What's New in Medieval Studies II (March 2026)

Welcome back to my monthly installment of new releases in medieval studies. 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). If you want my reasons for why you should read academic books even if you aren't an academic, you can find my piece here. 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.

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 share newly published works.

Before we get to the list, can I ask you to subscribe? Compiling this information takes time! Your support, either free or paid, lets me know that people appreciate this work.

Here are the 2 journals and 33 books released in the past month:

Journals:

1. Journal of Late Antique, Islamic and Byzantine Studies 5, no. 1, available here.
2. Nottingham Medieval Studies 69 (2025), available here.

Open Access:

1. Enekel, Karl A.E., Authorship in Neo-Latin Literature (c. 1350-c.1650) (Brill)
2. Laroche, Johannes, Georg Vogeler, Dominique Stutzmann, Marlène Helias-Baron, Sébastien Barret (eds), Schriftlichkeit religiöser Gemeinschaften: Zwischen Urkundenforschung und Digital Humanities (Böhlau) This looks like a combination of charter scholarship with digital humanities, neat.
3. Noble, Gordon (ed.), Rhynie, a Powerful Place of Pictland: the Development of a Landscape of Pictish Royal Power from the Roman to the Early Medieval Period (Society of Antiquaries of Scotland)
4. Richard, Olivier, La ville jurée: Serment et gouvernement dans les villes du Rhin supérieur à la fin du Moyen Âge (Heidelberg University Publishing) Open access book on oaths and their use in the Later Middle Ages, I think this just looks neat.

Digital Humanities:

1. Morreale, Laura and Sean Gilsdorf (eds), Digital Medieval Studies: Crusaders and Computers (ARC Humanities Press)

Viking/Norse Studies:

1. Kuusela, Tommy and Ingunn Ásdísardóttir (eds) Women and Goddesses in Old Norse Mythology and Folklore (Brepols)
2. Þorgeirsdóttir, Brynja, Gareth Lloyd Evans, Daniel Sävborg (eds). New Studies on Emotion in Old Norse Literature (Brill)

Late Antiquity:

1. Elm, Susanna and Kristina Sessa, (eds), War and Community in Late Antiquity (Cambridge University Press)

Writing/Literature/Poetry:

1. Conter, Claude D., Thomas Falmagne, Marc Laureys, Christophe Marinheiro, Max Schmitz, Tom Zago (eds), Lectori vago. Manuscripts, Libraries, and Classical Scholarship from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period (Brepols)
2. Hugen, Jelmar, Crossroads of Cultures: Multilingual Diversity in Dutch Literature from Late Medieval Flanders (Brepols)
3. Thomas, Daniel, The Old English Poet as Reader (Brepols)

Rome/Byzantium:

1. Bentein, Klaas and Andrea Massimo Cuomo (eds), Correctness in Comparison: Negotiating Linguistic Norms in Greek from the Imperial Roman until the Later Byzantine Period (I-XV c. AD) (Brepols)

Religion:

1. Bailey, Lisa Kaaren, Servants of God, Slaves of the Church: Service as Religious Metaphor and Social Reality in Early Medieval Europe (Cornell University Press)
2. Baumgarten, Elisheva (ed.), Beyond the Elite: Everyday Jewish Lives in Medieval Northern Europe (Cornell University Press)
3. Bracha, Krzystof and Martin Nodl (eds), Christians, Pagans, Dissidents: Christianisation in Late Medieval Bohemia and Poland (Sandstein Kultur)

Ritual/Disputes:

1. Kintzinger, Martin, Dialog, Duell, Disputation: Inszenierung der Streitkultur im europäischen Spätmittelalter (Thorbecke) I was drawn to this because of its seeming engagement with questions of ritual-staging found in the works of Gerd Althoff.
2. Raynaud, Christiane, Solidarités et révoltes au Moyen Âge (Dervy)

Politics/Kingship:

1. O'Brien, Conor, The Rise of Christian Kingship in the Early Medieval West (Oxford University Press) I'm really interested in reading this, and will be reviewing it for a journal, stay tuned!
2. Schneider, Jens, Isabelle Rosé, Tristan Martine, Thomas Lienhard, Sylvie Joye, and Justine Audebrand (eds), Autorité de l’évêque – Autorité de l’écrit /Autorität der Bischöfe – Autorität des Wortes: Études en hommage à Geneviève Bührer-Thierry / Beiträge zu Ehren von Geneviève Bührer-Thierry_ (Brill) This volume is in honor of Geneviève Bührer-Thierry, who has written a lot of great work on bishops.
3. Stern, Paul, Dante's Political Philosophy: Rethinking Paradiso (Cambridge University Press)

Non-European/Global Middle Ages:

1. Di Cosmo, Nicola and Lorenzo Pubblici, Venice and the Mongols: the Eurasian Exchange that Transformed the Medieval World, trans. Sylvia Notini (Princeton University Press)
2. Verellen, Franciscus, The Fall of the Tang: Gao Pian's Trials of Allegiance (Cambridge University Press)

Sexuality/Gender:

1. Borgolte, Michael, Königinnen zwischen Fremde und Vaterland: Heiratsmigrantinnen des hohen Mittelalters und die politische Integration Europas (Wallstein Verlag) This is a followup to an earlier book by Borgolte titled Königin in der Fremde
2. Krueger, Derek, Monastic Desires: Homoeroticism, Homophobia, and the Love of God in Medieval Constantinople (Cambridge University Press)
3. Rudolph, Anna Katharina, Rewriting History and the Myth of the French Nation: the Hagiography of Radegund of Poitiers from Medieval to Modernity (Routledge)
4. Tuten, Belle S., Daily Life of Women in Medieval Europe (Bloomsbury)

Art/Landscape:

1. Gearhardt, Heidi and Achim Timmermann (eds), Tributes to Elizabeth Sears: Activating the Eye and Mind (Harvey Miller Publishers).
2. Luxford, Julian, Drawings in Books in Medieval Britain from the Ninth Century to the Reformation (Boydell & Brewer)
3. Pulliam, Heather, Art, Nature, and the Body in Early Medieval Britain and Ireland (Cambridge University Press)
4. Vallejo, Rocío Suárez, Stones, Trees and Springs in the Ritual Landscape of Late Antique Gaul and Hispania (Routledge)

Law/Philosophy:

1. Michałowska, Monika and Michael W. Dunne (eds), The Will Discourse in Late Medieval Philosophy and Theology (Routledge)
2. Tugendhat, Michael and Elizabeth de Montlaur Martin, Liberty in France and Britain, 1159-1789: Restoring Human Rights (Boydell Press)

Other:

1. Cappozzo, Valerio (ed.), Dreambooks in the Middle Ages: a Global Perspective (Brill) This doesn't fit in anywhere really.

Thanks for reading Among the Ruins! If you haven’t subscribed, please do so below and you can have these posts delivered right to your inbox!

You can also contribute a one-off donation, if you feel so inclined. I really appreciate any monetary support!