current projects

I thought it was time for an update about some current projects:

Joint project: Edition of the Dietrich von Zengg Prophecy, in its Medieval and Early Modern copies.  This is a prophecy regarding the political and spiritual fate of the German Empire, with a special role for the Habsburg imperial line.  The prophecy appears to have been composed in the mid fifteenth century in Austria.  It features an avenging Emperor, the reform of Christendom, and widespread violence in Europe and Bohemia.  I am pursuing this project with Jonathan Green.

Medievalista: The Blue Chair Lecture Series.
The first of these will be completed soon.  These are video lectures that use images and lectures (in a more informal setting) to introduce viewers to medieval society. 

“Future things are hidden from mankind and ought not be known”: Contesting Knowledge of the Future in Late Medieval German-speaking Europe.  
This project was begun during my time in Erlangen at the IKGF.  I explore the raging debate among theologians and scholars in the Late Middle Ages regarding access to and authority over knowledge of the future. The central controversy focused on the spiritual authority of clerics and the access of laity and women to supernatural categories of knowledge.  My thesis is that this contest over knowledge of the future engaged larger questions about knowledge, authority, and spiritual legitimacy.