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I received my PhD in History in 1996 and my MA in History in 1990, both from the University of Toronto, where I also held a graduate fellowship (1994-96) and a post-graduate fellowship (1996-99) at the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies. My undergraduate degree is a dual BA in History and Medieval Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara (1988).
I started teaching in ³Ô¹ÏÍø’s History Department in 1997 and was granted tenure in 2008.
Since March 2023 I have held a senior fellowship as Status-Only Faculty at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto.
My research field is late medieval and early renaissance intellectual and ecclesiastical history, focusing on Latin florilegia (collections of quotations), early Italian humanism, Latin translations of Greek patristic texts, conciliar sermons (especially eulogies) and ecclesiastical politics, rhetorical theory and practice as it relates to the construction of self and delimitation of audience, pastoral reform in response to heresy, scribal agency in manuscript traditions and editorial agency in early print traditions. I am also involved in the growing field known as digital humanities, especially the publication of Open Access critical editions of historical texts.
- As Principal Investigator: SSHRC Standard Research Grant (2005-8); SSHRC Connection Grant (2014); SSHRC Insight Development Grant (2016-17); SSHRC Insight Grant (2019-22); SSHRC Insight Grant (2021-26)
- As Co-applicant: SSHRC Insight Grant (2025-28), U. Toronto, J. Ginther P.I.
- 17 internal research grants and several other grants for conference travel etc. (since 2000)
- 4 Academic Merit Awards (2016, 2019, 2020, 2024)
- Graduation with Highest Honors (1988)
- Phi Beta Kappa (1987)
Since 2003, I have employed over 30 ³Ô¹ÏÍø undergraduate and graduate students as research assistants on my various digital humanities projects for patristic and medieval Latin literature. Three of these RAs were MA students in the Tri-University History program (³Ô¹ÏÍø, University of Waterloo and University of Guelph) who wrote their thesis or major research paper under my supervision on some aspect of the medieval florilegium that they helped me edit and publish online.
I am interested in supervising MA students working in central and late medieval history (12th-16th centuries), especially intellectual and/or ecclesiastical history involving Latin literature.
Book Chapters
- C. Nighman, “Revisiting John of Wales’s role in the creation of the Manipulus florum,” in New perspectives on Thomas of Ireland’s Manipulus florum / Nouvelles perspectives sur le Manipulus florum de Thomas d’Irlande, J. Hamesse, M.-J. Mũnoz Jiménez & C.L. Nighman (eds.), Papers in Mediaeval Studies 32 (2019), Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 17-30.
- C. Nighman, “Editorial agency in the Manipulus florum: Thomas of Ireland’s reception of two works by Peter of Blois,” in From Learning to Love: Schools, Law, and Pastoral Care in the Middle Ages, T. Sharp et al. (eds.), PIMS Papers in Mediaeval Studies 29 (2017), Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 224-48.
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C. Nighman, “The reception of Manipulus florum in two distinct works by Johannes von Dambach OP: Consolatio theologiae and Consolatorium theologicum,” Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 3.2: (forthcoming in 2026).
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C. Nighman, “Giovanni da Legnano’s reception of Thomas of Ireland’s Manipulus florum (1306) in the Prohemium to Somnium (1372),” Journal of Medieval Latin 36: 17-35 (forthcoming in 2026).
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C. Nighman, “Two uncited Latin resources for King Robert of Naples’ sermon on friendship for the Lombard League (1332),” Medieval Sermon Studies 69 (forthcoming in 2025).
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C. Nighman, “The lemma De predicatoribus in Iacobus de Benevento’s Viridarium consolationis: an unexpected preaching tract in a Dominican florilegium,” Medieval Sermon Studies 67 (2023): 19-28 ().
- C. Nighman, “A previously unknown late 15th-century translation of a portion of John Chrysostom’s homilies on John interpolated into an incomplete incunable,” Journal of the Early Book Society for the Study of Manuscripts and Print History 25 (2022): 139-76.
- C. Nighman, “‘Impresse et diligenter correcte’: Johann Koelhoff the Elder’s transmission of Francesco Griffolini’s Latin translation of Chrysostom’s homilies on John,” Journal of the Early Book Society for the Study of Manuscripts and Print History 24 (2021): 263-88 ().
- C. Nighman, “Walter Bower’s reception of the Manipulus florum (1306) in composing the Scotichronicon (c.1440),” The Innes Review 70.1 (2019): 55-64.
- C. Nighman, “The Manipulus florum, Johannes Nider’s Formicarius, and late medieval misogyny in the construction of witches prior to the Malleus maleficarum,” Journal of Medieval Latin 24 (2014): 171-84.
- C. Nighman, “The Janus intertextuality search engine: a research tool of (and for) the Electronic Manipulus florum Project,” Digital Medievalist 7 (2011): ().
- C. Nighman, “Citations of ‘noster’ John Pecham in Richard Fleming’s Trinity Sunday sermon: evidence for the political use of liturgical music at the Council of Constance.” Medieval Sermon Studies 52 (2008): 31-41 ().
- C. Nighman, “Prudencia, plague and the pulpit: Richard Fleming’s eulogy for Robert Hallum at the Council of Constance,” Annuarium historiae conciliorum 38.1 (2006): 183-98 ().
- C. Nighman, “Commonplaces on preaching among commonplaces for preaching? The topic Predicacio in Thomas of Ireland’s Manipulus florum,” Medieval Sermon Studies 49 (2005): 37-57 ().
- C. Nighman, “Rhetorical self-construction and its political context in Richard Fleming’s reform sermon for Passion Sunday at the Council of Constance.” Annuarium historiae conciliorum 33.2 (2001): 405-25 ().
- C. Nighman (ed.), The Digital Viridarium consolationis Project (), 2023.
- C. Nighman (gen. ed.), J. Kalvesmaki & S. Kennerley (assoc. eds.), The Chrysostomus Latinus in Iohannem Online (CLIO) Project (), 2022.
- C. Nighman (ed.), The Libellus de patientia Project (), with Samantha James (Open Access edition by S. James, C. Nighman & K. Tilmans; English translation by C. Nighman), 2019.
- C. Nighman (ed.), The Manipulus/Scotichronicon Project (), 2017.
- C. Nighman (ed.), The Manipulus/Lucula noctis Project (), 2016.
- C. Nighman (ed.), The Digital Liber pharetrae Project (), 2015.
- C. Nighman (ed.) The Electronic Manipulus florum Project ()., 2013.
- C. Nighman and P.H. Stump (eds.). A bibliographical register of sermons and other orations delivered at the Council of Constance, Bibliographical Society of America’s BibSITE (), 2006-7.
- C. Nighman (ed.), The Manipulus/Consolatorium Project (), since 2023.
- C. Nighman (ed.), The Chrysostomus Latinus in Mattheum Online (CLIMO) Project (), since 2020.
- C. Nighman (ed.), The Compendium moralium notabilium Project (), since 2014.
Courses taught since 2010:
- HI102: Europe in the Central & Late Middle Ages, 1100-1450 (until 2016)
- HI102: War, Conflict & Rebellion in the Middle Ages, 732-1500 (since 2021)
- HI219: The Making of English Law to 1714
- HI310: The Italian Renaissance, 1350-1530
- HI352: History & Historical Fiction: "Philippa Gregory's Wars of the Roses"
- HI383: England in the Central & Late Middle Ages, 1066-1485
- HI400: Reading Seminar in Medieval History: “Love, Sex & Death in the Italian Renaissance”
- HI450: Research Seminar in Medieval History: “Love, Sex & Death in the Italian Renaissance”
- ML100: Discovering the Middle Ages
- ML400: Senior Seminar: “History & Historical Novels: Philippa Gregory's Wars of the Roses”
Contact Info:
T: 548.889.5042
Office location: DAWB 4-141
Office hours:
by appointment
Languages spoken: English
Personal website