Dr. Lisa Barber, formerly Jefferson, a medievalist, studied at Newnham College, Cambridge, and Linacre College, Oxford.

From 1989 she carried out research into the early manuscripts of the Order of the Garter, in particular work on manuscript copies of the statutes of the order. She worked as research assistant with Stephen Parkinson and later with Professor T.F. Earle of the Portuguese Faculty, Oxford University, on various projects between 1991 and 1996. Also during this time and up to 1998, she worked as a cataloguer of manuscripts for Sam Fogg and occasionally other manuscript dealers. Between 1994 and 1999 she undertook research for the second edition of the Anglo-Norman Dictionary (Routledge, 2006), identifying words that were not included in the first edition. In 1994 she began research in the archives of various London livery companies, notably the Goldsmiths' and the Mercers' Companies. She married Giles Gaudard Barber in 1997.

Dr. Barber was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1998. From 1999 to 2008 she was Deputy Editor of the journal, The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies. In 2000 she and Giles moved to south-west France, to La Mandro in the département of the Ariège. She was elected membre correspondant of the Société archéologique du Midi de la France in 2004 and a full titular member in 2009.

From 2008 to 2014 she was a member of the Commission Départementale des Antiquités et Objets Mobiliers for the Ariège with special responsibility for presenting and interpreting books and manuscripts held in various locations to the Commission for protected status, and with other members of the committee, making similar judgments upon a wide variety of moveable objects in public and private collections: furniture, paintings, church ornaments and vessels, church vestments, archaeological finds, statues and other items.

Following the death of her husband in 2012, Dr. Barber remained in France, returning to England in 2014. She continues her research in the archive of the Goldsmiths' Company.

Publications:

'The Keys to the Enchantments of Dolorous Guard' in Medium Aevum, LVIII (1989)

'Lancelot's first (unwise) oath: the 'chevalier enferré' sequence in the French prose Lancelot' in Romania, CXI (1990)

'Edward III's horoscope in a stained glass window' in Report of the Society of the Friends of St. George's and the Descendants of the Knights of the Garter, VIII (1991-92)

''Don' - 'don contraignant' - 'don contraint': a motif and its deployment in the French prose Lancelot' in Romanische Forschungen, CIV (1992), Heft 1-2

Oaths, Vows and Promises in the First Part of the French Prose Lancelot Romance (Peter Lang: Berne, 1993) (revised version of Oxford D. Phil. thesis)

'Use of canon law, abuse of canon lawyers in two cantigas concerning the deposition of D. Sancho II of Portugal' in Portuguese Studies, IX (1993)

'MS Arundel 48 and the Earliest Statutes of the Order of the Garter' in The English Historical Review, CIX (1994)

'Two fifteenth-century manuscripts of the Statutes of the Order of the Garter' in English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, V (1995)

'Tournaments, Heraldry and the Knights of the Round Table: A fifteenth-century armorial with two accompanying texts' in Arthurian Literature, XIV (1996). (Includes an edition of the previously unedited heraldic treatise of Clément Prinsault.)

'Edward IV: The Garter and the Golden Fleece', with Ann Payne, in L'Ordre de la Toison d'Or, de Philippe le Bon à Philippe le Beau (1430-1505): Idéal ou reflet d'une société? (Bruxelles: Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, 1996)

'A new fragment of the First Continuation of the Perceval of Chrétien de Troyes' in Arthurian Literature XV (1997)

'Fragments of a French prose version of Gautier de Châtillon's Alexandreis' in Romania, 115 (1997)

'Society and Lexis: A study of the Anglo-French vocabulary in the fifteenth-century accounts of the Merchant Taylors' Company' with W. Rothwell in Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur, CVII (1997)

'Neville, Babthorpe and the Serjeants: Three fifteenth-century feast menus' in Oxoniensia, LXIII (1998). (A 'popular version' of this appeared in Oxford Today (Michaelmas 2000 issue).

'Index' to Décadas da Ásia de João de Barros (Ophir: Biblioteca Virtual dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, 5), (Lisbon: Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses / Oxford: Centre for the Study of the Portuguese Discoveries, 1998)

'The Statutes of the Order', chapter 4, in P.J. Begent and H. Chesshyre, The Most Noble Order of the Garter, 650 years (London: Spink, 1999)

'The language and vocabulary of the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century records of the Goldsmiths' Company' in D.A. Trotter ed., Multilingualism in Later Medieval Britain (Woodbridge, 2000). Proceedings of a conference held at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, 10-13 Sep 1997.

'A Garter Installation Ceremony in 1606' in The Court Historian, 6 (2002)

'Gifts given and fees paid to Garter King of Arms at installation ceremonies of the Order of the Garter during the sixteenth century' in Costume, 36 (2002)

Wardens' Accounts and Court Minute Books of the Goldsmiths' Mistery of London, 1334-1446 (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2003)

The Medieval Account Books of the Mercers of London. An Edition and Translation (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009)

'La dalle funéraire de l'Évêque Guillaume de Durfort à Lombez' in Bulletin de la Société archéologique, historique, littéraire et scientifique du Gers, numéro 390, 4e trimestre 2008 (2009)

Lisa Barber et Michèle Pradalier-Schlumberger, 'Notre Dame du Clocher et le Clocher de Noguès à Lescure (Ariège)' in Memoires de la Société archéologique du Midi de la France, LXVII (2007)

'Des dalles funéraires gravées à l’effigie du défunt' in Memoires de la Société archéologique du Midi de la France, LXIX (2009)

‘Les plates-tombes de Narbonne gravées avec effigie du défunt’ in Memoires de la Société archéologique du Midi de la France, LXX (2010)

'Remembering Rector Barber' in Exeter College Register 2013 (text of a speech given at the opening ceremony of Barber House, Exeter College, Oxford, named in honour of Rector Barber, father of Giles Barber)

'A note on Sir Sanchet d’Abrichecourt, one of the First Founders of the Order of the Garter' in The Coat of Arms, 3rd ser. 9 (2013), no. 226

Forthcoming as at 2020:

'Mowbray and Strangeways revisited: Notes on some medieval heraldic treatises' (in Nigel Ramsay ed., Heralds and Heraldry in Medieval England)

'Heralds, Heraldry, and the Order of the Garter' (in Nigel Ramsay ed., Heralds and Heraldry in Medieval England)

The Register of the Goldsmiths' Company: Deeds and Documents c.1190 to c.1666