The Middle English Manuscripts and Early Readers of Ancrene Wisse
The main manuscripts (i.e. leaving aside E’) range in date from the mid- thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries. The eartiest seem to be C and A. These manuscripts both seem to date on textual and palaeographical grounds from around the middle of the first half of the thirteenth century (C has revisions by other scribes in hands from towards the end of the century).
Contributions of Medieval Food Manuals to Spain‘s Culinary Heritage
Before Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1400–68) revolutionized printing with his discovery of moveable type, manuscripts of collected recipes from the Iberian Peninsula grew out of several traditions. Most notable are two manuscripts directed toward the urban aristocracy from the waning years of the Almohad dynasty, two works from the aristocracy of Aragon and Castile, and one woman‘s manual that weaves together recipes for food, home remedies, cosmetics, and general hygiene.
Beards: an archaeological and historical overview
There can be little doubt that facial hair played a significant role in past societies.
What Happened to Aged Priests in the Late Middle Ages?
While it might seem that disease and war made it unlikely that someone would survive to old age in ancient and medieval times, many men and women did live on into their 60s, 70s and even older. A new book, On Old Age: Approaching Death in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, explores some aspects of being elderly hundreds of years ago.
Work as a Manifestation of Faith in the English Nunnery: Barking Abbey, Essex
This paper discusses various occupations held by nuns in the late-medieval and early-modern English convent, and argues that while the nuns did have extraordinary opportunities for self-management when compared to secular women, nuns carried out those responsibilities in part as extensions and expressions of their faith.
Unearthing Medieval Vampire Stories In England: Fragments From De Nugis Curialium and Historia Rerum Anglicarum
I first came across Walter Map and William of Newburgh by way of a chance encounter with The Vampire Encyclopedia a few years ago.
Mixing Memory and Desire: The Re-Emergence of the Grail In the Industrial World
This pagan relic is constantly returning to Western consciousness in new forms, always reflecting the society which grapples with it. But why? What is it about this particular myth which seems to resonate with people?
‘De novo modo’: The birth of fashion in the Middle Ages
In the early fourteenth century a drastic change took place in the clothing of upper-class European men, a change which swept rapidly across Western Europe.
Research examines the ‘abortionist saints’ of medieval Ireland
A recent article on sexuality and childbirth in early medieval Ireland reveals some surprising attitudes towards abortion held among the Christians during this period, and that hagiographical texts recount four Irish saints performing abortions.
Full Metal Jousting – Review of the Season Finale
Josh Knowles versus Matt Hiltman!
Bach and the Middle Ages
Are there discernible historical roots or clearly perceived analogies that explicitly relate Bach’s music to the Middle Ages?
Wine, the Physician, and the Drinker Late Medieval Medical Views on Wine’s Uses, Pleasures, and Problems
Why do people alternate between accolades and censure about the powers they perceive in wine?
Royal Armouries selling sponsor copies of the world’s oldest surviving fight book!
Just in case you get into a street fight…here’s what to do ;) A serious medieval combat book for summer!
Alternatives to Ptolemy: Astronomy in Carolingian Schools
But was there any real science in those tumultuous times?
Researchers look to save deteriorating Viking treasures of Oseberg
Conservation experts in Norway are conducting tests to see if a solution can be found on how to save important archaeological finds from the Viking Age that were discovered in Oseberg in 1904.
The Christianization of Kieven Rus’ and Piast Poland
Although both came from pagan and ethnically Slavic backgrounds, the leaders diverged in the branch of Christianity each chose, although, both conversions took place each region within a similar time frame.
Charity as the Perfection of Natural Friendship in Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae
Within western civilization, there is a long-running dispute over which authority, the Christian tradition or Greek philosophical tradition, is the more trustworthy and comprehensive. Like other topics written about by Plato and Aristotle, friendship became part of this controversy. During Thomas Aquinas’ time, this struggle was focused on whether the works of Aristotle could be reconciled with Christianity.
German Hercules: The Impact of Scatology on the Definition of Martin Luther as a Man 1483-1546
Martin Luther’s employment of vulgarity, and specifically scatological vulgarity, in his writings and speech has drawn criticism, embarrassment, and accusations of psychological instability.
New book offers translation of medieval Islamic debate
The candid nature of the debate and the instincts of the characters to speak freely and to openly question basic Islamic and religious tenets forces readers to challenge widely held views of Islam and religious freedom, especially during the Middle Ages.
Planning for Pilgrims: St Andrews as the Second Rome
The burgh of St Andrews was laid out in the mid-twelfth century, on a grandiose scale, and to a different plan from the majority of contemporary burghs in Scotland, including Edinburgh. The lecture argues that it was deliberately modelled on the Vatican Borgo, the area between St Peter’s and the Tiber in Rome, which had been fortified in the ninth century AD.
John Crabbe: Flemish Pirate, Merchant, and Adventurer
The decades before the outbreak of the Hundred Years’ War were notoriously fruitful in commercial violence.
Some Observations on Biographical Compositions and Egodocuments of the Middle Byzantine Military Aristocracy (c.900-c.1200)
The struggle for supremacy among the Empire’s leading generals would become a consistent theme in Byzantine politics until the end of the eleventh century.
Byte-Sized Middle Ages: Tolkien, Film, and the Digital Imagination
I wish to examine in historical perspective how and why this modern visual/cinematic understanding of Tolkien’s Middle-earth in particular, and consequently of the Middle Ages in general, has come to rely upon and be shaped by a shared stock of stylized referents related to the virtual reality of computers
Fourth-century Hebrew inscription discovered in Portugal
Find is the oldest Jewish archaeological evidence discovered on the Iberian Peninsula
The Borgias – Review SE02 EP08 – Truth and Lies
As we inch closer to the end of the season, things heat up between the Borgia brothers once more in this episode entitled, ‘Truth and Lies’ , which centres around Juan’s ‘version’ of the truth at Forli.