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What's New in Medieval Studies (Feb. 2026)

Jon Dell Isola

27 Mar 2026 — 4 min read

Giovanni Battista Bracelli, Bizzarie di varie figure (1624). National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Public Domain.

With so much new scholarship on the middle ages appearing all the time, it is easy for it to get lost or missed by those who are not in the know or professional historians. So my goal is to curate a list, mostly in English, of new releases in medieval studies each month. It will release at the end of the following month (so February's list will be released at the end of March), so that I have time to capture the information. Medieval is being used very expansively here, so expect some books dealing with Late Rome or the Renaissance if they look particularly interesting. Now, I don't have the time or resources to read all of these books, so inclusion here doesn't mean it is guaranteed to be amazing. But I have largely tried to steer towards major academic presses (i.e. not popular histories).^[1] I will offer some light editorializing but it is by no means comprehensive. I also will have a designated Open Access section, so even if you don't have access to an academic library you can still benefit. For each work I also provide the URL to the work, so you can purchase/download/whatever. I do ask that you subscribe as a free or paid member to support this work!

This list cannot be comprehensive, and I have occasionally omitted certain books such as source editions that are meant for more specialized audiences. This information was derived from the individual academic presses themselves, my own Bluesky feed, and pages such as "Medieval Updates" which shares newly published works.

So without further ado, here is the list of recently published works in February 2026:

Journals:

Early Medieval England and its Neighbours 52. Available here.
Early Medieval Europe 34, no. 1. Available here.

Gender/Sexuality

Amsel, Stephanie, Late Medieval Female Subject Consciousness: Italian and English Mystics, Boccaccio, Chaucer and Beyond (Springer)
Barr, Jessica, Medieval Holy Women and the Desire for Death (Notre Dame Press)
Rokai, Melina (ed.), Power and Women in Southeast and Central Europe in Late Medieval and Early Modern Period (1300-1600) (Trivent)

Non-European Middle Ages

Jackson, Peter (ed.), Early Western Missions to the Mongols (1245-1248): the Opening of Diplomatic Contacts with a New World Power (Routledge) Ok this isn't exactly about just the Mongols, but still.
Stuart, David, The Four Heavens: a New History of the Ancient Maya (Princeton University Press) This is aimed at an adult non-specialist audience, but I've included it because it looks very very good and is from an academic press.

Religion

Gillhammer, Cosima Clara and Audrey Southgate (eds), Medieval Commentary and Exegesis: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (D.S. Brewer)
Kahlos, Maijastina, Barbarians as the Religious Other in the Late Roman World (Edinburgh University Press)
Lang, Uwe Michael, The Roman Mass: From Early Christian Origins to Tridentine Reform (Cambridge University Press)

Writing/Literature/Poetry

Clunies Ross, Margaret, Skaldic Poetry as Christian Propaganda: Honouring Bishop Guðmundr Arason in Fourteenth-Century Iceland (Boydell & Brewer)
Passabì, Gabriele, Robert of Torigni's Chronography and the Universal Chronicle Tradition (Boydell & Brewer)

Politics

Kintzinger, Martin and Klara Hübner (eds), Fragile Fürstenherrschaft im spätmittelalterlichen Europa (Thorbecke) It is perhaps unsurprising this is one of the few non-English books here, I think this looks to be a very important volume.

Culture

Coombs, Bryony, Jill Harrison, Giovanna Guidicini (eds), Anselm Adornes: Travel, Trade, Cultural Exchange, and Intellectual Networks in Scotland, Bruges, and Jerusalem (Brepols)
Karpińska, Klaudia, Riley Smallman, Sigmund Oehrl (eds), Between Bones and Beliefs: Human-Bird Relations in Central and Northern Europe in the First Millennium AD (Brepols)

Material Culture/Architecture/Landscape

Adamski, Jakub and Piotr Pajor, The Gothic Cathedral in Cracow and the European Architecture around the Year 1300 (Brepols)
Claude, Caroline and Annie Lefèvre (eds), La céramique médiévale en Île-de-France du VIᵉ à la fin du XIᵉ siècle: Caractérisation, évolution et diffusion (Presses universitaires de Caen)
Guérin, Sarah M.,French Gothic Ivories: Material Theologies and the Sculptor's Craft (Cambridge University Press)
Hamerow, Helena, Mark McKerracher, et. al, Feeding Medieval England: a Long 'Agricultural Revolution', 700-1300 (Oxford University Press)
Ilko, Krisztina, The Sons of St Augustine: Art and Memory in the Augustinian Churches of Central Italy, 1256-1370 (Oxford University Press)
Ivanovici, Vladimir and Alice Isabella Sullivan (eds), Artificial Light in Medieval Churches (Brill) Lighting is a really interesting topic, this is about a specific region but should still be quite interesting generally.
Pitamber, Naomi Ruth, Byzantium and Landscapes of Loss: the Recreation of Constantinople in the Laskarid and Palailogan Eras (Cambridge University Press)
Vauchez, André, Shrines, Relics, and Saints: Christian Sanctuaries from Late Antiquity through the Middle Ages translated by Michael F. Cusato (Cornell University Press)

Open Access

Brégaint, David, Ingvil Brügger Budal and Jens Eike Schnall (eds), Food and Feast in the Arthurian World (University of Bergen)
Campbell, Emma and Luke Sunderland, The Horizons of Medieval French and Occitan: New Approaches to Manuscripts and Texts (Brill)
Juste, David, Latin Ptolemaic Writings on Astronomy and Astrology up to AD 1700: a Comprehensive Survey of the Works, Manuscripts and Early Printed Editions (Brepols) Open access isn't available yet, but should be.
Ødegaard, Marie, Stuart Brookes, and Thorsten Lemm (eds), Beacons and Military Communication from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period (Brepols)
van Rekum, Simon, Ontologies of Titles: Office-Person Relationships and Social Taxonomies in 13th-Century Norway and Iceland (Brill) This looks like a very interesting open access volume.