Staff profile

Venetia Bridges's research to date has focused on the High Middle Ages, 'the middle of the middle', and especially on the receptions of classical texts and narratives, such as the Troy story, in English, French and Latin. She has published essays from this perspective in the areas of medieval romance, medieval Latin poetry and manuscript history. Her recent book, The Medieval Alexander Texts of France and England (2018), looks at the ways in which Alexander the Great's stories were read and adapted between 1100 and 1350, arguing for greater recognition of the connections between different languages and cultures across Europe. Her current research project, 'Medieval Medievalisms', considers the phenomenon of 12th- and 13th-century literature being read and copied several hundred years after its composition, asking how the later medieval period in Britain used this literature to construct its own cultural identities. She is also interested in the ways in which medieval texts and images are co-opted in the modern era for a wide range of purposes.

Venetia studied for her BA and MA degrees in medieval literature at Oxford (2001-5) before moving to Cambridge for her PhD (2008-12), where she was supervised by Professor Philip Ford. Between 2012 and 2015 she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the interdisciplinary Centre for Medieval Literature based at the universities of York and Southern Denmark (Odense). Before coming to Durham in 2017 she held lectureships at the universities of Leeds and Surrey (2015-16 and 2016-17).

Authored book

• Bridges, Venetia (2018). Medieval Narratives of Alexander the Great. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer.

Chapter in book

• Bridges, Venetia R. L. (2022). 'Beyond Nations: Translating Troy in the Middle Ages'. In England and Bohemia in the Age of Chaucer. Brown, Peter & Cermak, Jan Boydell and Brewer.
• Bridges, Venetia R. L. (2022). 'Fictions of Antiquity'. In Oxford History of Poetry in English. Boffey, Julia & Edwards, A. S. G. Oxford University Press. 3.
• Bridges, V. R. L. (2021). 'Silence in Debate: The Intellectual Nature of the Roman de Silence'. In Medieval Romance, Arthurian Literature: Essays in Honour of Elizabeth Archibald. Edwards, A. S. G. Boydell & Brewer. 1-15.
• Bridges, Venetia R. L. (2021). 'Trojan Trash? The Learning of "Popular" Romance: The Seege or Batayle of Troye'. In Romance Made New. Flood, Victoria & Leitch, Megan G. Boydell and Brewer.
• Bridges, Venetia (2018). The Romans Antiques Across Time and Space. In Medieval Romances Across European Borders. Edlich-Muth, Miriam Brepols.
• Bridges, Venetia (2016). ‘Absent Presence: Auchinleck and Kyng Alisaunder’. In The Auchinleck Manuscript: New Perspectives. Fein, Susanna Woodbridge, Suffolk: York Medieval Press (Boydell & Brewer). 88-107.

Journal Article

• Bridges, Venetia (2016). ‘Antique Authorities? Classicizing Poetry of the 1180s’. Interfaces: A Journal of Medieval European Literature 3: 143-161.
• Bellis, Joanna & Bridges, Venetia (2015). ‘“What shalt thou do when thou hast an english to make into Latin?” The Proverb Collection of Cambridge, St John’s College, MS F.26’. Studies in Philology 112(1): 68-92.
• Bridges, Venetia (2015). ‘Reading Walter of Chatillon’s Alexandreis in Medieval Anthologies’. Mediaeval Studies 77: 81-101.
• Bridges, Venetia (2014). ‘Passions and Polemics: Latin and Vernacular Alexander Literature in the Later Twelfth Century’. Nottingham Medieval Studies 58: 87-113.
• Bridges, Venetia (2012). ‘“Goliardic” Poetry and the Problem of Historical Perspective: Medieval Adaptations of Walter of Châtillon’s Quotation Poems’. Medium Ævum 81(2): 249-270.