This study will thus demonstrate that the Bakhtinian model and its critics both contribute to our understanding of the Fastnachtspiel and the development of early modern German attitudes toward Jews.
The Depiction of Jews in the Carnival Plays and Comedies of Hans Folz and Hans Sachs in Early Modern Nuremberg
August 23, 2014 By
Conversion on the Scaffold: Italian Practices in European Context
August 23, 2014 By
11 January 1581 was a fine day in Rome. That morning, Michel de Montaigne, recently arrived in the city, had gone out on horseback when he encountered a procession accompanying a condemned man to execution. Montaigne stopped to watch the sight.
Slaves, Money Lenders, and Prisoner Guards: The Jews and the Trade in Slaves and Captives in the Crimean Khanate
August 20, 2014 By
Trade in slaves and captives was one of the most important (if not the most important) sources of income of the Crimean Khanate in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.
Reflection of the Wars of the Roses in Thomas Malory`s Le Morte D`Arthur: Literary-cultural analysis
August 12, 2014 By
The aim of this research paper is to analyse the Morte D’Arthur and find certain historical moments incorporated in the book. Firstly, as the goal of work follows a hypothesis that Thomas Malory reflected manifold incidents from the Wars of the Roses in the Morte D’Arthur, it was inevitable to understand author’s position in this civil war, which meant investigating in the authorship.
Prisons and Punishments in Late Medieval London
July 27, 2014 By
This thesis begins with an analysis of the purpose of imprisonment, which was not merely custodial and was undoubtedly punitive in the medieval period. Having established that incarceration was employed for a variety of purposes the physicality of prison buildings and the conditions in which prisoners were kept are considered.
Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great: Tracing the Literary Zeitgeist from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance
June 24, 2014 By
My purpose here is to examine how English writers viewed and depicted these men in poetry, prose, and drama, beginning in medieval England and on through the Renaissance, in search of a pattern. In all ways, a society or culture is in a constant state of change.
Mapping the Medieval Countryside
June 18, 2014 By
My summary of a Institute of Historical Research session on the digitization of records in Late Medieval England.
MOVIE REVIEW: Flesh and Blood
June 7, 2014 By
My review of the late medieval movie, Flesh and Blood.
CONFERENCES: Renaissance Drinking Culture and Renaissance Drinking Vessels
May 29, 2014 By
This paper took a closer look at Renaissance drinking vessels and drinking culture and examined the types of vessels commonly used in Italy and the Netherlands during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Jewish Shock-Troops of the Apocalypse
May 13, 2014 By
It would not be difficult to dismiss the legend of the Antichrist in its medieval manifestations as pure fantasy—analogous to such entertaining motifs as fire-breathing dragons, unicorns, enchantments and the like.
BOOKS: Canterbury Cathedral
May 4, 2014 By
After visiting Canterbury Cathedral, I was inspired to suggest books that relate to Canterbury’s famous Archbishops, history and beauty.
Prophetic Statebuilding: Machiavelli and the Passion of the Duke
April 12, 2014 By
My interpretation of Machiavelli’s use of Borgia highlights the biblical resonances of Machiavelli’s account of the rise and fall of this exemplary new prince—a prince whom both his subjects and the Florentine himself call by the exalted title “Duke Valentino.”
The Cyrurgia of Albucasis and other works, 1500
April 12, 2014 By
Four surgical treatises, printed in the last year of the fifteenth century, make up the oldest illustrated printed book in the Sibbald Library. The second one, the Cyrurgia of Albucasis, is the most interesting and I shall deal only briefly with the others.
Proving Fifteenth Century Promises
April 9, 2014 By
Twentieth century common law lawyers know that a plaintiff has a remedy for the breach of a promise to do something in the future. Such a promise was not actionable until the early Renaissance period in England.
BOOK REVIEWS: “The Chalice” by Nancy Bilyeau
April 8, 2014 By
My book review of Nancy Bilyeau’s, “The Chalice”.
Herb-workers and Heretics: Beguines, Bakhtin and the Basques
March 22, 2014 By
During the Middle Ages and early Renaissance, the word beguine was used by women to identify themselves as members of a wide-spread and influential women’s movement. The same term was used by their detractors and overt opponents, with the highly charged negative meaning of “heretic.” The etymology of the term “beguine” and ultimate origins of the movement have never been satisfactorily explained.
BOOKS: The Feuding Families of Medieval and Renaissance Italy
March 15, 2014 By
Put down the Godfather, turn off the Sorpanos, and check out the real Italian families of Medieval and Renaissance Italy!
The Early Effects of Gunpowder on Fortress Design: A Lasting Impact
March 9, 2014 By
This essay follows the advancement of gunpowder tactics in late medieval and early Renaissance Europe. In particular, it focuses on Edward III’s employment of primitive ordnance during the Hundred Years’ War, the role of artillery in the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, and the organizational challenges of effectively implementing gunpowder as late as the end of the fifteenth century.
The Crimean Tatars and their Russian-Captive Slaves
March 4, 2014 By
The Russian population on the southern border with the Crimean Tatars was continuously exposed to the dangers of Crimean raider bands, which were usually formed to attack Russian permanent settlements, capture people and sell them to slave-traders, or to give them back to Russia for ransom monies.
Struggle for East-European Empire 1400 – 1700 : The Crimean Khanate, Ottomans and the Rise of the Russian Empire
March 4, 2014 By
By the middle of the 15th century, in Eastern Europe instead of one dominant imperial power there were newly rising states which eventually came to compete for supremacy over the whole region
BOOKS:Medieval Celebrities!
March 3, 2014 By
They may not have won any Oscars, but they were definitely medieval celebrities! Here are some great reads about some of the most famous faces of the Middle Ages
The Meek And Mighty Bride: Representations of Esther, Old Testament Queen of Persia, on Fifteenth-Century Italian Marriage Furniture
February 16, 2014 By
Cassone and spalliere panels depicting the Old Testament Book of Esther were produced by a number of Florentine artists during the fifteenth century.
Hobbes, Augustine, and the Christian nature of man in Leviathan
February 14, 2014 By
Scholars of Thomas Hobbes can be loosely divided into two camps: those who believe Hobbes retained strong medieval elements in his philosophy and those who argued that Hobbes’ philosophy marks a clear break from both Ancient philosophy and Christianity.
Whose Golden Age? Some Thoughts on Jewish-Christian in Medieval Iberia
February 11, 2014 By
The medieval period in Spanish history has alternately been cast as a Golden Age of interfaith harmony and an example of the ultimate incompatibility of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities.
The Monochord in the Medieval and Modern Classrooms
February 10, 2014 By
The monochord was a standard feature of musical pedagogy in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In the modern classroom, it allows our students to experience the pedagogical world of the medieval classroom, bringing a deeper reality to an otherwise abstract series of concepts.
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