You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me: The Power and Emotion in Women’s Correspondence in Fifteenth-Century Italy
This thesis examines the lives of Alessandra Strozzi and Lucrezia de’Medici of Florence
Philippa of Guelders, Duchess of Lorraine
Philippa was to grow up to be a celebrated beauty. Her emblem was a thistle leaf with the motto ‘Do not touch me, or I will prick’
Looming Danger and Dangerous Looms: Violence and Weaving in Exeter Book Riddle 56
I was inside there where I saw a wooden object wounding a certain struggling creature, the wood turning; it received battle-wounds, deep gashes.
The Black Death in the Middle East and Europe
I specifically look at England and Egypt as case studies and I’m really gonna talk more about Egypt here.
When Richard III invaded Scotland
A new article is shining light on a more successful military campaign that Richard led just before he took the English throne.
Charity On The Fringes Of The Medieval World
This is a study on the space and place of medieval monastic charity as represented by the infirmary that was in operation at Skriðuklaustur, a late medieval Augustinian monastery (1493- 1554), located in eastern Iceland.
Golden perception: Simulating perceptual habits of the past
Results demonstrated very different perceptual experiences with stunning effects for the interaction of the specific painting depicted on a gold-leafed background lit by candlelight.
From Rome to the antipodes: the medieval form of the world
Here we discuss how some medieval scholars in the Western Europe viewed the form of the world and the problem of the Antipodes
Taming the Shrew: The Rise of Patriarchy and the Subordination of the Feminine in Old Norse Literature
Old Norse literature is a unique source in that it shows a connection between the oppression of women and Norse patriarchy during the phase of its establishment.
‘Al ful of fresshe floures whyte and reede’: The Jewellery of Margaret of York and Its Meaning
The collier shown in the Louvre portrait appears to be made of gold and enamel, and is almost exclusively set with pearls.
Building the past through the eyes of the present: Were the Kingdoms of Medieval Spain a model of tolerance?
In this paper I am going to look at the ways in which contemporary concerns have shaped historians’ depictions of Medieval Iberian societies, and how that distant past is now used by politicians.
A Medieval Madwoman in the Attic: Chaucer’s Wife of Bath in The Canterbury Tales
Anyone interested in Chaucer knows the description of the Wife of Bath in the General Prologue by heart, ‘her gap teeth, her wimple, her hat, her five husbands, her heavy coverchiefs [. . .] her deafness, [. . .] [and] her remedies of love’
Call for Papers: Vagantes 2014
Conference taking place from March 20-22, 2014 at the University of Texas at Austin
Leonardo da Vinci painting discovered in Swiss bank vault
For centuries it was believed that Leonardo da Vinci made a pencil sketch of Isabella d’Este, but that he never completed a full portrait of the famous Renaissance noblewoman.
Food in medieval Sicily
And in truth this food, of which they are fond and which they eat raw, ruins their senses. There is not one man among them, of whatsoever condition, who does not eat onions every day, and does not serve them morning and evening in his house.
Rivers of Blood: An Analysis of One Aspect of the Crusader Conquest of Jerusalem in 1099
The blood that was spilled in the massacre of Jerusalem was real; the rivers of it that course down the pages of modern newspapers and popular books are not.
Outlaws, women and violence: In the social margins of saga literature
In the society that the Icelandic family sagas depict, whose public sphere was ruled by men, violence was an extraordinary extent of action for women – but it takes place.
Book Review: Ancient Treasures, by Brian Haughton
Many people dream of finding some long-lost treasure – to think that perhaps a chest full of gold is buried underneath their feet and that you can retrieve it with just a shovel!.
Game of Thrones and Machiavelli
Megan Cavell reports on the lecture ‘Power is a Curious Thing: Game of Thrones as a Machiavellian Mirror for Princes’ given by Janice Liedl
The meaning, practice and context of private prayer in late Anglo-Saxon England
Private prayer has been part of the Christian tradition from the very beginning. Furthermore, as the quotation from Matthew’s gospel above shows, set prayers have always been regarded as a major component of private prayer, which can, of course, also include spontaneous prayer.
Movie Preview: Vikingdom
Being released today in 21 cities across the United States, this Malaysian-made film is loosely based on Viking mythology.
Trial by Battle
This paper defends trial by battle. It examines trial by battle in England as judges used it to decide property disputes from the Norman Conquest to 1179. I argue that judicial combat was sensible and effective.
Ordeals
No one alive today believes ordeals were a good way to decide defendants’ guilt. But maybe they should.
Vision and Revision: The Female Mystics as Writers in Late Medieval Northern Europe
When I first encountered the writings of the medieval mystics years ago, I began this study with a simple question: why has so much writing been produced about a topic considered to be ineffable, inexpressible?
Power and Institutional Identity in Renaissance Venice: The Female Convents of S. M. delle Vergini and S. Zaccaria
Even though inmates of convents were the most regulated group in fifteenth and sixteenth-century Europe, canonesses and nuns at these two convents were able to generate and harness multiple sorts of power in a variety of ways.