Course Handbook - Faculty of History

Course Handbook 

MPHIL IN MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

2010-11

List of Contents 

Page No. 

1 INTRODUCTORY WELCOME LETTER 1 

1.2 Checklist and timetable for week 1 2 

1.3 The Cambridge terms and residence requirements 2 

2 COURSE TIMETABLE AND KEY DATES 3 

3 PART I: STRUCTURE AND CLASSES 4 

3.1 Subject classes and Compulsory or Recommended classes 4 

3.2 Optional classes, other available teaching and seminars 4 

3.3 Language tuition 5 

3.4 Faculty classes for graduates 5 

3.5 Medieval Research Seminar 5 

3.6 Core Seminar in Economic and Social History 6 

4 THE OPTIONS 7 

4.1 Option 1 – The Carolingian Empire and its Neighbours 7 

4.1.1 Option Outline 7 

4.1.2 Subject Classes 7 

4.1.3 Auxiliary Skills 8 

4.1.4 Examination of the Taught Part of the Course 8 

4.2 Option 2 – The Normans in Britain, Europe and the Mediterranean 9 


4.2.2 Texts 9 

4.2.3 Classes 9 

4.2.4 Auxiliary skills 10 


4.3 Option 3 – England in the Later Middle Ages c.1200-1500 11 


4.3.2 Subject Classes 11 

4.3.3 Auxiliary Skills 12 


5 COMPULSORY AND OPTIONAL CLASSES FOR ALL OPTIONS 13 

5.1 Sources, Methods and Bibliography 13 

5.2 Palaeography 13 

5.2.1 Outline Lectures in Palaeography 14 

5.2.2 Practical Palaeography Classes for Option 1 14 



5.3 Chronology 15 

5.4 Diplomatic of the Central Middle Ages 16 

5.5 Medieval Book Production, Codicology and Libraries 16 

5.5.1 Introductory Reading List for Medieval Book Production, 17 

Codicology and Libraries

6 THE EXAMINATION OF PART I 19 

6.1 The work to be submitted 19 

6.2 Choosing an essay topic 19 

6.3 Format for Submitted Essays and Bibliographies 20 

6.4 Producing a Bibliography 20 

6.5 Deadlines for Submission 21 

6.6 Applying for an extension 21 

7 PART II: THE DISSERTATION 22 

7.1 Dissertation 22 

7.2 Deadlines for submission 22 

7.3 Applying for an extension 23 

8 CONTACT POINTS IN THE FACULTY 24 

8.1 The MPhil Office 24 

8.2 The MPhil Update 24 

8.3 MPhil Student Representation in the Faculty of History 24 

9 ADMINISTRATION OF THE COURSE AND RESOLVING PROBLEMS 24 

9.1 Role of the supervisor 24 

9.2 Option Directors and the Academic Chairman and Secretary 24 

9.3 Faculty contacts 25 

9.4 Non-academic questions and problems 25 

9.5 Summary: Administration of the MPhil and who to ask about what 25 

9.6 Useful contact details 26 

APPENDIX A: LIST OF MEDIEVAL SCHOLARS IN CAMBRIDGE 27 

APPENDIX B: MARKING SCHEMES AND GUIDELINES FOR EXAMINERS 29 

B.1 MPhil in Medieval History Marking and Examining Scheme 29 

B.2 Guidelines for Examiners of the MPhil in Medieval History, Part I 32 

B.3 Guidelines for Classification in the MPhil in Medieval History, Part II 35 

APPENDIX C: NOTES ON THE PREPARATION OF MPHIL 38 

IN MEDIEVAL HISTORY DISSERTATIONS 

APPENDIX D: MPHIL DISSERTATIONS DEPOSITED IN THE 42 

SEELEY LIBRARY

1.1 INTRODUCTORY WELCOME LETTER 

October 2010 

May we offer you a warm welcome to Cambridge, and to the MPhil in Medieval History, which we 

hope you will enjoy over the coming year. 

The MPhil serves two purposes. It is a degree in itself, acquainting you with scholarly practice and 

giving you the opportunity to do an extended piece of independent research. It also provides 

research training for the PhD. 

In Part I, before you proceed to your specialised research in the second part, the course is designed 

to provide you with a broad general knowledge of the field in which you will do your dissertation, 

and the ancillary skills you will need for your dissertation and, more generally, for research in 

medieval history. The subject classes in Part I are designed to introduce you both to the broader 

issues within your chosen period and to different categories of source material and problems in 

their interpretation. 

It is absolutely essential, regardless of your own research interests, that you do the work for these 

classes. All of it will prove relevant in some way and without this broad knowledge your view will 

be too narrow and your research may well suffer, both in the MPhil and if you move on to do a 

PhD. 

At the end of both Parts of the course, we will ask you to fill in a Feedback Questionnaire, which 

is very important for us in monitoring the course and enabling us to make improvements in future 

years. May I urge you strongly to take the time to fill in these questionnaires, without which it is 

difficult for us to assess how well the different parts of the course are fulfilling their objectives. 

Please read all the papers in this portfolio. All future letters will be sent to you at your college 

address unless you specifically tell the MPhil Office that you want them sent elsewhere. It is very 

important, therefore, that you get into the habit of checking your pigeonhole, and your e-mail, 

regularly. 

This handbook is designed to give you full information about the course, how it is taught and 

examined, where you need to be and what work you need to do and when. For information about 

contact points within both the university and faculty, library and computing facilities, supervision, 

graduate training, financial assistance, maps and useful web addresses, please consult the Faculty 

of History General Graduate Handbook 2010. For contact details for the course, and whom you 

should approach in the event of any problems, see below Section 9, pages 24-26. 

Please complete the reply form at the back of the handbook, and return it to the MPhil Office 

as soon as possible. 

Please consult the checklist in Section 1.2 for a list of the key meetings in the first week of 

term. Your attention is also drawn to the general timetable (2). For details of place of meetings 

you need to consult the sections describing each course in detail. All classes are in the History 

Faculty unless otherwise indicated. Full details of the classes in Part I are in Sections 3 to 5. 

Information on the examination of Part I is to be found in Section 6. Section 7 describes Part II. 

Finally, if you have not already done so, you should now get in touch with your supervisor for 

the year. If you find it impossible to get in touch with him or her please let the MPhil Office 

know. 

May we wish you the very best of success on the course, in the hope that you will both enjoy it 

and make the most of the facilities available to you in Cambridge. 

Prof M C Carpenter, Chairman, MPhil Sub-Committee 

1

1.2 CHECKLIST AND TIMETABLE FOR WEEK 1 

Return reply form at the back of the handbook 

Inform MPhil office of your address, if you do not wish letters to be sent to your college 

Inform the MPhil office of your email address 

Contact your supervisor (problems? Contact the MPhil office) 

Inform Prof MC Carpenter if you have not received notification of the Medieval Research Seminar on 

Monday 4th October, or if you believe you have been left off the mailing list 

Decide on codicology course and inform Dr Webber in writing (at Trinity College, or email 

mtjw2@cam.ac.uk) by Friday 8 October 

Read the Faculty of History General Graduate Handbook online for information about other training 

opportunities 

(Key contact details are to be found in Section 9.6; see also Section 8.1 on the MPhil Office.) 

Michaelmas Term - 2010 

All Options: week 1 

Day No of Date Time Title Lecturers 

Classes from 

Mon 1 4 Oct 12 

Noon 

INDUCTION MEETING Prof M C Carpenter, Dr T Webber 

and Option Leaders 

Wed 1 6 Oct 5-6 Latin test Dr N Wright 

Thurs 1 7 Oct 2-3 Tour of the University Miss M McCarthy 

Library (Option 1) 

(Meet in the foyer of the UL) 

Thurs 1 7 Oct 2-3 Tour of the University Mr Lars Kjaer 



Thurs 1 7 Oct 2-3 Tour of the University Dr Alex Sapoznik 



Note that all sessions are in the Faculty unless otherwise indicated in the detailed 

information in the handbook. 

1.3 THE CAMBRIDGE TERMS AND RESIDENCE REQUIREMENTS 

The academical year in Cambridge is divided into three terms, Michaelmas, Lent and Easter; 

in each term, the teaching takes place only in the nine-week period known as ‘Full Term’. The 

dates for the current year are Michaelmas Term: Tuesday 5 Oct. - Friday 3 December 2010, 

Lent Term: Tuesday 18 January - Friday 18 March 2011, Easter Term: Tuesday 26 April - 

Friday 17 June 2011. The University requires that all students ‘keep’ three terms of residence 

before they can be awarded a degree. 

During the Christmas and Easter Vacations lectures and classes do not occur and 

undergraduates are not in residence. Graduate students are required to remain in residence 

continuously throughout the academical year, and are expected to work on their research 

essays and dissertation during the Christmas and Easter ‘vacations’, apart perhaps from brief 

holiday breaks. Residing in Cambridge means, for research students and those taking most 

other graduate courses, living within 10 miles from the centre of the city. (It is your College 

which must certify to the University that you have fulfilled the residence requirements. If you 

have further questions, or need fuller information, you should contact your College 

authorities.) 

If, for any reason, you need to be away from Cambridge during the year for research or 

personal reasons, you will need to inform your supervisor and College Tutor of your absence. 

It cannot be emphasised too strongly that the MPhil course has a very tight timetable, 

and that it is vital that you work consistently throughout your course. 

2

2 COURSE TIMETABLE AND KEY DATES, 2010-11 

Michaelmas Term 2010 - Key deadlines: 

12 November By 4.30 pm Submission date for essay title(s) 

All Options: week 2 onwards 


Classes from 

Mon 8 11 Oct 10-11 Outline Palaeography Dr T Webber 

Mon 8 11 Oct 2-4 Bibliography, Sources and Prof M C Carpenter, Dr T Webber, Dr E 

Methods 

van Houts and Dr N Berend 

Tues 8 12 Oct 11-12 Outline Palaeography Dr T Webber 

Wed 6 27 Oct 2-4 Codicology Dr T Webber and Dr C de Hamel 

Thur 7 Oct 5:00 Intensive Latin: reading class Dr N Wright 

Fri 8 8 Oct 2-4 Intensive Latin: consolidation Dr N Wright 

Option 1 


Classes from 

Thurs 8 14 Oct 2:00- 

4:00 

Subject Classes/Lectures Dr J Grove, Dr C Hills and Dr M 

Blackburn 

Mon 8 11 Oct 11-12 Palaeography. Transcription 

classes 

Dr T Webber 

Option 2 


Classes from 

Thurs 8 14 Oct 2-4 Subject Classes/Lectures Dr C Watkins and others 

Tues 8 12 Oct 12-1 Palaeography. Transcription 

classes 

Dr T Webber 

Option 3 


Classes from 

Thu 8 14 Oct 2-4 Subject Classes/Lectures Prof M C Carpenter, Dr A Sapoznik and 

others 

Tue 8 12 Oct 2-3 Palaeography. Transcription Dr T Webber 

classes 

Lent Term 2011- Key deadlines: 

Friday 21 January By 4.30 pm Submission date for dissertation title 

Friday 18 March Between 11.30 

am and 12.30 pm 

Submission date for Part I coursework essay(s), bibliography and 

bibliographic essay 

(This date and time must be strictly adhered to.) 

All Options 


Classes from 

Tues 2 25 Jan 2-4 Chronology Dr N Berend and Dr A Taylor 

Wed 4 26 Jan 2-4 Codicology Dr T Webber and others 

Option 2 


Classes from 

Tues 4 8 Feb 2-4 Diplomatic Dr T Webber, Dr P Zutshi, and Prof D S 

Abulafia 

Easter Term 2011 - Key dates and deadlines: 

26 April 2011 9 am Palaeography examination 

31 August 2011 Between 11.30 am 

and 12.30 pm 

Submission date for dissertation 

(This date and time must be strictly adhered to.) 

3

3 PART I: STRUCTURE AND CLASSES 

3.1 Subject Classes and Compulsory or Recommended Classes 

Part I of the course consists of compulsory Subject Classes for your Option, and Auxiliary 

Classes, which are divided between compulsory classes and recommended classes. 

The first subject class for all Options is on Thursday 14 October at 2:00pm. For all 

options, you will be handed a reading list at the induction meeting in order to prepare you 

for the first class. For further details of these classes, see your Option outline in Section 4. 

Your Option outline also gives details of the compulsory and recommended classes for 

each Option, including recommendations as to language learning. Full details of all the 

Auxiliary Classes are to be found in Section 5. In summary, the Auxiliary classes on 

Sources, Methods and Bibliography (see Section 5.1), on Palaeography (Section 5.2) and 

Chronology (Section 5.3) are compulsory. Codicology is essential for those taking Option 

1, and may be of interest to those in other Options, especially those planning to work with 

manuscript sources (see Section 5.5). Diplomatic focuses on the period covered by Option 

2 but may also be of interest to Options 1 and 3 (see Section 5.4). 

Please note that attendance at the lectures and classes for the courses you are taking is 

obligatory. Students who fail to attend these are likely to find themselves in severe 

difficulties in Part I of the examination. Those who miss any of the compulsory classes are 

asked to report this to the Administrative Secretary, MPhil Office. 

For details of the work you need to submit for Part I, see Section 6.1. 

3.2 Optional Classes, other available teaching and seminars 

Other Optional Classes 

You are more than welcome to attend the ancillary classes provided for the other Options, 

and the timetable has been constructed with this in mind. In particular, you may wish to 

attend the other specialist palaeography classes. See section 5.2. 

Undergraduate Lectures 

The University Reporter Lecture List (available from the Cambridge University Press 

bookshop, in most stationers and bookshops in Cambridge and online via 

http//www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/) contains the full list of lectures and seminars, 

including a version of the timetable. You are free to attend almost all of the lectures listed 

in the Reporter, and, although most of them are primarily for undergraduates, you may 

well find them useful and interesting. You should also look for lectures of interest in other 

Faculties, for example English and Modern Languages, which you are also, in almost all 

cases, free to attend. You should introduce yourself to the lecturer concerned to check that 

they are happy for you to attend. 

4

3.3 Language Tuition 

i) Latin 

Many of you will have attended the intensive Latin course. There is a test for all 

MPhil students on Wednesday 6 October at 5.00 pm for one hour in the Faculty. 

Those who feel they need or are felt to need further tuition will attend the Latin course 

given by Dr Neil Wright over the Michaelmas and Lent Terms. The first class will take 

place on Friday 8 October at 2pm in the Faculty of History. 

There is also a general course available in the Classics Faculty for non-classicists, 

details of which may be found in the Lecture List number of the Reporter. 

The Language Laboratory also has a computer disk self-learning package called Latin 

Study prepared by the Department of Latin and Greek in the University of St 

Andrews. Multiple copies have been purchased and these are available for use in the 

Laboratory on request. The National Archive website also has a self-learning Latin 

course on line. 

ii) 

Modern Languages 

Tuition is provided by the History Faculty. Please consult the General Graduate 

Handbook and the Graduate Training Booklet (both available online). It is vitally 

important to make your decisions about the languages you wish to study at a very early 

stage. If in doubt, your supervisor will best be able to advise you. Although these 

classes are intended primarily for those who need them, MPhil students who simply 

wish to study the language are welcome to join them if they are not oversubscribed. 

However, it should be stressed that all students who sign up for these classes will be 

expected to attend the entire course. Please note that, unless you will need to read 

sources in French, all members of Option 3 should concentrate on Latin and are not 

advised to study a modern language as well, unless their Latin is extremely fluent. 

3.4 Faculty Classes For Graduates 

The Faculty puts on a wide range of classes for graduate students. These include the Graduate 

Training and Transferable Skills Options (see Graduate Training and Transferable Skills 

Options Booklet online). This is intended primarily for first-year PhD students who have not 

already done an MPhil and for candidates for the MPhil in Historical Studies, which, unlike 

the other History MPhils, does not have a highly structured course. It includes some sessions 

that may be of interest to all MPhil students, especially Mon 1 November 4:00pm (Seminar 

Room 5, History Faculty), an informal session for graduates new to Cambridge, a session on 

Leave to Continue to the PhD on 26 October at 2:15pm and one on applying for graduate 

funding on 2 November at 2.15pm. There are also research seminars in other periods of 

history (see General Graduate Handbook online). Please note that classes and work for the 

MPhil must take precedence over any other classes and meetings. 

3.5 Medieval Research Seminar 

The Faculty offers an extensive programme of seminars designed primarily for PhD students. 

Please refer to the General Graduate Handbook online or the Reporter for information on the 

major seminars. You should attend the Medieval Research Seminar. 

Convenors: Prof M C Carpenter, Dr A Spencer, Dr E van Houts (MT & LT) and Dr M Ryan 

(ET) 

Michaelmas Term 2010 - Lent and Easter Terms 2011 

The seminar for graduate students in medieval history will meet on Thursdays, fortnightly at 

5.00pm in Michaelmas and Lent Terms; weekly in Easter Term in the History Faculty Board 

Room. Wine and soft drinks are served at each meeting. The focus of the seminar is on work 

in progress with a particular emphasis on sources, methods and interpretation, and with plenty 

of time for discussion. Papers are given by graduate students. The seminar is thus also a 

useful practice ground for presenting papers. PhD students give papers in the Michaelmas and 

5

Lent Terms. The Easter Term seminars comprise short work-in-progress papers on their 

dissertation topics by the MPhil students. The seminar also includes visiting speakers and 

discussion workshops on particular themes. It is also a way of meeting other medieval 

historians, both graduates and senior members, in the Faculty. 

A programme will be circulated at the beginning of the Michaelmas Term with details of the 

papers. If you believe you have been omitted from the mailing list of the Seminar because 

you have not received any notification, you should get in touch with Prof R D McKitterick 

(contact details below). The dates are as follows: 

Michaelmas Term 

Thursday 14 October 


Thursday 11 November 


5:00pm Seminar 

6:15pm Welcoming Party 

Lent Term 

Thursday 20 January 

Thursday 3 February 

Thursday 17 February 

Thursday 3 March 

Easter Term 

Thursday 12 May 



Thursday 2 June 

3.6 Core Seminar in Economic and Social History 

This is a new seminar, designed for all periods and geographical areas of history. It coincides 

with the Medieval Research Seminar but efforts have been made to avoid clashes for the 

Seminars of interest to Medievalists. Where there is a clash you should consult your 

supervisor. The dates of interest to Medievalists are as follows: 





You will all be placed on the mailing list for this seminar and will be sent a programme. 

6

4 THE OPTIONS 

4.1 Option 1 - The Carolingian Empire and its Neighbours 

Dr J Grove, Dr C Hills, Dr R Naismith and Dr R Flechner 

4.1.1 Option Outline 

The period of Frankish and Carolingian dominance in western Europe was one of 

remarkable political and cultural coherence. This course studies the context for the 

expansion and consolidation of the Carolingian Empire in the later eighth and the 

ninth centuries, and will focus in particular on political, ecclesiastical and cultural 

developments. The conquests of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, Frankish 

manifestations of royal power, the expansion eastwards into the Slav regions under 

Louis the German, and the relations between the Franks and Italy, the Papacy, 

Scandinavia, Brittany, Spain, Moravia, Bulgaria and Byzantium will provide the 

framework for an examination of the degree, and success, of influences and 

exchanges with their neighbours on the part of the Franks. Within this framework 

the focus will be on manifestations of power, diplomacy, military expansion, 

missions, trade and communications. Classes will be organised in relation to 

particular categories of sources, both archaeological and documentary, such as the 

physical evidence for trade and emporia, palaces, monasteries and churches, 

artefacts, coins, manuscripts, charters, letters, confraternity books, laws, syllogi, 

relics, historical narratives and hagiography. We shall consider problems of 

interpretation and the relationship between the archaeological and the historical 

evidence. There will be an opportunity to study artefacts, coins and manuscripts 

from the collections available in Cambridge. 

4.1.2 Subject Classes 

The course comprises an introduction and eight 2-hour seminars in the Michaelmas 

Term on Thursdays from 2 - 4 pm. All sessions will be in the History Faculty. 

The coinage class will be held in the Department of Coins and Medals, Fitzwilliam 

Museum. Students on the course will be required to prepare material for the 

seminars (see programme) in advance. Reading lists and guidance for these will 

also be provided in advance. In addition, students may be required to attend 

relevant Faculty lectures in History and Archaeology listed in the Cambridge 

University Reporter Lecture List. Some of these may be in the Lent Term. Further, 

there are palaeography classes conducted by Dr Teresa Webber specifically 

designed for Option 1 students (see Section 5.2, Palaeography). 

The programme of seminars is as follows: 

1. 14 October 

2:00-4:00 

2. 21 October 

(2:00-4:00) 

3. 28 October 

(2:00-4:00) 

4. 4 November 

(2:00-4:00 

Fitzwilliam 

Museum) 

5. 11 November 

(2:00-4:00) 


(2:00-4:00) 

Historiography and the Representation of the Carolingian Empire and its 

Neighbours 

Dr J Grove 

Diplomatic Exchanges – gifts, embassies and treaties 

Dr J Grove 

Emporia 

Dr C Hills 

Coins 

Dr R Naismith 

The Consolidation of Power: Law, Capitularies and Charters 

Dr J Grove 

Palaces and Courts: archaeological comparisons and reconstruction – 

Aachen, Ingelheim, Tamworth, Pliska, Rome, Pavia, Constantinople 

7


(2:00-4:00) 

8. 2 December 

(2:00-4:00) 

Dr J Grove and Dr C Hills 

Churches and Monasteries 

Building programmes and architectural influences, St Gallen, San Vincenzo, 

Aachen and the eighth- and ninth-century churches of Rome. 

Dr J Grove and Dr C Hills 

Manuscripts 

Intellectual contacts and cultural exchange between the Carolingian empire 

and its neighbours. 

Dr J Grove and Dr R Flechner 

The course will be examined in the same way as the other options, with essay, 

palaeography examination, bibliography, bibliographical and historiographical 

essay and dissertation. The difference in Option 1 is that it is possible to offer two 

3000-word essays rather than one 5000 word essay, with one of the two being 

primarily on the archaeological material. 

4.1.3 Auxiliary Skills 

Palaeography 

For instruction in separate specialist classes in Anglo-Saxon and Frankish 

palaeography and diplomatic in the early middle ages, please see Section 5.2.2. 

Latin and other languages 

A knowledge of Latin is essential, and of French and German desirable and useful. 

The Latin test at the conclusion of the Intensive Latin course will take place on 

Wednesday 6 October at 5:00 pm, in the History Faculty. For details of Dr Neil 

Wright’s Latin course and other Latin resources, see Section 3.3 above. For Greek 

for non-Classicists, see the Classics entry in the University lecture list. 

The most useful modern languages for study of the period are German, Italian, and 

French. Some language instruction can be provided. For details see General 

Graduate Handbook online, and Section 3.3 above. 

Medieval Book Production, Codicology and Libraries 

This course is highly relevant and those taking Option 1 are expected to attend it. 

Please see details in Section 5.5, Medieval Book Production, Codicology and 

Libraries. 

Chronology 

Two classes on Tuesday 25 January and 1 February, with Dr N Berend and Dr A 

Taylor (Faculty of History, Seminar Room 7). See Section 5.3. 

Bibliography 

Please see the full details in the handbook (Section 5.1, Sources, Methods and 

Bibliography) of these 8 classes beginning on Monday 12 October at 2.00 pm. 

4.1.4 Examination of the Taught Part of the Course 

For full details of the examination, see Section 6.0. For Option 1, the requirements 

for the essay for Part I are that it should be of not more than 5,000 words (or two 

essays of 3,000 words each), excluding footnotes and bibliography, on a subject 

related to the themes and sources covered in the course. 

8

4.2 Option 2 - The Normans in Britain, Europe and the Mediterranean 

Dr C.S. Watkins and others 


4.2.2 Texts 

Emerging from their Scandinavian-Frankish settlements in Normandy, the 

Normans spread out over Europe. Around the first millennium we find them in 

southern Italy as pilgrims helping out the local population in their fight against 

the Byzantine authorities. What started as a temporary mercenary support 

operation then turned into a sustained Norman mercenary expansion culminating 

in the conquest of Capua, Apulia, Calabria and Sicily. By the middle of the 

eleventh century the Normans can also be found in northern Spain, often as 

mercenaries engaged in the struggle against the Muslims. Though no settlement 

on the Italian scale followed, a small principality at Tarragona was established by 

the beginning of the twelfth century. Expansion in the Mediterranean also led to 

mercenary involvement in Byzantium where Normans and Franks served the 

emperor, as well as feathering their own nest in eastern Anatolia. Later during 

the crusading movement south Italian and other Normans can be found at 

Antioch, Jerusalem and elsewhere in the Latin East. The most famous expansion 

of the Normans was the westward one into Britain after 1066, but Norman 

soldiers and mariners were long active in many areas – even, as late as 1400, the 

Canary islands. 

Any study of the so-called ‘Norman achievement’ raises important questions 

about ethnic identity in the Middle Ages, both as it was understood at the time 

and as it has been understood by more recent historians. Moreover, the topic 

lends itself very well to comparative study. Matters of emigration (exile, 

overpopulation) colonisation (warfare and castle building), ethnic identity and 

cultural amalgamation (bilingualism) modes of government (the parallel 

existence of legal customs), can be fruitfully studied for all areas concerned. The 

study of documentary sources (charters, feudal registers) can be used to study the 

'feudal' impact of the Normans. Above all, however, the historical writing 

associated with Norman expansion (especially in Normandy, England and Italy) 

is an important source for exploration. Whether or not one sides with Davis and 

his followers, in seeing Norman identity as a later ‘myth’, or with Douglas and 

his friends, in extolling Norman virtues, the study of Norman activities provides 

an excellent framework for examining comparatively the history of Europe in the 

eleventh and twelfth centuries. 

4.2.3 Classes 

All students should acquire and read M.M. Chibnall, The Normans, Peoples of 

Europe series (Oxford, 2000), which is now the best short introduction to the 

Normans in Europe. 

There will be eight classes, as follows: 

Venues 

Dr E Van Houts: Room 8, 22, Parkside, Emmanuel College 

Dr C.S. Watkins: Room 2, Old Lodge, Magdalene College 

Dr A Taylor: Gibbs Building, G5, King's College 

Dr N Berend: History Faculty Seminar Room 9. 

1. The Normans and Normandy (Dr E. Van Houts) 14 Oct 

2. The Normans in the Mediterranean (Dr E. Van Houts) 21 Oct 

3. The Normans in Britain (Dr C.S. Watkins) 28 Oct 

9

4. The Normans and the Church (Dr C.S. Watkins) 4 Nov 

5. The Normans and Belief (Dr C.S. Watkins) 11 Nov 

6. The Normans and Law (Dr A Taylor) 18 Nov 

7. State Formation (Dr N Berend) 25 Nov 

8. The Notion of Christendom (Dr N Berend) 2 Dec 


Candidates must attend Dr Webber’s Outline Palaeography lectures (16 sessions 

in the Michaelmas Term) and Dr Webber’s central medieval palaeography 

transcription classes (8 sessions in the Michaelmas Term). See Section 5.2. 

Candidates must attend the classes on Central Medieval Diplomatic, given by Dr 

T Webber, Dr PNR Zutshi and Prof D S Abulafia in the Lent Term (see section 

5.4) and the classes for progress reports which may be arranged in the same term. 

For the important classes in Chronology and Codicology, see sections 5.3. and 

5.5. 

Option 2 students are all required to take the Latin test on Wednesday 6 

October, at 5.00pm, in the History Faculty. 

Medieval/Anglo-Norman French 

Some of you may need medieval/Anglo-Norman French in your research. We do 

not put on a specialist course on this and the most immediate requirement is to be 

thoroughly familiar with the grammar, syntax and vocabulary of modern French. 

However, once you have this expertise in the present-day language, the following 

will help you in reading its medieval form: 

J.H. Baker, Manual of Law French (1990) offers help with vocabulary and 

also has an introduction and guidance to further reading (UL Reading Room 

A785.F206) 

Anglo-Norman Dictionary, ed. H. Rothwell etc. (1992) (UL Reading Room 

A785.F201) 

Old French-English Dictionary, ed. A. Hindley etc. (2000) (UL Reading 

Room A785.F200) 


For full details of the examination, see Section 6.0. For Option 2, the 

requirements for the essay for Part I are that it should be of not more than 5,000 

words, excluding footnotes and bibliography, on a subject related to the themes 

and sources covered in the course. 

10

4.3 Option 3 - England in the Later Middle Ages c.1200-1500 

Prof M C Carpenter, Dr A Sapoznik and others 


This option is designed for those interested in the history of later medieval Britain. 

It provides a survey of different areas of late medieval life in Britain (mostly 

England) as a background to your further research. The latter will always require a 

general knowledge of economic, social and cultural, political, administrative and 

religious/ecclesiastical history whatever particular topic is subsequently pursued. 

(Please note that all the classes listed below, apart from those specifically listed as 

optional, are compulsory.) 

4.3.2 Subject Classes 

The core of the taught part of the course is a series of eight classes, each one of 

approximately two hours. Each class is concerned with a specific theme in the 

history of late-medieval England. 

For each class a reading list will be handed out in advance. This will include 

primary sources as well as secondary reading, and one of the aims of the classes 

will be to familiarise you with some of the main sources for the period. Moreover, 

to give you some additional Latin practice, some of this source material will be in 

the original Latin. You will be expected to have read this material before the class. 

The reading list for the first class will be issued at the induction session. As the 

course progresses, you may be asked to produce a short paper for a class. 

The outline timetable for the classes, which take place on Thursdays between 2 

and 4 pm is as follows: 

Venues: Prof M C Carpenter, Dr A Ruddick and Dr A Sapoznik: Faculty of 

History, Seminar Room 8 

Dr C Watkins (2 Dec): Room 2, Old Lodge, Magdalene College 

4 October Introductory Session (after Induction 

Meeting) Prof M C Carpenter 

14 October Politics 

Prof M C Carpenter 

21 October Central Government 


28 October Local government and the Law 


4 November Demography 

Dr A Sapoznik 

11 November The Manor 

Dr A Sapoznik 

18 November Towns 

Dr A Sapoznik 

25 November National Identity 

Dr A Ruddick 

2 December Religion 

Dr C Watkins 

11


You must attend Dr Webber’s Outline Palaeography lectures (16 sessions in the 

Michaelmas Term) and Dr Webber’s Late Medieval Palaeography transcription 

classes (8 sessions in the Michaelmas Term). The latter will build on your existing 

knowledge of Latin to familiarise you with the language used in most of the 

sources you are likely to meet. Dr Webber will, as far as possible, adjust her choice 

of material to your own research needs and it is therefore important that you give 

her some idea at an early stage of the general field of your dissertation. An early 

meeting with your supervisor will enable you to clarify your needs. Students in 

Option 3 are required to take the Latin test at the start of the course (see 5.2 on 

Palaeography and 3.3 on Language tuition). 

For the important classes in Chronology and Codicology, see sections 5.3 and 5.5. 

Medieval/Anglo-Norman French 

Some of you may need medieval/Anglo-Norman French in your research. We do 

not put on a specialist course on this and the most immediate requirement is to be 

thoroughly familiar with the grammar, syntax and vocabulary of modern French. 

However, once you have this expertise in the present-day language, the following 

will help you in reading its medieval form: 

J.H. Baker, Manual of Law French (1990) offers help with vocabulary and 

also has an introduction and guidance to further reading (UL Reading Room 

A785.F206) 

Anglo-Norman Dictionary, ed. H. Rothwell etc. (1992) (UL Reading Room 

A785.F201) 

Old French-English Dictionary, ed. A. Hindley etc. (2000) (UL Reading Room 

A785.F200) 


For full details of the examination, see Section 6.0. For Option 3, the requirements 

for the essay for Part I are that it should be of not more than 5,000 words, 

excluding footnotes and bibliography, on a subject in the history of Britain 

between c.1200 and 1500. 

Those who are intending to use unpublished records in their research should refer to the 

General Graduate Handbook online. Note also that the National Archives runs Introductory 

open days, some of them of a specialist nature (see their website) and it would be a good 

idea to go to one of them before going to the National Archives for research purposes. You 

should discuss with your supervisor whether you need to use the National Archives and, if 

so, when your work there is likely to begin. 

12

5 COMPULSORY AND OPTIONAL AUXILIARY CLASSES FOR ALL OPTIONS 

5.1 Sources, Methods and Bibliography: compulsory for all Options 

There will be nine sessions designed for all options. 

i) Tour of the University Library 

First of all there are special tours of the University Library, for Option 1, Thursday 7 

October at 2.00pm with Ms M McCarthy, for Option 2, Thursday 7 October at 2.00pm 

with Mr Lars Kjaer, and for Option 3, Thursday 7 October at 2pm with Dr Alex 

Sapoznik. All tours will meet in the foyer of the University Library. 

ii) 

Classes 

There are also seven sessions on sources, methods and bibliography: 

Prof M C Carpenter, Dr T Webber, Dr E van Houts and Dr N Berend 

Monday 11 October-Monday 29 November, 2.00-4.00pm 

There will be three classes on scholarship and to introduce you to the formation of the 

great source and reference collections, on historical interpretation of medieval history, 

especially in the twentieth century, and on dictionaries, lexicons and where to seek 

information on all manner of topics. 

These will be followed by an introduction to the conventions employed in producing a 

bibliography of printed work, unpublished theses, and sources in medieval history, with 

both the examined Bibliography in Part I and the bibliographies for your essay and 

dissertation in view (see also Section 6.4). The series will include a class on the problems 

of editing medieval texts, and a session with guidance on writing the MPhil dissertation. 

Conventions for proofreading will also be covered. 

1 Monday 11 October Dr E van Houts 

Dictionaries, lexicons and where to go and find out... 

2 Monday 18 October Dr N Berend 

Scholarship and the Great Source & Reference collections in medieval history. 

3 Monday 25 October Prof M C Carpenter 

The history of medieval history 

4 Monday 1 November Dr T Webber 

Critical editions, textual criticism and text transmission 

5 Monday 8 November Prof M C Carpenter 

Producing a Bibliography and Proof-Reading 

6 Monday 15 November Prof M C Carpenter 

Writing the MPhil Essays and Dissertations 

7 Monday 22 November 

No class 

8 Monday 29 November 

Historiographical and Bibliographical Essay Presentations 

5.2 Palaeography: compulsory for all Options 

Palaeography will consist of 16 outline lectures intended for all students supplemented by 

8 specialist one-hour classes for “early”, “central” and “late” Medievalists for which 

details are given below. 

13

The lectures are intended to provide a survey of the development of script in the West 

within an historical context from late antiquity until c.1500. The emphasis will be on 

methodology, approaches and context, whereas the specialist classes will focus more 

closely upon practical problems of reading, transcribing, naming and dating; additional 

practice in reading and transcribing will be provided each week as homework. 

All the lectures and the specialist classes in your period are compulsory but you are 

additionally free to go to the other specialist classes. 

See Section 6.1, page 18, for details of the examination in Palaeography. 

5.2.1 Outline Lectures in Palaeography Dr T Webber 

Latin Palaeography c. AD 100-c. AD 1050; Latin and Vernacular Palaeography c. 

AD 1050-c. AD1500 

There will be two lectures each week during the Michaelmas Term, to be held in 

on Mondays, 10.00 am – 11.00 am (from 11 October) in the History Faculty and 

on Tuesdays, 11.00 am – 12.00 noon (from 12 October) in the English Faculty. 

These lectures aim to give students both an understanding of the relevance of 

palaeography for historical analysis and interpretation and an introduction to the 

methodological issues involved in palaeographical analysis. They are also 

intended to enable students to see how the palaeography they will study within the 

specialist classes for their own chosen option fits into the development of script 

across the medieval period. The lectures will examine the development of script 

and scribal practices from c. AD 100-c. AD 1500, the dynamics of that 

development, and the characteristics and functions of the different types of script 

and scribal practices, including the medieval systems of abbreviation. 

In order to avoid delaying the history of late medieval script until the second half 

of the Michaelmas Term, the palaeography lectures have been split into two 

concurrent series, each beginning at the start of term: one set (Mondays, 10.00 am 

– 11.00 am) will cover the period c. AD 100-c. AD 1050; the other (Tuesdays, 

11.00 am – 12.00 noon) c. AD 1050-c. AD1500. They should, however, be 

viewed as a single series: for example, certain questions of methodology relevant 

to the entire Middle Ages will only be discussed in the Monday lectures. The 

Monday lectures will focus upon Latin palaeography only, but the Tuesday 

lectures will include some consideration of the palaeography of texts (literary and 

documentary) written in the vernacular (especially English and French). 

Students will be provided with bibliographies and photocopied specimens of script. 

5.2.2 Practical Palaeography Classes for Option 1 Dr T Webber 

Early Medieval Palaeography (5 th -10 th 

classes 

century): eight one-hour transcription 

These classes aim to teach students to identify, read and date the handwriting 

found in early medieval books and documents from western Europe. The 

specimens studied will all be in Latin. The classes will examine the scripts that 

evolved from those employed in late antiquity: capitals, uncial, half-uncial, the 

various local and regional minuscules, and Caroline minuscule. Some 

consideration will also be given to the diplomatic of the documents. Students will 

be asked to transcribe specimens each week as homework, to name the script and 

to comment briefly upon criteria for dating. 

Students will be provided with bibliographies, guidelines on the conventions for 

transcription, a guide to the more common conventions and symbols of 

14

abbreviation, photocopied specimens from which to practise transcription, and 

sample transcriptions of representative specimens. 

The classes will be held in the History Faculty in the Michaelmas Term on 

Mondays, 11 am -12 noon (from 11 October). 


Central Medieval Palaeography (11 th -13 th century): eight one-hour transcription 

classes 

These classes aim to teach students to identify, read and date the handwriting 

found in books and documents from western Europe dating from the Central 

Middle Ages, and will include an examination of Caroline minuscule, other local 

and regional minuscules, informal and glossing hands, Littera Textualis, and the 

evolution of cursive scripts. The specimens studied (and those used in the 

examination) will be in Latin, although, if required, every effort will be made to 

provide opportunities to study specimens in the vernacular for those students who 

are working with vernacular texts. Students will be asked to transcribe specimens 

each week as homework, to name the script and to comment briefly upon criteria 

for dating. 





The classes will be held in the English Faculty in the Michaelmas Term on 

Tuesdays, 12.00 noon – 1.00pm (from 12 October). 


Late Medieval Palaeography (13 th -15 th 

classes 

century): eight one-hour transcription 

These classes will provide practice in identifying, reading and transcribing English 

bookhands (Textualis and cursive) and, more especially, the hands of English 

private and governmental documents of the late Middle ages. Specimens to be 

studied (and examined) will be in both Latin and English. Some assistance will be 

provided with the translation of texts in Latin, but there will be no formal teaching 

of Latin grammar. Students will be required to transcribe specimens each week as 

homework, to identify the script of the specimens and to comment briefly on 

criteria for dating. 





The classes will be held in the History Faculty in the Michaelmas Term on 

Tuesdays, 2.00pm – 3.00pm (from 12 October). 

5.3 Chronology: compulsory for all Options 

There will be two classes, given by Dr N Berend and Dr A Taylor in the History Faculty 

on Tuesday 25 January and 1 February at 2pm. This course is essential for all Options. 

15

5.4 Diplomatic of the Central Middle Ages: compulsory for Option 2 

Dr T Webber, Dr P Zutshi and Prof D S Abulafia 

These classes, given on Tuesdays 2 - 4 pm, in the Faculty, are intended principally to 

provide a general introduction to medieval diplomatic, although it may be possible briefly 

to cover topics relating specifically to the research interests of those attending. The 

lecturers will also be pleased to discuss particular problems individually with MPhil or 

PhD students. 

Classes 1, 3 and 4 are given by Dr Webber, class 2 by Dr Zutshi and class 5 by Prof D S 

Abulafia 

8 February Introduction to medieval diplomatic: its definition and purposes. Sketch of 

the history of the discipline, from Jean Mabillon to the 21st century. The 

forgery of documents in the Middle Ages. 

15 February The papal chancery, mainly 12th-15th century. Types of papal documents. 

The papal registers in the Vatican Archives. 

22 February Royal chanceries and documents, mainly England, France, Germany. 

1 March Episcopal documents and private documents: England and the Continent. 

2 March Notaries public in Southern Europe, especially Italy. 

5.5 Medieval Book Production, Codicology and Libraries: optional for Options 2 and 3 but 

compulsory for Option 1 

Dr T Webber and others 

This course is optional but you may well find it of great interest, and anyone intending to 

use manuscript (as opposed to record) sources would be well advised to attend. The course 

covers the whole medieval period, but if you do wish to go you should follow the entire 

course, not just the part that covers your Option. If in doubt about the course’s suitability 

for you, you should consult your supervisor, and you may also wish to contact the director 

of the course, Dr T Webber, in Trinity College, or by email (mtjw2@cam.ac.uk). Numbers 

may have to be limited; those who wish to attend should therefore give their names and 

colleges to Dr T Webber either in writing, to Trinity College, or by email 

(mtjw2@cam.ac.uk) before 8 October. 

The course consists of six classes in Michaelmas Term (Part I) and four classes in Lent 

Term (Part II). Part I focuses on the nature of medieval manuscripts themselves; Part II in 

the Lent Term deals with particular categories of book. All classes will take place between 

2 and 4 pm on Wednesday afternoons. They will begin on the third Wednesday of the 

Michaelmas Term. Part I Classes will take place in the History Faculty, the Parker Library 

in Corpus Christi College, and the Wren Library, Trinity College. Please see below for 

details. Part II class 7 is in the Fitzwilliam Museum and class 9 in the University Library. 

Michaelmas Term 

Part I - Using and Describing Medieval Manuscripts. 

Class 1 (27 Oct) Materials and Structure I (Dr de Hamel) Parker Library, 

Corpus 

Class 2 (3 Nov) Materials and Structure II (Dr de Hamel) Parker Library, 

Corpus 

Class 3 (10 Nov) Materials and Structure III (Dr Webber) Faculty 

16

Class 4 (17 Nov) Dating and Contents (Dr Webber) Faculty 

Classes 5-6 (24 

Nov/1 Dec) 

Technical Description of a Manuscript 

(Dr Webber) 

Wren Library, 

Trinity College 

Lent Term 

Class 7 (19 Jan) 

Class 8 (26 Jan) 

Class 9 (2 Feb) 

Class 10 (9 Feb) 

Part II - Medieval Libraries, Manuscript Collections and Late 

Medieval Books 

Late Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts – liturgy, history and 

literature (Dr S Panayotova, Fitzwilliam Museum) 

Medieval Libraries (Dr T Webber, Faculty of History) 

Roman and Canon Law manuscripts (Dr P Zutshi) 

Early modern and modern manuscript collections (Prof David 

McKitterick, (Trinity College) venue to be confirmed). 

5.5.1 Introductory Reading List for Medieval Book Production, Codicology and 

Libraries 

ESSENTIAL READING AND CONSTANT USE: The handbook by Bernhard 

Bischoff is the best single guide to the subject of the development of script and 

book production. Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages, translated 

by David Ganz and Daibhi Ó Cróinin (1990). For later medieval books and 

handwriting, the essential guide is A. Derolez, The Palaeography of Gothic 

Manuscript Books from the Twelfth to the Early Sixteenth Century (2003). Both 

books are available in paperback from Cambridge University Press. 

Also useful (and very well illustrated): R. Clemens and T. Graham, Introduction to 

Manuscript Studies (2007). 

(i) Decoration and illumination 

Further reading: A.Grabar, Early Christian Art (1970) 

J. Hubert, J. Porcher and W. Volbach, Europe in the Dark Ages (1969) 

idem, Carolingian Art (1970) 

C. de Hamel, A History of Illuminated manuscripts (2nd edn London, 1994); 

R.G. Calkins, Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages (London, 1983); 

Pelican History of Art: relevant volumes. 

(ii) The monastic scriptoria of the earlier middle ages 

For general bibliography see Leonard Boyle, Medieval Latin Palaeography. A 

Bibliographical Introduction (Toronto, 1984) and revised version, Rome 1999. 

Further reading lists available at the Palaeography classes. 

THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY IS ALSO INVALUABLE FOR ALL ASPECTS OF THE 

COURSE. 

D. Ganz, Corbie in the Carolingian Renaissance (1988) 

(iii) The development of the Paris book trade 

R.H. Rouse and M.A. Rouse, Manuscripts and their Makers: Commercial Book 

Producers in Medieval Paris 1200-1500 (Turnhout and London, 2000) 

C. de Hamel, Glossed books of the Bible and the Origins of the Paris Book Trade 

(Woodbridge, 1984) 

Aliza Cohen-Mushlin, The Making of a Manuscript. The Worms Bible of 1148 

(Wiesbaden, 1983) and see the review by R. McKitterick in The Book Collector 

(1985) pp. 523-6. 

(iv) The pecia system in the universities 

Further reading: Graham Pollard, ‘The pecia system in the medieval universities’ 

in M.B. Parkes and A.G. Watson eds., Medieval Manuscripts and Libraries, Essays 

presented to N.R.Ker (1978). 

17

M.B. Parkes ‘The provision of books’ in The History of the University of Oxford 

II, Late Medieval Oxford, ed. J.I. Catto and R. Evans (1992) 

(v) Books for an expanding reading public and commercial book production 

C.de Hamel, A history of illuminated manuscripts (2nd edn London 1994) 

M.B. Parkes, Scribes, Scripts and Readers: studies in the communication, 

presentation and dissemination of medieval texts (1991) 

C.P. Christianson A Directory of London Stationers and Book Artisans, 1300 - 

1500 

A.I. Doyle, ‘The English Provincial Book Trade before Printing’ in Six Centuries 

of the Provincial Book Trade in Britain ed. P. Isaac (1990) 

(vi) Medieval Libraries 

E. Leedham-Green and T. Webber, ed., The Cambridge History of Libraries in 

Britain and Ireland, vol. 1 to 1640 (2006) 

R. McKitterick, The Carolingians and the Written Word (Cambridge, 1989) chapt. 

5 

K. Christ, Libraries in the Middle Ages, translated from the German (1984) 

A. Hobson, Great Libraries of Europe (1970) 

Leopold Delisle, Le Cabinet des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Imperiale/Nationale 

(Paris 1868-91) 

Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, vols 1- (1990- ) 

(vii) Structure and binding of manuscripts 

Léon Gilissen, La reliure occidentale antérieure à 1400, (Bibliogia 1), Brepols, 

1983 

J.A Szirmai, The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding (1999) 

D. Cockerell, Bookbinding and the Care of Books, [Reprint, intro. by J. 

Greenfield] (1991) 

B. Middleton, A History of English Craft Bookbinding Technique, [Foreword by 

H. Nixon] (3rd supplemented edn, 1988) 

J Sheppard, The Buildwas Books. Book Production, Acquisition and Use at the 

English Cistercian Monastery, 1165-ca. 1400, Oxford Bibliographical Society 

(1997) 

General Bibliography 

In addition to the studies cited above you may like to look at the following books 

on the history of medieval books and the wider cultural setting: 

R. McKitterick, The Carolingians and the Written Word (Cambridge 1989) 

R. McKitterick (ed.) Carolingian Culture: emulation and innovation (Cambridge 

1993) 

N. J. Morgan and R. M. Thomson, ed., The Cambridge History of the Book in 

Britain, vol. II 1100-1400 (2008) 

T.Webber, Scribes and Scholars at Salisbury Cathedral (Oxford 1992) 

M.T. Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record 1066-1307 (London, 2nd edn, 

1993); 

H. Degering, Lettering (1965) 

H. Degering, Writing (1962) and The Alphabet (1968) 

M. Drogin, Medieval Calligraphy (1980) 

S. Morison, Politics and Script (1972) 

L.D. Reynolds and N.G.Wilson, Scribes and Scholars 3rd edition (Oxford, 1991) 

R.H. Rouse and M.A.Rouse, Authentic Witnesses (1991) 

P. Ganz (ed.) The Role of the Book in Mediaeval Culture, Bibliologia 4. Elementa 

ad librorum studia pertinentia (Turnhout, 1986). 

18

6 THE EXAMINATION OF PART I 

6.1 The work to be submitted 

To obtain the degree, candidates must achieve a pass in both Part I and Part II. 

Part I tests your work for the taught courses in the first part of the year. You will be asked to 

submit the following pieces of work: 

i) One or two essays as specified in your Option outline. The essay is of 5000 words, 

excluding footnotes and Bibliography (or in the case of Option 1, two essays may be 

offered of 3000 words each, excluding footnotes and Bibliography). For an indication 

of what is expected, see Appendix B.2 ‘Guidelines for Examiners in Part I’. For 

guidance on choosing an essay topic, see section 6.2. Essay titles must be submitted 

with the name of the essay supervisor and a provisional dissertation title to the 

MPhil Office no later than 4.30pm on Friday 12 November 2010. 

ii) 

iii) 

A bibliography of between 75 and 150 items of primary and secondary material. This 

will be the basic bibliography for your dissertation and will be supervised by your 

official supervisor for the year. You will need, therefore, to be doing the preliminary 

reading for your dissertation while attending classes and doing the Part I submitted 

work during the Michaelmas and Lent Terms. Your supervisor will be able to advise 

you on how to balance the various demands on your time. You will receive initial 

guidance at the Bibliography classes; see also Section 6.4 below. 

A historiographical and bibliographical essay, of between 2,000 and 3,000 words, on 

the subject of the thesis. For details of this, see Appendix B.2 ‘Guidelines for 

Examiners in Part I’. 

Two copies of all essays are to be submitted. This work must be submitted to the 

MPhil Office between 11.30am and 12.30pm on Friday 18 March 2011. Please 

note that only in exceptional circumstances, and only with prior permission from 

the Chairman, can work be submitted earlier or later than this time. 

iv) 

The written examination in Palaeography will take place on Tuesday 26 April 2011 at 

9.00am. It will consist of two “seen” passages and one “unseen” passage and will last 

three hours. You will be tested in your specialist period of palaeography only. Copies 

of previous Palaeography examinations are available in the Seeley Library. 

All candidates must pass all elements in Part I in order to be allowed to proceed to Part 

II of the course. Only those who fail in Part I will be informed about their examination 

performance officially. This is so that they may withdraw from the University. There will be 

unofficial feedback for everyone, but it should be stressed that the comments of the 

examiners are ‘summative’ rather than didactic in intention, and that they are made as part of 

an examining process which is at that stage incomplete. 

6.2 Choosing an essay topic 

The essay to be submitted at the end of the Lent Term can be on any subject for which a 

supervisor can be found and which meets with the agreement of the MPhil Sub-Committee. 

However, it is preferable to choose a topic that falls within the subject areas that you are being 

taught in your Option. You must choose a subject which does not relate directly to the 

subject of your dissertation. The essay and dissertation should not overlap thematically or 

with respect to the historiography or source material in such a way as to reduce substantially 

the work of the student for one or the other. You should begin to think about choosing a 

subject early in the Michaelmas Term. In making your choice, you should consult your Option 

director and your overall supervisor and also perhaps the teacher of the classes within which 

your choice falls. 

Choice of topic (essay titles) should be notified to Prof M C Carpenter at the MPhil Office of 

the History Faculty no later than 4.30pm on Friday 12 November 2010 (essay title, essay 

supervisor if known and provisional dissertation title), but, if you know what you wish to do 

19

efore this deadline, you should send in your title as soon as you and your overall supervisor 

have decided on it. Once your choice has been notified you will be assigned a supervisor for 

the essay as soon as possible, should that be necessary, and you should contact this supervisor 

as soon as his/her name has been given to you. Any subsequent changes in your essay title 

must be approved by the MPhil in Medieval History Sub-Committee. If you have any 

difficulty in making the initial contact, you should take the steps indicated in the section of the 

covering letter on obtaining help and advice. It is recommended that you begin work on the 

essay in the Michaelmas term and concentrate on producing a first draft during the Christmas 

vacation. Although much of the Lent Term has been left almost entirely free for the 

completion of this work, it tends to take longer than expected. It is for this reason that the date 

for the choice of topic and essay title is set quite early in the term. 

6.3 Format for Submitted Essays and Dissertations 

i) Each essay should not exceed 5,000 words in length, excluding the notes and 

bibliography, or, for those doing two essays for Option 1, 3,000 words for each essay 

excluding the notes and bibliography. The Subject Essay must also include a select 

bibliography. (see below section 7 for details on the dissertations). No penalty will be 

imposed for an excess of 50 words over the maximum word limit, but this allowance 

should not be abused. The MPhil sub-committee acting as a Board of Examiners has the 

discretion to penalize essays which exceed the word limit. The word limit (within the 

50 words grace allowance) must therefore be strictly observed. Students can expect 

to be severely penalized for exceeding the word limit. Normally the penalty will be the 

deduction of up to 5 marks from the essay, but in severe cases the essay may be marked 

as failed. 

ii) The essay should be typed in one-and-a-half spacing on one side of the paper only. The 

notes may, however, be single-spaced. 

iii) Notes should be positioned at the foot of the page. 

iv) The purpose of the notes is primarily to refer the reader to the sources used. Secondary 

works are to be cited where they are the object of substantive discussion in the main text, 

but not otherwise. The bibliography should be selective, listing sources and those 

secondary works which the candidate has found to be of importance in the writing of the 

essay. 

v) In the Bibliographical and Historiographical Essay, page references need not be given 

unless specific quotations are included. Only clear identification of the work is necessary, 

given that full details are provided in the Bibliography. 

vi) Please see Appendix C ‘Notes on the preparation of dissertations in the History Faculty, 

Cambridge’, and Appendix B for the marking scheme and guidelines for examiners for 

Part I. 

vii) TWO COPIES of the Subject Essay(s), the Bibliographical and Historiographical Essay 

and Bibliography, and the dissertation must be submitted. A labelled CD containing an 

electronic version of the dissertation is also required. 

6.4 Producing a Bibliography 

Guidance will be given within the classes on Sources, Methods and Bibliography (see Section 

5.1). With the aid of a few published examples, advice will be given on such issues as the 

correct ways of entering various types of book and article in the bibliography as well as the 

proper methods for distinguishing between primary sources and secondary authorities. 

Producing a bibliography usually raises more problems than one might anticipate, but few of 

these are insoluble. 

The following notes are also intended to be of assistance when you come to preparing your 

bibliographies for submission in Part I, and for the essay and dissertation. 

20

i) The Bibliography you submit is NOT to be a ‘critical’ one, i.e. you ought not to add 

personal comments on the value of the items you include in the Bibliography itself. In 

Part I of the MPhil you have the opportunity of making such comments in the 

accompanying bibliographical and historiographical essay. In the dissertation you can 

make comments on the value of items in the text or the footnotes. 

ii) 

The Faculty of History’s Guide to bibliographical and other matters relating to MPhil 

and PhD dissertations is available on the History Faculty website, entitled: Style 

Guide for Long Essays and Dissertations. However, these are not obligatory for this 

MPhil (see vi below and Appendix C). 

iii) Please consult your dissertation supervisor about special problems relating to your 

own bibliography. 

iv) There are no uniform regulations meant to apply to every MPhil bibliography; the 

essential requirement is to be consistent in your own principles and methods, after you 

have carefully decided upon them. 

v) Do not hesitate to let Prof Carpenter know if you have any queries, not resolved by the 

notes above. 

6.5 Deadlines for Submission 

Essay titles must be submitted to the MPhil Office no later than 4.30pm on Friday 12 

November 2010. 

Dissertation titles must be submitted to the MPhil Office no later than 12.30pm on Friday 

21 January 2011. 

All students must submit their written work for Part I of the course between 11.30am and 

12.30pm on the appointed day 18 March 2011 (this date and time will be strictly adhered 

to). Those who fail to do so will be deemed not to have submitted their written work. 

Please note again that only in exceptional circumstances, and only with prior permission 

from the chairman, can work be submitted earlier or later than this time. 

6.6 Applying for an extension 

If there are grave and convincing reasons why work for Part I assessment cannot be 

submitted on time, the Administrative Secretary of the MPhil must be informed of these in 

writing at the History Faculty, or by email, before the deadline. These reasons will normally 

be either medical, in which case a statement from a College nurse or a GP must also be 

provided, or personal, in which case a supporting letter from the student’s College tutor is also 

required. The Chair and/or Academic Secretary of the MPhil are able in these circumstances 

to consider granting an extension. An extension will normally only be considered for the 

actual amount of time lost, and students should be aware that excessive delay may make it 

impossible for their work to be examined at the same time as that of other students and may 

consequently delay receipt of their results. 

21

7. PART II: THE DISSERTATION 

7.1 The Dissertation 

Part II gives you the opportunity to undertake an extended piece of research of your own in a 

thesis, of between 20,000 and 25,000 words in length, including tables and appendices, but 

excluding footnotes and bibliography. No penalty will be imposed for an excess of 150 words 

over the maximum word limit, but this allowance should not be abused. The MPhil subcommittee 

acting as a Board of Examiners has the discretion to penalise dissertations which 

exceed the word limit. The word limit (within the 150 words grace allowance) must 

therefore be strictly observed. Students can expect to be severely penalised for 

exceeding the word limit. Normally the penalty will be a deduction of up to 5 marks from 

the dissertation, but in severe cases the dissertation may be marked as failed. 

To clarify what is expected of this thesis, the following extract from the University 

Regulations may be helpful - 

Before recommending the award of the MPhil Degree (one-year course), when the 

examination requires the submission of a thesis, the Examiners shall satisfy themselves 

that the thesis is clearly written, that it takes account of previously published work, and 

that it represents a contribution to learning. 

See also Appendix B.3, ‘Guidelines for Classification in the MPhil in Medieval History Part 

II’. 

The best of previous years' dissertations are deposited in the Seeley History Library and you 

may find it helpful to look at some of these as an indication of the quality of a good or very 

good dissertation. Some of them may also be useful to your own research. (See Appendix D 

for a list of dissertations available in the Seeley). 

You should begin to prepare your dissertation already in the Michaelmas Term. You will 

receive helpful feedback on the Bibliography and Bibliographical and Historiographical essay 

submitted in Part I as you start to focus on the dissertation full-time. 

7.2 Deadlines for submission 

Dissertation titles must be submitted in their final form to the MPhil Office no later than 

12.30 pm on Friday 21 January 2011. Any further changes of title must be notified to, and 

approved by, the MPhil Sub-committee before submission. Please inform Tessa Blackman 

and ensure that your supervisor sends his/her approval of the change. 

The submission date for the dissertation is between 11.30 am and 12.30 pm on Wednesday 

31 August 2011 (this date and time must be strictly adhered to). By this date, all MPhil 

students must: 

EITHER: 

• submit the MPhil dissertation to the MPhil Office for examination; 

OR 

• have submitted – ideally at least 1-2 weeks prior to the dissertation submission date – 

a Board of Graduate Studies deferral of submission application form AND supporting 

documentation to the MPhil Office, for consideration by the MPhil Sub-Committee 

and Degree Committee. In the past students have at times submitted dissertations with 

pages missing. All dissertations should therefore be carefully checked for 

completeness before they are submitted. 

A labelled CD electronic version of the dissertation must also be submitted. 

Mechanical breakdown in the functioning of word processors and printers will not normally 

be regarded as a sufficient excuse for late submission. Students are therefore strongly advised 

to plan to have completed their work a couple of days in advance of the deadlines in order to 

avoid such problems. 

22

You should bear in mind when planning discussion of your drafts with your supervisor that 

from the end of June your supervisor is likely to be away from Cambridge for some or even 

much of the vacation. 

You may be asked to attend a viva voce examination on your dissertation. This will not be 

decided until after the MPhil examiners have met and would not therefore take place before 

October. 

It is particularly important that overseas students wishing to return home by a specific 

date inform the MPhil Office if they wish to submit the dissertation early. However, 

students may not submit more than a month early. Only in exceptional circumstances 

and after application to the MPhil Sub-Committee by 2 May 2011 will students be 

permitted to submit earlier. Students should also be aware that those who hand in their 

dissertations too early may jeopardise their chances of producing a dissertation to the 

required standard. 

7.3 Applying for an extension 

To apply for an extension of the submission date for the dissertation, there is a formal 

procedure laid down by the Board of Graduate Studies which must be followed. This may 

only be granted where there are grave and convincing reasons for a delay in submission. 

These reasons will normally be either medical or personal. The form with which to apply for 

such an extension is available to download from your CamSIS website. 

All applications for deferral of submission must contain: 

• Board of Graduate Studies deferral of submission application form 

AND the following supporting documentation: 

• If Medical reasons – copies of medical certificates/letter(s) from Doctor or other 

medical official (eg physiotherapist, counsellor, etc) 

• If Personal reasons – letter from the College Graduate Tutor, MPhil Course 

Director/Chair/Secretary 

• If visa extension – appropriate evidence, a communication from the University’s 

PBI/Visa office 

• If other reason – appropriate evidence to be supplied before the application can be 

considered. 

If in any doubt about this procedure, please contact Miss T Blackman in the MPhil Office for 

advice. 

Regulation 12 (Statutes and Ordinances, p 413) states: 

12. If the Tutor of a candidate for the MPhil Degree (one-year course), for the MPhil 

Degree (two-year course), or for any Diploma or Certificate for which candidates 

are required to be Graduate Students, supplies the Board of Graduate Studies 

with satisfactory evidence that the candidate has been hindered by illness or other 

grave cause in preparing for or taking the examination or any part of the 

examination for the degree or other qualification concerned, the Board shall have 

power, notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in the relevant regulations. 

either (a) to approve the candidate for the degree or other qualification without 

further examination, provided that no candidate shall be so approved unless the 

Degree Committee concerned judge him or her to have performed with 

credit in a substantial part of the examination, 

23

or 

(b) to allow the candidate to be examined or re-examined under such conditions 

and at such time as may be determined by the Board after consultation with the 

Degree Committee concerned. 

7.4 Plagiarism 

Your attention is drawn to the Faculty of History’s statement on Plagiarism 

available on the Faculty’s website. Plagiarism identified in any submitted work 

will be penalised. 

24

8 CONTACT POINTS IN THE FACULTY 

8.1 The MPhil Office 

Your main point of contact in the History Faculty (on West Road) will be the MPhil Office. 

This is on the 4 th floor of the History Faculty building. Miss Tessa Blackman in the MPhil 

Office is in charge of administering this MPhil. You will visit this office quite often; all essays 

and dissertations as well as titles are handed in here. 

Tel. (7)48152 or e-mail: medieval@hist.cam.ac.uk. 

The office is open Mondays to Thursdays: 9am to 5pm and Fridays 9am to 4.30pm. THE 

MPHIL OFFICE IS CLOSED FROM 1PM – 2 PM (Monday – Friday). 

8.2 MPhil Update 

The Degree Committee Office regularly produces an MPhil Update, which is circulated by 

email only, to all MPhil students. A copy of the MPhil Update is also put on the Graduate 

Noticeboard (located in the Faculty's Graduate Research Room) and on the Faculty’s website. 

Previous editions of the MPhil Update can be viewed on the History Faculty's website 

http://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/graduate_students/latest.html It is important that you read the 

MPhil Update regularly because it contains up-to-date information regarding funding, events 

and issues that have been notified to the Degree Committee Office. 

8.3 MPhil Student Representation in the Faculty of History 

The students on each MPhil course in the Faculty will be asked to select a representative, who 

will act as liaison between the students and the Academic Secretary for that course (the 

academic responsible for the day-to-day running of the course; see Sections 9.2 and 9.5 

below), although all students can approach the Academic Secretary at any time. One of the six 

MPhil representatives will serve on the Faculty’s Graduate Teaching and Learning Committee 

together with the representatives of the PhD students. 

9 ADMINISTRATION OF THE COURSE AND RESOLVING PROBLEMS 

9.1 Role of the Supervisor 

Normally, you are expected first to approach your supervisor about matters relating to your 

academic work at Cambridge. If you have not already done so, you should contact your 

supervisor to arrange a meeting as soon as possible. The supervisor’s responsibility is to work 

closely with you to prepare you for writing your MPhil dissertation. Your supervisor will be 

responsible for overseeing your overall progress during the year, although the supervisors 

appointed for the particular piece(s) of submitted work will oversee that work. However, 

your appointed supervisor is the person to whom you should go first if in any difficulties 

or doubt. 

9.2 Option Directors and the Academic Chairman and Secretary 

If there are any queries your supervisor is unable to answer, you should consult the Director 

for your Option, who are as follows: 

Option 1 

Option 2 

Option 3 

Dr J Grove Dept of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, (35079, email 

jpg15@cam.ac.uk) 

Dr C Watkins, Magdalene College (40287, email: csw14@cam.ac.uk) 

Prof M C Carpenter, Faculty of History (35314, email: 

mcc1000@cam.ac.uk) 

(The above telephone numbers are those of the University telephone network: from a BT 

phone add; 3 for numbers beginning with 3, 7 for numbers beginning with 6 or 4.) 

25

The Chairman of the course in 2010/11 is Prof MC Carpenter, and the Academic Secretary is 

Dr T Webber. Do feel free to contact them if you need their help, whichever option you 

are taking. The Chairman and Academic Secretary for the MPhil handle the day-to-day 

administrative work of the programme, and there may be occasions during your time here 

when an informal conversation with either of them may lead to the quick solution of some of 

the problems affecting your work. However, many important items of business such as a 

change of supervisor, approving dissertation titles, leave to continue to the PhD, appointing 

examiners and scrutinising examination results are formal, and must be handled by the MPhil 

Sub-Committee and/or the Degree Committee. 

9.3 Faculty contacts 

Queries about the Faculty’s Graduate Training provision should be addressed to the Faculty’s 

Director of Graduate Training, Dr C Watkins (graduate-studies@hist.cam.ac.uk). 

Other questions about Faculty matters can be addressed to Miss Tessa Blackman in the MPhil 

Office who will be happy to try to answer questions. Please e-mail her with your questions in 

the first instance on medieval@hist.cam.ac.uk. If you do not yet have access to e-mail 

(although all research students are allocated an e-mail address and expected to use it), the 

office’s telephone number is 748152 (or 48152 if you are using the university telephone 

network). 

If you are having any serious problems in relation either to the taught course or to your 

supervisor which you feel cannot be dealt with by either the option leaders or your supervisor, 

you should in the first instance consult Prof M C Carpenter. Thereafter, in delicate cases the 

Graduate Teaching, Learning and Quality Committee has a team of “Ombudspersons” who can 

also be consulted for neutral advice (information on this scheme is given in the General 

Graduate Handbook online). 

9.4 Non-academic questions and problems 

The Graduate Tutor appointed by your college will normally be the best person to approach 

about personal problems which you may prefer not to discuss with your supervisor, visa and 

passport problems, dealings with grant awarding bodies, accommodation and financial 

problems in general. The Degree Committee does not deal with these sorts of issues. 

9.5 Summary: Administration of the MPhil and who to ask about what 

The following table summarises how the MPhil is administered, who does what, and who you 

should approach with particular questions or with problems. 

Day-to-day running of the course 

The MPhil is administered by the 

Chairman 

and the Academic Secretary 

with administrative support from 

the MPhil office. 

The MPhil Subcommittee of 

senior academics oversees the 

running of the programme. The 

committee is ultimately 

responsible to the Degree 

Committee for the Faculty of 

Current post holders 


Dr T Webber 

Miss Tessa Blackman, 

Administrative Secretary 

Prof C Carpenter 

(Chairman) 

Dr M T J Webber (Acad. 

Secretary) 

Dr J Grove 

Dr C Watkins 

Contact details/ Area of 

responsibility 

Contact via: MPhil office. 

Contact with: 

Informal queries about 

problems; for advice and 

assistance in addition to that 

from your supervisor, or 

where there is a problem 

with your supervisor, which 

your Option Director could 

not help with 

Contact via: MPhil office. 

Contact with: 

Formal business, including 

change of supervisor, essay 

or dissertation title changes, 

26

History. It meets once or twice 

per term and approves 

dissertation and essay titles, 

appoints examiners, scrutinises 

exam results and deals with 

applications for leave to continue 

to the PhD. 

The Graduate Studies Office, 

under the Director of Graduate 

Training and Taught Courses, is 

responsible for monitoring all 

MPhil courses in the Faculty of 

History, and reports to the 

Degree Committee of the 

Faculty of History. The Director 

oversees matters relating to 

MPhil students from admission 

through to examination. 

The Graduate Teaching, 

Learning and Quality Committee 

reviews the teaching for courses. 

One of the 6 MPhil student 

representatives sits on the 

committee. It has a team of 

“Ombudspersons” who can also 

be consulted for neutral advice in 

the event of a serious problem 

with either the taught course or 

your supervisor. 

The Director of Graduate Studies 

is in charge of the Degree 

Committee Office. This office 

deals with all matters relating to 

postgraduate funding (both PhD 

and MPhil) 

The History Faculty Degree 

Committee is the ultimate 

authority for all decisions 

affecting graduate students 

9.6 Useful Contact details 

Dr C Van Houts 

Dr P Sarris 


Admin. Secretary 

Dr C Watkins 

(email: graduatestudies@hist.cam.ac.uk 

Miss S Pocock (Admin. 

Secretary) 

Dr J Chatterji 

Dr J Chatterji 

Miss S M Willson, Senior 

Secretary, History Degree 

Committee tel. (3)35305 

degreecommittee@hist.cam.ac.uk 

Chairman: 

Dr M Goldie 

requests for extensions. 

Because meetings take 

place only once or twice a 

term, it is important for 

you to deal with 

administrative requests in 

a timely manner. 

Contact via: Graduate 

Office 

Contact with: 

Queries about the Faculty’s 

Graduate Training 

provision. 

Contact via: Graduate 

Office 

Contact with: 

Requests for advice over 

problems which for any 

reason you feel cannot be 

dealt with by 1) your 

supervisor or option leader 

or 2) by Prof M C Carpenter 

as course Chairman. 

Contact via: Degree 

Committee Office 

Contact with: 

Queries and questions about 

funding for PhD and MPhil 

courses 

Prof M C Carpenter, Chairman Faculty of History 35314; mcc1000 

Dr MTJ Webber, Academic Trinity College 

39924; mtjw2 

Secretary 

Dr C Watkins Magdalene College 40287; csw14 

Dr J Grove 

Dept of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and 35079; jpg15 

Celtic 

Dr EMC van Houts Emmanuel College 42999; emcv2 

Dr P Sarris Trinity College 39927; pavs2 


Administrative Secretary 

MPhil Office, Faculty of History 48152 

Postal address:Faculty of History, 9 West Road, Cambridge CB3 9EF. 

27

APPENDIX A 

LIST OF MEDIEVAL SCHOLARS IN CAMBRIDGE August 2010 

The following list (not necessarily absolutely comprehensive) is of scholars resident in Cambridge who may 

be contacted informally for advice within their areas of expertise. They include some retired medievalists 

who are still associated with the University, but normally not senior PhD students (for whom see the more 

detailed Register of Medievalists in Cambridge, which you should receive in due course). You should also 

note that there are also distinguished younger scholars in College Research Fellowships who are usually very 

happy to offer advice. These are listed in Section B below. Under normal circumstances much the best way 

of communicating with the individuals in question is to email to them in their respective colleges; but their 

office telephone numbers are available in the University’s Departmental and College Directories. 

Note that at any one time several members of staff will be on research leave. 

A. Medieval History Research Supervisors 

(formally associated with MPhil and PhD graduate supervision for the History Faculty) 

Dr Anna Sapir Abulafia (Lucy Cav.) Medieval Jewish - Christian relations 

Prof. David Abulafia (Caius) 

The Medieval Mediterranean 

Dr Nora Berend (St Catharine’s) Medieval European history (including Central Europe) 

Dr Caroline Burt (Pembroke) British and European Political and Social History, 1200-1500 

Prof. Christine Carpenter (Faculty English Political, Constitutional and Social History 

of History) 

c.1250-1500 

Prof. Eamon Duffy (Magdalene) Reformation History 

Dr Michael Franklin (Hughes Hall) Medieval Ecclesiastical History 

Dr Jonathan Grove (Dept. of ASN&C) Scandinavia and the Continent in the tenth and eleventh centuries 

Dr C de Hamel (Corpus Christi) 

Palaeography 

Prof. John Hatcher (Corpus Christi) Medieval English Economic and Social History 

Dr Sarah Layfield 

Late medieval European history 

Dr Catherine Hills (Newnham) 

Medieval Archaeology 

Dr Rosemary Horrox (Fitzwilliam) Late Medieval English Political and Constitutional History 

Prof. Simon Keynes (Trinity) 

Anglo Saxon History 

Dr Peter Linehan (St John's) 

Medieval Spanish History 

Prof Rosamond McKitterick (Sidney Sussex) Early Medieval European History and Palaeography 

Mr Richard Partington (Churchill) Late Medieval British, Political and Military History 

Dr David Pratt (Downing) 

Anglo-Saxon History 

Dr A Ruddick (History Faculty) 

Medieval Britain 

Dr Magnus Ryan (Peterhouse) 

Medieval Political Thought 

Dr Peter Sarris (Trinity) 

Early Medieval European, Byzantine and Islamic History 

Prof Richard Smith (Downing) 

Medieval Demography and Economic and Social History 

Dr Elizabeth Van Houts (Emmanuel) Early Medieval European and Anglo-Norman History 

Dr Carl Watkins (Magdalene) 

Medieval English and European History, especially lay piety 

c.900-1300 

Dr Teresa Webber (Trinity) 

Palaeography and Diplomatic 

Dr Philip Wood (Sidney Sussex) Early medieval Syriac and Iraqi History 

Dr Neil Wright (History) 

Medieval Latin 

Dr Patrick Zutshi (Corpus Christi) Palaeography and Diplomatic 

B. Other Cambridge Medieval Scholars 

(including Research Fellows and several associated with Faculties other than History) 

Prof Sir John Baker (St Catherine’s) 

Dr Richard Beadle (St John’s) 

Dr Andrew Bell (Gonville and Caius) 

Prof Paul Binski (Gonville and Caius) 

Dr Mark Blackburn (Fitzwilliam Museum) 

Dr Elizabeth Boyle (St Edmunds’s) 

Dr Roger Bowers (Jesus) 

Dr M Brett (Robinson) 

28 

Medieval English Legal History 

Medieval English Literature and Drama 

Medieval Economic History 

Medieval English Art and Architecture 

Medieval numismatics 

Late Anglo-Saxon and early Norman history 

Medieval Music, esp in English cathedrals 

Medieval English and European Ecclesiastical History

Dr William Burgwinkle (King’s) 

Prof Helen Cooper (Magdalene) 

Dr Fiona Edmonds (St John’s) 

Dr Roy Flechner (Trinity) 

Prof Simon Franklin (Clare) 

Dr Jana Howlett (Jesus) 

Prof Sylvia Huot (Pembroke) 

Mr Peter Jones (King’s) 

Prof James Montgomery (Trinity Hall) 

Dr Rory Naismith (Clare) 

Dr Stella Panayotova (Fitzwilliam Museum) 

Prof Susan Rankin (Emmanuel) 

Dr A Spencer (Corpus Christi) 

Dr Alice Taylor (King’s) 

Dr Malcolm Underwood (St John’s) 

Dr Sheila Watts (Newnham) 

Dr David Woodman (Robinson) 

Medieval French and Occitan Literature 

Medieval English Literature 

Early Medieval Celtic History 

Early Medieval Irish History and Canon Law 

Medieval Russia and Byzantium 

Russian History; Heresy, Church-State Relations 

Medieval French Literature 

Late Medieval Medicine and Book Production 

Medieval Islamic Literature 

Anglo-Saxon history and numismatics 

Medieval Palaeography and Book Production 

Medieval Music 

Medieval English Political History 

Medieval English Social History 

Lady Margaret Beaufort; Cambridge College Archives 

Medieval German Language and Literature 

Anglo-Saxon history and diplomatic 

29

APPENDIX B: MARKING AND EXAMINING SCHEME, AND GUIDELINES FOR EXAMINERS 

B.1 MPHIL IN MEDIEVAL HISTORY MARKING AND EXAMINING SCHEME 2010-11 

The criterion of judgement in determining a pass in the MPhil is the achievement of the 

‘equivalent of an Upper Second in Part II of the Tripos, extrapolated for one year of study’. 

Candidates are required to pass in all elements in elements of the course. All work is marked 

out of 100. The mark scheme is as follows, the pass mark being 60: 

75 and above = ‘Distinction’, in all components apart from Palaeography, for which the 

distinction mark is 90 

60 to 74 = Pass 

59 = Marginal Fail 

below 59 = Fail 

All work, apart from the Palaeography, is double-marked. The separate and independently 

reached marks of the two Examiners are agreed and are reported to the Secretary along with 

the agreed mark. If the examiners are unable to agree, or the candidate has been awarded an 

agreed marginal fail or fail, the essay or dissertation is to be sent to a third independent reader 

as outlined below. 

The External Examiner 

The External Examiner normally examines a representative cross-section of the Part I written 

work that is double-marked, drawn from all three options, and a cross-section of dissertations 

within his/her field of expertise. He/she does so as the second, independent marker and not in 

a moderating role. The External Examiner also acts as a moderator elsewhere in the 

examination (including all marginal fails and fails), and may be called upon to act as a third 

independent reader where examiners are unable to agree, or in cases where there is an agreed 

fail or marginal fail. In all problematic cases, the External Examiner’s advice will be sought. 

He/she attends the Part I meeting in the Spring and the final meeting in late September or early 

October. The External Examiner is also asked to write a report on the examination processes 

and procedures, as for Tripos, for presentation to the Degree Committee. 

Third Independent Reader 

The External normally provides a third independent mark in those cases where the examiners 

are unable to agree, or in cases where the candidate has been awarded an agreed marginal fail 

or fail. However, where the External was one of the original examiners, the third mark will be 

provided by the Chairman. If the Chairman was also one of the original examiners or the 

supervisor of the candidate concerned, a third examiner will be appointed by the Chairman and 

Secretary. In the case of dissertations, a third examiner who is not the External may be 

appointed by the same process, if the External’s expertise in the particular area of the 

dissertation is not thought to be sufficient. In case a third examiner has to be appointed, this 

person should first reach an independent conclusion on the basis of the written work and only 

then look at the marks and comments of the two examiners before giving a final mark. Where 

all the marks are pass marks, if the third mark is between the two original marks, it will be 

taken to be the agreed mark. If it is higher than both original marks, the higher of the original 

marks will be taken; if lower, the lower of the two original marks will be taken. The mark 

derived by these means will be presented to the MPhil Examiners’ meeting, the History 

Faculty Degree Committee and the Board of Graduate Studies. This mark will also be the one 

used to calculate the scaled average. In the case of an agreed marginal fail or fail, however, all 

three marks are presented, with the third mark confirming whether that element is deemed to 

be a pass, marginal fail or fail. If it is a pass, the procedure described above will be used to 

derive the mark from which the scaled average will be calculated and this is the mark that will 

30

e presented to the MPhil Examiners’ meeting, the History Faculty Degree Committee and the 

Board of Graduate Studies. 

The External Examiner will also act to confirm or raise the dissertation mark where the 

examiners have reached independent marks on either side of the borderlines of distinction 

(75%) and leave to continue (67%) and their agreed mark is below the borderline. The same 

process will be employed as for instances when examiners are unable to agree on their mark 

for the dissertation, except that, unless the External is one of the original examiners, he or she 

will always be brought in for these decisions regarding borderlines. The External Examiner 

will also advise on cases in Part I where the mark might affect the candidate’s final result. 

Fails and Marginal Fails in Part I 

An agreed and confirmed marginal fail in any one of the elements in Part I constitutes a 

marginal fail in Part I as a whole. It may be compensated by an agreed mark of at least 63% in 

the dissertation. Any candidate who has an agreed marginal fail mark for one of the elements 

in Part I will be notified though his/her supervisor that he/she is in the ‘danger of fail’ category 

and therefore needs to achieve the compensatory level in the dissertation. Two agreed and 

confirmed marginal failed elements in Part I (Essay, Bibliographical and Historiographical 

essay and Bibliography, and Palaeography test) constitute a failure in the examination. An 

outright agreed and confirmed fail in any one element in Part I is also an overall failure. 

Candidates who fail at this stage will be notified as soon as possible so that they may 

withdraw from the MPhil course. Any candidate who fails Part 1 of an MPhil course may 

apply to the Board of Graduate Studies for transfer to the Certificate of Postgraduate Study. 

Fails and marginal fails in Part II 

All candidates must reach a level of pass from each examiner in the dissertation. Candidates 

receiving an agreed borderline fail mark, or a fail mark from one examiner, will have their 

dissertation read by a third marker, appointed according to the procedure outlined above in the 

section headed ‘Third Independent Reader.’ If the examiners cannot agree the following 

procedures apply. In the case of the original marks being a pass and a marginal fail, if the third 

mark is a Pass the dissertation is deemed to have passed; if the third mark is a marginal fail or 

fail, a viva will be held. In the case of the original marks being a pass and a fail: if the third 

mark is a pass, the dissertation is deemed to have passed; if the third mark is a marginal fail, a 

viva will be held; if the third mark is a fail, the dissertation will be deemed to have failed. In 

the case of the original marks being a marginal fail and a fail: if the third mark is a pass, the 

dissertation will be deemed to have passed; if the third mark is a marginal fail, a viva may be 

held; if the third mark is a fail, the dissertation will be deemed to have failed. However, in all 

these cases, the examining committee may take into account the agreed mark of the original 

examiners, as well as the original independent marks and the third independent mark. Where 

both original examiners have awarded a fail, or where the outcome of a third reader’s mark is 

to confirm the dissertation as a fail, candidates will be offered the opportunity of a viva, 

should the MPhil examiners confirm these marks after discussion at the Examiners’ Meeting. 

If the dissertation is deemed to have passed, the same procedure as for Part I work will be used 

to derive the agreed mark. 

The MPhil Sub-Committee sitting as the Board of Examiners will make its recommendations 

as to whether candidates have passed or failed the MPhil degree to the Degree Committee of 

the Faculty of History. Any candidate who is deemed by the Degree Committee to have failed 

an MPhil course as a whole may apply to the board of Graduate Studies and the Degree 

Committee to be considered for the award of the Certificate of Postgraduate Study. 

Conduct of Vivas 

Vivas may be held if the two examiners deem it to be necessary, and should be held before the 

Examiners’ Meeting. In the event that a viva is held, it will be attended by the two examiners 

who awarded the higher of the three marks. Confidential minutes of the viva will be taken 

either by the Academic Secretary or Chair of the MPhil or by the Director of Graduate 

31

Training and Taught Courses, or, if these are not available, by the Director of Graduate 

Studies. The officer attending in this capacity will be present at the viva only as an observer 

and will not participate in the discussion. The viva will either confirm the fail or marginal fail 

or generate an upward revision of the mark to a passing grade. In either case, a joint report will 

be supplied by the two examiners. 

Leave to continue to the PhD 

An agreed dissertation mark of 67 will normally be required for a recommendation that the 

student be allowed to proceed to the PhD or the MLitt degrees. Examiners should give detailed 

reasons in their reports if they would wish to recommend that a candidate be allowed to 

continue to the PhD to whom they have awarded a mark below 67. 

Distinctions 

‘Distinctions’ are not awarded by strict numerical average but, as in History Tripos 

classification, by the number of marks of 75 or higher obtained. The qualifying mark for the 

dissertation must be at least an agreed mark of 68 in order for the candidate to receive the 

designation of ‘Distinction’ in the MPhil as a whole. Further, a candidate needs a majority of 

marks to be of 75 or above, OR for him/her to have two marks of 75 or above and an overall 

scaled average of 75+. For purposes of calculating this average, the marks are scaled as 

follows: palaeography: at 60; bibliography and historiographical essay: at 80; subject essay: at 

100; dissertation: at 300. Candidates should note that the scaling of palaeography does not 

indicate that it is taken less seriously than the other components, but that the wide range of 

marks attainable in this subject necessitates scaling at this level to prevent it having much 

greater weight than any of the other elements. 

Students will be provided with details of their marks through their supervisors, after both Part 

I (including, if necessary, a ‘danger of fail’ warning) and Part II. After Part I the copies of 

their bibliography will be returned to them with examiners’ corrections, so that such 

corrections may be incorporated into the bibliography in the dissertation. Anonymised 

examiners’ reports will be sent to candidates once the marks/results for each Part have been 

confirmed by the relevant committees. Candidates will be notified by the Board of Graduate 

Studies whether they have passed or not but notification of a distinction will come from the 

Secretary of the MPhil Sub-Committee. 

This document is supplied to supervisors, examiners and candidates. 

August 2010 

32

B.2 Guidelines for Examiners of the MPhil in Medieval History Part I 

In General 

Please remember that, while penalising sloppy or inept thought, research and presentation 

as appropriate, the MPhil and especially this stage of the work, should be marked as 

much on promise as on achievement. In particular, could you please try to use the full 

range of marks up to 85% or higher - which includes marking down as far as 60% or lower 

where a candidate really seems well below average. The distinction mark is 75%+. As a 

rule of thumb, ‘good’ should mean 67-74% ‘very good’ 75-79%, ‘excellent’ 80-84% and 

‘outstanding’ 85%+. It is not anticipated that 85%+ will feature as a mark except rarely 

but, if you feel that the work merits it, then do not hesitate to give the mark. 

Special Note on Plagiarism, Footnotes and Word Count: 

The word count must include appendices and statistical tables at 150 words per table, but 

excludes all footnotes, references and bibliography. 

The Course Handbook stipulates: 

‘No penalty will be imposed for an excess of 50 words over the maximum word limit, but 

this allowance should not be abused. The MPhil sub-committee acting as a Board of 

Examiners has the discretion to penalise essays which exceed the word limit. The word 

limit (within the 50 words grace allowance) must therefore be strictly observed. 

Students can expect to be severely penalised for exceeding the word limit. Normally 

the penalty will be a deduction of up to 5 marks from the essay, but in severe cases the 

essay may be marked as failed. 

Footnotes should be restricted to the documentation of claims and the registration of 

relevant caveats or observations in relation to the literature. Footnotes must not be used to 

circumvent the word limit of the essay. Students can expect to be severely penalised for 

abusing the proper use of footnotes in this way. Normally the penalty will be a deduction 

of up to 5 marks from the essay, but in severe cases the essay may be marked as failed.’ 

The Course Handbook, which is available on the Faculty website, also gives clear 

instructions to candidates about avoiding plagiarism. 

Examiners who believe that an essay infringes the course rules in respect of 

plagiarism, use of footnotes or word count are required to state this in their report 

but to award a mark independent of these issues. An Examiner must not penalise an 

essay. The MPhil Sub-Committee sitting as Board of Examiners will then make a 

determination of whether violation of the rules has occurred and, if so, impose the 

appropriate penalty. 

Assessment of short essays in MPhil in Medieval History 

The essay is of 5000 words (or, in the case of Option 1, two essays may be offered of 3,000 

words each), normally on a topic related to the Option coursework. It is intended that the 

candidate should write an essay on a topic which has been independently chosen, will 

involve work on the primary sources and will make a small, but independent contribution 

to the subject. 

However, this should not be marked as a mini-dissertation. The essay should deal with 

a subject or issues arising out of the secondary literature and discuss the secondary work 

to whatever degree is appropriate, but at the same time it should be a contribution to the 

debate made chiefly through the candidate’s own consideration of a particular source(s) 

or type of source. You should bear in mind that the amount of ground that can be 

traversed, with regard to both secondary and primary sources, in 5,000 words is quite 

small, especially given the other demands on the candidate’s time at this stage. However, if 

33

you believe that the chosen subject was one that could not be dealt with satisfactorily 

within the limits of the essay, then your mark should reflect this judgement. Extrapolation 

from undergraduate work should focus on an undergraduate essay rather than a 

dissertation; in this case you would, of course, expect a more polished presentation 

(including footnotes), more sophisticated handling of the historical and historiographical 

issues, together with the independent research which would not normally feature in an 

undergraduate essay and which should lead to the candidate making a small but 

independent contribution to the subject. You should also consider the style of writing, the 

organisation of the argument and (where applicable) the narrative, and the capacity to 

summarise findings. 

In some cases the essay will be formulated in direct relation and reaction to the topics 

covered in the Option classes. It may be that within a particular Option a particular debate 

is so central to the understanding of a theme that greater emphasis will be placed in an 

essay on the reconsideration of existing accounts. It is not expected that the range of 

sources will necessarily be comprehensive in relation to the topic but familiarity with key 

pieces of evidence is expected. Students should consult sources in the original language 

and must accordingly cite them thus in footnotes and bibliography but may also, in 

preparing their essays, make as much use of translations of sources as they need. 

Bibliography and Historiographical and Bibliographical Essay 

The total mark, 100%, for this element of the Part I examination will be divided as follows: 

60% for the Historiographical and Bibliographical Essay and 40% for the Bibliography. 

The bibliography is a preliminary bibliography for the dissertation (Part II of the 

examination) and should consist of between 75 and 150 items of primary and secondary 

material. It should be marked on the following criteria: fullness, accuracy and presentation 

according to proper scholarly conventions, allowing of course for the limit on the number 

of items. The essay (between 2,000 and 3,000 words) is intended to be an accompaniment 

to the bibliography. It has two distinct purposes. One is to place the dissertation subject 

in the broad historical field in which it lies, offering a critical survey of the existing 

historiography. The other is to explain and justify the contents of the bibliography 

(including why some items which might have been included have been omitted) and to 

indicate how the student proposes to go about the dissertation using the items listed in the 

bibliography. The examiner should consider whether the candidate has made as full and 

intelligent a survey of the historiographical issues as is possible within the confines of the 

overall word limit and has found a subject which these issues show needs to be explored 

and has situated it satisfactorily within existing debates. You should also judge whether 

the candidate has identified a body of sources which are likely to enable the subject to 

be undertaken and has shown his/her awareness of how they may be used for such a 

project. With respect to this last issue, you should bear in mind that the candidate will not 

yet have started the research proper on the dissertation and that the actual sources, and their 

exact uses, will be clearer at this stage for some dissertation subjects than for others. In 

those subjects that entail extensive use of different types of unpublished record, it may not 

be possible to be precise at this stage about exactly what will be found where. Similarly, 

when a dissertation will entail gutting a series of sources in search of particular themes, the 

candidate will have identified the major sources and the use to which they will be put but 

will probably not yet be in a position to say exactly how each source is to be used. In these 

cases, you are assessing whether the candidate has got as far as can reasonably be 

expected at this stage and has put forward an intelligent and apparently workable scheme 

of research. The balance in the essay between the discussion of the existing literature and 

ideas on the one hand and the indication of how the research will be conducted on the other 

will depend to quite a large extent on how large and complex the historiographical issues 

are and how definitive the candidate can be at this stage as to how the research will 

proceed. However, the candidate should not normally give more than two-thirds of the 

essay to one or other of these two elements. 

34

Please mark errors of any sort on the bibliography; both marked copies will be 

returned to the candidate so they can correct mistakes when the bibliography is 

submitted as part of the dissertation. 

August 2010 

35

B.3 Guidelines for Classification in the MPhil in Medieval History Part II 

Assessment of Dissertations in MPhil in Medieval History 

The chief criteria by which a dissertation may be assessed are by reference to topic, 

sources and treatment: 

An appropriate topic 

Situation of the topic within its larger historical context 

Situation of the topic in current knowledge and debate 

Identification and study of primary sources 

Original contribution to the subject from primary sources or by reconsideration of 

existing accounts 

Understanding, analysis and interpretation of sources 

Organisation of argument and narrative 

Capacity to summarise findings 

Awareness of limits of knowledge 

Style of writing 

Quality of presentation 

Few dissertations will satisfy all criteria equally, but patterns characteristic of the bands of 

marks may be identified in broad terms. The final mark will be a balance among them. The 

criterion of judgement in determining a pass in the MPhil is the achievement of “the 

equivalent of an Upper Second in Part II of the Tripos, extrapolated for one year of study”. 

However, in a number of significant respects the MPhil dissertation differs from the 

dissertations submitted for Part II of the Tripos. The MPhil dissertation is the outcome of a 

longer period of research and this is exemplified by a longer word limit of 25,000 words, 

compared with that of the undergraduate Part II dissertation of 15,000 words. The MPhil 

dissertation is expected to manifest a greater degree of originality and it is expected to 

deploy the specific research skills learnt in the course. It is also the case that the MPhil 

dissertation evolves from a preparatory piece of work, which has been formally examined 

in Part I, in the form of the Historiographical and Bibliographical essay and Bibliography. 

Furthermore, supervision of the dissertation has been provided at a level appropriate to 

research degrees. 

Special Note on Plagiarism, Footnotes and Word Count: 

The word count must include appendices and statistical tables at 150 words per table, but 

excludes all footnotes, references and bibliography. Candidates are required to note the 

total word count on the cover sheet bound with the dissertation and to submit a CD file of 

the dissertation which will be provided to each examiner so that if necessary the word 

count may be verified; examiners should note any failure to do so in their report. 

The Course Handbook stipulates: 

‘No penalty will be imposed for an excess of 150 words over the maximum word limit, but 

this allowance should not be abused. The MPhil sub-committee acting as a Board of 

Examiners has the discretion to penalise dissertations which exceed the word limit. The 

word limit (within the 150 words grace allowance) must therefore be strictly 

observed. Students can expect to be severely penalised for exceeding the word limit. 

Normally the penalty will be a deduction of up to 5 marks from the dissertation, but in 

severe cases the dissertation may be marked as failed. 

Footnotes should be restricted to the documentation of claims and the registration of 

relevant caveats or observations in relation to the literature. Footnotes must not be used to 

circumvent the word limit the dissertation. Students can expect to be severely penalised for 

abusing the proper use of footnotes in this way. Normally the penalty will be a deduction 

of up to 5 marks from the dissertation, but in severe cases the dissertation may be marked 

as failed.’ 

36

The Course Handbook, which is available on the Faculty website, also gives clear 

instructions to candidates about avoiding plagiarism. 

Examiners who believe that a dissertation infringes the course rules in respect of 

plagiarism, use of footnotes or word count are required to state this in their report 

but to award a mark independent of these issues. An Examiner must not penalise a 

dissertation. The MPhil Sub-Committee sitting as Board of Examiners will then make 

a determination of whether violation of the rules has occurred and, if so, impose the 

appropriate penalty. 

At the time of submission, candidates will be required to make a signed declaration that the 

dissertation is their own work. 

Marks 75 and above = Distinction 

The topic can be treated effectively within the word limit with material reasonably 

available from the period of research encompassed in the MPhil course. The writer has 

conceptualised the topic and situated it within its larger historical context, which is 

explained only to the extent needed to understand the dissertation’s contribution. The state 

of knowledge of the subject is indicated and the inquiry is related to it, without merely 

paraphrasing the ideas of others. Primary sources have been identified with imagination – 

in the very best dissertations, probably with real flair – and have been studied assiduously, 

possibly using linguistic or other special skills. All successful dissertations must use some 

primary sources. Normally these will enable a dissertation to make its distinctive and 

original contribution to the subject, perhaps by means of a case study or the elucidation of 

an event or episode. But some works will merit marks of 75% and above more for their 

reconsideration of an argument, a situation, a sequence of events or a social phenomenon. 

Work meriting distinction will display understanding of the provenance, context, and 

meaning of sources and the relationship among them and a thorough knowledge of the 

relevant secondary material. It will demonstrate a clear sense of chronological 

development and the narrative passages will show brevity and vigour, but it will not be 

excessively weighed down with detail. Rather, the narrative will serve an overall argument 

stated clearly in the introduction and conclusion, developed systematically in the course of 

the dissertation, and held before the reader throughout. Work of the highest quality will 

also be aware of its limitations and of questions left unanswered. The writing will be lucid 

and persuasive; it may well be elegant. The presentation will be immaculate, with 

references to source materials and other authorities in standard form, necessary tables and 

statistical graphs, perhaps illustrations where appropriate, and a full bibliography of the 

relevant materials and secondary works consulted, organised to the best convenience of the 

reader. The very best dissertations have in the past been virtually of publishable quality. 

Pass (marks 60-74) 

Work within this range of marks can cover a broad range of achievement. It may show 

many of the qualities of a dissertation meriting a distinction, but in less sustained form. It 

will display a high level of competence. The topic will have been chosen carefully to 

permit the study of primary sources and will be manageable within the time and space 

available, although in some cases it may be a little narrow and constitute a useful 

illustration of the familiar. The subject will be situated within its context and there will be 

a fair understanding of the state of knowledge and debate, but in both areas there may be 

some unnecessary background material or recapitulation of established views, while the 

writer may merely state the larger context and then neglect it for the detailed topic. Primary 

sources may have been examined with great industry, although sometimes a single body of 

sources will have been studied or there may be gaps in the material which could have been 

filled. The primary sources will almost always constitute the dissertation’s contribution, 

but there may be a tendency to reproduce or paraphrase rather than analyse them, there 

may be failures of understanding or neglect of difficulties. There will be a chronological 

framework but perhaps a preference for narrative over analysis and a tendency to get lost 

in detail presented as an end in itself. The work will have an overall structure, but this may 

37

e no more than a brief introductory statement, a largely narrative core and an equally brief 

conclusion. Sometimes the argument will appear only at the end. Only the better 

candidates in this class are likely to reflect on the limitations of their own work. The 

writing will probably be lucid, but possibly a little colourless, repetitious, or verbose. 

Presentation will generally be good, with references to most authorities and a considerable 

bibliography but important works may have been overlooked and there may be reluctance 

to present data (such as statistical material) in fields where candidates doubt their 

competence. These weaknesses will be more marked at the bottom of the mark range. 

Fail (marks 59 and below) 

Some dissertations which fail to achieve a pass mark will display all the weaknesses of 

those at the bottom of the pass mark range, low IIi work, generally in more pronounced 

form. Other dissertations will have a major flaw which prevents a higher mark. The topic 

may be too ambitious to handle in the space available or so familiar that there is little scope 

for an interesting contribution. The primary sources may have proved disappointing or not 

to have been studied with adequate time and attention, so that much space is filled with 

‘background’. Alternatively, much primary research may be flawed by an inability to 

relate the topic to a wider historical and historiographical context, which may be sketched 

vaguely and then forgotten while the writer plunges into detail. Treatment of the primary 

sources may show failures of understanding or lack of curiosity. The sources may be only a 

scattering, possibly quoted or paraphrased at length, and may relate to the subject in a 

variety of unconnected ways. Alternatively, they may be extensive but summarised without 

discrimination, simply in order to get them in. In either case the dissertation will be 

structured by the information available rather than by the need to answer a clearly 

formulated question. The structure is, therefore, likely to be clumsy and either episodic, 

perhaps with several brief but barely-connected chapters, or dominated by breathless 

narrative. Any overall argument will at best be stated at the beginning and end, or possibly 

left for the reader to divine. Large issues may go unexplored. The capacity for brief 

summary or self-criticism is likely to be slight. The style may be unclear, repetitious and 

ungainly. Factual errors, non-sequiturs, self-contradictions and obvious gaps in knowledge 

are likely. Presentation may be careful and even pedantic, but in other cases the typing may 

be poor, the footnotes sporadic and un-standardised and the bibliography ill-organised and 

incomplete. 

August 2010 

38

APPENDIX C 

NOTES ON THE PREPARATION OF DISSERTATIONS 

IN THE HISTORY FACULTY, CAMBRIDGE 

LENGTH 

OCTOBER 2010 

The dissertation must be between 20,000 and 25,000 words. The word limit includes appendices but 

excludes footnotes, references and bibliography. Statistical tables should be counted as 150 words per 

table. Maps, illustrations and other pictorial images count as 0 words. Graphs, if they are the only 

representation of the data being presented, are to be counted as 150 words. However, if graphs are used as 

an illustration of statistical data that is also presented elsewhere within the thesis (as a table for instance), 

then the graphs count as 0 words. Only under exceptional circumstances will permission be granted to 

exceed this limit. CANDIDATES ARE REQUIRED TO MAKE A WRITTEN DECLARATION 

INDICATING THE NUMBER OF WORDS IN THE DISSERTATION AND TO HAVE THIS 

DECLARATION BOUND WITH EACH COPY. 

TITLE 

A title should be brief and to the point. It should NOT fall into two parts separated by a colon. The title 

should approximate a simple statement of the subject or contents of the dissertation; do not use the 

interrogative form. It is advisable to include dates, or some other chronological indication, of the time 

period covered by the dissertation. 

BINDING 

Dissertations need not be hard bound and spiral binding is acceptable. 

PLAGIARISM 

The History Faculty statement on plagiarism can be found at the web address 

http://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/plagiarism.pdf. 

Board of Graduate Studies Statement for graduate students: 

In general, plagiarism can be defined as: 

the unacknowledged use of the work of others as if this were your own original work. 

In the context of an examination, this amounts to: 

passing off the work of others as your own to gain unfair advantage. 

Such use of unfair means will not be tolerated by the University; if detected, the penalty may be severe and 

may lead to failure to obtain your degree. 

1 The scope of plagiarism 

a) Plagiarism may be due to: 

• Copying (using another person’s language and/or ideas as if they are your own); 

• Collusion (where collaboration is concealed or has been expressly forbidden, in 

order to gain unfair advantage) 

b) Methods include: 

• quoting directly another person’s language, data or illustrations without clear 

indication that the authorship is not your own and due acknowledgement of the 

source; 

39

• paraphrasing the critical work of others without due acknowledgement – even if 

you change some words or the order of the words, this is still plagiarism if you are 

using someone else’s original ideas and are not properly acknowledging it; 

• using ideas taken from someone else without reference to the originator; 

• cutting and pasting from the Internet to make a "pastiche" of online sources; 

• colluding with another person, including another candidate (other than as might be 

permitted for joint project work); 

• submitting as part of your own report or dissertation someone else’s work without 

identifying clearly who did the work (for example, where research has been 

contributed by others to a joint project) or submitting work that has been 

undertaken in whole or in part by someone else on your behalf (such as employing 

a ‘ghost writing service’); 

• submitting work you have submitted for a qualification at another institution 

without declaring it and clearly indicating the extent of overlap; 

• deliberately reproducing someone else’s work in a written examination.. 

c) Plagiarism can occur in respect to all types of sources and all media: 

• not just text, but also illustrations, musical quotations, computer code etc; 

• not just text published in books and journals, but also downloaded from websites 

or drawn from other media; 

• not just published material but also unpublished works, including lecture handouts 

and the work of other students. 

2 How to avoid plagiarism 

The stylistic conventions for different subjects vary and you should consult your course director or 

supervisor about the conventions pertaining in your particular subject area. Most courses will issue 

written guidance on the relevant scholarly conventions and you are expected to have read and to 

follow this advice. However, the main points are: 

• when presenting the views and work of others, you must give an indication of the 

source of the material; conventions for this vary, but one approach would be to write: 

'... as Sharpe (1993) has shown', and give the full details of the work quoted in your 

bibliography; 

• if you quote text verbatim, make this completely evident; again conventions will vary 

but you might say: 'The elk is of necessity less graceful than the gazelle' (Thompson, 

1942, p 46) and give the full details in your bibliography as above; 

• if you wish to set out the work of another at length so that you can produce a counterargument, 

set the quoted text apart from your own text (e.g. by indenting a paragraph) 

and identify it in a suitable way (e.g. by using inverted commas and adding a 

reference as above). NB long quotations may infringe copyright, which exists for the 

life of the author plus 70 years. 

• if you are copying text, keep a note of the author and the reference as you go along, 

with the copied text, so that you will not mistakenly think the material to be your own 

work when you come back to it in a few weeks' time; 

• if you reproduce an illustration or include someone else's data in a graph or table, 

include the reference to the original work in the legend, e.g. '(figure redrawn from 

Webb, 1976)' or '( 1 = data from Webb, 1976); 

• if you wish to collaborate with another person on your project, you should check with 

your supervisor whether this might be allowed and then seek permission (for research 

degrees, the permission of the Board of Graduate Studies must be sought); 

• if you have been authorised to work together with another candidate or other 

researchers, you must acknowledge their contribution fully in your introductory 

section. If there is likely to be any doubt as to who contributed which parts of the 

40

work, you should make this clear in the text wherever necessary, e.g. 'I am grateful to 

A. Smith for analysing the sodium content of these samples'; 

• be especially careful if cutting and pasting work from electronic media; do not fail to 

attribute the work to its source. If authorship of the electronic source is not given, ask 

yourself whether it is worth copying. 

3 The Golden Rule: 

TRANSLATION 

The examiners must be in no doubt as to which parts of your work are your own 

original work and which are the rightful property of someone else. 

Direct quotations from primary sources (manuscript or print) and from any secondary source in a foreign 

language must be translated. The dissertation writer, in consultation with the supervisor, can choose 

whether to quote the original source in the text with translation in the notes, or the other way round, 

provided both are there. If the source is summarised or paraphrased in English in the text, it is sufficient 

simply to give the reference. 

THE TYPESCRIPT 

We do not give guidance on the preparation of a typescript, on bibliographies and footnoting. There will 

be a two-hour class on footnoting and preparing a bibliography, at which you will be given samples 

showing various ways of doing these. There are a number of acceptable conventions that you can use; the 

main principle is to be consistent. Choose your system and stick to it. There are, however, certain 

conventions that you must observe. These will be explained to you in the class. If you are in doubt as to 

which convention to employ, always seek the advice of your Supervisor. 

One helpful source of very detailed guidance on all aspects of bibliographical style and other conventions, 

such as abbreviations, spelling, capitalization, etc., is the style guide of the MHRA (Modern Humanities 

Research Association), available as a PDF download: 

www.mhra.org.uk/Publications/Books/StyleGuide/download.shtm/ 

See, for example, sections 2 (Spelling), 3 (Abbreviations), 4 (Punctuation), 9 (Footnotes and endnotes), 10 

(References) 

Always make regular backups of your computer files, as well as hard copy print-outs. 

Have your dissertation printed on one side of A4 paper (on a laser printer or a good inkjet printer). You 

may wish to make use of the laser printing facilities provided in the Faculty's Graduate Research Room. 

You must submit two bound copies of your dissertation and a CD electronic version. 

Use footnotes rather than endnotes. 

Leave margins of at least 1½ inches (40mm) at the top, the left and the foot, and 1 inch (25mm) at the 

right. 

Everything in the main text should be one-and-a-half spaced, except indented quotations and footnotes (at 

the foot of the page) which should be single-spaced. Double-spacing is allowable but one-and-a-half 

spacing is now preferred. 

There is no prescribed typeface but it is strongly recommended that the candidate should use simple 

classical typefaces (such as Times Roman or Courier). Use 11pt or 12 pt for the body of the text and 10 pt 

or 11 pt for footnotes. 

Modern word-processing programmes are capable of producing accents and non-roman characters, as well 

as printing mathematical symbols and equations. Candidates are advised to use such word-processing 

packages but in the case of rare languages the appropriate fonts may not be available, in which case handwritten 

additions to the typed texts are allowed. See that any handwriting is entirely legible, and that 

subscripts and superscripts are clearly positioned. 

41

HEADINGS 

Do not use more than three kinds of headings within a chapter; the more kinds there are, the more difficult 

it will be for the reader to distinguish one grade from another. 

ABBREVIATIONS 

A list of the abbreviations used in the text and the footnotes should be placed at the beginning of the thesis, 

after the preface. This list is also excluded from the total word count. 

TABLES 

Tables may be typed on separate sheets or in the text. Tables of more than four lines should be numbered 

and referred to in the text by number rather than ‘as follows’. Do check your tables carefully. Are they in 

the form that the reader will find most helpful? Will the reader be able to compare one set of values with 

another? Are all units, percentages and totals identified? Do the totals tally with the individual values? 

Are the sources given in the same form for each table? In case of doubt, consult your Supervisor. If you 

are using a word processor, you may find that such tables are better typed separately. Unless you are 

sufficiently skilled, you may waste a lot of time trying to put them through a computer. Tables in the 

dissertation, as well as Maps, are counted as the equivalent of 150 words each. 

FOOTNOTES - IN GENERAL 

Footnotes must not be used to circumvent the word limit either in an essay or the dissertation. Students can 

expect to be severely penalised for abusing the proper use of footnotes in this way. Normally the penalty 

will be a deduction of up to 5 marks from the essay or dissertation, but in severe cases the essay or 

dissertation may be marked as failed. 

Wherever possible, footnotes must be confined to references only. The expanding of footnotes to include 

lengthy digressive notes and other footnotes that are not directly relevant to the actual content of the thesis 

itself will not be accepted. 

42

APPENDIX D: 

MPHIL DISSERTATIONS DEPOSITED IN THE SEELEY LIBRARY 

From 2001-02 some outstanding Part 1 essays have also been deposited in the Seeley Library, both because 

of the importance of their contents, and as examples of good essays. Please ask to see these at the Seeley 

Library’s Central Desk. 

AUTHOR DISSERTATION TITLE DATE 

ALEXANDER, A Continuity and discontinuity in annalistic writing at 2005 

Saint-Wandrille and Jumieges in the late Carolingian and 

early Norman period. 

ALLEN, J. 1369-1382: A Domestic Power Vacuum? 1997 

ALOISIO, M. ‘“Development” and “under-development” in the thirteenth- 1997 

century Sardinian economy’. 

AMORY, P.H. Perceptions of ethnicity in 5th and 6th-century Burgundy. 1991 

ARMSTRONG, J.W. Kinship and Violence on the Anglo-Scottish Border 2002 

c.1399-1455. 

BARRIE, A.J. Towards a redefinition of church-leper relations in the 1994 

Central Middle Ages. 

BILLET, The Muchelney Breviary and Anglo-Saxon Monastic Liturgy 2003 

in the Eleventh Century 

BOBRYCKI, S Perceptions and assertions of kingship in a ninth-century 2008 

Frankish archbishop's book 

BOYCE, J. 

Anastasius Bibliothecarius (c.811/812-879) and Western 

Attitudes to Byzantium. 2000 

BRIGGS, C Credit and debt in Medieval Cambridgeshire: Oakington, 1998 

Cottenham and Dry Drayton, 1291-1348. 

BRISTOW, G Government and Political Society in Sussex, c.1437-1461. 1999 

BROSH, M. Reflections of Jewish Polemics against Christianity in the 1997 

Ritual Murder Legends of Adam of Bristol and Hugh of 

Lincoln. 

BROWN, L. The Yorkist Justification of Edward IV's Usurpation 1461-71. 2000 

BROWN, S 

The village elite before and after the Black Death on the 

manor of Elton, Huntingdonshire, 1279-1432. 1999 

BROWNER, J.A. The Great Army in Anglo-Saxon England and the Frankish 1990 

kingdoms, 865-896. 

CHIDEOCK, C. Developments in ideas about crusading to the East between 1997 

1150 and 1198. 

CLARK, F. Dares Phrygius and Classical Compilations in the High Middle 2009 

Ages 

CLEMENT, C. 

Male and female monastic economy in late medieval 

43

Lincolnshire: a quantitative assessment 2005 

COFFIN, B.P The Church and Royal Government in Seventh and Eighth 2003 

Century Francia and England 

CURTIS, D. A comparative study of the impact of social structure and 2009 

tenure on nucleated and dispersed settlement in eight 

Cambridgeshire parishes, 1275-1340 

DALLI, C. Malta in the ‘Regno’. 1992 

DAL SANTO, M. 

DAVIS, J. 

The narrative function of the Diologues of Pope Gregory the 

Great and their evidence for cultural exchange between East 

And West in the late sixth century 2005 

The Smuggling, Dissemination and Burning of Heretical 

Books, 1470-1540. 1997 

DEEMING, H.L. The Religious Patronage of Fourteenth Century Widows 2001 

DODD, G. Central government and local rule. 1994 

DOHERTY, H. 

The Maintenance of Royal power and prestige in the 

Carolingian Regnum of Aquitaine under Louis the Pious. 1997 

DORIN, R Savonese Trade in the Mediterranean, 1100-1250 2008 

EHLERS, A. 

ELIOTT 

LOCKHART, R.A. 

EVANS, R.J. 

Mission and Crusade on the Last Pagan Frontier. The 

Teutonic Knights and Lithuania from the Late Thirteenth 

to the Late Fourteenth Century. 1996 

The Study of the Artes in England before and after the 

Norman Conquest: the Manuscript Evidence. 2002 

The cartulary of the commander of Riverenches, 

c.1136-c.1151. 1995 

FAULKNER, T. Lex Riburaria 2005 

FEDORENKO, G 

FLATLEY, H 

The evidence of Cambridge University Library manuscript 

Ii.6.24 for perceptions of the recent past in Normandy, 

c.1215-1275 2008 

The Mozarabs of Toledo: Religious identity in the Iberian 

Peninsula, 1085 - c.1200 2007 

FLETCHER,C.D. Perceptions of the Masculinity of Richard II. 1998 

FREEMAN, J The Readership, Uses, and Historiographical Significance of 2008 

the Polychronicon of Ranulph Higden 

FROST, S.M. A reassessment of the form, function and role of 1994 

fortification in Anglo-Saxon society. 

GABERDIEL, D Representations of Muslims and Jews in the Cantigas de 1998 

Santa Maria of Alfonso X, King of Castile and Leōn 

GALE, C.S. Delivered to the devil?: St Anselm and his circle on the 1993 

44

consequences of the fall. 

GRIFFITHS, F. Women’s piety in transition. 1995 

GUNDY, A. Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick and the Rule of 1996 

Worcestershire 1401-39. 

HAMES, H.J. The resurgence of mysticism in the kingdom of Aragon in 1992 

the 13th century. 

HAWKS, K.R. The fifteenth-century English gentry’s view of their past. 1999 

HEALE, M. Monastic life at Peterborough Abbey in the Later Middle 1997 

Ages. 

HEATH, M Bathing for health and pleasure in Medieval Southern Italy. 1999 

HEELAN, C Transitions form Carolingian Leadership in the Carolingian 2007 

Annals of the Later Ninth Century 

HELLER, K Wonder in Gervase of Tilbury’s Otia Imperialia 2006 

HILLIARD, P. Bede’s World Chronicle in De Temporum ratione within the 2004 

chronographic and exegetical context of Bede’s thought and 

influences. 

HODGE, J The Place of Cambridge, Corpus Christi College Ms. 373 at 2006 

the Crossroads of Anglo-German Dynastic Historiography 

HOLMES, M. Norman Palermo: Conflict and Convivencia in the Central 1997 

Mediterranean. 

HUMPHRIES, M Iconoclasm and the Cultural Interaction of the Three Heirs of 2008 

Rome 

JOHNSON, S.E. Norman charters and ethnicity 1000-1100. 1999 

JOHNSON, W. Before the blood libel: Jews in Christian exegesis after the 1994 

massacres of 1096. 

KEMP, T. Ideas of Government and Governance in the Paston Letters, 2009 

1448-1471 

KEMPTON, A Scandinavian Crusading against Slavs and Muslims 1147-1169 2007 

KIM, A. Anselm and the doctrine of the redemption. 1997 

KOLAROVA, L, Transmission and Dissemination of Carolingian annals. 1995 

KOSTO, A.J. Hostages in English law, 1066-1154. 1990 

LAMB, S. Representations and Perceptions of Vikings in Anglo- 2005 

Saxon England 

LAMM, S. Poetry as a means of disseminating anti-Jewish ideas in 2004 

the Twelfth-Century Latin West. 

LEE, W A Comparative Study of Cases involving Treason and 1999 

Conspiracy during the Reigns of Edward II and Richard II 

45

LICENCE, T.O The Spiritual Appeal of the Military Orders 2003 

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48

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