Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies

Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Title	Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Discipline	Medieval studies; Early modern studies; Renaissance studies
Publisher	Duke University Press
Country	United States
History	1970–present
Frequency	Quarterly

Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on the medieval and early modern periods, broadly spanning late antiquity through the early eighteenth century. Founded in the late twentieth century, it publishes articles that bridge philology, literary criticism, intellectual history, and cultural studies, engaging with primary sources associated with figures and institutions from Bede and Gregory the Great to Thomas Hobbes and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Contributors frequently situate medieval and early modern texts in relation to archival collections hosted by British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Vatican Library, and Bodleian Library.

History

The journal was established in the context of growing interdisciplinary dialogue among scholars associated with institutions such as Duke University, Princeton University, Harvard University, Cambridge University, and Oxford University. Early editors fostered connections with research centers including the Medieval Academy of America, Renaissance Society of America, School of Advanced Study, and the Institute for Advanced Study. Over successive editorial tenures the journal published scholarship on manuscript culture exemplified by studies of Codex Vaticanus, Beowulf, Domesday Book, and Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, while engaging debates sparked by figures like Erasmus, Martin Luther, Niccolò Machiavelli, Michel de Montaigne, and John Donne. Symposia and special issues have highlighted archival discoveries from repositories such as National Archives (United Kingdom), Archives Nationales (France), Archivo General de Indias, and State Archives of Venice.

Scope and Editorial Focus

The journal emphasizes comparative work that links literary manuscripts, philosophical treatises, legal charters, and visual culture. It publishes research on authors and works including Dante Alighieri, Geoffrey Chaucer, Christine de Pizan, William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Giovanni Boccaccio, François Rabelais, Thomas More, and John Milton. Intersections with intellectuals and institutions such as Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, Marsilio Ficino, Sir Isaac Newton, Royal Society, University of Paris, and University of Bologna are common. The journal also foregrounds the role of political actors and events—Hundred Years' War, Fall of Constantinople (1453), Reformation, Council of Trent, Spanish Armada—and cultural productions tied to patrons like Medici family, Plantagenet dynasty, Habsburg dynasty, and Tudor dynasty.

Abstracting and Indexing

Abstracting and indexing services that routinely include the journal encompass major bibliographic and citation platforms oriented to historical and literary scholarship. Coverage connects the journal’s articles to databases curated by Modern Language Association, Scopus, JSTOR, and Project MUSE, as well as specialist indexes maintained by Early English Books Online, Renaissance Quarterly, and national bibliographies such as Library of Congress cataloging and the British Library integrated catalog. Inclusion in such services facilitates discoverability alongside monographs published by presses like Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Harvard University Press, and Yale University Press.

Editorial Board and Peer Review

The editorial board typically comprises scholars affiliated with leading departments and centers, including faculty from University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, Yale University, Stanford University, King’s College London, and University of Toronto. Guest editors from institutes such as Max Planck Institute for Legal History, Warburg Institute, Folger Shakespeare Library, and Getty Research Institute have overseen thematic issues. Manuscripts undergo double-blind peer review by specialists in areas represented by contributors—philologists, historians, art historians, and musicologists—who have expertise in source traditions linked to figures like Alcuin, Hildegard of Bingen, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Jean Bodin. The journal follows standard ethical guidelines promoted by organizations such as Committee on Publication Ethics.

Publication Format and Frequency

Published quarterly, the journal produces issues that combine research articles, review essays, bibliographic notes, and occasionally translations of previously unpublished texts from archives like Vatican Apostolic Archive and Archivio di Stato di Venezia. Layouts emphasize diplomatic transcriptions, facsimile reproductions, and documentary apparatus when manuscripts—such as Book of Kells folios or Hours of Catherine of Cleves—are central to arguments. Special supplements and conference proceedings have been issued in collaboration with societies including International Medieval Congress and Sixteenth Century Society and Conference.

Reception and Impact

The journal is cited in monographs and essays across fields that intersect medieval and early modern studies, and its articles have been referenced in works on subjects ranging from oral tradition studies centered on Beowulf manuscripts to philological research on Aquinas and textual criticism of Shakespeare quartos. Reviews in outlets such as Renaissance Quarterly, Speculum, and The English Historical Review note its contribution to shaping debates about periodization, manuscript studies, and the circulation of texts across institutions like Habsburg archives, Portuguese royal collections, and Ottoman archives. Through citations tracked in services like Google Scholar and Web of Science, the journal exerts measurable influence on curricula and research agendas at universities including University of Chicago, Princeton University, and Brown University.

Category:Academic journals