Workshop Epistolary Communication in the Middle Ages: Registration open!

Registration is now open for the workshop Processes of Epistolary Communication in the Middle Ages (12-13 June 2025, Utrecht University)

COURTESY BRITISH LIBRARY (ROYAL 10 E. IV, F.314)

Our workshop aims to foster conversation between scholars who work on Greek, Arabic, and Latin letters in the Mediterranean world between c. 400 and 1000 CE. Confirmed speakers include Petra Sijpesteijn (Leiden), Floris Bernard (Ghent), Marco Cristini (Florence), Bruno Marien (Leuven), Antonia Bosanquet (Utrecht), Laury Sarti (Freiburg), Jelle Bruning (Leiden), Peter Darby (Nottingham), Matthijs Zoeter (Ghent), Anne Sieberichs (Utrecht), Yasmine Amory (Paris), and Madalina Toca (Bamberg). Click here for the program. Papers will be thirty minutes, followed by ample time for question and discussion. The workshop will consider questions such as:

• Definitions of the letter
• Reasons for writing a letter
• Evidence of the materiality and physical formats of letters
• Selection and identities of letter carriers and messengers
• Travelling and roads in the Mediterranean world
• Delivering and performing letters
• Authors and audiences of letters
• Reuse and recirculation of letters outside their original context

The workshop is organized by the NWO-VIDI project Lettercraft and Epistolary Performance in Early Medieval Europe, 476-751. This project approaches the medieval letter as a performative medium that was read out aloud, translated and circulated in public. It explores how the letter was thus able to establish lines of communication between diverse social groups and across political boundaries and language-barriers, making it an essential tool for conflict-resolution and consensus-building in a world with rudimentary infrastructure and limited public order.

Participation is free. To register, please contact the conference organizers, Dr Robert Flierman and Dr Hope Williard, at lettercraft@uu.nl

The Lettercraft project is funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). Additional financial support for the workshop is provided by the Dutch Research School for Medieval Studies.