Centre for Medieval Studies

The Centre for Medieval Studies was established in 1998 as a joint workplace of the Academy of Sciences and Charles University in Prague focused on medieval research and the support of doctoral studies. It organizes interdisciplinary meetings and international conferences of medievalists, as well as specialized seminars and summer schools for doctoral students of all disciplines dealing with the Middle Ages. It publishes its results in its own book series Colloquia mediaevalia Pragensia, in the peer-reviewed journal Studia mediaevalia Bohemica, and in monographic titles which are also published by foreign publishers. The department also publishes the journal Numismatický sborník and manages three series intended for the edition of sources: Archiv český, Fontes rerum Bohemicarum and Sbírka pramenů k náboženským dějinám.

Research at the CMS is focused on the following thematic segments: social dynamics of medieval Central Europe (towns, nobility, royal court, the church); intellectual history and polemical discourse (history of universities, apocalypticism and prophecy, conciliarism, Hussitism); material aspects of medieval research (early church architecture, numismatics, codicology and textual transmission). Research activities are shaped by large projects characterized by their international scope and interdisciplinary approaches, and aim at new and synthesising perspectives on selected problems in the history of medieval Central Europe. The building and management of digital research infrastructures also plays an important role. The CMS has created and is developing the Czech Medieval Sources online portal with the “Fontes” and “HyperFontes” modules, a database of charter abstracts and several other digital archives.