Acta Mediaevalia. Series Nova
Acta Mediaevalia. Series Nova is a specialist journal. We plan to publish scholarly articles, source materials and reviews regarding all aspects of medieval history, issuing one volume per year. The journal will be published by the Centre of Medieval Studies at John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin and supervised by an international Editorial Board.
Acta Mediaevalia. Series Nova not only refers to and continues this outstanding tradition, but also develops it creatively for future generations of readers. An international Academic Board will assess the quality of publications regarding all aspects of medieval studies. Texts will be published primarily in English. Not only do we wish Acta Mediaevalia to maintain its reputation in Poland and abroad, but we also want it to be an Open Access journal indexed in acknowledged international databases, which will help it achieve further recognition in modern humanities.
Call for Papers
Migrations and the Perception of the Other in Medieval East-Central Europe
One of the major issues faced by modern Europe is migration: the movement of individuals and groups of people within the continent and, most significantly, from without. This phenomenon was also present in the Middle Ages, especially in the polyethnic and multicultural, multiconfessional communities of Central and Eastern Europe.
Dukes and kings of Poland, Hungary, Bohemia and even pagan Lithuania invited settlers to defend their borders, develop urban communities, reform agriculture and mining, and expand trading networks. These foreigners were granted special privileges, based on German Law. Settlers arriving in East-Central Europe brought their own traditions, social behaviour, customs, and religious diversity. In the late Middle Ages, in particular from the mid-fourteenth century, mass migration of Jews made Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland hubs of Jewish settlement and culture.
Migrants also contributed to developments in learning. In the fourteenth century both Cracow and Prague were homes to universities with valued theologians, philosophers, lawyers, astrologers and astronomers. Mobility of scholars and students did not only facilitate the transfer of knowledge, but it also provided the platform for wide circulations of reformatory ideas, which boosted the conciliarist movement, but at the same time stimulated the growth of the Hussite reform movement in Bohemia.
Migration is a topic of medieval European imagination and self-identity, too. National origins’ myths often reflect memories of actual migrations, whilst some use them as metaphors explaining the rights of particular classes. The gentry of medieval Lithuania justified their right to political power by claiming to be the descendants of refugees persecuted under the Emperor Nero. The Czechs allegedly viewed their future homeland from Mount Říp like Moses viewed Canaan from Mount Nebo. Hungary, Croatia, Ruthenia and Poland also had their own origins myths.
Migrants interacted with local populations in different ways, stimulating processes of accommodation and integration on the one hand, but also giving a strong impulse to the rise of conflicting collective identities on the other. Curiosity and inclusion of the other existed alongside misunderstanding and fear of newcomers who spoke incomprehensible languages, cultivated strange customs, and held different religious practices.
Acta Mediaevalia. Series Nova welcomes papers on East-Central Europe focused on migrations and the perception of the other, especially in the context of various genres of source material (e.g. narratives, sermon collections, codes of law, charters, visual representations).
Suggested research areas include (but are not limited to):
- politics, economics
- religion, art, architecture
- education, philosophy
- travel routes
- origin myths
Submission deadline: 30 April 2025
Language: English
Detailed submission guidelines for Authors: https://czasopisma.kul.pl/pliki/am/guidelines.pdf
In case of any questions contact us on: actamediaevalia@kul.pl
History
Even though the first volume of Series Nova is planned for publication in 2024, the journal is a descendant of a rich, half-a-century-old tradition of Acta Mediaevalia – a series of publications issued between 1973 and 2014 by the Centre for the History of Culture in the Middle Ages at the KUL Faculty of Philosophy. The unit was called “The Inter-Faculty Department for the History of Culture in the Middle Ages” until 2006, and “The Institute for the History of Culture in the Middle Ages” between 2006 and 2010.
Throughout the existence of Acta Mediaevalia, its Editorial Team and Academic Board comprised outstanding Polish researchers, such as:
- Marian Kurdziałek,
- Marian Rechowicz,
- Stefan Swieżawski,
- Stanisław Wielgus,
- Walenty Wójcik,
- Mieczysław Markowski,
- Jerzy Rebeta,
- Marek Zahajkiewicz,
- Edward Iwo Zieliński,
- Juliusz Domański,
- Stanisław Janeczek,
- Elżbieta Jung,
- Zenon Kałuża,
- Jadwiga Kuczyńska,
- Urszula Mazurczak,
- Stanisław Olczak,
- Mikołaj Olszewski,
- Anzelm Weiss,
- Stanisław Bafia,
- Joanna Judycka,
- Lucyna Nowak,
- Małgorzata Kowalewska,
- Michał Maciołek,
- Hanna Wojtczak.
- Wanda Bajor.
Articles, PhD dissertations as well as critical editions of medieval texts, all devoted to various aspects of medieval intellectual life, were published in the series. Critical editions of the work of medieval authors such as
- Jan Elgot,
- Jan of Dąbrówka,
- Benedykt Hesse,
- Stanisław of Zawada,
- Stanisław of Skarbimierz,
- Andrzej of Kokorzyn,
- Jan Isner
were published in the series.
International Editorial Board
- Darius Baronas (Lithuanian Institute of History, Vilnius)
- Marie-Madeleine de Cevins (University of Rennes)
- Frederik Felskau (Independent scholar, alumni Freie Universität Berlin)
- Ottó Gecser (Eötvös Lórand University, Budapest)
- Kantik Ghosh (University of Oxford)
- Emilia Jamroziak (University of Leeds)
- Antonin Kalous (Palacký University, Olomouc)
- Stanka Kuzmová (Comenius University, Bratislava)
- Judit Majorossy (University of Vienna)
- Brigitte Meijns (KU Leuven)
- Beata Możejko (University of Gdańsk)
- Beatrix Romhányi (Károli Gáspár Reformed University, Budapest)
- Julia Verkholantsev (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia)
- Thomas Wünsch (University of Passau)
- Yuriy Zazuliak (Ukrainian Catholic University of Lviv)
Editors
- Wanda Bajor (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin)
- Małgorzata Charzyńska-Wójcik (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin)
- Tomasz Gałuszka OP (John Paul II Pontifical University, Cracow)
- James Mixson (The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa)
- Petra Mutlová (Masaryk University, Brno)
- Martin Nodl (Centre for Medieval Studies, Prague)
- Marcin Polkowski (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin)
- Stephen C. Rowell (Lithuanian Institute of History, Vilnius)
- Anna Zajchowska-Bołtromiuk (Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw)
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