High Middle Ages Archive
-
Thomas Bradwardine: Forgotten Medieval Augustinian
Posted on May 20, 2012 | No CommentsIn spite of this dearth of scholarly publications on Bradwardine, he deserves serious consideration. From a church historical perspective, he represents a resurgence of a relatively pure Augustinianism in the late Middle Ages. -
Perfect Virgins and Suicidal Maniacs: Monks in Early Thirteenth-Century Pastoralia
Posted on May 18, 2012 | No CommentsThis summary is of a paper that was the last in the English Cistercian series at Kalamazoo. -
Azodi Hospital and University in Shiraz (10th – 14th Century AD)
Posted on May 17, 2012 | No CommentsHospitals have a long history throughout the history of medicine. First hospitals are originated from Persia in ancient times in the Sassanid Dynasty (2nd to 6th century AD). -
The Court of Beast and Bough: Contesting the Medieval English Forest in the Early Robin Hood Ballads
Posted on May 6, 2012 | No CommentsThe medieval English forest has long been a space of contested legal meanings. After King William I first created the 75,000-acre New Forest, the English monarchy sought to define the vert, both legally and ideologically, as a multiplicity of sites in which the king’s rights were vigorously enforced. -
Robin Hood Comes of Age
Posted on May 6, 2012 | No CommentsWhile some Robin Hood books are clearly intended for young readers, others blur the boundaries, sometimes in ways we can applaud, since they help break down artificial boundaries dividing fiction for children from that for adults. -
The Motte and Bailey Castle: Instrument of Revolution
Posted on May 4, 2012 | No CommentsA motte was made partially or completely by human hands, surrounded by a ditch, and topped by a wooden tower. -
Charting the “Rise of the West”: Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe, A Long-Term Perspective from the Sixth through Eighteenth Centuries
Posted on April 29, 2012 | No CommentsThese arguments suggest that the number of manuscripts and printed books produced in a given society are complex measures of economic performance and societal capabilities, and are therefore a valuable guide to the study of long-term economic change. -
Llywelyn ab Iorwerth : the making of a Welsh prince
Posted on April 26, 2012 | No CommentsFinally, this thesis seeks to address the limitations on Llywelyn’s successes, in light of succeeding events and concludes with a discussion of Llywelyn’s legendary status in the modern world. -
Faith and reason: charting the medieval concept of the infinite
Posted on April 23, 2012 | No CommentsI would like to start with some assumptions. First, I take it for granted that the apposition of negative terms to the Almighty God became quite early an accepted practice in Christianity, which caused in turn that the infinite, as an opposite term to something easily convenient to positive delineation, was admitted in the repertoire of God’s adverbial description. -
Sin, Penance and Purgatory in the Anglo‐Norman Realm: The Evidence of Visions and Ghost Stories
Posted on April 23, 2012 | No CommentsHistorians have tended to explore these two changes of the ‘long twelfth century’ — the reinvention of penance and the rise of purgatory — in isolation from each other. Here I intend to focus on the relationship between the two, and to look in particular at one aspect of it: the implications of theological change for perceptions of the fate of the dead. -
William of Ockham’s Early Theory of Property Rights: Sources, Texts, and Contexts
Posted on April 22, 2012 | No CommentsThis thesis is nominally about William of Ockham, a theologian who did not care to read potentially damning papal constitutions until tapped to do so by a superior (superiore mandate). Following a suggestion of R. G. Collingwood, a proper first question we should ask, is what was this supposedly unwilling theologian trying to do by composing the longest defense of Franciscan poverty ever written? -
A medieval Arabic analysis of motion at an instant : the Avicennan sources to the forma fluens/fluxus formae debate
Posted on April 22, 2012 | No CommentsThe first and foremost topic of classical and medieval physics is the concept of motion (Grk. kine ̄sis, Arb. h ̇ araka, Lat. motio). Within the complex of issues and problems associated with motion, the question ‘in which category does motion itself belong?’ occupied a position of considerable importance in scholastic natural philosophy. -
Oda: An Extraordinary Example of a Medieval Woman’s Religious Authority and Economic Power
Posted on April 22, 2012 | No Commentshristianity posed as a shackle for many women in the early Middle Ages. Though sexism and female subordination were prevalent prior to the emergence of this monotheistic religion, Christianity established its own justifications for continuing in the male domination. -
A study in early medieval mereology: Boethius, Abelard, and pseudo-Joscelin
Posted on April 10, 2012 | No CommentsThe twelfth-century philosopher Peter Abelard makes the bold claim that no thing can ever gain or lose a part. This has the remarkable consequence that should, for example, the broom that is in my closet lose a hair, that very broom would no longer exist. This remarkable consequence has prompted many commentators, both medieval and contemporary, to suggest that Abelard has made a serious mistake -
The Illumination of the Worms Mahzor: Description and Iconographical Study
Posted on April 7, 2012 | No CommentsTo understand the decoration programme of the Worms Mahzor it is essential to comprehend the structure of the text of the Ashkenazi mahzorim, since the illumination bears a direct rela- tionship to it.
