Byzantine medicine, genres, and the ravages of time
Byzantine medicine has never enjoyed an enthusiastic press.
2014 and Medieval Anniversaries
Historians like to look back at what happened exactly 100, 500 or even 1000 years ago – it makes a good reason to re-evaluate and study these events.
How To Tweet From Another Century
Martha Bayless shares rune sticks from centuries past that illustrate how brief and personal everyday messages (exactly like tweets) — sometimes sharing ‘too much information’— are nothing new!
The Mystery of the Maastricht Monkeys
In this blogpost I will examine the illumination from the Maastricht Hours against these two traditions – the beast-fable of the Middle Ages and the Narrenschiff topos – but the point is to make sense of the image in view of these traditions, not to latch the illumination on to any of them.
Zoomorphic Penannular Brooches in 6th and 7th Century Ireland
In this thesis the author examines the evolution, manufacture, and societal significance of zoomorphic penannular brooches, a type of metal dress fastener used in early medieval Ireland that is often decorated.
The Government of Medieval London
The city had always, even from Roman times, a great deal of control over its own governance.
Fighting to preserve two Wars of the Roses Battlefields
The battlefields of Towton and Tewkesbury, which were critical moments during England’s Wars of the Roses, are both facing threats that could limit access to them by the public
Abduction, surgery, madness: an account of a little red man in Thomas Walsingham’s Chronica maiora
This article examines the inclusion of the supernatural and mythological in Thomas Walsingham’s Chroncia Maiora.
Book Review: The Winter Warrior, by James Wilde
Do you like Anglo-Saxons and Vikings and a lot of gore? You’ll probably like this book. Are you French? You probably won’t.
Eustace the Monk: Scourge of the seas
Eustace the Monk, one of the most colourful and remarkable naval commanders of the Middle Ages, operated in the chilly waters of the English Channel.
Byzantine Renaissance
Byzantium soon felt like some sort of evil stepmother, locked in the West’s attic, guilty of so many crimes.
Medieval Cookbooks: Something to Inspire the Medieval Cook in all of us!
Baby it’s cold outside. Brrrrr! It’s January, snow is blowing, frost is nipping at your toes – it’s a great time to cook a hearty, hot meal. Want to make it even better? Try a medieval menu! Here are a few books to inspire the medieval cook in all of us.
The Significance of Twins in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
But supposing you are lucky, having run the gauntlet of twin birth, its association with sickness and the unnatural, and we see mother and children survive. What then, what status was given to twins?
The Case of Conjoined Twins in 10th-Century Byzantium
How were these conjoined twins treated, and how did the Byzantine physicians try to separate them?
Criminal Behaviour by Pilgrims in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period
In the early and high Middle Ages, an introspective religiosity was predominant and supported by Benedictine and Cistercian monks; thus, pil- grimages to holy places were neither as popular nor practiced as they were in the period from the late Middle Ages onwards.
Stature and frailty during the Black Death: the effect of stature on risks of epidemic mortality in London, A.D. 1348-1350
Recent research has shown that pre-existing health condition affected an individual ’ s risk of dying duringthe 14th-century Black Death. However, a previous study of the effect of adult stature on risk of mortality during the epidemic failed to find a relationship between the two; this result is perhaps surprising given the well-documented inverse association between stature and mortality in human populations.
Were the Peasants Really So Clean? The Middle Ages in Film
Movies about the European Middle Ages are profoundly modern creations. They tend to reflect the anxieties and preoccupations of their modern creators rather than those of people who lived a thousand years ago.
From Triumphant to Suffering Jesus: Visual and Literary Depictions of the Crucifixion, 300-1200
By the twelfth century in both literature and art the form of the suffering Christ was supplanting the form of the conquering Christ.
How to pleat a shirt in the 15th century
Based on the shirt fragments from the 15th century found at Lengberg Castle in East-Tyrol this paper describes the methods with which these shirts have been pleated, what type of stiches have been used for sewing and how the trimming strips were fashioned. Seventeen textile fragments could be identified as parts of shirts, fourteen of which feature either partially or totally pleated areas. Two sleeves with textile buttons and button holes, two sleeves with button holes, one sleeve with a textile button, one neckline and five fragments being either sleeve or collar are pleated on their entire width. One shirt each is pleated partially on the front, one of them with a preserved textile button. One sleeveless shirt is pleated at the shoulder.
Emotions and Power in Orderic Vitalis
This essay explores some of the complexities and paradoxes encountered when one thinks about power, particularly as power was expressed by a single author, Orderic Vitalis.
Incubus: the medieval nightmare disease
Some people have nightmares of being crushed to death, either by a person or a thing. In the Middle Ages this type of dream was so common that had it a name: incubus (which means ‘the crusher’ in Latin).
The power of charismatic art
So, there is a story from the Middle Ages about a monk, an esteemed monk, a serious man, who is an actual historical figure named Bernard of Clairvaux
Werewolves and snakewomen
Dr Miranda Griffin, College Lecturer in medieval French literature, provides a fascinating investigation of medieval tales of transformation, exploring the way in which the Middle Ages imagined the frontiers between the human and the animal.
The Hole: Problems in Medieval Dwarfology
When trying to understand Old Norse dwarfs, one problem is knowing too much.