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Department of History

Dr Immo Warntjes

Dr Immo Warntjes

Ussher Associate Professor in Early Medieval Irish History

Research Interests

My research falls into four categories: My primary field of interest is early medieval scientific thought; I have explored the Irish intellectual milieus of the seventh and early eighth centuries that shaped Bede’s mind and prepared the so-called Carolingian Renaissance, particularly in the field of computus (medieval time-reckoning); also, the question of continuity of late antique learning in the early middle ages is part of this research; more recently, I am involved in research on Visigothic scientifica of the sixth and seventh centuries and the transition period from Latin to Arabic science of the second half of the eleventh and the twelfth centuries. Second, the work on early medieval scientific texts prompted me to analyse the use of the vernacular in monastic teaching and intellectual debate of the time. Third, early medieval Irish history features prominently in my research, with a special interest in Irish kingship and succession, hagiography, as well as the Easter controversy. Fourth, my work at the University of Greifswald (2007–2013) has turned my attention to cultural history in the form of central and late medieval burial practises, especially the separate burial (Getrenntbestattung) of heart and intestines.

Select Publications
Monograph

  • The Munich Computus: Text & Translation. Irish computistics between Isidore of Seville and the Venerable Bede and its reception in Carolingian times (Stuttgart 2010).

Edited Volumes

  • Immo Warntjes & Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (eds.), Late Antique Calendrical Thought and its Reception in the Early Middle Ages. Proceedings of the 3rd International Confererece on the Science of Computus in Ireland and Europe (Turnhout 2017).
  • Pádraic Moran & Immo Warntjes (eds.), Early medieval Ireland and Europe: chronology, contacts, scholarship (Turnhout 2015).
  • Karl-Heinz Spieß & Immo Warntjes (eds.), Death at Court (Wiesbaden 2012).
  • Immo Warntjes & Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (eds.), The Easter Controversy of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on the Science of Computus in Ireland and Europe (Turnhout 2011).
  • Immo Warntjes & Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (eds.), Computus and its cultural context in the Latin West, AD 300–1200. Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on the Science of Computus in Ireland and Europe (Turnhout 2010).

Articles

    Early Medieval Scientific Thought:
  • 'The final countdown and the reform of the liturgical calendar in the early Middle Ages', in Matthew Gabriel & James T. Palmer (eds.), Apocalypse and reform from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages (Abingdon 2018), 51-75.
  • 'The continuation of the Alexandrian Easter table in seventh-century Iberia and its transmission to ninth-century Francia', Revue d'histoire des textes n. s. 13 (2018), 185-94.
  • 'Introduction: state of research on late antique and early medieval computus', in Immo Warntjes & Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (eds.), Late Antique Calendrical Thought and its Reception in the Early Middle Ages. Proceedings of the 3rd International Confererece on the Science of Computus in Ireland and Europe (Turnhout 2017), 1-42.
  • ‘Hermann der Lahme und die Zeitrechnung. Bedeutung seiner Computistica und Forschungsperspektiven’, in Felix Heinzer & Thomas Zotz (eds.), Hermann der Lahme: Reichenauer Mönch und Universalgelehrter (Stuttgart 2016), 285–321.
  • ‘Computus as scientific thought in Ireland and the early medieval West’, in Roy Flechner & Sven Meeder (eds.), The Irish in early medieval Europe: identity, culture and religion (New York 2016), 158–78.
  • ‘An Irish eclipse prediction of AD 754: the earliest in the Latin West’, Peritia 24–25 (2013–2014), 108–15.
  • ‘Seventh-century Ireland: the cradle of medieval science?’, in Mary Kelly & Charles Doherty (eds.), Music and the stars. Mathematics in medieval Ireland (Dublin 2013), 44–72.
  • ‘Köln als naturwissenschaftliches Zentrum in der Karolingerzeit: Die frühmittelalterliche Kölner Schule und der Beginn der fränkischen Komputistik’, in Heinz Finger & Harald Horst (eds.), Mittelalterliche Handschriften der Kölner Dombibliothek. Viertes Symposion der Diözesan- und Dombibliothek Köln zu den Dom-Manuskripten (26. bis 27. November 2010) (Köln 2012), 41–96.
  • ‘The Computus Cottonianus of AD 689: a computistical formulary written for Willibrord’s Frisian mission’, in Immo Warntjes & Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (eds.), The Easter Controversy of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on the Science of Computus in Ireland and Europe (Turnhout 2011), 173–212.
  • ‘Irische Komputisik zwischen Isidor von Sevilla und Beda Venerabilis: Ursprung, karolingische Rezeption und Forschungsperspektiven’, Viator 42 multilingual (2011), 1–32.
  • ‘A newly discovered prologue of AD 699 to the Easter table of Victorius of Aquitaine in an unknown Sirmond manuscript’, Peritia 21 (2010), 254–83.
  • ‘The argumenta of Dionysius Exiguus and their early recensions’, in Immo Warntjes & Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (eds.), Computus and its cultural context in the Latin West, AD 300–1200. Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on the Science of Computus in Ireland and Europe (Turnhout 2010), 40–111.
  • ‘The Munich Computus and the 84 (14)-year Easter reckoning’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 107C (2007), 31–85.
  • ‘A newly discovered Irish Computus: Computus Einsidlensis’, Peritia 19-20 (2005–6), 61–4.

The use of the vernacular in the early Middle Ages:

  • ‘Die Verwendung der Volkssprache in frühmittelalterlichen Klosterschulen’, in Christoph Fasbender & Gesine Mierke (eds.), Wissenspaläste. Räume des Wissens in der Vormoderne (Würzburg 2013), 153–83.
  • ‘The earliest occurrence of Old English ger?m and its Anglo-Irish computistical context’, Anglia 127 (2009), 91–105.
  • together with Jacopo Bisagni: ‘The early Old Irish material in the newly discovered Computus Einsidlensis (ca. AD 700)’, Ériu 58 (2008), 77–105.
  • together with Jacopo Bisagni: ‘Latin and Old Irish in the Munich Computus: A reassessment and further evidence’, Ériu 57 (2007), 1–33.

Early medieval Irish history:

  • ‘Victorius vs Dionysius: the Irish Easter controversy of AD 689’, in Pádraic Moran & Immo Warntjes (eds.), Early medieval Ireland and Europe: chronology, contacts, scholarship (Turnhout 2015), 40–96
  • ‘The role of the church in early Irish regnal succession – The case of Iona’, in L’Irlanda e gli Irlandesi nell’alto medioevo (Settimane di Studio del Centro italiano di studi sull’alto medioevo, LVII) (Spoleto 2010), 155–213.
  • ‘Regnal succession in early medieval Ireland’, Journal of Medieval History 30 (2004), 377–410.
  • ‘The alternation of the kingship of Tara 734–944’, Peritia 17 (2003), 394–432.

Central and late medieval burial practices:

  • ‘Programmatic double burial (body and heart) of the European high nobility, c.1200–1400. Its origin, geography, and functions’, in Karl-Heinz Spieß & Immo Warntjes (eds.), Death at Court (Wiesbaden 2012), 197–259.

Teaching

Before joining Trinity, I have taught at the University of Greifswald (Germany) for 6 years and at Queen’s Belfast for 3 years, covering Frankish, Anglo-Saxon, Norman, Irish, English and German history throughout the medieval period, but also chronology, palaeography, and Medieval Latin. Presently, I am teaching HI4347 Kings & Saints in early Christian Ireland and HI7165 The Golden Age: Ireland and Europe in the seventh century. I am also convening HI7170 Medieval Sources. I welcome PhD projects on all aspects of early and high medieval Europe (c.AD 400–1200).

Dr Immo Warntjes on the TCD Research Support System

Contact Details

Room 3148
Department of History
Trinity College
Dublin 2.
Telephone: +353 1 896 1160
Fax: +353 1 896 3995
Email: iwarntje@tcd.ie