Thursday, June 08, 2017

Writing about the Crusades and talking about a "meddlesome priest"

The Middle Ages are in the news again, so here is a roundup of recent news articles. We start with three good reads from historians talking about the crusades





14th century Book of Hours depicting the murder of Becket

Monday, March 06, 2017

10 New Youtube Videos for Medieval Lovers - Volume 2

We found 10 more new videos on Youtube about the Middle Ages.

Rediscovered: Medieval Books at Birkbeck 

This video introduces University of London - Birkbeck's small collection of four medieval books: three fifteenth-century manuscripts and one printed book. The books had been forgotten, and unstudied, for many years, until they were rediscovered in late 2015. The books are very different: a French book of hours, an Italian book of statutes, an Italian book of classical wisdom, and a Venetian printed book of the history of the Trojan War. Professor Anthony Bale and Dr Isabel Davis talk about the books' story and introduce some aspects of the books' iconography and meaning.

 

Friendships from a Medieval Perspective

Anotenella Liuzzo Scorpo at the University of Lincoln spends 60 seconds to talk about friendships in the Middle Ages.

  Medieval

Pisa: The city at the end of fourteenth century 

A 3D reconstruction of Pisa by Professor Michele Berretta of the University of Bologna.

 

Transformations of the Knight's Hall at Häme Castle 

Created by the University of Turku, Transformations of the Knights’ Hall is an augmented reality application located in the Häme Castle in Finland. It is designed as a museum guide experience describing the changes in one of the castle’s halls during past centuries. According to research the Knights’ Hall has assumed several different roles during its history: the residence of the head of the castle was there in the late medieval times, then around 18th century it has been used as a granary when the whole castle was decayed into a mere depot, and in the 19th and 20th centuries the castle acted as a prison. After 1950s the prison period ended and the castle was renovated. The hall got its present appearance, where remains of some of the old structures can still be seen.

 

Lutherfestdagene: The Reformation - a curse for church art? 

A debate held at the conference on The Reformation and the Arts Around the North Sea, organized by the University Museum of Bergen and Bjørgvin diocese. The participants are Professor Andrew Spicer (Oxford), Associate Professor Henning Laugerud (University of Bergen) and Henrik von Achen (Bergen University Museum).

 

The Wealth of Anglo Saxon Mercia 

The foundation of the power of Mercia - the dominant power of Anglo Saxon England - was its access to wealth. Their vast reserves of land in the fertile English Midlands and Mercian control of the Port of London funded the war bands which allowed the Kingdom to become the dominant power. This wealth is seen in the famous Staffordshire Hoard. Historian and Author, Dr John Hunt, describes this rise to power in his book Warriors, Warlords and Saints: The Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia.

 

Staffordshire Hoard at The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery 

More Anglo-Saxon with this video promoting the Staffordshire Hoard at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent.

 

University College Dublin Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture: Making, Understanding, Storytelling 

Fly over some of the work being done by University College Dublin to understand the archaeology of Ireland.

 

Project Runway Medieval Style 

So cute! Grahamwood Kindergarten CLUE students created medieval style garments for our very own Project Runway Medieval Style.

 

Alfred the Great: I'll Make Anglo-Saxons Of You King 

Alfred sings to his army about why they really need to get better if they're going to defeat the Danes. The students of the Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic department of Cambridge University hold their Yule Play every year. To see more of their medieval-themed songs and sketches, check out their Youtube channel.

 





Wednesday, February 15, 2017

St. Magnus, Chaucer and Donaeld the Unready - what's new in the Middle Ages

In this week's news roundup of all things medieval, you can read about creating the face of St.Magnus, good reads about the Vikings, and someone having fun on Twitter. 



Our image of the week - “Manuscript Leaf from a Missal” by Austrian via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC0 1.0
 

Thursday, February 02, 2017

What's New With Vikings! and more medieval news

We are back with doing roundups of the medieval news! Let's start with a few recent pieces for fans of all things Norse...




And our image of the week is this zodiac sign of Aquarius in a 13/14th century manuscript

Image from e-codices / Flickr

Monday, January 23, 2017

10 New Youtube Videos for Medieval Lovers

A roundup of ten recent videos on Youtube for those interested in Medieval Studies


Andalusian Stories profiles Francisco Gutiérrez, who reproduces manuscripts and designs new miniatures applying the same techniques and materials used by master illuminators of the Middle Ages. You can also take a look at his website here.


Rowan Taylor, a blacksmith who works on the restoration and conservation of medieval iron wear, has uploaded this video showing how to create a medieval trowel.



Last year Jackson Crawford of the University of California at Berkeley began a series teaching about the Norse language and culture. His videos have been getting a strong number of viewers because of the great content and Crawford's straightforward style.



Richard Scott Nokes takes a look at the Saga of the Volsungs in his latest Professor Awesome video podcast



A pair of interviews with Christian Raffensperger, Associate Professor at Wittenberg University, about his books on medieval Rus.





Recording Archaeology has released dozens of videos in the last few weeks, covering a wide variety of topics related to Middle Ages. Here are three to check out.

 





And finally, our favourite band Stary Olsa, has released their cover of The Beatles song 'Yesterday'.