The Royal Armour of Henry VIII

In a magnificent show this summer the Victorian & Albert in London reveals the majesty of the courts of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I to Ivan the Terrible and the early Romanovs, celebrating 500 years of exchange between Britain and Russia. Comprising more than 150 objects, from royal portraits, jewellery and luxury goods to processional armour and heraldry, the exhibition chronicles the close relationship between the English monarchy and the Russian Tsars.

In the exhibition the outstanding craftsmanship of the workshops attached to the courts will be explored including the Royal Almain Armoury in Greenwich, founded by Henry VIII in 1515, which tailor-made his imposing suit of armour on loan from the Royal Collection. In connection with this the Almain Album, a unique record containing 29 bespoke Greenwich armour designs by Jacob Halder for high-ranking royal courtiers of the Elizabethan court will be shown as an interactive display.

Gilded Water jug from the Kremlin

At the heart of the exhibition is the beautiful English and French silver given to the Tsars by the British Royal Family, on exclusive loan from the Moscow Kremlin Museums in celebration of 500 years of Anglo-Russian exchange.

Treasures of the Royal Court of the Tudors, Stuarts and Russian Tsars
09.03.2013 – 14.07.2013
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

READ MORE

Treasures of the Royal Court. Catalogue
By Tessa Murdoch and Olga Dmitrieva
V&A Publishing 2013

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Tudor and Stuart portraits were primarily meant to showcase the fashionable and hugely expensive clothes of their wearers. A fine exhibition of the Royal Collection gives a glimpse into portraits, jewelry and pieces of clothing of the time. Some of it has never been on show before. Exploring fashionable clothing worn during the Tudor and Stuart reigns (1485 – 1714) by members of the royal family, courtiers and the increasingly wealthy gentry, this exhibition compares paintings from the Royal Collection with rare surviving examples of costume, and unstitches the ‘truth’ of dress in art. In Fine Style follows the changing fashions of the period, demonstrates the spread of styles internationally and shows how clothing could convey important messages. Including works by Hans Holbein the Younger, Nicholas Hilliard, Van Dyck and Peter Lely, the exhibition brings together over 60 paintings. Such portraits allowed the sitter to express different aspects of their personality through clothing.  Among the paintings on display are two portraits of the renowned court beauty Frances Stuart, Duchess of Richmond.  Known as ‘La Belle Stuart’, she famously refused to become mistress to Charles II.  In a portrait by Sir Peter Lely (c.1662) the Duchess wears a glamorous yellow silk gown.  In another by Jacob Husymans (1664), she wears a masculine buff coat with her hair styled to resemble a male periwig, following the trend for women to dress in clothes inspired by male garments.  This portrait goes on display for the first time in the exhibition. Also shown is a series of drawings, garments, jewellery, accessories and armour. Amongst these are:

• A hat badge, commonly known as the “Holbein George”shows a high-relief figure of St. George on horseback, facing right, slaying the dragon. This jewel has long been identified as belonging to a homogeneous group of small gold reliefs (émail en ronde bosse), distinguished by their style and enamelling technique. It may have been executed in Antwerp in 1520 and presented as a gift to Henry VIII.
• A diamond ring given by Charles I to his 19-year-old wife. It is a gold and diamond signet ring bearing the royal coat of arms and the cypher of Henrietta Maria, given to the young Queen by her husband Charles I in around 1628, three years after their marriage.
• A pendant of gold, rubies and diamond, incorporating a miniature of Elizabeth I.  It was possibly presented to a courtier by the Queen as a sign of favour and worn as an earring.  Earrings became an increasingly popular accessory for men towards the end of the 16th century, and it was fashionable to wear them in one ear only.
• The ornate set of armour belonging to the 13-year-old Henry, Prince of Wales (c.1607) was designed to echo the full breeches and  V-shaped doublets of the day.  The armour was a gift from a French nobleman and a statement of great extravagance, particularly since the adolescent Prince would soon have outgrown it.  Heir to the English and Scottish thrones, Henry died of typhoid fever at the age of 18, and his younger brother succeeded him as the ill-fated Charles I.
• The enamelled diamond-encrusted box in which Mary II kept her face patches, which were stuck to the face to emphasise her creamy white skin of the leisured class and to conceal blemishes.  They were applied using saliva or adhesive and produced in a variety of shapes, from crescents and flowers to animals – as many as seven were worn at once. It dates from around the year of the Queen’s death from smallpox, which caused terrible scarring to the skin.
  

  “Holbein George”

Exhibition curator Anna Reynolds of Royal Collection Trust says: “Fashion was hugely important to court life and entry to the inner circle was largely driven by personal appearance.  The rich and powerful were the trend-setters of the age, and used clothing to send out messages about their taste and status”.

In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion
The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace
10.05.2013 -06.10.2013

READ MORE:

In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion
By Anna Reynolds
The Royal Collection 2013
Hardback, 300 pages, 290 x 275 mm, over 250 colour illustrations
ISBN 978 1 905686 44 5

Robe
Welcome to ROBE – the fashion magazine the world has been waiting for, for the last 350 years, and your handy introduction to all that’s best in seventeenth-century haute-couture.
Paperback, 49 pages, 170 x 230 mm
ISBN 978 1 905686 85 8

In Fine Style App
This free interactive app lets you try on the outfits and accessories of the rich and powerful of the 16th and 17th centuries. Download the In Fine Style app, take a photo of yourself, and then try on fashionable clothes selected from the paintings in the exhibition. The app is inspired by a rare 17th-century portrait miniature of the wife of Charles I, Queen Henrietta Maria, and a set of painted transparent overlays that transform the queen’s costume, hairstyle and even her gender.

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The Tudor Pearl in the Portrait of Mary Tudor by Antonio Mor

Between 1526 and 1539 an outstanding pearl entered the jewellery collection of the Empress Isabella of Portugal (1503-1539). Either it was a diplomatic gift or the Empress purchased it. When she died in 1539 the pearl was inherited by her daughter, Juana of Austria (1535-1573). Following a short marriage to Prince John of Portugal (1537 – 1554), Juana returned to Spain to assume regency for her brother, Philip II. Thus the pearl became part of Philip’s dowry for his new bride, Mary Tudor (1516-1558), after whom the pearl has been christened.

It is an outstanding asymmetrical drop-shaped pearl that was much admired by the Tudor courts and is featured in at least three Royal portraits of Mary Tudor, namely one by Anthonis Mor currently at the Prado, one by Hans Eworth in the National Portrait Gallery and a third owned by owned by the Society of Antiquaries.

Since the pearl’s disappearance in the late 16th century the pearls depicted in these portraits have  - it is claimed now – mistakenly been identified as La Peregrina, a different pearl which is 53.57 grains smaller than the Mary Tudor pearl. However, Mary Tudor could never have worn the Peregrina as it was first recorded in 1579, 21 years after her death. However, in 2004 – what is presumed to be the real Tudor Pearl -surfaced at an auction and was bought by the select Jewellers Symbolic & Chase . This year it will be exhibited at the Antiques fair, Masterpiece London. The fair will take place from 27 June – 3 July 2012 (with a Preview on Wednesday 26 June) in the South Grounds of The Royal Hospital Chelsea, London SW3. The exhibition of the pearl is accompanied by a certificate from the Swiss Gemmological Institute stating that the pear weighs 64.5 carats (258.12 grains) and measures 16.50 -17.80 x 31.95 mm and is of natural saltwater origin. The Mary Tudor Pearl is the third largest well-formed pearl documented today.

Jewel in the portrait of Mary Tudor presented by Philip Mould

Following its debut at Masterpiece London, the Tudor Pearl will be exhibited at the V&A as part of the Pearls exhibition, which will run from 21st September 2013 to 19th January 2014.

Continuing with the Queen Mary I theme, Philip Mould  will be exhibiting a recently discovered English School portrait of Queen Mary I  at the Fair. In the presentation of the portrait at his website it says that the new portrait is taken from the “larger portrait by Antonis Mor” in Prado. Curiously enough, however, Mary Tudor in the new portrait is not showing off her pearl but another magnificent jewel with three pearls hanging on her neck.

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The coins from 10^th century Denmark are often called half-bracteates as they are so thin that the stamp on the two sides easily gets mixed up. Another feature is that the content of silver as well as the general weight is low, which means that they are not often found by metal-detectors, thus eluding amateurs as wells as archaeologists.

Yesterday a spectacular find of more than 162 coins plus broken pieces of silver from the 990’es have crated a lot of excitement. Apart from German and Islamic coins the hoard consists of at least 52 so-called cross-coins. These coins were minted during the reign of Harold Bluetooth (958 – 987), who may have introduced the first nationwide coinage in Denmark. It is generally believed that the king began to mint his new coins around 975 at a time when he seems to have lost control over the main town, Haithabu, which had a well functioning mint at that time.

The iconography of the crosses are clearly Christian showing either one cross created out of four or in some cases three crosses placed on top of a triangle (Golgatha) on the reverse. The coins are believed to reflect the conversion of the king in 963 as it is witnessed on the Great Jelling Stone, according to which the king claims to have “ordered this monument made in memory of Gormr, his father, and in memory of Thyrvé, his mother; that Haraldr who won for himself all of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christian.” Obviously the coins were meant as part of the king’s effort to market his new religion.

However, one of the intriguing facts about the coins of Harold Blutooth is that they seem to have disappeared rather quickly after the takeover of his son, Sveyn Forkbeard. Some have hypothesised that the disappearance was due to the fact that the new king, who lead a rebellion against his father, in later sources was claimed to have turned heathen again and hence worked to call the coins in. Other scholars believe that the coins have simply left so few traces in the earth due to their fragile character.

Maybe the detailed study of the newfound coins can help to shed some light on this conundrum, since German coins date it to the 990’es, when Sveyn was busy planning his later take-over of Norway and England. Whatever the future conclusions, it is an intriguing fact that the hoard apart from the coins also contained a silver Thorshammer, a miniature replica of Mjolner, the famous axe belonging to the God Thor.

According to the archaeologist-in-charge, Sidsel Wåhlin from Vendsyssel Historical Museum, the next step – apart from studying the hoard – is going to see if it is possible to locate a nearby Viking farm, which might have been home to the very wealthy viking, who deposited the coins in the field.

READ MORE:

Silver Economies, Monetisation and Society in Scandinavia AD 800-1100
Ed. by Redigeret af James Graham-Campbell, Søren Michael Sindbæk og Gareth Williams
Århus Universitetsforlag 2011
ISBN 978 87 7934 585 0

King Harold’s Cross coinage. Christian coins for the merchants of Haithabu and the king’s soldiers (Working Title)
By Jens Christian Moesgaard with the collaboration of Maria Filomena Guerra and Gitte Tarnow Ingvardson and contributions from Lutz Ilisch, Peter Ilisch, Peter Pentz and Hans Skov. In series: Publications of the National Museum Studies. Published by University Press of Denmark (In Press)

Hedeby og den danske kongemagt i 900-tallet – mønternes udsagn [Haithabu and the Danish monarchy in the 10th century.Numismatic evidence]
By Jens Christian Moesgaard
In: KUML 2012, s. 111-136 [English summary s. 135-136]

Opsigtvækkende fund af korsmønter. Er hypotesen om ’Tyskervældet’ i Hedeby 974-983 forkert?
Volker Hilberg og Jens Christian Moesgaard
I: Nordisk Numismatisk Unions Medlemsblad, 2010. s. 143-150.

Harald Blåtands “jellingemønter” ca 975 -985.
Af Jens Christian Moesgaard.
In: Nordisk Numismatisk Unions Medlemsblad 2009: 2.

Hvorfor er der så få enkeltfund af Harald Blåtands mønter?
Af Jens Christian Moesgaard.
In: Nordisk Numismatisk Unions Medlemsblad, 2009 s. 135-139

Photos of the hoard

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Striking cultural developments took place in the twelfth century which led to what historians have termed ‘the emergence of the individual.’ The Medieval Fold demonstrates how cultural developments typically associated with this twelfth-century renaissance—autobiography, lyric, courtly love, romance—can be traced to the Church’s cultivation of individualism. However, subjects did not submit to pastoral power passively, they constructed fantasies and behaviors, redeploying or ‘folding’ it to create new forms of life and culture. Incorporating the work of Nietzsche, Foucault, Lacan, and Deleuze, Suzanne Verderber presents a model of the subject in which the opposition between interior self and external world is dislodged.

Table of contents:

Introduction
1. The Gregorian Reform, Pastoral Power, and Subjection
2. The Courtly Fold: The Subjectivation of Pastoral Power and the Invention of Modern Eroticism
3. Chrétien de Troyes’ Diagram of Power: Perceval
Conclusion

SOURCE:

Palgrave Macmillan

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The sacred and the secular in medieval literature have too often been perceived as opposites, or else relegated to separate but unequal spheres. In Medieval Crossover: Reading the Secular against the Sacred, Barbara Newman offers a new approach to the many ways that sacred and secular interact in medieval literature, arguing that (in contrast to our own cultural situation) the sacred was the normative, unmarked default category against which the secular always had to define itself and establish its niche. Newman refers to this dialectical relationship as “crossover”—which is not a genre in itself, but a mode of interaction, an openness to the meeting or even merger of sacred and secular in a wide variety of forms. Newman sketches a few of the principles that shape their interaction: the hermeneutics of “both/and,” the principle of double judgment, the confluence of pagan material and Christian meaning in Arthurian romance, the rule of convergent idealism in hagiographic romance, and the double-edged sword in parody.

Medieval Crossover explores a wealth of case studies in French, English, and Latin texts that concentrate on instances of paradox, collision, and convergence. Newman convincingly and with great clarity demonstrates the widespread applicability of the crossover concept as an analytical tool, examining some very disparate works. These include French and English romances about Lancelot and the Grail; the mystical writing of Marguerite Porete (placed in the context of lay spirituality, lyric traditions, and the Romance of the Rose);multiple examples of parody (sexually obscene, shockingly anti-Semitic, or cleverly litigious); and René of Anjou’s two allegorical dream visions. Some of these texts are scarcely known to medievalists; others are rarely studied together. Newman’s originality in her choice of these primary works will inspire new questions and set in motion new fields of exploration for medievalists working in a large variety of disciplines, including literature, religious studies, history, and cultural studies.

Barbara Newman is professor of English, religious studies, and classics at Northwestern University. She is the author of a number of books, including God and the Goddesses: Vision, Poetry, and Belief in the Middle Ages and Frauenlob’s Song of Songs: A Medieval German Poet and His Masterpiece.

SOURCE:
University of Notre Dame Press

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This book offers an English translation of the Italian manuscript that commemorated the marriage of Costanzo Sforza Lord of Pesaro and Camilla d’Aragona of Naples, which took place in Pesaro in 1475. Furthermore, this richly illustrated text provides the reader with the necessary historical background and biographical details.

This publication is the first English translation from the Italian of the fascinating contemporary account of the spectacular four-day celebrations that took place in Pesaro in May 1475 to mark the marriage of Costanzo Sforza Lord of Pesaro and Camilla d’Aragona of Naples. The event was commemorated both in manuscript and early print in an anonymous narration that describes in great detail the arrival of the bride and her welcome procession into Pesaro; the actual marriage ceremony and the celebratory banquet that followed; the pageants, presentation of gifts and fireworks that filled the third day; and the final day’s excitement of jousts and yet more theatrical entertainment.

The translation has been made from the early printed text (the incunable in the British Library, I.A.31753 Sforza, Costantio Signore di Pesaro, 1475) and also directly from the unique illustrated presentation manuscript in the Vatican Library (MS Vat. Urb. Lat. 899) which, though previously thought to have been produced in 1480, may in fact have been made at the same time as the incunable edition. It is not known for whom the printed books were intended (7 copies only survive), but it is likely that the prominent dignitaries among the 108 guests – who included Federico da Montefeltro, the groom’s brother-in-law – would have been the recipients of the account when it was printed in November 1475.

This present edition of the text includes all the images that illustrate the original manuscript – 32 full-page miniatures that depict the floats that welcomed the bride at the city gates of Pesaro; the costumed figures at the wedding banquet who represented the presiding Sun and Moon or the male and female messengers of the classical gods and goddesses who announced  the exotic dishes of the 12-course banquet; and further colourful, unusually interesting illustrations of the ballets, fireworks and triumphs of the final two days of the celebrations.

In addition to the Introduction that provides the reader with the historical background and biographical details of the protagonists and personalities of this special occasion, Dr Bridgeman also adds helpful and highly informative annotations to the narration itself.  In addition she provides full descriptions and explanations of the illustrations – all reproduced here in colour – and devotes a separate appendix to listing and explaining all the dishes served at the wedding banquet, together with their ingredients and recipes.

Dr Jane Bridgeman is an Associate Lecturer in Fashion History and Theory at Central St Martin’s College of Art, London.  After graduating in Italian at Birmingham University, she studied History of Dress under Stella Mary Newton at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London where she also gained her Ph.D. on Aspects of Dress and Ceremony in Quattrocento Florence. She has taught at a number of universities and art colleges in the UK and has published numerous articles in English and Italian on the iconography of dress and the history of textiles.

SOURCE:

Brepols Publishers

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This volume, Medieval European Coinage, is the first English-language survey to bring the latest research on the coinage of Spain and Portugal c.1000–1500 to an international audience. A major work of reference by leading numismatic experts, the volume provides an authoritative and up-to-date account of the coinages of Aragon, Catalonia, Castile, Leon, Navarre and Portugal, which have rarely been studied together. It considers how money circulated throughout the peninsula, offering new syntheses of the monetary history of the individual kingdoms and includes an extensive catalogue of the Aragonese, Castilian, Catalan, Leonese, Navarrese and Portuguese coins in the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum. This major contribution to the field will be a valuable point of reference for the study of medieval history, numismatics and archaeology

Table of contents: 

1. Introduction
2. Finds, hoards and monetary circulation in the Iberian Peninsula
3. The Muslim element
4. The Carolingians and the earliest coinages to c.1100
5. The crown of Catalonia-Aragon
6. The kingdom of Majorca, 1276–1343
7. The kingdom of Navarre
8. The kingdom of Castile-León
9. Kingdom of Portugal
Appendices
Bibliography
Catalogue
Concordances.

SOURCE:
Cambridge University Press

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The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature

This book introduces students to the literature of Anglo-Saxon England, the period from 600-1066, in a collection of fifteen specially commissioned essays. The chapters are written by experts, but designed to be accessible to students who may be unfamiliar with Old English. The emphasis throughout is on placing texts in their contemporary context and suggesting ways in which they relate to each other and to the important events and issues of the time. With the help of maps and a chronological table of events the first chapters describe briefly the political, social and ecclesiastical history of the period and how poetry and prose in Latin and in the vernacular developed and flourished. A succinct account of Old English provides beginners with a handy guide to the rules of spelling, grammar and syntax. Subsequent chapters explore the range of Anglo-Saxon writing under different thematic headings. A final bibliography gives guidance on further reading.

Table of Contents:

1 – Anglo-Saxon society and its literature by Patrick Wormald

2 – The Old English language by Helmut Gneuss

3 – The nature of Old English verse by Donald G. Scragg

4 – The nature of Old English prose by Janet Bately

5 – Germanic legend in Old English literature by Roberta Frank

6 – Heroic values and Christian ethics by Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe

7 – Pagan survivals and popular belief by John D. Niles

8 – Beowulf by Fred C. Robinson

9 – Fatalism and the millennium by Joseph B. Jr Trahern

10 – Perceptions of transience by Christine Fell

11 – Perceptions of eternity by Milton McC. Gatch

12 – Biblical literature by Malcolm Godden

13 – Biblical literature by Barbara C. Raw

14 – The saintly life in Anglo-Saxon England by Michael Lapidge

15 – The world of Anglo-Saxon learning by Patrizia Lendinara

Further reading

Read PDF

pp. 282-291

SOURCE:

Cambridge University Press

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Runes: a Handbook

Runes, often considered magical symbols of mystery and power, are in fact an alphabetic form of writing. Derived from one or more Mediterranean prototypes, they were used by Germanic peoples to write different kinds of Germanic language, principally Anglo-Saxon and the various Scandinavian idioms, and were carved into stone, wood, bone, metal, and other hard surfaces; types of inscription range from memorials to the dead, through Christian prayers and everyday messages to crude graffiti. First reliably attested in the second century AD, runes were in due course supplanted by the roman alphabet, though in Anglo-Saxon England they continued in use until the early eleventh century, in Scandinavia until the fifteenth (and later still in one or two outlying areas).
This book provides an accessible, general account of runes and runic writing from their inception to their final demise. It also covers modern uses of runes, and deals with such topics as encoded texts, rune names, how runic inscriptions were made, runological method, and the history of runic research. A final chapter explains where those keen to see runic inscriptions can most easily find them.

Professor Michael P. Barnes is Emeritus Professor of Scandinavian Studies, University College London.

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Asinou across Time (Dumbarton Oaks Studies)

The church of Asinou is among the most famous in Cyprus. Built around 1100, the edifice, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is decorated with accretions of images, from the famous fresco cycle executed shortly after initial construction to those made in the early seventeenth century. During this period the church served the adjacent monastery of the Mother of God ton Phorbion (“of the vetches”), and was subject to Byzantine, Lusignan (1191–1474), Venetian (1474–1570), and Ottoman rule. This monograph is the first on one of Cyprus’s major diachronically painted churches. Written by an international team of renowned scholars, the book sets the accumulating phases of Asinou’s art and architecture in the context of the changing fortunes of the valley, of Cyprus, and of the eastern Mediterranean. Chapters include the first continuous history of the church and its immediate setting; a thorough analysis of its architecture; editions, translations, and commentary on the poetic inscriptions; art-historical studies of the post-1105/6 images in the narthex and nave; a detailed comparative analysis of the physical and chemical properties of the frescoes; and a diachronic table of paleographical forms.

SOURCE: Dumbarton Oaks

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Law and Disputing in the Middle Ages: Proceedings of the Ninth Carlsberg Academy Conference on Medieval Legal History 2012 

Content:

List of Figures and Photography Credits

Introduction – af Per Andersen, Kirsi Salonen, Helle Møller Sigh og Helle Vogt

Legal Satire on the Bayeux Embroidery – af Stephen D. White

‘Disputing the Dead’ – Litigation over Sepultura in the Diocese of Limoges in the Early 12th-Century – af Bruce C. Brasington

The Crime of Dilapidation in the Church from Latter Half of the 12th-Century to the Beginning of the 13th-Century – af Bruno Lemesle

Bad Customs and Good Lordship – Disputing in Anjou, C. 987-C. 1150 – af Matthew W. McHaffie

Kin Conflict in 11th and Early 12th-Century Normandy – af Kate Hammond

The Law of Maintenance and the Obligations of Lordship – A Case Study – af Jonathan Rose

The Role of Arbitration in the Settlement of Disputes in Iceland C. 1000-1300 – af Jón Viðar Sigurðsson

Disputes and How to Avoid Them – Custom and Charters in England During the Long 12th-Century – af Paul Hyams

Dispute, Procedure and Sanction – Some Remarks on Dispute Settlement in Swedish Medieval Laws – af Pia Letto-Vanamo

The Use of Mediation and Arbitration in the Legal Revolution of 13th-Century Denmark – af Per Andersen

The Appellate Jurisdiction, the Emperor and the City – Republics in Early 13th-Century Northern Italy - af Gianluca Raccagni

The Practice of Legal Consulting and the Policy of Law in Late Medieval Dalmatia – af Nella Lonza

Interdict, Conflict Resolution and the Competition for Power in the Episcopal Seigneuries of Laon and Reims (C. 1100) – af Frederik Keygnaert

Competing Institutions and Dispute Settlement in Medieval England – af Joshua C. Tate

Church, State and Family in John Calvin’s Geneva – Domestic Disputes and Sex Crimes in Geneva’s Consistory and Council – af John Witte, Jr.

Litigating Abroad – Merchant’s Expectations Regarding Procedure Before Foreign Courts According to the Hanseatic Privileges (12TH-16TH C.) – af Albrecht Cordes

SOURCE:

Djøf Forlag

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The Medieval Mystical Tradition in England: Papers read at Charney Manor, July 2011 (Exeter Symposium 8)

Mystical writing flourished between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries across Europe and in England, and had a wide influence on religion and spirituality. This volume examines a range of topics within the field. The five “Middle English Mystics” (Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, the author of The Cloud of Unknowing, Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe) receive renewed attention, with significant new insights generated by fresh theoretical approaches. In addition, there are studies of the relationships between continental and English mystical authors, introductions to some less well-known writers in the tradition (such as the Monk of Farne), and explorations around the fringes of the mystical canon, including Middle English translations of Boethius, Lollard spirituality, and the Syon brother Richard Whytford’s writings for a sixteenth-century “mixed life” audience.

E. A. Jones is Senior Lecturer in English Medieval Literature and Culture at the University of Exeter. Contributors: Christine Cooper-Rompato, Vincent Gillespie, C. Annette Grisé, Ian Johnson, Sarah Macmillan, Liz Herbert McAvoy, Nicole R. Rice, Maggie Ross, Steven Rozenski Jr, David Russell, Michael G. Sargent, Christiana Whitehead.

Contents

1 Introduction

2 The Colours of Contemplation: Less Light on Julian of Norwich

3 Behold Not the Cloud of Experience

4 Walter Hilton on the Gift of Interpretation of Scripture

5 Numeracy and Number in The Book of Margery Kempe

6 Religious Mystical Mothers: Margery Kempe and Caterina Benincasa

7 Authority and Exemplarity in Henry Suso and Richard Rolle

8 Mortifying the Mind: Asceticism, Mysticism and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 114

9 The Meditaciones of the Monk of Farne

10 Envisioning Reform: A Revelation Of Purgatory and Anchoritic Compassioun in the Later Middle Ages

11 Walton’s Heavenly Boece and the Devout Translation of Transcendence: O Qui Perpetua Pietised

12 Reformist Devotional Reading: The Pore Caitif in British Library, MS Harley 2322

13 Richard Whytford, The Golden Epistle, and the Mixed Life Audience

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Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps

From dragons and serpents to many-armed beasts that preyed on ships and sailors alike, sea monsters have terrified mariners across all ages and cultures and have become the subject of many tall tales from the sea. Accounts of these creatures have also inspired cartographers and mapmakers, many of whom began decorating their maps with them to indicate unexplored areas or areas about which little was known. Whether swimming vigorously, gamboling amid the waves, attacking ships, or simply displaying themselves for our appreciation, the sea monsters that appear on medieval and Renaissance maps are fascinating and visually engaging. Yet despite their appeal, these monsters have never received the scholarly attention that they deserve. In Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps, Chet Van Duzer analyzes the most important examples of sea monsters on medieval and Renaissance maps produced in Europe. Van Duzer begins with the earliest mappaemundi on which these monsters appear in the tenth century and continues to the end of the sixteenth century and, along the way, sheds important light on the sources, influences, and methods of the cartographers who drew or painted them.

A beautifully designed visual reference work, Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps will be important not only in the history of cartography, art, and zoological illustration, but also in the history of the geography of the “marvelous” and of Western conceptions of the ocean.

Content:

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Classical Antecedents

The Earliest Medieval Maps with Sea Monsters: Beatus Mappaemundi

“Let the Waters Bring Forth Abundantly”: Sea Monsters in the Creation

Sea Monsters in the Harbor of Brindisi

An Imagined Mappamundi with Sea Monsters

Sea Monsters on the Ceiling

Giant Sea Monsters on Two Small Mappaemundi

“A Vast Sea Where There is Nothing But the Abode of Monsters”

Two Monumental Mappaemundi with Few Sea Monsters

Three Sea Monsters Battling in the Atlantic

Pictorial Excursus: The Dangers of Sea Monsters

Sea Monsters on Nautical Charts: Giant Octopuses, Sirens, Sharks

How to Buy a Sea Monster

Whaling Between Myth and Reality

A Nest of Sea Monsters at the Bottom of the World

Whales as Big as Mountains

Terrifying Monsters in the Indian Ocean

A Skeptic about Sea Monsters: Fra Mauro

Pictorial Excursus: Whimsical Sea Monsters

Invented Sea Monsters in the Circumfluent Ocean

The Manuscript with the Most Sea Monsters

Sea Monsters in Printed Editions of Ptolemy

The Sea Monsters of the Earliest Surviving Terrestrial Globe

The Sea Monsters of Waldseemüller’s Map of 1507 and Schöner’s Globe of 1515

Lighting a Fire on a Whale’s Back

Pictorial Excursus: The Cartographic Career of the Walrus

The Debut of the Sea Monsters of the Renaissance

Olaus Magnus and the Most Important Sea Monsters of the Sixteenth Century

Mercator’s Globe of 1541: The Influence of Olaus Magnus

The Ulpius Globe: Sea Monsters Before Their Time

The Monster that Stops Ships in Their Tracks

Pictorial Excursus: More Whimsical Sea Monsters

From Sea Dragons to a Sawfish: The Rylands Library Map of 1546

Evidence of a Sea Monster Specialist

The Curious Career of the Flying Turtle

The Eclecticism of Giacomo Gastaldi

The Sea Monsters of Gerard Mercator’s Great Map of 1569

Sea Monsters Cavorting Among the Mediterranean Isles

The Sea Monsters Surrounding Iceland in the First Atlas

A Haunting Sea Monster Reappears

Whales Fantastic and Realistic at the End of the Sixteenth Century

Two New World Sea Monsters

Conclusion

Endnotes

Index

Index of Manuscripts

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Empires of Faith: The Fall of Rome to the Rise of Islam, 500-700 (Oxford History of Medieval Europe)

Empires of Faith

• Is an unusually wide-ranging study which integrates medieval, Byzantine, and Islamic history
• Draws on latest scholarship to form an up-to-date study of the era
• Includes an extensive bibliography to provide a framework for future study

Drawing upon the latest historical and archaeological research, Dr Peter Sarris provides a panoramic account of the history of Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Near East from the fall of Rome to the rise of Islam. The formation of a new social and economic order in western Europe in the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries, and the ascendancy across the West of a new culture of military lordship, are placed firmly in the context of on-going connections and influence radiating outwards from the surviving Eastern Roman Empire, ruled from the great imperial capital of Constantinople. The East Roman (or ‘Byzantine’) Emperor Justinian’s attempts to revive imperial fortunes, restore the empire’s power in the West, and face down Constantinople’s great superpower rival, the Sasanian Empire of Persia, are charted, as too are the ways in which the escalating warfare between Rome and Persia paved the way for the development of new concepts of ‘holy war’, the emergence of Islam, and the Arab conquests of the Near East. Processes of religious and cultural change are explained through examination of social, economic, and military upheavals, and the formation of early medieval European society is placed in a broader context of changes that swept across the world of Eurasia from Manchuria to the Rhine.

Warfare and plague, holy men and kings, emperors, shahs, caliphs, and peasants all play their part in a compelling narrative suited to specialist, student, and general readership alike.

Readership: Scholars and students of early medieval Europe; the interested reader

Read more about the Research Project here

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An interest in the middle ages often brings the non-specialist reader up short against a word or term which is not understood or only imperfectly understood. This dictionary is intended to put an end to all that: it has been designed to be of real help to general readers and specialists alike.

The dictionary contains some 3,400 terms as headwords, ranging from the legal and ecclesiastic to the more prosaic words of daily life. Latin was the language of the church, law and government, and many Latin terms illustrated here are frequently found in modern books of history of the period; similarly, the precise meaning of Old English and Middle English terms may elude today’s reader: this dictionary endeavours to provide clarity. In addition to definition, etymologies of many words are given, in the belief that knowing the origin and evolution of a word gives a better understanding. There are also examples of medieval terms and phrases still in use today, a further aid to clarifying meaning.

CHRISTOPHER COREDON has also compiled the Dictionary of Cybernyms. Dr ANN WILLIAMS, historical consultant on the project, was until her retirement Senior Lecturer in medieval history at the Polytechnic of North London.

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