The Regional Impact on Medieval Text and Image: Exploring Representations of Anti-Semitism in English and Northern French Medieval Bestiaries
This thesis endeavors to explain the variations in representations of anti-Semitism between medieval bestiaries.
‘Forget Your People and Your Father’s House’: Teresa de Cartagena and the Converso Identity
Religion is a very important factor to take into consideration in discussions about the identity of the conversos [converts] or New Christians, an emerging group in 15th-century Castile.
Picturing Maternal Anxiety in the Miracle of the Jew of Bourges
During the middle ages, one of the most popular and most frequently illustrated Miracles of the Virgin Mary was the Miracle of the Jew of Bourges. According to the text of the miracle, the Virgin saves a young Jewish boy after his father throws him into a fiery oven upon learning he attended a Christian mass.
The Patriarch Alexios Stoudites and the Reinterpretation of Justinianic Legislation against Heretics
Using normative legal sources such as law codes and imperial novels to illuminate Byzantine heresy is a very difficult proposition. One of the great problems in the analysis of Byzantine law in general is that the normative legal sources rarely were adapted to subsequent economic, political, or social conditions.
Intellectual Cartographic Spaces: Alfonso X, the Wise and the Foundation of the Studium Generale of Seville
This dissertation, “Intellectual Cartographic Spaces: Alfonso X, the Wise and the Foundations of the Studium Generale of Seville,” I reevaluate Spain’s medieval history, specifically focusing on the role of Alfonso X and his court in the development of institutions of higher education in thirteenth-century Andalusia.
Bede’s Temple as History
Another IHR paper, this time, a talk given about Bede’s writing and his interest in the image of the Temple and its relation to Christianity. This paper also examined how Bede’s views shifted over time. How did Bede view Judaism? Was he truly ambivalent?
Oldest known Jewish prayer book goes on display
An Israeli museum is showcasing a Jewish prayer book that was written in the year 820 – believed to be the oldest known copy of a Siddur.
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.
Race, Periodicity, and the (Neo-) Middle Ages
My goal is to intervene in ongoing discussions of race and periodicity, particularly vis-à-vis medieval culture, in order to investigate the informing role of the medieval and more particularly of medievalisms in the construction, representation, and perpetuation of modern racisms.
The Depiction of Jews in the Carnival Plays and Comedies of Hans Folz and Hans Sachs in Early Modern Nuremberg
This study will thus demonstrate that the Bakhtinian model and its critics both contribute to our understanding of the Fastnachtspiel and the development of early modern German attitudes toward Jews.
Slaves, Money Lenders, and Prisoner Guards: The Jews and the Trade in Slaves and Captives in the Crimean Khanate
Trade in slaves and captives was one of the most important (if not the most important) sources of income of the Crimean Khanate in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.
‘That melodious linguist’: Birds in Medieval Christian and Islamic Cosmography
“Birds,” writes Albertus Magnus, “generally call more than other animals. This is due to the lightness of their spirits.”
Jews in the First Crusade: Culpability, Martyrdom, and Blood Vengeance
In medieval Europe, Jewish writers struggled to make sense of Crusaders’ violence and the Jewish response. Zohar Atkins argues that Jews conceived of theology as a weapon.
The Unwritten Chapter: Notes towards a Social and Religious History of Geniza Magic
How might the historian of religions write a social and religious history of Jewish magic in the medieval Islamicate world?
Big Love in the Middle Ages: Adjudicating Jewish Bigamy in Venetian Crete’s Secular Court
What happened when Catholic doctrine, secular law, and minority religious difference met in that crucible of cultural decision making: the courtroom?
The Khazars did not convert to Judaism, historian finds
It has long been believed that the Khazars, a central Asian people, converted to Judaism in the ninth or tenth century. However, a new article concludes that the conversion never took place.
The Influence of Humanist Culture on Sephardi Scholars Active in Medieval Italy
This talk will set the context by introducing three generations of the Iberian Shohams, a late 14th-mid-15th century Sephardic family moving from Sicily to Apulia and Calabria.
Two Rabbinic Views of Christianity in the Middle Ages
In the sessions of our section over the past decade, I introduced a significant distinction between two rabbinic attitudes in the Mediterranean countries during the Middle Ages of 12th and 13th centuries as to their view of Christianity.
Jewish Shock-Troops of the Apocalypse
It would not be difficult to dismiss the legend of the Antichrist in its medieval manifestations as pure fantasy—analogous to such entertaining motifs as fire-breathing dragons, unicorns, enchantments and the like.
The Daily Life of Slavery and the Global Reach of Slavery in Medieval Egypt, 969-1250 CE
This dissertation examines the geography of the slave trade, the role of slavery in the household, and the lives of domestic slave women in the Egyptian Jewish community under the rule of the Fatimid caliphate and Ayyubid sultanate
Intermarriage Between Christians and Jews in Medieval Canon Law
Restrictions on contact between Christians and Jews appeared early in Christian history and remained a prominent feature of ecclesiastical law throughout the Middle Ages.
Religion and Economy in Pre-Modern Europe: The Medieval Commercial Revolution and the Jews
Jews have often been described as the moneylenders for medieval Europe and considered central in Europe’s shift from a barter economy to a profit economy. This dissertation challenges that narrative historiographically and empirically.
Setting Boundaries: Early Medieval Reflections on Religious Toleration and Their Jewish Roots
This paper explores particular ways in which Judaism’s approach to the problem of tolerating those with whom it could not comfortably live a shared life influenced its daughter faiths, especially Christianity.
Enemies of the Faith: Western Christian Views of Jews and Muslims in the Middle Ages
When we deal with this kind of question it is easy to simply fall into the trap of regarding Muslims and Jews as simply others in the views of Western Europeans. But if you look at things more closely you realize that Western European Christians viewed Muslims and Jews rather differently
Dietary Laws in Medieval Christian-Jewish Polemics: A Survey
In the religious debate between Jews and Christians, the biblical dietary laws come to illustrate important assumptions concerning the “other.”