The Meanings of Nudity in Medieval Art: An Introduction
This simplification is frankly astonishing when one considers the complex, multivalent and inventive iconographic contexts in which full or partial nakedness appears in medieval art.
Fourth-century Hebrew inscription discovered in Portugal
Find is the oldest Jewish archaeological evidence discovered on the Iberian Peninsula
The Difference A King Makes: Religion And National Unity In Spain
It is the end of the Roman period, however, that interests us most. What happened then is a model for the relationship between Church and state that has had an enduring and powerful influence.
Imagining the Witch: A Comparison between Fifteenth-Century Witches within Medieval Christian Thought and the Persecution of Jews and Heretics in the Middle Ages
This paper will examine how the prominent image of the witch in Christian thought during the early modern period emerged from earlier images of the non-Christian Other, Jews and heretics for example.
York’s Blackest Hour
The infamous Shabbos HaGadol massacre of the Jews of York in 1190 was the most notorious example of anti-Semitism in medieval England.
The Stealing of the “Apple of Eve” from the 13th century Synagogue of Winchester
In January 1252, King Henry III sent a remarkable writ to the sheriff of Hampshire.
Social alienation and political subversion: Anti-Judaism in medieval Spanish music
In this thesis, the prevalence of anti-Judaism in the music of Christian Spain from the thirteenth to the end of the fifteenth century is explored.
A partnership culture: Jewish economic and social life seen through the legal documents of the Cairo Geniza
This dissertation explores economic partnership relations in the Jewish community of medieval Egypt, primarily as described in the documents of the Cairo Geniza.
The Illumination of the Worms Mahzor: Description and Iconographical Study
To understand the decoration programme of the Worms Mahzor it is essential to comprehend the structure of the text of the Ashkenazi mahzorim, since the illumination bears a direct rela- tionship to it.
Birds’ Head Haggadah – scholar gives new insights into Jewish medieval text
The Birds’ Head Haggadah, a manuscript dating from around the year 1300, is considered one of the most interesting and mysterious pieces of Jewish art from the Middle Ages.
Exile from England: The Expulsion of the Jews in 1290
Why did the English crown expel the Jews in 1290? Historians have ascribed economical, ecclesiastical, and political motives to the expulsion of the Jews.
First Performance in 400 Years for Medieval Passover Music
Toronto Jewish High School Choir Revives Lost Tunes
Walking in the Shadows of the Past: The Jewish Experience of Rome in the Twelfth Century
During this pivotal century and within the special microcosm of Rome, Jews and Christians experienced unusually robust cultural and social interactions, especially as the Jews increasingly aligned themselves with the protective power of the papacy.
Jewish Communal Organisation in Sixteenth-Century Polish Towns
Therefore, this essay will deal not only with the structures of Jewish communal organisation proper, but also with the question of its emergence and development in the context of its non-Jewish environment.
Towards a History of Tolerance: Christian Attitudes to Jews and Muslims in the Middle Ages
The sometimes benign, often neutral or mildly hostile, occasionally horrifically violent history of inter-faith relations from the time of the First Crusade in the mid-twelfth century through to the end of the fifteenth century forms the backdrop to much of what I have to say
The art of medicine: Midwives and obstetric catastrophe: retrieving the past
For the historian, however, and for any healer with an eye for the human dimensions of medicine, the story has just begun. For Floreta is, in fact, the first known European midwife to be put on trial for the death of a mother in childbirth. Indeed, she is charged not with simple medical negligence, but with premeditated murder.
The Urban Structure of the Jewish Quarter of Girona
The studies that have been carried out to date on the tenth and eleventh-century Jewish community are rather few, in contrast to research done on the community in the twelfth century and thereafter, where documentary and archaeological sources abound.
Bodleian Libraries Cairo Genizah collection now available online
From the store room to the web: Bodleian launches website featuring its 25,000 Cairo Genizah fragments
Purim, Liminality, and Communitas
Elaborate pageants, grotesque masks, drunken revelry, noisemaking, buffoonery, burning of effigies, costume parades, feasts with special delicacies, and every manner of carousing and merrymaking have characterized Purim since rabbinic times
The German and Non-German in Yiddish
Today, scholars of various backgrounds dispute the amount of influence German has had on the development of the Yiddish language. While some scholars claim that German has had minimal influence on Yiddish, others say it is the core resource of the language.
Conversion, Sex, and Segregation: Jews and Christians in Medieval Spain
From the late eleventh century to the end of the fifteenth, significant populations of Jews and Muslims lived under Christian domination in the lands we now call Spain. Their coexistence was not easy, for each of the three religious communities felt at risk, both physically and spiritually, from the others
The legal status of religious minorities in the medieval Mediterranean world: a comparative study
From Baghdad to Barcelona, Jews, Christians and Muslims rubbed shoulders in streets and in marketplaces, shared meals, undertook joint economic ventures, traveled together, etc.
Jewish Magic in a Christian World
Medieval Europe, it can be said, had quite an obsession with magic. Whether they resorted to magical practices to relieve their fears, or had an intense fear of being surrounded by magicians, there is no shortage of evidence documenting the belief in magic during the Middle Ages.
Reading Medieval Religious Disputation: The 1240 “Debate” Between Rabbi Yehiel of Paris and Friar Nicholas Donin
This dissertation takes as its subject the Latin and Hebrew accounts of a much-studied event: the Jewish-Christian Disputation of 1240.
Reconquista and convivencia: Post-conquest Valencia during the Reign of Jaime I, el Conquistador: Interaction between Christians and Muslims (1238-1276)
This study will focus on just one aspect of the transition from Muslim kingdom to medieval Christian state. In 1238, Ciudad de Valencia, the most important urban center in the Muslim kingdom of Valencia would fall to Jaime I, el conquistador, king of Christian Aragon and Catalonia, opening up a vast region to Christian influence.