Temples of Medieval Deccan India
The Deccan plateau of peninsular India witnessed an unparalleled efflorescence in sacred Hindu and Jain architecture and art in the medieval age.
Recent research on the early medieval monastery of Lindisfarne (Holy Island)
In this lecture David Petts will explore the results coming out from research by Durham University and DigVentures at the site of the early medieval monastery of Lindisarne. This has been the first sustained excavation on this major centre of British Christianity and has revealed evidence for burial, craft and industry.
Wars in the Workshop: Digitizing Manuscript Rolls
Dr. Hodgson discusses some of the issues relating to the digitization of manuscript rolls, focusing on a fifteenth-century genealogical roll known as the Canterbury Roll.
Beta Samati and the Aksumite Empire of East Africa: From the Red Sea to the Ancient Mediterranean
This was the mighty Empire of Aksum, an ancient east African kingdom that thrived at the same time as the Roman and Byzantine empires.
Whose Aristotle? Latinate Knowledge and Vernacular Translation in Medieval Italy
By staging the anxieties connected with the vulgarization of knowledge, the novella seizes upon a phenomenon—vernacular—whose significance to Medieval and Renaissance culture can hardly be overstated.
Kings of the Angles and Kings of the English: Royal Saints in the Prayer Book Calendar
What I’m going to do is first to give an introduction to the royal saints who appear in the Calendar of the Prayer Book to talk about their lives and the history of their veneration, and then to think about what their inclusion in that calendar can tell us about the intertwined history of the English monarchy and the English church.
‘Bushidō’ and What Bushi Did: Loyalty, Reputation and Honor in the Samurai Tradition
To describe samurai culture in historical reality, we must first ask “which samurai historical reality?”
The Rescue of Armenian Historiography and the Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa
Of the thirty-five manuscripts that remain of the 12th-century Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa, not a single one dates from before 1590, but over half of them were produced by 1700.
The Role of Colors in the Middle Ages: Materiality and Theories
This lecture aims to show some of these aspects related to the perception and role played by color in medieval societies with particular reference to the art of the central Middle Ages (twelfth-thirteenth century) and to the medium that perhaps more than any other focused on the visual power of colors: stained glass.
V for Viking
I want to talk a little bit about aspects of my more public-facing academic research and public engagement
Safe Travels: Taming the Seas through Image, Word, and Sacred Matter in Byzantium
One of the papes given at The Byzantines and the Sea in Texts and Images conference
Insiders, Outsiders and In Between: The Jews of Medieval Europe
The talk will examine instances of business partnerships, neighborly interactions and religious ritual and attempt to provide a complex understanding of the dynamics of daily life.
Imagining Microplaces: From Medieval into the Present
Exploring how thinking through microplace might open up new possibilities for historians, bringing together research, imagination, and varied tools for immersive, experiential analysis and interpretation.
Battering Ram and Fire: Civic Glory and Devastation in Dante’s Age
Battering Ram and Fire: Civic Glory and Devastation in Dante’s Age Lecture by Areli Marina Given as part of the Conway Lectures at…
The Knowledge of Carpenters from the Early Medieval Period to the Eighteenth Century in Setting Out Roofs and Buildings Without Geometry and Numerical Measurement
How medieval carpenters could set out roofs and buildings without the use of geometry and numerical measurement which wasn’t established in England until 1588 by Elizabeth I.
Living on a Prayer? Parish Guilds in the Middle Ages
What was their role in medieval society, who could belong to them, and to quote the famous Bon Jovi classic. were they simply living on a prayer?
What Makes Bibliography Critical? A Medievalist’s Response
How does a Western medievalist breathe new life into bibliography, that bread-and-butter of their scholarly pursuits?
Scriptural Reasoning, Medieval Style: Interfaith Dialogue in Twelfth-Century Paris
Andrew of Saint Victor’s commentary on Isaiah caused a scandal almost as soon as it was written, around 1150. Unlike most of his contemporaries, Andrew often spurned the Christian meaning of the text, in favor of interpretation he found in contemporary Jewish commentators.
Entangled Magic in the Medieval Latin West
Why were medieval magic texts debated by intellectuals and collected by monks, and what new, rich and surprising views of the cosmos did they express?
Digging into the Dark Ages: Early Medieval Fake Histories and How to Combat Them
Howard Williams will address how archaeology has long transformed our understanding of the period and yet myths, legends, fantasies and fake histories persist.
A Pilgrim from Xanadu: How A Christian Monk Discovered Medieval Europe
The first-hand records of Bar Sauma’s amazing mission allow us to trace his odyssey from Beijing to Baghdad, and on to Rome and Bordeaux.
The Astonishing Survival of the Gladzor Gospels
The Gladzor Gospels (1300-07) is an incomparable illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels and one of the gems of UCLA Library Special Collections
Body Like Withered Wood and Heart like Dead Ashes: The Remains of Kamatari’s Statue at Tōnomine
At the beginning of Jōgen 2 (1208), Kinpusen armed troops stormed Tōnomine, setting fire to worship halls and monastic quarters and destroying several sacred items.
Viking Age boat burials: a history of research
Boats form a subset of grave goods increasingly found in Viking Age burials, which have been the subject of much scholarly debate, especially from the 19th century onwards.
