Medieval Latin Reading Group

An image of a Mitre

An informal group that meets fortnightly to read medieval texts in Latin in a friendly and supportive environment. All levels of Latin expertise welcomed.

Contact: John Weretka

Next meeting: Thursday 11 June, continuing Vita Æduuardi regis qui apud Westmonasterium requiescit, ‘attributed to a Monk of St-Bertin’. A translation and introduction can be accessed at Archive (here), and a PDF of the text we will work from is here. We have now finished the opening poem and commence the prose from page 393 at Regnante supradicto Cnuto rege.
And here starting f38r is the sole MS of our text, for your perusing pleasure!

Time: 12:30-2:00 every second Thursday.

Location: Currently meeting via Zoom.

The pieces chosen are either directly related to members’ research or have language and vocabulary that members want to explore for their research. There is usually an English translation available for the texts chosen.

Texts have included the Vitae of St Mochuda, Alexander the Great and Charlemagne, Leonardo Bruni’s Historiarum Florentini populi libri XII, Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, the Carmina Burana, the Aberdeen Bestiary, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Brittaniae, selections from Jacobus de Voragine’s Legenda Aurea, the Liber secundus of Donizo’s Vita Matildis, Sedulius Scottus’ De quodam verbece, the Liber primus of Ysengrimus, the eleventh book of Venantius Fortunatus’ Carmina, the Gesta Francorum, the Votum theologorum Avenionensium (the proceedings of the heresy trial against Meister Eckhard), Liutprand of Cremona’s Antapodosis, the Devastatio Constantinopolitana, Boncompagno da Signa’s Liber de obsidione Anconae, Walter Map’s De nugis curialium, Johannes de Alta Silva’s Dolopatos, selections from Juvencus’ Liber quattuor evangeliarum, Ekkehard of Saint Gall’s Waltharius, Guibert of Nogent’s Monodiae, the Anonymous Passio sanctorum Petri et Pauli, the Anonymous Gesta Federici Imperatoris de Rebus Gestis in Lombardia and the Anonymous Visio Tnugdali.

Texts for 2026:
From the start of first semester 2025, the group has taken a break from its usual Medieval remit with Athanasius Kircher’s Neo-Latin autobiography Vita Admodum (1684). April 2026 marks a return  to the medieval  with the Life of Edward the Confessor.