The Great Lost Library of Alcuin’s York exhibition to take place at the University of York

A new series of multimedia exhibitions at the University of York will begin next month starting with the fascinating story of the great lost library of Alcuin and the research of Dr Mary Garrison from the University’s Department of History.

 In the eighth century, York owed its reputation as one of the most intellectually influential cities in Europe to the library and school headed by the scholar Alcuin. However, the library has vanished; no books now exist that can be proven to have come from it. The disappearance of the library is a mystery. Was it destroyed in the violence of ninth-century Viking conquest, or were some books from it exported and recopied? The exhibition allows visitors to follow the clues to this mystery.

 Open to all, the free exhibition ‘The Great Lost Library of Alcuin’s York’ uses photographs, primarily of eighth-century books in Anglo-Saxon and Caroline minuscule, alongside specially made work by local calligraphers Dorothy Wilkinson, Sue Sparrow and Angela Dalleywater, to tell the story of the lost library.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

Public can now walk the York Jewish History Trail

The York Jewish History Trail was launched on Friday, giving the public the chance to explore hundreds of years of Jewish history in England. Created by the University of York’s Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past launched the trail, and the inaugural walk was led by Professor Helen Weinstein, of IPUP, and City Archaeologist, John Oxley. They have worked for a year with IPUP student interns and media company Historyworks to research and produce an illustrated map of the Trail with accompanying podcasts.

Professor Weinstein says: “I am extremely proud to see this project come to fruition because our IPUP interns have used their research skills to produce a useful product for the public. Most people in York know about 16 March 1190, when Jewish families died in the massacre at Clifford’s Tower, but they do not know where Jews lived and worshipped and were buried. The Trail is designed to introduce the public to the longer story of Jewish settlement in the city from the 12th century to the 21st century.”

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

Medieval records of the Church Courts of York now online

Fascinating records from the Church Courts of York are now available on-line at the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York, allowing historians new insights into a huge variety of topics over many centuries.

From arguments about church taxes on liquorice, roses and pigeon dung, to families disputing wills and inheritance, the records paint a vivid picture of the social, economic, political, religious and emotional world of people living in a period from the 14th to 19th centuries.

Digitisation of the York Cause Papers, which record the proceedings of the ecclesiastical courts of York from 1300 to 1858, has been funded through a grant from JISC, the UK’s technology consortium for higher and further education. The development means the papers are set to become one of the most widely-used historical records in the UK.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

New project to examine immigration to medieval England

Scholars at the University of York are to launch a major research project focusing on the impact and extent of immigration into England in the Middle Ages.

The study, backed by a £784,545 grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, will create a huge database of around 80,000 immigrants who lived in England between 1330 and 1550. Once the database is completed, in 2015, it will be freely accessible to all online and will offer much material that has never been available before outside academia for family and local historians.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

Multi-million funding for centre for medieval European literature

A proposed new centre for the study of medieval European literature based in York and Odense is set to become a reality thanks to an award of nearly £4.5 million funding from the Danish National Research Foundation.

The Centre of Excellence, which will be jointly based at the University of Southern Denmark and the University of York, will radically change the way in which medieval European literature is studied, allowing researchers to look at literature from a pan-European perspective, rather than one based on traditional national boundaries.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

New website: Late Medieval English Scribes

Researchers from the universities of York, Oxford and Sheffield have created a new website that aims to identifying the scribes who made the first copies of works by major authors of the 14th and early 15th centuries, including Geoffrey Chaucer and William Langland.

Late Medieval English Scribes is an online catalogue of all scribal hands (identified or unidentified) which appear in the manuscripts of the English writings of five major Middle English authors: Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, John Trevisa, William Langland and Thomas Hoccleve. The site already displays over four hundred images of manuscript pages and nearly 17000 images of medieval lettering.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

The English Parish Church through the Centuries

A new digital resource created by the University of York has been released which will provide teaching and learning resources about the history of parish churches since Anglo-Saxon times.

An interactive DVD “The English Parish Church through the Centuries: daily life and spirituality, art and architecture, literature and music”, produced by Christianity and Culture at the University of York, traces the development of the country’s most iconic ecclesiastical buildings across the centuries.

Click here to read the article on Medievalists.net

New lessons from York’s Medieval massacre

A major international conference next week will take a fresh perspective on one of the darkest episodes in English medieval history - the mass suicide and murder of Jewish men, women and children in York in 1190.

The University of York’s Centre for Medieval Studies will host the conference which brings together scholars from a range of disciplines to examine the events of 1190. It will feature speakers from the USA, Canada and Europe as well as the UK.

The massacre on the site of Clifford's Tower in York was one of a series of attacks on local communities of Jews across England in 1189-90.

The conference will use the events of the period to reassess the rapid changes in communities, and their relationship to Royal and ecclesiastical government, at the time locally, nationally and throughout Europe. One of the aims of the conference is to keep the story of these events alive for a new audience and a new generation of scholars.

York 1190 – Jews and Others in the Wake of Massacre will take advantage of the substantial amount of new research on twelfth-century England. This includes work on government and local power, ethnic identity, relationships with Europe and the development of distinct regional identities, as well as new intellectual and religious models of community and pastoral care.

Conference organiser Dr Sarah Rees Jones said: “Our aim is to consider the massacre as central to the narrative of English history around 1200 as well as that of Jewish history. This conference will provide a new perspective on these events.”

The conference which takes place from 22 to 24 March at The King’s Manor, in York city centre, will also feature a special presentation to Professor Barrie Dobson, Emeritus Professor in the Centre for Medieval Studies, in recognition of his work on medieval Jewish history.

For more information about the conference, go to http://www.york.ac.uk/medieval-studies/york-1190/.

Source: University of York

Scientists using X-rays to help conservation of York Minster

X-rays are being used on parts of York Minster in an effort to protect the historic building from further erosion. Researchers are using the equipment to find out how badly the Minster's limestone structure has decayed. The results will be used to help advise conservation experts how further decay can be avoided.

"This project is about a problem with York Minster," explains Dr. Kate Giles of York University. "The building is hundreds of years old and it has been eroding over centuries, and over those centuries lots of people have repaired it and we are just the latest phase of repair and restoration.

"Science is helping us on the east front of York Minster because we’ve been able to observe over the past few decades and even centuries, the that magnesium limestone, the stone from which York Minster is made, but we’ve never been able to look at that in microscopic detail."

Researchers are using an X-ray photoelectron spectrometer to explore the limestone in microscopic detail to study the salt deposits and other compounds contained within it that can cause the stone to erode. The work is helping to advise conservation experts how best to treat the stone to prevent further decay and what materials to use in the current restoration of the Minster’s East Front.

Dr Karen Wilson of the University of Cardiff explains the impact of the work: “This work is very important for society because by advising the key people involved in the conservation of such historic buildings we can ensure the survival of these beautiful architectures for future generations.”

This video explains in more detail the project, which is co-funded by the the Universities of York and Cardiff:



The first Minster was built for the baptism of the Anglo Saxon King, Edwin of Northumbria in 627 and has been rebuilt and enlarged over the centuries. This Minster was completed in 1472 and restoration work has been ongoing ever since as stonemasons work their way around the structure to restore decayed and weathered limestone.

Medieval mass performed at York church

A church will celebrate Mass as it would have been performed 600 years ago thanks to a partnership with the University of York.

PhD student Eleanor McCullough pieced together the Mass used in York churches in the 14th Century based on manuscripts from the period held by York Minster and the Bodleian Library.

It was used in a special ceremony last month at All Saints Church North Street, in York, to celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of North Street.



Eleanor McCullough, a PhD student in the Centre for Medieval Studies and holder of the All Saints North Street Fellowship, spent nine months researching the Mass.

She said: "Recreating the Mass was a complex task as in this period there were different elements for special feast days, and instructions for use were not always written down since priests were expected to know them.

“In addition, each diocese had its own special hymns and prayers for the feast days and sometimes only the opening lines were given so other sources had to be consulted to find the prayers in full.

“This may well be the first time that a York Lady Mass has been reconstructed and performed from the medieval manuscripts here in York since the Reformation."

In addition to the Mass, the research also uncovered plainchant that would have been sung in the same period and was performed by The Ebor Singers for the service.

All Saints Church will be holding a series of events on Saturday as part of the Festival of British Archaeology organised by The Council for British Archaeology.

All Saints North Street stands on a site used for worship for more than 1,100 years and contains one of the most important displays of medieval stained glass in the British Isles.