Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto

Q: What do you get when you cross a thirsty fox, a gullible wolf, and a Father's Day outing?
A: A pretty unforgettable afternoon at Black Creek Medieval Faire with PLS.

Treat the father figure in your life to something a little different: talking animals, inflatable clubs, and mayhem for all ages. Bring Dad, the whole family, your best cluck, and get ready to clonk the bad guy!

🗓️ June 20–21 | Black Creek Pioneer Village, Toronto
Because nothing says "I love you, Dad" like medieval mayhem. 🦊🐺🐔

Details: plsplayers.com

with chapter "Big Trouble in Lower Aragon: Mudéjar Confidence and the Limits of Royal Authority" by CMS Alum, Brian A. Catlos

𝗘𝘁𝗵𝗻𝗼-𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗹 𝗜𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱
Edited by Thomas W. Barton

Info: https://bit.ly/4eili8x

This volume brings together nine essays that critically assess the current state of research on the evolving interrelations among Christians, Jews, Muslims, and ‘pagan’ non-Christians in late medieval and early modern Iberia, North Africa, and the emerging Atlantic world. Drawing on a range of local contexts, analytical approaches, and methodologies, two groups of essays examine how ethno-religious groups coexisted within Christian-ruled societies — while also offering provocative comparative insights into Muslim-ruled contexts. These essays explore the factors that sustained such pluralistic systems, the forces that precipitated their transformation or collapse, and how later generations interpreted these histories to shape subsequent policies. A third group focuses on the wider implications of these developments, particularly in Iberia’s expanding North African and Atlantic frontiers, where Christian agents selectively invoked shared historical experiences to construct classificatory systems used to justify the appropriation, conversion, or enslavement of non-Christian peoples. Collectively, the volume interrogates issues of diversity, inclusion, and exclusion that remain as relevant today as they were in the premodern Mediterranean.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
THOMAS W. BARTON

Part I. Coexistence and Cataclysmic Violence

From Generation to Generation: Jewish Inheritance Practices and Christian Notarial Culture in the Crown of Aragon, 1250–1391
SARAH IFFT DECKER

Big Trouble in Lower Aragon: Mudéjar Confidence and the Limits of Royal Authority
BRIAN CATLOS

Inter-Communal Violence and Human Contagion: 1391 and its Precedents
MICHAEL SCHRAER

Cataclysmic Comorbidities: Muslims and the Contagious Violence of 1391
THOMAS BARTON

Part II. Crafting Discourses about Ethno-Religious Identity and Interaction

Rebels and Renegades: Lisān al-Dīn ibn al-Khaṭīb (d. 1374) and the Christians of Medieval Granada
MOHAMAD BALLAN

Ávila for the Queen: War and Fiscal Violence against Ethno-Religious Minorities in Late Medieval Castile
TEOFILO F. RUIZ

Reimagined Cityscapes: Sites of Exchange, Urban Expansion, and Expunged Diversity in Iberian Chapbooks
ROXANNA COSME-COLÓN

Part III. Interactions and Ruminations on the Edges of the Known World

Cities of the Sun: West African Urban Spaces, Commerce, and Ibero-African Interaction
ANDREW DEVEREUX

Demanding Justice ‘for the natives of the island of La Gomera’: Contested Slaving Zones and Canary Islander Communications Networks across the Mediterranean Atlantic
DEBRA BLUMENTHAL

This summer, PLS is bringing The Fox and the Wolf (and the Chicken) to two Ontario faires, and we need you to cluck and clonk!

A talking fox. Some harried chickens. A very stupid wolf. Inflatable clubs. And you.

🗓️ Black Creek Medieval Faire – June 20–21
🗓️ Oxford Renaissance Festival – Aug 29–30

Come for the talking fox. Stay to clonk the wolf.

Details at plsplayers.com.

Congratulations to Julien Levit and Annika Rempel, recipients of UTEA Awards for Summer Research Projects. Both Annika and Julien's research contribute to German / CMS Professor Markus Stock's SSHRC-funded project, "Medieval Undergrounds."

German Studies Students Receive UTEA Awards for Summer Research Projects - Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures We are pleased to highlight the UTEA Summer Research Experience projects of German Studies students Annika Rempel and Julien Levit, who are conducting research under the supervision of Professor Markus Stock. Both projects contribute to Professor Stock’s SSHRC-funded project, “Medieval Undergrou...

🎉 Lisa Cruikshank successfully defended her dissertation, “'…coronas regni susceperunt': Image-Making and Co-Rule in Late Medieval Queenship, c.1250–c.1370" in May 2026. Congratulations, Dr. Cruikshank!
https://www.medieval.utoronto.ca/news/lisa-cruikshank-successfully-passes-foe

Congratulations to CMS PhD Candidate, Ariana Sider Mésenge, who was awarded this year's Lilly Offenbach Strauss Graduate Fellowship from the Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies - CRRS.

Read more about the award, and Ariana's research:
https://www.medieval.utoronto.ca/news/ariana-sider-m%C3%A9senge-awarded-lilly-offenbach%E2%80%AFstrauss-graduate%E2%80%AFfellowship%E2%80%AF

Congratulations to Professor James Ginther (Regis St. Michael's Faculty of Theology, University of St. Michael's College / CMS), who has officially been appointed Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, effective July 1. We are thrilled to have Professor Ginther at the helm of CMS, guiding us into our next term and beyond!

https://uoft.me/JG-2026

"Learning from the Middle Ages. A roundtable with Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Lloyd De Beer, Beate Fricke, and Clovis Maillet, Moderated by Eva Schlotheuber" appears in "Mittelalter", Issue 142 of Texte zur Kunst.
https://www.textezurkunst.de/en/142/roundtable-learning-from-the-middle-ages/

Professor Elisa Brilli (Department of Italian, Spanish, Portuguese & LAS, University of Toronto / Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto) was recently elected as a Councilor to the Dante Society of America. https://www.medieval.utoronto.ca/news/elisa-brilli-elected-dante-society-america

To celebrate this nomination, Professor Brilli spoke to ISPLAS about the honour: https://www.medieval.utoronto.ca/people/honours-awards/elisa-brilli-elected-dante-society-america

includes Jack McCart's "Roesia Burford (1286–1329) and Her Mercantile Milieu: Commerce, Continuity, and Family Strategy in Fourteenth-Century London" - https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/medpros/vol40/iss1/5/

Medieval People, Volume 40 (2026)

https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/medpros/vol40/iss1/

CONTENTS:

Amy Livingstone and Medieval People, 2012–2024: An Appreciation -- Robert F. Berkhofer III

Social Networks in Old English Charters -- Jeremy Piercy

Uncovering Women’s Autonomy within England’s Class of Royal Officials: Heregyth, Gænburg, and Wærburh -- Chelsea Shields-Más

Roesia Burford (1286–1329) and Her Mercantile Milieu: Commerce, Continuity, and Family Strategy in Fourteenth-Century London -- Jack W. McCart

Problems and Possibilities of Namelessness in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages -- Jamie Wood, Hope Williard, Máirín MacCarron, Julia Hillner, James R. Burns

Medieval Iberian Social Networks -- Jamie Wood

Prosopography of Visigothic Queens: Methodological Scope and Criteria -- Oriol Dinarès Cabrerizo

Monastic Patronage by Women in Late Antique and Early Medieval Iberia -- Carolyn T. La Rocco

Radical Networks: The ‘Martyrs of Córdoba’ and Their Supporters -- Nicola Meyrick

Violant de Bar’s Social Networks and the Diffusion of French Culture in the Late Medieval Crown of Aragon -- Jonathan Seyfried

Women and Exemplary Social Conduct in Fifteenth-Century Portuguese Literature -- Ana M. Montero

Jewish Charity Officers in Fifteenth-Century Aragon -- Allison Bo****no