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Topic · Classics

Medieval Literature and History

Medieval Literature and History is a research topic within Classics. Science Explorer counts 26k research works in it since 1950. 10.6% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers covers a wide range of topics related to medieval studies, including literature, religion, society, manuscripts, monasticism, Anglo-Saxon history, culture, and philosophy in Europe during the medieval period.

  • Medieval
  • Literature
  • Religion
  • Society
  • Manuscripts
  • Monasticism
  • Anglo-Saxon
  • History
  • Culture
  • Philosophy
Research works
26k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.8k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.6%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-17%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
36% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Medieval Literature and History

Which countries lead Medieval Literature and History research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (1.1k and 874 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 1.1k works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 874 works
  3. 3 France 334 works
  4. 4 Germany 171 works
  5. 5 Italy 159 works
  6. 6 Canada 132 works
  7. 7 Spain 101 works
  8. 8 Netherlands 74 works
  9. 9 Ireland 67 works
  10. 10 Australia 64 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 36.0%United Kingdom: 28.3%France: 10.8%Germany: 5.6%6 others listed: 19.3%36%largest
United States1,112 · 36.0%United Kingdom874 · 28.3%France334 · 10.8%Germany171 · 5.6%6 others listed598 · 19.3%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Medieval Literature and History research?

By volume in 2022-now, University of Oxford publishes the most Medieval Literature and History research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and University of Cambridge.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 129 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 91 works
  3. 3 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 61 works
  4. 4 University of St AndrewsUnited Kingdom 40 works
  5. 5 Film IndependentUnited States 39 works
  6. 6 Durham UniversityUnited Kingdom 32 works
  7. 7 University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom 28 works
  8. 8 University of GlasgowUnited Kingdom 26 works
  9. 9 University of BristolUnited Kingdom 26 works
  10. 10 University of OsloNorway 26 works

Who are the leading researchers in Medieval Literature and History?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Medieval Literature and History include George Davey Smith, Paul Elliott and P. Elmer.

  1. 1 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  2. 2 Paul Elliott United Kingdom 154k citations
  3. 3 P. Elmer France 116k citations
  4. 4 Douglass C. North United States 115k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Medieval Literature and History?

The most cited paper in Medieval Literature and History is "From memory to written record: England 1066–1307" (Robert N. Swanson, 1994), with 870 citations. Next come "The Epic Successors of Virgil: A Study in the Dynamics of a Tradition" (528) and "PHONOLOGY AND MORPHOLOGY" (505).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 From memory to written record: England 1066–1307 Robert N. Swanson · History of European Ideas Sep 1994 870
2 The Epic Successors of Virgil: A Study in the Dynamics of a Tradition William S. Anderson, Philip Russell Hardie · The Classical World 1995 528
3 PHONOLOGY AND MORPHOLOGY RICHARD M. HOGG · Cambridge University Press eBooks Book chapter 31 Jul 1992 505
4 The Beast Within: Animals in the Middle Ages Joyce E. Salisbury 5 May 1994 353
5 Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network Anna Kornbluh · Nineteenth Century Contexts 21 Nov 2016 328
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Medieval Literature and History research done?

The largest centres of Medieval Literature and History research in 2022-now are Oxford (United Kingdom), London (United Kingdom), Paris (France) and Cambridge (United Kingdom). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in St Andrews, Poitiers and Caen.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 OxfordUnited Kingdom 137 works
  2. 2 LondonUnited Kingdom 98 works
  3. 3 ParisFrance 89 works
  4. 4 CambridgeUnited Kingdom 62 works
  5. 5 Los AngelesUnited States 52 works
  6. 6 New YorkUnited States 50 works
  7. 7 DublinIreland 43 works
  8. 8 St AndrewsUnited Kingdom 40 works
  9. 9 ChicagoUnited States 37 works
  10. 10 TorontoCanada 35 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. St AndrewsGB · 39.6 works51×
  2. PoitiersFR · 20.2 works28×
  3. CaenFR · 26.1 works27×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Medieval Literature and History than the world average.

See Medieval Literature and History on the map

Where is the best place to study Medieval Literature and History?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Oslo, University of Oxford and University of Cambridge score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 21.02%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Purdue University We…University of OsloUniversity of Cambri…University of Oxford
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of OsloNorway 76.631.9%12.5×26 +58.2%
2University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 74.210.4%28.1×129 +39.6%
3University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 56.512.6%15.7×61 -32.9%
4Purdue University West LafayetteUnited States 55.044.6%2.6×8 +95.8%
5University of GlasgowUnited Kingdom 52.712.6%12.4×26 +13.5%
6University of HelsinkiFinland 52.327.6%5.2×12 +14.7%
7University of BergenNorway 51.711.0%11.6×12 +25.7%
8Utrecht UniversityNetherlands 50.515.8%8.7×20 -7.7%
9University of LeicesterUnited Kingdom 50.429.1%13.7×12 -16.1%
10University of YorkUnited Kingdom 49.814.6%23.7×26 -6.1%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Medieval Literature and History, country by country

Is Medieval Literature and History research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 17% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2019.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Medieval Literature and History as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.015% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Medieval Literature and History0.012% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Medieval Literature and History over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Medieval Literature and History9.7% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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