The online Middle English Dictionary and Compendium, developed and hosted by the University of Michigan, have received their most significant update in the last two decades. You can use the beta version here: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dictionary

If you'd like to read about the long development of this fantastic resource, you can read up on it at the About page: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/about

Congrats to all involved and thank you for your dedicated work.

A Note from Christopher Cannon

Glossarial Concordance to Middle English
middleenglish.library.jhu.edu
The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer and the English Works of John Gower

The data was compiled by the late Larry Benson from the electronic files created when he edited the Riverside Chaucer as well as the similar files he created in his retirement from Macaulay’s edition of Gower. As many of you know, the concordance was available on Harvard’s Chaucer website for some years, although, as Larry said, it was ‘buggy from the start’ (it turns out there were some simple but disabling errors in the original indexing files), and, recently, it had become all but unusable. I recently persuaded the library at Hopkins of the importance of this data to Middle English studies, however, as well as its potential for the digital humanities, and so a variety of resources were made available including a software engineer to provide new programming for the data with a variety of new searching possibilities. The most important advance I think—which should make this usable by beginning students—is an auto-fill function in the search boxes so that Middle English approximations of the form you are typing as well as possible dictionary headwords are suggested and progressively refined. This site also makes available the tagged text (which you can see alongside or instead of the untagged text of each line) and Benson’s tagging system (sui generis but a useful standard since it is entirely based on MED abbreviations). I have hopes of expanding the site by adding other Middle English texts both major and minor myself, but anyone who wishes to tag a text for inclusion is most welcome to do so.

There will soon be an email address available on the site (under the ‘Contact’ tab) should you encounter problems when using it or want to recommend revisions or particular expansions. In the meantime, however, you are welcome to write to me with suggestions or concerns at Christopher.Cannon@jhu.edu.

With best wishes
Chris

Christopher Cannon
middleenglish.library.jhu.edu
Glossarial Concordance to Middle English
The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer and the English Works of John Gower

The English version will follow.

Chers et chères membres de la SCM,

Le 15 juin marque le début de l’année d’adhésion, c’est donc le moment de se reconnecter à la Société canadienne des médiévistes et de faire des plans pour l’année à venir. Notre société croît de manière exponentielle depuis la migration de notre site Internet vers un nouveau domaine. En 2017, 60% du trafic vers notre site est venu de moteurs de recherches et de partages sur les réseaux sociaux; les 40% restants provenaient de marque-pages ou de liens directs. Si notre nouveau site représente un portail vers d’autres médiévistes… vous y êtes-vous déjà connectés et avez-vous mis votre profil à jour?

Il est possible de mettre à jour votre profil et de renouveler votre adhésion avec facilité et rapidité. Il suffit de se connecter à la section « membre » de notre site: https://canadianmedievalists.org Si c’est votre première visite sur le nouveau site, il faudra choisir l’option “j’ai oublié mon mot de passe” et suivre les directions. Vous pouvez aussi contacter Andrew si vous avez besoin d’aide canmedwebmaster@gmail.com

Cherchez-vous un cadeau de graduation à offrir à un ou une diplômé-e ? Il est possible d’offrir une adhésion à cette adresse : https://canadianmedievalists.org/Gift-Memberships-and-Donations

Notre site Internet facilite les connexions entre collègues, entre médiévistes, entre Canadien-nes et chercheur-es du Canada, que vous participiez à notre colloque annuel ou non. Renouvelez votre adhésion dès aujourd’hui – et considérez l’option de renouvellement automatique pour soutenir les initiatives de la SCM. Cette année la Société va développer ses réseaux sociaux à travers de nouvelles initiatives, nous avons un nouveau numéro de Florilegiumà paraître et la Société continue de souligner les recherches innovantes à travers les prix que nous décernons. Nous espérons vous retrouver nombreux au Congrès de l’année prochaine qui se tiendra à l’Université de Colombie-Britannique début juin : https://www.congress2019.ca. Toutes ces activités sont rendues possibles par le renouvellement des adhésions des membres.

Merci pour votre soutien à nos efforts,

Meredith Bacola                                                                                             SCM Secrétaire-Treasurer/ Meredith.Bacola@umanitoba.ca

Merci à Lucie Laumonier pour cette traduction.

Dear CSM member,

With our membership year beginning on June 15^th, now is a great time to reconnect with the society and plan for the year ahead. Our society continues to grow exponentially since the transference of our website to a new domain. For instance, website analytics have shown that in 2017, 60% of our website traffic has come through search engines and social media sharing, with the remaining 40% coming from a direct bookmark or link. If this is our portal to other medievalists…have you logged in and updated your profile yet?

You can update your profile and membership quickly and easily by logging into the members’ only section of our website: https://canadianmedievalists.org If you haven’t been to our new website yet, you will have to choose the ‘forgot password’ option and follow the prompts. Further questions can be directed to Andrew, our webmaster, at canmedwebmaster@gmail.com

Looking for a graduation present for a postgraduate? Encourage their connection with other medievalists through providing a gift membership here: https://canadianmedievalists.org/Gift-Memberships-and-Donations

Our website facilitates connections, amongst colleagues, amongst medievalists, amongst Canadians and researchers in Canada, whether you attend our annual Congress or not. Please renew your membership today and consider choosing the recurring option so that SCM/CSM may continue to sustain its initiatives. This year, the society looks forward to new social media initiatives, a forthcoming Florilegium volume, and acknowledging cutting edge research through our prize offerings. We also hope to reconnect with many of you at next year’s Congress, which will be hosted by the University of British Columbia in early June: https://www.congress2019.ca. All these initiatives and others are made possible by your timely membership renewal.

Thank you for supporting the vital work that we do, 

 Meredith Bacola                                                                  

CSM Secretary-Treasurer/ Meredith.Bacola@umanitoba.ca

THE MEDIEVAL ACADEMY OF AMERICA17 Dunster St., Suite 202, Cambridge, MA 02138 Tel: 617-491-1622 Fax: 617-492-3303

Seeking Editor of Speculum

The Medieval Academy of America seeks to appoint an Editor for Speculum. The position is configured as part-time, requiring around 25 hours per week. The Editor is appointed for an expected five-year term, subject to acceptable yearly performance reviews, with the possibility of a second five-year term by mutual agreement. The editor should be an established scholar with academic credentials in some field(s) of medieval studies, broadly defined, with good organizational and decision-making skills. Experience in journal or book editing will be helpful but not necessary. The new editor should plan on taking office in the late Spring of 2019, and at the latest by July 1, 2019. Terms and conditions are to be negotiated, as is the physical location of the Editor.

Applications should be sent to the MAA by July 30, 2018. There will be electronic interviews in Fall 2018 and interviews with finalists in early December, 2018. Cover letters may be addressed to David Wallace, Chair of the Search Committee. In addition to a curriculum vitae, the cover letter should include ideas about future directions for the journal, and discussion of how s/he envisions setting up the position, either in the MAA office, now in Cambridge, MA, or by moving the operation to a university campus. If the latter, s/he will describe possible institutional support. The search committee wants to identify the best pool of candidates, and the MAA is willing to be flexible in finding ways to accommodate the various modes of professional life encountered in the searching process. However, wherever the ultimate location of the Editor, there will need to be access to a major research library and to graduate students who can be hired for assistance. Candidates should also include the names and email addresses of three scholars who can speak to the candidate’s editorial experience and scholarship; these references will only be contacted for long-listed candidates. The MAA President would be happy to respond to immediate questions about the duties involved, but candidates should also consult the fuller description of duties posted on the Academy website. The MAA also encourages nominations for the position, and there is a place to submit these on the website as well; all nominees will be sent a letter encouraging application.

For additional information, contact: EditorSearch@TheMedievalAcademy.org

Visit our website for a full job description and to apply: https://medievalacademy.site-ym.com/general/custom.asp?page=EdJobDescription

Hello Canadian Medievalists!

Many thanks to all for a successful and engaging annual meeting. We enjoyed a fantastic manuscript and rare book visitation at Athol Murray College of Notre Dame in Wilcox where the local archivist, Gerry Scheibel, gave us a generous tour and gamely looked on as the medievalists handled the college's treasures. That's Gerry on the left below.

Among the many stellar papers (details of some can be found on our twitter feed) were two spectacular plenaries: one joint plenary with AASSC delivered by Thomas Dubois of the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a second plenary from our own Past President, David Watt of the University of Manitoba entitled " What Do We Study When We Study Manuscripts in Canada?" While we didn't get a pic of David Watt giving his absorbing lecture, you can see Thomas Dubois delivering his lecture, "Sacrality and the Landscape in the Nordic Middle Ages," below:

Congratulations are due as well to our prize winners. Shannon McSheffrey  was awarded the 2018 Margaret Wade Labarge Prize for her book Seeking Sanctuary (Oxford UP, 2017).

Kenneth F. Duggan was awarded the Leonard Boyle Dissertation Prize for his dissertation entitled “Communal Justice in Thirteenth-Century England” completed in 2017 at King's College London. Following the conference, Stephanie Lahey (University of Victoria) was awarded the Student Presentation Award for her fascinating paper, "Professional Pages, Done Dirt Cheap: On the Genre of English Offcut Manuscripts." You can see our President, Dominic Marner, awarding Kenneth his certificate, beautifully illuminated by Kathryn Finter, below:

Along with the more scholarly pursuits there was, of course, a great number of first-time meetings, reconnections, and general merry-making, facilitated by the delicious food and drink at Crave. Thank you to all those who came out and made Congress a success!

We'd also like to encourage all members to send information to the CSM/SCM regarding projects, especially those with an on-going digital presence, and publications of any sort that we might share on our site. Simply send an email to canmedwebmaster@gmail.com including the pertinent details -- a title, blurb, abstract, web address, etc.

To those members who were unable to attend -- you were sorely missed, and we look forward to future gatherings, sharing of research, and conviviality. See you in Vancouver!

SOCIÉTÉ DES BOLLANDISTES

Research Institute & Library - Est. 1607

Dear Colleague,

For over four centuries the Société des Bollandistes has been at the forefront of scholarship in the vast field of Christian hagiography. Since the days of Jean Bolland and Daniel van Papenbroeck, through those of Hippolyte Delehaye, Paul Peeters and Baudouin de Gaiffier, its publications, including the Acta Sanctorum, the Subsidia Hagiographica, the Analecta Bollandiana, the Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina, Graeca, and Orientalis have been the essential tools of thousands of scholars around the world.

Its library, containing some 500,000 volumes and 1,000 periodicals, as well as its online resources, serve critical scholarship in all areas of hagiography and religious and devotional history. Today’s Bollandists continue this great tradition with the same rigour and dedication. Now, however, they are obliged to depart from their usual discretion because their future is endangered. The Société has been since its inception supported by the Belgian Provinces of the Society of Jesus, but the Jesuits, although willing to maintain the work, are no longer able to provide the finances necessary to sustain this great enterprise. Thus we are launching an urgent appeal to scholars and colleagues around the world to help keep this great and historic tradition alive. I am inviting you to help continue the mission of the Société by becoming a member of the American Friends of the Société through an annual donation to support our work:https://kbfus.networkforgood.com/projects/15364-b-kbfus-funds-bollandist-society-be

And of the Canadian Friends:

http://www.kbfcanada.ca/en/projects/the-canadian-friends-of-the-societe-bollandistes/

We offer membership at USD 100 (CAD 130) a year, but any contribution will help us continue our work. Your gift is fully tax exempt in the US and Canada. Friends will have the possibility of receiving periodic updates on the work of the Société, and will be assured of a warm welcome should they wish to work or simply visit the Bollandist library in Brussels. Further initiatives will be announced in the coming months. However, we emphasize that any level of support you can provide that will help keep this great historical enterprise flourishing in the twenty-first century will be most welcome.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Godding, S. J. Director

Bd. Saint-Michel, 24 1040 Bruxelles Belgique www.bollandistes.org

Ad Carleton Conjuring Arts Chair VRMar5.pdf

Hi everyone,

If you've ever wanted to buy a membership for someone but didn't know how, you can now do just that online. Head to "Gift Memberships and Donations" under the "Member Information" drop down in the menu above. Follow the instructions on the page, and we'll get a new account set up for your gift recipient. For information on membership more generally, don't forget to visit the "Memberships" page. You can also submit general donations to the CSM/SCM if you'd like.

Membership can make a great gift to students looking to make contacts and find community throughout the course of their studies.

If you have any questions, please contact us at canwebmaster@gmail.com.

The 38th annual Canadian Conference of Medieval Art Historians will take place at Carleton University, Ottawa, March 16-17., and will feature 26 speakers from across Canada, as well as the United States and Britain. The plenary address will be delivered by John Goodall, FSA, historian and architectural editor for Country Life magazine.

Dr. Allison Fizzard and I (Dr. Leanne Groeneveld) are interested in proposing a session for Congress 2018 entitled "Food: Feasting and Fasting in the Middle Ages" (a working title). We are both currently researching in this area and would like to connect with another member who might like to join us in drafting a proposal. If interested,  please contact me at Leanne.Groeneveld@uregina.ca.