W ill ia m of Mal mes bu ry an d his Le ga cy
The Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies
University of Oxford
3–5 July 2015
FRIDAY 3 JULY
9.00 – Registration
9.45 – 10.00 – Introductory Remarks
 ROD THOMSON (University of Tasmania)
Discovering William of Malmesbury
10.00 – 11.00 – First Keynote Address
Chair: Tobias Reinhardt (University of Oxford)
 MICHAEL WINTERBOTTOM (Corpus Christi College, Oxford)
Words, words, words: William’s experiments with Latin
11.00 – 11.30 – Refreshments
11.30 – 13.00 – S E S S I O N 1 : W I L L I A M ’ S E N G L A N D : P A S T
Chair: Ilya Afanasyev (University of Oxford)
 DANIEL GERRARD (University of Oxford)
William of Malmesbury and Civic Virtue
 EMILY A. WINKLER (University College London)
William of Malmesbury and the Distant Past
 CHRIS LEWIS (King’s College, London)
William of Malmesbury and the discovery of England
AND
13.00 – 14.00 – Lunch
14.00 – 15.30 – S E S S I O N 2 : W I L L I A M A S S O C I A L A N A L Y S T :
RESPONSES, RELATIONSHIPS AND INTERACTIONS
Chair: Björn Weiler (Aberystwyth University)
 MAX LIEBERMAN (Historical Institute, University of Berne)
William of Malmesbury the psychologist
 RYAN KEMP (Aberystwyth University)
Advising the King: Kingship, bishops and saints in William of
Malmesbury
 SIGBJØRN SØNNESYN
Lector amice: Reading as friendship in William of Malmesbury
15.30 – 16.00 – Refreshments
PLACE
16.00 – 17.30 – SESSION 3: THE RHETORIC OF POLITICS AND THE POLITICS OF RHETORIC
Chair: Jennifer Miller (University of California, Berkeley)
 MONIKA OTTER (Dartmouth College)
History and Lamentation
 MICHAEL CLANCHY (Institute of Historical Research, London)
Did William of Malmesbury agree with the Norman claim to rule England
by right of conquest?
 PAUL ANTONY HAYWARD (Lancaster University)
Rumour and Reputation in William of Malmesbury's Gesta regum and
Gesta pontificum Anglorum
17.30 – 18.00 – Refreshments
18.00 – 19.30 – S E S S I O N 4 : W I L L I A M A N D T H E W I D E R W O R L D
Chair: Thomas Forster (University of Cambridge)
 SVERRE BAGGE (University of Bergen)
William of Malmesbury and Otto of Freising
 CHRISTOPH MAUNTEL (Heidelberg University)
William’s Wider World: Global implications of religion and politics in the
History of the English Kings
 BJÖRN WEILER (Aberystwyth University)
William of Malmesbury and his contemporaries: writing regnal history in
twelfth-century Europe
19.30 – Wine reception with hors-d’oeuvres
SATURDAY 4 JULY
9.00 – 10.30 – S E S S I O N 5 : S C I E N C E A N D M E D I C I N E
Chair: Joanna Huntington (University of Lincoln)
 KATHERINE HARVEY (Birkbeck, University of London)
Medicine, Bodies and Bishops in the Writings of William of Malmesbury
 JOANNA PHILLIPS (University of Leeds)
William of Malmesbury: Medical Historian of the Crusades
 ANNE LAWRENCE-MATHERS (University of Reading)
William of Malmesbury and the Science of Computus
10.30 – 11.00 – Refreshments
11.00 – 12.30 – SESSION 6: ‘SEASONING WITH ROMAN SALT’: WILLIAM AND THE CLASSICAL PAST
Chair: Emily Dolmans (University of Oxford)
 JACQUELINE MARIE BUREK (University of Pennsylvania/Aberystwyth University)
‘Exarata barbarice Romano sale condire’: William of Malmesbury and the
Pursuit of Good Style
 WILLIAM KYNAN-WILSON (Forum Transregionale in Studien, Berlin / Freie
University, Berlin)
Rome and romanitas in William of Malmesbury’s historical writings
 JOHN GILLINGHAM
William of Malmesbury, King William II and the soul of Julius Caesar
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12.30 – 13.30 – Lunch
13.30 – 14.30 – Second Keynote Address
Chair: Michael Clanchy (Institute of Historical Research, London)
 JOHN O. WARD (University of Sydney)
Anecdote and purpose in William of Malmesbury and Orderic Vitalis:
'history', 'moral tales' or 'entertainment'?
14.30 – 15.00 – Refreshments
15.00 – 16.30 – S E S SI O N 7: W I L LI A M , A N S E LM A N D T H E R E F O R M M O V EM EN T
Chair: Sigbjørn Sønnesyn
 SAMU NISKANEN (University of Helsinki)
William of Malmesbury as a collector of Anselm’s works
 STEPHANIE BRITTON (University of Durham)
William of Malmesbury’s Anselm
 MARTIN BRETT (University of Cambridge)
William of Malmesbury and reform in the Church
16.30– 17.00 – Refreshments
17.30– 19.00 – SESSION 8: WILLIAM AND TWELFTH-CENTURY HISTORICAL CULTURE
Chair: Emily A. Winkler (University College London)
 JAAKKO TAHKOKALLIO (King’s College London / National Library of Finland)
The twelfth-century audience of William of Malmesbury, Henry of
Huntingdon, and Geoffrey of Monmouth
 STANISLAV MEREMINSKIY (Centre for Ecclesiastical Studies ‘Orthodox
Encyclopedia’, Moscow)
William of Malmesbury and Durham: some observations on the circulation
of historical knowledge in twelfth-century England
 JENNIFER MILLER (University of California, Berkeley)
William of Malmesbury and the archival imagination
19.30 – Conference Dinner at Hertford College
conference programme continues on page 4
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SUNDAY 5 JULY
9.00 – 11.00 – S E S S I O N 9 : W I L L I A M A N D H I S V E N E R A B L E F O R E B E A R S :
HISTORIANS, MONKS AND SAINTS
Chair: Chris Lewis (King’s College, London)
 TREVOR MORSE (University of Oxford)
William, Aldhelm and Malmesbury’s ancient privileges
 MARGARET COOMBE (University of Oxford)
St Godric’s visions and songs of the Virgin [in the earliest manuscripts]
 EMILY JOAN WARD (University of Cambridge)
Uerax historicus Beda: William of Malmesbury, Bede and historia
 ALHEYDIS PLASSMANN (University of Bonn)
Bede's legacy in William of Malmesbury and Henry of Huntingdon
11:00 – 11.30 – Refreshments
11:30 – 12.30 – S E S SI O N 10: R EP R ES EN T I N G T H E R O L E S O F W O MEN AN D M E N
Chair: Matthew Mesley (University of Zurich)
 JOANNA HUNTINGTON (University of Lincoln)
‘God’s hidden and stupendous purpose’: Supernatural intervention in the
affairs of men
 DAVID ROLLO (University of Southern California)
Pope Gregory VI and the Witch / Prostitute of Berkeley
12.30 – 13.30 – Lunch
13.30 – 14.30 – Third Keynote Address
Chair: Edmund King (University of Sheffield)
 ROD THOMSON (University of Tasmania)
On knowing William of Malmesbury
14.30 – Departures
Conference Organisers
Rod Thomson
Ilya Afanasyev
Emily A. Winkler
Emily Dolmans
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