Textual Efflorescence and Social Resources: Notes on Mediaeval Iceland
The overt double function of culture traits and products, namely instrumental- ity and symbolicity, which may be explicit in some elements, often remains hidden for other ones.
The Charters of the Cinque Ports – Are They Still Needed?
The heyday of the Cinque Ports was in medieval times when they provided a vital navy for the protection of the realm. Today, the Cinque Ports, and their charters, still exist.
Voynich Manuscript partially decoded, text is not a hoax, scholar finds
A Professor in Applied Linguistics believes he has decoded a few words from the mysterious Voynich Manuscript, a 600-year old work that has baffled scholars for the last hundred years.
When Urine is like Snot – Middle English Uroscopy Texts
People in late medieval England were concerned about their health, and like their modern-day counterparts they might turn to self-help guides. One of the most popular ways to do this in the Late Middle Ages would be to analyze your own urine.
Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy and Regent of the Netherlands
Margaret’s Motto: Fortune, Infortune, Fortune pretty much sums up her extraordinary life.
Oh, Baby! Medieval Childbirth
Like most things in the Middle Ages, the process of giving birth was mired in both superstition and religion.
Call for Papers: Medieval and Renaissance Lost Libraries
The 2014 conference of CILIP’s Library and Information History Group will have the theme ‘Medieval and Renaissance Lost Libraries’. It will be held at Senate House in London on Saturday 12 July 2014.
Conference: Guthlac of Crowland: Celebrating 1300 Years
You are invited to attend Guthlac of Crowland: celebrating 1300 years’ in London, 10-11 April 2014.
Medieval Castle and Hamlet for Sale in Italy: Castello Izzalini
Get an entire medieval village, dating back to the 12th century, with its own castle and church.
Deceptive appearances? Reading medieval child monuments
Tomb effigies and monuments offer important evidence on how dead children were commemorated and thus also on the status of children in the Middle Ages.
Antiquarians, Archaeologists, and Viking Fortifications
This article addresses the depth of our knowledge regarding Viking fortifications in England, Scotland, and Wales, assessing perceptions of them as a monument type
Virgins, mothers, monsters : late-medieval readings of the female body out of bounds
This dissertation examines representations of female corporeality in three late-medieval texts: the Pseudo-Ovidian poem, De vetula (The Old Woman); a treatise on human generation erroneously attributed to Albertus Magnus, De secretis mulierum (On the Secrets of Women); and Julian of Norwich’s Showings, an autobiographical account of visions she experienced during an illness in 1373
Trading Networks, Monopoly and Economic Development in Medieval Northern Europe: an Agent-Based Simulation of Early Hanseatic Trade
Little is known, however, on the emergence of this Hanseatic trading system in the high Middle Ages, a period characterised by a significant migration into the Baltic region and the foundation of numerous towns alongside the Baltic sea’s southern shore.
Medieval studies as a state-supporting power: basic problems of German medieval studies in the German Empire until the Republic of Weimar
The following paper is meant as a contribution to the mentioned critical description of German medieval studies, by referring to the history of historiography.
Asserting Political Authority in a Sacred Landscape: A Comparison of Umayyad and Israeli Jerusalem
Maintenance of authority is of course the end goal, but how does political leadership ‘build’ political authority in the first place?
A Medieval Guide to Friendship
What kind of friend are you? A 13th-century writer looks at types of friends, most of whom you want to stay away from!
Medieval Mass Grave discovered underneath the Uffizi Gallery in Florence
Workers doing renovations at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy have uncovered what seems to be the remains of a mass grave from the fifth-century AD.
The date of Procopius’ Buildings in the light of recent scholarship
In the last few years there has been a huge increase in the work on Procopius. While much of this has focussed, as usual, on the Anecdota or Secret History, there have also been important discussion of the De Aedificiis or Buildings.
The Meek And Mighty Bride: Representations of Esther, Old Testament Queen of Persia, on Fifteenth-Century Italian Marriage Furniture
Cassone and spalliere panels depicting the Old Testament Book of Esther were produced by a number of Florentine artists during the fifteenth century.
BOOKS: Daily Life in the Middle Ages
Ever wonder how monks, women and Vikings lived their day to day lives in the Middle Ages? These books will give you a glimpse into their world.
Blue Eyes in the Islamicate Middle Ages
Negative representations of blue eyes in Islamicate literature and art have been ubiquitous since the advent of Islam in the seventh century CE
Traditional Jewish Sexual Practices and Their Possible Impact on Jewish Fertility and Demography
Why do Jews have such a low reproduction rate? And is this something that also characterized them in earlier periods?
Gunnhildur and the male whores
Queen Gunnhildur is one of the most evil Norwegian female characters in the Middle Ages. She appears in many old stories where she is usually the female agent for ill in the sagas; she is wicked, promiscuous and very often skilled in magical arts.
The impact of the crusading movement in Scotland, 1095-c.1560
The involvement of Scots in the Crusades has never been studied in detail either by historians of Scotland or of the Crusades, but it is hoped that the present thesis will show such a detailed study to be worthwhile.