New Medieval Books: Matthew Paris on the Mongol Invasion in Europe
This book can be seen as a case study to help answer the author’s question: “What is history and how did Matthew view his duty as a historian?”
The Charters in the Margin of Matthew Paris’s Chronica Maiora
Matthew Paris’s Chronica maiora is famous for its illustrations: maps of Great Britain, the murder of an archbishop, and an elephant gifted to England’s King Henry III. But as I sat in the archive, reading Matthew’s own copy of the Chronica, something else caught my eye: small charters drawn in the margins, reproduced in meticulous detail down to their colorful seals.
Matthew Paris’ Book of St Albans goes online
Fans of medieval manuscripts have something new to browse, as one of the works written and illustrated by Matthew Paris has been digitised by the Library of Trinity College Dublin for the first time. The Book of St Albans features 54 individual works of medieval art and has fascinated readers across the centuries.
Inscribing the Mongol Invasion into History: The Chronica Majora and Beyond
In 1242 the people of Eastern Europe acquired first-hand knowledge about the Mongols in their own lands, but within a short time the news made it to the westernmost edges of Christian Europe.
The Oxford map of Palestine in the work of Matthew Paris
He was long-winded, opinionated, cranky, and interested in everything. He moves from politics at court, to the abuses of ecclesiastical power, to foreign relations, to peculiar meteorological and astronomical occurrences, to uncanny incidents.
Steamy Syrian Scandals: Matthew Paris on the Templars and Hospitallers
Matthew Paris is a major source of information on the Templars and Hospitallers. But we ask: ‘How far can this Mad Monk be trusted? Was he in the pay of the Evil Emperor?’
Narratives of resistance: arguments against the mendicants in the works of Matthew Paris and William of Saint-Amour
The rise of the new mendicant orders, foremost the Franciscans and Dominicans, is one of the great success stories of thirteenth-century Europe. Combining apostolic poverty with sophisticated organization and university learning, they brought much needed improvements to pastoral care in the growing cities.
Real and imaginary journeys in the later Middle Ages
For a proper understanding of the actions of men in the past it is necessary to have some idea of how they conceived the world and their place in it, yet for the medieval period there is a serious inbalance in the sources.
Matthew Paris and the Royal Christmas: Ritualised Communication in Text and Practice
In the Chronica majora, and its abbreviations, Paris opened each year with a description of how and where the king held Christmas.
The Eyes Have It: Blindness and Vision in Matthew Paris’s Estoire de seint Aedward le rei
La Estoire de seint Aedward le rei (The History of Saint Edward the King) is extant in only one manuscript—and it is stunning
Matthew Paris and Henry III’s elephant
Matthew Paris’s drawings of Henry III’s elephant are well-known, and popular accounts of the Tower of London often mention the elephant’s brief residence there.
Tartars on the Frontiers of Europe: The English Perspective
The relevant records in English chronicles reveal little about the actual historical events of the East Central European region in the thirteenth century but say a great deal about the perception and knowledge of a core country about the periphery of Western Christianity.
Matthew Paris in Norway
It appears that Matthew only ever left England once, when, in 1248-9, he visited Norway to assist in settling a dispute at the Benedictine abbey of Nidarholm near Trondheim. It is on this episode that the following will focus.
Queen of All Islands: The Imagined Cartography of Matthew Paris’s Britain
In the middle decade of the thirteenth century, the Benedictine monk and historian Matthew Paris drew four regional maps of Britain. The monk’s works stand as the earliest extant maps of the island and mark a distinct shift from the cartographic traditions of medieval Europe.