France Archive
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Expenses Related to Corporal Punishment in France
Posted on May 19, 2013 | No CommentsHow much did the hangman get paid to carry out his deed? -
Going Mad in French: Royal Notaries and Charles V’s Translation Project
Posted on May 19, 2013 | No CommentsThis was another interesting paper from the Mental Health in Non-medical Terms session at KZOO on notaries, and how crimes committed under "mental duress" were processed. -
Jewish Hawking in Medieval France: Falconry, Rabbenu Tam, and the Tosafists
Posted on April 29, 2013 | No CommentsFalconry reached an apex in the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods, but in the modern era it was displaced to a great extent by the use of firearms. The present article explores the medieval Jewish knowledge of, and especially the exploitation of this technique, centered in twelfth-century Northern France in the communities surrounding the great master Tosafist, Rabbenu Tam. -
Conflict and Coercion in Southern France
Posted on April 28, 2013 | No CommentsThis paper endeavors to examine the mechanisms by which the crown of France was able to subsume the region of Languedoc in the wake of the Albigensian Crusade in the thirteenth century. -
The Development of Stained Glass in Gothic Cathedrals
Posted on April 28, 2013 | No CommentsIn this research paper, I will be primarily focusing on the stained glass windows and architectural styles employed in five gothic buildings in France, each having their own unique and notable attributes pertaining to the development of stained glass windows. -
Penance and Peter Abelard’s Move Within
Posted on April 21, 2013 | No CommentsOf the many individuals in the twelfth century whose fame in their own time has reached down to ours, figures like Thomas Becket, Frederick Barbarossa and Bernard of Clairvaux, there is no one whose fame surpassed that of Master Peter Abelard and no figure more public. Indeed, fame was something Abelard coveted, something he consciously built. -
Empress Matilda, Lady of the English
Posted on April 9, 2013 | No CommentsHere lies the daughter, wife, and mother of Henry. -
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. -
New Towns in Medieval France and Nature of Institutions
Posted on April 1, 2013 | No CommentsIn its early stages, a new town was a village community created by a central authority (king or overlord) on his wildland to meet the needs of growing populations and to further both its own benefits and the common interests of the inhabitants. -
The Music of the Medieval Body in Pain
Posted on March 31, 2013 | No CommentsIn the fifteenth-century Passion d'Auvergne, the rounding up of martyrs for persecution inspires torturer Maulbec to teach his cronies the words of a hunting song which imitates the cries of wounded animals. -
Gender Transgression as Heresy: The Trial of Joan of Arc
Posted on March 27, 2013 | No CommentsThis paper aims to take the trial of Joan of Arc seriously by arguing that Joan really was a heretic because she was different from orthodox Christians in that she transgressed traditional gender roles. -
The Birth of Heloise: New Light on an Old Mystery
Posted on March 18, 2013 | No CommentsSo where did she come from, this extraordinary woman and what was the composition of genes that went into her inheritance? -
The Hundred Years Wars: Not One but Many
Posted on March 17, 2013 | No CommentsIn fact, the Hundred Years War was not fought only during the period 1337-1453, the most commonly given dates, nor was it fought only by England and France. -
Abelard’s Legacy: Why Theology is not Faith Seeking Understanding
Posted on March 17, 2013 | No CommentsIn this paper I will challenge the common definition of the theological task as faith seeking understanding, where the faith of a tradition commandeers the critical enquiry of the theologian. -
How did the expansion of royal authority affect the traditional ruling institutions during the reigns of Henry II and Philip II Augustus?
Posted on March 17, 2013 | No CommentsThe study of the Angevin kings can be seen as effectivelyseparating Henry II and his successors from mere kings of England and can be seen asresponsible for highlighting the continental origins of these kings. -
The Hidden Masters of the Middle Ages: the Limbourg Brothers
Posted on March 13, 2013 | No CommentsTheir best known work is the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, which is called the 'most valuable book in the world.' -
Conquest, Contact, and Convention: Simulating the Norman Invasion’s Impact on Linguistic Usage
Posted on March 11, 2013 | No CommentsHow do conventions arise? Lewis adressed this in his work Convention via signaling games, a mathematical model of communication where a sender sends a message to a receiver who then interprets it. When we say conventions, we mean by that a system of coor- dinated behavior pairing information states with actions -
The Cult of Saint Louis and Capetian Interests in the Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux
Posted on March 10, 2013 | No CommentsThroughout the Middle Ages the Capetians labeled themselves as the ‘Most Christian of Kings,’ and to have a saint in the family legitimated their claim. -
Interpreting Warfare and Knighthood in Late Medieval France: Writers and Their Sources in the Reign of King Charles VI (1380-1422)
Posted on March 10, 2013 | No CommentsRomances provided the basis of a particular kind of view of knighthood and warfare that was very influential on other literature concerning knights and warfare, as much as it was on real life practices and attitudes. -
BOOK REVIEW: “Death Before Compline”
Posted on March 1, 2013 | No CommentsBOOK REVIEW: Death Before Compline Bagwyn Books (2012) Sharan Newman This short book, DEATH BEFORE COMPLINE is a great collection of murder-mystery stories by Sharan Newman. It features the adventures... -
Kings and Courtesans: A Study of the Pictorial Representation of French Royal Mistresses
Posted on February 24, 2013 | No CommentsAs France emerged from the Middle Ages, the monarchy began to establish itself as a more stable institution and a curious development took place: the French kings began to install official mistresses at court. With this official status these women became parallel members of the royal family. They lived like queens, with various estates granted to them by the kings. -
Rome During Avignon: Myth, Memory, and Civic Identity in Fourteenth-Century Roman Politics
Posted on February 19, 2013 | No CommentsBroadly conceived, my dissertation examines the traditions of popular government emerging spasmodically in the roughly two hundred and fifty years between the Roman senate’s 1143 revival, and the papacy’s definitive 1377 return to Rome from roughly seven decades in Avignon. The majority of my inquiry, however, is directed toward the much-understudied fourteenth century. -
Kathy Krause wins fellowship to research Medieval Women and Literary Production
Posted on February 12, 2013 | No CommentsThe National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded a fellowship to Kathy M. Krause of the University of Missouri-Kansas City to research 'The Role of Noblewomen in Literary Production in Northern France during the 13th Century.' -
The Progression of the Fork: From Diabolical to Divine
Posted on February 10, 2013 | No CommentsThis paper is about 'Design and the Tools of the Table, 1500–2005' curated as part of the Cooper Hewitt exhibit on utensils. -
Literal and Symbolic: the Language of Asceticism in Two Lives of St Radegund
Posted on February 10, 2013 | No CommentsSince Radegund was never martyred, it is through her ascetic practice, a vicarious martyrdom, that her sanctity must be constructed. Both Fortunatus and Baudonivia treat Radegund's ascetic practices as a means of creating the powerful body of a saint, a living relic, but the differences in the two writers' approaches are notable.
