The 2027 Jonathan Ali Essay Prize

The Monumental Brass Society announces the application window for the fourth round of the Jonathan Ali Prize, which awards £350 to the best article or chapter focusing on monumental brasses or incised slabs that has been published within the last three years. The Prize has been made possible thanks to the generosity of our late member, Jonathan Ali. 

This year, judges will consider applications dating from January 2024 to the present day.

The window for applications is now open and will close on 31 December 2026. Works will be considered during the first months of 2027 and the winner will be announced in July 2027.

To apply, simply send a PDF of your article or chapter to ali-prize@brasses.org before 31 December, with a simple covering email giving your title, where the work was published, and the date of publication.

Complete guidelines and instructions available here (PDF). 

Previous Winners

2026

Nicholas Flory for his essay, ‘”Pour leur bonne prosperité”: Isabella of Portugal and her Carthusian Foundations', in Death and Dying in the Middle Ages: Proceedings of the 2022 Harlaxton Symposium, eds Christian Steer and Jenny Stratford (Harlaxton Medieval Studies 33, Donington, 2024), pp.121-35.

Geoffrey Noble for his article, '"The Brass Ceiling": Fru Ramborg Israelsdotter of Vik', Monumental Brass Society Transactions, Vol XXVI (2025), pp. 1-27. 

2025

The Prize was in abeyance.

2024
John Lee, for his article, ‘Brass among Glass: The Tame Family Brasses in Fairford Church, Gloucestershire’, Monumental Brass Society Transactions, XXII (2021), pp.74-99.

2023
Robert Kinsey, for his article, ‘The Brass of Sir John de Creke and Lady Alyne at Westley Waterless, Cambridgeshire’, Monumental Brass Society Transactions, XXI (2020), pp.38-68.