GEMMS Project

GEMMS (Gateway to Early Modern Manuscript Sermons) is a SSHRC-funded project to create an open-access, group-sourced, fully searchable, online bibliographic database of early modern (1530-1715) sermon manuscripts from the British Isles and North America. The database is a finding aid for all types of manuscripts related to sermons, including complete sermons, sermon notes and reports of sermons, held in numerous repositories in the UK, Ireland, the USA and Canada. GEMMS endeavours to make manuscript sermons more accessible for a wide variety of researchers, to encourage research on manuscript sermons and to provide a forum for the development of an online community of sermon scholars.

We are hosting a series of lectures that highlight the latest research on manuscript sermons and the wide range of sermon manuscripts included in GEMMS. Our speakers explore significant sermons genres, such as Spital and Rehearsal sermons, and varied manuscript traces of sermons, including the notes of preachers and auditors. They also uncover relatively neglected preachers, such as Catholics and lay preachers. Others analyze the ways in which auditors and readers engaged with and responded to sermons, including through poetry and sermon extracts in commonplace books. Many of the speakers explore the challenges of finding these manuscripts related to sermons and how GEMMS has and could be used to advance early modern sermon studies.

We also host other events related to the project, such as workshops for users and contributors to GEMMS and roundtables on manuscript sermons or early modern sermons. We are hosting two conferences, one in-person and the other virtual, in October 2024.