Medieval and Early Modern Studies Association

Medieval and Early Modern Studies Association
Name	Medieval and Early Modern Studies Association
Formation	20th century
Type	Scholarly society
Headquarters	University-based
Region served	International
Language	English and multilingual scholarship
Leader title	President

Medieval and Early Modern Studies Association is a scholarly society dedicated to the study of medieval and early modern periods across Europe, the Mediterranean, Asia, and the Americas. The association connects researchers working on topics related to Charlemagne, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Hagia Sophia, Florence, Prague, Venice, Avicenna, Thomas Aquinas, Ibn Khaldun, Christine de Pizan, Geoffrey Chaucer, Dante Alighieri, Niccolò Machiavelli, Martin Luther, Elizabeth I, Philip II of Spain, Henry VIII, Suleiman the Magnificent, Timurid Empire, Ming dynasty, Aztec Empire, and Inca Empire with institutions and projects worldwide.

History

The association emerged in the late 20th century amid renewed interest in comparative studies that connected research on Byzantium, Carolingian Empire, Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of England, Crown of Aragon, Ottoman Empire, Safavid dynasty, Mamluk Sultanate, Kievan Rus', Song dynasty, Yuan dynasty, Timurid Empire, Iberian Reconquista, Hundred Years' War, War of the Roses, Spanish Armada, Thirty Years' War, Council of Trent, and Protestant Reformation. Founding members included scholars affiliated with Harvard University, University of Oxford, Université de Paris, University of Bologna, University of Salamanca, Columbia University, Princeton University, University of Cambridge, Yale University, and University of Toronto who sought cross-regional conversations among specialists in medieval Latin, Middle English, Old French, Medieval Greek, Classical Arabic, Hebrew, Early Modern Spanish, Early Modern French, Renaissance Latin, and Early Modern English. Over subsequent decades the association expanded through collaborations with centers such as the British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Vatican Library, National Library of Spain, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Institute for Advanced Study, and the German Historical Institute.

Mission and Scope

The association’s mission foregrounds interdisciplinary inquiry spanning philology, paleography, codicology, art history, musicology, legal history, and intellectual history as practiced by scholars of Isidore of Seville, Bede, Alcuin of York, William of Ockham, Petrarch, Erasmus, John Calvin, Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, John Knox, Miguel de Cervantes, Ben Jonson, William Shakespeare, Rembrandt van Rijn, Hieronymus Bosch, Giovanni Bellini, Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer, Jan van Eyck, Titian, and Caravaggio. It supports comparative work on manuscripts and archives associated with Cambridge University Library, Bodleian Library, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, Archivo General de Indias, Archivio di Stato di Venezia, State Archives of Florence, and Prague National Library as well as on digital resources such as those maintained by Gallica, Europeana, Digital Scriptorium, WorldCat, and JSTOR.

Organization and Governance

Governance follows a model common to learned societies with an elected executive board including a president, vice-president, treasurer, and sectional chairs representing fields like manuscript studies, legal history, book history, and performance studies. Officers have been drawn from universities and institutes including University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan, University of Edinburgh, Trinity College Dublin, Leiden University, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Leiden, and University College London. The association coordinates advisory panels that liaise with archives, museums, and funding bodies such as the National Endowment for the Humanities, British Academy, European Research Council, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Fonds de recherche du Québec, and national academies.

Conferences and Publications

The association organizes annual and biennial conferences hosted at venues including Universität Heidelberg, University of Salamanca, University of Siena, University of Glasgow, University of Leiden', University of Barcelona, Princeton University, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Toronto, and Harvard University. Conference themes have engaged topics tied to seminal events and texts such as the Investiture Controversy, Fourth Crusade, Black Death, Golden Bull of 1356, Edict of Nantes, Treaty of Tordesillas, Council of Constance, Council of Basel, Magna Carta, Domesday Book, Canterbury Tales, Divine Comedy, Prince (Il Principe), and Utopia (More). The association publishes proceedings, monographs, and a peer-reviewed journal featuring research on paleography, manuscript digitization, diplomatic editions, and historiography alongside collaborative volumes with presses including Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Brill, Brepols, Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan, Duke University Press, and University of Chicago Press.

Membership and Community

Members encompass professors, postdoctoral researchers, doctoral candidates, curators, manuscript librarians, conservators, translators, and independent scholars from institutions such as British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, Rijksmuseum, Tate Britain, Musée du Louvre, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, State Hermitage Museum, National Palace Museum (Taiwan), and Freer Gallery of Art. Affiliated local and regional groups collaborate with centers like Centre for Medieval Studies (Toronto), Warburg Institute, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Institute of Historical Research, Institute of Mediterranean Studies, and the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History to run seminars, workshops, and reading groups focused on editions, codicological technique, conservation science, and digital humanities.

Awards and Grants

The association administers prizes and research grants that have supported work on critical editions, digital manuscript projects, archival fellowships, and translation initiatives connected to projects on Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Carmina Burana, Libro de Buen Amor, Rashi, Maimonides, Zohar, Decretum Gratiani, Corpus Juris Civilis, Domesday Book, Polychronicon, Chronica Majora, Speculum Historiale, and Gesta Danorum. Funding partnerships with foundations and funding agencies have underwritten fellowships named for prominent scholars and benefactors from institutions such as Getty Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Wolfson Foundation, Leverhulme Trust, Kress Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and national research councils.

Category:Learned societies