Scott G. Bruce

Ph.D. History, 2000
Princeton University

M.A. History (with distinction), 1996
Princeton University

B.A. History and Latin (summa cum laude), 1994
York University

Scott G. Bruce is a historian of religion and culture in the early and central Middle Ages (c. 400-1200 CE). His research interests include monasticism, hagiography, and the reception of classical and patristic traditions in medieval Europe.  He has published several books about the abbey of Cluny, most recently (with Steven Vanderputten), A Companion to the Abbey of Cluny in the Middle Ages (Brill, 2021).  He has also edited four historical anthologies for Penguin Classics, including The Penguin Book of Demons (Penguin Books, 2024).  His current book project is The Lost Patriarchs: A Survey of the Greek Fathers in the Medieval Latin Tradition, for which he was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (2020/21).  In 2024/25, he is working on this project as the Edwin C. and Elizabeth A. Whitehead Member in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. 

(ed. with Stephen Gordon) Vigor Mortis: The Vitality of the Dead in Medieval Cultures (Taylor and Francis, 2024).

(ed.) The Penguin Book of Demons (Penguin Classics, 2024).

"Verba risum moventia: Silence, rire et comportement dans le premier monachisme médiéval," Silence(s): Revue interdisciplinaire 1 (2024).

"Reading the Greek Fathers in Latin in Pre-Conquest England," The Haskins Society Journal 34 (2023): 1-14.

(with W. Tanner Smoot) "The Social Life of an Eleventh-Century Shrine in the Miracula Maioli (BHL 5186)," Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies 12 (2023): 27-52.

"Origen Issues: The Reception of a Renegade Greek Theologian in Early Medieval Europe," Journal of Medieval Latin 33 (2023): 267-303.

"Hope in the Dark: History and Ghost Stories," Perspectives on History: The Newsmagazine of the American Historical Association (March 2023), pp. 20-22.

(with Benjamin A. Bertrand) “Ex sanctorum patrum certissimis testimoniis: Reading the Greek Fathers in Latin in Early Medieval Monasteries,” Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies 11 (2022): 9-34.

(with Michael W. Herren) "Classics in the Middle Ages," Oxford Bibliographies (www.oxfordbibliographies.com).  A 41,000-word annotated bibliography of international scholarship on the transmission and reception in western Europe of classical Greek and Latin texts written before 525 CE (last update: 27 June 2022)

(ed. with Steven Vanderputten) A Companion to the Abbey of Cluny in the Middle Ages (Brill, 2021).

"The Relics of Cluny," in A Companion to the Abbey of Cluny in the Middle Ages, ed. Scott G. Bruce and Steven Vanderputten (Brill, 2021), pp. 322-339.

"Cluny and the Crusades,” in A Companion to the Abbey of Cluny in the Middle Ages, ed. Scott G. Bruce and Steven Vanderputten (Brill, 2021), pp. 306-321.

(ed.) Litterarum dulces fructus: Studies in Early Medieval Latin Culture in Honour of Michael W. Herren for his 80th Birthday, Instrumenta Patristica et Mediaevalia 85 (Brepols, 2021).

“The Redemption of Flavius Josephus in the Medieval Latin Tradition,” in Litterarum dulces fructus: Studies in Early Medieval Latin Culture in Honour of Michael W. Herren for his 80th Birthday, ed. Scott G. Bruce (Brepols, 2021), pp. 53-69.

(ed.) The Penguin Book of Dragons (Penguin Classics, 2021).

“Veterum Vestigia Patrum: The Greek Patriarchs in the Manuscript Culture of Early Medieval Europe,” The Downside Review 139 (2021): 6-23.

“The Benedictines, in The Oxford Handbook of Christian Monasticism, ed. Bernice Kaczynski (Oxford University Press, 2020), pp. 218-231.

“Textual Triage and Pastoral Care in the Carolingian Age: The Example of the Rule of Benedict,” Traditio: Studies in Ancient and Medieval History, Thought, and Religion 75 (2020): 127-141.

“Sources for the History of Monasticism in the Central Middle Ages (c. 800-1100),” in The Cambridge History of Medieval Monasticism in the Latin West, ed. Alison Beach and Isabelle Cochelin, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), vol. 1, pp. 382-398.

“The Lost Patriarchs Project: Recovering the Greek Fathers in the Medieval Latin Tradition,” Religion Compass 13 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1111/rec3.12344

“Curiosity Killed the Monk: The History of an Early Medieval Vice,” Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies 8 (2019): 73-94.

“The Dark Age of Herodotus: Shards of a Fugitive History in Early Medieval Europe,” Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies 94 (2019): 47-67.

(ed.) The Penguin Book of Hell (Penguin Classics, 2018).

(ed. and trans. with Christopher A. Jones) The Relatio metrica de duobus ducibus: A Twelfth-Century Cluniac Poem on Prayer for the Dead (Brepols, 2016).

(ed.) The Penguin Book of the Undead: Fifteen Hundred Years of Supernatural Encounters (Penguin Classics, 2016).

Cluny and the Muslims of La Garde-Freinet: Hagiography and the Problem of Islam in Medieval Europe (Cornell University Press, 2015).

Silence and Sign Language in Medieval Monasticism: The Cluniac Tradition (c. 900-1200) (Cambridge University Press, 2007).

Professor Bruce welcomes applications from students interested in pursuing graduate research on topics in medieval monasticism as well as classical and patristic reception history.  Applicants should contact him directly via email.

CURRENT ADVISEES

W. Tanner Smoot is completing a dissertation entitled "Plausible Lies from Beyond the Sea: Hagiographic Commission in the Channel World, c. 800-1150."  Mr. Smoot is the author of several peer-reviewed articles, most recently "Kings in the Cloister: Contemporary Reception of Aelred of Rievaulx's Royal Biographies," Haskins Society Journal 34 (2023): 31-50.  He currently holds a Senior Teaching Fellowship at Fordham University (2024/25) and plans to defend his dissertation in May 2026.

Benjamin Bertrand is writing a dissertation entitled "A New Kind of Monster? Henry of Blois and Episcopal Authority in Twelfth-Century England."  His article "Books Pro Moribus Informandis: Henry of Blois' Contribution to the Library of Glastonbury Abbey," is forthcoming in Haskins Society Journal 35 (2024).

Curtis Rager passed his comprehensive exams with distinction in October 2024.  He is preparing his dissertation proposal on the topic of abbatial courts in the Central Middle Ages.  His essay, "Lacunae in Literacy, the Scribes of Gloucestershire, and the Tumultuous Life of Amaury de Montfort (d. 1213)" won the 2023 Denis Bethel Prize from the Haskins Society.

Alex DaCruz is currently undertaking graduate coursework in preparation for his comprehensive exams in August 2026.

HIST 1030: Understanding Historical Change: Medieval History

HIST 3209: The Origins of Christianity from the Apostles to the Fourth Century

HIST 3212: Medieval Christianity

HIST 3213: Monsters, Magic and the Undead in Medieval Europe

HIST 4666: Know Your Enemy: The Devil in History

HIST 5203: Medieval Hagiography

HIST 5204: Medieval Environmental History

HIST 5205: Legends of the Fall: What Happened to the Roman Empire?

HIST 7025/8025: Graduate Proseminar: Medieval Religious Cultures

HIST 7026/8026: Graduate Proseminar: Classics in the Middle Ages

For more information about Professor Bruce's research projects and publications, please visit www.medievalimagination.com and http://fordham.academia.edu/ScottGBruce