Great news from the British Library, they have announced the recent upload of Christine de Pizan’s Book of the Queen (Harley MS 4431) to their Digitised Manuscripts site.

Christine de Pizan is widely regarded as one of Europe’s earliest female professional authors. The largest extant collection of her writing can be found in Harley MS 4431.

The British Library has plans to exhibit the Book of the Queen in the Sir John Ritblat Treasures Gallery.

Full details about this announcement can be found at the British Library’s Medieval manuscripts blog: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2013/06/christine-de-pizan-and-the-book-of-the-queen.html

Medieval Memoria Online (MeMO) has recently launched an extensive database containing images, inscriptions, epitaphs, altarpieces, tomb monuments, stained glass, and archival sources.

This valuable resource is the result of a multi-year project headed by art historian Truus van Bueren at the University of Utrecht. The research team has catalogued material for the area corresponding to what is today the Netherlands for the time up to 1580.

You can access it at: http://memo.hum.uu.nl/database/index.html

Manchester University Press is proud to announce the launch of the new Manchester Medieval Sources Online (www.medievalsources.co.uk). The new platform developed with and hosted by our technology partners Metapress, incorporates the following new features:

• Content available via a re-designed and fully searchable online platform
• COUNTER compliant usage statistics
• CROSSREF compliant content
• RSS feeds and regular new content updates
• Available for outright purchase or as a subscription

The new platform also boasts a wealth of new content including:

The world of El Cid: chronicles of the Spanish reconquest • Ottonian Germany: The chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg • The lives of Thomas Becket • The English manor c.1200-c.1500 • Popular protest in late-medieval Europe: Italy, France and Flanders • Joan of Arc: La pucelle • Saints and cities in medieval Italy • Eleventh-century Germany: The Swabian Chronicles • History and politics in late Carolingian and Ottonian Europe: The Chronicle of Regino of Prüm and Adalbert of Magdeburg • Crime, law and society in the later • Middle Ages • Monasticism in late-medieval England, c.1300-1535 • Friars’ tales: Sermon Exempla from the British Isles • The Papal reform of the eleventh century: Lives of Pope Leo IX and Pope Gregory VII

Manchester Medieval Sources Online is available to institutions as a one off purchase or as annual subscription. For further information on costs please contact Simon Bell, Director of Sales & Marketing (simon.bell@manchester.ac.uk).

Editor’s note: ANZAMEMS members, please note the link to access your free trial of Manchester Medieval Sources Online will be posted on our internal mailing list. Please contact Dr Marina Gerzic if you have not received this email and she shall send you the link to the free trial. Many thanks to Simon Bell at Manchester University Press for organising this free trial for our members!

Of interest to our members, a fascinating article on a new software program allows dating of medieval manuscripts from popular words.

Researchers at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Medieval Studies and the Documents of Early England Data Set (DEEDS) Project have developed software that can carefully and reliably determine the dates of medieval British documents based on the appearance of popular words or phrases.

To read about the project: http://www.medievalists.net/2013/04/02/new-software-program-allows-dating-of-medieval-manuscript-from-popular-words

WA Medieval Alliance Annual Fayre 2013
Supreme Court Gardens (Cnr Barrack Street & Riverside Drive,Perth)
March 16
10:00am-9:30pm

A huge range of Medieval-type activities will be on show at the Supreme Court Gardens from 10am, with the day’s festivities leading into a night of entertainment from 5.30pm to 9.30pm.

Crowds can watch sword fighting and fencing displays as well as demonstrations involving birds of prey, sword swallowers and jesters or jugglers and circus acts.

People can also participate in crafts, artisan workshops, camel and pony rides along with many  other activities for adults and children.

Entry fees at the gate are:

• Children under 13 years accompanied with an adult are free
• $5 concession (all cards), student card and adults dressed in costume
• $10 adult
• $25 for large families

For more information, go to: www.wama.asn.au

The British Library has put both Beowulf and Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebook (‘The Codex Arunde’) online after digitising the original documents. More about this can be found at the British Library’s Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts blog: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digitisedmanuscripts

Beowulf
Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebook

In August 2012, the University of Leicester in collaboration with the Richard III Society and Leicester City Council, began one of the most ambitious archaeological projects ever attempted: no less than a search for the lost grave of King Richard III. After many weeks of anticipation, it is now officially safe to state that the skeletal remains found in a Leicester carpark are those of Richard III.

Yesterday at a specially convened press conference (broadcast live to the world on the internet, and which trended worldwide on Twitter), Richard Buckley, the lead archaeologist on the project at the University of Leicester, announced that: “beyond reasonable doubt the individual exhumed at Grey Friars on September 12th is indeed Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England”.

The Search For Richard project official website has since been updated with news, multimedia, and more detailed information about the dig and the process of identifying King Richard III: http://www.le.ac.uk/richardiii/index.html

From 22 January til 5 March, all Cambridge Journals content published in 2012 will be available for free on CJO. All you have to do is register.

For full details visit the Cambridge Journals Blog: http://blog.journals.cambridge.org/2013/01/free-access-to-all-2012-content-on-cambridge-journals-online/

A fascinating Middle Ages-related news item released this week:

“In 2012 researchers found evidence that our planet had been struck by a blast of radiation during the Middle Ages, but there was debate over what kind of cosmic event could have caused this. Now a study suggests it was the result of two black holes or neutron stars merging in our galaxy. This collision would have hurled out vast amounts of energy.

The research is published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society“

To read this news story in full: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21082617

InScribe is an online course for the study of Palaeography and Manuscript Studies developed by several of the institutes within the School of Advanced Study (including the Institute of Historical Research and Institute of English Studies) at the University of London, with support from Senate House Library and Exeter Cathedral Library & Archives. Devised by Prof Michelle Brown (IES) and Dr Jane Winters (IHR), InScribe aims to support the teaching of Palaeography and Manuscript Studies at a postgraduate level.

At present we are releasing the introductory module which introduces some basic notions about Palaeography and provides an overview of the evolution of script in the medieval period (with particular reference to the English context). Similarly, it gives students the chance to transcribe text from a selection of newly digitised manuscripts from Senate House Library and Exeter Cathedral Library & Archives. Later in the year, new modules will be released that will provide advanced training on Diplomatic, Script and Translation, Codicology and Illumination. The introductory module is free of charge.

To know more about InScribe click here: http://www.history.ac.uk/research-training/courses/online-palaeography.