Though numerous historians have studied the participation of women in the Levantine crusades during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, few have investigated the trends in gender perceptions within the Latin states.
Cross purposes: Frankish levantine perceptions of gender and female participation in the crusades, 1147-1254
August 14, 2017 by
Network Analysis of the Viking Age in Ireland as portrayed in Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh
August 14, 2017 by
The year 2014 marked the 1000th anniversary of the Battle of Clontarf, an iconic event in the history of Ireland.
Reading Margery Kempe’s inner voices
August 14, 2017 by
The richness of Margery’s multi-sensory experience, and the care with which it is depicted, is illuminated by and illuminates the experience of contemporary voice-hearers, offering a powerful alternative perspective to often reductive bio-medical understandings.
Mann and Gender in Old English Prose: A Pilot Study
August 14, 2017 by
This article aims to present a preliminary study of the various uses of mann as attested in Old English prose, particularly in its surprisingly consistent use by an individual author, namely that of the ninth-century Old English Martyrology.
The Insular Landscape of the Old English Poem The Phoenix
August 14, 2017 by
The Old English poem The Phoenix, found in the Exeter Book (fols. 55b–65b), describes the mythical bird, the Edenic landscape it inhabits and the cycle of death and rebirth that it enacts in an extended Christian allegory.
New Medieval Books: Exploring the medieval world
August 13, 2017 by
Five new books that take you around the medieval world.
Global Medieval Sourcebook launched
August 12, 2017 by
A new website curated by Stanford faculty and students, the Global Medieval Sourcebook, translates medieval literature into English for the first time.
Medieval Fitness Tips
August 10, 2017 by
Need advice on keeping fit and how to exercise? Cait Stevenson tells us how it was done in the 15th century.
260,000 digitized images of Jewish art and artifacts now online
August 10, 2017 by
The Hebrew University’s Center for Jewish Art has launched the world’s largest index of Jewish Art, a collection of more than 260,000 digitized images of Jewish objects and artifacts from all over the world.
DNA samples reveal Viking Age fish trade
August 10, 2017 by
It has been assumed that the Vikings were trading in cod, but so far solid evidence has been lacking. With new methods, it is possible to extract ancient DNA from fishbone remnants and this can provide some exciting new information!
Bankers and Banking in Medieval Italy
August 10, 2017 by
Banks as we have come to know them in today’s world owe their origins to the innovative credit mechanisms developed in medieval Italy.
Living with Books in Renaissance Ferrara
August 8, 2017 by
The growth of private libraries was one of the most remarkable aspects of the history of the medieval book during the 14th and 15th centuries.
Joanna II of Anjou-Durazzo, the Glorious Queen
August 8, 2017 by
This short essay reflects on Queen Joanna as a test case of both the difficulties and the potential that always reside in communication and confrontation between disciplines, even when they are as closely related as history and art history.
Christ as Priest in Byzantine church decoration of the 11th and 12th centuries
August 8, 2017 by
The 11th century was a watershed in the Byzantine church decoration.
The Walk to Canossa: The Tale of an Emperor and a Pope
August 4, 2017 by
Ever since it happened people have been debating what took place at Canossa. Some have called it a brilliant masterstroke by Emperor Henry IV, while others have termed it his humiliation.
Fused Imaging Reveals Sixth-Century Writing Hidden Inside Bookbinding
August 2, 2017 by
After being hidden for centuries, the secrets within medieval manuscripts might soon come to light.
The York Gospels: a one thousand year biological palimpsest
August 2, 2017 by
Medieval manuscripts, carefully curated and conserved, represent not only an irreplaceable documentary record but also a remarkable reservoir of biological information.
X-rays identify medieval manuscript ink
July 31, 2017 by
Analyzing pigments in medieval illuminated manuscript pages at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) is opening up some new areas of research bridging the arts and sciences.
Archaeologists unearth medieval treasures at Pictish fort
July 31, 2017 by
Scottish archaeologists exploring a Pictish fort have discovered surprising treasures, including an eleven-hundred year old coin.
St Columba’s cell revealed by archaeologists
July 31, 2017 by
This discovery is massive. St Columba is a key figure in Western Christendom. He was the national patron saint of Scotland in the Middle Ages.
Love, Freedom, and Marital Fidelity in Malory’s Morte Darthur
July 31, 2017 by
If we examine closely Malory’s representation of courtship and marriage — a sphere of human activity within knightly society where men’s and women’s interests and activities converge — we will realize that he is not at all “misogynistic.”
Pharmacy, Testing, and the Language of Truth in Renaissance Italy
July 31, 2017 by
This article examines the role of testing and innovation in sixteenth-century Italian pharmacy. I argue that apothecaries were less concerned with testing drugs for efficacy or creating novel products than with reactivating an older Mediterranean pharmacological tradition and studying the materials on which it relied.
The Viking Shield in the British Isles: Changes in use from the 8th-11th Century in England and the Isle of Man
July 31, 2017 by
The Viking Shield in the British Isles: Changes in use from the 8th-11th Century in England and the Isle of Man By Emma Boast Master’s Thesis, University of York, 2011 (re-edited 2017) Abstract: This investigation into the study of the Viking shield will include analysis and interpretation of archaeological material, from England and the Isle of […]
Malaria and malaria-like disease in the early Middle Ages
July 31, 2017 by
This paper clears up contours of malaria’s occurrence in Frankish Europe. It surveys sources relevant to its study and establishes guidelines for retrospectively diagnosing the disease.
New Medieval Books: Iceland
July 30, 2017 by
Five new books for those interested in the sagas and society of Iceland during the Middle Ages.
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