Thursday 16 October, 5 pm, Board Room, Faculty of English
Drew Milne (Cambridge), ‘Underdeterminations: towards a history of the theatre programme’
All welcome
Thursday 4th December 2025, The National Archives, Kew.
‘Talking Records’ is a new collections-based symposium held at The National Archives every year. The theme for 2025 is pollution. Histories of pollution, contamination, and environmental damage can be found in a diverse range of records in the collections at The National Archives.
Across different times and places, from the very local to the global, the concept of pollution is intertwined with histories of land use and management, agricultural practices, urban space, natural disasters, health and safety, and public health and welfare. From the soil to water sources and the air, all aspects of the environment might be vulnerable to the effects of harmful substances, including pesticides, industrial waste, and radioactive material. Light and noise may also pollute, and both human and non-human creatures can be vulnerable when environments, habitats, and ecosystems are contaminated.
In records at The National Archives, pollution histories intersect with industrial histories (e.g. coal mining, industrial accidents, military activity) and urgent contemporary questions about energy sources and climate change. Pollution is an ever-evolving concept, and pre-modern records too can speak to us about changing scientific, social, and cultural understandings of contamination across the centuries – in histories of disease, for example.
Talking Records: Pollution in the Archive invites researchers, scholars and practitioners working with archival records to present 15-minute papers exploring how these speak to our wider concerns around pollution and its history. We would particularly welcome contributions from early career researchers, and would also welcome alternative formats to present, including creative and visual responses or pre-recorded contributions.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
Talking Records is a free event, and organisers are committed to making the day as accessible and inclusive as possible. There are a limited number of bursaries, of up to £150, available to support attendance (e.g. travel and childcare).
Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words along with a title and your affiliation to heather.craddock@nationalarchives.gov.uk, stating if you wish to be considered for a bursary. Submission deadline: Friday 19th September.
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/our-research-and-academic-collaboration/research-events/call-for-papers-talking-records-pollution-in-the-archive/
26-27 September 2025
CRASSH, University of Cambridge
https://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/47443/
Historically, religious communities have often expanded by finding ways to overcome language and cultural barriers in material ways. In the case of the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS), this has taken the form of producing bibles in nearly 700 different languages whilst collecting some of the world’s most precious religious materials for translation into vernacular languages. How did the spiritual economy of bible craft reflect religious community expansion and, in turn, how did expansion change the Bible Society Collection in material ways?
This two-day conference and hands-on workshop invites scholars and specialists in Religious Studies, visual and material culture, and Medieval to Modern collections analysis to tackle Victorian-era bible production, material exchanges and book transliteration culture. State of the field presentations will explore key topics including: global communication, empire and imperial projects, knowledge and technology and more with the goal of opening inquiry in the Bible Society Collections. Featured activities will include panels and roundtable discussions, library and museum technical experts and curators tied to BFBS materials. This event seeks to explore, reveal and protect this collection’s materials in a tangible way for future research.
The Faculty of English, University of Cambridge; Stanford Text Technologies, Stanford University, and the University Library Research Institute are delighted to announce that registration is open for the international conference ‘The Craft, Texture, and Aesthetics of Letter Forms from Antiquity to the Present‘.
Venue: University of Cambridge, Faculty of English and online.
Dates: 2-4 September, 2025.
‘The Craft, Texture, and Aesthetics of Letter Forms’ will bring together scholars, practitioners and heritage experts to explore the matter of lettering, its practice and study. By marrying a range of disciplinary and professional approaches, we hope to recover the aesthetic, historical, and material significance of letter formation in all its rich variety. We will do this across all material supports – whether stone, vellum, paper, metal or wood – and across media ranging from letters inked, engraved and incised, to those freshly pixelated for our computer screens. In the process, we aim to treat letterforms holistically, as phenomena that migrate dynamically between different times, different cultures, different media, different professions, and ultimately different disciplines.
In-person places are limited but panels will be livestreamed. For further information and how to register for in-person or online attendance: https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/events/lettering/
If you have any enquiries about conference please direct them to letterforms@english.cam.ac.uk
A post by Lara Harris, PhD student in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic
Cambridge, a city brimming with history and with manuscripts, is currently hosting two exhibitions that offer glimpses into the fascinating world of medieval medicine. At the University Library, the Wellcome Trust-funded project ‘Curious Cures’ displays an array of Middle English medical manuscripts (ca. 1200-1500), providing visitors with a holistic overview of medicine in late medieval England, from classical humoral theory to astrology, uroscopy, and surgery, along with numerous charms and magical remedies.
Perhaps medieval astro-physicians would have been able to foresee how the stars would align, such that another exhibition, nestling a short walk away within the English Faculty Library, would be on display at the same time. ‘Garden of Healing’, which I curated, offers an exploration of medieval medical manuscripts from almost exactly the same period (ca. 1290-1550). The main differences are that mine is focused on medieval Scandinavia, and that it solely addresses gynaecological texts.
I had the opportunity of handling, transcribing and translating a few of the manuscripts on display in ‘Curious Cures’ in a week-long summer workshop in 2023. Even back then, I was struck by the similarities between the remedies I had seen in my Scandinavian codices and those in the Middle English ones. I had not been able to trace many of these medical recipes, but the fact that they (or at least, versions of them) existed meant that I was not simply dealing with local Scandinavian knowledge, but rather a much more complex picture, where channels of communication were hazy but undeniable.
Visiting the ‘Curious Cures’ exhibition gave me the opportunity to deepen my understanding of my own medieval medical project by placing my Scandinavian remedies in a wider European context. Simultaneously, accessing the much larger Middle English corpus introduced me to an array of remedies that I had never come across in the Scandinavian material– such as a treatment for pregnancy cravings, an ailment absent in all extant Scandinavian manuscripts. But what makes this kind of research so exciting is that there are elements from the Scandinavian framework that can also clarify and put into context some of the Middle English medical texts.
Phantom Women
I was very pleased to see that ‘Curious Cures’ had dedicated a corner of the exhibition to the recognition of women in medicine as well as of texts addressed to the female body. The exhibit label explains that there are very few records that serve as evidence for women’s involvement in the practice of medicine, and that very few women owned medical books. The text goes on to explain that female medical authors are very rare, as women were banned from accessing university education, and instead they learned on the job. This is also the case in the Scandinavian realm. Out of the 36 extant medical manuscripts hailing from Scandinavia (clearly, a much thinner corpus), none can definitively be attributed to women. However, nine of them are (in)directly connected to women; and photographs from seven of these are displayed in my exhibition at the English Faculty.
Noblewomen
Two of the Scandinavian manuscripts from the turn of the sixteenth century—X 23 4to (Royal Library of Sweden) and Saml. 1a 4to (also known as Codex Grensholmensis, Linköping City Library) — belonged to Swedish noblewomen: Christina Månsdotter of the noble house Natt och Dag, and Maetta Ryningsdotter of Grensholm Castle, respectively. Both of their names are written down in the manuscripts, and in the case of Maetta, her birth date and place are added too, along with those of her children – and their star signs! It is probable that Christina’s manuscript was written specially for her, whereas Mætta’s was purchased by her family and then expanded at Grensholm. Both cases point to the fact that women (at least those of a certain status) studied and likely practiced medicine. In Mætta’s case, her interest may have been directed towards healing her immediate family and caring for her children. As for Christina, too little is known of her life to ascertain whether her pursuit of medical knowledge was simply a personal calling or whether she acted as a local or family healer.
Upps. D 600, an image from the famous Danske Urtebog (‘Danish Herbal’), naming Ligustrum as a remedy for menstruation, which is called orenlik thing nidhan (‘unclean thing down below’).
The Bridgettines
Three of the manuscripts on display hail from different Bridgettine institutions across Scandinavia. The Bridgettine Order, established by St Bridget of Sweden (1303-73), was unique in that, while they were run by an abbess, its cloisters housed both monks and nuns. With royal backing and funding, each abbey was wealthy and powerful, possessing infirmaries, botanical gardens, and scriptoria.
It has generally been believed that, although the manuscripts in these cloisters were written by the monks, many were written for and/or used by the nuns; and given the long sections on gynaecology and obstetrics, it is likely that women used those manuscripts to treat themselves and pilgrims seeking medical care.
Women Authorities
The most striking example sits inside the last case of the exhibition. It consists of an unassuming manuscript with no shelfmark entitled Huskurer och Signerier på Danska (“House Cures and Charms in Danish”), dating from the second quarter of the sixteenth century. This manuscript is slightly younger than those in the ‘Curious Cures’ exhibition, which ends in 1500. However, it still falls within what is considered the Scandinavian Late Middle Ages, which is often extended to around 1550. This manuscript offers the only piece of medical text that ascribes two remedies for cancer to two distinct women: an old woman based in Halland (modern-day Sweden), and another with breast cancer in Augsburg, Germany.
Concluding Thoughts
The ‘Curious Cures’ exhibition at the University Library offers a comprehensive glimpse into late medieval English medical practices. My ‘Garden of Healing’, smaller in scale (and displaying reproductions rather than original manuscripts) focuses specifically on remedies for gynaecology and the question of female healers in medieval Scandinavia. Together, these exhibitions contribute to a deeper understanding of medieval medicine and show that women played an active part in healthcare, even if they undertook their duties in silence.
An image from Royal Library of Sweden X 23 4to, p. 223, with a crossed-out albeit still legible passage on contraception.
Thursday 8 May, 5 pm, Board Room, Faculty of English
Joseph Hone (Newcastle), ‘T.J. Wise’s Book Hospital: A Further Study in Theft and Sophistication’
Thursday 22 May, 5 pm, Board Room, Faculty of English
Sheryl Wombell (Cambridge), ‘Mobility, Materiality, and Temporality in the Early Modern Medical Recipe Collections at the New York Academy of Medicine Library’
All welcome
A detailed project to catalogue around 100 early modern manuscripts in Queens’ College Library is drawing to its close. This exhibition presents some of the most intriguing and significant items to have been covered by the project. Highlights include a sixteenth-century diplomat’s description of Russia, exercises written by students for their tutors in the seventeenth century, and a copy of a work by Cicero which was found under a bathroom floor in the President’s Lodge in the 1980s. These and other exhibits will offer visitors vivid insights into the life of the College in the early modern period, interspersed with glimpses of the wider world which awaited many of its graduates.
The exhibition will then be open on weekdays (1.30pm-4.30pm), initially from 12 March-4 April (as part of Cambridge Festival), and then from 28 April-9 May after which it will be available to view by appointment for the remainder of Easter Term. Access is via the first floor of the War Memorial Library.
Poster link: https://bit.ly/MusaeReginales-ExhibitionPoster
Thursday 30 January 5.30 pm [note time], Board Room, Faculty of English
Satoko Tokunaga (Keio), ‘Hagiographies in Transit: Caxton’s Golden Legend and its Materialities’
Thursday 27 February, 5 pm, Board Room, Faculty of English
Alessandro Bianchi (University Library), ‘Bookbinding, Bibliophilia, and a Passion for Japan: The Collection of Eugène Gillet (1859–1938)’
Thursday 6 March, 5 pm, Board Room, Faculty of English
Katharina Boehm (Passau), ‘“Pageants of Pasteboard and Buckram”: Antiquarian Practices and the Historical Imagination in the Long Eighteenth Century’
[This seminar will be run jointly with the Eighteenth Century and Romantic Studies seminar]
Chloe Steele
Faculty of English, University of Cambridge, first floor foyer
An exhibition of work by the artist Chloe Steele as part of a collaborative project investigating the use of printed forms. Generously funded by a Judith E. Wilson Fund Practice-Led Research Award. For more information, see www.chloesteele.com and https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/cmt/projects.
The exhibition and project will be launched at the Centre for Material Texts research seminar on 28th November 2024 (5pm, Board Room, Faculty of English, University of Cambridge).
Thursday 31 October, 5 pm, Board Room, Faculty of English
Abigail Williams (Oxford), ‘Reading it Wrong: Misinterpretation and Befuddlement in Eighteenth Century Print Culture’
Thursday 7 November, 5 pm, Board Room, Faculty of English
Sarah Haggarty (Cambridge), ‘The folded familiar letter as material and chronotope’
[This seminar will be run jointly with the Eighteenth Century and Romantic Studies seminar]
Thursday 28 November, 5 pm, Board Room, Faculty of English
Ruth Abbott (Cambridge) and Chloe Steel (artist), ‘Blank Forms for Future Applications’
All welcome.