A tripartite formula for the structure of Byzantine history has been suggested and generally accepted-Roman political institutions, Greek cultural elements, and the Christian religious faith, representing Rome, Athens, and Jerusalem respectively.
The Principled Resignation of Thomas More
January 15, 2012 By
More often referred to himself in a humble way that did not accurately reflect the incredible impact of his achievements both as a great common lawyer and as the greatest chancellor in the history of England.
The Place of the Tyrant in Machiavelli’s Political Thought and the Literary Genre of the Prince
January 8, 2012 By
When Machiavelli put in writing his thoughts on government, he was the heir of this long-established tradition of reflection on tyranny…
The Demonology of William of Auvergne
December 15, 2011 By
William believed that a demonic conspiracy existed to deceive humans into false worship, and his concerns led him to precisely define the capabilities of demons according to the latest scientific views of spirits, to characterize opinions with which he disagreed as demonic lies and to label their holders as demonic dupes.
The Political Ideas of Machiavelli: A Fresh Look
December 14, 2011 By
The early sixteenth century marked a watershed period for political writings on the art of governing.
In Search of Ibn Sina’s ”Oriental Philosophy“ in Medieval Castile
August 2, 2011 By
In Search of Ibn Sina’s ”Oriental Philosophy“ in Medieval Castile Szpiech, Ryan (University of Michigan) Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, Vol.20, (2010) Abstract Scholars have long debated the possibility of a mystical or illuminationist strain of thought in Ibn Sīnā’s body of writing. This debate has often focused on the meaning and contents of his partly […]
Towards Modernity and Absolute Power: Interpretation of Kingship in
August 2, 2011 By
Towards Modernity and Absolute Power: Interpretation of Kingship in The Book of the Twelve Wise Men and The Seven Books of Law McLean, Benjamin Transcultural Studies: A Series in Interdisciplinary Research,Volumes 2-3 (2006-7) Abstract In Castile (Spain) of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, one finds signs of a vigorous debate on the nature and limits […]
Seeing Eye to Eye: Islamic Universalism in the Roman and Byzantine Worlds, 7th to 10th Centuries
June 12, 2011 By
Seeing Eye to Eye: Islamic Universalism in the Roman and Byzantine Worlds, 7th to 10th Centuries By Olof Heilo PhD Dissertation, Univerity of Vienna, 2010 Abstract: In the history of religion and cultures, the relationship between Byzantium and the Islamic World has quite often turned into a literary topos of dualistic proportions, not merely influenced […]
Theory on Citizenship in Late Medieval France: c. 1370 – c. 1400
June 1, 2011 By
Theory on Citizenship in Late Medieval France: c. 1370 – c. 1400 By Guy Lurie Tel Aviv University: Law and History Working Papers (2011) Introduction: Jacques Krynen describes in his magisterial study of political theory in late medieval France how in the 1370s two factions connected to the court of Charles V (r. 1364-1380) discussed […]
Centres of royal power: New findings about the realms of medieval itinerant kings
March 25, 2011 By
In the 900-1000s the power of the monarch in Norway was consolidated through the establishment of a new system of royal estates. Similar systems can also be found in other Northern European countries. Kingston, Husebygård, Königshof. These three terms in English, Norwegian and German all describe the same thing: royal farmsteads that together formed a […]
Mann and Men in a Medieval State: The Geographies of Power in the Middle Ages
March 7, 2011 By
Mann and Men in a Medieval State: The Geographies of Power in the Middle Ages By Rhys Jones Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, Vol. 24, No. 1 (1999) Introduction: European societies in the Middle Ages witnessed a major institutional change when they moved from being primarily organized around concepts of kinship to […]
The Norman succession, 996–1135
February 6, 2011 By
The Norman succession, 996–1135 By John le Patourel English Historical Review, Vol.86 (1971) Introduction: It is well known that as William the Conqueror lay dying in a suburb of Rouen during the early autumn of 1087 he divided his inheritance among his three sons. He ‘allowed’ (as this is generally expressed) his eldest son, Robert […]
A Mirror for Statesmen: Leonardo Bruni’s History of the Florentine People
February 1, 2011 By
A Mirror for Statesmen: Leonardo Bruni’s History of the Florentine People By James Hankins Published Online Introduction: It will perhaps seem odd to claim that Leonardo Bruni’s History of the Florentine People has been neglected by students of Renaissance political thought. Written over the space of a quarter century, between 1415/16 and 1442, it was […]
Imperfect Apocalypse: Thomas of Erceldoune’s Reply to the Countess of Dunbar in MS Harley 2253
January 13, 2011 By
Imperfect Apocalypse: Thomas of Erceldoune’s Reply to the Countess of Dunbar in MS Harley 2253 Flood, Victoria (University of Swansea) Marginalia, Vol. 11, (2010) Abstract The reply of ‘Thomas de Essedoune’ to the Countess of Dunbar in Harley 2253 is the earliest recorded prophecy ascribed to the Scottish prophet Thomas of Erceldoune, known elsewhere as […]
Ideology, Prosody, and Eponymy: Towards a Public Poetics of Obama and Beowulf
December 23, 2010 By
Ideology, Prosody, and Eponymy: Towards a Public Poetics of Obama and Beowulf By Tom Clark Nebula: A Journal of Multidisciplinary Scholarship, Vol.7:1-2 (2010) Abstract: This article examines and integrates the categories of poetics and rhetoric by comparing concepts of the poetic in Barack Obama’s 2008 election victory speech with concepts of political rhetoric in the […]
The practice of Irish kingship in the Central Middle Ages
November 29, 2010 By
Supernatural Threats to Kings: Exploration of a Motif in the Ulster Cycle and in Other Medieval Irish Tales
November 28, 2010 By
The subject of this contribution is the belief in a sacral bond between the land and the ruler. This belief is connected with the concept known as ‘sacral kingship’, which is found in many cultures.
A lesson in holy kingship: the thirteenth-century “La estoire de Seint Aedward le Rei”
November 14, 2010 By
A lesson in holy kingship: the thirteenth-century “La estoire de Seint Aedward le Rei” By Judtih Collard South African Journal of Art History, vol. 15 (2000) Abstract: In this article a manuscript from the Cambridge University Library, viz.: “La estoire de Seint Aedward le Rei” is discussed with particular reference to its authorship and its […]
Pristina libertas: liberty and the Anglo-Saxons revisited
July 1, 2010 By
Liberty and the Anglo-Saxons once co-existed in happy equilibrium. As long as later Englishmen pictured the England of the Anglo-Saxons as the fount of the ancient constitution or cradle of the English nation they projected on to this apparently formative period their aspirations, liberty among them; from at least the seventeenth century to the twentieth historians, politicians and polemicists sought and found liberty in the pre-Conquest past
‘A Mirror for Princes?’ A Textual Study of Instructions for Rulers and Consorts in Three Old French Genres
March 1, 2010 By
A number of twelfth-century works from three genres of Old French literature are examined in order to ascertain what forms any didacticism takes, and whether the texts can be read as Mirrors for Princes.
Politics and ideology in Late Medieval Cordoba
January 11, 2010 By
Politics and ideology in Late Medieval Cordoba By John Edwards En la España Medieval, Vol.4 (1984) Introduction: Despite the growth of ‘scientific’ analysis in the study of the past, it is still rare to find any frankness among historians concerning their own motives and preconceptions. Most historical work is based on remarkably unsophisticated conceptual apparatus, […]
From God’s Peace to the King’s Order: Late Medieval Limitations on Non-Royal Warfare
November 27, 2009 By
One of the fundamental tasks of medieval kings was to be a peacemaker, that is, to settle disputes and to prevent new ones from arising.
Byzantines in the Florentine polis: Ideology, Statecraft and Ritual during the Council of Florence
November 18, 2009 By
Byzantines in the Florentine polis: Ideology, Statecraft and Ritual during the Council of Florence By Stuart M. McManus Journal of the Oxford University History Society, Vol.6 (2008) Introduction: In 1439 Leonardo Bruni, the Chancellor of the Florentine Republic, wrote a treatise about the political system of his adopted homeland which has perplexed scholars. In it, […]
The Monarchy with David Starkey
October 13, 2009 By
The Monarchy with David Starkey Lecture given on November 19, 2005 More than the biographies of the kings and queens of England, this lecture is an in depth examination of what the English monarchy has meant, in terms of the expression of the individual, the Mother of Parliaments, Magna Carta, the laws of England and […]
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