The Medieval Studies Research Group at the University of Lincoln would cordially like to invite you to attend our onlineAnnual Medieval Studies Lecture on 1 June 2022 at 6pm BST.
This year we are delighted to welcome as our speaker, Professor Amy G. Remensnyder from Brown University, an eminent international scholar of the medieval world, who will be showcasing her fascinating new research on the history of the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa between 1200 and 1700.
Lampedusa (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Title of talk: Escaping from Mediterranean Slavery: A Deserted Island and a Pirates’ Shrine
Abstract of talk: In the late medieval and early modern Mediterranean, enslaved people fleeing bondage created a maritime fugitive geography in which a tiny deserted deep-sea island lying between Mahdīya and Malta—Lampedusa—came to occupy an exceptional place. There, fugitives found succour at an unusual shrine shared by Muslims and Christians. It highlights the importance of the sea and uninhabited islands as a passage to freedom and also suggests that the Mediterranean system of slavery could engender compassion for its victims on the part of the violent men of the sea who were slavers—corsairs and pirates.
Biography of speaker: Amy G. Remensnyder is Professor of History at Brown University. In her first book, she focused on high medieval French monastic culture and collective memory. Her next book spanned the Atlantic, placing medieval Iberia in dialogue with colonial Mexico by exploring the Virgin Mary as a symbol of conquest and conversion. A practitioner of engaged scholarship, she is a co-editor of the volume Why the Middle Ages Matter: Medieval Light on Modern Injustice and is the founder and director of the Brown History Education Prison Project. She has held many research fellowships, including most recently at the American Academy in Berlin. Her current book project is a longue durée, maritime microhistory of Lampedusa, which brings together past and present to explore this Mediterranean island’s importance to mobile people now – migrants – and mobile people between 1200 and 1700: pirates and their victims.
How to attend: To register for the lecture, please click on this link. Attendees will receive an email detailing how to join two days before the event.
Join us in the virtual ‘zoo! Kalamazoo is one of the world’s great annual gatherings of medievalists. Since 2020, it has taken place in cyberspace rather than at Western Michigan University in the US city of Kalamazoo, Michigan. You can hear from members of Lincoln’s medieval studies community in the following sessions.
Western Michigan University Library 6-27-2009 109 N by Corvair Owner
On Monday, 9 May, at 11am EDT, Professor Amy Livingstone will be chairing session 31, Introducing Medieval People. The session features the following papers:
The Career of Daniel, Abbot of Saint Benet of Holm (Ethan George Birney, Spartanburg Methodist College)
Faith or Fashion? Family Commemoration in Elite Circles around Syon Abbey, ca. 1415–1539 (Virginia Rosalyn Bainbridge, Univ. of Exeter)
The Charity of the Poor: Almsgiving in Late Medieval Mainz (Lucy C. Barnhouse, Arkansas State Univ.)
Communal Policing, Familial Authority, and Preserving the Urban Peace in Late Medieval Flanders (Mireille Juliette Pardon, Berea College)
Medieval People (formerly known as Medieval Prosopography) is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to highlighting the experiences of unknown or obscure individuals or groups, as well as exploring the social networks that gave shape to the lives of all medieval people. It aims to reflect the new trends in scholarship and the ever-growing number of tools available to scholars, as well as the rich offerings of digital humanities projects that can assist scholars in developing a deeper and more inclusive understanding of the medieval world. For more information about the journal and to subscribe, visit their website.
Also, on Monday 9 May at 11am EDT, Dr Renée Ward has co-organised and will preside over a roundtable, session 41, The Green Knight (2021): Key Critical Perspectives, with speakers including Megan B. Abrahamson, Central New Mexico Community College; Rob Brown, Harvard Univ.; Annie T. Doucet, Univ. of Arkansas; Michael R. Evans, Delta College; Kevin J. Harty, La Salle Univ.; Chelsea Elizabeth Keane, Univ. of California–Riverside; Lauryn S. Mayer, Washington & Jefferson College; Emily Price, Graduate Center, CUNY; Sarah J. Sprouse, Univ. of Alabama; and Arwen Taylor, Arkansas Tech Univ. Don’t miss a great conversation about a fascinating medieval film!
And finally, on Wednesday, May 11, at 11am EDT, Dr Hope Williard will be a panellist in session 153, Beyond Manuscripts and Rare Books: Medievalist Librarians outside Special Collections Departments’, where she will talk about careers as a medievalist librarian with Allison M. McCormack, Univ. of Utah; and Julia A. Schneider, Univ. of Notre Dame. The session will be chaired by Anna Siebach-Larsen, Univ. of Rochester and is sponsored by the International Society of Medievalist Librarians.
And finally, there are a few papers specifically about medieval Lincoln or Lincolnshire, that might be of interest to our community.
On Thursday, May 12, at 3:00 p.m. EDT, Katja Elise Marek, Bangor Univ., will be talking about ‘Three’s a Crowd: Three Knights and a Charger on fol. 52v of Lincoln Cathedral MS 91’, in session 235, Fifteenth-Century Painting.
On Friday, May 13, at 3:00 p.m. EDT, Ryan Michael Prescott, Univ. of Hull will be talking about ‘Geopolitics and GIS: Lincolnshire and Yorkshire during the Reign of King Stephen,1135–1154’ in session 322, New Approaches to Medieval Archaeology.
Best wishes to everyone attending, speaking, and participating for a successful and enjoyable Kalamazoo!
This year’s Lincoln Pint of Science festival will feature two talks from members of the Medieval Studies Research Group.
The medieval and me: Remembering the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings
John Sandy-Hindmarsh
7pm, 10th May 2022
The Cardinal’s Hat, 268 High Street, Lincoln, LN2 1HW
Who were the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings? You may think you know the answer, you may not, or you may doubt the question is worth asking. In this talk, we will explore how asking these questions can raise surprisingly complex societal issues. We will consider how we as individuals and societies choose to remember the past, and how this impacts the way we perceive both the present and future. The aim is to demonstrate how asking the simple question of “Who were the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings?” requires us in turn to contend with the broader social issues of identity and citizenship.
To inspire and entertain, medieval Christians wrote, read, and told stories about the saints – holy people who had led exemplary lives. This talk will discuss what these stories can tell us about animals in medieval European culture, focusing particularly on three biographies from France and England in which mischievous birds play an important role. The talk will include a wonderful creative response from textile artist Polly Lancaster.
Pint of Science is an international festival designed to bring researchers and members of the public together to share discoveries and conversations in a friendly and informal setting–the local pub! To check out the full programme of events in Lincoln please visit the festival website: https://pintofscience.co.uk/events/lincoln
The Medieval Studies Research Group is delighted to announce that two students from the School of English and Journalism, Abigail Laycock and Elizabeth Egan, supervised by our own Dr Renee Ward and Mrs Claire Arrand, have been awarded the Dean’s Choice Award from the Dean of Lincoln Academy of Teaching and Learning (LALT), Dr Kate Strudwick, for their Undergraduate Research Opportunities Scheme (UROS) project, ‘Excavating the Archives: Making Lincoln Cathedral Library’s Middle English Manuscripts Accessible’. Over the summer, Lily and Abbie undertook research on the archive’s collection of manuscripts in or with Middle English texts and prepared materials (text and image) that will be housed on University Library’s Special Collections LibGuide as well as on the Lincoln Cathedral Library’s website, making the content available to both public and academic audiences. To read more about the project, please follow the link here. The award is a splendid achievement and reflects the University’s close relationship enjoyed by its staff and students with Lincoln Cathedral and its collections.
What happens when we focus our attention on people who aren’t named in our sources? This is the question that one of our undergraduate students has grappling with over the summer. Annabelle Mansell, a second-year Classical Studies student who had been successful in securing a bursary from the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Scheme (UROS), worked with Hope Williard and Jamie Wood on a project called ‘Invisible Agents: Networks of Learning in Late Antiquity’. Annabelle has written a blog post on the experience:
The aims of this project were to begin to understand how low-status, often unnamed individuals functioned within the broader educational network of Late Antiquity. We examined many of the letters of one well-connected teacher, Libanius, and transferred the key relationships discussed into an Excel spreadsheet, which allowed the creation of visual depictions of Libanius’ networks through graphs. With the information being presented in this digital, visual format, it is possible to do specific enquiries into Libanius’ networks. For example, one could see the centrality of an unnamed pedagogue (an enslaved person entrusted with overseeing the education of their master’s children) within a given family cluster by looking at a specific dossier of letters, or one could investigate the changing shapes of the network chronologically. The data being in this form allows for further investigations and a visual presentation of relationships which was not immediately available before. The graphs that have been generated already from the research begin to show how unnamed individuals’ centrality within a network can shift depending on the size of networks, and have begun to reveal more about the nature of the positions of and attitudes towards pedagogues. This project has started to lay the foundation for this area of enquiry, illustrating the value in transferring texts into data that can support visualisations.
This project presented unanticipated challenges. Learning how to operate Microsoft Excel and ConnectTheDots took more time than expected, and technical issues caused large losses of data on multiple occasions, which massively delayed progress. This had an impact on how targets were set and achieved, as I had to learn to create a flexible schedule which allowed for surprise setbacks. A second issue was the large quantity of data available to me throughout this project, making it difficult to complete analysis of all of the letters that I had initially planned.
My supervisors have been invaluable to me throughout this project. The wealth of experience and knowledge they possess (both regarding Late Antiquity and the procedures of research) have been a huge help, and without their guidance and support I could not have achieved as much as I did. Our meetings were always beneficial and encouraging, and even when I was struggling most I was flooded with support and further avenues to explore. It has been a privilege to work on this project together, and an invaluable introduction to collaborative research.
This experience has been a unique opportunity which has allowed me to explore areas I am interested in pursuing further, as well as introducing me to new ideas and burgeoning approaches to handling historical textual data. I have gained technical skills in digital literacy and network analysis tools such as ConnectTheDots. This experience will help with my future study as I have learnt how to extract important data from texts efficiently, and how to use more visual methods to analyse it. It has given me ideas for further possible related research and applications for this data, as we could use it to create maps and timelines, as well as more expansive graphs.
Here, Holly Shipton, a former University of Lincoln student, shares news of her recent funding success and reflects upon how her experience at Lincoln helped here:
‘Having completed my BA History and MA Medieval Studies at the University of Lincoln I knew the next step for me was to complete a PhD and continue with my academic career. I will begin my PhD at Queen’s University Belfast in October 2021, funded by the DfE research studentship. My doctoral thesis is entitled Landscape, Ecology, and Agriculture in Medieval Ireland: Management and Decision-making on the Manors of Roger Bigod, and will ultimately address questions concerning the issue of agricultural sustainability and ecological sensibility in late medieval Ireland, and will address key gaps in our understanding of manorial management, agricultural production, and English lordship in Ireland during this period.
Studying history at the University of Lincoln provided me with not only an incredible support base, but also a number of skills which set me apart from other students when applying for a PhD. Being able to learn Latin and palaeography in such a specialist environment enabled me to complete a research topic I would not have been able to had I not learnt those skills, as I was able to translate and transcribe thirteenth-century manorial accounts written predominantly in Latin. The range of modules available to me also helped me develop these skills within a number of historical contexts in which I was less familiar, expanding my breadth of knowledge of the medieval world – including topics such as the economic history of North-western Europe and the medieval cult of saints.
When deciding what I wanted to study for my independent project as an undergraduate, and then for my Dissertation at MA level, I knew I wanted to study a topic that was not related to the modules available at the University of Lincoln, but the wide range of medieval specialists meant I could find the perfect supervisor and thus find my own academic path. My MA dissertation won the Lincoln Record Society award for best MA Medieval dissertation 2020, and I was subsequently asked by the LRS to write a short piece about my research for their review – an incredibly opportunity I would not have been afforded had I not studied at Lincoln.
I am extremely grateful to all the lecturers and researchers I interacted with during my time at the University of Lincoln, but I am especially grateful to Dr Mark Gardiner who supervised and supported me through both my dissertations and helped me enormously, along with Dr Jamie Wood, in applying for my PhD and funding.’
Medieval Week 2021 provided much food for thought: lectures, podcasts, plays, and even a virtual exhibit. In ‘A Medieval Scribe in the Modern Day’, we explored contemporary manuscript illumination and its links to the medieval past through the art of Toni Watts, an illuminator based in Lincolnshire.
Do keep an eye out for Medieval Week 2022! In the meantime, we hope you will continue to enjoy the exhibit.
Following on from the success of our Medieval Week, the Medieval Studies Research Group of the University of Lincoln are delighted to invite you to our free Annual Medieval Studies Lecture on Thursday 3rd June 2021 at 6pm (on Zoom).
This year, our speaker will be Professor Miri Rubin of Queen Mary, University of London, a leading writer, broadcaster, and medieval historian who works on religious cultures and identities in the Middle Ages. She is the highly acclaimed author of several important books, including: Mother of God. A History of the Virgin Mary (London, 2009); Thomas of Monmouth, The Life and Passion of William of Norwich, trans. with an introduction by Miri Rubin (London, 2014); and Cities of Strangers: Making Lives in Medieval Europe (Cambridge, 2020).
The title of her talk will be – ‘Who were the Strangers of Medieval Cities?’
Abstract (in the words of Prof. Rubin): The title of my recent book Cities of Strangers (2020) prompts me to reflect with you more explicitly on the category ‘stranger’. Current research is showing just how diverse medieval cities were, but also how constitutive of urban flourishing this diversity was. It is appropriate therefore to consider how the differences between groups were managed and understood. Was it safe to be a stranger? How made it a beneficial state of living? How did strangerhood relate to ideas about identity? How did all this change over time?
Please come along to our virtual Lincoln History Lecture, co-hosted by the Medieval Studies Research Group of the University of Lincoln and the Lincoln Record Society.
It will take place on Wednesday 21 April 2021 at 6:00pm-7:30pm.
Lecture Title: ‘The Voice of the People? Petitions from Lincolnshire’.
Speaker: Dr. Alison McHardy
People from across England petitioned the king in parliament, council and the royal chancery in the later Middle Ages, seeking favours and redress for grievances. In this talk, Dr Alison McHardy examines the petitions that originated in Lincolnshire between 1200 and 1500, and which formed the subject for her recent book for the Lincoln Record Society that she edited jointly with Dr Gwillam Dodd in 2020. The Lincolnshire petitions contain a wealth of information about men and women at all levels of society. They are particularly valuable for looking at women, since they show that women of different ranks and backgrounds (including widows, wives and nuns) were able to use petitions to right wrongs which they had suffered, whether at the hands of the crown or others. In addition to this, the
Lincolnshire petitions offer fascinating insights into matters that resonate with today’s environmental and social concerns, including famine (climate cooling), plague and racism. Finally, Dr McHardy’s talk provides a timely warning that we should approach these petitions with a healthy degree of scepticism, as some expressions were routine legal common form, and not every allegation may have been entirely true.
Brief Biography:
Dr Alison McHardy is a leading expert on the history of the diocese of Lincoln in the later Middle Ages, and is a Trustee and member of Council for the LRS. She worked at the universities of London (Royal Holloway College) and Aberdeen and, in the years before her retirement, was Reader in Medieval English History at Nottingham. She published her first article about Lincoln’s diocese in 1972, and numerous books and editions of records have followed. These include: The Church in London 1375-1392 (London Record Society, 13, 1977), Clerical Poll-Taxes of the Diocese of Lincoln 1377-1381 (Lincoln Record Society, 81), Royal Writs Addressed to John Buckingham Bishop of Lincoln, 1363-1398 (Lincoln Record Society, 86), Petitions to the Crown from English Religious Houses, c. 1272-c.1485, with Gwilym Dodd (Canterbury and York Society, 2010), The Reign of Richard II: From Minority to Tyranny 1377-97 (Manchester Medieval
Sources, 2012), Proctors for Parliament: Clergy, Community and Politics c. 1248-1539, with Phil Bradford, 2 vols. (C&S, 107, 108, 2017, 2018).
In early October I had the opportunity to take Lincoln cathedral’s ‘Guided Rooftop Tour.’ Due to COVID restrictions, there was only a 3-week window when the tours were reopened before unfortunately the national guidance changed and the tours ceased. If, like me, you are fascinated with the history and architecture of cathedrals, then I strongly recommend signing up for one of these tours when they reopen. You get a full 90 minutes of behind the scenes access. Pictures are allowed to be taken on the tour, so I thought I would share some of my journey with those who might have interest.
The southwest chapel, Lincoln cathedral.
The tour began in the southwest chapel (Ringers’ Chapel), dedicated to the cathedral’s bell ringers where the names of the lead ringers are written on the walls above the altar. Thirteenth-century equilateral arcading and a colourfully decorated vaulted ceiling make even this first stop an enjoyable one.
A medieval stairwell in Lincoln cathedral.
My apologies for the poor quality of this image (above), but I wanted to show how narrow and tight the steps can be. This section of the cathedral retains much of its Norman feel, and the stairwells are similar to those in the White Tower in London. They go in a tight circle, so sturdy footwear and care in walking are a must.
Examples of semi-circular arches above the southwest chapel in Lincoln cathedral.
Above the southwest chapel are some excellent examples of Norman architecture, such as these semi-circular arches. These would have been on the ‘outside’ of the southwestern tower facing south prior to expansion. Unlike the western front of the cathedral, these stones have been removed from the outdoor elements since the mid-thirteenth century and have not discoloured.
Masons’ marks on stones in Lincoln cathedral.
On the next floor up there are some excellent remnants of the cathedral’s challenging past. These stones along the stairwell have turned red from the exposure to fire, possibly the one in 1141 that coincided with King Stephen’s siege of the castle, according to Jonathan Foyle. The ‘X’ marks were from masons inspecting the integrity of the stone, where those that were comprised by the heat of the fire were removed and replaced, as you can see in the two at the bottom of this image (above).
Examples of eleventh-century architecture in Lincoln cathedral.
The eleventh-century architecture is evident everywhere as you make your way up the western front of the cathedral, including here in the corner of the tower with a brightly lit western window and a closed off southern facing one. The metal bar is one of many that help ensure the stabilisation of the oldest part of the building. Earthquakes have been a historical problem for the cathedral, and these measures are intended to provide the building with an ability to ‘wobble’ slightly to prevent damage in the case of another earthquake.
The room that sits above the main western entrance is just below the roof between the two towers. Visitors can see a large model of the cathedral encased here that gives an excellent representation of the cathedral from 1311 to 1548, where the spire of its central tower made it the tallest building in the world at 160m.
An example of Norman architecture in Lincoln cathedral.
The room between the two towers also contains evidence of Norman architecture, long hidden from the public and the elements outdoors since expansion. This side faces inwards towards the other tower. It received the same level of detail as the western facing ones the public can see today from the ground. Through the window (turned door) you can see the bell ringers’ room with the cords descending from the ceiling. Due to the weight and counter-pull from the bells, ringing requires training and careful execution as it can be a dangerous task!
The roof between the towers that runs from the western front of the building back to the central tower.
This (above) is the roof between the towers that runs from the western front of the building back to the central tower. Our guide said that, while they replace wood that shows significant wear or strain, many of these beams are over 700 years old and most were made from the strong oaks in Sherwood Forest.
The vaulted ceiling and window bays of the nave of Lincoln cathedral from above.
Here (above) you can see the vaulted ceiling and window bays of the nave below.
Lincoln castle from the cathedral roof.
The tour also takes you outside to see both the southern and western views from atop the cathedral. The view from the western rooftop (above) provides a picturesque look at Lincoln castle. It is plausible that King Stephen himself came up here to assess the progress of his siege in 1141 (and perhaps even to see his cousin, Robert of Gloucester, arriving with an army to attack him from the plains beyond the castle).
The detail of the Norman stonework of Lincoln cathedral.
The western rooftop provides an opportunity to see the detail of the Norman stonework that cannot be appreciated from the ground level below with the naked eye. Here (above) the stark contrast between different time periods of the tower’s ride upwards can be seen, with differences of stone use and architecture just above the higher row of arcading.
The nave of Lincoln cathedral, seen from the roof.
There is a breath-taking view of the nave as the tour heads down from the rooftops and crosses between the towers. Walking along the triforium provides some beautiful views of the nave below, but attention must be given to the beams that often cross the walkway. Since I am vertically challenged, this was easier for me to navigate, but taller individuals should pay extra care on this part of the tour.
A stained glass window in the north transept of Lincoln cathedral.
The tour also provides an opportunity to see some beautiful stained glass in the north transept that cannot be seen by the public below (above). The tour then concludes after winding its way down the steps in the corner of the transept. I took plenty of more pictures but tried to limit what I have shared here to provide an overview of what a guest would see on this tour. When the tours open up again, I will be first in line for another opportunity to take it all in for a second time. I firmly believe this is the best value of anything I have experienced here in the UK, and I am sure that any historian or architecture enthusiast would find this tour an invaluable part of the Lincoln experience.
