From Sin to Capitalism: Jacques Le Goff on Usury in the Middle Ages
Nearly forty years after its publication, Jacques Le Goff’s Your Money or Your Life remains a key work on medieval religion, usury, and the origins of capitalism.
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How to have a Renaissance Hairstyle
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Ten papers to look forward to at the International Medieval Congress 2013
Pleasure will be theme at this year’s International Medieval Congress, which will be held at the University of Leeds from July 1-4
The Heavy Plough and the European Agricultural Revolution of the Middle Ages.
In the period from the 9th century to the end of the 13th century, the medieval European economy underwent unprecedented productivity growth
Ransoming prisoners of war became widespread in the Hundred Years War, new book finds
‘There is widespread evidence to suggest that during the 15th century the practice of ransom is increasingly extended to commoners, not just kings or chivalrous knights.’
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Throughout the middle ages when men went to war, they expected to make a profit, to take plunder and capture prisoners.
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This paper explores the accounts of Norse Greenland in the medieval Icelandic sagas, looking past the Vínland sagas to examine ways in which Greenlandic settings are employed in the ‘post-classical’ saga-tradition and other texts.
The Anglo-Saxons in Leicestershire
The introduction of fieldwalking to the county came in the late 1970s, but at this stage the small and fragile early Anglo-Saxon potsherds were not recognised in the field. No one was claiming to have found sites of this period. In fact, it was often claimed that it could not be done. It would be very useful and interesting to re-examine all of the potsherds found during the early years, looking for previously unidentified early Anglo-Saxon and perhaps Iron Age pottery.
Ordering the medieval past : England and the continent compared
The English view of the Middle Ages is uncontroversial and untroubled. There is no doubt in the English mind that the thousand years between Rome and the Renaissance are an intrinsic part of our past and that we owe much to the Middle Ages for which we can still be thankful
Emma of Normandy, Queen of England
In reading about the successors of Alfred, I came across a Queen, Emma, who really intrigued me. It was because of her, the course of English history was sent into a completely different direction.
Syphilis in Renaissance Europe: rapid evolution of an introduced sexually transmitted disease?
When syphilis first appeared in Europe in 1495, it was an acute and extremely unpleasant disease. After only a few years it was less severe than it once was, and it changed over the next 50 years into a milder, chronic disease.
Jews of Medieval Eastern Europe migrated from Caucasus region, study shows
Despite being one of the most genetically analysed groups, the origin of European Jews has remained obscure.
William Caxton’s Contributions to the English Language and Books and Libraries
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The Sack of Viking Limerick
They carried of their jewels and their best property, and their saddles beautiful and foreign; their gold and their silver; their beautifully woven cloth of all colours and of all kinds…
Genre Into Artifact: the Decline of the English Chronicle In the Sixteenth Century
Most modern scholars would agree with the thrust of these contemporary statements even while making the more subtle distinctions among different chroniclers that the perspective of four centuries provides. Few would now wish to argue that the chronicle, once the form of historical writing, had fallen into anything but a state of decay.
Was there Race before Modernity? The Example of ‘Jewish’ Blood in Late Medieval Spain
Less than a lifetime ago many scholars agreed that racial concepts offered reasonable explanations for the differences they perceived between certain human populations.
Christine de Pizan in her study
By the time Christine began the Cité des dames which she completed in 1405 she stated firmly that it had become the “habit of my life” to study literature (in which she included history) and as usual she was sitting in her cell. But how did this become such a habit?
Mussolini Looks at Jan Hus and the Bohemian Reformation
We can then define the book’s salient tenets as: nationalism; religion, understood generally as faith in an idea; the centrality of a leader incarnating and directing this idea, which then engulfed the masses; warning against the fission, which tended to weaken radical movements; and a strong social instinctive
Silence through schism and two Reformations: 451-1500
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Islamic Monuments and National Patrimony in Modern Spain
In Spain, the Islamic past usefully differentiates Iberia from the rest of Europe, and its monuments—particularly the Great Mosque of Cordoba and the Alhambra—are a source of pride. However, the Islamic past is treated as ‘distant.’
Secret histories of illuminated manuscripts: the MINIARE project
Secret histories of illuminated manuscripts: the MINIARE project From the University of Cambridge An innovative project at the University of Cambridge will uncover…
Jan Hus: The 15th Century Czech Reformer
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Conservation at Ani Cathedral and the Church of the Holy Savior
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The Conquest of Wales (1282)
That was when an English king, Edward the First, sent an army along this route I’m travelling now. He conquered Wales, he built castles as symbols of his power, and he shipped in English settlers to exploit this land. And the Welsh became second-class citizens in their own country.
BooksAll posts
From Sin to Capitalism: Jacques Le Goff on Usury in the Middle Ages
Nearly forty years after its publication, Jacques Le Goff’s Your Money or Your Life remains a key work on medieval religion, usury, and the origins of capitalism.
New Medieval Books: Medieval Mining and Power in Thirteenth-Century Europe
New Medieval Books: The Philokalia
New Medieval Books: The Genius of Invective
New Medieval Books: The Medieval Mediterranean between Islam and Christianity
Earth Wounds: Creative Explorations of Viking Age Funerary Customs
New Medieval Books: Exhortation to the Monks by Hyperechios
New Cambridge History Explores the Arthurian Legend from the Middle Ages to Modern Media
New Medieval Books: The People’s Princes
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The Menologion of Basil II, with Charlie Kuper
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