Festschriften, Occasional Papers, and Lectures

  • Festschriften, Occasional Papers, and Lectures publishes occasional volumes in honor of significant scholars of various fields of humanistic study and the premodern past, including: vernacular languages, literatures and cultures; social history and prosopography; popular beliefs and their expression; and more. This series also includes texts of significant public lectures or lecture series in the same fields.

  • A gold belt buckle featuring a carving of a sideways-facing face surrounded by an elaborate design of gold and blue, red, and green enamel

    Buckle with embossed head in profile, 400-600. Byzantium, early Byzantine period, 5th-6th century. Gold, lapis lazuli, and glass. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Grace Rainey Rogers Fund 1948.23. Public domain.

Geographical scope: Global

Chronological scope: Late antique, medieval, and early modern

  • Submissions

    To submit a proposal or completed manuscript to be considered for publication by Medieval Institute Publications or to learn more about the series, please contact Tyler Cloherty or Emily Winkler, the acquisitions editors for the series.

All Books in this Series

  • Dante, Eschatology and the Christian Tradition: Essays in Honor of Ronald B. Herzman

    Cover image of Dante, Eschatology, and the Christian Tradition: Essays in Honor of Ronald B. Herzman: an image of Dante in a long pink robe holding an open book

    Dante, Eschatology and the Christian Tradition: Essays in Honor of Ronald B. Herzman

    Edited by Lydia Yaitsky Kertz and Richard Emmerson

    This volume honors Ronald B. Herzman, SUNY Geneseo Distinguished Teaching Professor of English. Over more than fifty years Professor Herzman has been a major force in the promotion of medieval studies within academe and public humanities. This volume of essays by his colleagues, students, and friends celebrates Professor Herzman’s outstanding career and reflects the wide range of his scholarly and pedagogical influence, from biblical and early Christian topics to Dante, Langland, and Shakespeare.

    ISBN 978-1-50152-056-3 (clothbound), 978-1-50151-421-0 (PDF), 978-1-50151-423-4 (EPUB) © 2023

     Buy Dante, Eschatology and the Christian Tradition: Essays in Honor of Ronald B. Herzman at De Gruyter

  • Poets and Scribes in Late Medieval England: Essays on Manuscripts and Meaning in Honor of Susanna Fein

    Cover image of Poets and Scribes in Late Medieval England: Essays on Manuscripts and Meaning in Honor of Susanna Fein: a photograph of a medieval manuscript page

    Poets and Scribes in Late Medieval England: Essays on Manuscripts and Meaning in Honor of Susanna Fein

    Edited by Michael Johnston, Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, and Derek Pearsall

    This book brings together essays by eleven scholars who are indebted to Susanna Fein’s contributions to the field, which touch on Middle English manuscripts, lyrics, Chaucer, Pearl, multilingualism, gender, proverbs, and prophecy.

    ISBN 978-1-50152-480-6 (clothbound), 978-1-50151-648-1 (PDF), 978-1-50151-651-1 (EPUB) © 2023

    Buy Poets and Scribes in Late Medieval England at De Gruyter

  • Negotiating Boundaries in Medieval Literature and Culture: Essays on Marginality, Difference, and Reading Practices in Honor of Thomas Hahn

    Cover image of Negotiating Boundaries in Medieval Literature and Culture: Essays on Marginality, Difference, and Reading Practices in Honor of Thomas Hahn, edited by Valerie B. Johnson and Kara L. McShane: a blank piece of vellum nailed to a tree trunk

    Negotiating Boundaries in Medieval Literature and Culture: Essays on Marginality, Difference, and Reading Practices in Honor of Thomas Hahn

    Edited by Valerie B. Johnson and Kara L. McShane

    Addressing long-established canonical works such as Chaucer, Christine de Pizan, and Malory alongside understudied traditions and manuscripts, this book will be of interest to literary scholars of the later Middle Ages who work across boundaries of genre, tradition, and chronology. Employing the methodologies of Thomas Hahn—careful attention to texts and their contexts, cross-cultural readings, and theoretically-informed analysis—essays highlight the literary culture of late medieval England afresh while embracing the study of alterity and hybridity within Middle English literature.

    ISBN 978-1-50152-056-3 (clothbound), 978-1-50151-421-0 (PDF), 978-1-50151-423-4 (EPUB) © 2022

    Buy Negotiating Boundaries in Medieval Literature and Culture at De Gruyter

  • Ballads of the North, Medieval to Modern: Essays Inspired by Larry Syndergaard

    Ballads of the North, Medieval to Modern: Essays Inspired by Larry Syndergaard

    Edited by Sandra Ballif Straubhaar and Richard Firth Green

    Larry Syndergaard’s contributions down the decade, to ballad studies--particularly Scandinavian and Anglophone--included dozens of papers and articles, as well as his supremely useful book, English Translations of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballads. Larry’s particular fascination with the vernacular ballads of the northern medieval world are reflected in this collection; topics here range from plot elements such as demonic whales, otherworldly antagonists, and merpeople to thematic issues of genre, religion and sexual mores. This book is a tribute to him.

    ISBN 978-1-58044-363-0 (clothbound), 978-3-11066-193-4 (PDF), 978-3-11066-045-6 (EPUB), © 2019

    Buy Ballads of the North, Medieval to Modern at De Gruyter

  • Early English Poetic Culture and Metre: The Influence of G. R. Russom

    Cover of Early English Poetic Culture and Metre: The Influence of G. R. Russom: On a yellow background, an image of a carving of the Anglo-Saxon poet Caedmon

    Early English Poetic Culture and Metre: The Influence of G. R. Russom

    Edited by M. J. Toswell and Lindy Brady

    This volume develops G. R. Russom’s contributions to early English metre and style, including his fundamental reworkings and rethinkings of accepted and oft-repeated mantras, including his word-foot theory, concern for the late medieval context for alliterative metre, and the linguistics of punctuation and translation as applied to Old English texts.

    ISBN 978-1-58044-242-8 (clothbound) © 2016

    Buy Early English Poetic Culture and Metre at ISD

  • Telling Tales and Crafting Books: Essays in Honor of Thomas H. Ohlgren

    Cover of Telling Tales and Crafting Books: Essays in Honor of Thomas H. Ohlgren: on a yellow background, an image of crusaders in a camp telling stories.

    Telling Tales and Crafting Books: Essays in Honor of Thomas H. Ohlgren

    Edited by Alexander L. Kaufman, Shaun F. D. Hughes, and Dorsey Armstrong

    This volume of essays focuses on the tale and its ability to create "mirth," what modern audiences would often define as "happiness" or "joy," and the significance of  the transference of this mirth to audiences.

    ISBN 978-1-58044-219-0 (clothbound) © 2016

    Buy Telling Tales and Crafting Books at ISD

  • Discovery and Distinction in the Early Middle Ages: Studies in Honor of John J. Contreni

    Discovery and Distinction in the Early Middle Ages: Studies in Honor of John J. Contreni: on a dark blue background, an image of a man robes surrounded by children and books

    Discovery and Distinction in the Early Middle Ages: Studies in Honor of John J. Contreni

    Edited by Cullen J. Chandler and Steven A. Stofferahn

    Celebrating the career of one of the most prodigious modern scholars of the early Middle Ages, this collection of essays showcases the vibrancy of early medieval European history, highlighting new perspectives on the Carolingian renaissance in art, court culture, education, politics, religion, travel and Jewish-Christian relations.

    ISBN 978-1-58044-170-4 (clothbound) © 2013

    Buy Discovery and Distinction in the Early Middle Ages at ISD

  • Magistra Doctissima: Essays in Honor of Bonnie Wheeler

    Cover of Magistra Doctissima: Essays in Honor of Bonnie Wheeler: on a light blue background, an image of Christine de Pizan in blue instructing a man in red over an open book

    Magistra Doctissima: Essays in Honor of Bonnie Wheeler

    Edited by Dorsey Armstrong, Ann W. Astell and Howell Chickering

    The editors of this volume use its title to honor Bonnie Wheeler for her many scholarly achievements and to celebrate her wide-ranging contributions to medieval studies in the United States.

    ISBN 978-1-58044-177-3 (clothbound) © 2013

    Buy Magistra Doctissima at ISD

  • Comparative Perspectives on History and Historians: Essays in Memory of Bryce Lyon (1920-2007)

    cover image of Comparative Perspectives on History and Historians: Essays in Memory of Bryce Lyon (1920-2007: on a light yellow background, the book's title and an image of a scribe, perhaps St. Jerome, in his study, from the Life, Death and Miracles of Saint Jerome

    Comparative Perspectives on History and Historians: Essays in Memory of Bryce Lyon (1920-2007)

    Edited by David Nicholas, Bernard S. Bachrach and James M. Murray

    This volume features a section of appreciations of Bryce Lyon from the three editors, R. C. Van Caenegem and Walter Prevenier, followed by three sections on the major areas on which Lyon's research concentrated: the legacy of Henri Pirenne, constitutional and legal history of England and the Continent and the economic history of the Low Countries.

    ISBN 978-1-58044-168-1 (clothbound) © 2012

    Buy Comparative Perspectives on History and Historians at ISD

  • Music, Dance, and Society: Medieval and Renaissance Studies in Memory of Ingrid G. Brainard

    Music, Dance, and Society: Medieval and Renaissance Studies in Memory of Ingrid G. Brainard: on a parchment-colored background, a medieval image of a feast with dancing

    Music, Dance, and Society: Medieval and Renaissance Studies in Memory of Ingrid G. Brainard

    Edited by Ann Buckley and Cynthia J. Cyrus

    Performative dance and dance history, social history and musicological issues are all explored, touching on topics from the later Renaissance back through the Carolingian Empire.

    ISBN 978-1-58044-166-7 (clothbound) © 2011

    Buy Music, Dance, and Society at ISD

  • The Hero Recovered: Essays on Medieval Heroism in Honor of George Clark

    Cover of The Hero Recovered: Essays on Medieval Heroism in Honor of George Clark: an image of a sword and shield

    The Hero Recovered: Essays on Medieval Heroism in Honor of George Clark

    Edited by Robin Waugh and James Weldon

    This volume brings together studies concerning heroes and heroisms in Old English, Old Icelandic, Middle English and modern literature as a tribute to the scholarship and teaching of George Clark. The thirteen essays in this collection appear in print here for the first time.

    ISBN 978-1-58044-154-4 (clothbound) © 2010

     Buy The Hero Recovered at ISD

  • The Morton W. Bloomfield Lectures, 1989–2005

    Cover of The Morton W. Bloomfield Lectures, 1989-2005, edited by Daniel Donoghue, James Simpson, and Nicholas Watson: a medieval illustration of armies and travellers near a walled city

    The Morton W. Bloomfield Lectures, 1989–2005

    Edited by Daniel Donoghue, James Simpson and Nicholas Watson

    The idea for the Bloomfield Lectures was…[to] reflect to some extent Morton Bloomfield's wide and varied interests—in literature, in the history of philosophy, in language studies, in Judaic studies.

    ISBN 978-1-58044-146-9 (clothbound), ISBN 978-1-58044-147-6 (paperback) © 2010

    Buy The Morton W. Bloomfield Lectures at ISD

  • Poetry, Place, and Gender: Studies in Medieval Culture in Honor of Helen Damico

    Cover image of Poetry, Place, and Gender: Studies in Medieval Culture in Honor of Helen Damico

    Poetry, Place, and Gender: Studies in Medieval Culture in Honor of Helen Damico

    Edited by Catherine E. Karkov

    The essays in this collection honor Helen Damico's extensive interests in Old Norse and later medieval literatures as well as her primary focus on Anglo-Saxon studies, embracing Old English poetry, archaeology, art history, paleography, liturgy, landscape and gender. Each of the essays contributes new interpretations, new evidence, even new technologies to further the study of some key medieval works.

    ISBN 978-1-58044-127-8 (clothbound) © 2009

    Buy Poetry, Place, and Gender at ISD

  • Global Perspectives on Medieval English Literature, Language, and Culture

    Cover of Global Perspectives on Medieval English Literature, Language and Culture

    Global Perspectives on Medieval English Literature, Language, and Culture

    Edited by Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr. and Richard Scott Nokes

    The twelve essays in this volume proceed from a modern fantasy-epic back in time to oral epics that have been transmitted through the technology of manuscripts, and central in the collection are two articles that address Chaucer's Middle English courtly epic, "Troilus and Criseyde." Each, in its own way, presents a global perspective on its subject, whether by comparing texts, by considering textual transmission through translation or by contrasting medieval issues with developing global movements.

    ISBN 978-1-58044-120-9 (clothbound) © 2007

    Buy Global Perspectives on Medieval English Literature, Language and Culture at ISD

  • Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture: The Apocrypha

    Cover image of Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture: The Apocrypha

    Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture: The Apocrypha

    Edited by Frederick M. Biggs

    This little volume brings up to date the entries on apocrypha first published in "Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture: A Trial Version." The entries address almost eighty separate apocryphal texts and are supported by a bibliography of over 480 titles.

    Instrumenta Anglistica Mediaevalia 1 (pp. xx + 118), ISBN 978-1-58044-119-3 (paperback) © 2007

    Buy Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture at ISD

  • Proceedings of the Pseudo Society

    Cover image of Proceedings of the Pseudo Society, First Series, 1986-93, edited by Richard R. Ring and Richard Kay

    Proceedings of the Pseudo Society

    Edited by Richard R. Ring and Richard Kay

    Of all the learned societies in North America, the Pseudo Society is probably the most disreputable and beloved. Long overdue, the present volume collects 23 astonishing breakthroughs from the society's early years (1986–93), plus four more from its predecessor, the American Committee for Jutish Studies (1976) and an appendix listing all the papers presented to date.

    First Series, 1986–93 (pp. xii + 211) ISBN 1-58044-048-7 (paperback) © 2003

    To purchase this volume, please contact our publications office.

  • Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture Volume 1: Abbo of Fleury, Abbo of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and Acta Sanctorum

    Cover image of Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture Volume 1: Abbo of Fleury, Abbo of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and Acta Sanctorum

    Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture Volume 1: Abbo of Fleury, Abbo of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and Acta Sanctorum

    Edited by Frederick M. Biggs, Thomas D. Hill, Paul E. Szarmach and E. Gordon Whatley

    This massive volume is the first in a projected series of publications examining the sources of Anglo-Saxon literary culture…[It is] a major achievement for the scholars involved to produce a framework for a systematic overview of the Latin texts transcribed and transmitted in the Anglo-Saxon period.

    SASLC 1 (pp. xlvi + 548), ISBN 1-58044-072-X (clothbound), ISBN 1-58044-073-8 (paperback) © 2001

    To purchase this volume, please contact our publications office.

  • Trial by Fire: Burning Jewish Books

    Cover image of Trial by Fire: Burning Jewish Books: the title in goldenrod above an image of a medieval carving of a candelabra

    Trial by Fire: Burning Jewish Books

    Susan Einbinder

    Young poet Meir ben Baruch of Rothenburg "captured the tone of mourning and bereavement following the events of 1242…The polemical and satirical restlessness of DaPiera's poems, the exquisite lyrical imagery of HaLevi's Zionide lament, the longing devotion to the Beloved of vernacular songs, all fuse in a remarkable tribute to Jewish study and students."

    Lectures on Medieval Judaism at Trinity University: Occasional Papers III, ISBN 1-58044-071-1 (paperback) © 2000

    Buy Trial by Fire at ISD

  • Jewish Suffering: The Interplay of Medieval Christian and Jewish Perspectives

    Cover of Jewish Suffering: The Interplay of Medieval Christian and Jewish Perspectives

    Jewish Suffering: The Interplay of Medieval Christian and Jewish Perspectives

    Robert Chazan

    Jewish authors, such as Nahmanides and Rabbi Mordechai ben Joseph of Avignon, asserted that Christian claims of divine favor were erroneous, and that God's promise of redemption for Jews was still valid. These methods to resist Christian assertions of superiority and affirm the grandeur of Jewish experience were essential for the community of Jewish life in the Middle Ages.

    Lectures on Medieval Judaism at Trinity University: Occasional Papers II, ISBN 1-58044-002-9 (paperback) © 1998

    Buy Jewish Suffering at ISD

  • Emblem, Iconography, and Drama

    Cover image of Emblem, Iconography, and Drama

    Emblem, Iconography, and Drama

    Edited by Clifford Davidson, Luis R. Gámez and John H. Stroupe

    Eight iconographic studies by American, Australian and British scholars focusing on Shakespeare and his contemporaries and the interconnectedness of their art with the visual language of their time.

    ISBN 1-879288-57-5 (paperback) © 1995

    Buy Emblem, Iconography, and Drama at ISD

  • English Translations of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballads: An Analytical Guide and Bibliography

    Cover of English Translations of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballads: An Analytical Guide and Bibliography, by Larry E. Syndergaard: a woodcut of a man playing the lute on an orange background

    English Translations of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballads: An Analytical Guide and Bibliography

    Larry E. Syndergaard

    The English-speaking world has made these ballads a major Scandinavian literature in translation, in part finding there its own "primitive" past. Here translations are also seen as cross-cultural dialogue and placed within the empirical discipline of translation studies.

    ISBN 952-9724-11-X (clothbound), ISBN 952-9724-11-X (paperback) © 1995

    This title is out of print.

    NB: Medieval Institute Publications holds North American rights only for this title. Customers from rest of the world should contact Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, Hallituskatu 1, 00170 Helsinki, Finland.

  • Studies in Honor of Hans-Erich Keller: Medieval French and Occitan Literature and Romance Linguistics

    Cover image of Studies in Honor of Hans-Erich Keller: Medieval French and Occitan Literature and Romance Linguistics

    Studies in Honor of Hans-Erich Keller: Medieval French and Occitan Literature and Romance Linguistics

    Edited by Rupert T. Pickens

    Essays on many aspects of medieval French and Occitan literatures and Romance linguistics in tribute to Hans-Erich Keller, one of our most productive and wide-ranging scholars. As a group, they reflect the "state of the art" of medieval French and Occitan studies and Romance linguistics, with varied methodologies and varied conclusions.

    ISBN 1-879288-21-4 (clothbound), ISBN 1-879288-22-2 (paperback–out of print) © 1993

    Buy Studies in Honor of Hans-Erich Keller at ISD

  • Matthew Parker and His Books: Sandars Lectures in Bibliography Delivered on 14, 16 and 18 of May 1990 at the University of Cambridge

    Cover image of Matthew Parker and His Books

    Matthew Parker and His Books: Sandars Lectures in Bibliography Delivered on 14, 16 and 18 of May 1990 at the University of Cambridge

    R.I. Page, with photographs by Mildred Budny

    Three lectures, presented before the University of Cambridge, that examine Matthew Parker as a noted collector of books, an avid annotator, and a keen student of Old English. Plates accompany the text to illustrate many characteristic aspects of Parker's interventions in his books.

    ISBN 1-879288-20-6 (clothbound) © 1993

    Buy Matthew Parker and His Books at ISD

  • Monastic Preaching in the Age of Chaucer

    Cover image of Monastic Preaching in the Age of Chaucer: the cover in black on a white placard, above a background of grey with a repeating black design

    Monastic Preaching in the Age of Chaucer

    Siegfried Wenzel

    The third Morton W. Bloomfield Lecture, delivered at Harvard University in 1993.

    ISBN 1-879288-39-7 (paperback) © 1993

    Buy Monastic Preaching in the Age of Chaucer at ISD

  • Iconographic and Comparative Studies in Medieval Drama

    Cover image of Iconographic and Comparative Studies in Medieval Drama

    Iconographic and Comparative Studies in Medieval Drama

    Edited by Clifford Davidson and John H. Stroupe; introduction by Meg Twycross

    Ten essays that were originally presented at the Sixth Triennial Colloquium of the International Society for the Study of the Medieval Theatre (Lancaster, 13–19 July 1989).

    ISBN 0-918720-49-4 (paperback) © 1991

    Buy Iconographic and Comparative Studies in Medieval Drama at ISD

  • Studia Occitanica, in Memoriam: Paul Remy

    Cover image of Studia Occitanica, Volumes 1 and 2

    Studia Occitanica, in Memoriam: Paul Remy

    Edited by Hans-Erich Keller

    Two volumes dedicated to the memory of Paul Remy, having as their theme the scientific domain to which he had dedicated his research for nearly forty years: the Occitan literature and language.

    Volume I: The Troubadours (pp. x + 371), ISBN 0-918720-71-0 (clothbound), ISBN 0-918720-74-5 (paperback–out of print) © 1986

    Buy Studia Occitanica, Volume I at ISD

    Volume II: The Narrative-Philology (pp. xii + 441), ISBN 0-918720-72-9 (clothbound), ISBN 0-918720-75-3 (paperback–out of print) © 1986

    Buy Studia Occitanica, Volume II at ISD

  • Medieval Lives and the Historian: Studies in Medieval Prosopography

    Cover image of Medieval Lives and the Historian: Studies in Medieval Prosopography

    Medieval Lives and the Historian: Studies in Medieval Prosopography

    Edited by Neithard Bulst and Jean-Philippe Genet

    Proceedings of the First International Interdisciplinary Conference on Medieval Prosopography (Bielefeld, Germany, December 1982).

    ISBN 0-918720-69-9 (clothbound), ISBN 0-918720-70-2 (paperback) © 1986

    Buy Medieval Lives and the Historian at ISD

  • Studies in Malory

    Cover image of Studies in Malory

    Studies in Malory

    Edited by James W. Spisak

    The publication of Sir Thomas Malory’s "Le Morte Darthur" by William Caxton was a signal event in the history of English literature and printing. Compiled to mark the five-hundredth anniversary of that occasion, this volume contains critical studies of Malory’s work, supplemented by essays that place that work in the larger context of Caxton's canon. The different approaches and methodologies in the essays reflect the variety of means through which an understanding of the "Morte" has been sought.

    ISBN 0-918720-54-0 (clothbound), ISBN 0-918720-55-9 (paperback–out of print) © 1985

    Buy Studies in Malory at ISD

  • The Wisdom of Poetry: Essays in Early English Literature in Honor of Morton W. Bloomfield

    Cover image of The Wisdom of Poetry: Essays in Early English Literature in Honor of Morton W. Bloomfield

    The Wisdom of Poetry: Essays in Early English Literature in Honor of Morton W. Bloomfield

    Edited by Larry D. Benson and Siegfried Wenzel

    A collection of wise and witty essays by some of our wisest and wittiest scholars in honor of one of our field's wisest wits.

    ISBN 0-918720-15-X (clothbound), ISBN 0-918720-16-8 (paperback–out of print) © 1982

    Buy The Wisdom of Poetry at ISD