Social alienation and political subversion: Anti-Judaism in medieval Spanish music
In this thesis, the prevalence of anti-Judaism in the music of Christian Spain from the thirteenth to the end of the fifteenth century is explored.
Rebuilding the Middle Ages after the Second World War: the cultural politics of reconstruction in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany
Many visitors do not realize that nearly half of Rothenburg’s medieval architectural heritage was destroyed in 1945.
‘Stronger than men and braver than knights’: women and the pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome in the later middle ages
Pilgrimage, like any other form of travel in the later middle ages, was time-consuming, expensive, and dangerous.
Bones4Culture project to examine a thousand medieval skeletons from northern Europe
A new project is underway to analyze population, life, health and culture of the people that lived in the German-Danish border land during the Middle Ages (AD 1050 – 1536).
Stress Along the Medieval Anglo-Scottish Border? Skeletal Indicators of Conflict-Zone Health
The medieval British populations living along the Anglo-Scottish border from the 10th through the 16th century were hypothesised to have significantly higher mortality and morbidity rates than contemporary populations living in other regions of Britain that were not exposed to chronic border warfare.
Deviant Women in Courtly and Popular Medieval Castilian Poetry
The ideal comportment of woman in the Middle Ages is decreed by the Church and the aristocracy. However, woman is wont to rebel against the strict norms of patriarchy laid down for her.
Love, Labor, Liturgy: Languages of Service in Late Medieval England
Working with three major Middle English texts – William Langland’s Piers Plowman, Julian of Norwich’s Revelation of Love, and Geoffrey Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde – my thesis argues that the languages of service available to these writers provided them with a rich set of metaphorical tools for expressing the relation between metaphysics and social practice.
Siege warfare during the Crusades
It is from the accounts of the participants and observers that one gains some appreciation for the role of siege warfare in the crusades.
Evidence for Viking disruption from early Norman histories and commemorations of saints
Did the Vikings devastate the indigenous culture, leaving only a faint memory of Frankish society in Normandy or did they largely assimilate with ‘minimal disruption’ to Carolingian ways?
Imagining the Metropolis on the Islamic Periphery: Commerce, Scholarship, and Architecture in 15th c. Bidar and Timbuktu
In this paper I wish to explore the similarities and differences that these two cities exhibit in terms of their evolution, their relationship to political power, and most importantly, the ways they imagined themselves in relation to metropolitan centers in the Islamic heartland.
Skeletons found at mass burial site in Oxford could be ’10th-century Viking raiders’
Thirty-seven skeletons found in a mass burial site in the grounds of St John’s College in Oxford may not be who they initially seemed, according to Oxford University researchers studying the remains.
Full Metal Jousting – Review of SE01 EP02
The Red team was down but not out! In this week’s episode of Full Metal Jousting, the Black and Red team go head to head for another gruelling joust
University of Oxford and Vatican to digitize 1.5 million pages of historical texts
A collaboration between the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library and the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana at the Vatican will bring historical texts dating back to the Middle Ages into the digital era.
Singers and Soldiers: Slavery in Early Abbasid Society
Individuals of slave descent led significant households in Baghdad and Samarra, the capitals of the Abbasid caliphate, the second great empire of the Muslim world.
The higher nobility in Scotland and their estates, c.1371-1424
The material available for the study of the Scottish nobility in this period consists almost entirely of charters, especially those issued by the crown.
Identity and Economic Change in the Viking Age
This project surveys a selection of hoard assemblages in order to scrutinize the changing relationship between economy and identity in Viking Age Scandinavia.
When was medieval philosophy?
During the Middle Ages! But it is precisely because I think that this obvious answer is the wrong one one that I have chosen to pose the question.
Consorting with the other: Re-constructing scholastic, rhetorical and literary attitudes to pagans and paganism in the Middle Ages
My thesis suggests that Christian culture in the late antique to medieval period consciously adapted pagan cultures for its own ends, with a particular view to the usefulness of pagan cultures.
A study in early medieval mereology: Boethius, Abelard, and pseudo-Joscelin
The twelfth-century philosopher Peter Abelard makes the bold claim that no thing
can ever gain or lose a part. This has the remarkable consequence that should, for example, the broom that is in my closet lose a hair, that very broom would no longer exist. This remarkable consequence has prompted many commentators, both medieval and contemporary, to suggest that Abelard has made a serious mistake
Joan of Kent : life and legends
There is no biography of Joan, contemporary or modern. All that we know about her life has been pieced together from chronicles and legal records.
The Peace Weaver: Wealhthrow in Beowulf
My goal in writing this fictional novella is twofold: to make Beowulf more accessible to modern readers and to expound upon the less articulated female point of view in the poem.
The Viking Cities of Dublin and York: Examining Scandinavian Cultural Change and Viking Urbanism
Dubh Linn and Jorvik, as Dublin and York were known in the Viking Age, both experienced enormous change during their time as Viking colonial centers.
Medieval Monastic Library of Lorsch recreated online
The unique holdings of the medieval monastic library of Lorsch, currently scattered over 68 libraries worldwide, are being re-compiled into a virtual library.
The Borgias – Review of ‘The Borgia Bull’ – SE02 EP01
‘Vengeance shall be ours! We are family, we are ONE! We will only triumph as one!’ ~ Rodrigo Borgia
Why Dante damned Francesca da Rimini
The vast majority of Dante’s readers have found Francesca da Rimini an acutely sympathetic figure-a tragic heroine. Yet Dante damned her, pronouncing a stern and challenging moral judgment.