PhD Position in Medieval Manuscript Studies

As a PhD candidate, you will be part of an international research project, applying innovative computational methods to the study of the transmission history of the Latin Physiologus and the Bestiary, one of the richest textual traditions of the Middle Ages.

As PhD candidate, you will be responsible for one of the three subprojects within the NWO-funded project “Unlocking the transmission history of the Physiologus and the multimodal nature of medieval manuscripts with AI-driven digital methods”. This project studies the vast and multilingual manuscript tradition of the Physiologus, a late‑antique collection of animal stories that later morphed into the medieval Bestiary. The project employs various computational methods in intelligent imaging, text processing and metadata federation to understand how the manuscript as a medium influenced the evolution of texts.

Your subproject deals with the textual evolution of the Latin Physiologus. In no other language has the Physiologus inspired more creative adaptations than in Latin. From the rewriting of selected chapters in Phys. Lat. B, to versification in the Phys. Theobaldi, to 12th‑century Bestiaries which quadruple the number of chapters of the Greek original, this overabundant and complex tradition offers a unique window into the medieval mindset. The aim of the PhD project is to map and interpret the development of the Latin Physiologus with specific attention to the impact of its reception and transmission context on the evolution of the text.

The main output of your work will be your doctoral dissertation, but you will also be expected to present work in progress through conference papers and contribute to outreach activities. There will be opportunities to gain experience in the organisation of scientific meetings and working in an interdisciplinary team. You will be expected to undertake a small amount of teaching, either in the Medieval History programme or in another programme depending on your background and interests.

Would you like to learn more about what it’s like to pursue a PhD at Radboud University? Visit the page about working as a PhD candidate.