Medieval People
Medieval Institute Publications at Western Michigan University publishes "Medieval People: Social Bonds, Kinship and Networks" (ISSN 2690-8182; eISSN 2690-8190), formerly published under the title "Medieval Prosopography: History and Collective Biography" (ISSN 0198-9405; eISSN 2381-8700).
"Medieval People" builds upon what its precursor, "Medieval Prosopography," sought to do: it is dedicated to highlighting the experiences of unknown or obscure individuals or groups, as well as exploring the social networks that gave shape to the lives of all medieval people. The journal has been updated, however, to reflect the new trends in scholarship and the ever-growing number of tools available to scholars, as well as the rich offerings of digital humanities projects that can assist scholars in developing a deeper and more inclusive understanding of the medieval world. Therefore volume 35 of "Medieval Prosopography" is the last volume available in print, while volume 36, coming in early 2022, will be the first volume under the title "Medieval People" and the first online-only volume of the journal (articles can be printed by subscribers).
Taking Eileen Power’s classic book "Medieval People" as a touchstone, the inaugural volume of the journal will contain articles that correspond directly with the narratives in Power’s volume, such as Constance Bouchard’s updating of “The Peasant Bodo.” But the focus of the journal has also been updated and expanded to include articles on medieval people who were not included in the original work, including, for instance, Nicole Lopez-Jantzen’s examination of Lombard queens and Lucy Barnhouse’s discussion of the relationship of the sick and destitute with a German monastery. These articles align with the journal’s mission to promote the study of overlooked or understudied medieval people and groups.
To highlight how the study of the past has transformed and broadened, consideration of the tools that scholars can now employ to detect relationships not known heretofore, but also to recover the experiences of people whose stories would otherwise remain unretrievable, will also be included. Courtney Luckhardt, for example, uses social networking software to trace the relationships between pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem.
Editors
- Amy Livingstone, University of Lincoln, UK
- Charlotte Cartwright, Christopher Newport University
- Jamie Wood, University of Lincoln, UK
Executive board
- Valerie L. Garver, Northern Illinois University
- Jonathan R. Lyon, University of Chicago
- Joel T. Rosenthal, State University of New York at Stony Brook
"Medieval People": Volume 37 (2022) table of contents
"George Beech (1931–2022): In Memoriam," by Joel Rosenthal
"Medieval Everydays: A Creative Microhistory," by Katherine Weikert
"The Illegitimate Offspring of King John of England Identified from the Rolls," by Ralph V. Turner
- Appendix A: The Mother of Joan, Two Candidates
- Appendix B: The Mother of Richard fitz Roy, a Daughter of the Earl of Surrey
- Appendix C: The Mother of Oliver, Hawise fitz Warin
- Appendix D: The Mother of Osbert Giffard, Matilda Giffard
Past volumes
The most recent volume of "Medieval Prosopography," Volume 36 (2021), contained articles by Constance B. Bouchard, Virginia Bainbridge, Gilbert Bogner, Rena N. Lauer, Lucy C. Barnhouse, Nicole Lopez-Jantzen, Elizabeth A. R. Brown, Matthew Hammond, Courtney Luckhardt, Elisabeth van Houts, Maryanne Kowelski, Katy Mortimer, Yvonne Seale with Heather Wacha, and Alexandra Guerson with Dana Wessell Lightfoot.
All past volumes of "Medieval Prosopography" are available on our ScholarWorks platform.
Subscriptions
"Medieval People" is published annually in a digital format. Journal subscriptions and orders of individual issues, which can also be printed on demand, are handled by our distributor, ISD. Subscription pricing is as follows:
- Student/retiree/independent scholar subscriptions are $25.
- Individual subscriptions are $45.
- Institution or library subscriptions are $95.
- Our subscription order form can also be used to contact ISD for print-on-demand orders.
Mapping the Medieval Woman
"Medieval People" authors Tracy Chapman Hamilton and Mariah Proctor-Tiffany have launched their website Mapping the Medieval Woman, the subject of their article “Inscribing Her Presence: Digitally Mapping Women in Late Medieval Paris” in vol. 37 of the journal. This digital art history project synthesizes their research about women’s patronage in a clickable map. While much scholarship over the decades has focused on the impressive architectural patronage of men of all ranks, but particularly kings like Louis IX (1214-1270) and Charles V (1338-1380), women have often received less attention. This project seeks to focus attention on women’s monastic houses, artistic production, participation in urban rituals and their campaigns of patronage—building colleges, hospitals and rich residences. Women like Jeanne d’Evreux, Marie de Brabant, Jeanne de Bourgogne, and Clémence de Hongrie contributed to the character and urban fabric of medieval Paris.
The base map is the Plan de Bâle designed and printed by Truschet and Hoyau in Paris in 1550. Remarkably, when the authors went to georectify the map (stretch or shrink the historical map to match today’s latitude and longitude points) very little modification was necessary—a testament to the map makers’ ability. Enjoy scrolling in to see recognizable areas of Paris and to read about different sites associated with women, and if you’re in Paris, you can walk to sites identified by modern addresses in the entries. By mapping these sites, the many patrons, workers, residents and religious women come into view together. Medieval women’s spaces were highly visible in Paris in the Middle Ages, and Mapping the Medieval Woman highlights them for modern people. The authors invite other scholars to participate in the project by sending additional sites and sources through the website. The authors are grateful to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation for its support when the authors were fellows at the Art History and Digital Mapping Institute run by Paul Jaskot and Anne Knowles.
This journal explores the lives of medieval people of all ranks, periods and places in the medieval world and welcomes submissions that explore a single life, that highlight the important social bonds of an individual or group, or the study of social networks from late antiquity to the sixteenth century. If the editors believe the article is suitable for publication in the journal, it will be evaluated by experts in the field. Articles in the major European languages are invited and will be published in their original language. Please submit articles through the journal's ScholarWorks page, and contact the editors with any questions about submissions.
General submission rules
Submitted articles cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). Please note: "publication" in a working-paper series does not constitute prior publication. In addition, by submitting material to "Medieval People," the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that he or she will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at "Medieval People."
Formatting requirements
Please submit articles with a minimum of formatting. Do not justify the right margin, or use varying type sizes or variable line space, or insert extra spaces around paragraphs. See Final Manuscript Preparation Guidelines for further details. Additional necessary materials (e.g., tables, family trees, etc.) should also be submitted as Word files when possible.
