The ‘Tricks of Monks’: Fake Miracles and Medieval Christians in The Book of Charlatans
A 13th-century Arabic text reveals how monks staged fake miracles and deceived Christian audiences, offering insights into medieval Muslim–Christian relations.
New Medieval Books: Vikings Behaving Reasonably
This book offers more than just a clever title. It shows how Norse communities relied on the ideal of hóf—a cultural expectation of moderation and restraint—to resolve disputes and maintain order, often without the need for a strong central authority.
Game On! Medieval Pastimes Featured in New Exhibition at the Aga Khan Museum
Explore how medieval chess, polo, and other pastimes connected cultures in Game On!, a new exhibition at Toronto’s Aga Khan Museum.
Medieval Mediterranean Island Reveals Global Connections Through DNA Study
A new genetic study is reshaping how we understand medieval Ibiza, revealing that this small Mediterranean island was deeply connected to a vast world stretching from Europe to North Africa and even the Sahel.
Medieval Chess Reveals a More Diverse Middle Ages, Study Finds
A new study reveals how medieval chess created a rare space for players of different cultures to compete as equals, offering fresh insight into race, identity, and intellectual exchange in the Middle Ages.
New Medieval Books: Widow City
In late medieval Italy, women often outlived their husbands. This book examines writings from the period to explore the different ways widows mourned their spouses and how they chose to carry on with their lives afterwards.
New Medieval Books: The Conqueror’s Gift
The Romans were deeply connected with peoples both within and beyond their empire. This book explores how those ties shifted between the first and seventh centuries AD—especially as Christianity spread—and how these changes reshaped the Empire.
The Byzantine Poor: Poverty, Charity, and Social Order
Zoe Tsiami writes about how poverty shaped everyday life in the Byzantine Empire, and how the state and Church responded through law, charity, and social institutions.
Medieval Diets Varied by Social Status in England, Study Finds
New isotope research reveals how social status shaped medieval diets in England, showing differences between friars, townspeople, rural residents, and hospital burials.
New Medieval Books: No Return
Usury—the practice of lending money at interest—became a major social flashpoint in western Europe during the Middle Ages. This book traces how resentment of usury fuelled hostility that, in many places, escalated into the expulsion of Jewish communities and other Christian moneylenders.
Montaillou to ICE: The Medieval Roots of Snitching
Historian Joëlle Rollo-Koster explores how denunciation and “snitching” helped power the medieval Inquisition, and why similar dynamics of reporting and surveillance still matter today.
New Medieval Books: More Swindles from the Late Ming
The second instalment of a translation of an early seventeenth-century Chinese source on scams and cons offers a fascinating window into pre-modern crime.
Early Medieval England Saw Continuous Migration, Study Finds
A major bioarchaeological study combining tooth-enamel isotopes and ancient DNA finds migration into early medieval England was continuous from AD 400–1100, with regional and gendered patterns and evidence shaped by climate shifts.
New Medieval Books: The Public House in Central Europe
Public houses—places that sold alcoholic drinks—were a central part of life in Cracow in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This book explores how these establishments worked: who owned them, who gathered inside, and how city authorities dealt with disorder when drinking turned into violence.
How the ninety percent experienced the Roman economy, with Kim Bowes
A conversation with Kim Bowes about her recent book, Surviving Rome: The Economic Lives of the Ninety Percent, which presents a brilliant new model of the Roman imperial economy, specifically for how the majority of the population experienced it.
Celebrating the New Year, Medieval Style
How did medieval people mark the passing of the New Year? Well, interestingly enough, it wasn’t always celebrated on January 1st.
Medieval Book of the Year: The Hungry City
Medievalists.net’s choice for the Book of the Year! This book offers a compelling account of the famine that struck Barcelona in 1333–34, reconstructed through the records of the city’s government. Vividly written yet firmly grounded in the sources, it stands as a fitting culmination of Kelleher’s work as a medievalist.
The Boar’s Head Carol: A Medieval Christmas Tradition
A look at the Boar’s Head Carol in the Middle Ages: boar-hunting symbolism, Christmas feasting, and the enduring ceremony at Queen’s College, Oxford.
Roland the Farter: A Royal Christmas Performer
Roland the Farter held land in medieval England on a bizarre Christmas condition: “one jump, one whistle, and one fart” before the king. A short look at serjeanty, court ritual, and medieval humour.
Holiday Gifts in the Middle Ages
Christmas in the Middle Ages looked quite different than it does today, but gifts still played a role. Read on to find out what gift-giving looked like during the holidays in the Middle Ages.
Medieval Male Underwear: Hidden But Revealing
Medieval male underwear wasn’t invisible in art. Exploring what braies reveal for martyrs and peasants.
Seeing into the minds of others, with Ellen Muehlberger
A conversation with Ellen Muehlberger about how some people in late antiquity tried to model, confirm, or interpret what they thought was going on in the minds of others. We briefly talk about the genre of the lecture book, and then about classroom exercises in impersonation (were they exercises in empathy or not?) and breaking into houses to see what people had in their private quarters.
Medieval Dreaming and Divination in Byzantium
Explore how Byzantines—emperors and commoners alike—interpreted their dreams through intuition, tradition, and oneirokritika, revealing a rich spiritual culture that blended ancient beliefs with Christian thought.
The Best Medieval Insults
Explore authentic medieval insults—witty, crude, and revealing—from chronicles, court records, and literary texts across the Middle Ages.