Odin, Magic and a Swedish Trial from 1484
If we are to believe any number of histories, spiritual life in medieval Scandinavia, and especially the conversion to Christianity, is readily summarized: paganism collapsed against Christian conversion efforts in dramatic fashion at a meeting of the Alþing, or when a missionary bore hot iron, or an exiled king had a deep religious experience, or when a pagan revolt was finally overcome, and so on.
The Friar and the Sultan: Francis of Assisi’s Mission to Egypt
In September, 1219, Francis of Assisi went to Egypt to preach to Sultan al-Malik al-Kâmil.
Medieval Pets
New book by Kathleen Walker-Meikle on pets in the Middle Ages
Managing tithes in the late middle ages
Tithe represented a diversion to religious uses of around one-tenth of England’s agricultural wealth.
Coincidence, Convention or Copycat Crime? A Curious Case of the Twelfth Century
So that some of the source of my praise might be seen to be taken away, he stole all the verses that I had already produced, and by a slavish treachery, not to say theft, took away the verses that he saw were being extolled by
popular applause.
Byzantium and the Arabs from the VIIth to XIth Century
During the seventh and the eighth centuries, the Arabs built their own empire within the eastern and western boundaries of the Byzantine Empire, obliging the two powers to coexist through war and in peace. How did they live together, or near each other?
Hand-Mills to Wind Turbines: Technology Gatekeeping in Medieval Europe and in Contemporary Ontario
In contemporary Ontario and in medieval England, the power and political influence of propertied classes and labour aristocracies were (and are) used to restrict popular access particular technologies, and to facilitate private appropriation of wealth.
The ruling as a clue to the make-up of a medieval manuscript
The purpose of this inquiry is to try to reconstruct the original state of the manuscript using ruling as a clue.
THE MINT OF AYLESBURY
As these numbers suggest, Aylesbury seems to have made a comparatively minor contribution to the Late Saxon coinage pool. Basing his calculations on a total of some 44,350 English coins, Petersson estimated that, in each issue for which its coins were known, Aylesbury was responsible for only 0.1% or 0.2% of the recorded coins of the issue…
The coinage of Aethelred I (865-71)
The coinage of England in the third quarter of the ninth century was extensive. Dominated by the Lunettes type struck by a number of authorities (Kings of Wessex, Burgred of Mercia and Archbishop Ceolnoth of Canterbury) it presents a daunting quantity of material. However, the authors believe that focusing on the coinage of iEthelred I and Archbishop Ceolnoth provides the opportunity to concentrate on a key five to six year period in the devel- opment of the Anglo-Saxon coinage and specifically of the Lunettes type.
Anglo-Saxon law and numismatics: A reassessment in the light of Patrick Wormald’s the Making of English Law
In this article, I wish to return to the references to coinage in the Anglo-Saxon laws in the light of Patrick Wormald’s important research on the laws, especially his The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century, which has made this difficult evidence much more penetrable to the non-specialist.
A Peripheral Matter? Oceans in the East in Late Medieval Thought, Report and Cartography
Focusing in particular on the southern and eastern parts of the Ocean Sea, this article traces the broad contours of a representational and conceptual shift brought about, I argue, by the interplay between geographical thought and social (navigational, mercantile) practice.
Jewish Lightning Rod: Between Magic and Science
People learned how to “tie up a portion of lightning” only recently. We have no information aboutany experiments of medieval scientists with lightnings, and even the fundamental dictionary of thehistory of science by Mayerhöfer is silent about it.
Coptic Dress In Egypt: The Social Life Of Medieval Cloth
Coptic textiles in most collections present a very rich iconography, somewhat derived from classical traditions, which has also attracted the attention of art historians. Very little of their work, however, has made any headway in our understanding of the contemporaneous meanings of Coptic textile images and other decorations.
The military ordinances of Henry V: texts and contexts
We can be certain that Henry V did not invent the idea of disciplinary ordinances for his army, nor was he the last to issue them.
The Fatimid and Kalbite Governors in Sicily : 909-1044
This is the second part of my investigation on the Muslim governors (or rulers) in Sicily.
You Are What You Eat: Hildegard of Bingen’s Viriditas
Hildegard argues in the beginning of Physica that humans become what they eat.
The archaeological evidence for equestrianism in early Anglo-Saxon England, c.450-700
Most of our evidence is drawn from the funerary record,and more specifically from the rite of horse inhumation,or the provision of horse equipment as a grave good. Insacrificing horses to accompany the dead the Anglo-Saxon elite were doubtless influenced by Continental burial theatre, where the rite is to be observed at itsmost explicit.