Stressing out in medieval Denmark: An investigation of dental enamel defects and age at death in two medieval Danish cemeteries
Dental enamel, which preserves a record of childhood stress events, represents an important resource for this investigation when paired with the information from adult skeletal remains, such as age at death.
New Light on the Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Manuscript: Multispectral Imaging and the Cotton Nero A.x. Illustrations
Among the striking features of the modest manuscript, London, British Library, MS Cotton Nero A.x., are ten full-page illustrations of the poems and a further two taking up most of their pages.
Medieval Approaches to Consciousness: Ockham and Chatton
In this paper, my aim is to advance our understanding of medieval approaches to consciousness by focusing on a particular but, as it seems to me, representative medieval debate — one which has, as its locus, a particular concern about self knowledge.
The Physician Vs. the Halakhic Man: Theory and Practice in Maimonides’s Attitude Towards Treating Gentiles
Ancient Jewish law took a strict approach to medical relationships between Jews and non-Jews. Sages forbade Jews to provide non-Jews with medical services: to treat them, circumcise them, or deliver their babies, in order to refrain from helping pagan-idolatrous society.
700-year-old ring bearing the image of St. Nicholas discovered by a gardener in Israel
A rare impressive, intact bronze ring from the Middle Ages, bearing the image of St. Nicholas, was discovered by chance during recent landscaping work in the garden of a home in the Jezreel Valley community of Moshav Yogev.
What Vikings really put in their pillows
Your pillows – if they’re not synthetic – are almost certainly filled with domestic goose or duck feathers. These are the most common types of fill used for this purpose today. But our ancestors weren’t always as discerning.
The Spiritual Athlete: Elizabeth of Spaalbeek
Elizabeth stands out, though, in the sheer physical strength and flexibility shown by her ability to hold postures such as lying down with her head and shoulders elevated for an extended time – an incredible feat of core strength!
Learn Medieval History Online
Have you always wanted to study medieval history but not had the time?
Cumans in Kingdom Come: Deliverance
A new Czech video game – Kingdom Come: Deliverance – offers a realistic medieval simulator. Billed as a serious attempt to portray medieval life and history in general it certainly provides greater visibility to the Middle Ages, especially for events and peoples eastward from Vienna. However, it also features Cuman warriors in the role of the token bad guys, and in doing so miss an opportunity to present this people and their medieval history accurately.
How to Get Away with Murder in the Middle Ages
The circumstances of the case show just how easy it could be to get away with murder in the Middle Ages.
Quiz: The Art of Renaissance Florence
Here are twelve works of art from Florence between the 13th and 16th centuries. Do you know which artist created them?
New game, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, explores life in medieval Bohemia
Released on 13 February, Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an action role-playing game set in the early fifteenth-century Holy Roman Empire that has striven for historically accurate and highly detailed content.
Imagining the Virgin in the Byzantine Night
In the early Byzantine period, the Virgin Mary rose to prominence among Christians – especially in the capital city of Constantinople.
Sephardic Food and Identity in Medieval Spain
This talk explores what foods were recommended by Sephardic authors as part of a healthy and spiritually rewarding lifestyle, as well as how Sephardic cuisine had a prominent place in the literary and cultural imagination of medieval Christian Spaniards.
Slavery, Violence and the Origin of Serfdom in Late Medieval Galicia
This presentation discusses the interrelation between slavery and serfdom in fifteenth-century Galicia (Red Ruthenia).
The painting career of Piero di Cosimo (1462-1522)
The Florentine painter has historically proven to be among the most elusive artists of the Italian Renaissance and yet acted as a seminal figure in the artistic transitions occurring from the close of the fifteenth century.
Sickness, Disability, and Miracle Cures: Hagiography in England, c. 700 – c. 1200
By analysing a selection of miracle-cure narratives from the main period of miracle writing in England, from the age of Bede to the late twelfth century, this project considers the social significance of such stories.
Collection of 3,000 medieval manuscripts now online
After centuries of separation, one of the most valuable collections of manuscripts from the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age – the Bibliotheca Palatina – has been virtually reunited.
Famous Dogs in Medieval Literature
Four famous dogs from medieval literature.
Simon de Montfort and King Henry III: The First Revolution in English History, 1258–1265
The reign of Henry III (1216–1272) was pivotal in English political history. It saw the entrenchment of Magna Carta, the growth of parliament and the widening of political society, as well as England’s first revolution (1258–1265), led by Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester.
Valhalla Rising: The Construction of Cultural Identity through Norse Myth in Scandinavian and German Pagan Metal
This paper is focused on an intriguing and dynamic stylistic trend in metal culture, which is to use Pagan histories as source of inspiration for the lyrics and images of metal bands.
Fornicating with nuns in fifteenth-century Bologna
In September 1432 Giovanni di Giacomo Amicini, a Bolognese spicer (aromatarius), was prosecuted for abducting a professed sister, Antonia di Baldino da Logliano, from the Convent of the Poor Clares outside the city-gate on the via Santo Stefano.
Serbian scientific institutions and medieval research
Since the beginning of critical historiography, Serbian researchers and historians have dealt with the medieval history of Serbia, Serbian lands, and of its neighboring countries,
“Stand by your man”: Caterina Lupi, wife of Bonifacio. Artistic patronage beyond the deathbed in late medieval Padua
The chance discovery of a document, some years ago led to the conclusion that the initial foundation of the chapel of St. James in Padua was a more complex affair. In this essay, I wish to turn to the most neglected collaborator until now, Caterina di Staggia, wife of Bonifacio.
Islamic Spaces and Diplomacy in Constantinople (Tenth to Thirteenth Centuries C.E.)
This article focuses on the built spaces, often described as mosques, of two Muslim communities in Constantinople between the tenth and thirteenth centuries.