Fifteenth Century Archive
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Confronting the End: The Interpretation of the Last Judgment in a Novgorod Wisdom Icon
Posted on May 22, 2012 | No CommentsA large Novgorod icon, dated in the mid-fifteenth or early sixteenth century, has been called a Last Judgment composition by scholarship. -
The cost of enclosure and the benefits of convertible husbandry among peasant holdings in medieval England
Posted on May 20, 2012 | No CommentsThe present paper will attempt to address these issues and outline the attitudes of the peasantry in regard to the potential of enclosing land and adopting convertible husbandry. -
The Use of Mercury against Pediculosis in the Renaissance: The Case of Ferdinand II of Aragon, King of Naples, 1467–96
Posted on May 18, 2012 | No CommentsThe hair samples of Ferdinand II of Aragon (1467–1496), King of Naples, whose mummy is preserved in the Basilica of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples, showed a high content of mercury, with a value of 827ppm. -
The introduction and use of the pavise in the Hundred Years War
Posted on May 16, 2012 | No CommentsWhen the Genoese had all been brought together and put in order, and after they had begun to approach their enemy, they started to shout as loud as they could to frighten the English. -
Research uncovers new details about John Cabot’s voyage to North America
Posted on May 9, 2012 | No CommentsEvidence that a Florentine merchant house financed the earliest English voyages to North America, has been published on-line in the academic journal Historical Research. -
Visual-Kinetic Communication in Europe Before 1600: A Survey of Sign Lexicons and Finger Alphabets Prior to the Rise of Deaf Education
Posted on May 6, 2012 | No CommentsVisual-kinetic communication systems are mentioned in a wide variety of texts up through the early Renaissance, but not often described in any detail. What seems to us such a strange and frustrating omission results from the very different nature and purpose of scholarly writing in premodern times. -
The Originality of Machiavelli
Posted on May 3, 2012 | No CommentsThere is evidently something peculiarly disturbing about what Machiavelli said or implied, something that has caused profound and lasting uneasiness. -
A Merchant’s Franklin’s Tale
Posted on May 2, 2012 | No CommentsExamines Geoffrey Chaucer's The Franklin's Tale, found in The Canterbury Tales, and a 15th century exemplum known as A Good Matter of the Merchant and His Son. -
Marsilio Ficino: Magnus of the Renaissance, Shaper of Leaders
Posted on May 1, 2012 | No CommentsThis article describes the life and work of Marsilio Ficino, a philosopher and leader of 15th century Florence who helped spark the Renaissance and the relevance of his ideas for the challenges we face today. -
‘He contents the people wherever he goes’ Richard III: His Parliament and Government
Posted on April 29, 2012 | No CommentsIn recent years new biographies of great figures such as Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy have shed great light on key issues of English-European relations, while studies of Margaret Beaufort have redefined the political role of the women of this era. -
The human presence in Robert Henryson’s Fables and William Caxton’s The History of Reynard the Fox
Posted on April 26, 2012 | No CommentsThe principal method used is the gathering of specific instances of human presence in the two texts, and the categorising or coding of such instances, with the aid of the qualitative-data computer program QSR N6. -
Factionalism and noble power in English Ireland, c 1361-1423
Posted on April 21, 2012 | No CommentsIreland in the late middle ages was a conflicted land. The most obvious manifestation of this was the schism between the English colonists, whose acquisitive ancestors had invaded Ireland in the late twelfth century, and the native Gaelic population. -
An Inconvenient Princess
Posted on April 21, 2012 | No CommentsOn November 11th, 1480, a child was baptized in the Palace of Eltham with all solemnity and grandeur, as was fitting for a royal princess of the House of York. The child was named Bridget, after the 14th century Swedish saint who wrote of personal visions of Christ and founded a religious order. -
A Sultan of Paradox: Mehmed the Conqueror as a Patron of the Arts
Posted on April 19, 2012 | No CommentsWas there not a paradox in a Muslim prince patronising an Italian medallist? -
The higher nobility in Scotland and their estates, c.1371-1424
Posted on April 11, 2012 | No CommentsThe material available for the study of the Scottish nobility in this period consists almost entirely of charters, especially those issued by the crown.
