Places to See: Arundel Castle
I spent a soggy, but fun filled Sunday in Sussex at Arundel Castle during International Joust Week July 21-26th. Even without the jousting,…
Making the Castle a Home: Creating an Immersive Medieval World Using Live Costumed Interpreters
How does the use of unscripted, adaptive, historical interpretation boost the tourist experience? Right on the heels of our look at the Tower of London’s visitor engagement, we heard a paper from Lauren Johnson, Research Manager for Past Pleasures, the oldest historical interpretation company in the UK who educate and entertain the public at historical sites, museums, on stage and and on TV.
Avalanches in the Middle Ages
One of the dangers a medieval traveller might face when crossing through mountainous terrain is the threat of avalanches.
Medieval London as Seen through the Eyes of Czech and German Travellers
The aim of this article is to analyze the first depictions of London in Czech literature, namely in travel journals of the Czech writer and traveller Wenzel Schaseck of Birkov and the German burgher Gabriel Tetzel of Gräfenberg
New Richard III Art Exhibit Opens Today
Renowned Leicester artist exhibit of the reinterment of Richard III at Leicester Cathedral opens today
‘Far is Rome from Lcohlong’: Gaels and Scandinavians on Pilgrimage and Crusade, c. 1000 – c. 1300
To what extent was the Mediterranean terra incognita to the inhabitants of the fringes of northwestern Europe – Gaels and Scandinavians – in the central Middle Ages?
10 Cool Medieval Things to See at the Musée de Cluny
I just visited Muée de Cluny this week while in Paris and picked out a few fabulous items you might want to check out on your next visit to this amazing medieval museum!
Small Talk: A New Reading of Marco Polo’s Il milione
It is perhaps not that surprising that we find the narrative pattern reflected in Il milione conforms nicely to the expectations of the Chinese genre of small talk.
Places to See: Notre Dame – Part I
Part I of my initial visit to stunning Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.
Places to See: Sainte Chapelle
Travelling to Paris ? Add this beautiful thirteenth century Capetian chapel to your MUST-SEE list for your next visit!
10 Things to See at Southwark Cathedral
My 10 favourite things about Southwark Cathedral.
Did Marco Polo go to Alaska?
A set of documents, brought to United States by an Italian immigrant, may reveal new details about Marco Polo’s travels in Asia, including that he possibly explored and mapped Alaska.
Odorico from Pordenone and his encounter with China (1318-1330)
Odorico from Pordenone was a Franciscan Friar, who made a journey from Venice to Peking in the first half of the fourteenth century
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.
Travel and Travelers in Medieval Eurasia
The rise of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century dramatically changed the opportunities for travel across Eurasia: for the first time we encounter those who traveled its full length and then returned home to narrate what they saw.
BOOKS: Canterbury Cathedral
After visiting Canterbury Cathedral, I was inspired to suggest books that relate to Canterbury’s famous Archbishops, history and beauty.
Leiðarvísir: Its Genre and Sources, with Particular Reference to the Description of Rome
For the last two centuries, Leiðarvísir has been the subject of great interest by scholars from a variety of disciplines: not only Old Norse scholars, but also historians, geographers, toponymists and scholars of pilgrimage have studied and analysed this work.
Natural conditions in the Carpathian Basin of the middle ages
The analysis of natural conditions is a new field in Hungarian medieval research. This field could only come into existence with the spread of new sources of research, and with the need of drawing the most realistic picture of medieval living conditions with the help of more – previously ignored – data and facts. This field of research may have a special meaning as according to sources of the age, the Carpathian Basin was one of the natural Paradises of Medieval Europe.
Vespucci’s Triangle and the Shape of the World
Interdisciplinary interactions between sixteenth-century travellers and cosmographers produced visual models that challenged normative modes of visual thinking, even as they tried to clarify ideas about the earth’s surface.
Land and Sea Communications, Fourth–Fifteenth Centuries
The principle that the active and coordinated collaboration of nature and man is an essential requirement for the creation of a network of communications is of fundamen- tal importance.
Worldly Unease in Late Medieval European Travel Reports
Comparing the Book of John Mandeville with Jean de Jeanville’s Vie Saint Louis and William of Rubruck’s Journey, this chapter argues that cosmopolitan perspectives in these texts seem to emerge in spite of rather than because of their contacts with other cultures.
Criminal Behaviour by Pilgrims in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period
In the early and high Middle Ages, an introspective religiosity was predominant and supported by Benedictine and Cistercian monks; thus, pil- grimages to holy places were neither as popular nor practiced as they were in the period from the late Middle Ages onwards.
Traveler’s Tips from the 14th Century: The Detours of Ibn Battuta
What advice can Ibn Battuta provide the globe-trotting public of the 21st century?
‘None Shall Pass’: Mental Barriers to Travel in Old English Poetry
I shall be exploring a xenophobia so extreme that it is a wonder that anyone went anywhere.
