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New Books in Medieval History

New Books Network
Medieval History
Medieval Literature
Crusades
Christianity
Middle Ages
Magic
Holy Roman Empire
Astrology
Byzantine Empire
Norman Conquest
Poetry
Jesus
Translation
Dante Alighieri
Theology
Bede
Buddhism
Teutonic Order
Maimonides
Mongol Invasions

This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: newbooksnetwork.com Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to ge... more

PublishesTwice weeklyEpisodes589Founded5 years ago
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History

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Artwork for New Books in Medieval History

Latest Episodes

From about the middle of the first millennium of the Common Era through to the fifteenth century, Southeast Asian societies underwent a political transformation that produced the first, early states that were the forerunners of the countries we know ... more

The end of the fourteenth century was a time of upheaval and contested authority among the traditional institutions of medieval Europe. In response to these conditions, a number of people began to claim their own authority, as prophets speaking the w... more

Meanings of Antiquity: Myth Interpretation in Premodern Japan (Harvard UP, 2023) is the first dedicated study of how the oldest Japanese myths, recorded in the eighth-century texts Kojiki and Nihon shoki, changed in meaning and significance between 8... more

The history of medieval Britain through twelve remarkable illuminated manuscripts.

Illumino: A History of Medieval Britain in Twelve Illuminated Manuscripts (Reaktion, 2025) explores the history of medieval Britain through the biographies of twelve ... more

A major new look at Africa’s influence on European culture and how colonization remade Africa in the image of a medieval Europe.

Virgil. Chaucer. Petrarch. These names resonate with many as cornerstones of European culture. Yet, in Atlas’s Bones: Th... more

In the thirteenth-century Mediterranean, commerce transformed as merchants shifted from Roman to Indo-Arabic numerals—an alternative that better facilitated complex calculations. It has long been known that this transition stemmed from Europe’s incre... more

Many people think they know what fairies are, what a fairy looks like, and how a fairy is expected to behave. Dr. Francis Young's Fairies: A History (Polity, 2026) demonstrates that the truth about belief in fairies is far stranger than clichéd image... more

In Offa: King of the Mercians (Yale UP, 2026), Professor Rory Naismith presents an authoritative biography of Offa of Mercia, revealing his importance as the king who stood at the turning point of Anglo-Saxon history.

Offa ruled the Mercian heartlan... more

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Recent Guests

Michelle Brown
Professor Emerita of Medieval Manuscript Studies
School of Advanced Study, University of London
Episode: Michelle P. Brown, "Illumino: A History of Medieval Britain in Twelve Illuminated Manuscripts" (Reaktion, 2025)
Vance Smith
Professor of English and former Director of Medieval Studies at Princeton University
Princeton University
Episode: D. Vance Smith, "Atlas’s Bones: The African Foundations of Europe" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
Raffaele Danna
Author and historian
Harvard University Press
Episode: Raffaele Danna, "The Craft of Indo-Arabic Numerals: How Practical Arithmetic Shaped Commerce and Mathematics in Western Europe, 1200–1600" (Harvard UP, 2026)
Francis Young
Historian of religion and belief
University of Oxford (tutor for Oxford University's department for continuing education)
Episode: Francis Young, "Fairies: A History" (John Wiley & Sons, 2026)
Rory Naismith
Author of Offa, King of the Mercians
University of Cambridge
Episode: Rory Naismith, "Offa: King of the Mercians" (Yale UP, 2026)
Nabil Ali
Author of Gold from Newton's Apple Tree, Historical Recipes for Natural Inks, Paints, and Dyes
Cambridge University Botanic Garden
Episode: Nabil Ali, "Gold from Newton's Apple Tree: Historical Recipes for Natural Inks, Paints, and Dyes" (Princeton UP, 2026)
Katherine Harvey
Author; Medieval historian
Author of The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living (Reaktion, 2026)
Episode: Katherine Harvey, "The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living" (Reaktion, 2026)
Elisheva Baumgarten
Author of Beyond the Elite, Everyday Jewish Lives in Medieval Northern Europe
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Episode: Elisheva Baumgarten, "Beyond the Elite: Everyday Jewish Lives in Medieval Northern Europe" (Cornell UP, 2026)
Karima Moyer-Nocchi
Professor of culinary history
University of Siena
Episode: Karima Moyer-Nocchi, "The Epic History of Macaroni and Cheese: From Ancient Rome to Modern America" (Columbia UP, 2026)

Host

Dr. Miranda Melcher
Host of multiple New Books Network medieval history programs; clearly central to the publisher's historical history channel.

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Talking Points

Recent interactions between the hosts and their guests.

Michelle P. Brown, "Illumino: A History of Medieval Britain in Twelve Illuminated Manuscripts" (Reaktion, 2025)
Q: How does looking at the history of England through these manuscripts change what we can learn?
By examining the books as material objects—their production, decoration, and use—we see how information traveled, how women participated as patrons and makers, and how manuscript culture intersected with religion, commerce, and politics across borders.
Michelle P. Brown, "Illumino: A History of Medieval Britain in Twelve Illuminated Manuscripts" (Reaktion, 2025)
Q: Can you just very briefly introduce yourself, tell us about your expertise, and tell us the story of this book?
I'm Michelle Brown, Professor Emerita of Medieval Manuscript Studies, and the book Illumino uses illuminated manuscripts as entry points to explore broader social histories, focusing on makers, patrons, and the culture around book production across medieval Britain.
Raffaele Danna, "The Craft of Indo-Arabic Numerals: How Practical Arithmetic Shaped Commerce and Mathematics in Western Europe, 1200–1600" (Harvard UP, 2026)
Q: Where did Indo-Arabic numerals originate and how did they reach Europe?
The numerals originated in India, spread west to Persia and the Arabic world, and reached Europe through Al-Andalus and the Latin translations of Arabic texts in the 12th century. The adoption in Europe was gradual and tied to practical needs in commerce, calendars, and the work of scholars and merchants across Mediterranean networks.
Raffaele Danna, "The Craft of Indo-Arabic Numerals: How Practical Arithmetic Shaped Commerce and Mathematics in Western Europe, 1200–1600" (Harvard UP, 2026)
Q: Can you introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to write this book?
I am an historian with a focus on the history of science and mathematics; I worked at the intersection of the medieval and early modern periods, particularly in connection with practical mathematics and its social and economic contexts. The book emerged from finding a large corpus of practical manuals and realizing how their spread tracked not just ideas but trades, urban growth, and commerce.
D. Vance Smith, "Atlas’s Bones: The African Foundations of Europe" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
Q: What implications do these historical perspectives have for contemporary debates on race and identity in Europe and North America?
Acknowledging Africa's role challenges racial hierarchies that underlie modern liberal democracies, reframes discussions on heritage and belonging, and underscores the urgency of reparative histories in addressing ongoing systemic racism and erasure in public discourse.

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Frequently Asked Questions About New Books in Medieval History

What is New Books in Medieval History about and what kind of topics does it cover?

The episodes sampled focus on medieval history, religion, and broader cultural contexts, with in-depth author interviews that illuminate biographical methods, monastic life, religious practices, and how historical narratives shape our understanding of power, gender, and identity. Guests span historians, theologians, and literary scholars discussing books on topics from queens and convents in early medieval Gaul to dance in parish England, relics in early Islam, medieval timekeeping, and gendered representations in literature. A notable pattern is how scholars connect primary sources to big-picture themes like empire, identity formation, religious reform, and the social roles of women, with a strong emphasis on cross-cultural and transregion... more

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Which podcasts are similar to New Books in Medieval History?

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1. The Medieval Podcast
2. In Our Time
3. London Review Bookshop Podcast
4. The Rest Is History
5. The History of Literature

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New Books in Medieval History launched 5 years ago and published 589 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.

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What guests have appeared on New Books in Medieval History?

Recent guests on New Books in Medieval History include:

1. Michelle Brown
2. Vance Smith
3. Raffaele Danna
4. Francis Young
5. Rory Naismith
6. Nabil Ali
7. Katherine Harvey
8. Elisheva Baumgarten

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