MEDLUNI
Vernacular Literature and Medieval Universities
The Birth of a New Transnational Literary Identity (France and Italy, 1220-1399)

Cambrai, Bibliothèque Municipale, 0288 (0273), fol. 2r, Bibliothèque numérique de l’IRHT [FRA].

Project

MEDLUNI investigates how – between 1220 and 1399 – the newly born universities shaped vernacular literature in Western Europe, representing a cradle for transnational literary cultures. The research focuses on this osmotic process, occurred in 180 years, starting with the birth and growth of universities and ending when the medieval academic model and scholasticism collapsed. The actors involved in this literary transformation are French and Italian personalities being – at the same time – deeply linked to universities, as ‘magistri’ or ‘scholares’, and authors of literary texts in vernacular languages.

Thus, the research aims at:

  • identifying which authors and texts prove the emergence of a new local literary identity linked to the birth of universities;
  • recognising which literary features were imported from university texts and disciplines;
  • determining how texts, manuscripts, and actors circulated across Italy and France, shaping new literary networks among universities and municipalities.

Descriptors: Romance Philology, Codicology, Stylistics, Cultural Studies, Urban literature, Medieval Universities, Transnational History, Cultural Migrations

Publications and events

Participation to conferences and seminars

  • 21 May 2025 - University of Fribourg (Switzerland)
    Valeria Russo will present MEDLUNI at the Colloque de recherche en langue et littérature médiévales, organised by Marion Uhlig at the Department of French, Université de Fribourg.
  • 10 May 2025 - International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo (USA)
    Valeria Russo will present her project MEDLUNI at the 2025 International Congress on Medieval Studies. Her paper, «Scholarly Knowledge in Urban Contexts: Prayers and Classics in Vernacular Codices Miscellanearum (1220-1399)», explores the coexistence of devotional and classical texts in scholastic and academic manuscripts.
  • 7 May 2025 - University of Notre Dame (USA)
    As part of her ongoing research within the MEDLUNI project, Valeria Russo will present the paper «Le sage et la page: mise en livre de textes profanes dans les milieux universitaires» at the seminar What Comes after the “New Philology”? (University of Notre Dame).

Organised events

file pdf 23 June 2025 - Sorbonne Université (Paris)
MEDLUNI is launching the triennial seminar “Traces et trajectoires. Pour un dictionnaire critique de l’amour courtois”, which will run for three years with quarterly sessions. The inaugural meeting will take place on 23 June at 15:00 in the Salle des actes, Sorbonne Université, 54 rue Saint-Jacques.
This seminar hosts presentations by contributors to the Dictionnaire critique de l’amour courtois, directed by Jean-René Valette, Hadrien Amiel, and Valeria Russo. The event is organised in collaboration with the EA4349 “Études et édition de textes médiévaux”, Sorbonne Université Lettres, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, funded by Initiative Circulations médiévales (Alliance Sorbonne Université) and European Union (HE MSCA PF - MEDLUNI GA n° 101149368).
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Outreach publications

Publications scheduled for release in June 2025.

Outreach and public engagement events

To be announced in June 2025.

Team

Valeria Russo

Marie Curie fellow
Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Department of Humanities

Cristiano Lorenzi

Supervisor
Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Department of Humanities

Marion Uhlig [FRA]

Supervisor
University of Fribourg, Department of French