The Medieval Moon with Ayoush Lazikani
This week on The Medieval Podcast, Danièle speaks with Ayoush Lazikani about what – and who – medieval people across the world believed the moon to be.
Latest Posts
Premodern Queenship and Diplomacy in Europe – conference and lectures to be hosted by Canterbury Christ Church University
Canterbury Christ Church University is hosting two free public lectures this week on the role that medieval and early modern queens played in diplomatic relations throughout Europe.
Historian to develop online edition of the Augsburg Master Builders’ ledgers
The German Research Foundation has awarded Professor Jörg Rogge of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz a grant of EUR 400,000 to create a digital edition of the Augsburg Master Builders’ ledgers.
Top 10 Scandals of the Middle Ages
What are the scandals that made headlines in the Middle Ages? Kings and Popes would be involved in some of the craziest stories of sex and corruption that would make today’s news seem quite tame. From a cross-dressing prostitute to the trial of a dead Pope, here are ten almost-unbelievable medieval scandals.
Viking Fortress discovered in Denmark
Archaeologists from The Danish Castle Centre and Aarhus University have made a sensational discovery south of Copenhagen, Denmark. On fields at Vallø Estate, near Køge, they have discovered traces of a massive Viking fortress built with heavy timbers and earthen embankments. The perfectly circular fortress is similar to the famous so-called ‘Trelleborg’ fortresses, which were built by King Harald Bluetooth around AD 980.
Call for Papers: Third Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies
June 17-19, 2013 at Saint Louis University
Narratives of resistance: arguments against the mendicants in the works of Matthew Paris and William of Saint-Amour
The rise of the new mendicant orders, foremost the Franciscans and Dominicans, is one of the great success stories of thirteenth-century Europe. Combining apostolic poverty with sophisticated organization and university learning, they brought much needed improvements to pastoral care in the growing cities.
The Case of the Greenlandic Assembly Sites
In the early 20th century, scholars identified two possible Greenlandic assembly sites at Brattahalíð and Garðar respectively.
Turning Toward Death: The Medievals’ Terrestrial Treatment of Death in Art During the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries
Throughout the Middle Ages, religious iconography was a main theme of art and the Church heavily patronized works that embodied virtuous ideals. Art was often used as a religious implement in which the Church instructed the illiterate masses. However, art can also represent pain and trauma acting as an outlet for the artist.
Characteristics of Medieval Artillery in the Light of Written Sources from Bohemia and Poland
Artillery appears in Central Europe at the end of the 14th c. and it starts playing a more significant role only in the next century.
Sleepwalking and Murder in the Middle Ages
It happens that many people get up at night while asleep, take weapons or sticks, or ride a horse.What is the cause of this? What is the remedy?
Banditry and the Clash of Powers in 14th-Century Thrace: Momcilo and his Fragmented Memory
In the 14th century, a time of civil wars, religious and dynastic strifes, epidemics, natural disasters and miserable living conditions for the wider strata in the cities and the countryside that increased migratory movements, banditry, an indigenous phenomenon in the Balkan mountainous regions, intermingled with the intensified political struggles.
The Friars Preachers: The First Hundred Years of the Dominican Order
When Dominic of Caleruega began preaching in southern France in the early 1200s, he would have had no idea of the far reaching influence that the band of men he would attract would leave such a broad and enduring influence on medieval history.
The Perquisite of a Medieval Wedding: Barbara of Cilli’s Acquisition of Wealth, Power, and Lands
The aim of my research will be on the one hand to highlight the beginnings of Barbara’s relationship with Sigismund; particularly their engagement and wedding…
Irish Hagiographical Lives in the Twelfth Century: Church Reform before the Anglo-Norman Invasion
In order to further disentangle the reality and fiction of this view of culture versus barbarity and of reform versus wickedness, I shall analyse twelfth-century Irish vitae.
Fast and Feast – Christianization through the Regulation of Everyday Life
This article will illustrate that an important part of rulers’ wish to create a Christian society was the introduction of Christian legislation.
The Sign of the Cross on the Early Medieval Axes: A Symbol of Power, Magic or Religion?
The tradition of adorning of weapons goes back into the distant past. In the early Middle Ages people also tried to make their weapons look impressive.
Taxes, Loans, Credit and Debts in the 15th Century Towns of Moravia: A Case Study of Olomouc and Brno
The paper explores urban public finance in the late medieval towns on the example of two largest cities in Moravia—Olomouc and Brno.
Arms and Armor: A Farewell to Persistant Myths and Misconceptions
But the image remains—the knight in shining armor, gleaming, protected, hidden, isolated behind helm; yet gallant, courtly, protector of the weak, of maidens, of orphans, widows; dedicated to God, devoted to the distant lady, never turning back from the challenge of a joust, brave and gentle, proud and courteous, forever riding off in search for adventure, in quest of Holy Grail or holy war.
20 Great Quotes about History
From the funny to the profound, here are 20 people with famous quotes about history.
Constructing the Wicked Witch: Discourses of Power in the Witch-Hunts of Early Modern Germany
For the people of early modern Germany, the witch was not the cackling menace of fairytales or myth, but a real-life scourge on society that needed to be purged from their lives.
Vassals or Vikings?: Orkney‘s identity in the changing Norwegian world (1151-1206)
Throughout the Middle Ages, the Jarldom of Orkney and Caithness maintained a fine balance between its geographical proximity to the Scottish mainland and its political and cultural proximity to the kingdom of Norway.
Europe and the beginning of Scottish sovereignty
Scotland’s story may have been distinctive, but its experience was not.
Justinian’s Reconquest: Notions of Return in Procopius’ Gothic Wars
Though the native Italians play a relatively minor role in the Gothic Wars, the essay will suggest, that in Procopius’ mind, the Western Romans’ ‘decision’ to forego their martial roles for less martial forms of male self-fashioning in the fifth century had led, not only to the rise of the ‘barbarian’ Vandals and the Goths, but had separated the Italians from an essential component of Romanitas—masculine martial virtues.
Anglo-Saxon Portraits: King Raedwald
In less than ten days the team unearthed Britain’s richest ever grave – 263 objects of gold, silver, bronze, iron, gems, leather, wood, textiles, feathers and fur, laid out in a wooden chamber at the centre of a buried ship. It was a sensation that attracted a police guard and an article in the Illustrated London News.
BooksAll posts
New Medieval Books: The Secret Middle Ages
Art and artefacts from the Middle Ages offer a vivid window into the values, fears, and imaginations of medieval society. This updated edition explores how these objects reflect beliefs and folklore—both devout and delightfully strange.
New Medieval Books: The Formidable Women Who Shaped Medieval Europe
New Medieval Books: Medievalism in Russian and Ukrainian Political Discourses
New Medieval Books: Thomas Becket and His World
New Medieval Books: Art, Power, and Resistance in the Middle Ages
New Medieval Books: The Queenship of Mathilda of Flanders, c. 1031-1083
New Medieval Books: Boccaccio
New Medieval Books: The Observations of Gilles le Bouvier
New Medieval Books: The World Until 1400 According to Ibn Khaldun
Latest Podcast EpisodesAll posts
The Medieval Moon with Ayoush Lazikani
This week on The Medieval Podcast, Danièle speaks with Ayoush Lazikani about what – and who – medieval people across the world believed the moon to be.
Coping with earthquakes in the churches of Constantinople, with Mark Roosien
A conversation with Mark Roosien about the earthquakes that struck Constantinople in late antiquity and about how emperors and the people of the City reacted to them in the moment. We focus on the church liturgies that commemorated and tried to make sense of them.
The Language of Heresy with Erin Wagner
This week on The Medieval Podcast, Danièle speaks with Erin Wagner about what late medieval people meant when they used the word heresy, how the usage evolved, and how medieval people applied ideas of heresy beyond the borders of Christianity.
Balthild of Francia with Isabel Moreira
This week on The Medieval Podcast, Danièle speaks with Isabel Moreira about Queen Balthild of Francia, her influence, and her lasting legacy.
Medieval Vampire Epidemics with John Blair
This week on The Medieval Podcast, Danièle speaks with John Blair about who refused to rest in peace in the Middle Ages, how medieval people attempted to keep the dead buried, and why some hauntings reached epidemic proportions.
The Decline of Animal Sacrifice in the Late Roman World, with James Rives
A conversation with James Rives on the history of ancient animal sacrifice in the Roman world. We focus on its decline and eventual demise in the third and fourth centuries. Animal sacrifice was caught up in the conflicts between the Roman emperors and the Christian Church, which endowed it with an importance it had not had before.