Up to 50,000 coins from the 4th century discovered off of Sardinia
Archaeologists exploring the waters off the Italian island of Sardinia have discovered a cache of between 30,000 and 50,000 coins dating back to the first half of the 4th century.
Ibn Hamdis of Sicily: A Medieval Life in Modern Circumstances
Ibn Hamdis is the only Muslim Sicilian whose voice we hear from in medieval times. His poetry – about 370 poems survive – is autobiographical and tells us much about his life and experiences.
The Battle of Legnano (1176)
In this episode of Bow & Blade, Michael and Kelly look at how the imperial army of Frederick Barbarossa and a Milanese force suddenly encounter each other in northern Italy. How would this battle change the Holy Roman Empire’s plans for Italian conquest?
New Medieval Books: Political Meritocracy in Renaissance Italy
Patrizi deserves to be recognized as the most substantial and influential voice of Italian humanist political thought between the time of Francesco Petrarca in the fourteenth century and Niccolo Machiavelli in the sixteenth.
Details of Italian earthquake from 1446 discovered in Hebrew Prayer Book
The chance discovery of a note written in a 15th-century Hebrew prayer book fills an important gap in the historical Italian earthquake record, offering a brief glimpse of a previously unknown earthquake affecting the Marche region in the central Apennines.
John Hawkwood’s Greatest Victory: The Battle of Castagnaro
A look at how John Hawkwood won the Battle of Castagnaro, fought on 11 March 1387.
A Medieval Peace Movement: The Bianchi of 1399
Sick and tired of war and violence, many people throughout Italy left their homes and cities to march for peace in the year 1399.
A Medieval Wedding Feast in Bologna
If you wanted to hold a medieval wedding feast, you could do well to follow the example given by Annibale II Bentivoglio and Lucrezia d’Este in 1487.
“Hell itself was a more beautiful sight to behold”: The Sack of Rome in 1527
The tragic and terrible events that led to the Sack of Rome in 1527.
Harald Hardrada: Fighting in Sicily and Italy
Between 1038 and 1041, a Byzantine force attempted to take control of Sicily and southern Italy. Harald Hadrada would take part in this invasion, but were the saga stories of his victories true?
Battering Ram and Fire: Civic Glory and Devastation in Dante’s Age
Battering Ram and Fire: Civic Glory and Devastation in Dante’s Age Lecture by Areli Marina Given as part of the Conway Lectures at…
New Medieval Books: Renaissance Italy
Five new publications on Italian history between the 14th and 16th centuries.
Why Was a Scotsman Working as a ‘Cop’ in 15th-century Bologna?
How can this be, and what does it say about both medieval policing and the movement of people in the Middle Ages?
First genetic evidence of the Black Death in southern Italy
Researchers have discovered 14th-century graves in southern Italy containing the remains of two men infected with Yersinia pestis, the bacteria responsible for the Black Death. It is the first genetic evidence that the pandemic reached the region.
“Would you like to see his head?”: The battlefield and the bishop from 13th century Italy
We had concluded that the Guelph forces had fared so badly initially in the battle, fought with so much ineptitude – including Dante – that they threw the Ghibellines into such an overconfident frenzy that they abandoned their tactical plan
Ravenna, capital of empire between east and west, with Judith Herrin
A conversation with Judith Herrin about the fascinating history of Ravenna between 400 and 800 AD.
Medieval Italian village may resurface in 2021
The waters of Lake Vagli in Tuscany are the hiding place of a medieval village. Plans are now being made to reveal this site once again in 2021.
Negotiation and tolerance or brutal show of force? The Normans in Southern Italy
What was the strategy of the Norman expansion in Apulia, Calabria and Sicily and what were the factors that shaped it?
John Hawkwood: Florentine Hero And Faithful Englishman
The Englishman John Hawkwood was fourteenth-century Italy’s most famous and successful mercenary soldier.
Granum Bonum: Grain Distribution and the Emergence of Popular Institutions in Medieval Genoa
This dissertation is an exploration of Genoese institutionalism that demonstrates the way grain and grain distribution were intertwined with state debt and public spending in the exercise of political power in the medieval urban republic under the fourteenth-century government of Simone Boccanegra (r. 1339–1363) and his successors.
The Ethiopian Age of Exploration: Prester John’s Discovery of Europe, 1306-1458
This article examines the dynamics of interaction between Italian elites and Ethiopian travelers throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
First genetic history of Rome reveals migrations and diversity from ancient and medieval periods
The DNA analysis reveals that as the Roman Empire expanded around the Mediterranean Sea, immigrants from the Near East, Europe and North Africa pulled up their roots and moved to Rome.
Pirates, Merchants, and a Small Battle on the Island of Kythira in the Later Middle Ages
Incidents of maritime violence such as this were common in the Mediterranean during the later Middle Ages.
Human Trafficking 1000 years ago
Human trafficking was taking place in the Mediterranean a thousand years ago. A recent article takes a look at how and why this business was taking place.
Archaeologists discover medieval man ‘broken on the wheel’
An archaeological dig in Milan has uncovered the remains of a young man who suffered massive injuries, likely caused by torture and execution while being ‘broken on wheel’.