Medieval Studies

Byzantium and Islam: Artistic Continuity, Political Rupture

by Christian Sahner

The Wall Street Journal, 17 May 2012

A review of "Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition," at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York A review of "Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition," at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Античные источники ирландской «Ахиллеиды»

by Dmitry Nikolaev

Рукопись. В соавторстве с М.В. Шумилиным (на самом деле статья в первую очередь его) — для сборника Тронских чтений 2012 года.

В работе высказывается предположение, что некоторые из вставок в ирландском переложении «Ахиллеиды» Стация могут... more В работе высказывается предположение, что некоторые из вставок в ирландском переложении «Ахиллеиды» Стация могут восходить к несохранившемуся античному мифографическому источнику.

Kings, Crisis and Coinage Reforms in Northwest Europe c. 740–70

by Rory Naismith

Early Medieval Europe (forthcoming)

Numismatic Literature

by Rory Naismith

in 'De Gruyter Lexicon: Trends in Medieval Studies', ed. A. Classen, 3 vols.  (Berlin and New York, 2011) II, 1956–62

Four new Agnus Dei pennies of King Æthelred the Unready

by Rory Naismith

(with S. D. Keynes) Anglo-Saxon England 40 (forthcoming)

Specimens of the several substantive coin-types issued in the name of King Æthelred the Unready (978–1016) survive in... more Specimens of the several substantive coin-types issued in the name of King Æthelred the Unready (978–1016) survive in their thousands, especially (and for good historical reasons) in Scandinavia; but very few specimens are recorded of his highly distinctive Agnus Dei type. In a checklist of recorded specimens published in 2007 (ASE 36, pp. 215–20), details were given of 17 coins; and the type was set in the context of the English response to the viking invasion of England in 1009, led by Thorkel the Tall. A further four specimens came to light in 2008–10, one in England and three in Denmark. An updated checklist of the enlarged corpus of Agnus Dei coins is here accompanied by a complete set of illustrations; and the opportunity is taken to review some of the numismatic and historical matters raised by this remarkable type.

"Quidam dicunt quod aqua sive ablutio, quidam quod character". Discussioni sulla natura del battesimo fra la metà del XII e i primi decenni del XIII secolo

by Riccardo Saccenti

published in "Cristianesimo nella Storia", 31 (2010), pp. 387-417

Il sacramento del battesimo è al centro di un ampio dibattito teologico fra la metà del XII secolo e la metà del XIII... more Il sacramento del battesimo è al centro di un ampio dibattito teologico fra la metà del XII secolo e la metà del XIII secolo. A partire dalla trattazione delle Sententiae di Pietro Lombardo si sviluppò un progressivo approfondimento dei vari aspetti del sacramento battesimale che vide fra i principali teologi impegnati Stefano Langton, Guglielmo di Auxerre, Alessandro di Hales e Ugo di Saint-Cher. Le loro dottrine ebbero evidenti influenze sulle opere degli autori successivi come Bonaventura da Bagnoregio e Tommaso d’Aquino.

The sacrament of baptism is at the centre of a large theological debate between the middle of XIIth century and the middle of XIIIth century. Starting with the position assumed by Peter Lombard in his Sentences a progressive study of the various aspects of baptism is developed. The main theologians engaged in it were Stephen Langton, William of Auxerre, Alexander of Hales and Hugues of Saint-Cher. Their doctrines had an evident influence on the positions of the subsequent authors such as Bonaventure of Balneoregio and Thomas Aquinas.

L'anello del re e il «Paradiso» dell'Evangelista. Genesi di un episodio della «Vita sancti Edwardi regis et confessoris» di Aelredo di Rievaulx

by Francesco Marzella

published in 'Hagriographica' XVIII (2011), pp. 217-61.

The legend of the ring given by St. Edward the Confessor to St. John the Evangelist is probably the most famous of the... more The legend of the ring given by St. Edward the Confessor to St. John the Evangelist is probably the most famous of the stories that appear in the hagiographical dossier of the English saint, and the first instance of it had seemed to be in Aelred of Reivaulx's Vita sancti Edwardi regis et confessoris. However, a variant version of the story was found by Marc Bloch in an epitome of Osbert of Clare's Vita beati Eadwardi regis Anglorum. Now for the first time the complete text of this variant version (published with this article) is identified in a manuscript kept in Lambeth Palace Library. This discovery leads to new insights, and points to the conclusion that this version, wich derives many motives from visions of the other-world and tales of journeys to the Earthly Paradise, is probably the oldest and was interpolated in the biography written by Osbert before the canonization of Edward the Confessor (1161). Aelred therefore was not the first author to tell the legend, but reshaped it to fit his new biography of the saint.

Il doctor disertus dal rex Persarum / Francesco e il Sultano nella Legenda Sancti Francisci versificata di Enrico d’Avranches

by Francesco Marzella

in «Nuova Rivista Storica», 2012 II,  forthcoming

Visualising Communities. Possibilities of Network Analysis and Relational Sociology for the Survey and Analysis of Medieval Communities (in German)

by Johannes Preiser-Kapeller

Working Paper for a presentation for the SGB "Visions of Community" (http://www.univie.ac.at/viscom/index_viscom.php?seite=events) and the FSP "Gemeinschaftskonzepte, Identitäten und politische Integration", University of Vienna; slides online: http://oeaw.academia.edu/JohannesPreiserKapeller/Talks

Der Begriff des Netzwerkes erlebt spätestens seit der rasanten Verbreitung von „social
networks“ wie Facebook... more Der Begriff des Netzwerkes erlebt spätestens seit der rasanten Verbreitung von „social
networks“ wie Facebook einen fast inflationären Gebrauch in der öffentlichen Diskussion,
aber auch in verschiedenen Wissenschaftsdisziplinen, darunter der Geschichtsforschung.
Dabei ist es oft schwer zu entscheiden, wo dem Netzwerk-Begriff auch eine analytische
Aussagekraft zugrunde liegt und wo es sich nur um eine „Metapher“ oder ein „Schlagwort“
handelt, das Vergleichbarkeit mit Phänomenen der Gegenwart suggeriert, ohne
Wesentliches für den historischen Erkenntnisgewinn zu leisten.
Ein Ziel der sozialen Netzwerkanalyse ist es, Geflechte von Akteuren und Beziehungen in
strukturell und quantitativ fassbarer Form darzustellen. Darüber hinaus betrachtet aber die
„relationale Soziologie“ Akteure nicht nur als in soziale Netzwerke eingebettet; vielmehr
werden ihre Verhaltensweisen und Identitäten durch Interaktionen und Kommunikationsakte
im Netzwerk geprägt, ja überhaupt definiert. Die strukturell-quantitative Perspektive wird
damit wesentlich um qualitative Aspekte ergänzt; sowohl die Verknüpfungen zwischen
Akteuren als auch deren Rollen und Identitäten werden als Ergebnisse dynamischer
Prozesse verstanden.
In den letzten Jahren wurden diese Ansätze auch mit Konzepten der Systemtheorie (Niklas
Luhmann) und der Komplexitätsforschung verknüpft, um die Emergenz und Dynamik von
Gemeinschafts- und Identitätsbildungen von der individuellen Ebene über Gruppen bis hin zu
großen sozialen Formationen besser erfassen zu können. Diese Konzepte werden im
Vortrag präsentiert, diskutiert und durch auf der Grundlage mittelalterlicher Quellen erstellte
Fallbeispiele illustriert. Einige Ansätze und Beispiele wurden bereits in diversen Beiträgen
und Working Papers näher ausgeführt, die unter
http://oeaw.academia.edu/JohannesPreiserKapeller auch im Internet frei zugänglich sind.

Das Rad der Fortuna. Die Bedeutung eines antiken Symbols im Mittelalter

by Anne Viola Siebert

Published in: "der sassen speyghel" – Sachsenspiegel, Recht, Alltag, Bd. 2: Aus dem Leben gegriffen, Ein Rechtsbuch spiegelt seine Zeit (= Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Nordwestdeutschland, Beih. 10, 1995) 91–96

Das Rad der Fortuna. Die Bedeutung eines antiken Symbols im Mittelalter

by Anne Viola Siebert

Published in: "der sassen speyghel" – Sachsenspiegel, Recht, Alltag, Bd. 2: Aus dem Leben gegriffen, Ein Rechtsbuch spiegelt seine Zeit (= Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Nordwestdeutschland, Beih. 10, 1995) 91–96

Great King, Emperor and Caliph - Byzantium in the political Web of the Middle East, 300-1204 CE (in German)

by Johannes Preiser-Kapeller

in: Historicum. Zeitschrift für Geschichte. Linz 2012, p. 26-47.

L’exposició retrospectiva de Barcelona de 1867 i els inicis del col·leccionisme de pintura gòtica a Catalunya

by Alberto Velasco Gonzàlez

in Lambard. Estudis d'art medieval, XXII, 2012, p. 9-65.

In 1867 it was organized in Barcelona the first of major retrospective exhibitions conducted in the city during the... more In 1867 it was organized in Barcelona the first of major retrospective exhibitions conducted in the city during the nineteenth century. The exhibition was an initiative of the Academy of Fine Arts, and supposed the involvement, both at organizational level and in the loan of works, of a set of very important personalities of cultural life in Barcelona. From the standpoint of the history of collecting, it was the first time that takes visibility a group of people who had remained anonymous until then, including some artists and intellectuals linked with the Romantic Movement and, therefore, interested in the artistic works of the medieval period.

The article will delve into this last aspect, and particularly in those lenders who lend paintings of the gothic period, a kind of artistic production that was not yet fully introduced in the local circles of collecting due to an accumulation of factors that will be analyzed appropriately. The presence of gothic paintings in the exhibition was not too relevant in the totality of works on display, but viewed together; show that certain people had been interested in them, a prelude of later episodes featured by collectors as Maties Muntadas. Finally, the text calls for this exhibition as the first time that the gothic painting was exhibited publicly in Catalonia,
at the same time when intellectuals became interested in it as an object of
study.

‘Hound Supporting the Falcon in Hunting: Frederick II of Hohenstaufen’s De arte venandi cum avibus, 3, 28’

by Bogdan Burliga

Fasciculi Archaeologiae Historicae 22 (2009), pp. 71–77

‘Literacki aspekt Kroniki oliwskiej’

by Bogdan Burliga

[w:] Dzierżawcy, literaci, posłowie [Studia z Dziejów Średniowiecza 16], red. B. Możejko, M. Smoliński i S. Szybkowski, Malbork 2011, ss. 53-67

A NEW EXPLANATION FOR THE REPRODUCTIVE WOES AND MIDLIFE DECLINE OF HENRY VIII

by Catrina Whitley

Co-authored with Kyra Kramer.  Published in The Historical Journal, 53 , pp 827-848.  http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0018246X10000452

Henry VIII's first two wives experienced multiple pregnancies culminating in late-term miscarriage, stillbirth, or... more Henry VIII's first two wives experienced multiple pregnancies culminating in late-term miscarriage, stillbirth, or neonatal mortality. After his fortieth birthday, the king's mental and physical health underwent rapid deterioration. In this article, we argue that both his reproductive troubles and his midlife pathologies can be explained if Henry VIII were positive for the Kell blood group. A Kell negative woman who has multiple pregnancies with a Kell positive male will suffer repeated miscarriages and death of Kell positive foetuses and term infants that occur subsequent to the first Kell positive pregnancy. This pattern is consistent with the pregnancies of Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. Additionally, Henry VIII may have suffered from McLeod syndrome, a genetic disorder of the Kell blood group system, which is a condition that causes physical and mental impairment consistent with his ailments.

Arhiepiskop Nikodim I

by Dragić Živojinović

Published in Istorijski časopis 60 (2011)

Dragić M. Živojinović
ARCHBISHOP NICODEMUS I
Summary
Nicodemus, hegoumenos of Hilandar monastery... more Dragić M. Živojinović
ARCHBISHOP NICODEMUS I
Summary
Nicodemus, hegoumenos of Hilandar monastery (1311-1316) and
Archbishop of the Serbian Church (1317-1324), is an interesting figure who appears in different roles: as a monk, theologian, writer, diplomat, politician and saint. Source material about him is rich and diverse, both by type (documentary and narrative) and by origin (Greek and Serbian). His birth date is unknown and the first mention of Nicodemus, as a young monk with the
important function of the paraoikonomos of Hilandar’s Thessaloniki metochion of St. George, is from the year 1290. Since Nicodemus was Daniel’s disciple and given the fact that the former was succeeded by the latter, it is assumed that
in the difficult years of Catalan menace (1307-1310) he had an important role in the defense of the Serbian monastic community on the Mt. Athos. While in the office of hegoumenos, Nicodemus saw to the growth of monastic estates in
the vicinity of Thessaloniki and in the valley of the Strymon river. He also actively partook in deliberations of the Athonite Council of elders. As a representative of Kings Milutin and Dragutin he carried out a delicate mission in Constantinople at the court of Andronicus II, probably in the early 1312. In the first half of the 1316 he went to Serbia and from King Uroš II received help for the hermitage of St. Sabbas in Karyes. After the death of Archbishop Sava III (26 July 1316) Serbian Church was without a head for more than nine months, until Nicodemus was elected on 12 May 1317 as a compromise candidate – king’s favorite being Daniel. During his term, which lasted exactly
seven years for he died on 12 May 1324, Nicodemus made efforts to enrich ecclesiastical libraries and particularly important is his translation, dating from 1318/19, of the Jerusalem Typicon of St. Sabbas the Sanctified, whose Greek original was acquired in Constantinopolitan monastery of St. John the Forerunner. As a politician he was no less prosperous, because he convinced
King Milutin to allow the return of banished Stephen to Serbia. After Milutin’s death and the outbreak of the succession war, Nicodemus sided with Stephen (the eventual winner) and anointed him as King Uroš III. It is known that he built the churches of St. Demetrius in Peć (where he was buried) and of St. Sava the Serbian in Lizica. Shortly after his death he was canonized and in the early XVth century Bishop Mark of Peć wrote Service to Archbishop Nicodemus in which he had praised him as the persecutor of heretics and the defender of
Orthodoxy.

Keywords: Nicodemus, hegoumenos, Archbishop, Hilandar, XIIIth-XIVth centuries.

Akt Hilandarskog bratskog sabora o prodaji adelfata

by Dragić Živojinović

Published in Miscellanea (Mešovita građa) 32 (2011)

Dragić M. Živojinović
AN ACT OF THE COUNCIL OF BRETHREN OF THE HILANDAR
MONASTERY CONCERNING THE SALE OF... more Dragić M. Živojinović
AN ACT OF THE COUNCIL OF BRETHREN OF THE HILANDAR
MONASTERY CONCERNING THE SALE OF ADELPHATA
Summary
King Milutin buys three adelphata from Hilandar monastery, two for the sustenance of monks of the Tower of Chryse (Pyrgos of Holy Ascension) and one for dweller of the kellion of Holy Trinity. The contract was confirmed by the decision of the Council of brethren of Serbian athonite convent, headed by hegoumenos Gervasios and 19 of its most distinguished monks. The document was made in the last years of Stephen Uroš II’s reign (1318–1321) and it came down to us as a transcript from the third or fourth decade of the XIVth century.

Key Words: Milutin, Gervasios, Hilandar, Chryse, adelphata, Council of brethren,
transcript, XIVth century.

De dignitate conditionis humanae: Translation, Commentary, and Reception History of the Dicta Albini (Ps.-Alcuin) and the Dicta Candidi

by John Flood

With James McEvoy and Mette Lebech. Viator 40:2 (2009), pp. 1-34.

In two MSS of the ninth century the Dicta Albini and the Dicta Candidi Presbyteri de imagine Dei are to be found fused... more In two MSS of the ninth century the Dicta Albini and the Dicta Candidi Presbyteri de imagine Dei are to be found fused together into a treatise named De dignitate conditionis humanae. Although the Dicta Albini, once attributed to Alcuin of York, may go back to an unknown late antique author from southern Gaul and the Dicta Candidi may have had a pupil of Alcuin for its author, their common theme unites them and testifies to the history of the conceptualisation of human dignity. Both dicta have been critically edited by John Marenbon (1981) and are translated here for the first time. A hitherto unnoticed source of the Dicta Albini in the Roman liturgy is also identified. Against the background of the study of the content of the treatise(s) it is argued that dignitas conditionis humanae is so close in meaning, systematically and linguistically, to the contemporary idea of human dignity that the treatise(s) should be read as part of the history of this idea. In fact our treatise(s) significantly influenced the thought of later ages. The considerable popularity which the material enjoyed is traced from Carolingian times down to the early Renaissance. Around AD 1450 an extensive excerpt from the Dicta Albini was translated into Middle English; in an appendix this version is edited from all four manuscript witnesses. All of these ramifications of the treatise(s) alert us to an often-overlooked strand in the history of the idea of human dignity.

Book Review "Hardwick, Paul. English Medieval Misericords: The Margins of Meaning. Boydell Studies in Medieval Art and Architecture. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2011"

by Ana Maria Gruia

The Medieval Review 12.04.23