Why did Bruges get a porpoise each year?
For about three centuries, the coastal town of Blankenberge would send to the nearby city of Bruges a porpoise. A new study examines this tradition and why it happened.
Were medieval cities greener? Urban agriculture in the Middle Ages
This article looks at the urban farmers of medieval France and discusses the roles of the gardens that were found throughout medieval cities.
Ravenna and Constantinople in the 6th-8th centuries
Judith Herrin addresses the status of Ravenna as the Byzantine Empire’s outpost in the West
Medieval Working Women: Their role in the trades of Southern France in the 14th century
This article provides an overview of the roles and place of women in artisanal guilds in late medieval southern France
The Two Towers: Crusader Acre and its Defences
The Accursed Tower and Tower of the Flies were the infamous defences of the city of Acre. Strange legends surround both towers, and they would prove to be formidable challenges to besieging armies during the Crusades.
Uncovering the people who lived in medieval Ypres
Unique research into skeletons from the 13th century aims to determine health status, origin and lifestyle
Medieval Alexandria: Life in a Port City
The article presents an overview description of medieval Alexandria, based on the integration of archaeological finds, Muslim historiography, and medieval travelogues, with Geniza documents.
Piped water supplies managed by civic bodies in medieval English towns
This article uses studies of individual towns, together with civic records and Leland’s Itinerary, to examine the sources and technologies of urban water supplies, the origins of civic piped water systems, their relationships to other local systems, finance, management and oversight.
Granum Bonum: Grain Distribution and the Emergence of Popular Institutions in Medieval Genoa
This dissertation is an exploration of Genoese institutionalism that demonstrates the way grain and grain distribution were intertwined with state debt and public spending in the exercise of political power in the medieval urban republic under the fourteenth-century government of Simone Boccanegra (r. 1339–1363) and his successors.
Reading Medieval Ruins: A Material History of Urban Life in 16th-Century Japan
The city of Ichijôdani served as the capital of Echizen Province for approximately one century during Japan’s late medieval period.
Project to examine late medieval local government
A new research project has been launched to examine the local governments of the historic cities of Augsburg and Aberdeen, and how they evolved in the late Middle Ages.
Filthy and indecent words: Insults, defamation, and urban politics in the southern Low Countries (1300-1550)
In 1527, the Bruges fishmonger Thomas Haghebaert shouted at the governors of his guild: ‘I will have nothing to do with you or the magistracy. I sh*t on you and on the aldermen and on all those who think they can harm me!’
London Under Danish Rule: Cnut’s Politics and Policies as a Demonstration of Power
In 1016, London was one of very few English cities of European significance. This reflected London’s prominence as a trading port, an economic and administrative hub, and population centre, rather than any status as a nascent capital city.
Failed engineering project doomed medieval Cambodian capital, study finds
The largest water management feature in Khmer history was built in the 10th century as part of a short-lived medieval capital in northern Cambodia to store water but the system failed in its first year of operation, possibly leading to the return of the capital to Angkor.
Crusader Urban Archaeology in the Kingdom of Jerusalem: Methodologies, Constraints and Possibilities: The Cases of Jerusalem and Acre
I might have called this paper a Tale of Two Cities for that certainly what it is – a tale of two very different cities and how they contribute to our understanding of the Crusader period and the Latin East
How Coal Played a Part in Medieval Air Pollution
Pollution was a problem long before the Industrial Revolution and complaints of air pollution and its association with fuel can be traced back over seven hundred years.
Around the Barbarian Sea: Settlements and Outcomes in the Early Medieval Baltic
The Viking towns of Birka, Kaupang, Hedeby and Ribe have captured the imagination of archaeologists and the public alike, presenting the lives of their enigmatic inhabitants.
The Medieval English Urban Cook
It utilises civic records, wills and probate inventories, literary sources, and archaeological evidence with the goal of building context which can inform the future study of medieval urban cooks.
Economic Power in Rome. The role of the city’s elite families (the 1400-1500 period)
In this paper we examine a less explored area, namely the existing relationship between political stability and the economic success of the merchant elite
Prostitution in Urban Brothels in Late Medieval Austria
Municipal authorities officially established urban brothels in late medieval Austria as a necessary evil in order to control the lust of unmarried men and thus protect women from sexual abuse
Call for Papers: Provisioning Medieval European Towns
This year, from October 10th to the 12th, the Institute for Medieval Studies (IEM | NOVA-FCSH) and the Portuguese municipality of Castelo de Vide are organizing the IV International Conference on the Middle Ages, under the theme: Provisioning Medieval European Towns.
A Fruitful Partnership: Jews and the Canons of St. Kilian in Twelfth-century Würzburg
Over the course of about a century, from around 1120 to around 1220, the canons of St. Kilian, caretakers of the Neumünster church in Würzburg had frequent – one might even say constant – business dealings with the Jews of that same city.
The ‘Van Boschuysen Affair’ in Leyden: Conflicts between Elite Networks in Late Medieval Holland
The 1480s were a turbulent age in the city of Leyden in the county of Holland.
An Invisible Landscape of Medieval Rome
I look to the period when the monastery was assembling its real estate portfolio to analyze how property documents inform us about the origins of this urban region, its social networks and its physical development.