Hybrid conference: ‘Connecting stucco in the Mediterranean (c. 300 BCE – 1200 CE) Methodological approaches and the state of research’, 16-18th May 2024, Ankara

16-18 May 2024, Bilkent University and Erimtan Museum, Ankara (Türkiye) and Zoom.

The use of plaster reliefs (stuccoes) as architectural decoration is a well-known phenomenon in the Mediterranean. Recent decades have witnessed a renewed interest in stucco, but it has been mainly done within the boundaries of specific disciplines and chronological specialisations. While this allowed scholars to recognise the relationship of stucco with specific architectural traditions and technologies, it did not allow to spot long-term trends and cross-cultural interactions. This is due to the lack of coordination of scholarship on the study of stucco, which appears to develop at different speeds and aim at different goals depending on the field of study.

The conference connects experts in the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic periods up to ca 1200 CE to address common questions that can help to see long-term phenomena and cross-cultural exchanges in the Mediterranean.

For more info and for Zoom registration: https://connectingstucco.com/ and connectingstucco@gmail.com

Conference programme

Thursday, 16th May – Bilkent University Campus C-Amphi Block

8:30-9:00 Registration and tea/coffee

9:00-9:10 Opening remarks by Dominique Kassab Tezgör (Chair, Department of Archaeology) and Simon Wigley (Dean, Faculty of Humanities)

9:10-10:00 Opening lecture:

  • The “Byzantine” Mediterranean in transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages (ca. 500-ca.900), Luca Zavagno (Bilkent University).

10:00-10:20 Tea and coffee break

10:20-11:20 Keynote lecture:

  • Looking Forwards, Looking Back: The state of the field of Medieval Stucco Studies in the Wider Mediterranean region, Richard McClary (University of York).

11:30-12:30 Session 1: Use and perception of stucco from the Roman to the Late Antique period

Chair: Dominique Kassab Tezgör (Bilkent University)

  • Stuccowork in the Herodian Palaces – A Roman influence in first-century BCE Middle East?, Lena Naama Sharabi (Hebrew University, Jerusalem).
  • Decorated stucco moulded cornices and faux-marble columns from Dura Europos (3rd cent. CE): ideological choice or practical necessity?, Barbara Crostini (Uppsala University).

12:30-14:00 Lunch 

14:00-15:30 Session 2: Stucco in the Late Antique built spaces

Chair: Roland Smith (Bilkent University)

  • When Change is a Relief: Stucco surfaces and aesthetic values in Late Antiquity, Jessica Plant (University of Cambridge).
  • On a group of standing saints in stucco or the perception of “γυψοπλασίας“ in Late Antiquity, Stefanie Archut (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn).
  • The virtual reconstruction of the Umayyad period revetments from Khirbat al Mafjar, Ignacio Arce (German Jordanian University).

15:30-15:45 Tea and coffee break

15:45-17:15 Session 3: Technical aspects in the Early Middle Ages: East and West

Chair: tbc

  • Stucco techniques in Lombard and Carolingian Architecture: insights from the “Tempietto Longobardo” in Cividale, the Church of St. Benedict in Mals, and the Monastery of St. John in Müstair, Luca Villa and Patrick Cassitti (Stiftung Pro Kloster St. Johann).
  • Early Islamic Prefabricated Stuccowork, Andrea Luigi Corsi (University of York).
  • Byzantine stucco recipes in the Mediterranean context (10th -11th c.)- first data from archaeometrical analyses, Flavia Vanni and Eirini Tsardaka (Newcastle University – Ormylia Art & Diagnosys Center).

20:00 Speakers’ Dinner

Friday, 17th May – Erimtan Museum, Ankara

9:00-9:10 Welcome speech by Nazan Gezer (Director of the Erimtan Museum)

9:15-10:15 Session 4: Between the Sassanian and Islamic stucco production (1)

Chair: Prof. Lutgarde Vandeput (Director of BIAA)

  • Stucco productions from Gawr Tepe (KRI, Iraq). Preliminary results of a MiSAK-eartHeritage multidisciplinary and comparative study, Luca Colliva and Serenella Mancini (MiSAK – Alma Mater Studiorum-Università di Bologna).
  • The production process of traditional Gypsum in Iranian architecture. Case study: Takht-e Soleyman world heritage site, Mozaffar Abbaszadeh and Mohammad Jafarpanah (Urmia University – Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran).

10:15-10:30 Tea and coffee break

10:30-12:00 Session 5: Between the Sassanian and Islamic stucco production (2)

Chair: tbc.

  • The Ghassanid and Umayyad stucco revetments from Qasr al Hallabat, Ignacio Arce (German Jordanian University).
  • East versus West: the origins of the Umayyad style in the art of stucco, Siyana Georgieva (UniToscana).
  • Beyond borders: exploring the dispersed stucco treasures of Kharg Island, Hassan Moradi (National Museum of Iran, Teheran).

12:10-13:40 Session 6: Methodological aspects

Chair: Pelin Yoncanci (METU)

  • Exploring the aesthetic harmony: Islamic stucco patterns and calligraphy in Architectural Design, Engy Farrag (Delta University).
  • Methodological approach to characterize two stucco collections from Iran in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Atefeh Shekofteh and Federico Caro (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).
  • Some remarks and recommendations for examination of Mediterranean stuccoes based on research of Medieval Persian carved stuccos, tiles and wall paintings, Ana Marija Grbanovic (Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg).

13:40-14:30 Lunch

14:30-15:30 Session 7: People, materials, and images on the move from the Persian Gulf to Egypt (1)

Chair: Alessandro Carabia (University of Birmingham)

  • Stucco workshops in the Early Islamic Bilad al-Sham and the Arabian/Persian Gulf. The problem of artistic patronage, Agnieszka Lic (Polish Academy of Sciences).
  • Tracing decorative dialogues: cultural exchange and artistic assimilation in stucco and brickwork between the Iranian world and Armenian region in 11th-13th centuries, Miriam Leonetti (Università di Firenze).

15:30-15:45 Tea and coffee break.

15:45-16:45 Session 8: People, materials, and images on the move from the Persian Gulf to Egypt (2)

Chair: tbc

  • The long-distance mobility of Iranian stucco craftsmanship in Cairo, Leila Danesh (University of York).
  • How Mamluk stucco decorations inspired Revival architects during the 19th -20th Century AD?, Menna Naguib (Alexandria University).

18:30 Reception hosted at the British Institute at Ankara (BIAA). 

Saturday 18th May – Bilkent University Campus C-Amphi Block

9:00-9:30 Roundtables

9:35-10:10 Plenary discussion

10:15-10:30 Closure remarks by Luca Zavagno, Flavia Vanni and Agnieszka Lic.

Afternoon: Visit to Ankara’s Castle and goodbyes

New Publication: ‘Illuminating the Vitae patrum: The Lives of Desert Saints in Fourteenth-Century Italy’, by Denva Gallant

During the fourteenth century in Western Europe, there was a growing interest in imitating the practices of a group of hermits known as the Desert Fathers and Mothers. Laypeople and religious alike learned about their rituals not only through readings from the Vitae patrum (Lives of the Desert Fathers) and sermons but also through the images that brought their stories to life.

In this volume, Denva Gallant examines the Morgan Library’s richly illustrated manuscript of the Vitae patrum (MS M.626), whose extraordinary artworks witness the rise of the eremitic ideal and its impact on the visual culture of late medieval Italy. Drawing upon scholarship on the history of psychology, eastern monasticism, gender, and hagiography, Gallant deepens our understanding of the centrality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers to late medieval piety. She provides important insights into the role of images in making the practices of the desert saints both compelling and accessible to fourteenth-century city dwellers, who were just beginning to cultivate the habit of private devotion on a wide scale.

By focusing on the most extensively illuminated manuscript of the Vitae patrum to emerge during the trecento, this book sheds new light on the ways in which images communicated and reinforced modes of piety. It will be of interest to art historians, religious historians, and students focusing on this period in Italian history.

Denva Gallant is an Assistant Professor of Art History at Rice University.Find out more about this book over on the Pennsylvania State University Press website.

Call for Submissions: ‘Making for an uncertain future: material ecocritical approaches around the year 1000’ (special issue of Medieval Ecocriticisms), deadline 10 June 2024

This issue of Medieval Ecocriticisms looks at the abundant superfluity (or excess) of the long millennial moment, positioning it in dialogue with the anticipated end of the world in 1000, both anticipatory and hereditary, with all of its forecast systemic, ecological and eschatological collapse. In suggesting this, and in looking at this material through the lens of crisis, time and environment, we find ideas of what it might mean to live in the long end times of a/the ecological long durée of an uncertain future. We invite thoughts around how medieval millennial material, its art and literature might foreshadow the Anthropocene, particularly given how it might, in some way, be responding to the climactic non-apocalypse of 1000 that was forecast, but not realised.

Although there has been some scholarly discomfort around using the past as a tool for discussing later times and paradigms, this issue suggests that the past can be employed as a resource for other ways of thinking about the present and perhaps also the future. Thus, the eschatologically charged period that immediately anticipated the millennium, and the uncertain apotropaism and socio-temporal ‘renaissance’ of the Romanesque, together with their sculpted objects that perform as nodes responding to a network of anticipated crisis, might provide us, as eco-critically thoughtful and materially engaged medievalists, and as a society more broadly, with a critical parallel for thinking about current ecological events.

We ask contributors to think about the ways in which medieval millennial material may:

  • Connect or disrupt the medieval and the ‘modern’
  • Respond to the here and now, there and then, elsewhere and other-when
  • Consist of both deep time and deep history
  • React to or disrupt momentary or epochal thinking
  • Respond to crisis or an anticipated event that failed to happen or is still unfolding
  • Ask where and how we live
  • Think about place, environment, and ecology
  • Frame relationships between the human and non-human

Papers around 6000 words are sought. Please submit an abstract (300 word maximum) and cv to Meg Boulton (meg.boulton@york.ac.uk) and Meg Bernstein (bernsteinm@alfred.edu).

Call for Participation: ‘Medieval Art History Tomorrow’ (ICMS, Kalamazoo, 2024), 11 May 2024

59th International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo, MI), 2024
Western Michigan University
Saturday, May 11, 10:00-11:30am
Sangren Hall 1730 [Session 344]

Organized by Ben Tilghman, Eliza Garrison, and Nina Rowe and Sponsored by Different Visions

Which theoretical approaches can best move the field of medieval art history into the future? Which objects or sites are well-suited to analysis energized by current priorities for the discipline? How can we work collectively and systematically to pursue research that realizes anti-racist principles and provides colleagues and students with tools for analyzing social inequity and environmental degradation?

“Medieval Art History Tomorrow” will be a whiteboard session in which Workshop Leaders will offer short presentations on a critical text and an object or site, making the case for how these materials can steer the field, and move it forward. Attendees of the session will be part of a workshop through which we aim to ignite a dynamic discussion and confirm a plan for linked projects to be pursued over the coming years. At the ICMS 2025, participants will reconvene to share findings and refine the projects’ goals. At the ICMS 2026, participants will deliver polished papers presenting the research kindled by our discussions and consider next steps.

Come join the conversation!Find out more on Different Visions.

Pre-registration and Preparation for the Workshop are encouraged but not required.

If you plan to attend, please register by sending an email to: medievalarthistorytomorrow@gmail.com, giving your name, student or professional status, and general field/s of scholarship.

Course: ‘Fresco-Hunting’ Photo Research Expedition to Medieval Balkan Churches, Application deadline: 25 April 2024

25 May – 08 June 2024

The “Fresco-Hunting” Photo Research Expedition to Medieval Balkan Churches provides a unique opportunity for students and volunteers to take part in an expedition to document abandoned medieval churches/chapels and their frescos in western Bulgaria, and to visit many other Christian Orthodox churches, monasteries, museums and archaeological sites in Sofia and western Bulgaria. The expedition and the field school are coordinated by the Balkan Heritage Foundation (BHF).

Participants receive training in survey management, digital photography, surveys of architecture and iconographic program, technical drawing, use of dumpy level, developing archives of digital images etc., introduction to Byzantine art,  architecture and religious iconography as well as photogrammetry, Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) and other photographic techniques for documentation of cultural heritage.

The field school is designed for students and young specialists in heritage, archaeology and conservation as well as artists, but we also welcome anyone interested in:   

  • medieval civilization in Southeastern Europe (especially Byzantine and Christian Orthodox architecture, arts and iconography during the late medieval period: 13th to 17th centuries)   
  • digital photography   
  • documentation of ecclesiastic architecture and frescos   
  • cultural heritage preservation   
  • travel to significant heritage sites in western Bulgaria. 

BHF partners in this project:    

Find out more on the Balkan Heritage Foundation website.

Job resources: Careers for Medievalists?

The ‘Careers for Medievalists?’ event, sponsored by the British Archaeological Association at the Courtauld Institute of Art, offered insights into the diverse career paths available for those with a background in medieval studies. This informative session featured discussions on fields such as heritage and conservation, curating, the art market, tour guiding, freelancing, university roles, archives, libraries, publishing, and editing. Speakers from academia, museums, and the art market shared valuable advice for recent graduates and job seekers.

Couldn’t make the event? Watch it below:

Useful websites highlighted during the event include:

Teaching:

Publishing:

Curating/Museums/Dealers:

Heritage Management:

Archives:

Paid Internships:

Groups:

For more information on the event, visit the Courtauld Website.

Conference: Illuminated Cuttings im Germanischen Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg, 29-30 April 2024

Find out more on the Institut für Kunstgeschichte website.

Among the holdings of the Cabinet of Prints of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum (GNM) in Nuremberg is a major collection of illuminated cuttings, consisting of pages, initials, and ornamental borders, excised from German, Bohemian, Flemish, French, and Italian manuscripts from the 9th to 16th century. Their status changed in both time and space from Middle to Modern Age: they went from being part of a book to being cut out and collected as Curiosities, then becoming ‘Monuments’ of lost primitive Art, or models in the wake of the Art & Crafts Movement, of the new reproduction technologies and academic disciplines.

29 April: The symposium will bring together an international team of scholars and curators: session I and session II will offer an insight into the fragments at the GNM, exploring their history, style, the relationship with Monumental Arts, and different topics related to their material production; session III will be devoted to on-going Projects of Cataloguing collections of German Miniatures, discussing cataloguing perspectives in connection with international databases.

30 April: During the morning, the conference attendees will have the opportunity to examine the miniatures in the Studiensaal of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. Special emphasis will be placed on the Illuminated fragments presented by the scholars the previous day, further encouraging discussion about their style and provenances.

Organization and contact:
Dr. Beatrice Alai (beatrice.alai@fau.de)

Conference Programme

29 April 2024 | Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Konferenzraum, Kornmarkt 1, Nuremberg

9.00–9.10:  Welcome

9.10–9.20: Introduction: Hans von und zu Aufsess and the Birth of the Kupferstichkabinett, Germanisches Nationalmuseum.
Christian Rümelin (Kupferstichkabinett, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg)

SESSION 1: Working with Italian, Flemish, and Bohemian Illuminated Cuttings at the GNM

Chair: Francesca Manzari (Sapienza Università di Roma)

9.20–9.40: Some observations on the „Bohemian“ fragments of the GNM in Nuremberg. Maria Theisen (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Institut für Mittelalterforschung / Abt. Schrift- und Buchwesen)

9.40–10.00: Discovering the Italian Fragments Collection at the GNM. Beatrice Alai (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg)

10.00–10.20: Scattered Leaves: The Hastière Bible as a case-study. Peter Kidd (Peter Selley Fellow, Bodleian Library, Oxford)

10.20–10.50: Discussion +  Coffee break

SESSION 2: Working with German Cuttings at the GNM

Chair: Christine Beier (Universität Wien)

10.50–11.10: Alte und neue Bekannte: Wiedersehen mit Fragmenten des Spätmittelalters aus Mitteleuropa im Germanischen Nationalmuseums in Nürnberg. Regina Cermann (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Institut für Mittelalterforschung / Abt. Schrift- und Buchwesen)

11.10–11.30: Little-known Cuttings at the GNM and Their Siblings: New Insights into Manuscript Illumination at the Turn of the 16th Century from the Rhenish Lowlands. James Marrow (Professor Emeritus, Princeton University)

11.30–11.50: The Birth of God in the Soul in Newly Discovered Devotional Drawings from St. Walburg in Eichstätt. Jeffrey Hamburger (Harvard University, Cambridge, MA)

11.50–13.40: Discussion + Light Lunch Break

SESSION 3: Cataloguing collections of German Miniatures: on-going Projects in Germany, and international experiences

Chair: Martin Roland (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Institut für Mittelalterforschung / Abt. Schrift- und Buchwesen)

13.40–14.00: The collection of manuscript fragments and cuttings of the „Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum“ in Leipzig – Workshop report: results and open questions. Matthias Eifler (Universitätsbibliothek, Leipzig)

14.00–14.20: Making manuscript fragments in museum collections online accessible: Web portals for the presentation of the European manuscript heritage. Christoph Mackert (Universitätsbibliothek, Leipzig)

14.20–14.40: Fragmentarium und das GNM. Die Möglichkeiten der digitalen Katalogisierung. Marina Bernasconi Reusser (Fragmentarium)

14.40–15.00: Display Scripts and how to Describe them. Christine Jakobi-Mirwald (Independent Scholar)

15.00–15.20: Framing the gaze: some thoughts on Illuminated manuscript cuttings in a museum context. Catherine Yvard (V&A Museum)

15.20–16.30: Discussion + Coffee break

Keynote lecture:

16.30–17.30: Painting and Illumination in Nürnberg in the time of Albrecht Dürer’s artistic formation. The activity of Hans Traut as illuminator in the light of five recently rediscovered fragments from a broken – up missal. Gaudenz Freuler (Universität Zürich)

30 April 2024 | Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Studiensaal, Kornmarkt 1, Nuremberg

9.30–11.30: Round-table discussion with the miniatures in the Studiensaal (with Christian Rümelin)

12.00: Conclusion

New publication: ‘Giants in the Medieval City’, by Assaf Pinkus

With the participation of Noeit Williger Aviam, Orly Amit and Michal Ozeri

ISBN 978-2-503-60768-9

Find out more about this book on the Brepols website.

The visual landscape north of the Alps between the 14th and 16th centuries was shaped by colossal representations of epic and mythological giants, reincarnated and cast as Christian heroes. In contexts religious or lay, private or public, giants dominated urban spaces but also rural ones. They were painted on church facades and stood tall as sculptures in town squares. Rather than portraying specific characters from particular texts, the figures embodied the notion of “the gigantic” as it appeared in contemporary writings: superhuman creatures from foreign lands and liminal geographies, often associated with supernatural powers, magic, hypermasculinity, and,  concomitantly, matriarchy. Since the naming and identity of these giants do not always correlate–thus destabilizing the images’ semiotics–the gap could be filled by fabricated memories of the ancient world. Hence, imagery of giants bridged mythological, biblical, and contemporary times, while producing novel political metaphors. This book explores the role and function of the vision and the experience of the gigantic. Executed “out of scale” and communicating ideas about excess, giants were experienced as physically and ethically abject and, at the same time, as magnificent, apotropaic, and redemptive; as such they came to embody the very notion of the medieval sublime.

Assaf Pinkus is Professor of Art History at Tel Aviv University and Professor Honorarium at the University of Vienna. His diverse studies engage with Gothic art and late medieval culture; workshop practices and economic models; patronage, narrative and spectatorship; nonreligious experience and response; imagination and somaesthetics; violence imagery; and, most recently, the global history of giants. He is a recipient of ISF, Minerva, GIF, and Gerda Henkel research grants and several international prizes.

Table of Contents

  • Introduction: Toward a Global Genealogy of Giants (Assaf Pinkus)
  • Chapter 1: Being a Giant: Geographies and Temporalities (Assaf Pinkus)
  • Chapter 2: Out of Scale: Experiencing the Gigantic (Assaf Pinkus)
  • Chapter 3: A Giant in the City: The Protective Roland (Assaf Pinkus)
  • Chapter 4: Chaos and Order in the Cities: Roland and his Companions (Assaf Pinkus and Noeit Williger Aviam)
  • Chapter 5: Giants of London (Orly Amit)
  • Chapter 6: The Gigantic as the Late Medieval Sublime: St. Christopher in the Alps (Michal Ozeri)
  • Epilogue: More Good then Evil (Assaf Pinkus)
  • Notes – Bibliography – Index

Exhibition: ‘Wonderful Treasure of Oignies: 13th century sparks of brilliance’, Musée de Cluny, Paris, from 19 March to 20 October 2024

The Treasure of Oignies, recognised since 1978 as one of the Seven Wonders of Belgium, is leaving its home country almost in its entirety for the first time. From 19 March to 20 October 2024, the Musée de Cluny – musée national du Moyen Âge is presenting these pieces of gold and silversmithery in an exhibition entirely dedicated to them: “The Wonderful Treasure of Oignies: 13th Century Sparks of Brilliance”. 

Among the items in the treasure, usually exhibited at the Musée des Arts anciens du Namurois in Namur, the thirty-or-so that can travel will be on display at the Musée de Cluny. These include pieces of gold and silverware, mainly reliquaries, and a selection of textiles. The display brings together major works such as the Reliquary of the Virgin’s Milk, Reliquary of the rib of Saint Peter, bookbinding plates of the Oignies evangeliary or the chalice and paten said to have belonged to Gilles de Walcourt. The exhibition looks back at the history of the priory of St Nicolas of Oignies, a community of Augustine canons founded at the end of the 12th century, around three central figures: Marie d’Oignies (1177-1213), Jacques de Vitry (1185-1240) and the talented gold and silversmith Hugues de Walcourt, known as Hugo d’Oignies († circa 1240). His creations and those of his workshop, recognisable by the abundance of niello, filigree, naturalistic and hunting motifs, are a masterful example of precious metalwork. 

A few years after the priory was founded, the mystic Marie d’Oignies settled there. Several pieces in the exhibition tell the story of the woman who was beatified shortly after her death and who is still venerated today. At the same time, Jacques de Vitry, an illustrious preacher and, for a time, bishop of Acre in the Holy Land, became the priory’s principal patron and provided it with relics and valuable materials. His support enabled the priory to become a key centre for the creation of gold and silver objects. The exhibition shows the constant evolution of Hugo d’Oignies’ craft, followed by that of his workshop. 

This is the first time that this prestigious treasure, many pieces of which were added to the list of items classified as the “Treasury of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation” in 2010, will leave Belgium almost in its entirety, 100 years after a partial presentation of three pieces at the Musée du Louvre in 1924. 

Interactive terminals will also make it possible to take the visitor experience further, by looking back on the life of Jacques de Vitry or seeing the bookbinding plates of Hugo d’Oignies’ in minute detail. 

The exhibition “The Wonderful Treasure of Oignies: 13th Century Sparks of Brilliance” is presented at the Musée de Cluny in the current events room. The curators are Christine Descatoire, Chief Curator at the Musée de Cluny, responsible for the gold and silversmithery collection, and Julien De Vos, Chief Curator, Director of the Cultural Heritage Department of the Province of Namur. It is organised with the support of the King Baudouin Foundation, which owns the Treasure of Oignies.

Find out more about the exhibition over on the Musée de Cluny website.

Second Phylactère De Saint André, Hugo d’Oignies et atelier, Vers 1230 – 1235, Bois, métal (non précisé), or, cristal de roche, argent, pierreries; 21 cm ø; Don des Sœurs de Notre-Dame de Namur; TreM.a (Musée des Arts anciens du Namurois-Trésor d’Oignies); N° inv. TO 11

Call for Submissions: ‘Storytelling and the Middle Ages’, deadline 1 May 2024

Trivent Publishing, H-1119 Budapest, Etele u. 59-61
Imprint: Trivent Medieval

ABOUT THE SERIES

This series examines the cultural practice of storytelling in and about the Middle Ages. It aims at advancing our understanding of the art and practice of storytelling in the global Middle Ages in different languages and media. It places particular emphasis on the combination of narration and performance, and it extends its scope to include contemporary storytelling of medieval stories and themes. Moreover, the series invites contributions researching the stories we tell today about the Middle Ages, and so welcomes perspectives on medievalism and the ways our narratives about our cultural past connect with historical reality.

The series welcomes a global perspective and a comparative point of view.

We invite proposals for monographs, edited collections and conference proceedings on all subjects related to storytelling in and about the Middle Ages. Topics include but are not limited to: 

  • history, tradition and practice of storytelling in the Middle Ages
  • medieval storytellers, their media and methods
  • transmission and reception of medieval stories
  • medieval stories and contemporary audiences
  • stories about the Middle Ages in contemporary narrative media, including games and gaming
  • telling stories and telling histories
  • storytelling and teaching the Middle Ages. 


The series will consider proposals from established scholars, as well as early career scholars and storytelling practitioners. All suitable submissions will undergo a double blind peer review process.

Abstracts of c. 250 words, a provisional title, and a short bio should be sent to Dr. Kleio Pethainou by May 1st, 2024. 

Find out more here.

SERIES EDITOR

Kleio Pethainou, University of Edinburgh, Kleio.Pethainou@ed.ac.uk