How Youtube has Changed the Middle Ages
YouTube launched 10 years ago this month, and has grown to become one of the most popular and important sites on the Internet. It has also deeply changed many aspects of media and society, including about the Middle Ages. Over 2.7 million videos have been uploaded that have something to do with the term ‘medieval’ and another 250,000 that are about the ‘Middle Ages’.
Satiric Vulgarity in Guibert de Nogent’s Gesta Dei per Francos
Attempts to characterize Guibert de Nogent (1053-1121) generally focus upon his Autobiography, not on his history of the First Crusade.
The First Arab Siege of Constantinople
The details of the siege remain, however, shrouded in mystery: its exact dates (670–7 or 674–8?) and length (4 or 7 years?) are a matter of controversy; it is disputed whether the Arabs subjected Constantinople to a regular siege or only to a naval blockade; and the overall logic of events is far from clear.
The Mongol Empire: The State of the Research
The study of the Mongol Empire has made enormous strides in the past two decades, and its most notable impact is the shift of seeing the Empire not only in national or regional terms but from a holistic perspective, in its full Eurasian context.
Five New Books for Medievalists
Is your bookshelf feeling empty?
Can you answer the Riddles of Symphosius?
In the early Middle Ages, the writer Symphosius created a hundred riddles. Here are fifteen of our favourites – can you answer them?
An Italian cemetery may provide clues on cholera’s evolution
Burial grounds ‘a thousand-year history’ into human health
How a 13th-century royal chapel influenced the history of France
UCLA art historian Meredith Cohen and her fascination with the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris
The Reverent Irreverence of Mardi Gras
How, you may have wondered, is the beginning of a time of deprivation related to such wild festivity?
Q&A: Michael Hirst, creator and writer of Vikings
The third season of Vikings is set to premiere tonight in the United States and Canada. The show, which follows the adventures of Ragnar Lodbrok and his family, has been averaging over three million viewers in North America.
Ye Ol’ Bed & Breakfast: A Look at the Medieval Inn
What were medieval English inns really like?
$300 million library donated to Princeton University includes thousands of medieval manuscripts and early printed books
William Scheide has left his collection of rare books and manuscripts to Princeton University. It is believed to be worth about $300 million, making it the largest gift in the university’s history.
Tropical fire ants traveled the world on 16th century ships
Thanks to a bit of genetic sleuthing, researchers now know the invasion history of the tropical fire ant, the first ant species known to travel the globe by sea.
Epidemics Past and Present: What Historic Diseases Tell Us About Future Threats
Dr. DeWitte will discuss how bioarchaeological research on past epidemics such as the Black Death can improve our understanding of emerging diseases and human-pathogen coevolution in general, and the potential it has to provide tools for dealing with disease in living populations.
Hildegard of Bingen: Authorship and Stylometry
A documentary based on the article ‘Collaborative Authorship in the Twelfth Century. A Stylometric Study of Hildegard of Bingen and Guibert of Gembloux’
Vikings: Brutal and Bloodthirsty or Just a Misunderstanding?
During its first two seasons, the popular History Channel series Vikings triggered a vigorous debate among scholars and amateur historians about the show’s authenticity—particularly the gore and violence. But separating truth from fiction, it turns out, is harder than it sounds.
Cannonball from Wars of the Roses battle discovered
A lead ball, believed to be the oldest cannonball ever found in England, has been discovered on the site of the Battle of Northampton.
Gold coin hoard discovered off Mediterranean coast
Nearly 2,000 coins, the largest treasure hoard ever discovered in Israel, was found a few weeks ago in the waters off the medieval port of Caesarea.
1500-year-old Byzantine grape seeds discovered in Israel
The charred grape seeds, over 1,500 years old, found in southern Israel excavation were used to produce the ‘Wine of the Negev’ – one of the finest and most renowned wines in the whole of the Byzantine Empire.
‘There is nothing outside the box’: Considering the institutional narratives and object histories of the Franks Casket
The Franks Casket, a much studied, famously ambiguous 8th century Anglo-Saxon object, presented to the British Museum in 1867 after its rediscovery, was recently redisplayed alongside the re-design of the Sutton Hoo exhibit, in a manner that makes its object-status clear to those engaging with it.
Scattered voices: Anthonis de Roovere and other reporters of the wedding of Charles the Bold and Margaret of York
Both sources are of great value for those who study the Bruges wedding, with the impact it had on its contemporaries, and the way in which our present-day picture of it came about.
Immigrants made up 1% of the population in Medieval England, researchers find
About one out of every hundred people in late medieval England was an immigrant, according to researchers at the universities of York and Sheffield. They have also launched a new database that offers details about 65,000 immigrants who lived in England between 1330 and 1550.
This Week in Medieval Manuscript Images
Headless men, birdmen and just plain birds – over 30 images from Twitter to share with you this week.
Medieval Manuscripts: The Isabella Breviary
Within its pages lie some of the finest illuminations ever painted during the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance.