Using AI to uncover the mystery of the Voynich manuscript
Modern scientific methods help decipher language and meaning of medieval manuscript.
The Miracle of the Unspilled Beer
Was not spilling beer important enough to be considered a miracle? For one seventh-century writer it was!
Anglo-Saxon Punishments: The Price of a Pinky
Recognizing that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, medieval lawmakers believed that justice could be satisfied by aggressors making financial compensation to victims.
Úlfhams rímur: A Tale of An Accursed Prince
An accursed king of Gotland is betrayed by his queen to an untimely death. The young prince, the legitimate heir to the throne, is imprisoned in a burial mound of a blood-drinking (un)dead shieldmaiden until …
Property, Power and Patriarchy: The Decline of Women’s Property Right in England After the Black Death
The social and governmental response to the Black Death in England undermined the social strength of women’s property rights and created a late-medieval patriarchal structure qualitatively different from that of the earlier fourteenth century.
From Noblissima Dux to Beata: Expressions of Female Authority and Influence in Medieval Florence
This thesis argues that, by examining four influential women of Florence and northern Italy over some five centuries’ time, historians can view change over time related to female authority and how it reflects larger social norms.
Woven Words in the Lindisfarne Gospels
This dissertation investigates the meanings and function of the five ornamental pages that decorate the Lindisfarne Gospels, a Gospel book produced in the British Isles, most likely in the Isle of Lindisfarne, around 720 CE.
World cities before globalisation: The European city network, A.D. 1300-1600
This dissertation is a quantitative study of the spatial business strategies of 130 late medieval and 16th-century European commercial and banking firms, the business networks of which have been put together for a structural analysis of the European city network between ca. 1300 and ca. 1600.
Who is this King of Glory? Robert I of Scotland (1306-29), Holy Week and the consecration of St Andrews Cathedral
As an aspiring monarch Robert Bruce had the best of teachers – King Edward I of England. According to Sir Thomas Gray, Robert served in his youth as a ‘bachelor’ in Edward I’s household. If so, this may have brought the young Bruce into direct contact with Edward’s masterful deployment of ceremony, institutional space, image, text and liturgy.
Looking at the hero: Beowulf and graphic novels in the 21st Century
ln the not so vast panorama of adaptations into comics of medieval literature, Beowulf is clearly an exception. Whilst several comic books series and graphic novels are inspired by the world of Icelandic sagas, very few of them can be considered as retellings of a specifics source text.
We with Merth Mowe Savely Synge: Henry V, Royal Musician
King Henry V of England was a well-acclaimed musician and musical patron. Thus, this thesis first examines the role of music in defining the reign of Henry, through his patronage of the Chapel Royal and its various composers, and his founding of Syon Abbey in 1415.
“God Sends Meate but the Devill Sends Cookes”: Cooks Working in French and English Great Households, c.1350-c.1650
This dissertation analyzes newly uncovered archival data and printed primary-source material related to French and English cooks employed in great households between 1350 and 1650.
The Fine Line Between Courage and Fear in Procopius’s Vandal War
The emotion of ‘fear takes center stage in the Vandal War by Procopius. Recent scholarship has underlined Procopius’s stress on the febrile anxiety that gripped Constantinople when the Emperor Justinian announced his military expedition to recover the former Roman provinces of North Africa from the Vandals.
Emotional memory and medieval autobiography: King James I of Aragon (r. 1213–76)’s Llibre dels fets
This study examines the role that emotional memories – memories connected to or describing emotions – played in the recollection of events, while also becoming powerful rhetorical and didactic tools in the process of history-writing.
Eddic Poetry as World Literature
This article focuses on eddic issues including orality, dating, relationship to the ballad, provenance, international sources, and broadly typological literary relations.
Early Medieval Muslim Graves in France: First Archaeological, Anthropological and Palaeogenomic Evidence
This study provides the first archaeo-anthropological testimony of the Muslim establishment in South of France through the multidisciplinary analysis of three graves excavated at Nimes.
Rock, Paper, Chisel, 3D Printer: Teaching Medieval Art with Technology
Teaching medieval art requires an invocation of students’ imaginations. The majority of the art we study has been decontextualized, removed from the portal, altar, or window for which it was made.
Medieval Manuscripts: The Calendar in the Books of Hours of Charles of Angoulême
The book of hours is undoubtedly a most invaluable aid to understanding how men and women viewed time in both the long term and the short term in the Middle Ages.
How Much Do You Know About Leonardo da Vinci?
Leonardo da Vinci’s “lost” painting, Salvator Mundi recently sold for a record breaking 450 million dollars! How much do you really know about the famous Renaissance man? Take this quiz to find out!
The Women around an Emperor: Bianca Maria Sforza
In the second in a series of features exploring the early modern women whose lives intersected in some way with that of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, Natalie Anderson examines the life of Bianca Maria Sforza.
London Merchants and Their Residences
During the Middle Ages, London was home to one of the largest and richest merchant communities in the world. These men and their families invested heavily in fine architecture both for business and pleasure.
Exhibition of Medieval Manuscripts Opening at the Art Institute of Chicago
From January 27-May 28, 2018, the Art Institute of Chicago will present a collection of manuscript illuminations spanning four hundred years of the Middle Ages and early Renaissance from countries across Western Europe.
Arthur and the Giant of Mont-Saint-Michel: The Creation of a Folktale
The article traces the transformation of history into fiction, in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s story of King Arthur’s attacks on the Romans and his battle against the (Spanish) Giant of Mont-Saint-Michel
Modern mathematics is used to solve question about medieval war
In the year 1014, the fate of Ireland would be decided at the Battle of Clontarf. The Irish King Brian Boru would defeat a Viking army, although at the cost of his own life. However, there is one historical debate about this conflict – was it really a battle against the Vikings, or an internal civil war?