Dyes, Diets and Deodorants: Venetian Beauty Secrets Revealed
If you think it’s hard to keep up a beauty regime now, wait until you see what lengths the Venetians went to in order to be beautiful!
Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci to tour British Isles in 2016
Throughout 2016, ten of the finest drawings by Leonardo da Vinci in the Royal Collection will travel to four museums and galleries across the United Kingdom and Ireland in a new exhibition.
Shadow of the Sword (The Headsman)
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau gives us a sympathetic Headsman in Reformation Austria, in the ‘Shadow of the Sword (The Headsman)’.
Magna Carta: The Road to Runnymede
A look at the creation of the British Library’s Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy exhibition.
BOOKS: Medieval Ireland
In celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, here are some great books on medieval Ireland!
10 Creepy Things to See at the Louvre That Are Better Than the Mona Lisa
If you’re an ancient historian, a medievalist, or early modernist, there are so many other amazing pieces and works of art a the Louvre other than these two tourist staples. Here is my list of cool, creepy, unusual and better than the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris.
A peasant is a peasant, is a peasant? : Medieval Maritime Peasant Lives
A peasant is a peasant, is a peasant…or is s/he? Was the life of a peasant who lived in the coastal regions of England the same as that of the peasant who made his livelihood toiling on the land for his local lord?
Move over Milan! Late Medieval and Renaissance Fashion in Venice
Milan may be Italy’s current fashion capital, but Venice had an important role to play in the development of the Italian fashion and textile industry since the late middle ages and renaissance period.
Medieval Books for Christmas
It’s that time of year again – the mad scramble for the perfect Christmas gift for the historian, nerd, avid reader on your list. Here are a few suggestions for you – new releases for December and January!
Love and Marriage on the Medieval English Stage: Using the English Cycle Plays as Sources for Social History
Much scholarship concerning the concept of “companionate” marriage traces its origins to the early modern period as clergymen, especially Protestant ones, began to publish “guides” to the relationships and respective duties of husbands and wives in the 1500s and 1600s.
The Sincere Body: The Performance of Weeping and Emotion in Late Medieval Italian Sermons
In 1493 the well-known and controversial Franciscan preacher Bernardino of Feltre gave a series of Lenten sermons to the people of Pavia. On March 11 he dedicated an entire sermon to the necessity of contrition—or perfect sorrow over sin—in the rite of confession.
Flandria Illustrata: Flemish Identities in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period
This chapter discusses identity formation in early modern Flanders. It argues that policy makers and their intellectual agents transformed the perception of a province that had been divided by urban rivalries, civil war and conflicts with the Burgundian and Habsburg overlords, into a bastion of the Catholic Counter Reformation with strong ties to the Spanish King and his representatives.
Renaissance Contacts Between Dubrovnik (Ragusa) and the Kingdom of Hungary
During the rule of the Angevin dynasty (1308-82) in Hungary, towns and cities increasingly assumed greater political influence. The first treaty between the King of Hungary and Dubrovnik (in those days Ragusa) was signed in 1358, during the reign of Louis (Lajos) the Great.
Flee the loathsome shadow: Marsilio Ficino (1433-99) and the Medici in Florence
This article examines the changing political landscape of Medicean Florence, from Cosimo de’ Medici (1389-1464) to his grandson Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-1492), through the letters of the celebrated neo-Platonist philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433-99).
King’s sister, queen of dissent: Marguerite of Navarre (1492-1549) and her evangelical network
This study reconstructs the previously unknown history of the most important dissident group within France before the French Reformed Church formed during the 1550s.
Constructing social identity in Renaissance Florence: Botticelli’s ‘Portrait of a Lady’
This study scrutinizes a work within a neglected portion of Botticelli’s oeuvre, examining the ways in which its modest, and somewhat ambiguous, visual cues also construct its sitter’s elevated social identity, while simultaneously protecting it.
Conflicting expectations: Parish priests in late medieval Germany
The study investigates the expectations various groups in late medieval German society held of their parish priests and how these expectations were mediated through specific relationships.
Crafting the witch: Gendering magic in medieval and early modern England
This project documents and analyzes the gendered transformation of magical figures occurring in Arthurian romance in England from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries.
10 Terrifying Reads for Halloween!
Here are some spooky medieval books for you to celebrate with over Halloween!
Late Medieval Knight Reflecting on his Public Life: Hugo de Urriés (c. 1405-c. 1493), Diplomacy and Translating the Classics
This article focuses on Aragonese courtier Hugo de Urriés’s public profile by means of analyzing the critical points derived from examining his personal, political, cultural and historical stands making use of an invaluable primary source, his letter to Fernando the Catholic in the early 1490s.
The Floating State: Trade Embargoes and the Rise of a New Venetian State
This paper was given by Georg Christ and examined embargoes and state formation in the late medieval and early modern period in Venice.
Bleeding flowers and waning moons: a history of menstruation in France, c. 1495-1761
This thesis explores early modem perceptions of menstrual bleeding, demonstrating that attempts to understand menstrual bleeding extended beyond the early modem medical world
Urban Territories in Late Medieval Brussels. Imagined Frontiers and Responsible Institutions
This chapter focuses on the spatial analysis of intra-urban territories which existed in late medieval and early modern Brussels (Belgium). By studying their morphological characteristics and origins, I seek to understand their functions within urban society.
The Lit de Justice: Semantics, Ceremonial, and the Parlement of Paris, 1300–1600
The curious phrase lit de justice originated in the fourteenth century and by the first decade of the fifteenth century designated particularly important royal sessions of the Parlement of Paris.
10 Things to See at Southwark Cathedral
My 10 favourite things about Southwark Cathedral.