Category Archives: Seminars & Lectures

Online lecture: ‘Mediating Touch: Ivory Pyxides and the Eucharist’, with Evan Freeman, 17 November 2025, 12–1:30 pm (EST, UTC -5)

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.

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.

Online Lecture Series: ‘Participation through Prayer in the Late Medieval and Early Modern World’, 21 October 2025 – 10 February 2026, Tuesdays, 4–6 pm (CET)

Join PRAYTICIPYTE for this lecture series on prayer in the Late Medieval and Early Modern World, which takes place online.

Murray Seminar: ‘The artist’s new body, burle, and the praise of caricature in early modern Italy’, with Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius, Birkbeck, 20 October 2025, 17:00-18:30 (GMT)

Please join Birkbeck for the first Murray Seminar of this academic year. Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius will share her research on ‘The artist’s new body, burle, and the praise of caricature in early modern Italy’.

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.

Lecture Series: British Archaeological Association Programme of Meetings 2025-2026

The British Archaeological Association holds regular monthly lectures on the first Wednesday of each month between October and May in the rooms of the Society of Antiquaries of London, Burlington House and online.

Murray Seminar: ‘African coastlines, the Manueline Style and Changing Perceptions of Nature’ with Scott Nethersole, Birkbeck, 10 June 2025, 5-6.30pm (BST)

Please join Birkbeck for the final Murray Seminar of this academic year with Scott Nethersole, ‘mai non vidi la più bella costa de quel che me parse questa: African coastlines, the Manueline style and changing perceptions of nature’.

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.