Where the Middle Ages Begin
Let us begin by considering the importance of the idea of Rome in the medieval mind. On the one hand there was the ancient prestige of the City, the capital of the greatest empire the world had known, the seat of a civilisation and art so far above what most of the Middle Ages could attain.
The 3 papers featured here looked at the development of the civic identities of Florence, Genoa and Rome through art, architecture and foundation legends.
During the Anglo-Saxon era in England, there were many pilgrims to Rome. A community existed in Rome where these pilgrims would stay called the Schola Anglorum or Schola Saxonum.
It’s that time of year again – the mad scramble for the perfect Christmas gift for the historian, nerd, avid reader on your list. Here are a few suggestions for you – new releases for December and January!
11 January 1581 was a fine day in Rome. That morning, Michel de Montaigne, recently arrived in the city, had gone out on horseback when he encountered a procession accompanying a condemned man to execution. Montaigne stopped to watch the sight.
Objections to Episcopal Elections in England, 1216-1272 Katherine Harvey Nottingham Medieval Studies: 55 (2011), pp. 125-48 Abstract In August 1228, following the death of Stephen Langton, the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury assembled to elect his successor. Their choice was quickly made: within a month of Langton’s death Walter of Eynsham, a member of the […]
A detailed examination of the themes, motifs and secrets held with Michelagelo’s masterpiece.
Archaeologist working on Rome’s Colosseum have discovered that the ancient landmark continued to be used throughout the Middle Ages, but not as a gladiatorial arena. Instead, it was used homes, workshops and even stables.
For the last two centuries, Leiðarvísir has been the subject of great interest by scholars from a variety of disciplines: not only Old Norse scholars, but also historians, geographers, toponymists and scholars of pilgrimage have studied and analysed this work.
This paper evaluates the story of Auðun from the West Fjords, a þáttr dating from the Sturlunga period of medieval Iceland. It compares the short prose narrative to the much longer sagas in terms of their mutual concerns with kings, peace, and the place of Iceland in a larger Christian world.
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
The Franciscan order hopes to raise $125 000 to restore a convent in Rome which was the home of St. Francis of Assisi. They have created a Kickstarter campaign to ask for donations from the public.
Put down the Godfather, turn off the Sorpanos, and check out the real Italian families of Medieval and Renaissance Italy!
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.
She was the lover of one Pope, mother to another, and grandmother to a third.
Le Berry, in the geographical centre of France, developed its own “crusading culture” that both affected the ideas of the people living there and effected new institutions and traditions in that society pertaining to the crusades.
This article gives an overview of the features, choices, tastes and models of sanctity characteristic of Italian hagiography, against the background of local contexts and political competition.
In 524AD the Roman senator Boethius was executed for committing treason against Theoderic the Great, the ruling gothic king in Italy. Boethius was never given a trial, and the charge of treason may have been an exaggeration of what actually happened.
Charlemagne has been approached by historians because of the pivotal role he fills as the Father of a Continent. His kingdom spread across Europe and renewed the culture of the Western World; a “mini-Renaissance” that shifted the focal point of Europe away from crumbling Rome.
Some medieval stocking stuffers for the historians on your Christmas list!
In the year 526 CE, the bishop of Rome, Pope Felix IV, petitioned the Ostrogoth king Theoderic for permission to convert a small complex in the Forum Romanum into a place of worship dedicated to the Saints Cosmas and Damian…This paper critiques traditional interpretations of this church—its physical location and its apse mosaic—in light of new research that nuances our understanding of the historical context in which it was commissioned.
Construction Materials and Building Constructions in the Architecture of Medieval Rus, from the 10th to the Beginning of the 12th Centuries Bernhard Flüge Paper given at: The Masons at Work Conference (2012) Abstract Everybody knows that the Burgundian abbey of Cluny was one of the intellectual and spiri- tual centres of Europe during the High […]
She looked ‘so lovely, so pleasing, so attractive, that, although the girl had certainly been dead fifteen hundred years, she appeared to have been laid to rest that very day.’
Eleventh-century Umbro-Roman Giant Bibles were commissioned by varied church and lay patrons (and not only by Roman reform- party adherents) and crafted by ad hoc assemblies of paid craftsmen using methods of carefully calibrated, synchronous copying to reduce production time for the single commission.
Auðun of the West-Fjords and the Saga Tradition: Similarities of Theme and Structural Suitability Josie Nolan (Trinity College Dublin) Vexillum, Vol.3 (2013) Abstract This paper evaluates the story of Auðun from the West Fjords, a Þáttr dating from the Sturlinga period of medieval Iceland. It compares the short prose narrative to the much longer sagas […]
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