Herbs of the Field and Herbs of the Garden in Byzantine Medicinal Pharmacy
An interested student or scholar wishing to inquire about the essentials of herbalism in the Byzantine Empire likely will be led into the Greek texts on gardens, well illustrated by the Christian “dream garden” as published in Greek…
The fatal disease of the Byzantine Emperor Andronicus III Palaeologus (1328-1341 AD)
Byzantine historians and chroniclers describe many diseases of leading figures of their state and Church, especially the emperors. These constitute a source of valuable information about the clinical application of medicine during the Byzantine period
The Planetary Portent of 1524 in China and Europe
Events of 1524 in China and Europe in response to the planetary phenomenon offer insights into the divergent Chinese and Western responses to such “millennial” events.
Kings and Vikings: On the Dynamics of Competitive Agglomeration
While we hope our theory is useful in understanding the basic forces driving agglomeration in the face of conflict in a general setting, we shall discuss our theory in terms of a particularly dramatic episode in history: the era of the Viking invasions.
Emperor Heraclius and the conversion of the Croats and the Serbs
For a number of years the Croats of Dalmatia were subject to the Franks, as they had formerly been in their own country, but the Franks treated them with such brutality that they used to murder Croat infants at the breast and cast them to the dogs.
Greeks in Early Medieval Barcelona?
The aim of this article is to draw attention to a group of persenal names which occurs almost exclusively in the city of Barcelona in tilese decades around the year 1000, which may throw some additional llght on the range of externa1 cgntacts. The name in question is that of Greco.
Silk Roads or Steppe Roads? The Silk Roads in World History
Modern historiography has not fully appreciated the ecological complexity of the Silk Roads. As a result, it has failed to understand their antiquity, or to grasp their full importance in Eurasian history.
Culture in the Time of Tolerance: Al-Andalus as a Model for Our Time
It existed in any number of different political configurations over nearly eight hundred years, and it was and has been called many names, all of them imprecise for different reasons: al-Andalus in Arabic, ha-Sefarad in Hebrew; the names of a half-dozen different cities when they were at its center; Castile at other moments.
Anna Comnena, the Alexiad and the First Crusade
By her own account Anna Comnena began to write the Alexiad shortly after the death of her husband, Nicephorus Bryennios, in 1137.
The Biological Section of the Voynich Manuscript: A Textbook of Medieval Plant Physiology?
The Voynich manuscript, written in a mysterious cipher and illustrated in a herbal-like form with stylized paintings of bizarre, unidentifiable plants, remains to this day one of the most enduring enigmas of the medieval period.
Charlemagne: the making of an image, 1100-1300
Why was Charlemagne, a figure from the distant past, able to achieve such high status and command such enormous respect?
Late Medieval Women’s Communities in Conflict with the Secular Authorities: The Case of the Convent of Wienhausen
What makes the nuns from the convent of Wienhausen such an outstanding and interesting example of taking control over their own lives results from their religious, political, social, and individual life in relation to the secular world outside the convent.
The Demonology of William of Auvergne
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.
Viking Hoard discovered in England
Now known as the Silverdale Viking Hoard, the collection cotnains a total of 201 silver objects and a well preserved lead container. Of particular interest is the fact that the hoard contains a previously unrecorded coin type, probably carrying the name of an otherwise unknown Viking ruler in northern England.
Researchers puzzled as grave did not hold remains of medieval Swedish king
DNA tests have revealed that the bodies of nine people buried in the tomb actually died sometime between 1430 and 1520.
The Creation and Demise of the Knights Templar
This thesis investigates the Order of the Knights Templar by examining the varied phenomena that led to the formation of the Order in the early twelfth century and its dissolution nearly two hundred years later
The Political Ideas of Machiavelli: A Fresh Look
The early sixteenth century marked a watershed period for political writings on the art of governing.
Using Cognitive Science to Think about the Twelfth Century: Revisiting the Individual through Latin Texts
This study offers a number of fresh insights into twelfth/century texts and the phenomena of the individual, self, and subjectivity.
Divine Love in a World History Perspective: Contributions of Medieval Female Saint
Scholars have noted that similar notions of Divine Love have existed among the mystical traditions within Christianity, Islam and Hinduism.
Immortal Maidens: The Visual Significance of the Colour White in Girls’ Graves on Viking-Age Gotland
The purpose of this paper is to explore the significance of the colour white of cowry shell-beads in burials from the Viking Age on Gotland, considering aspects of gendered age identities as well as fertility and status.
Polish Pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostella: Way of St. James in Poland
It is very difficult to estimate the exact scope of Polish pilgrimages to Santiago de
Compostela in the Middle Ages on the basis of preserved historical sources. The presence of pilgrims from Poland was mentioned in the Pilgrim Records of the Middle Ages found in the archive of the Kingdom of Aragon in Barcelona…
Silencing the Bells: A Statement of Power in Medieval Spain
Much scholarship has been devoted to researching and documenting the significance and metaphysical qualities of the ringing of the bells within Christian culture. Specific efforts have been made to capture bells from defeated cathedrals as symbols of victory throughout history.