Dr Melanie Brunner

Profile

I studied for my MA in Medieval History, Modern History and English Language at the University of Augsburg (Germany), interrupted by a year as an Erasmus student at the University of Edinburgh. I came to Leeds to work on my PhD (part-time) at the Institute for Medieval Studies while at the same time working for the International Medieval Bibliography (IMB). I finished my PhD in 2006 and am currently working for the School of History as Project Editor of the IMB (since 2007) and as lecturer in Medieval Studies (since 2013). Since October 2024, I have been Editorial Director of the International Medieval Bibliograhy.

Responsibilities

• Editorial Director, International Medieval Bibliography
• Director of MA Medieval Studies

Research interests

I am particularly interested in late medieval ecclesiastical and religious history, especially the interactions of theology, (canon) law and papal administration; the history of the mendicant orders, particularly the Franciscans; and ideals of voluntary poverty and religious reform. I have recently begun a new project exploring the political culture and the process of decision-making at the papal court in Avignon (1305-1378).

I have been a member of the DFG-Netzwerk Imitation: Mechanismen eines kulturellen Prinzips im Mittelalter, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and chaired by Dr Jörg Sonntag (Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig/Technische Universität Dresden) and Dr Gerald Schwedler (Universität Zürich).

Additionally, I was part of Marginalisation and the Law: Medieval and Modern, sponsored by the White Rose Collaboration Fund and chaired by Maroula Perisanidi (Leeds)

I have also been involved with the DFG-Netzwerk Stilus Curiae: Spielregeln der Konflikt- und Verhandlungsführung am Papsthof des Mittelalters (12.-15. Jahrhundert), funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and chaired by Dr Jessika Nowak (Universität Basel) and Dr Georg Strack (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München).

From September 2013 to September 2017, I have been involved in Working Group 3 (‘European Networks of Knowledge Exchange’) of the EU-funded COST Action IS1301 New Communities of Interpretation: Contexts, Strategies and Processes of Religious Transformation in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, chaired by Dr Sabrina Corbellini and based at the University of Groningen. 

Some recent publications:

‘The Power of the Cardinals: Decision-Making at the Papal Curia in Avignon’, in Authority and Power in the Medieval Church, c. 1000 – c. 1500, ed. by Thomas W. Smith (Turnhout: Brepols, 2020), pp. 355-369

‘Good and Bad Friars: Polemical Patterns and Strategies between Franciscans in the Early Fourteenth Century’, medieval worlds, 7 (2018), 80-97

‘Rom in Avignon: Imitation und Adaption im Papstpalast’, in Nachahmen im Mittelalter: Dimensionen - Mechanismen - Funktionen, ed. by Andreas Büttner and others, Beihefte zum Archiv für Kulturgeschichte, 82 (Vienna: Böhlau, 2018), pp. 135-152

‘The Power of the Canons? Episcopal Authority and the Cathedral Chapter of Sion (Valais) around 1300’, in Episcopal Power and Local Society in Medieval Europe, 1000-1400, ed. by Peter Coss and others (Turnhout: Brepols, 2017), pp. 97-114

‘Nach dem Konzil von Vienne. Konfliktlösung und Entscheidungsfindung in der Spiritualenkrise und im Armutsstreit’, in Ecclesia disputans: Die Konfliktpraxis vormoderner Synoden zwischen Religion und Politik, ed. by Christoph Dartmann, Andreas Pietsch and Sita Steckel, Historische Zeitschrift: Beihefte, 67 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015), pp. 203-230

‘Johannes XXII. als Reformer? Päpstliche Verwaltungspolitik und Ordensreform von oben’, in Papst Johannes XXII. Konzepte und Verfahren seines Pontifikats, ed. by Martin Rohde and Hans-Joachim Schmidt, Scrinium Friburgense (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014), pp. 119-148

 ‘Pope John XXII and the Michaelists: the scriptural title of evangelical poverty in Quia vir reprobus’, Church History and Religious Culture, 94 (2014), 197-226

• Imitation: Mechanisms of a cultural principle in the Middle Ages

Qualifications

• PhD Medieval Studies (University of Leeds)
• MA History and English (Universität Augsburg)

Professional memberships

• Ecclesiastical History Society
• Mediävistenverband

Student education

Research Supervision

I would particularly welcome doctoral projects in the following areas:

• medieval ecclesiastical history
• history of the papacy
• history of the mendicant orders
• late medieval political culture
• canon law

Current PhD students

• Pawel Cholewicki, 'The emergence of the Franciscan Observance and the disintegration of the Bosnian vicariate, from the reforms of James of the Marches until the fall of the Bosnian- Dalmatian Union (1432-69)' [co-supervision with Prof. Emilia Jamroziak. Funded by the LDS scholarship]
• Yinwen Mai, ‘Bishop Gilbert Foliot and his administration in dioceses of Hereford and London’ [co-supervision with Prof. Julia Barrow. Funded by a China Council scholarship]
• Elsa McDonald, ‘Constructing an alternative cloister: the creation of a feminised religious discourse in the writings of Marguerite Porete and Christine Pizan’ [co-supervision with Prof. Ros Brown-Grant. Funded by WRoCAH]
• Andrea Mancini, 'Preaching and penance. The role of Niccolò da Osimo in the observant reform of the Friars Minor (1382-1455)'  [co-supervision with Prof. Emilia Jamroziak] 

Completed theses:

• Matthew Beckmann (2015), ‘Franciscan soteriology at the University of Paris to 1300’ [co-supervision with Dr William Flynn]
• Kirsty Day (2016), ‘Constructing dynastic Franciscan identities in Bohemia and the Polish Duchies’ [co-supervision with Prof. Emilia Jamroziak]
• René Hernández Vera (2015), ‘Franciscan manuscripts in Padua from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century: following the traces of a conception of the book’ [co-supervision with Prof. Brian Richardson]
• James Hill (2017), ‘The papacy and the Eastern Mediterranean 1305-1362’ [co-supervision with Prof. Graham Loud]
• Vanessa Wright (2020), ‘The textual and visual uses of the literary motif of cross-dressing in medieval French literature, 1200-1500’ [co-supervision with Prof. Ros Brown-Grant, Dr Catherine Batt]
• Kaan Gorman (2022), ‘'The wilderness and the world: encounters between the Carthusians of late medieval England and the secular world' [co-supervision with Prof. Emilia Jamroziak. Funded by the LARS scholarship]

Research groups and institutes

• Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums
• Politics, Diplomacy, and International History

Current postgraduate researchers

• Andrea Mancini
• Pawel Cholewicki
• Yinwen Mai