UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies

UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Original University of California seal: probably Tiffany & Co,; This SVG file: C · Public domain · source
Name	UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Formation	1963
Location	Los Angeles, California
Affiliation	University of California, Los Angeles

Contents

UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies is an academic center located at the University of California, Los Angeles that fosters interdisciplinary study of medieval and early modern Europe. The center connects faculty, graduate students, and visiting scholars across departments such as History of Art, English literature, Comparative Literature, Classics and Religious studies. It organizes fellowships, lectures, and conferences that bring together researchers from institutions including Harvard University, Yale University, Oxford University, Cambridge University, and Princeton University.

History

Founded in 1963, the center emerged during a period of expansion in medieval and Renaissance studies alongside institutions like the Medieval Academy of America and the Renaissance Society of America. Early directors recruited scholars trained under figures associated with Jacques Le Goff, Carlo Ginzburg, Marc Bloch, Ernest H. Kantorowicz, and Denis Mack Smith. The center developed programs in dialogue with library initiatives at the Bodleian Library, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the Vatican Library, enabling comparative manuscript research related to holdings from the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the J. Paul Getty Museum. During the late 20th century the center expanded collaborations with the Getty Research Institute, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.

The center's mission emphasizes interdisciplinary inquiry linking scholars associated with Medieval Academy of America, Renaissance Society of America, and regional bodies like the California Rare Book School. Its fellowship programs attract recipients from institutions such as Columbia University, Stanford University, University of Chicago, Brown University, and University of Michigan. Programmatic emphases include manuscript studies tied to collections at the British Library, codicology projects formerly associated with scholars like E. A. Lowe, and performance studies in connection with the Globe Theatre tradition and editorial work on texts such as The Canterbury Tales and Divine Comedy. Summer seminars have featured collaborations with the Huntington Library, the Bard Graduate Center, and the Newberry Library.

Research areas span paleography, diplomatics, art history, musicology, and textual criticism, engaging specialists whose work references figures like Alfred the Great, Charlemagne, Dante Alighieri, Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, and Niccolò Machiavelli. Projects have examined archives related to the House of Habsburg, the Avignon Papacy, the Council of Trent, and the English Reformation. The center supports digital humanities initiatives in partnership with labs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford Humanities Center, and King's College London to publish databases of illuminated manuscripts, marginalia, and liturgical rite books connected to collections at the Sistine Chapel, Chartres Cathedral, and Siena Cathedral. Collaborative grants have involved agencies such as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The center organizes recurring conferences and symposia that have hosted keynote speakers from University of Cambridge, Princeton University Press, and the Oxford University Press editorial boards, and that have produced proceedings engaging scholarship on texts like Beowulf, The Song of Roland, Petrarch's Canzoniere, and Erasmus' Colloquies. Publication series and edited volumes have included partnerships with the Cambridge University Press, Routledge, and the University of California Press. Major conferences have addressed themes connecting the Black Death, the Hundred Years' War, the Italian Wars, and the Protestant Reformation to artistic production associated with Jan van Eyck, Hieronymus Bosch, Sandro Botticelli, and Caravaggio.

Public programs include lecture series, workshops, and exhibitions co-curated with the Getty Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Autry Museum of the American West, and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Educational offerings have linked to K–12 initiatives and public humanities collaborations with organizations such as the Los Angeles Public Library and the California Council for the Humanities. Events have highlighted performance reconstructions of medieval drama connected to ensembles like Ex Cathedra and The Sixteen, and staged readings of plays from the Elizabethan era and the Jacobean era.

The center is administered within the structure of the University of California system and coordinates with UCLA departments including History, Music, Theatre, and Art History. Its advisory board has included scholars affiliated with the Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, and the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History. Funding sources and partnerships have involved the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Getty Foundation, and private donors associated with patrons of medieval studies like the families behind the Huntington Library and the Folger Shakespeare Library.