Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literatures

The SSMLL Annual Day Conference 2026: Medieval Wales wants to showcase your ground-breaking research into the language and literature of medieval Wales.

Read the full CFP in both Welsh and English at mediumaevum.org.uk/events/medie...

🎺Calling graduate students and those who have completed a higher degree in the last three years🎺

We want to read your new ideas and fresh perspectives! Consider submitting your work to the Medium Ævum Essay Prize 2026.

The Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature is looking ahead to its centenary and the next stage in the life of its prestigious journal, Medium Ævum. We are investigating the possibility of partnering with a press and encourage interested publishers to read our Tender Advert.

Cardiff University and the Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature are pleased to announce a multi-disciplinary conference on medieval Wales, to be held at Cardiff University on the 25th and 26th of April 2026. The conference will provide a space for discussion and collaboration between scholars of all disciplinary backgrounds interested in medieval Wales. The conference programme will include the Medium Ævum annual lecture, which will be delivered by Professor Helen Fulton (University of Bristol). The Henry Loyn Memorial Lecture will be held on the evening of the 24th of April, and will be delivered by Professor John Hines (Cardiff University). We invite proposals for 20-minute presentations representing any specialization that sheds light on medieval Wales. We shall particularly welcome papers that discuss encounters between different languages and traditions and their consequences. Proposals are welcome from speakers at all career stages and papers can be delivered in English or Welsh. Proposals should include a title and an abstract (100–200 words) and should be submitted to Dr David Callander (callanderd@cardiff.ac.uk) by 30 November.

SSMLL are delighted to announce the opening of our Call for Papers for the 2026 Day Conference, Medieval Wales, which will be held at Cardiff University 25-26 April, 2026.

Proposals should be submitted to Dr David Callander (callanderd@cardiff.ac.uk) by 30 November.

Submissions are now open for the Medium Ævum Essay Prize 2026!

📅Deadline: 12:00 midday (GMT) 1st December 2025
📝6,500-8,000 word essay
👩‍🎓Open to graduate students and those who have graduated from a higher degree in the last 3 years
🏆£500

Read more on our website: mediumaevum.org.uk/essayprize

Our friends at @mmapod.bsky.social are looking for submissions for Season 5 of The Multicultural Middle Ages Podcast!

You can read more about the MMA podcast on their website: www.multiculturalmiddleages.com

The Society was kindly gifted a replica model of 'The Monk Astride a Wyvern' from The Met Museum by Prof. Mary Carruthers. The original dates from the mid c.12th, and was made in Magdeburg, Germany.

We need your help naming our new wyvern-riding wordsmith mascot! Comment your suggestions below 👇

Jinty Nelson was a trustee of SSMLL 2010-2016, and we are delighted to see this special essay in in the @royalhistsoc.org Transactions celebrating her work.

We were delighted to have you with us, Rebecca, thank you for your fascinating paper!

I had a great time in St Andrews this weekend - what a convivial, beautiful, charming place with fantastic medievalists. Presenting completely fresh work was energising and terrifying! 📸 credit: Alastair Minnis

🌍Global Glossing: Transnational Commentary in the Later Middles Ages🌏was packed with exciting research, from Dante to digital reconstruction, and the self-commentary of John Walton to that of producing a new anthology edition.
Thank you to our speakers, graduate chairs, and audience for joining us.

I've never been certain of the value of winning prizes, but I know that Medium Ævum Essay Prize is the only prize I have won (in 2009), & it meant a lot to me when one of my PhD students won it in 2022, & it means a lot now to see 1st winner since I was invited to become a trustee of the society. ❤️

The end of Minnis' talk brings our 🌍Global Glossing: Transnational Commentary in the Later Middle Ages🌍 conference to a close!

Thank you to the team at St Andrews, all of our fantastic speakers, and our audience both online and in person.

...'Medieval Literary Theory and Criticism, c.1100-c.1375: The Commentary Tradition'.

Our final event of the day is the SSMLL Annual Lecture presented by Alastair Minnis (Yale). Minnis' lecture, ‘(Re)anthologizing Literary Theory from Medieval Commentary Tradition: New Parameters', is offering insight into the additions being made to the landmark anthology...

During the AGM, President Alastair Minnis congratulated the winner of the 2025 Medium Aevum Essay Prize, Chenyun Zhu (Nanjing University) for their essay 'The Curse and the Seal: Fertility Myth in the Nine Herbs Charm'. We are delighted to have Chenyun join us at the conference.

Lucy Turton, one of SSMLL's graduate observers and a current doctoral student at St Andrews now fields questions, comments and discussion with the audience and our Session III speakers.

Our next speaker for Panel III is Ian Johnson (St Andrews) with his paper ‘The Prose Self-Commentary in John Walton’s Boethius’. Johnson argues that Walton draws on Chaucer's Boece and relies on Trevet's Latin commentary, but also refracts his own work through his 'self-commentary'.

Session III has now begun with Raphaela Rohrhofer's (St Andrews) paper ‘Julian of Norwich’s Kenotic Auto-Commentary’. Rohrhofer's explains how contemplative language is employed and functions differently from ordinary language, and she focusses closely on Julian's use of 'drede'.

Session II finishes with a Q&A and discussion chaired by current St Andrews doctoral student Phoebe Macindoe. We'll be back after a lunch break for the 2:00pm start of Session III.

The second paper of Session II is (Lincoln College, Oxford) 'Convincing via Commentary: The Glosses to the Pseudo-Ovidian De Vetula'. Menmuir's paper focuses on a metrical discussion of Ovidian authorship that is sometimes circulated with the de Vetula.

We're now underway with Session II. First is Lucie Doležalová (Charles University, Prague) and her paper ‘Nescio corrigere: Scribes' Comments in Late Medieval Bohemia’. Doležalová explains her focus on scribal comments at the end of texts, particularly those which comment on the text and scribe.

The Q&A for Session I is chaired by current St Andrews doctoral student Nilanjana Goswami, with lively cross-paper questioning and discussion.

Our second paper of Session I is Paola Nasti's (Northwestern, Illinois) paper, ‘Dante the exegete’. Nasti begins by noting the dominance of Dante to studies of commentary on classical poetry, and her desire to shift the focus to Dante's hermeneutics and exegesis of scripture.

We move to the first paper of Session I, Andrew Kraebel's (Trinity University, Texas) ‘Theories of Voice in Medieval Commentary’. Kraebel explains his focus on the interpretive introductions to the commentaries of Virgil and other classical poets produced in northern France in the C12th.

Rhodes explains that a great degree of imagination and creativity is used for digital reconstruction, but that this allows modern researchers (and others) to engage with medieval St Andrews in new, fresh ways.

Our first speaker is Dr Bess Rhodes, presenting a 'Virtual Walkthrough of Medieval St Andrews'. Rhodes shares the range of fascinating sources (textual, imagistic, cartographic, archaeological) used to flesh out the 'skeleton' of medieval St Andrews into a digital reconstruction.

The sun has risen on beautiful St Andrews, and our 🌍Global Glossing: Transnational Commentary in the Later Middle Ages🌏 speakers are ready to share their exciting research.

This account will be live-posting tantalising insights into their presentations throughout today.

Speakers, SSMLL members, and friends are currently on their way to our much-anticipated 🌍Global Glossing: Transnational Commentary in the Later Middle Ages🌍conference at the University of St Andrews!

We'll be keeping you updated on our speakers' cutting-edge research tomorrow here on Bluesky.

I'm on my way to St Andrews 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 today - attending a workshop, a meeting, and very much looking forward to this conference on later medieval glossing & commentary on Saturday! 👇🏻