The Medieval Magazine – Issue 36
This week’s issue focuses on medieval manuscripts – you can check out a list of the most beautiful manuscripts made in the Middle Ages, and read an interview with Erik Kwakkel, the leading historian in the field.
Doors to the dead: The power of doorways and thresholds in Viking Age Scandinavia
It is argued that Viking Age people built ‘doors to the dead’ of various types, such as freestanding portals, causewayed ring-ditches or thresholds to grave mounds; or on occasion even buried their dead in the doorway.
Rival bishops, rival cathedrals: the election of Cormac, archdeacon of Sodor, as bishop in 1331
In the early fourteenth century, the diocese of Sodor, or Sudreyjar meaning Southern Isles in old Norse, encompassed the Isle of Man and the Hebrides.
The Western Calendar – ‘Intolerabilis, Horribilis, et Derisbilis’ – Four Centuries of Discontent
We, with our cut and dried view of time-keeping, we who gather together to celebrate events four hundred tropical years after they have occurred, are all to easily incline to overlook the real reason for all the fuss in the Middle Ages about calendar reform.
Byzantine-era mosaic map restored in Israel
Although the Byzantine-era church that existed about 1500 years ago in southern Israel no longer exists, its mosaic floor has now been restored and shows a map revealing a scene of streets and buildings from an Egyptian town.
Medieval Manuscripts in Living Colour
How did medieval people get such magnificent colour, and how can it still be so brilliant a thousand years later? Here’s a five-minute look at colouring manuscripts.
Hastings: An Unusual Battle
Part of the reason academic warriors have covered the ground so often is that the battle is by no means easy to understand. It was unusual in a number of ways; so unusual, that the battle demands special care in interpretation.
Top 10 Most Beautiful Medieval Manuscripts
Giovanni Scorcioni gives us his list of the most beautiful manuscripts of the Middle Ages
Diagnosis of a ‘Plague’ Image: A Digital Cautionary Tale
This short essay offers a lesson in caution. It is a story of error, but also an opportunity to be reminded of the care needed to properly contextualize all our evidence
Beautiful 15th century sculpture now on display at the Getty Museum
The Getty Museum is now showing its latest acquisition – a rare medieval alabaster sculpture of Saint Philip by the Master of the Rimini Altarpiece.
Global Middle Ages Project launches website
The Global Middle Ages Project, founded in 2007 by Geraldine Heng and Susan Noakes, features six digital projects.
Small-town life in a late medieval Burgundy: the case of Cluny
To serve the domestic needs of the mother community, a town grew up at the gates of the abbey in which traders and merchants, men of law and craftsmen of all sorts soon established themselves.