What's New in Medieval Studies III (April 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 have designated books that are free to download as Open Access. For each work I also provide the URL to the work, so you can purchase/download/whatever. Have a book coming out? Get in touch!

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 6 journals and 27 books released in April 2026:

Journals:

1. After Constantine 6, available here. Open access
2. After Constantine - Special Issue: "Entangled Christianities, available here. Open access.
3. Journal of Late Antiquity 19, no. 1, available here.
4. New Medieval Literatures 26, available here.
5. Speculum 101, no. 2, available here.
6. Studies in Medievalism 35, available here.

Warfare/Politics

1. Brown, Michael H., Scotland, the Wars of the Roses, and European Politics: War and Diplomacy in the Later Fifteenth Century (Boydell Press)
2. Fletcher, Catherine, The Firearm Revolution: From Renaissance Italy to the European Empires (Princeton University Press). I am really looking forward to sitting down with this!
3. Lake-Giguère, Danny, Administrer les forêts royales en Normandie au Moyen Âge (1204-1328) (Classiques Garnier). I'm curious about this more than anything.

Literature/Texts

1. Fry, Sarah, Approaching Norman Charters of the Eleventh Century (Routledge). You know I wasn't gonna miss a volume on charters.
2. Gillis, Matthew Bryan, Christ's War: Holiness, Heroism and Horror in Carolingian Poetry, c. 730-c. 900 CE (Manchester University Press)
3. Paden, William D., Love and Marriage in the Time of the Troubadours (University Press of Florida)

Law/Philosophy

1. Alessi, Ignazio and Gavino Scala (eds), Law and Literature: an Interdisciplinary Exploration of Medieval Texts (Brepols)
2. Kelly, Henry Ansgar, The Trial and Retrial of Joan of Arc: a Judicial Review (Palgrave Macmillan Cham)
3. Palazzo, Alessandro, Francesca Bonini, and Amalia Cerrito (eds), Medieval Debates on Foreknowledge: Future Contingents, Prophecy, and Divination: Acts of the XXVII Annual Colloquium of the SIEPM, Trento 12-15 September 2023 (Brepols)
4. Perkams, Matthias (ed.), Methods in Medieval Latin and Arabic Philosophy (6th-13th cent.)/Methoden in der mittelalterlichen lateinischen und arabischen Philosophie (6.–13. Jhdt.) (De Gruyter)

Religion/Culture

1. Clarke, Peter D., Clergy and Criminal Violence in Later Medieval England and Wales (Cambridge University Press)
2. Gerundt, Monika, Heilige Funde: Reiliquienauffindungen und "Inventiones reliquiarum" im karolingisch-fränkischen Raum (4.-12. Jahrhundert) (Franz Steiner)
3. Giraud, Eleanor J., The Making of Dominican Liturgy and its Chant (Cambridge University Press)
4. Hella, Anni and Anu Korhonen (eds), Cultural Perceptions of Health, Illness and the Body in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Routledge)
5. van Liere, Frans (ed.), Shared Scripture – Divided Faiths: the Medieval Jewish-Christian Encounter over the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (Brill)
6. Pedersen, David G., Conceiving Heroic Christianity in Early Medieval England (De Gruyter)

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Material Culture/Art/Archaeology

1. Boto Varela, Gerardo and Marta Serrano Coll (eds), Weaving Memories in Medieval Cathedrals: Artistic Narratives in Global History (Brepols)
2. Carocci, Sandro and Federico Del Tredici (eds), Building and Conflict in Southern Europe (1000-1300) (Brepols)
3. Lewis, Carenza, Neil Christie, Gareth Davies, and Aidan O'Sullivan (eds), Medieval Rural Settlement and Infrastructure Archaeology Across Europe (Archaeopress)
4. Moreton, Melissa and Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Textiles in Manuscripts: a Local and Global History of the Book (De Gruyter)
5. Passuello, Angelo and Michalis Olympios (eds), Behind the Scenes of Medieval Roofs. An Overview of the Roofing Systems of Italian Churches ("L’Erma" di Bretschneider). Open access.
6. Schenkluhn, Wolfgang, Paths to the Past: on the Conception of Medieval Architecture and Other Essays (Brepols)

Society

1. Bueno, Irene, Vincenzo Lavenia, and Riccardo Parmeggiani (eds), Scrutinizing the Devil's Plots: Magic, Witchcraft, and Inquisition (14th-20th Centuries) (Viella)
2. Heinrich-Tamáska, Orsolya, Carla Sfameni, Christoph Rummel, Simon Esmonde Cleary, Dominic Moreau, Christophe J. Goddard (eds), Late Antique villae in the Balkans (3rd–7th c. AD): Current Research Questions and Perspectives (Brepols)

Non-European

1. Glowacki, Mary and Anita G. Cook (eds), Empire of the Ancestors: the Wari of the Middle Horizon (University Press of Florida)
2. Jabbour, Jawdath and Frédérique Woerther (eds), Persuading and Transmitting in Classical Arabic Philosophy: Studies in Honour of Maroun Aouad (Brill)
3. Morikawa, Tomoko (ed.), Cities through Time: Glimpses into Urbanity and Community in Mediaeval to Modern West Asia and Egypt (Brepols). Open access.

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