Fourteenth Century Archive
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Chivalry and Public Disorder in Thirteenth-Century Florence
Posted on May 13, 2013 | No CommentsThe was the second of two fabulous papers given at the my first session on Medieval violence. Whereas the first paper in this series looked at violence in the university setting, this one tackled violence in an elite sphere - Florentine knights and their retinues. -
Student Violence at the University of Oxford
Posted on May 9, 2013 | No CommentsMy first foray of KZOO 2013 couldn't have been off to a better start with, “I just don’t want to die without a few scars”: Medieval Fight Clubs, Masculine Identity, and Public (Dis)order. There were only two papers in this session and both were riveting. I felt like I couldn't type fast enough to get it all in! The first paper was given by Professor Andrew Larsen of Marquette University. Professor Larsen published a book on high and late medieval student violence and the Saint Scholastica's Day Riot at Oxford university. -
Networking Scribes
Posted on May 5, 2013 | No CommentsThis was the keynote paper given at the Celtic Studies Association of North America Annual Conference at the University of Toronto April 18 - 21, 2013. -
Late Medieval Attitudes on the Evil in Warfare: Honoré Bouvet’s Arbre des batailles and its Sources
Posted on May 2, 2013 | No CommentsMy approach in this paper will be to look at Bouvet’s view on the nature of warfare under these broad guidelines, and to treat them as a part of the greater tradition of medieval thought that was fed simulatenously by both pagan and Christian writings. -
‘Fromm thennes faste he gan avyse/This litel spot of erthe’: GIS and the General Prologue
Posted on May 2, 2013 | No CommentsThis paper was given at the Canada Chaucer Seminar on April 27, 2013. -
Peter of Dusburg’s attitude towards the Holy Land in the Crusades Period
Posted on April 28, 2013 | No CommentsPeter of Dusburg, a monk and brethren of the Teutonic Order had been one of the greatest Chronicles writers of the Military Order. He had written his book 'Chronicon Terrae Prussiae' in Latin in 1326, during the tenure of the Teutonic Grand Master Werner von Orseln. -
The Eucharistic Man of Sorrows in Late Medieval Art
Posted on April 28, 2013 | No CommentsEucharistic devotion also found it's ways of visual expression in the art of the period. Numerous new iconographical types were created in late medieval art for the purpose of visualizing the mystery of the Eucharist. -
“Walkynge in the mede” : Chaucerian gardens and the recasting of the Edenic fall
Posted on April 21, 2013 | No CommentsIn this thesis, I intend to illustrate how Chaucer uses his knowledge of garden traditions, both biblical and practical, to discuss the concept of the Garden of Eden and the Fall of humanity. -
Captain of Fortune: Galeazzo da Montova
Posted on April 20, 2013 | No CommentsEqually part knight and part bandit, the profession of condottiero created opportunity and social mobility unlike anything seen in the rest of Europe -
In search of the medieval ‘Anonymous’
Posted on April 20, 2013 | No CommentsThe extent of fifteenth-century historical works from the Low Countries can be deduced and accessed by historians through www.narrative-sources.be, the online encyclopedia of narrative sources from the medieval Low Countries. The Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle contains similar entries on history works in all of medieval Europe. -
Conflict in the Parish: Antagonistic Relations Between Clerics and Parishioners
Posted on April 19, 2013 | No CommentsParishioners repeatedly complained about suffering under the rule of a petty tyrant who held grudges and exploited his power to administer the sacraments, or about the surly, combative temperament of their priest who was prone to fighting and creating discord within the parish. -
The Lost Western Settlement of Greenland, 1342
Posted on April 19, 2013 | No CommentsIn the early 1340s, something was amiss in the Western Norse Settlement in Greenland. -
Femininity in the Marketplace: The Ideal Woman in Fourteenth-Century Florence
Posted on April 18, 2013 | No CommentsThroughout this period, in advice manuals and in humanistic dialogues, writers emphasize the importance of learning to read and write, and of gaining the social skills necessary for creating a network of friends; these were considered necessary abilities for becoming a successful merchant and citizen. -
The Symbolic Meaning of Sword and Palio in Late Medieval and Early Modern Ritual Entries: The Case of Seville
Posted on April 16, 2013 | No CommentsIf I have spend some time establishing the semantic field in which these terms appear, it is because I wish to emphasize the malleability of concepts such as symbols and rituals, particularly when applied to the articulation of powers Moreover, these meanings and intents depend often on the context, temporal and geographical location. -
Cottage Gardening in the 14th Century England
Posted on April 14, 2013 | No CommentsAs a student member of this research project, I spent my fall semester investigating various aspects of 14th century English agriculture and cottage gardening and blogged regularly about my findings to exchange information with the other project members. -
Bīmāristān Al-Manṣūrī: State and Medical Practice in Mamluk Egypt (1285-1390)
Posted on April 11, 2013 | No CommentsThe Bīmāristān was the major part of a huge complex built in the center of Cairo in 1285 by the Mamluk Sultan al-Manṣūr Qalāwūn, who was the founder of the Qalāwūnid dynasty/dawlah that ruled the Mamluk empire for over a century -
The Interrogation of of a Male Transvestite Prostitute in Fourteenth Century London
Posted on April 11, 2013 | No CommentsDespite the general rule that sexual offenses were matters for the church courts, in some cases the city of London took charge of these offenses. Prostitution and procuring, for example, involved public order; the temporal courts dealt with them for that reason, so that the same people might be prosecuted in both jusrisdictions for the same offense. -
Society, economy and lordship in Devon in the age of the first two Courtenay earls, c. 1297-1377
Posted on April 8, 2013 | No CommentsThis thesis is a contribution to the social history of medieval Devon and the south- west in the lifetimes of the first two Courtenay earls, Hugh II (1275-1340) and Hugh III (1303-77). -
The Cathedral of Bourges: A Witness to Judeo-Christian Dialogue in Medieval Berry
Posted on April 1, 2013 | No CommentsPositing any kind of Jewish-Christian “golden age” in Western Europe during the medieval centuries may seem somewhat foolish in light of what happened to Jews between 1240 and 1492: expulsions, forced conversions, social and political ostracism, deprivation of income and compa- rable economic oppression, accusation of and prosecution for so-called “crimes” against Christians, periodic rampages by Crusaders, and other attacks—both physical and mental— which functioned as insults to Judaism. -
Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice: From Oriental Bazar to English Cloister in Anglo-French
Posted on April 1, 2013 | No CommentsUntil recently, such limited interest as late Anglo-French was able to arouse amongst scholars specializing in medieval French has been confined, with only a very few exceptions, to the efforts made in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries to teach what was by now a language unknown to most of the inhabitants of a country moving inexorably towards the unchallenged dominance of English as the national language. -
The Virgin Mary in High Medieval England, A Divinely Malleable Woman: Virgin, Intercessor, Protector, Mother, Role Model
Posted on March 31, 2013 | No CommentsThis thesis examines the significance of the Virgin Mary in England between the late fifteenth century and early sixteenth century. The primary sources selected indicate the variety of ideas circulating about her during this period. Strictly religious texts such as the Bible and early Christian writings ground Late Medieval beliefs about Mary in their historical context. -
Revealing the Early Renaissance: Stories and Secrets in Florentine Art
Posted on March 29, 2013 | No CommentsA symposium held at the Art Gallery of Ontario offered new insights into the artistic community of 14th-century Florence. -
The Count of Hainault’s Daughter
Posted on March 24, 2013 | No CommentsThe register of Walter Stapeldon, Bishop of Exeter, contains a delightful description of a daughter of the Count of Hainault, dated 1319, which has long been thought to refer to Philippa. -
Chaucer’s Arthuriana
Posted on March 18, 2013 | No CommentsThe majority of medieval scholars, including Roger Sherman Loomis, argue that the popularity of the Arthurian legend in England was therefore on the wane in the latter half of the fourteenth century; as a result, the major writers of the period, such as John Gower and Geoffrey Chaucer, refrained from penning anything beyond the occasional reference to King Arthur and his court. -
Sisters Between: Gender and the Medieval Beguines
Posted on March 17, 2013 | No CommentsThe origins of the Beguines can be traced to two important medieval religious reform movements: monastic mysticism and the vita apostolica, or "apostolic life."
