Collaboration

Research on the history of the Middle Ages is inherently interdisciplinary and international in scope. Our researchers are therefore broadly oriented and always willing to cooperate - within and beyond the faculty's borders. This is expressed in several long-term research projects, and can be seen in how we profile ourselves more broadly: in connections with social issues and public debate, and with the latest research trends.

Late Middle Ages

Researchers working on the late Middle Ages are particularly interested in the development of cities and urban networks in the Low Countries and Italy.

Audio tour: discover medieval Florence

Discover medieval Florence on foot? In collaboration with IZI.Travel and GlobeTrott Travel, David Napolitano developed an audio tour. With the tour, walkers follow in the footsteps of Brunetto Latini, Dante's teacher.

Audiotour: Medieval Companions

By medieval, people often mean 'outdated, primitive, barbaric, degrading'. But are these clichés true? Colleagues Janna Coomans and Lola Digard criticise common misconceptions about the Middle Ages in a recent public book, Medieval Humans (in Dutch).

Early Middle Ages

Within the Early Middle Ages specialisation, research mainly revolves around the cultural history of the period between c. 500 and 1100, especially with issues of knowledge and religion and how these are manifested in the material culture of the time.

The Inventive Middle Ages

A great example is the public book De inventieve middeleeuwen (The Inventive Middle Ages), produced under the direction of Carine van Rhijn. The book gives a glimpse into practical views and ways of thinking of more than a thousand years ago: how did people then deal with problems and challenges, and what solution did they come up with? Nineteen medievalists collaborated on it, including Kay Boers, Jan van Doren, Irene Bavuso and Rutger Kramer.

The Year 1000

Text, object and community come together in a special way in Marco Mostert's work. He collaborated on the exhibition The Year 1000 at the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden. This collaboration resulted in a book, 1000 Jaar Geleden: Verhalen over Nederland in de Tiende en Elfde Eeuw (1000 Years Ago: Stories about the Netherlands in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries), in which students offer an anthology of translated text fragments about the area of present-day the Netherlands and its tenth- and eleventh-century inhabitants.