ACMRS Publications

The Oxford Dictionary
of the Middle Ages

 

In the spring of 1999, Oxford University Press appointed ACMRS Director Robert E. Bjork as General Editor of The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages (ODMA), a major new reference tool constructed on the general model of The Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed., 1996), for all key aspects of European history, society, religion, and culture, c. 500 to c. 1500. Since neighboring areas of Asia and North Africa impinged on and helped shape the civilization of the West, relevant aspects of the Byzantine Empire, the Islamic dynasties, and Asiatic peoples such as the Avars and the Mongols will be included. The primary audience will be medievalists who need a detailed and reliable reference tool for their own research and teaching, and the secondary audience will be non-specialists who need an accessible guide to the study of the Middle Ages. All entries for the project are being written with both audiences in mind. Contributors writing 4,000 words or 25 entries or more will receive a free copy of the ODMA, and all contributors will receive author status with Oxford University Press, a 50% discount off one copy of the ODMA, and £50 per 1,000 words contributed. The ODMA will be 1,300,000 words long in four volumes with approximately 7,000 entries, 60 maps, and 550 illustrations. It has an international advisory board of five, an editorial board of twenty-six, and projected contributors of close to 800. The complete, edited text was delivered in late 2008, with publication in 2010.