Please note: the exact date and time is still TBD
French was one of the most widely-spoken vernaculars in medieval Europe and beyond, extending far beyond the confines of what we today call ‘France’ to encompass parts of Italy, the Low Countries, and even the Middle East. The best-known example of medieval French in use outside France is in the Kingdom of England, where in the centuries following the Norman Conquest, it was the primary language of the nobility, the law courts, and administrative classes. Across this broad swathe of the medieval world, French was also an incredibly rich literary language, used to write epics and romances, saints’ lives, histories, administrative and technical texts, and much more. For students researching the literature, history, or languages of medieval Europe, an ability to read medieval French can create new avenues of study, allow connections to be drawn across texts and places, and offer greater insight into the medieval world.
This training course will run over 6 weeks in the Autumn semester. It is aimed at graduate students at CHASE-affiliated institutions, is intended to introduce participants to working with medieval French materials, and give researchers the tools to read (in print and manuscript) and interpret medieval French texts from the tenth to the sixteenth centuries.
The first half of the course will introduce participants to the grammar of the language and give them the tools to engage in reading, translation, and manuscript transcription exercises. This will also introduce some key texts. The latter half will cater to participants’ specific research needs and allow students to work through texts that will benefit their own projects.
Classes will run online and will be led by Dr Edward Mills, and they will begin the week of 11 October 2021. There will be no formal assessment on the course, but students will be encouraged to take part in reading exercises as part of their preparation for each class.
The expected learning outcomes are as follows:
An introductory knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary of medieval French.
An ability to read and translate medieval French materials, including manuscripts.
An appreciation of the range of texts available in medieval French available for research, and their relationships with texts in other languages of medieval Europe (especially England).
An awareness of the existing resources for research in medieval French.
If you would like to participate in the training, please include a brief summary of why you would like to participate, what you are working on, and any relevant prior linguistic experience. A reading knowledge of modern French (GCSE level or higher) is recommended, but not essential.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with one of the event organizers, Dr Emily Dolmans (e.dolmans@uea.ac.uk) and Dr Robert Gallagher (r.d.gallagher@kent.ac.uk).
[image credit: British Library: London, British Library, MS Royal 15 D II, f. 6.]