The Pagan Heritage of St George
In this paper, I want to look at the legend of St George and at possible pagan and pre-Christian sources for the legend, as well as some of the other literary descendants that may be associated with him.
The 727/1327 Silk Weavers’ Rebellion in Alexandria: Religious Xenophobia, Homophobia, or Economic Grievances
A brawl in the streets of 14th century Alexandria between Egyptians and Europeans – what caused it?
The Sovereign and the Pirates, 1332
One Monday in early Spring 1332 a galley commanded by two Genoese ran aground on the tiny island of Brescou in the Mediterranean, a mile or so off shore of the episcopal city of Agde.
Columban Christian influence in Northumbria, before and after Whitby
The Synod of Whitby of 664 has traditionally been regarded as the great ‘set-piece’ debate between the so-called ‘Celtic’ and Roman churches in Britain, and as the turning-point for Irish – and more specifically Columban – ecclesiastical domination in Northumbria (and beyond).
Medieval Cures from The Alphabet of Galen
Use green mint to stop hiccups, radish to relieve aching joints and donkey dung as toothpaste! Some medieval cures from the Alphabet of Galen, the pharmacy handbook of the Middle Ages.
Medieval Military Technology
A new edition of Medieval Military Technology, by Kelly DeVries and Robert D. Smith, is now available.
Poisons and Poisoning in the Republic of Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik authorities occasionally resorted to poisoning as a means of resolving state affairs.
Servants’ Tales at Twelfth-Century English Shrines
Using the stained glass windows of Canterbury Cathedral, Koopmans examines how they show the lay people, including servants, more informal helpers and hangers on, and how they correspond to textual references to what the laity did at shrines.
In It for the Money: The Birth of Commercial Book Production
This lecture introduces the main players of this world of medieval book commerce — parchment makers, paid scribes, illuminators, shopkeepers — and discusses why these traditionally separate professions blended into a closely knit community that stands at the cradle of our bookish world today.
Abandoned to Love: The Proceso of María de Cazalla and the Mirror of Simple Souls
In comparing the trial of María de Cazalla with Marguerite Porete’s Mirror of Simple Souls, one of the most notable works of medieval mysticism, the present study aims to demonstrate how the main components of alumbradismo may be discerned in a single normative example of medieval mystical theology.
“So Stirring a Woman Was She”: A Closer Look at Early Modern Representations of Matilda, Lady of the English
I demonstrate what early modern subjects thought about their own queens by showing how authors and historians wrote about Matilda before, during, and after the reigns of Queens of Mary I and Elizabeth I
The Duomo: The Touchstone of Florence
The Duomo, ‘cathedral’ in Italian, is the touchstone of Florence’s architectural achievements and was built to serve forever as a symbol of Florence’s power and prosperity to the surrounding Tuscan communities.
Women’s Experiences During the Wars of the Roses
This paper will discuss the lived experiences of women of the English nobility and gentry during the period between 1450 and 1485, which covers the end of the Hundred Year’s War to the end of the Wars of the Roses.
The Royal Abbey of Fontevrault: Religious Women and the Shaping of Gendered Space
This article examines the religious and architectural history of the Royal Abbey of Fontevrault, in the French province of Anjou, investigating the active and deliberate role women played in shaping the physical and symbolic space of this female monastic community.
Funding given to commemorate the 500th Anniversary of the Battle of Flodden
The Flodden 500 Project will receive £887,300 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to commemorate the 500th anniversary of one of the largest battles ever fought between Scottish and English forces.
The invasion of Scotland, 934
The various conflicts and settlements in the period 920 to 945 are often considered inisolation but they are connected and also together form part of two longer-term processes
Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie’s Approach to History
How do an historian’s sources affect his history writing?
Technological Development in Late Saxon Textile Production: its relationship to an emerging market economy and changes in society
The process of change from domestic textile production in early Anglo-Saxon England (5th – mid-7th century) to the more commercially based, organised industry of the late Saxon period (late 9th – 11th century) is a long and complex one.
The Meaning of the Great Mosque of Cordoba in the Tenth Century
The Great Mosque of Cordoba is universally recognized as one of the most singular monuments of medieval architecture. Celebrated for its harmony, balance, dramatic use of light and decoration, and its overall unity and aesthetic sensitivity, the monument belongs to an established functional type, the hypostyle mosque, but amounts to more than a mere variant of this type.
John Scotus Eriugena
Eriugena, master of the liberal arts, translator, philologue, poet, philosopher, and theologian, ‘reinvented the greater part of the theses of Neoplatonism’, by his time largely forgotten in the Latin West.
Avorio d’ogni ragione: the supply of elephant ivory to northern Europe in the Gothic era
Why, after a scarcity of elephant ivory in northern Europe during the twelfth century, was there sudden access to such large tusks around 1240?
Where does Old Norse religion end?
How did the believers of the Old Norse religion perceive other religions, and to what extent did people from the outside get in contact with myths and rituals?