University of Kent

Graduate Student, Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies

Assistant Lecturer / PhD Candidate

Rutherford College

Thesis Title: The 'Historia Orientalis' of Jacques de Vitry

About

Thesis title (provisional): An Encyclopedia of the Holy Land. Jacques de Vitry’s Historia Orientalis and its Place in the Medieval Crusading Society.

In my research I investigate the background of the Historia Orientalis of Jacques de Vitry (d. 1240), Bishop of Acre and participant in the Fifth Crusade (1217-1221). The Historia  encompasses a general history of the Holy Land and information on the different local religions, geographical descriptions as well as information on local fauna and flora and a history of the Crusades up to the end of the Third Crusade and the death of Saladin. The book is part of a larger endeavor, the Historia Ierosolimitana Abbreviata, and has to be seen in the light of De Vitry’s efforts for the reform movement under Innocent III and Honorius III and his participation in Lateran IV. Specific research questions in my thesis involve the background of De Vitry’s oeuvre, the source material he used and the perception of his work in the Medieval West. The more than 124 copies of the Historia, preserved in manuscripts all over Europe, testify to its great popularity. By looking at the contents and spread of these manuscripts, it is possible to investigate the influence of De Vitry’s masterpiece on the later Crusades, on later authors and on the medieval ‘Crusading Society’.

My research interests further include: Papacy, Monasticism and Popular Religion (c. 1000 – c. 1500), Crusades to the Holy Land, Manuscript Studies and Textual Traditions, Medieval Islam, (Late) Medieval and Early Modern Warfare and Battlefield Archaeology, Social and Economic Consequences of the Black Death, Medieval City Development.

I am also assistant lecturer at the University of Kent, where I teach modules on Medieval Europe, c. 1066-1450, and the Crusades.

I am currently also involved in the archaeological (battlefield archaeology) project on the Battle of Oudenaarde (1708), under the direction of the 'Ename Expertisecentrum voor Erfgoedontsluiting' and Dr Glenn Foard of the UK Battlefields Trust.
http://www.enamecenter.org/en/en/projects/battlefield

University background:

2010-to date: Ph.D. Scholarship: The ‘Historia Orientalis’ of Jacques de Vitry
University of Kent (U.K.)

2009-2010: MA Medieval Studies
University of Leeds (U.K.)

2008-2009: MA Medieval History
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium)

2005-2008: BA History + BA International Politics
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium)

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