Julia Smith, Emeritus Chichele Professor of Medieval History, All Souls College
Oxford University

Thursday, October 15, 2026
4:30 PM
Location: Carson L02 (tentative)
Free and open to all

Reception to follow

Lecture title: Saints and Silks: The global reach of Latin Christianity in the early Middle Ages

Abstract: This illustrated lecture uses the contents of Christian reliquaries from the first half of the European Middle Ages to reflect on how relics accumulated in medieval churches and how their textile wrappers enhanced their sacred aura.  In so doing, it offers a focussed way of thinking through some of the implications of the global turn for study of medieval Europe.  Utilising textual sources such as relic labels and inventories on the one hand and, on the other, material evidence, especially textiles, it takes an ‘object biography’ approach to emphasise the rich complexity of ecclesiastical relic collections.  While the examples chosen will span Eurasia, the argument emphasises the local contexts in which relics accumulated and thus the distinctive profile of each collection.  The lecture replaces conventional textbook accounts of the early medieval West with a dynamic picture of contingency, mobility, and repurposing which sustained the religious capital of early medieval churches in the Latin West.

The James and David Orr Memorial Lectures on Culture and Religion bring to Dartmouth each year scholars and writers whose achievements are at the highest level, but whose main fields of interest are not necessarily religion. Past Orr Lecturers include historians, anthropologists, novelists, biologists, and philosophers.