Grave of medieval knight and monastery site found in Edinburgh
The discovery was made when archaeologists uncovered the corner of an elaborately decorated sandstone slab with the telltale markings of a member of the nobility – the carvings of the Calvary Cross and an ornate sword, which tells us this belonged to a high status individual such as a knight or other nobleman.
The Cult of Saint Louis and Capetian Interests in the Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux
Throughout the Middle Ages the Capetians labeled themselves as the ‘Most Christian of Kings,’ and to have a saint in the family legitimated their claim.
The Price of Alfonso’s Wisdom. Nationalist Translation Policy in Thirteenth-Century Castile
First, how can we say where and when translation began in any country? The origins of translation are surely to be associated with the first evidence of trade, and trade was certainly carried out in the Spain of the Romans, the Visigoths, and of course the centuries of Islamic domination.
Reality and Truth in Thomas of York: Study and Text
The investigation is conducted through a study of opposites into which being is divided. These opposites are principally the one and the many, potency and act, truth and falsity.
A glimpse into the early origins of medieval anatomy through the oldest conserved human dissection (Western Europe, 13th c. A.D.)
Little is known about medieval anatomical preparations, as only theoretical treatises signed by surgeons and physicians have survived. In 2003, a mummified human torso was sold by a medical antiquities art dealer from Paris, and is now conserved in a Canadian private collection; its recent multidisciplinary analysis was the occasion of a whole description of such an anatomical preparation, and to improve our knowledge about early occidental autopsy/dissection techniques and body preservation
The Scientific World of the Crown of Aragon under James I
This article seeks to provide a general overview of the cultural landscape during the reign of James I, with a particular focus on science.
“Morus per se?”: Pain and its Treatment in Thirteenth- and Fourteenth-century Europe
Yet of the many medical conditions that face human beings, pain is one of the most valuable to study from a sociocultural perspective. Pain can be methodologically difficult to study. At once reactions to pain are universal and yet the experience is fundamentally solitary and isolating.
Rome During Avignon: Myth, Memory, and Civic Identity in Fourteenth-Century Roman Politics
Broadly conceived, my dissertation examines the traditions of popular government emerging spasmodically in the roughly two hundred and fifty years between the Roman senate’s 1143 revival, and the papacy’s definitive 1377 return to Rome from roughly seven decades in Avignon. The majority of my inquiry, however, is directed toward the much-understudied fourteenth century.
The Church and sexuality in medieval Iceland
From its earliest days Christianity has attempted to control human sexuality. The letters of Paul and the writings of the Church Fathers praise the state of virginity above that of marriage, and within matrimony permit sex only for procreation.
Kathy Krause wins fellowship to research Medieval Women and Literary Production
The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded a fellowship to Kathy M. Krause of the University of Missouri-Kansas City to research ‘The Role of Noblewomen in Literary Production in Northern France during the 13th Century.’
Picturing Gregory: The Evolving Imagery of Canon Law
This paper surveys images created for the opening of the Liber extra between around 1240 and 1350, from a variety of standpoints: iconography, page layout, patrons and readers – and also suggests possible ideological agendas that might be embedded in the illustrations.
“Full Faith and Credit” in Merrie Olde England: New Insights for Marriage Conflicts Law from the Thirteenth Century
Here the subject is full faith and credit and the implications which the exposure of the myth of universality might carry for the recognition of judgments concerning marriage. As with the choice of law problem, so with the recognition of judgments, there is discovered in the anti- quities of English law a perception and comprehension exceeding our own.
The Regular Canons and the Use of Food, c. 1200–1350
We are greatly handicapped by the lack of material available to us for this period. By and large, household accounts which provide gross details of quotidian diet elude us. However, to recover the everyday diet of the canons, one useful approach is to examine corrodies and study the assumptions there, by way of analogy, with what can be inferred as normal consumption by canons.
The Luffield Priory Grange at Monkbarn
The lease of 1351 places Monksbarn in the manor of Pyre (West Perry or Paulerspury) so it might be expected that the site of the grange should lie within the parish of the same name. Despite mention of the wood within which the land lay, abutting landholding arrangements and the naming of a road along which the land must lie, there are few topographical details which can lead to a precise location for the grange.
City and Countryside in Medieval England
An impressive array of data, ranging over the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, has been collected by two full-time researchers, James Galloway and Margaret Murphy. Of primary importance for the project are demesne farming accounts and inquisitions post mortem (detailing manorial land and other assets, especially again those of the demesne), both of which sources survive in very large numbers for the period under review. Also, the project incorpor- ates large amounts of data from urban records, particularly those dealing with merchants who were prominent in organizing London’s food supply.
Christine de Pizan in her study
By the time Christine began the Cité des dames which she completed in 1405 she stated firmly that it had become the “habit of my life” to study literature (in which she included history) and as usual she was sitting in her cell. But how did this become such a habit?
The Conquest of Wales (1282)
That was when an English king, Edward the First, sent an army along this route I’m travelling now. He conquered Wales, he built castles as symbols of his power, and he shipped in English settlers to exploit this land. And the Welsh became second-class citizens in their own country.
The man who lost at Stirling Bridge
The Battle of Stirling Bridge, fought on September 11, 1297, is remembered as one Scotland’s greatest military victories and the high point in the career of William Wallace. A new article now explores the other side of that battle, seeking to understand how the English lost that day.
Musical Characteristics of the Songs Attributed to Peter of Blois (c. 1135-1211)
Toward the end of the twelfth century, moral conflict was rampant in the Catholic Church regarding the conduct (and misconduct) of all levels of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, though especially at the two extremes on the scale of power. Music and literature from the period have immortalized the mischievous and impious escapades of certain members of the lower orders of clergy, termed satirically the ordo vagorum.
The Wilderness of Dragons: The reception of dragons in thirteenth century Iceland
In thirteenth century Iceland, however, the dragon consists of more than the mere imagining of man; it is a creature that is imbued with centuries of history, biology, theology, and mythology synthesized into an oftentimes wholly logical and other times completely fantastical beast.
Princess Salomea and Hungarian – Polish Relations in the Period 1214 – 1241
It is necessary to say at the beginning that almost all works devoted to Salomea come from the pens of Polish historians. Slovak and Hungarian historiography has devoted little attention to her, in spite of the fact that she played a part in the history of the Kingdom of Hungary.
The Dominican Convents in Medieval Norway
In the Middle Ages, the Kingdom of Norway was larger than it is today, where the former Norwegian districts of Jämtland and Bohus are now parts of Sweden. In 1380, the Norwegian throne was inherited by the Danish king, and for the rest of the Middle Ages, Danish monarchs ruled Norway, but even though the kings often made use of Danes in the administration, the Norwegian kingdom did in fact remain as an independent part of a so-called double monarchy.
Lay Writers and the Politics of Theology in Medieval England From the Twelfth to Fifteenth Centuries
My intention is not to continue the discourse on such practices but to analyze narrative content in relation to the politics of theology that had an impact on lay writers and their artistic creativity concerning the search for selfhood from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries.
Matrimonial politics and core-periphery interactions in twelfth- and early thirteenth-century Scotland
The medieval kingdom of Scotland was a rich amalgam of diverse ethnic elements which reflected the turbulent history of the first millennium of its development.