2025, 17:30-19:00 (GMT), Courtauld Institute of Art
In this lecture, Dr Nancy Thebaut will discuss their co-curated exhibition “Spectrum of Desire” at The Met Cloisters, which explores medieval perspectives on love, sex, and gender, with a focus on a tapestry of the Queen of Sheba and Solomon.
Lecture: ‘Episcopal display and the English crozier around the time of the Norman Conquest’, with Sophie Kelly, 22 Oct 2025, 17:30-19:00 (BST), Courtauld Institute of Art
Join Dr Sophie Kelly for a lecture that explores the evolving design and significance of croziers in the context of ecclesiastical authority and political change in England during the 11th century.
Online lecture: ‘Grünewald Remediating Wood from the Panel’ with Gregory Bryda, 8 October 2025, 5pm (CEST)
Gregory Bryda will present an online lecture on October 8, 2025, examining how Matthias Grünewald utilised wood’s dual nature in his altarpieces to intertwine the medicinal properties of Christ and saints with those of trees and plants.
Panel discussion: ‘A Conversation about Concertina-Fold Books across Time, Space and Cultures’, Weston Library, Oxford Bodleian Library, Thursday 1 May 2025, 3-4pm (GMT)
Accordion, screenfold, chain—various terms have been applied to books folded in a zig-zag or ‘concertina’ pattern. Seen now as novelties, concertina-fold books were once found worldwide. This discussion will be grounded in some of the outstanding examples of these books in Bodleian collections.
Murray Seminar: ‘Natural Disorder: Art and Unruliness in Norwich Priory’ with Dr Jessica Barker, Birkbeck, 7 May 2025, 17-18:30 (GMT)
Join the next Murray Seminar with Dr Jessica Barker, who will be presenting on representations of the natural world within a particular late-medieval monastic community.
Online Lecture: ‘The Blood of His Flesh? Controversial Relics from Byzantium in Venice’, with Karin Krause, 10 April 2025, 12–1.30 pm (ET)
The upcoming Mary Jaharis Center lecture will be by Karin Krause (University of Chicago), who will discuss the history and veneration of two relics of the Holy Blood of Christ kept in the church of San Marco in Venice.
The CRSBI Annual Lecture: ‘Romanesque Sculpture and Water: the Art of Carved Vessels’, with Michele Luigi Vescovi, 30 April 2025, 6-7.30pm (BST)
Join the CRSBI for their Annual Lecture at the Courtauld Institute of Art with Dr Michele Luigi Vescovi who will be speaking about ‘Romanesque Sculpture and Water: the Art of Carved Vessels’.
ICMA Annual Lecture: ‘Word/Play: Interiority, Performance, and Reading in Late Medieval Flanders’, with Alexa Sand, 14 May 2025, 5.30pm-7pm (BST)
Join the ICMA for their annual lecture with guest speaker Dr Alexa Sand, who will be talking about the relationship between performance marginalia and the reader experience.
Online talk: ‘Unfolding Concertina-Fold Almanacs: The Making of an Exhibition’, 28 March 2025 12-1.30pm (EDT)
In this online talk, Sarah Griffin, curator of the exhibition, and Megan McNamee, a collaborator, will introduce the concertina corpus and discuss the process of putting these frighteningly fragile, fiendishly complex, and wonderfully dynamic little books on public view.
Medieval Art Research 