Rex Vandalorum – The Debates on Wends and Vandals in Swedish Humanism as an Indicator for Early Modern Patterns of Ethnic Perception
The German word Wenden is documented as a synonym for Slavs since
the 6th century A.D.. Medieval authors also used Wandali instead of Wenden/Slavs
Christianization of the Norse c.900-c.1100: A Premeditated Strategy of Life and Death
Examines how Christianization of the Norse in the tenth and eleventh centuries was the effect of a premeditated mission strategy borne from the experiences of converting the Anglo-Saxon English in the seventh century AD.
Flesh of My Flesh – Greek Patristic Exegeses of the Creation of Eve
How do the Greek Fathers deal with these two sometimes conflicting descriptions of creation? Some, most notably John Chrysostom, treat it at length.
Byzantines, Goths and Lombards in Italy: Jewellery, Dress and Cultural Interactions
The temptation is naturally to seek differences or contrasts from one power to another, to reinforce the conflict and tension identified in contemporary historians.
Colour in Dore Abbey
Modern visitors can touch the furniture, see the kitchens, walk around the hall and guestroom, enjoy live fires (unusual for many children) and even take part in re-enactments that can include the ‘King’ himself.
The development of education for deaf people
Some aspects of the history of blind education, deaf education, and deaf-blind education with emphasis on the time before 1900.
Christmas: Its Origin and Associations: Together with Its Historical Events and Festive Celebrations During Nineteen Centuries
Henceforth, I became a snapper-up of everything relating to Christmastide, utilised every opportunity of searching libraries, bookstalls, and catalogues of books in different parts of the country…
Alienated from the womb: abortion in the early medieval West, c.500-900
Early medieval churchmen, rulers, and jurists saw multiple things in abortion and there were multiple perspectives upon abortion.
Khazaria: A Forgotten Jewish Empire
Nicholas Soteri reflects on the early religious controversies of Eastern Europe, focusing in particular on an often overlooked kingdom, the Khazar.
The Exceptional Jewess and the Foolish Jew
In 1555, Pietro Fortini, a Sienese real estate investor, vicar, and paper industry entrepreneur began composing his two-part collection of novellas…
CATHARISM AND THE TAROT
The idea of heretical origins for the Tarot still attracts attention because the Medieval heresies share two important traits with modern Tarotists.
Words and music in communion: an analysis of Guillaume de Machaut’s “Le Lay de la Fonteinne” in cultural context
In this thesis, I shall attempt to define and then analyze the multiple elements present in Guillaume de Machaut’s “Le Lay de la fonteinne,”especially those elements that encapusulate the medieval myth of secular divinity.
A Ready Hatred: Depictions of the Jewish Woman in Medieval Antisemitic Art and Caricature
The medieval mind was not entirely comfortable with the notion of Jesus’ circumcision. On the one hand, it was a well-known fact of his early childhood, and was celebrated as a holiday in the religious calendar.
A Chivalrous Man is Not a Gentleman: A Look at Chivalry in the Age of Chaucer
The concept of knighthood began as a military strategy used to supply men to fight kings’ wars, but it gradually developed into the glamorized ideal of chivalry and became associated with virtuous behavior expected during times of both war and peace.
Anglo-Saxon Double Monasteries
Monks and nuns living together: not a cause for scandal but, as Barbara Mitchell explains, an intriguing window onto the variety of monastic life – under the aegis of remarkable abbesses – before the Conquest.
God and the Normans
David Crouch reconsiders William I and his sons as men of genuine piety – as well as soldiers.
The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople
Jonathan Phillips sees one of the most notorious events in European history as a typical ‘clash of cultures’
Culpability and Concealed Motives: An Analysis of the Parties Involved in the Diversion of the Fourth Crusade
This article is in direct contrast to an earlier one by Joseph Gill, in which he utilizes primary sources in an attempt to establish Pope Innocent III’s lack of responsibility in the outcome of the Crusade.
Practical Texts in Difficult Situations: Bulgarian Medieval Charms as Apocrypha and Fachliteratur
The apocrypha are one of the most important phenomena of the Middle Ages. They provide a different perspective and a valuable insight to the mentality of the period.
Foundlings, asylums, almshouses and orphanages: early roots of child protection
Historically, when societies faced serious economic problems, competing demands for resources, or implicit cultural expectations, those with the lowest social status fared poorly.
HASKINS CONFERENCE: Hagiography at the Frontiers: Jocelin of Furness and his Near Contemporaries
This paper focuses on the writing of Cistercian Jocelin of Furness.
The Image of the Oriental: Western and Byzantine Perceptions
This article explores the aspects of both absence and presence in the representation of “Otherness” in medieval iconography of the Bible.
The Medieval Friaries of London
The five friaries under review are the houses that lasted up to the Dissolution in 1538: the Dominican Black Friars, the Franciscan Grey Friars, Carmelite White Friars, Augustinian Austin Friars and the house of Crossed or Crutched Friars
Deplatonising the Celestial Hierarchy. Peter John Olivi’s interpretation of the Pseudo-Dionysius
These two different pedigrees could not be easily reconciled. The encounter of biblical and Neoplatonic angels produced one of the most crucial questions that theologians had to face in the second half of the thirteenth century…