For a Long Century of Burgundy. The Court, Female Power and Ideology
The field of Burgundian studies has witnessed a shift in emphasis over the past generation from overviews which were biographical and dynastic in emphasis, such as Richard Vaughan’s volumes on the four Valois dukes, to studies of the Burgundian ‘state’ and the regions it ruled over, exemplified in the work of Walter Prevenier, Wim Blockmans and, more recently, Bertrand Schnerb.1
The Medieval Origins of Capitalism in the Netherlands
One of the fiercest and most productive historical debates – and one of the most ideology-laden – has been that on the transition from feudalism to capitalism.1 Although interest in this specific debate and its ideological implications seems to be waning now, the importance of reconstructing and explaining long-term changes in economy and society is still clear.
Trinkets and Charms: the use, meaning and significance of later medieval and early post-medieval dress accessories
There were considerable developments in fashion over this period. During the 14th century a tailoring revolution resulted in a new shape to clothing.
Diplomatic aspects of Charles the Bold’s relations with the Holy See
Both Paul II and Sixtus IV, the two popes whose pontificates spanned the reign of Charles the Bold, made great efforts to bring about peace among the rulers of Christendom.
Modernization of the Government: the Advent of Philip the Good in Holland
As I have shown elsewhere, the county of Holland underwent a structural change in the second half of the fourteenth century, when economically the emphasis shifted from agriculture to trade and industry and demographically from the country to the towns. The institutions however did not change.
The early Latin sources for the legend of St. Martha: a study and translation with critical notes
In these lives of the saint, traditional material derived from Scripture is supplemented by descriptions of Martha’s legendary life as an early missionary in Provence.
Rithmomachia: the lost mathematical treasure of the dark ages
Many presume that the inventor of Rithmomachia is Boethius or perhaps even Pythagoras. The oldest piece of written evidence dating back to 1030, however, depicts the original creator to be a monk named Asilo.
‘Lost Fleet’ discovered in medieval cellar
A project to clear rubbish from a cellar in the English village of Winchelsea has led to the discovery of a series of medieval graffiti inscriptions that are being hailed as being nationally significant.
The Borgias – Review SE02 EP09 – World of Wonders
On this week’s second to last episode of The Borgias, Lucrezia loses both her suitors, Juan falls deeper into opium addiction while the three amigos, Machiavelli, Cesare and Micheletto bring Savonarola to justice in Rome.
The Great Beginning of Cîteaux
It is a book of history and lore, often with miraculous stories, meant to continue a great spiritual tradition, and it is also a book meant to justify and repair the Order. The Exordium magnum was in part an effort to provide a historical and formative context for those who were to be Cistercians in the thirteenth century.
Al Zahrawi: The Father of Modern Surgery
Among many Moslem scholars who shared in enlightening the path of medical human knowledge is ‘Alzahrawi’ who is regarded as the father of modern surgery, and rightfully so. He was a great surgeon, a pioneer in surgical innovation and a great teacher whose comprehensive medical texts had shaped the European surgical procedures up until the renaissance and later.
Symbols of Protection: The Significance of Animal-ornamented Shields in Early Anglo-Saxon England
Anthropomorphic and zoomorphic decoration of shields can be evidenced, at least sporadically, from Roman to Viking times. While textual and pictorial information contributes to this knowledge, detailed archaeological analysis depends primarily on the survival of metal fittings.
The Roman De La Rose and the Thirteenth Century Prohibitions of Homosexuality
This paper, a tentative approach by someone who is not an expert in this area or on this text, argues that Guillaume de Lorris offers a veiled description of a male to male love relationship.
Colonizing the Landscape: A Case Study of Medieval Livonia
There are several impulses which led me to the history of medieval landscape, and particularly that of Medieval Livonia. When discussing with Gerhard Jaritz the availability of medieval primary sources on the Eastern Baltic landscape, I was obliged to point out the extreme scarcity of medieval picture images, illuminated manuscripts or maps of Livonia.
Mapping Metageographies: The Cartographic Invention of Italy and the Mediterranean
This article discusses the emergence of Italy as a discrete object in the Mediterranean in the history of Western cartography. In particular, it focuses on different coexisting Renaissance mapping traditions that rested on two opposed spatial understandings and experiences of the basin
Living the middle life, secular priests and their communities in thirteenth-century Genoa
It has long been known among medievalists that secular priests, like Pagano, standing in front of their churches, rubbing elbows with the other clerics and lay people walking past,occupied a central place within medieval society. Not only did they carry out important duties within the institutional Church, but they also participated in the community life of both city and countryside.
Settlement Morphology and Medieval Village Planning: A Case Study at Laxton, Nottinghamshire
In 1980 The East Midland Geographer published a collection of papers examining the history and development of the village of Laxton in Nottinghamshire. Among them, a paper by A. Cameron was the first serious attempt to explore the medieval development of Laxton, through the medium of Mark Pierce’s map of the village produced in 1635 .
Paul of Venice on a Puzzle About Uncertainty
Since the advent of Hintikka’s Knowledge and Belief [8] in 1962, epistemic logic has become a vibrant and exciting subfield of modal logic. However, like its sister alethic modal logic [18], epistemic logic is not a new invention or dis- covery of the 20th century. In the Middle Ages, philosophers were concerned with many of the same problems in epistemology that exercise us today, and logicians were correspondingly interested in what types of inferences containing epistemic modes or operators are licet
Ship grave hall passage – the Oseberg monument as compound meaning
The ship in Oseberg does not give the impression of a ship sailing the
sea—moored, as it is, to its bollard stone—but it does give the impression of a ship loaded and ready to take off. The overall installation is organised in a way similar to most boat- and ship-graves.
Perkin Warbeck
King Richard IV – or lookalike launched and manipulated by Yorkist conspirators? Ian Arthurson argues he was neither, but a brilliant impersonator who could have triumphed on the stage.
í víking : Norse who went plundering
Raids were commonplace among the Norse. They outfitted ships, plundered towns and monasteries, and sought adventure. Although they pursued far more peaceful pursuits much of the time, the summers saw them go í víking, plundering.
Husbands, Wives, and Adultery in Late-Medieval Northern France
If painting a slightly less stark picture of gender inequality than the above account of total repression for women and total freedom for men, modern scholars generally assume that medieval European courts did not enforce the Christian prohibition against husbands’ adultery.
The Meanings of Nudity in Medieval Art: An Introduction
This simplification is frankly astonishing when one considers the complex, multivalent and inventive iconographic contexts in which full or partial nakedness appears in medieval art.
The Idea of Natural Rights – Origins and Persistence
Before turning to this early history there is one more aspect of the contemporary situation that I need to mention. Even in the Western world, the original homeland of natural rights thinking, there is no consensus—and sometimes overt skepticism—about the existence and grounding of such rights.