Kalamazoo roundup

Our apologies for not bringing you any other updates this weekend. It looks as if the congress was another strong event. Here are what some of the bloggers have been saying:

The Rose Garden gives a full account of the sessions she went to here.

Notorious Ph.D gives an account of her working the Book Room, trying to get a deal on publishing her book.

Digital Medievalist liveblogged a session on, not surprisingly, Weblogs and the Academy: Professional and Community Outreach through Internet Presence. You can also read MacAllister Stone's paper entitled: Text in Motion: Navel-Gazing as Pedagogical Strategy.

Ex-Aidan gives an account of his adventures up to Friday, if more comes will post the links later this week.

Jeffrey Cohen of In the Middle has already returned home from his Kalamazoo trip. He calls it his favorite conference.

The Idea of Order gives some details about her congress experiences here, and Richard Scott Nokes has three reports: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

As we find other reports of the congress, we'll post up the links.

Salisbury Cathedral turns 750

Celebrating 750 years of a medieval masterpiece
By Barry Leighton
9 May 2008
Western Daily Press


In just 40 years it rose majestically from a meadow called Myrfield to become arguably Britain's finest medieval cathedral following a monumental effort by an army of architects, stonemasons, carpenters and labourers.

Although much building work has taken place over 750 years since, the Archbishop of Canterbury who dedicated Salisbury Cathedral in 1258 would still instantly recognise it were he alive today.

A major exhibition, marking the 750th anniversary of Britain's loftiest cathedral has been opened, re-telling in words and images its fascinating history. At 404ft, the place of worship boasts Britain's tallest spire, owns the best preserved surviving copy of the Magna Carta and contains Europe's oldest working clock.

Located in the setting of the Cathedral's West and South Cloisters, the story of the cathedral is told in photos, illustrations and text, putting it into local, national and global context by a timeline. The text was researched and written by the cathedral's canon chancellor, historian Edward Probert.

Canon Probert worked with designer and researcher Christopher Tunnard to create the free exhibition, which runs until September as one of numerous events celebrating one of the West's greatest man-made landmarks. "We love Salisbury Cathedral partly because it seems so timeless," he said. "In fact, change has been almost constant and this exhibition vividly communicates the ways in which the many generations before us have left their own traces, and given us a heritage which is as vibrantly alive today as at any stage in the last 750 years. It is a case study of how a Christian church in the UK has developed and without doubt will offer visitors in-depth information and pictorial detail they would never discover or see simply by touring this vast building."

The story of the cathedral, and indeed Salisbury, began soon after 1066 when the Normans arrived at Old Sarum, a former Iron Age fortress which evolved into a town. Like those at Lincoln and Durham, they built a cathedral on top of a hill next to a castle - a sign of the new feudal power. But the site was never convenient, being exposed and short of water and the cathedral found the soldiers uncomfortable neighbours.

At the end of the 12th century, the bishop made plans to build a new cathedral. In 1219, after the end of King John's chaotic reign, Bishop Richard Poore gained the Pope's permission to build on a meadow two miles from the old city. Canon Probert described the massive new building as "the latest thing in modern architecture - a cathedral in the gothic style, carefully designed in all particulars."

He wrote: "Because it was started at a time of growing security and prosperity, the building was completed in only about 40 years. Many things have happened here in the intervening 750 years, but the Archbishop of Canterbury who dedicated the cathedral in 1258 would still know it instantly today."

The foundation stones were laid on April 28, 1220, and the construction owed much to the energy of the bishop and the patronage of powerful people. Henry III donated trees from Ireland and estates in Wiltshire for the roof timbers, doors and other parts. Alice Brewer gave marble from her Purbeck quarry, which provided capitals, shafts, columns and bases. The main body of the cathedral was finished by the consecration on September 29, 1258. By the later 13th century the Bishop's town of New Salisbury, had emerged around its huge new market place - which is still put to good use on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Within two centuries, it was the seventh largest town in England. For more on the cathedral's 75th anniversary celebrations visit www.salisburycathedral.org.uk/750.php or call 01722 555 120.

What to do with the Waterford Viking site

Waterford Viking site has yet to be recorded as a national monument.
FRANK MCDONALD
5 May 2008
Irish Times


THE WOODSTOWN archaeological site in Co Waterford, now considered “one of the most important early Viking Age trading centres yet discovered in Ireland”, has yet to be placed on the statutory record of national monuments – five years after it was found.

In line with a recommendation in the final report of a working group set up to consider its future preservation, Minister for the Environment John Gormley is expected to make an order putting it onthe Record of Monuments and Places under the National Monuments Acts.

The Woodstown working group, which includes seniorarchaeologists from the National Monuments Service and the National Museum, said this would give the site on the southern bank of theriver Suir, southwest of Waterford city, a “basic level of protection”.

However, the group’s final report to the Minister does notrecommend a full-scale archaeological excavation of the site in theshort to medium term, suggesting this would cost at least €10 million and that there were not enough archaeologists available to do it.

The Woodstown site was unearthed in 2003 in archaeological investigations along the proposed route of the N25 Waterfordbypass. Because of its national and international importance, the National Roads Authority agreed to re-route the bypass further east.

There had been some suggestion that the site might extend further onto lands now proposed for the re-routing of the bypass,but a report prepared by Archaeological Consultancy Services forthe working group concluded that it was limited to the area already discovered.

“The working group is of the view based on all available information [including a geophysical survey by the landowner, Gerard Halley] that the major and central part of the site appearsto be within two contiguous D-shaped enclosures . . . defined by concentric ditches.”

It had been speculated that the site was a longphort, or ship stockade, but based on the evidence of some 5,000 Viking artefactsfound there, the group concluded that Woodstown was also a major trading site in the late 9th century, occupied largely by Scandinavians.

The range of artefacts, including silver coins, suggested thatthey were wealthy participants in commercial activities and atleast some of them were of high status, “as evidenced by thepresence of one of the best-furnished Viking graves ever discoveredin Ireland”.

There was “considerable on-site manufacturing activity,including iron, copper alloy, silver, glass and perhaps lead-working, woodworking, ship repair and textile production”. This made it “one of the most productive unwaterlogged sites of early medieval date” found here.

“Woodstown is the only site of this type in Ireland thathas undergone archaeological excavation and the only one anywhere in Ireland or Britain to have produced evidence from occupation levels.

“It must be considered exceptional . . . ,” the group’s final report says. “The extraordinary assemblage of finds promises new insights into economic activity inthis period and potentially into the origins of urban settlement in Ireland,” it suggests.

It recommends that all the finds should be displayed at the Waterford Museum of Treasures. As for protecting the site itself, which is owned in itsentirety by Mr Halley, the report says that, with his agreement, itcould be acquired by the State or, failing that, taken into the guardianship of either the relevant local authority or the Minister for the Environment.

In the short to medium term, the working group says there “should not be any specific on-site heritage-related development”, such as a visitor centre or other public facilities, apart from the provision of viewing points where passers-by could see archaeologists at work.

Excavation planned of Benedictine chapel on St. George's Island

Time team plans to visit Looe island
7 May 2008
Cornish Guardian

The nation's favourite archaeology film-makers are planning to visit Looe to uncover the history of a derelict chapel. Channel 4's Time Team has expressed an interest in going to St George's Island at the end of May to excavate a Benedictine chapel which dates back to 1139.

The programme's producers are in talks with Cornwall Wildlife Trust, owners of the island, to discuss dates. If confirmed, the archaeology and production teams are expected to be on the island at the end of the month for several days.

Only a few stones from the original building remain visible. Historic records have shown that monks lived on the island and used the chapel in the 12th century.

Cornwall Wildlife Trust currently runs the island, after it was passed on to them from owners, sisters Babs and Evelyn Atkins. They bought the 22-acre island in 1965.

13th century mosiac in Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey: Carpet of stone: medieval mosaic pavement revealed
Maev Kennedy
5 May 2008
The Guardian


The wraps have come off one of Westminster Abbey's least known treasures, a medieval marble pavement foretelling the end of the world, while conservation experts consider how to preserve the ancient stones for the next 740 years.

Few modern visitors have ever seen it, although since 1268 kings and princes, queens and cardinals have walked across a symbol laden mosaic as intricate as a piece of jewellery.

It is made up of rare marbles and gemstones, including some recycled from monuments 1,000 years older, and pieces of coloured glass, set in complex allegorical patterns into a framework of Purbeck marble cut as intricately as a jigsaw puzzle.

"When this floor was new it would have blazed with colour," Vanessa Simeoni, the abbey's head of conservation said. "The materials were chosen for their brilliance and shine, and the quality of the craftsmanship is actually shocking, the ultimate that could be achieved."

The mosaics are known as Cosmati work, after the four generations of a Roman family of marble workers who perfected the technique. The Westmin ster one, regarded as the finest north of the Alps, uniquely has an inscription boasting of its makers - and a cryptic message about the end of the world.

It was laid in the 1260s, when Henry III sent his new Abbot of Westminster, Richard de Ware, for talks with the Pope in Rome. The Englishman saw a newly installed pavement in the Pope's summer residence, knew it was just the thing for the cathedral which Henry was spectacularly rebuilding around the tomb of St Edward the Confessor, and arrived home with a ship load of marble, glass and Italian craftsmen. Ware's reward was his own tomb incorporated into the design. Henry's tomb, and the saint's shrine, were originally covered in similar work, but all the scraps of marble and glass were picked out as sacred relics by generations of pilgrims.

Only a handful of brass letters remains of the original long inscription, but it was transcribed centuries ago. It names the king, the chief craftsman as Odoricus, gives the date in a tortuous riddle, and then mysteriously suggests that the world will last for 19,683 years, by adding together the life spans of different animals: "add dogs and horses and men, stags and ravens, eagles, enormous whales . . . ."

Careful cleaning, and a radar survey has revealed that although the pavement bears the scars of centuries of repairs and patching, crude and careful, most of it is original, the rich green and plum-coloured porphyry - almost certainly from chopped up ancient Roman sculptures and architectural fragments - still bedded in the limestone mortar laid by the medieval craftsmen.

For most of the past 150 years it has been covered in thick layers of carpet intended to protect but in fact just adding to the dirt and staining. Even when the Queen was crowned above it in 1953, the royal pavement was covered over. The two-year restoration programme will now stabilise the pavement, so that a treasure from the middle ages can be permanently displayed in a 21st century cathedral.

Movie on the Knights Templar in pre-production

'Knights Templar' fight for Universal; Bekmambetov to produce Middle Ages feature
Marc Graser
5 May 2008
Daily Variety


Universal Pictures is assembling "The Knights Templar," picking up a spec script from Adam Torchia and Justin Stanley for Marc Platt and "Wanted" helmer Timur Bekmambetov to produce.

Plot puts a horror spin on the famed organization of fighters from the Middle Ages, with the Knights Templar, fresh from the Crusades, forced to fend off an invading vampire army set on destroying the Holy Grail. Torchia works as an assistant story editor in Universal's story department, where he's spent the past 10 years. He sold the script "Strange Magic" to Alcon Entertainment last year.

Platt will produce "Knights Templar" through his Marc Platt Prods banner, while Bekmambetov will shepherd the project through his Bazelevs Prods, with Jim Lemley. Platt recently produced "The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising" at Fox and U's "The Perfect Man." Bekmambetov helmed the Russian hits "Night Watch" and "Day Watch," as well as U's upcoming actioner "Wanted," which bows June 27. Lemley is also a producer on that project.

The Forme Of Cury - medieval cookbook

Royal chefs' medieval cookbook
7 May 2008
The Sentinel


Clarissa And The King's Cookbook

BRITS love their cookbooks. Every year people buy millions of them and treat the country's celebrity chefs like royalty. But where did it all begin? In this documentary, indomitable "one fat lady" and self-confessed medieval foodie Clarissa Dickson Wright, pictured, tracks down Britain's oldest known cookbook.

The Forme Of Cury is a 700-year-old scroll written during the reign of King Richard II from recipes created by the King's master chefs, and Clarissa investigates if this ancient manuscript may have influenced the way people eat today.

As she unravels recipes fit for a king, sourcing authentic ingredients, discovering gastronomic techniques from the time and cooking in a medieval kitchen to recreate this regal ancient fare, she reveals an historical portrait of the Middle Ages where the "sacred" boy King is surrounded by courtly intrigue and lush extravagance.

The huge variety of dishes that Clarissa finds in the book, from venison and beaver to pike and lamprey, indicates this really was the golden age of the omnivore. As she prepares the food in her medieval kitchen, using traditional cooking methods such as "parboyling", "bakyng", stewing and toasting, techniques not dissimilar to today, she wonders what the modern palate will make of the unusual combinations of sweet and spicy flavours.

Clarissa And The King's Cookbook is a culinary journey through medieval history, reawakening recipes that have lain dormant for centuries and uncovering some dishes that are still eaten today.

Utah Renaissance Festival and Fantasy Faire

Enjoy Celtic music at upcoming Renaissance Festival
By Scott Iwasaki
9 May 2008
Deseret Morning News


Step into the Middle Ages this and next weekend at the third annual Utah Renaissance Festival and Fantasy Faire. Hear minstrels, see jousting contests, dance and other performing arts. There will also be an Olde Marketplace where vendors will sell their wares, including forged swords, exotic jewelry, leather crafts, clothing and food.

Among the many performers such as the Royal Magick of Seattle and the musical group the Glastonbury Duo, Shauna Burns will bring her troupe of musicians to headline May 16-18 at 7 p.m.

Burns, a world-renowned, Celtic-inspired musician, is a graduate of the University of Utah and looks forward to returning to the Beehive State. "This will be the first Renaissance Festival that we've ever done," said Burns during a phone call from Long Beach, Calif., last week. "I've got friends and family in Utah. So, I'm pretty excited to be coming home."

Burns was born in Florida. Her mother hailed from Heber City and her father was a native Floridian, she said. "My mother was the one who played music all the time. She is a pianist, and the music filled our home."

When Burns hit her teens, she discovered the electronic pop of Depeche Mode. "And that led me to Bjork, Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan," she said. "I decided early on that I wanted to be an alternative-rock musician. But these days alternative-rock means something totally different."

Still, Burns decided to attend the U. and study music when she graduated from high school. "However, I found I didn't want to play what the professors wanted me to play," she said with a laugh. "And theory killed me. So I changed majors and did music on the side."

She chose anthropology, with a focus on cultural anthropology, which became her musical muse. "Those classes opened everything up," she said. "I would study Celtic rituals and learn about how the Mongols dealt with birth and death, and then I'd go home and play music on my piano -- inspired by what I was studying. It was fascinating."

Burns cut her teeth performing mainly at Cup of Joe downtown. But her wanderlust kicked in and she found herself in Europe with her husband and band drummer, James Clark.

In 2005 and 2006, Burns released two albums, "Every Thought" and "Desert Tune," respectively. The duo moved to Las Vegas and have been there ever since.

Last February, Burns released her third CD, "The Moon and the Fire Circle."

"This CD was very different than the last two on many levels," she said. "It was originally going to be two CDs -- one about the sun and the other about the moon. But as I was writing, I realized that the moon songs needed to be balanced out with something lighter. So, I put them together and saved a lot of songs for future releases."

The song "Around You" landed at No. 7 on the FM adult contemporary chart.

"That was my happy song," Burns said with a laugh. "I always have to have one happy song on my CD."

In addition to charting singles, Burns was able to tour Britain with her band -- Clark, guitarist Steve Lemmon, bassist Marc Kolodziej and mandolinist (and current Ryn Shupe & the Rubberband member) Ryan Tilby.

"It's amazing to me to be able to do this," she said about her livelihood. "I'm looking forward to going back to Utah." If you go ...

What: Utah Renaissance Festival and Fantasy Faire
Where: 3105 W. Pioneer Road, Ogden
When: Friday through Sunday and May 16-18, 10 a.m. to dusk
How much: $10
Web:www.utahrenfest.com

13th century ship discovered in Barcelona

Ship sunk in 13th century uncovered at Spain construction site
10 May 2008
EFE News Service


Construction of an underground parking lot in a Barcelona neighborhood that was under the sea in the middle ages has uncovered a ship that sank, according to archaeologists supervising the site, in the 13th or 14th century.

The ship's remains are at some 7 meters (23 feet) below sea level, where construction workers found the upside-down wooden hull of a ship that capsized and sank off what was then the coast of the Catalonian capital. Experts say that the ship's design indicates that it came from somewhere on the Atlantic Ocean.

The director of the City History Museum, Joan Roca, who visited the site Saturday with Mayor Jordi Hereu, said the find proves that the port of Barcelona had relations not only throughout the Mediterranean but also with cities on the Atlantic.

The ship was found on land that formerly belonged to the Cercanias Renfe railroad company and where the Sacyr Vallehermoso firm has been building an apartment block since July 2006.

Due to the location of the discovery in the city's downtown area, supervision of the site is the province of the City History Museum's archaeological service and the General Heritage Board of the Generalitat, or Catalonian government.

Festschrift for John J. Contreni

SCHOLARS HONOR PURDUE HISTORIAN WITH PUBLICATION
6 May 2008
US Fed News

A Purdue University historian will be honored by his colleagues and former students with a publication and three conference sessions devoted to his lifetime contributions in the field of medieval studies.

The career and scholarship of John J. Contreni, the Justin S. Morrill Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, will be celebrated at the May 8-11 International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich. Contreni is an expert in medieval literary, intellectual and monastic culture, specifically during the Carolingian Age when Charlemagne and his descendants in the 8th and 9th centuries rebuilt European society.

In addition to the three sessions in his honor at the conference on May 9, 19 scholars in the field are writing articles in honor of Contreni's scholarship. These articles will be published in a Festschrift, a German term for a commemorative volume of essays compiled in honor of a major scholar.

This particular collection will feature essays by medievalists from around the globe, said Steven Stofferahn, an assistant professor of history at Indiana State University and co-editor of the publication.

The book, which will feature articles on education, manuscripts, imperial expansion, hunting spectacles, Jewish-Christian relations, political ideals and the Carolingian Renaissance, will be published in 2010. It will be edited by Cullen Chandler, an assistant professor of history at Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pa., and Stofferahn, two of Contreni's former students.

Contreni became dean of the College of Liberal Arts in 2006. Before that, he was dean of the Graduate School in 2004 after serving as interim dean from 2002-04. In 1999 his name was inscribed in Purdue's Book of Great Teachers. In 2003, he was elected a fellow of the Medieval Academy of America in recognition of his contributions to medieval studies.

Contreni was head of the Department of History from 1985-97 and interim head of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures from 1983-85. From 1981-85, he served as assistant dean for the School of Humanities, Social Science and Education, which is now the College of Liberal Arts. He has been at Purdue since 1971, and he earned his doctorate and master's degrees from Michigan State University in 1971 and 1968, respectively. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in history from St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., in 1966.

Michelangelo sketches of Sistine Chapel to be displayed in Italy

RECOVERED 'MICHELANGELO' SKETCH TO GO ON SHOW.
7 May 2008

ANSA - English Media Service


A drawing attributed to Michelangelo that shows sketches for the decoration of the Sistine Chapel will go on show for the first time this weekend after it was discovered in a private collection last year.

The work was found among the belongings of Giacomo Maria Ugolini, San Marino's ambassador to Egypt and Jordan, which Ugolini bequeathed to a foundation bearing his name when he died last year.

Measuring 2.90 by 3.77 metres, the drawing includes studies of a female figure with children, a seated male figure and a podgy winged baby, or 'putto', as well as various sketches of arms and a right hand.

"The drawing presents surprising similarities to two others already attributed to Michelangelo - one certainly authentic - kept at the British Museum in London and the Detroit Institute of Arts," said Heinrich Pfeiffer, professor of Christian Art History at the Gregorian University and the man who found the drawing last year, at the presentation of the work on Wednesday.

However, Pfeiffer admitted that the number of sketches attributed to Michelangelo has grown in the last few decades, often with little justification.

He said that it was possible that in this case the drawing is a copy rather than the genuine item, but if so it was made ''by an extremely able hand, perhaps even by a contemporary of Michelangelo''.

The drawing will go on show as part of an exhibition entitled Genesis - The Mystery of Origins in the town of Illegio, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, from May 11 until October 5

Around 60 biblically inspired works from between the fourth and the 20th centuries and from 15 European countries will be on display, including Russian and Byzantine icons and masterpices by Andrea Pisano, Tintoretto and Antonio Canova. Photo: A Michelangelo sketch.

Sixth International Colloquium on the History of the Tunisian Steppes

Sbeitla to Host International Colloquium On the History of Tunisian Steppes
9 May 2008
All Africa


The 6th edition of the international colloquium on the history of Tunisian steppes will be jointly organized by the Agency for the promotion of heritage and the regional committee for the preservation of heritage of the Kasserine governorate. The event will take place in the town of Sbeitla , formerly known during the Byzantine empire, as Sufetula.

A number of historians, archaeologists, experts and university professors from Tunisia and France, (universities of Montpellier and Paris IV, La Sorbonne), will take part in the event, which will extend from May 14 to 17,2008 .

The program will include several presentations on the 'Neolithic aspect of the high steppes , with special emphasis on Ain Kouka', the 'image of the gods and of graves in African funerary carminas', 'spectacles and leisure in Byzacena', as well as 'a spatial study of and a cultural interpretation of capsian occupation in central Tunisia '. Other presentations will focus on ' religious beliefs and ways of life' , and 'the recovery of the dedication of the Althiburos capitol'.

A rich program which is expected to shed light on an important part of Tunisia 's history during the Byzantine empire.

Kalamazoo update for Thursday

The Rose Garden has given a report on the sessions she attended: Session 116 - Neomedievalism I: Alternative Realities, Session 3: Hybridity and Medieval Britain and Session 75: J.K. Rowling's Medievalism I.

Some new bloggers have arrived in Kalamazoo, including:

The Cross Reference

Ex-Aidan

Annamaria Kovacs

Medievalists at Kalamazoo

Here is a list of bloggers who will be attending the International Congress on Medieval Studies. During the rest of week we will be checking in and linking to any interesting posts they deliver:

In the Middle

The Ruminate

The Rose Garden

Unlocked Wordhoard

Blogenspiel

Steve Muhlberger

I know I have missed a lot of bloggers that will be there, so please send me a message at medievalists.net@gmail.com and I will add your name to the list.

International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo)

Sadly, we will not be attending the 43rd International Congress on Medieval Studies held May 8-11, 2008 at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan. During the congress, we will post links to bloggers and news who are there. For now, we are going to post some information for those going to Kalamazoo for the first time, about what to expect and what to attend.


The congress is held every year on the grounds of Western Michigan University, which has its own Medieval Studies graduate program.



Originally, the congress was held only at one corner of the university known as the valleys, but over the years it has grown much larger and has spread over most of the campus. The three valley buildings, however, are still used as the main housing area for attendees.



If you do stay on site, your room will mostly look like this, a fairly spartan set up. They provide you with a pillow, bed sheets, blanket, towels and soap. If you have room to take your own pillows and blankets, please do so, as this is not the best quality.




You can prepay for meals which are served in a cafeteria in the valleys, but I would advise against it - the food is really terrible, just terrible. Instead, there are a few places on the campus and many more just off of it where you can have a decent meal. The Bronco Mall, which is on the lower level of the Bernhard Center (this hall hosts the plenary lectures and a lot of other activites) has a few fast food places, including a McDonald's and Subway. This is also the place to go to access computers for either online surfing or to finish up your paper before you give it.


One highlight of the congress is the book exhibits room, which in recent years has even spread out to a few extra rooms. Around 40 booksellers are here, representing all the academic publishers that deal with the Middle Ages. Besides offering hours of browsing, the book room sees a lot of business getting done between authors and potential publishers. If you like buying books, prepare to spend your money here. Good deals can be had, especially on Sunday morning when everyone is packing up.


Finally, I should add that there are lots of sessions for you to attend. Usually 50 separate ones take place at the same time, with a wide variety of topics being talked about. This session was attended by only a dozen people, but others will draw up to 100 strong. Plan ahead on what you want to see, and figure out how to get there as it can be a long walk from place to place.

This is a very brief overview, and a later date we will add a much larger guide to Kalamazoo on the main medievalists.net site.

Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies (March 2008)

Here are some abstracts from volume 32, issue 1 of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies.

Onomastics, gender, office and images on Byzantine lead seals: a means of investigating personal piety, by John Cotsonis pp.1-37

Abstract: Based upon a database of 7,390 lead seals that bear religious figural imagery in conjunction with the names and official titles of their owners, this paper investigates the contribution of lead seals to our understanding of the choice of various religious images as an expression of personal piety. The study examines the roles of homonymity, gender, family names and official titles in individuals' selections of sacred images for their seals. Tables and figures display the numerical and statistical results that are compared to trends found in other media.

Exile and return in John Mauropous, Poem 47, by Christopher Livanos pp.38-49.

Abstract: The author reads an epigram by John Mauropous as an engagement with epic and biblical traditions. Critical studies of exile and return from different eras of the Greek literary tradition by Émile Benveniste, Gregory Nagy and Nancy Sultan are used to provide a theoretical approach to the tradition with which Mauropous engages. It is suggested that Mauropous' wanderings in the territory of the xenos and return to the familiar world of the philos, and especially his personification of his home as a trophos (nurse), allude to Homer, and that epic language and motifs strengthen the poet's assertion of selfhood and make ancient literary themes relevant to Mauropous' life as a scholar and churchman.

Relations between the Fatimid and Byzantine empires during the reign of the caliph al-Mustans ir bi'llah, 1036-1094/427-487, by K.E.F. Thomson, pp.50-62

Abstract: Throughout the history of the Fatimid empire (909-1176/296-566), Byzantine sources support the idea that contact was kept to a minimum for trade. However, Arab historians reveal that in fact al-Mustansir engaged in correspondence, gift exchanges and embassies with several emperors. Descriptions of these mutual relations in the reign of al-Mustansir are a political mirror to the international effects of events such as the arrival of the Seljuk Turks, uprisings and civil war, and are also a fascinating insight into the diplomacy of Muslims and Christians banding together at a time of significant crisis for both.

On historical linguistics, linguistic variation and Medieval Greek, by Io Manolessou, pp.63-79

Abstract: This article focuses on two questions: the application of current historical linguistic methodologies to vernacular Medieval Greek in comparison to similar research in other medieval languages, and the notion of linguistic variation in Medieval Greek, in parallel with the possible methods for its fruitful investigation.

Historical Research (May 2008)

The latest issue of Historical Research: The Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research (volume 81, issue 212) contains the following articles:

R. I. Moore - The war against heresy in medieval Europe pp.189–210

Both the level of clerical anxiety about popular heresy in the century or so after 1140 and the breadth and vigour of measures adopted to suppress it, initially in the Languedoc, were disproportionate to its extent, coherence and support. This article therefore seeks an alternative explanation for the launching of the ‘war against heresy’ in thirteenth-century Europe, and finds it primarily in the developing self-consciousness of the new administrative elite produced by the demographic and cultural transformation of Europe in the eleventh century.

Theron Westervelt - Royal charter witness lists and the politics of the reign of Edward IV pp. 211–223

Historians of medieval England have excelled at getting the most information out of what often seem to be the least giving of sources, yet they have tended to shy away from the witness lists to royal charters. A study of the role and purpose of these charters shows that they deserve a second look, and an examination of the charter witness lists from the reign of Edward IV reveals just how useful they can be in the study of late medieval politics.

Evan T. Jones - Alwyn Ruddock: ‘John Cabot and the Discovery of America’ pp. 224–254

Dr. Alwyn Ruddock was one of the best scholars to work on the North American discovery voyages of John and Sebastian Cabot (1496–1508). For thirty-five years scholars in this field awaited the groundbreaking volume Ruddock was said to be preparing on this subject. Yet, when Dr. Ruddock died in December 2005, aged eighty-nine, she ordered the destruction of all her research. This article examines the research claims she made in her 1992 book proposal to the University of Exeter Press and in her later correspondence with U.E.P. Her findings are so extraordinary that they will, if proved correct, transform our entire conception of the scale, nature and importance of John Cabot's achievements.

This last article is freely available here.

The 'Controversial' Pizza Commercial

The Middle Ages in popular culture perhaps, but apparently this commercial for Domino's has been getting negative reviews from pizza delivery people.

Doing a Master's program in medieval studies in Great Britain

So you want to study A master's in medieval studies
Liz Ford
3 May 2008
The Guardian


The middle ages is a period often only touched upon at school, if at all, so it's perhaps not everyone's first choice for a historical postgraduate course - but maybe that's what makes it a bit special. The chance to work with original manuscripts dating back hundreds of years must surely be fascinating.

What will I study?

David d'Avray, professor of history teaching MA medieval studies, University College London
The MA has four elements; a thesis, a medieval language - usually Latin - and two other units. Students can take the usual kind of medieval graduate courses, for example medieval magic, medieval papacy or early medieval identities. They can also, however, get much more intensive technical training in reading and using medieval manuscripts, and in the scholarly languages a professional medievalist needs. Professional medievalists need palaeographical and linguistic skills, and few have them when they graduate with BA degrees in history or English.

Frances Eustace, MA medieval studies student, University of Bristol
I'm taking a two-year, part-time course including compulsory core elements, three options and final dissertation. Core texts include Chaucer and Boethius. I'm also studying Latin and paleography. I opted to take further Latin, old French, medieval English drama and medieval secular song.

Julie Kanter, MA medieval history graduate, King's College London
I studied the required subjects of materials and methods, Latin - intermediate and advanced - and palaeography, as well as my chosen optional classes of English royal government and Magna Carta. My dissertation was an analy sis of the household account rolls of Edward I.

Why do medieval studies?

D'Avray: Many of the things that made the modern world, such as the nation state, the idea of Europe, universities and international banking techniques, began in the medieval period. Some students on the course have acquired a taste for medieval studies as undergraduates and want to understand the period at a more profound level.

Eustace: I am a professional musician, specialising on historical instruments and this, combined with a move to an area of Wessex with a great deal of medieval history, led me to an interest in the culture and history of the period.

Kanter: I chose to study medieval history because I am fascinated by it. I find the emergence of bureaucratic administration quite interesting. I also really liked the fact that my course allowed me to actually handle medieval source material.
What are the job prospects?

D'Avray: Academic jobs in medieval studies are scarce, though some of the recent graduates of the MA who are currently completing doctorates are likely to be near the head of the queue. Some make different choices, however. Some go on to become lawyers. Several others have become archivists. The archival profession has concentrated so much on electronic resources that it is very short of the manuscript expertise that graduates of this MA have acquired.

Eustace: I plan to continue to be a freelance musician, but hope to include more education workshops and other more integrated programmes of performance combining music, literature and contextual cultural history.

Kanter: At the moment I'm continuing my studies in medieval history by pursuing a PhD at King's College London. The title of the thesis I am working on is Analysis of the Itinerary of 13th Century English Kings. To go for a doctorate, it was, of course, necessary to have first completed my MA. Ideally I want to lecture in medieval history at university level.

Can you get funding?

D'Avray: In the UK, the main source of funding for postgraduate work in the humanities has always been the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The competition is incredibly intense , but this MA has done well.

Eustace: I'm funding myself, hence the need to be a part-time student.

Kanter: As a US citizen I was not eligible for any funding. I was, however, able to get student loans at good rates.

Course links:

MA in medieval studies, University College London www.ucl.ac.uk
Cost pounds 3,820 full-time or pounds 1,915 per year part-time. Duration One year full-time, two years part-time.

MA in medieval studies, University of Bristol www.bristol.ac.uk
Cost pounds 3,950 ft; pounds 1,975 pt. Duration One year ft, two years pt.

MA in medieval history, King's College London www.kcl.ac.uk
Cost pounds 3,900 ft, pounds 1,950 pt. Duration One year ft, two years pt.

Medieval silver coins found near Lund, Sweden

Boy, 9, and grandfather find medieval silver treasure in Sweden
28 April 2008
Trend News Agency


A 9-year-old boy's search for shrapnel on an old battlefield resulted in a huge find of medieval silver coins near the Lund in southern Sweden, local media reported Monday, reported dpa.

Alexander Granhof, 9, and his grandfather made the recent discovery, dubbed "silverado" by archaeologists. "We went out on the field looking for cannonballs," Alexander Granhof told the online edition of the Sydsvenskan newspaper.

"I found a piece of metal and thought at first it was shrapnel from a shotgun. I shouted to grandfather and then we discovered more and more coins," he added.

In all, the pair found more than 4,600 coins on the field. Archaeologists, using metal detectors, boosted the tally to 7,000 but did not rule out that even more coins were hidden in the soil. "This is incredible," Bernd Gerlach of the Lund University Historical Museum told reporters.

Both Alexander and his grandfather Jens Granhof are interested in archaeology and went treasure hunting after reading about a treasure buried somewhere in the province of Scania. No reward sum has yet been determined but the silver in the treasure alone was estimated to be worth 1.5 million kronor (250,000 dollars).

During the 13th century when the coins were hidden, the sum could have fetched some 15 serfs, museum head Per Karsten said. The coins had been placed in two urns that were wrapped in cloth. The treasure was likely buried during troubled times, and one theory was that the coins were church taxes collected from nearby farms. The find included thousands of English coins with a high silver content and some other markers that likely were used locally.