This paper took a closer look at Renaissance drinking vessels and drinking culture and examined the types of vessels commonly used in Italy and the Netherlands during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
MOVIE REVIEW: Barbarossa – Siege Lord
May 28, 2014 By
MOVIE REVIEW: Barbarossa – Siege Lord “I order Milan to be raised to the ground. None of its towers will ever be standing. I also order all the Milanese to leave the city before sunset, in all different directions so that no one will be able to call themselves Milanese and the name “milan” will […]
Time, space and power in later medieval Bristol
May 26, 2014 By
With a population of almost 10,000, Bristol was later medieval England’s second or third biggest urban place, and the realm’s second port after London. While not particularly large or wealthy in comparison with the great cities of northern Italy, Flanders or the Rhineland, it was a metropolis in the context of the British Isles.
First historical evidence of a significant Mt. Etna eruption in 1224
May 25, 2014 By
The 1224 Mt. Etna eruption is a significant event both in terms of the mass of erupted materials and because it involved the lower eastern slope of the volcano, reaching down to the sea.
Catharism and Heresy in Milan
May 13, 2014 By
Evidence suggests that heresy in Lombardy proliferated during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a period of upheaval in the structure and form of politics and society, especially in itscapital city. From 1117 Milan operated as a commune, securing independent jurisdiction at thePeace of Constance (1183).
Prophetic Statebuilding: Machiavelli and the Passion of the Duke
April 12, 2014 By
My interpretation of Machiavelli’s use of Borgia highlights the biblical resonances of Machiavelli’s account of the rise and fall of this exemplary new prince—a prince whom both his subjects and the Florentine himself call by the exalted title “Duke Valentino.”
The Cyrurgia of Albucasis and other works, 1500
April 12, 2014 By
Four surgical treatises, printed in the last year of the fifteenth century, make up the oldest illustrated printed book in the Sibbald Library. The second one, the Cyrurgia of Albucasis, is the most interesting and I shall deal only briefly with the others.
Greek in Marriage, Latin in Giving: The Greek Community of Fourteenth-century Palermo and the Deceptive Will of Bonannus de Geronimo
April 12, 2014 By
This article discusses the pitfalls that can occur in the study of ethnicity in the me- dieval period in the context of the potential existence of two separate Greek minori- ties—one indigenous and one immigrant—in fourteenth-century Latin-dominated Palermo, Italy.
The Fables of Leonardo da Vinci
March 30, 2014 By
When wine is consumed by the drunkard, it takes revenge on the drinker.
What is an Australasian parrot doing in a 15th century Italian painting?
March 24, 2014 By
The Sulphur-crested Cockatoo is a species of parrot native to Australia and eastern Indonesia. However, you can also see one in the Madonna della Vittoria, a painting made in 1496 by Andrea Mantegna.
Herb-workers and Heretics: Beguines, Bakhtin and the Basques
March 22, 2014 By
During the Middle Ages and early Renaissance, the word beguine was used by women to identify themselves as members of a wide-spread and influential women’s movement. The same term was used by their detractors and overt opponents, with the highly charged negative meaning of “heretic.” The etymology of the term “beguine” and ultimate origins of the movement have never been satisfactorily explained.
Death and the Fraternity: A Short Study on the Dead in Late Medieval Confraternities
March 22, 2014 By
Since the publication of Philippe Aries’ ground-breaking The Hour of our Death, historians of confraternities have largely followed his lead and treated confraternities as a “guarantee of eternity.”
Saint Patrick’s Purgatory: a fresco in Todi, Italy
March 17, 2014 By
This essay deals with the tradition of the revelation of Purgatory to St. Patrick on Station Island in Lough Derg, whose popularity is testified not only in literary texts in the various languages of Medieval Europe but also in a unique work of art in the convent of the Sisters of Saint Clair at Todi, Umbria
Badia Burning: The Spectacle of Violence in 14th-century Tuscany
March 17, 2014 By
The theme of this paper is the use of ecclesiastical properties as sites of theatrical violence, and violence as a major element in the complex discourse between powerful rural lords and the Florentine commune.
BOOKS: The Feuding Families of Medieval and Renaissance Italy
March 15, 2014 By
Put down the Godfather, turn off the Sorpanos, and check out the real Italian families of Medieval and Renaissance Italy!
Avignon vs. Rome: Dante, Petrarch, Catherine of Siena
March 12, 2014 By
In the fourteenth century the image of ancient Rome as Babylon was transformed into the positive idea of Rome as both a Christian and a classical ideal.
The Woman who Ruled the Papacy
March 9, 2014 By
She was the lover of one Pope, mother to another, and grandmother to a third.
Writing the Antithesis of María of Aragón: Alvaro de Luna’s Rendering of Giovanni Boccaccio’s De mulieribus claris
February 22, 2014 By
Of the many works that form the canon of the debate on women in the fifteenth century, particularly in the Iberian Peninsula, there is a text that often omitted. This lesser known text was written by one of the most notorious figures in Spanish history: don Alvaro de Luna.
Medieval Castle and Hamlet for Sale in Italy: Castello Izzalini
February 18, 2014 By
Get an entire medieval village, dating back to the 12th century, with its own castle and church.
A Medieval Guide to Friendship
February 17, 2014 By
What kind of friend are you? A 13th-century writer looks at types of friends, most of whom you want to stay away from!
Medieval Mass Grave discovered underneath the Uffizi Gallery in Florence
February 17, 2014 By
Workers doing renovations at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy have uncovered what seems to be the remains of a mass grave from the fifth-century AD.
The Meek And Mighty Bride: Representations of Esther, Old Testament Queen of Persia, on Fifteenth-Century Italian Marriage Furniture
February 16, 2014 By
Cassone and spalliere panels depicting the Old Testament Book of Esther were produced by a number of Florentine artists during the fifteenth century.
The Man of Sorrows and the King of Glory in Italy, c. 1250 – c. 1350
February 9, 2014 By
The Man of Sorrows – an iconographic type of Jesus Christ following his Crucifixion – has received extensive analytical treatment in the art-historical literature.
A Medieval LIfe (in his own words)
February 8, 2014 By
Forty years of the life of Opicino de Canistris, priest and writer in 14th century Italy, in his own words.
Cecco D’Ascoli and Church Discipline of Natural Philosophers in the Middle Ages
February 8, 2014 By
Probably the only natural philosopher of the Middle Ages to be burnt at the stake at the behest of the Church was one Francisco degli Stabili (c. 1269 – 1327) in Florence in late 1327.
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