medieval history

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  11/15/2021
  

  Colin Morris, 1928-2021

  Colin Morris identified the beginnings of the concept of individualism two centuries earlier than had previously been believed, part of a career of groundbreaking scholarship on the Middle Ages. 

• SOURCE: Hyperallergic
  11/14/2021
  

  When a Bible Isn't a Bible

  by Kathleen E. Kennedy

  The British press has bungled its accounting of the discovery of a gold bead in the form of an open book. If it's not a Bible, what is it? 

• 
• 11/14/2021
  

  Kyle Rittenhouse's Trial Will End in a Verdict. The Nation's Trial By Ordeal Won't

  by Thomas Lecaque

  "A trial by ordeal was not about miracles or superstition. It was, in effect, about the community making a decision on the innocence or guilt of the party, and then bringing it about." Kyle Rittenhouse's trial prompts an uncomfortable reckoning with the continuity of some medieval practices of justice.

• 
• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  10/27/2021
  

  Why Dragons were the Dominant Medieval Monstrosities

  by David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele

  Scott Bruce and Michael Psellos are among the historians shedding light on how medieval people talked about monsters and what cultural roles they played. 

• 
• SOURCE: Slate
  10/14/2021
  

  Fact and Fiction in "The Last Duel"

  by Sara McDougall and David Perry

  "The film effectively depicts the violence embedded in medieval ideas of elite masculinity while taking historical liberties when it comes to the real nature and function of trials by combat, or how rape accusations worked in medieval Europe."

• 
• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  10/12/2021
  

  Academic and Amateur Historians Clash over Location of 1,000 Year-Old Battle

  "In Britain, historians love to fight over battle sites, but few elicit such stridence and obsession as Brunanburh. There are more than 30 proposed locations for the battle, which took place in 937, and helped shape what would become England."

• 
• SOURCE: History.com
  9/27/2021
  

  The Renaissance's Challenges to Church Authority and Influence on the Reformation

  Stefania Tutino, a history professor at UCLA and intellectual and cultural historian of post-Reformation Catholicism, says the Reformation and Renaissance were two parallel but intertwined movements.

• 
• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  9/27/2021
  

  Viking Map of Americas Shown to be a 20th Century Forgery

  by David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele

  Both financial gain and the prevalent sectarian conflicts over immigration and nationality in early 20th century America probably motivated the forgery and muted the inclination to challenge it. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  9/13/2021
  

  Is this the Moment for Dante's Purgatory?

  by Judith Thurman

  Dante's epic examined the uncharted space of the new Catholic doctrine of Purgatory. New translations make his vision speak to today's mood of unsettlement and uncertainty.

• 
• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  8/3/2021
  

  ‘The Green Knight’ Adopts a Medieval Approach to ‘Modern’ Problems

  by David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele

  Modern psychological dramas in the Arthurian film aren't foreign to the Middle Ages; they're there in the original text. Viewers should reconsider what they "know" about the medieval period. 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  7/26/2021
  

  The Catholic Church has a Long History of Trying to Discipline Catholic Politicians (But Little Success)

  by Christine Adams

  From Henry VIII to Louis XIV, the Catholic Church has seen efforts to coerce political leaders to hew to doctrine backfire. Will the US Conference of Catholic Bishops' steps toward potentially denying communion to Joe Biden over abortion politics meet a similar fate?

• 
• SOURCE: Public Books
  7/26/2021
  

  What Erotica Reveals about Society: A Conversation with Pernilla Myrne

  "Of course this society was male-dominated; it was a patriarchal society, like all other historical societies. But it was possible to talk explicitly about sex, sexual pleasure, sexual desire, for both men and women."

• 
• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  7/14/2021
  

  The Many Myths of the Term ‘Anglo-Saxon’

  by Mary Rambaran-Olm and Erik Wade

  References to America's "Anglo-Saxon heritage" are often racist dogwhistles, and usually fully detached from the history of the Anglo-Saxon people. 

• 
• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  6/29/2021
  

  A New History Changes the Balance of Power Between Ethiopia and Medieval Europe

  by David Perry and Matthew Gabriele

  Verena Krebs's new book on medieval Ethiopian contact with Europeans reverses the lens to argue that the African kingdom engaged with Europeans from a position of strength. 

• 
• SOURCE: TIME
  4/21/2021
  

  The 'America First Caucus' Is Backtracking, But Its Mistaken Ideas About 'Anglo-Saxon' History Still Have Scholars Concerned

  "They’re just picking up on these words and terms and phrases that have been used and misused for so long—but I do appreciate that people were really pushing back."

• 
• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  3/25/2021
  

  Did the Black Death Rampage Across the World a Century Earlier Than Previously Thought?

  The application of DNA testing technology to the bodies of people from the medieval era suggests that the Black Death was present much earlier than believed. 

• 
• 3/7/2021
  

  Four Things You (Probably) Don't Know about the Werewolves of the Ancient World

  by Daniel Ogden

  Movie werewolves come mostly from the pulp fiction of the early 1900s. But werewolf stories date back to the literature of the 12th century, which most likely drew from even older stories preserved in folklore since the times of ancient Greece and Rome. 

• 
• 3/7/2021
  

  The History Behind Demands for "Trial by Combat"

  by Eric Jager

  A call for "trial by combat" may seem desperate or insane, but may also hint at a desire for a clear, definitive verdict when truth proves elusive. A medievalist reconstructs the world that allowed the last legal, judicial duel. 

• 
• 1/31/2021
  

  Poverty, Politics and Pandemic: The Plague and the English Peasant's Revolt of 1381

  by Alfred Thomas and Peter Rutland

  Seen in a historical context of pandemic-induced paranoia, antisemitic conspiracy, and broad-based resentment, the English rebels start to look less like the innocent victims of tyranny and more like the Trump supporters who invaded the Capitol.

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  1/25/2021
  

  Trump Impeachment After Leaving Office is Nothing – in 9th-Century Rome they Put a Pope’s Corpse on Trial

  by Frederik Pedersen

  A church synod in Rome in 897 AD tried Pope Formosus for transgressing the customs of the papacy. This required exhuming his corpse as he had been dead for seven months, and resulted in cutting off three fingers from the right hand and throwing the rest into the Tiber.