Welcome
The purpose of the Program in Medieval Studies is to foster the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural study of the history, literature, languages, religion, philosophy, art, and archaeology of cultures across the globe from approximately the fourth through the fifteenth centuries C.E., by sponsoring activities such as seminars, conferences, symposia, and lectures, visiting scholars, and exchange and outreach programs, and by offering an undergraduate Interdisciplinary Studies Major in Medieval Civilization and a graduate Concentration in Medieval Studies. Participating Departments and Programs are, in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Classics, Comparative Literature, East Asian Languages and Cultures, English, French, Germanic Languages and Literatures, History, Philosophy, Religion, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Spanish, Italian & Portuguese, and Speech Communications; in the College of Fine and Applied Arts, Architectural History, Art History, Landscape Architecture, and Music; and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science and University Library.
The Program aims above all to create a community of scholars and students sharing interests in these fields both within the University of Illinois and between the Program in Medieval Studies and other Medieval Studies programs and institutes around the world.
Charles D. Wright, Director
Performing the Middle Ages
An initiative funded by the A. W. Mellon Foundation
(follow link for details)
Some Recent Books by Illinois Medievalist Faculty
(for details and a fuller listing see Recent Faculty & Graduate Student Publications)
Some Recent Publications by Illinois Medievalist Graduate Students
Jill Hamilton Clements, "The Construction of Queenship in the Illustrated Estoire de Seint Aedward le Rei," forthcoming in Gesta 52.1 (May 2013).
Angela Kinney, ed., The Vulgate Bible, vol. III: The Poetical Books, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library (with Swift Edgar); vol. IV: The Major Prophetical Books; vol. V: The Minor Prophetical Books (Harvard Univ. Press, 2011-12); vol. VI: The New Testament (with Swift Edgar) (forthcoming.)
OUR MASTHEAD
The Program masthead includes three elements drawn from holdings in the University's Rare Book & Manuscript Library: the illuminated letter "M" (as well as the decorative borders) are from the Lyte Book of Hours (ca. 1390); the background is from an 8th-century Japanese block-printed scroll (containing the Buddhist prayer Hyakumantō Darani), overlaid with compass and maplines from a portolan chart of the Mediterranean (ca. 1552) by Bartolomé Olives. The ensemble is intended to evoke at a glance our new global configuration.
FROM OUR COLLECTIONS:
Romanesque capital (c. 1150-1200 CE, France)
Courtesy of Krannert Art Musuem
The left navigation bar features a Lohan (Rakan) figure, China, Ming Dynasty (courtesy of the
Spurlock Museum of Word Cultures)