Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (CMEMS)

Thank you to everyone who came along to the CMEMS Welcome event for the 2026/7 academic year! It was wonderful to see so many new and returning faces from across the University🍷

We are very grateful to the Centre for Research Collections for hosting us and introducing everyone to a number of beautiful and fascinating pieces from the University collection 📜🎶

Please join us for the Edinburgh University CMEMS Welcome Event! 

22nd September 5pm at the Centre for Research Collections (Main Library Floor 6) Anyone interested in the activities of CMEMS is welcome! There will be drinks, nibbles and a viewing of items from the CRC’s fantastic collection...

📅 Join us tomorrow for the CMRS seminar where we welcome @williampurkis.bsky.social (University of Birmingham): Portals to Holy Places: Relics, Round Churches, and the Reshaping of the Crusading Ideal 5:15pm, LG.11, 40 George Square All welcome!

📆 ⚔️Join us tomorrow for the CMRS Seminar where we will welcome Benjamin Raffield (University of Uppsala): 'Making a Warrior: Exploring the Martial Cultures of the Viking Age' 5:15pm, LG.11, 40 George Square All welcome!

📖Join us on Tue 24 Feb for the next CMRS Seminar by our very own Louise Gardiner: 'Royal Correspondence in Late Fourteenth-Century England: Exploring the ‘Royal Letter Book’ (Edinburgh University Library Ms. 183)' 5:15, Centre for Research Collections (6th floor, Edinburgh University main Library)

Next week we will be running a roundtable on 'Emotions in Medieval and Early Modern Scotland', co-organised by with the Scottish History Seminar. The event will take place on Tue 10 Feb, 5:15pm, LG.11, 40 George Square. All welcome!

📆 Join us tomorrow for the CMRS seminar where Joanna Martin (University of Nottingham) will be giving a talk about 'Spaces and Places in Hary’s 'Wallace''. 5:15pm, LG.11, 40 George Square. Everyone welcome!

📢 ✌️ We're kicking off our event programme for this semester off with two CMRS sessions! 🎨 📜 First join us tomorrow as our own @hdohertyharrison.bsky.social discusses depictions of Judas in medieval art and literature. 📅 ➡️ Then later this week ...

⛪ 💬 ... you can join us on Friday for our first Renaissance Discussion Group, considering religious aspects of material culture in post-Reformation Scotland. ⬇️ Click below for more info on what we have planned across the semester! We look forward to seeing you in the next months. bit.ly/CMRS2026

⏰The final @lamps-edinburgh.bsky.social seminar of the semester is tomorrow! Thijs Kersten will discuss their research on singing as a form of protest in late antiquity. 📌Join the group at 17:10 in the Teviot Lecture Theatre, Doorway 5, Old Medical Building, followed by a social in Potterrow Dome.

🪡 ⚔️ Tomorrow our final Renaissance Discussion Group of the year will review work from our own Jess Bailey, on what medieval quilt designs reveal about popular narratives of the time and wider considerations of gender. 📌⏰ Join us at 1pm in Room 3.32 of the Edinburgh Futures Institute to take part!

🎨 In our final seminar of the semester, Neil McClelland joins us from @uofglasgow.bsky.social to discuss his ongoing doctoral research into the the history of art commissions from across the social strata from late medieval and early modern Naples.

🏙️ ⚖️ Today Andrew Simpson of @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social will join us to discuss one of Scotland’s oldest surviving legal texts, some elements of which are still echoed in modern Scots law.

🤝 ⛪ Tomorrow’s seminar will welcome Alejandro Pombo Rial from @usaloficial.bsky.social . Join us as he discusses his ongoing research into social contributions made by churches and monasteries to their local communities.

🐏 👨‍👨 @nicolemaceira.bsky.social will join us this week to discuss contrasting depictions of animals and humans in post-Reformation thought, and their importance in the development of the Reformed faith in Scotland.

👑 Join us this Thursday as we welcome Alex Woolf from @standrewshist.bsky.social, who’ll be discussing with us the development of Scotland’s early history.

⛪ 👨‍👨 Next week we’ll be proud to welcome John Arnold from @camhistory.bsky.social , who’ll discuss his recent research into the changing expressions of lay piety found in medieval southern France.