Lisa Davis

Adjunct Faculty

Lisa Fagin Davis received her PhD in Medieval Studies from Yale University in 1993. She has catalogued medieval manuscript collections at Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, Wellesley College, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Boston Public Library, and several private collections. Her publications include: the Catalogue of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, Vol. IV (with R. G. Babcock and P. Rusche, Tempe, 2004); The Gottschalk Antiphonary(Cambridge University Press, 2000); numerous articles in the fields of manuscript studies and codicology; and the monograph, La Chronique Anonyme Universelle: Reading and Writing History in fifteenth-century France (a translation, critical edition and detailed study of a fifteenth-century French world chronicle, published by Brepols Publishers in 2015). 

Dr. Davis was a member of the EAMMS working group that established initial standards for electronic cataloguing of pre-1600 manuscript material and is currently serving on the Digital Scriptorium Bibliographic Standards Committee. With Melissa Conway, Davis is co-author of the Directory of Pre-1600 Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, published online by the Bibliographical Society of America and as Volume 109:3 of the Papers of the BSA. In addition to serving as Executive Director of the Medieval Academy of America, Lisa Fagin Davis regularly teaches an introduction to manuscript studies at the Simmons School of Library and Information Science. She is the author of "The Manuscript Road Trip," a blog devoted to promoting collections of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in North America. Her projects include co-curating the 2016 exhibition "Beyond Words: Illuminated Manuscripts in Boston Collections."

Lisa Davis in the News

A section of the Voynich Manuscript

SLIS Adjunct Interviewed in The Atlantic as a “prominent medievalist”

School of Library and Information Science Adjunct Lisa Fagin Davis was interviewed in The Atlantic for her work interpreting the 500-year-old Voynich Manuscript.


Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis

SLIS Lecturer Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis Discusses the Value of Medieval Manuscripts and Fragments

Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis, who teaches for SLIS, is passionate about medieval manuscripts. She directs the Medieval Academy of America and was recently featured on the Medievalists.net Podcast. Here Davis shares with us how a study of medieval artifacts can help train future librarians.


Shout-outs from Students and Alums

Tomb effigy for Eleanor of Aquitaine (d. 1204) at Fontrevaud Abbey, France. Wikimedia Commons.

Diana Myers ’24MS Aspires to Increase Access to Medieval Archives

Graduate student Diana Myers is pursuing a Master’s in Library Science and Information Science with a concentration in Archives Management. She plans to combine her archival experience with her research on medieval Europe to facilitate the public’s access to rare, premodern materials.