The Mediæval Journal (review)

The Mediæval Journal is a new peer-reviewed publication from Brepols, edited from the University of St Andrews, and intended to be both interdisciplinary and multi-national. According to its web site, the publication has a broad remit, drawing in both 'traditional' disciplines, such as Languages/Literature, History, and Archaeology, and 'less exposed' fields including but not limited to Jewish Studies, Medievalism, Postcolonial Studies, and the History of Medicine and Science (see <http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/saims/tmj.htm>).

In this first volume, the journal's editors - Margaret Connolly, Ian Johnson, and James Palmer - observe that 'whereas contemporary medievalists are of necessity interdisciplinary, the journals available to them are, with too few exceptions, generally restricted to single disciplines' (p. ix). The three volumes of The Mediæval Journal produced thus far suggest it has the potential to fill this gap in the long term.

Each volume is comprised of four articles and a review section. The first volume features diverse articles which consider the nature of the medieval Church using Weber's ideal type method; examine the context and significance of an inscribed gold strip from the Staffordshire Hoard; and explore the medieval fear of death and its aftermath. It also includes an edition of and commentary on a hitherto unpublished Anglo-Norman Practica Geometriae. The two subsequent volumes similarly include articles from a range of disciplines with topics from broad temporal and geographic spans.

Unlike many, The Mediæval Journal includes colour plates; in the volume under review here these provide images of the above-mentioned inscribed strip from the Staffordshire Hoard. It also offers a space for editions of short texts. The editors have put together a journal which is not only interdisciplinary in the scope of articles it includes, but also provides a useful outlet for innovative research which does not sit comfortably within traditional boundaries, and which crosses between traditional and developing fields.