The Orkney Islands in the Viking Age
How and when did Orkney become such a key player in the relations between Norway and Scotland? Were the Earls of Orkney a barrier to war between the nations?
Medieval Beauty Tips
How did women in the Middle Ages make their hair, faces and skin look beautiful? The Trotula, a medieval text for women written in 12th century Salerno includes recipes and instructions that help ladies clear up their skin, colour their hair and even get rid of the stench from their mouth! Here are 10 excerpts from the Trotula that offer medieval beauty tips!
Would You Survive Childhood In Medieval Europe?
When life is tough, it’s always most difficult for the children. The advances that allowed people to settle in with farms and cattle increased the nutrition and stability, but there were still plenty of things to worry about in Medieval times. Check your knowledge of childhood during this era!
Transvestites in the Middle Ages
An examination of the lives of the transvestite saints whose legends and myths help set Western attitudes toward transvestism.
Vikings and the Dark Ages seen through Continental comics
Medieval ink-heroes from France!
Healthy Eating in the Middle Ages: the Tacuinum Sanitatis
In the late Middle Ages, princes and the powerful learnt the health and hygiene rules of rational medicine from the Tacuinum Sanitatis, a treatise on well-being and health widely disseminated in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Women do not sit as Judges, or do they? The office of Judge in Vincentius Bellovacensis’ Speculum
It was Charles Homer Haskins (1870-1936) who coined the expression “Renaissance of the twelfth century”. Before him this expression referred more specifically to the Italian Renaissance of the fifteenth century as nineteenth century Swiss historian Jakob Burckhardt put it.
This Week in Medieval Manuscript Images
Snails and other dangerous creatures can be found among the more than 60 images we found on Twitter this week!
Recovering the lost details of a medieval map
Researchers at Yale University have started a project to recover details from a 15th-century world map which had been obscured after centuries of fading.
Humour in the Game of Kings: The Sideways Glancing Warder of the Lewis Chessmen
Using the example of a particular piece of the Lewis Chessmen this paper examines both the benefits and the limitations that come about with the cultural approach and cautions against a too rigid application.
Feminine Love in the Twelfth Century – A Case Study: The Mulier in the Lost Love Letters and the Work of Female Mystics
This article compares the twelfth-century writings of the secular mulier in the Lost Love Letters with the work of religious female ‘mystics’ to draw comparisons about the way these authors chose to express love.
The Patriarch Alexios Stoudites and the Reinterpretation of Justinianic Legislation against Heretics
Using normative legal sources such as law codes and imperial novels to illuminate Byzantine heresy is a very difficult proposition. One of the great problems in the analysis of Byzantine law in general is that the normative legal sources rarely were adapted to subsequent economic, political, or social conditions.
Hagiography and the Experience of the Holy in the Work of Gregory of Tours
The rich literature associated with the Desert Fathers provides convincing evidence of the important role played by charismatic figures in the transformation of Late Antiquity.
Flee the loathsome shadow: Marsilio Ficino (1433-99) and the Medici in Florence
This article examines the changing political landscape of Medicean Florence, from Cosimo de’ Medici (1389-1464) to his grandson Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-1492), through the letters of the celebrated neo-Platonist philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433-99).
14 Reasons Why Florence is Great (in 1457)
Giovanni Rucellai, a 15th century merchant, tells us what was so great about Florence during his time.
Unexpected Evidence concerning Gold Mining in Early Byzantium
One of the consequences of the decline of Roman imperial might was the shortage of slaves at state-run mines. Consequently, criminals were often sentenced to damnatio ad metallum. The need for gold especially soared when the gold solidus was introduced at the beginning of the fourth century.
High-Tech Feudalism: Warrior Culture and Science Fiction TV
“Richard ΠΙ with aliens” is how Cornell (102) describes “Sins of the Father,” an episode of Star Trek: TheNext Generation (hereafter TNG) in which the Klingon warrior Worf, son of Mogh, seeks to restore his family’s honour by exposing and challenging those responsible for falsely accusing his dead father of treason to the Klingon Empire.
The Prologue to Alfred’s Law Code: Instruction in the Spirit of Mercy
The Prologue to Alfred’s Law Code: Instruction in the Spirit of Mercy Michael Treschow Florilegium: Volume 13 (1994) Abstract Alfred’s law code tends…
Building Medieval Plate Armor: An Operator’s Guide
The subject was how understanding the design and function of real medieval plate armor can help someone build their own suit of armor in a more historically accurate and properly functional way.
Cut, Chop and Thrust: The Sword through Millennia
Igor and Phillip talk about the history of the European Sword, including its technology, design, rituals, traditions, symbols, social and religious meanings.
The Archaeology of St Paul’s Cathedral
Recent work has brought together what we know of the Anglo-Saxon and medieval cathedrals beneath and around Wren’s St Paul’s, the City of London’s most important historic building and monument.
Which Famous Viking Are You?
Do you sail the Sea of Worms and trade with the Skraelings? Perhaps you’re in service to the Romans-Who-Speak-Greek in Miklagaard.
Intellectual Cartographic Spaces: Alfonso X, the Wise and the Foundation of the Studium Generale of Seville
This dissertation, “Intellectual Cartographic Spaces: Alfonso X, the Wise and the Foundations of the Studium Generale of Seville,” I reevaluate Spain’s medieval history, specifically focusing on the role of Alfonso X and his court in the development of institutions of higher education in thirteenth-century Andalusia.
King’s sister, queen of dissent: Marguerite of Navarre (1492-1549) and her evangelical network
This study reconstructs the previously unknown history of the most important dissident group within France before the French Reformed Church formed during the 1550s.