Al-Idrisi and His World Map (1154)
Working for eighteen years under the patronage of the Norman King Roger II Guiscard of Sicily, who gathered scholars from many regions at his court in Palermo, the Moroccan geographer Al-Idrīsī in 1154 completed a description and an atlas of maps of the known world.
Civic Knighthood in the Early Renaissance: Leonardo Bruni’s De militia (ca. 1420)
This little piece of buffoonery gives us a good idea of what knighthood had come to mean in the minds of many Italians by the late fourteenth century. For the Florentine judge, his knighthood was an honor which gave him the opportunity to dress up in a dazzling costume. It was a piece of merchandise he had purchased; nothing more. He had no sense of shame at his lack of bellica virtus.
Stradioti: Balkan Mercenaries in Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century Italy
This paper will investigate the origins of the stradioti, their ethnic and regional composition, their role in the armies of the 15th and 16th centuries, and their participation in the founding of Greek Orthodox Communities in the Italy and elsewhere.
Sacred Conquest and Ecclesiastical Politics: The Normans and the Church in the Eleventh Century
The Normans’ success hinged upon their ability to appear as divinely appointed rulers who served, protected, and guided the Church in the countries they held. They derived authority from the Church, and they also exercised authority over it.
From illicit usurers to magnificent statesmen: Florence’s dynamic perceptions of wealth, economics and banking from the 13th to the 15th century
Florence’s impact on the commercial revolution of late medieval and early Renaissance Europe was unique in several ways. A landlocked republic, by all appearances it would seem to have been at a geographical disadvantage compared to major port cities
such as Pisa, Genoa, and Venice, which participated in trade by both land and sea, across the Mediterranean and the Levant.
Law and War in Late Medieval Italy: The Jus Commune on War and Its Application in Florence, c. 1150-1450
This study examines the development of the theory of war in the jus commune, or common law, of the late Middle Ages, and considers how such legal theory was put into practice by the government of Florence in the same period. In particular, the study examines the law on war in the fourteenth century in detail, and places Florentine wartime diplomacy in the context of its legal disputes and negotiations, in the period 1388-1402.
Stones of Medieval Italy
To celebrate the publication of Italian Medieval Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Cloisters by Lisbeth Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Jack Soultanian, international specialists will present talks on medieval sculpture.
Fra Mauro’s world map (c. 1448-1459): mapping, mediation and the Indian Ocean world in the early Renaissance
Begun around 1448 and completed some time before 1459, Fra Mauro’s World map, illustrated in the figure accompanying this article, is a beautiful object.
The Myth of Parisian Scholars’ Opposition to the System of Papal Provision (1378–1418)
It is clear, however, that Parisian scholars did repeatedly and vehe- mently call for the suppression of Benedict XIII’s powers of papal provision. They advocated this policy as early as 1395.
Social Networking in Medieval Italian Towns
Lineage was the first form of social alliance, for blood was a guaranteed and undeniable bond. This alliance would then extend to non-kin but based on the same idea of unquestionable loyalty to the noble head.
Lauding the Locality: Urban Architecture in Medieval Sienese Painting
Looking into the backdrops of medieval art compositions, it becomes obvious that portraying the commune was an opportunity artists seized to portray their communities and their participation in public life.
State power and illicit sexuality: the persecution of sodomy in late medieval Bruges
The study of marginal groups in the late medieval Low Countries is much neglected. The issues of when, where and how homosexuals came to be marginalized, to be regarded as a danger to social order, have not been specifically investigated in this part of Europe.
Objects of Devotion: The Material Culture of Italian Renaissance Piety, 1400–1600
Why did Renaissance shoppers fill their baskets with rosaries, crucifixes, Christ-dolls and devotional paintings? A new study by historian Dr Mary Laven investigates the significance of Catholic clutter, as she explains.
64% Majority Rule in Ducal Venice: Voting for the Doge
How was Venice able to preserve herself for over 12 centuries, her status as a financial center and, especially in the last three centuries, as an artistic center intact and for lengthy periods unchallenged? The secret appears to lie to a considerable degree in the political institutions by which Venice was governed.
The Culture of Death in late Medieval and early Renaissance Italy
An attempt will be made to show that it is precisely during this period that certain fundamental changes in the conception of and attitudes towards death took place, changes that can be seen as the starting points of a long process that would eventually lead to the medical and utterly despiritualized view of death prevalent in the contemporary Western world.
Magic
No one knew the risks and rewards of magic better than Agrippa. His notorious handbook, De occulta philosophia, circulated in manuscript by 1510, though it was printed only in 1533, over the complaints of Dominican inquisitors.
The resident ambassador
This is a discussion of the evolution of the office of resident ambassador in fifteenth century Italy. The purpose of this paper is to make clear the extreme differences between the medieval ad hoc ambassador and the resident.
The Place of the Tyrant in Machiavelli’s Political Thought and the Literary Genre of the Prince
When Machiavelli put in writing his thoughts on government, he was the heir of this long-established tradition of reflection on tyranny…
The School at Salerno: Origin of the European Medical University
Despite oppression of scientific learning through the Dark Ages, the medical school at Salerno emerged in the ninth century, reviving the tradition of the Ancient schools. How is it that a school founded by monks was able to flourish, promoting the development of future European Universities?
New in Medieval Books this week!
Hey Medievalverse! Ring in 2012 with these fab, hot off the press releases!
The Political Ideas of Machiavelli: A Fresh Look
The early sixteenth century marked a watershed period for political writings on the art of governing.
Marriage and the politics of friendship: the family of Charles II of Anjou, King of Naples (1285-1309)
This thesis aims to reassert the importance of the supranational dynasties of Europe in medieval history by considering the so-called Angevins of Naples, and specifically Charles II (1285-1309)
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.
Crafting the Merchant’s Wife’s Tale: Historians and the Domestic Rhetoric in the Correspondence of Margherita Datini (1360-1425)
Almost forty years ago, Iris Origo introduced the English-speaking public to Francesco di Marco Datini, the ‘Merchant of Prato’