Medieval News
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 The Row at The Medieval Academy of America15.05.2013 At Kalamazoo, Peter Konieczny from www.medievalists.net, digged around in order to provide us all with an explanation to the recent row at the Academy, where the Executive Directors, Gardiner and Musto suddenly resigned. Read the full article at www.medievalists.net |  Klåstad Ship14.05.2013 The foundation, Oseberg Viking Ship, recently launched their accurate copy of the famous Oseberg Ship, The Saga Oseberg, for test sailings. Now the people behind are planning to build a copy of the so-called Klåstad Ship, the third Viking ship found in Vestfold. Read more at the website, Oseberg Viking Ship |
 REMA – Réseau Européen de Musiqie Ancienne – European Early Music Network.15.05.2013 The recent Newsletter from REMA gives a detailed overview of all the upcoming musical festivals this summer. Subscribe to the occasional REMA newsletter |  Medieval Herald16.04.2013 The spring issue of the Medieval Herald from Boydell & Brewer tells about a series of new and remarkable publications which offer new research and exiting insights into various aspects of the Middle Ages. Find the Medieval Herald here… |
Marcella Pattyn07.05.2013 The world’s last Beguine, Marcella Pattyn, died on April 14th, aged 92. Blind, she lived her life at the medieval beguinage at Courtrai, a World Heritage Site, after having had her applications rejected by a long list of convents in her youth... Read the obituary in The Economist |  DigiPal07.05.2013 DigiPal is a new resource for the study of medieval handwriting, particularly that produced in England during the years 1000–1100, the time of Æthelred, Cnut and William the Conqueror. It currently holds about 300 images of manuscript pages and over 12,000 images of individual letters. Read more at DigiPals website |
 Tiny Medieval Notes05.05.2013 132 notes, letters and receipts from an unidentified court in the Rhine region were jotted on little slips of paper. Afterwards they were hidden inside the binding of a book printed in 1577. These recently rediscovered tiny slips are remarkable intimate notes seldom preserved in a world preoccupied with magnificent manuscripts. Read the full story at Erik Kwakkel’s blog: Medievalfragments |  Guide to Medieval Dublin05.05.2013 Ever wondered where medieval Dubliners went for a pint? Or where they buried the victims of the Black Plague? Read the illustrated guide to Viking and Medieval Dublin in The Journal and get more tips on timetravels in Ireland… |
 George and the Dragon24.04.2013 Standing just 4cm high, St George raises his lance to strike a fatal blow against the tiny dragon staring back at him. His outstretched hand probably once gripped his scaly foe by the tail, though they have since broken apart. Read more in Current Archaeology |  Medieval Feasts10.04.2013 La Tour Jean Peur in Paris host an exhibition on both liturgical as well as secular medieval feasts. The exhibition is open for the rest of the year. Read more at Tour Jean sans Peur |
 I Tatti Prize10.04.2013 A new initiative from Harvard's Villa i Tatti is meant to encourage and reward junior scholars in the field of Italian Renaissance studies. The I Tatti Prize for Best Essay by a Junior Scholar is awarded for the best scholarly article on an Italian Renaissance topic, published in English or Italian. The subject can be any aspect of the Italian Renaissance, broadly defined. To apply, please visit the website |  Rare Ceramic Model of a Church08.04.2013 The ceramic model of a church is a rare archaeological discovery from Byzantine Israel. The church model has floral decorations and crosses appearing on three sides. On the top of the roof is a large loop handle, also flanked by crosses. Probably the church model was used as a clay lamp, with light emanating from the cross-formed holes. Read about the find in The Jewish Press |
 Rijksmuseum reopens as restored secular cathedral
07.04.2013After 10 long, expensive years in which everything that could go wrong went wrong, the newly renovated Rijksmuseum will officially open its doors on April 13th. Anticipation has been building in the lead-up to the re-opening. Read about the history of the museum at The History Blog |  Irish Walled Towns Network wins European Union Prize
26.03.2013 Heritage Council’s Irish Walled Towns Network wins the prestigious European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards 2013 in the Education, Training and Awareness-Raising category. Known as the Oscars of European heritage, this accolade was won due to the efforts of the IWTN to train representatives of Irish historic towns to care for and advocate for their heritage. Read more about Irish Walled Towns |
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 Travelling in the German Middle Ages 26.03.2013
Going to Germany? And passionate about the Middle Ages? A new booklet (in German) points the way through the highlights. The detailed (76 pages) and well-researched pamphlet can be read on the web at “Farhtziel-Kultur”. Well Worth a web-detour... |  Past the Potatoes: What the Irish Ate Before the Late 1600s 26.03.2013 What was Irish food like for the 1500 years between Patrick and potatoes? The short answer is: milky. Every account of what Irish people ate, from the pre-Christian Celts up through the 16th-century anti-British freedom fighters, revolves around dairy and a cuisine that revolved around banbidh, or "white foods"... |
 Abbey of Boudelo
26.03.2013
A medieval Cistercian monastery in Belgium - the Boudelo Abbey – made a major effort to drain wetlands, building on artificially raised soil, a new study finds. Read the full article in LiveScience... |  Late Medieval South Galway Seaweed Farm26.03.2013 The seaweed farm at Aughinish island, below the Burren on the Galway-Clare border, is the largest and best preserved of its kind on the entire coastline, according to archaeologist Michael Gibbons… |
 No Slop Here14.03.2013 Two new books on medieval food and dining - Peter Brears on Cooking and Dining in Medieval England and Hannele Klemettilä on the medieval Kitchen - been favourably reviewed by Alex Burghart in this week’s TLS. Enjoy and rush to the bookshop. Enjoy and rush to the bookshop |  Yet Another Car Park Skeleton14.03.2012 The remains of a medieval knight or nobleman found underneath a car park are to be moved to make way for a university building. The grave and evidence of a 13th Century monastery were uncovered when archaeologists were called to an Edinburgh Old Town building site. Read more about the Car Park Knight |
 Desiderius – the Last Lombard King12.03.2013 Desiderius (? – 786) was the last king of Lombardy in Northern Italy. His daughter married Charlemagne, who conquered his realm in 774 effectively ending the rule of the Lombards. His reign is the topic of a wide-ranging interdisciplinary conference in March in Brescia. Desiderio – il progetto politico dell*ultimo re longobardo |  Medieval Dissections12.03.2013 The gruesome specimen, now in a private collection, consists of a human head and shoulders with the top of the skull and brain removed. Radiocarbon dating puts the age of the body between A.D. 1200 and A.D.1280, an era once considered part of Europe's anti-scientific "Dark Ages." The specimen suggests surprising anatomical expertise during this time period. Read more about medieval dissections |
 The Books, which Belonged to Richard III
06.02.2013 Richard owned a number of books during his life, a few of which still survive today, some in the British Library. We know from signatures that Richard owned a copy of the French romance Tristan. Another book, 'Dedes of Knyghthode', holds the coats of arms both of Richard and of his wife, Anne Neville. When we look at these books, they help bring back to life the hands that held them. Blog from British Library |  Why the princes in the tower are staying six feet under
07.02.2013 Correspondence shows Church of England has repeatedly refused to allow forensic tests on bones in Westminster Abbey, believed to be those of the two princes claimed by the Tudors to have been killed by Richard III (most probably it was Henry VII who had the deed done). Read article in The Guardian |
Experimental Archaeology Conference 2013
30.01.2013 Experimental Archaeology seeks to elucidate the more practical sides of living in the past. At the conference this year the participants were offered presentations of a series of diverse, but interesting topics like the Cook's Gallery on the Mary Rose, medieval surgery plus heating in Anglo-Saxon and Viking Houses... Abstracts are now available at the website |  The Illustrated Life of St Cuthbert digitised
30.01.2013 The 12th century manuscript, Yates Thompson MS 26, is the latest addition to the Digitised Manuscripts website of the British Library. It contains a number of texts about England's favourite hermit and bishop, St Cuthbert. But it is probably most famous for its extensive programme of illumination, which documents almost every episode in St Cuthbert's holy life. Medieval and Earlier manuscript blogs |
 The Battle of Hastings
16.01.2013 Where did it take place? Scholars and historians have for along time tended to disagree about the exact location of the battle. New books have presented new theories, but sofar the jury is still out. Read the announcement from the Battlefields Trust |  The Algorithms That Automatically Date Medieval Manuscripts16.01.2013 Around a million medieval documents have no date making their historical significance difficult to quantify. But automated computer techniques look set to revolutionise the work for historians. Read the article |
 UNESCO to Look Into Cologne Cathedral Vibrations16.01.2013 A newly opened subway line in Cologne is causing the city's beloved World Heritage cathedral to vibrate, raising concerns that it might suffer damage. Although it has yet to be formerly notified, UNESCO is anxious to know what is going on. Read more at Spiegel Online |  DNA analysis can identify human eye and hair colour from ancient and contemporary skeletal remains16.01.2013 A team of researchers from Poland and the Netherlands have developed a system that is able to answer what the hair and eye colour is from individuals who lived over 800 years ago. Read more in Investigative Genetics |
 Annual report of Portable Scheme published
08.01.2013 Nearly 100,000 archaeological discoveries – ranging from Roman helmets to Viking gold – were made during 2011, according to the annual report by the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Read the report at the new and exciting website |  Medieval Mystical Theology
08.01.2013 Equinox, the publisher of Medieval Mystical Theology (MMT), have sold a number of their theological journals to Acumen Publishing. MMT, published under the auspices of the Eckhart Societ, is one of these. They are building a new website to include these journals which will be ready shortly Read more at the website for The Eckhart Society |
 How Some Medieval Cultures Adapted to Rise of Islam
07.01.2013 Medieval Afghanistan and Iran were frontiers in flux as the Islamic Caliphate spread beyond the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century. Their populations in the Middle Ages were only about 50 percent Muslim in the 10th century, even after 300 years of Arab rule, claims Robert Haug . Read Press release from University of Cincinatti |  Hungarian Medieval Museums
08.01.2013 Traveling to Hungary and Budapest soon? And interested in Medieval History? Don’t’ forget to check out the museums listed here! But even if you are not in the neighbourhood many are in the process of placing their collections online. Find a brief but very useful overview of each of these databases at the blog of Zsombor Jékely |
 Staffordshire Hoard Site Yields More20.12.2012 Archaeologists believed that they had combed the earth. Three years after another 90 pieces of gold are found, which must have been part of the original Staffordshire Hoard |  Growing Critique of the press-handling of the find of Richard III…20.12.2012 Archaeologists and scholars working on the investigation of what is now known as the skeleton of Richard III are growing disillusioned with the informational “gag” they claim has been foisted upon them, says the Daily Mail |
 Medieval Herald 13.12.2012 Just in time for Christmas shopping Boydell and Brewer offers 35% discount on books featured in the newsletter. For example read the interview with David S. Bachrach about his groundbreaking book on Warfare in Tenth-Century Germany and get it for £39 or win it in the Christmas competition Medieval Herald December 2012 |  Historia Ecclesiastica14.12.2012
Medieval Manuscripts and incunables at a value of €1.6 Mill has been donated to the Austrian National Library. The most valuable manuscript is the “Historia Ecclesiastica” by Eusebius written at St. Lamprecht in Steiermark in the 12th century. Saved for the Austrian public by the family Loibl at an auction a few years ago it will together with the rest of the collection be exhibited in 2013 at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek |
 AR.C.H.I.ves - A comparative history of archives
in late medieval and early modern Italy
11.12.2012 AR.C.H.I.ves, a new European research project, aims to study the history of the archives of the chanceries in Late Medieval and Early Modern Italy. Focus will be seven case studies of chanceries from Venice, Modena, Florence, the Vatican, Milan, Naples, and Palermo. Read more at AR.C.H.I.ves |  Bibliography of literature on BnF manuscripts
03.12.2012 Bibliothèque nationale de France announces that their file of some 170.000 bibliographic references on medieval manuscripts in Latin, Greek and vernacular languages has been converted to an electronic format, and that these records have now been added to the catalogue entries. Click here for an example of an entry with an extensive bibliography. BnF - Archives et Manuscrits |
 The Journal of Medieval Archaeology
03.12.2012 50 years ago the Society of Medieval Archaeology was founded in London. As a celebration the first 50 years of the Society’s Journal went online last year. Now the Index to 51 -55 has also become available. Medieval-Archaeology-Index-51-55 Find out more about Medieval Archaeology on our publication webpages. |  New book on Royal Seals of the Árpád Dynasty
28.11.2012 A new book, written by Imre Takács on Royal Seals of the Árpád Dynasty was presented today at the Hungarian National Archives. The book is part of a new series, titled Corpus Sigillorum Hungariae Mediaevalis. The series aims to provide a catalogue of Hungarian medieval seals - royal, aristocratic and religious as well as seals of towns. Read more at Medieval Hungary |
 The Medieval Settlement Research Group
<03.12.2012 The Medieval Settlement Research Group (MSRG) is a long established, widely recognised and open multi-disciplinary group that facilitates collaboration between archaeologists, historians, geographers and other interested parties. Back issues of the Annual Report (1986-2007) and Medieval Settlement Research journal (2008-2010) are now available online from the ADS |  Byzantine History of the World to be Studied
28.11.2012 Tübingen Professor, Mischa Meier, heads new 12-year project examining the Chronographia of Ioannes Malalas (490 - 578 AD), which was written in Greek in the 6th century. Malalas was probably an official in the provincial administration. In that position, Malalas appears to have had access to important archives. Read more at University of Tübingen |
The Justinian Plague caused by Y.Pestis30.11.2012 Very tiny remnants of human tissue from teeth, bone-marrow or other tissue are nowadays enough to do rapid and cost-effective DNA sequencing. This has helped tremendously to increase the acquisition of data - also from historical samples. New research helps to prove that not only the Black Death but also the Justinian Plague (541 -542 AD) was caused by a strain of Y. Pestis. Read more at PLoS ONE 7(11) |  Swords took steep price
28.11.2012 The Crusadersword captured from Mamluk Arsenal in Alexandria, estimated to sell for £40,000 to £60,000, was eventually bought for £163,250 after stiff competition in a sale that made a total of £1m with 90% sold. Viking swords sold for up to six times the evaluation. Read the full press release |
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