Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Neomedievalisms

Conference Announcement of Interest:

Hi all: Here is the link to the website for the 22nd Annual Conference on
Medievalism. The plenary speakers are Terry Jones, Richard F. Green, and
Alain Corbellari. Please consider submitting a paper. Note that the date of
the conference has been changed to 4-7 October 2007. The submission date
for the call for papers remains 20 March 2007 (to facilitate a funding application).
http://www.uwo.ca/english/neomedievalisms

Monday, February 26, 2007

Last Week's News

Medieval age structure and objects found in Dwarka : http://timesofindia

600th Anniversary of Owain Glyndŵr rebellion: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/mid/3652330.stm

A Mass in a Mosque: telegraph.co.uk

Search for 1,500-year-old murder clues: here

Medieval document throws light on origins of York Mystery Plays:
:http://www.york.ac.uk/admin/presspr/pressreleases/gildroll.htm

Geometry meets arts in Islamic tiles :http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4573323.html

2/16:
Saints:
St. Juliana of Nicomedia
St. Gilbert of Sempringham, abbot and founder of the the Gilbertine Order

Death:
309 St. Pamphilus
309 Martyrdom of St. Elias
1001 Roman barons put the Pope and Holy Roman Emperor to flight
1220 Bokhara falls to the Mongols
1397 The Sieur de Coucy prepares his Will
1486 Maximillian I chosen King of Germany

2/17:
Saints:
St. Finan of Iona, bishop of Lindisfarne Died February 661
Seven Founders of the Order of Servites

Birthday:
1490 Charles, Duke of Bourbon

Death:
364 the Emperor Jovian of Rome
603 St. Fintan of Cloneenagh
1247 Henry Raspe, King of Germany

Events:
1312 Royal Embassy arrives in Vienne from Philip IV "the Fair," King of France, to convice the Pope to condemn the Templars
1317 The French Inquisition is set after the Spirituals
1387 "Heathen" religions banned in Poland
1400 Richard, deposed King of England, murdered
1454 Philip "the Good," of Burgundy, takes the Vow of the Pheasant
1461 First Battle of St. Albans in War of the Roses

2/18:
Saints:
St. Theotonius of Coimbra, Augustinian, Abbot Died 1166

Death:
449 St. Flavian of Constantinople
676 St. Colman of Lindisfarne
1397 Enguerrand VII, Sieur de Coucy, Count of Soissons
1405 The Emir al Kebir Timur "i-Leng" (Tamerlane), while leading an expedition to China
1455 Fra Angelico (Guido di Pietro), painter
1478 George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence

Events:
1229 Frederick II Hohenstaufen, Emperor of Germany and excommunicate, gains Jerusalem by treaty
1386 Marriage of King Wladislaus II of Hungary to Jadwiga of Poland
1478 George, Duke of Clarence, drowned in a barrel of malmsey wine
1493 Columbus reaches the Azores

2/19:
Saints:
St. Conrad of Piacenza, Third Order Franciscan, penitent Died c. 1350

Birthday:
2/19/1473 Nicolaus Copernicus, "The earth revolves around the sun".

Death:
1405 Timur the Lame (aka Tamarlane)
1439 St. Mesrop


Events:
356 Emperor Constantins II ordered all of the temples within the Roman Empire closed.
607 Election of Pope Boniface III
1377 Wycliffe called to trial before the Bishop of London
1479 Antonello da Messina, Italian painter, dies

2/20:
Saints:
St. Wulfric of Haselbury, priest, hermit

Death:
342 St. Shahdost of Persia
1194 Tancred
1408 Henry Percy, Baron of Northumberland
1431 Pope Martin V

Events:
1258 Execution of the Caliph al-Musta'sim of Bagdad, by Hulagu Khan
1431 Trial of Joan of Arc
1437 Assassination of James I, King of Scotland

2/21:
Events:
Feralia in ancient Rome, honoring the dead
1076 Emperor Henry IV defies Rome and Pope Gregory VII
1173 Thomas A Becket canonized
1198 Pope Innocent III ordained as a priest

2/22:
Saints:
St. Margaret of Cortona, Lay Franciscan Died 1297
1072 St. Pietro Damiani

Birthday:
1403 Charles VII, King of France
1440 Ladislas, King of Bohemia and Hungary

Death:
606 Pope Sabinian
1071 Death of William fitzOsbern
1072 Stigand

Events:
1076 Pope Gregory VII excommunicates, anethemizes and deposes the Emperor Henry IV, and releases his subjects from their oaths of obedience.
1077 Deadline set by Tribur for Emperor Henry IV of Germany to submit to Rome
1276 Coronation of Pope Innocent V
1358 The Guilds of Paris rise against the Crown of France
1452 Murder of William, the Earl of Douglas, by James II, King of Scots

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Upcoming Lecture by Lawrence Nees

Sent to the EMF list by Celia Chazelle:

The Department of Classics at Swarthmore College
presents

Lawrence Nees,
Department of Art History, University of Delaware

"Reception and Invention of Illustrated Classical
Manuscripts in the Carolingian Age"

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

4:15 pm, Scheuer Room, Kohlberg Hall

Reception to follow

Upcoming Lecture by Florin Curta

Sent by Celia Chazelle to the EMF list:

Princeton University  -  Program in Hellenic Studies - Lecture

Over Fifty Years Later: The Setton-Charanis Controversy
and the "Slavic Problem" in Greece

Florin Curta

University of Florida;
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

Despite an increasing number of archaeological finds pertaining to the
seventh and early eighth century in Greece, as well as in other
regions of the Balkans, the now over fifty-year old Setton-Charanis
controversy has brought historians into a cul-de-sac. To overcome the
impasse, this paper offers a plausible synthesis on the basis of
rather heterogeneous materials. I will first examine issues of
chronology raised by the now fairly abundant archaeological evidence.
Administrative and political changes will also be discussed in the
second part in relation to the evidence of coins and seals. The third
part of this paper presents the evidence of written sources. Issues of
chronology and naming are the theme of that section. The forms of
military and political organization in "Dark-Age" Greece are the focus
of the last section, as various strands of evidence will be brought
into a final conclusion.
________________________________

Florin Curta is an associate professor of medieval history and
archaeology at the University of Florida, and currently a member of
the School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study,
Princeton, NJ. He received his Ph.D. in history from Western Michigan
University (1998) and has published several studies on the
archaeology, numismatics, and early medieval history of Southeastern
and Eastern Europe. His book, Making the Slavs: History and
Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, ca. 500-700 (Cambridge, 2001)
won the Herbert Baxter Adams Award of the American Historical
Association in 2003. Curta is also the author of Southeastern Europe
in the Middle Ages, 500-1250 (Cambridge, 2006), and the editor of two
collections of studies: Borders, Barriers, and Ethnogenesis. Frontiers
in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Turnhout, 2005); and East
Central and Eastern Europe in the Early Middle Ages (Ann Arbor, 2005).
The latter has been named a 2006 Choice Outstanding Academic Title in
History, Geography, and Area Studies. Curta is currently working on a
manuscript entitled Greece in the Early Middle Ages (ca. 500-ca.
1050). An Economic and Social Perspective, and on a collection of
studies entitled The Other Europe: Avars, Bulgars, Khazars, and
Others, to be published by Brill.
________________________________

Wednesday, February 28, 2007
4:30 p.m.
Scheide Caldwell House, Room 103

Lambeth Library Online

Forwarded by Bob Schacht to the Ecchst List:

> ENGLAND: Lambeth Palace library to go online
> Posted: Thursday, February 22, 2007
> One of the oldest public libraries in the country is set to go into
> cyberspace. The printed book collection of Lambeth Palace Library -
> the historic library and record office of the Archbishops of
> Canterbury, and the main repository of the documentary history of
> the Church of England - will be added to an online catalogue for
> the benefit of the national and international research community,
> it has been announced today.
>
> The Library's printed book catalogue will be loaded onto 'Copac',
> which provides free access to the merged online catalogues of the
> major research libraries in the UK and Ireland. Lambeth Palace
> Library's holdings make it one of the key collections for Church
> history for researchers exploring the early Church to the present
> day, and the Library forms a major part of the national collection
> in the field of theology.
> Declan Kelly, director of libraries, Archives and Information
> Services for the National Institutions of the Church of England,
> says that the Library's users will benefit greatly from this
> development: "Researchers who discover Lambeth Palace Library are
> constantly amazed by the richness and value of the collections for
> their research. While many users already access the catalogue via
> our own website, exposure of the Library's collections in this way
> will raise the Library's profile enormously, not just to the
> research community, but also to the wider public."
> Copac is coordinated by the Consortium of University Research
> Libraries (CURL), a body that aims to increase the ability of
> research libraries to share resources for the benefit of the local,
> national and international research community. By building a
> 'one-stop' resource, researchers - wherever in the world and
> whatever their disciplines - are able to locate resources easily
> from their own desk.
> The addition of Lambeth Palace Library's catalogue over the next
> year was announced following an assessment of the Library's
> application to the CURL/British Library/Research Information
> Network Challenge Fund, an initiative designed to enhance the Copac
> scheme by significantly extending the range of research material it
> covers. From a pool of 60 responses seeking a presence within
> Copac, 12 successful applicants – including the Kew Royal Botaniic
> Gardens and the Natural History Museum - have been selected as new
> additions to the catalogue.
> Robin Green, executive director of CURL, said "I am delighted that
> through the Challenge Fund, CURL has been able to provide the wider
> community with this opportunity. Inclusion of the Lambeth Palace
> Library data in Copac makes it a much richer resource and increases
> access to relevant materials to all researchers, wherever they are
> based."
> The Library's catalogue is expected to be fully loaded into the
> Copac system by early 2008.
> Notes to Editors
> About Lambeth Palace Library
> The Library was founded as a public library in 1610 and is freely
> open for all to use. The Lambeth collection was formed from the
> private collections of archbishops of Canterbury and is
> particularly rich in terms of provenance and rare and unique items.
> In its early years the Library also acquired parts of the libraries
> of John Foxe (1516-87) the martyrologist, Robert Dudley, Earl of
> Leicester (1532-88) and Sir Christopher Hatton (1540-91). The
> Library contains some 120,000 books and 40,000 pamphlets from the
> 15th to 21st centuries. Included is one of the foremost national
> collections of early printing from the Gutenberg Bible onwards. The
> collection forms the leading national collection in the history and
> affairs of the Church of England, alongside a great diversity of
> other subjects.
> A 2004 assessment of Lambeth Palace Library by the British Academy
> states that: "Lambeth Palace Library … contains one of the most
> important colllections of early printed books in any of the great
> national libraries, recently enriched by the large pre-1850 printed
> holdings of Sion College. It would be difficult to overstate the
> value of the Lambeth Palace Library."
> In 2005, the entire collections held in Lambeth Palace Library were
> awarded Designated status under the MLA Designation Scheme. The
> scheme identifies and celebrates the pre-eminent collections of
> national and international importance held in England's
> non-national museums, libraries and archives.
> About CURL
> The Consortium of Research Libraries in the British Isles - is a
> consortium of 29 institutions in the UK and Ireland. CURL's mission
> is to increase the ability of research libraries to share resources
> for the benefit of the local, national and international research
> community. Further information about CURL, including COPAC - a
> freely available service allowing the catalogues of CURL Member and
> other libraries to be searched from a single point - is availableÂ
> here.
>
> © 2004, The Episcopal Church, USA. Episcopal News Service content
> may be reprinted without permission as long as credit is given to
> ENS.

CFP

Call for papers:

South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA) Convention
November 9-11, 2007
Renaissance Hotel Downtown, Atlanta
Deadline for proposals: April 10, 2007
Old English Session “Responses to War”


Tacitus, in The Agricola and Germania, identifies a range of factors--
political, social, and economic--that shaped the Germanic/medieval response to
war; according to him, war made its way into religion, feasting, the lives of
children, and even the marriage ceremony. This session welcomes 20-minute
papers that shed insight on the influences and responses to war and related
topics in Old English literature and culture. The following list of paper
suggestions is not exhaustive. Please send one page abstracts to
Emily Redman,
Purdue University, via email at dunke@purdue.edu by April 10, 2007.


Aesthetic reactions to war as evidenced in Old English language, literature,
art, and weaponry/artifacts;
Ecclesiastical and secular responses to war, “war” between Church and State,
war between Church and indigenous belief systems, saint’s lives and Holy War,
war between individual and the State/Church;
War out of times of peace, strife born out of feasting in the hall, war and/as
negotiation;
Women and war, shield maidens, wives, mothers, daughters, infants, peace
weavers, the childless woman, the woman lamenting, woman as stabilizer;
Aspects of battle, such as warriors, deities, rituals, ritual behavior and
ritual speech, vows and promises, weapons and armor, individual weapons, maps,
the landscape, armies, war machines, horses and other animals;
War rhetoric, colonialism, war methods, the emotional and the
strategic, battle
descriptions, function of wyrd;
Enemies and war, monsters and the monstrous, the “bad guys and villains,” the
enemy from within your own camp, scapegoating, otherness;
The aftermath of war, the dead, wounds and the wounded, “last words
of a fallen
warrior,” war and peace, wereguild;
Studies of individual war-related Old English words or groups of words and
their contexts;
Reponses to war in history and legend;
Material culture and war

Boethius Conference

2nd Annual Philosophy Department Conference: Boethius
www.franciscan.edu/home2/Content/Academics/philosophy/main.aspx?id=2200

*Franciscan University of Steubenville *

*Graduate Philosophy Program *
**
*Second Annual Conference on Christian Philosophy *

*April 13 - 14, 2007 *

Keynote Speakers

*John McGee*,
University of Toronto
*Peter King*,
University of Toronto

*Submission Guidelines*:
. Abstracts are welcome on any aspect of Boethius' thought.
. Finished papers for accepted proposals should not exceed 30 minutes
reading time.
. Please submit abstracts, prepared for blind review, by email or hard
copy by March 1, 2007.
/(Conference and Banquet fees will be waived for conference speakers.)/

*Send submissions to:
*Dr. Mark Roberts
Director, MA Philosophy Program
1235 University Blvd.
Steubenville, Ohio 43952
Email: mroberts@franciscan.edu
(740) 284-5345

Sunday, February 18, 2007

From Celia Chazelle via EMF list

Here's another very interesting website with an interactive map of
Constantinople, just brought to my attention. It's designed by Linda
Safran of the University of Toronto:

http://individual.utoronto.ca/safran/Consta

This Week's Medieval News

Medieval Remains Under Barn:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/6345647.stm

Medieval Church in Northumbria:
http://www.hexham-courant.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=464553

Historian angers fellow Jews by exploring medieval accusations of ritual murder of Christians
http://www.ujc.org/content_display.html?ArticleID=208237

Harrow-on-the-Hill:
http://www.thisishertfordshire.co.uk/news/roundup/display.var.1189931.0.skeleton_find_could_rewrite_church_history.php

Battle of Barnet: http://www.hadas.org.uk/wiki/index.php/Battle_of_Barnet

Stow-on-the-Wold turns 900:
http://www.stowonthewold.net/stow6.htm

Makeover for a Tower: http://heritage.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=208872007

2/9:

Death:
444 St. Cyril of Alexandria
720 Umar II
1088 Muiredach MacRory (Marianus Scotus), Abbot of Ratisbon

Events:
1098 HARENC II (Ridwan fails to relieve the Crusader's Siege of Antioch)
1119 Coronation of Pope Calixtus II in France
1292 First Scottish Parliament assembles at Scone
1401 Burning of a Mr. Sawtre as a Lollard heretic
1458 Marriage of Mathias I, King of Hungary, to Catherine of Bohemia

Events:

2/10:

Death:
543 St. Scholastica
1162 Baldwin III, King of Jerusalem
1221 Muhammad Ala-ed-Din, Shah of Khwarizm
1471 Fredrick II, the "Iron" of Brandenburg

Events:
1258 Mongols sack Baghdad
1306 Murder of the Red Comyn
1354 "The Great Slaughter," A riot, in Oxford, England
1480 The Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado occupies his Palace in Kyoto
1494 Founding of Aberdeen University
1495 Sir William Stanley, English lord chamberlain, executed

2/11:

Birthday:
1466 Elizabeth of York, Queen to Henry VII of England

Death:
680 Caedmon
731 Pope Gregory II
821 St. Benidict of Aniane
824 St. Pashal I, Pope
1250 William de Sonnac, 18th Master of the Templars

Events:
1115 WELFESHOLZ (defeat of Holy Roman Empire's army)
1252 Marriage of Ottakar I, King of Bohemia, to Margaret, widow of King
Henry VII of Germany
1398 The English translation of "de proprietatibus rerum" encyclopaedia
1495 Charles VIII, King of France, enters Naples
1498 Savonerola resumes preaching in defiance of his excommunication

2/12:

Death:
1209 Philippe de Plessiez, 13th Master of the Templars
1242 Henry VII, King of Germany
1294 Kublai Khan

Events:
881 Coronation of Charles III "the Fat," last Emperor of the Franks
1049 Leo IX becomes pope
1111 Henry V, uncrowned Holy Roman Emperor, kidnaps the Pope
1424 Marriage of James I of Scotland to Jane Beaufort
1429 Day Of Herrings (Sir John Falstaff defeats French)

2/13:

Death:
1130 Pope Honorius II

Events:
1282 The IlKhan Abaqua travels from Baghdad to Hamadan
1476 French lay siege to Granson, Switzerland

2/14:

Birthday:
1404 Leon Batista Alberti

Death:
433 St. Maro

Events:
842 Oaths of Strasbourg
1009 Massacre of St. Bruno of Querfurt and his party, by Lithuanians
1014 Coronation of Henry II, "the Saint" as Holy Roman Emperor
1021 Murder (?) of Caliph al-Hakim of Egypt
1130 Election of Innocent II as Pope
1400 Murder of Richard II, King of England
1432 Entrance of Henry VI, King of England and France, into London
1489 Treaty of Dordrecht



2/15:

Birthday:
1368 Sigsimund, King of Hungary and Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor
1483 Babur, founder of the Moghul Empire in India (1526-30)
1497 Philipp Melanchthon, German Protestant reformer

Death:
670 Oswy of Bernicia
1145 Pope Lucius II
1152 Conrad III, King of Germany

Events:
494 Last Lupercalia in Rome
1113 Knights Hospitaller formally named and recognized
1145 Election of Pope Eugenius III
1288 Election of Pope Nicholas IV
1386 Coronation of Wladislas II as King of Poland

Thursday, February 15, 2007

From Celia Chazelle and the Early Medieval Forum list:

A very useful website on the Byzantine churches of Istanbul, by Tom
Matthews, which I just learned about from another list:

http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/fineart/html/Byzantine/

Sunday, February 11, 2007

New Book

Studies in Early English and Norse Manuscripts in Memory of Phillip Pulsiano, ed. A. N. Doane and Kirsten Wolf. MRTS, ACMRS: Tempe, 2006. It has 14 new and specially commissioned essays on manuscript topics: history, codicology, editing, new editions of texts, text-criticism, early-modern receiption, librarianship, etc. written by senior scholars who were close to Phill. 556 pages, $65.

This Week's News

News of the Past Week

Fisherman nets rare medieval cooking pot:
http://www.kilkennypeople.ie/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=2594&ArticleID=2028695

New Discovery at Bodian Castle:
http://www.hastingstoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=479&ArticleID=2027227

Medieval Leper colony in Coventry:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/coventry_warwickshire/6331147.stm

2/2:

Saints:
Blessed Peter Cambiano, OP (Dominican), Priest, Inquisitor General Also
known as Peter de Ruffi

Birthday:
1208 James I, "the Conqueror," King of Aragon

Death:
1014 Sweyn, King of Denmark
1451 Murad II, Sultan of the Ottomans

Events:
2/2 Candlemas
962 Coronation of Otto I, King of the Lombards, as Holy Roman Emperor
1032 Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor, claims the throne of Burgundy
1077 Scheduled date for the Diet to convene at Augsburg, Germany, to
settle the matters relating to Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII.
1160 Fredrick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor, takes Crema, Italy, in a
siege noted for atrocities
1190 Richard I, King of England, holds council at Rouen, France, and
appoints William Longchamps as Chief Justicar south of the Humber, with
the North under Hugh Puiset
1258 Hulagu Khan takes Baghdad
1317 Philip V recognized as King of France
1387 Marguerithe I, Queen of Denmark, named Queen of Norway
1389 Last date for English Guilds to send particulars of their
organization to the Royal Council
1440 Coronation of Fredrick III as Holy Roman Emperor
1461 SECOND ST. ALBANS (Edward IV defeats his Earls)
1494 Columbus founds the West Indies slave trade

2/3:

Saints:
St. Blaise, bishop (of Sebaste), martyr
Bl. Odoric of Pordenone, Order of the Friars Minor (Franciscan)
St. Ansgar, Apostle of the North

Death:
619 St. Laurence of Canterbury
1014 Sweyn Forkbeard
1116 Koloman, King of Hungary
1468 Johann Gutenberg

Events:
316 Martyrdom of St. Blaise
590 Election of Pope Gregory I, "the Great"
1200 Count Baldwin of Flanders takes the Crusader's Cross at Bruges
1238 Mongols take Vladimir, Russia
1347 John VI Cantacuzenus enters Constantinople - end of the Civil War
1376 Massacre of the city of Cesena, Italy by Sir John Hawkwood
1461 Battle of Mortimer's Cross
1472 Reconsecration of York Cathedral
1488 Bartholomew Dias anchors in Mossel Bay, South Africa

2/4:

Saints:
St. Joan of Valois, Queen of France
Feast of the Flight into Egypt

Death:
211 Septimus Severus of Rome
846 St. Joannicius
854 Rabanus Maurus
1189 St. Gilbert of Sempringham
1498 Antonio Pollaivolo, sculptor

Events:
855 Rabanus Maurus, archbishop of Mainz, dies
900 Coronation of Louis, "the Child," King of Germany
1194 Richard I, King of England, freed from captivity in Germany

2/5:

Saints:
St. Agatha, virgin, martyr Martyred c.250


Events:
1204 Alexius V proclaimed Emperor in Byzantium
1265 Election of Pope Clement IV

2/6:

Saints:
St. Amand of Maastricht, Abbot


Death:
679 St. Amand of Maastricht
1215 Hojo Tokimasa
1497 Jean d' Ockeghem

Events:
337 Election of Pope Julius I
743 Hisham ibn 'Abd al-Malik, 10th Moslem caliph, dies at about 52
1190 Jews of Norwich, England are massacred
1481 First Auto-da-Fe of the Spanish Inquisition


2/7:

Saints:
St. Theodore the General (Stratelates)

Birthday:
1478 Sir Thomas More

Events:
457 Leo proclaimed Eastern Roman Emperor
1301 Edward I revives the title Prince of Wales, confers it on his son
1313 Robert, "the Bruce," captures Dumfries, Scotland

2/8:

Saints:
St. John of Matha, founder of the Trinitarians

Birthday:
412 St. Proclus, patriarch of Constantinople
1291 Alfonso IV of Portugal

Death:
1265 Hülegü, grandson of Ghengis Khan

Events:
1250 AL MANSURA; death of Fakhr ad-Din, 7th Crusade defeated by Baibars
1254 William of Rubrick records the use of oracles among the Mongols
1492 Charles VIII of France enters Paris

Random Site of the Week:

http://www.pseudoisidor.de/html/uberblick_uber_die_falschungen.HTM
Projekt Pseudo-Isidor

Quote of the Week:

Love is a certain inborn suffering derived from the sight of and excessive meditation upon the beauty of the opposite sex. Andreas Capellanus, Art of Courtly

Sunday, February 4, 2007

Medieval News of the Week

This past week's news:

Possible Viking Ship found in Ireland:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070126/sc_afp/irelandhistoryvikings_070126222912

Mitteldeutscher Archäologiepreis:
http://www.archaeologie-online.de/magazin/news/detail.php?n=779

A little early, but interesting: Normandy grave hints at 300-year
defiance of the Roman Empire,
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2190045.ece

Hunting for Hadrian Along the Wall:
http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=458908

Cowdray Manor:
http://www.chichestertoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=452&ArticleID=1991556

Lost Treasure of Maxentius:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C13509-2575075%2C00.html

SHARP: Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project has some
Medieval Era finds etc. http://www.sharp.org.uk/

Medieval Africa:
http://historymedren.about.com/od/africanplaces/a/splendorafrica.htm

Medieval Boat in Israel: http://historymedren.about.com/b/a/257881.htm



The Past Week in Medieval History:

Jan. 26:

Saints:
166 St. Polycarp
404 St. Paula
684 St. Conan

Death:
724 Caliph Yazid II (of grief over the death of his favorite singing girl)
1100 St. Eystein of Norway 1
1108 St. Alberic (Aubrey)

Events:
1266 Charles of Anjou becomes King of Sicily
1316 Revolt in Wales by Llywelyn Bren
1316 ARDSCULL (Edward Bruce and Irish fight English)
1347 University of Prague authorized by the Pope


Jan 27:

Death
844 Pope Gregory IV
847 Pope Sergius II
1039 Robert Burton

Events:
1166 Marriage of Prince Henry of Germany to Constance of Sicily
1186 Fredrick Barbarossa crowned ruler of Burgundy
1302 Black faction in Florence sentences its opponents (including
Dante) to exile or death
1302 Dante expelled from Florence


Jan. 28:

Birthday:
1457 Henry VII (Tudor) of England

Death:
814 Charlemagne; Louis "the Pious" inherits Frankish Empire
1232 Pedro de Montaigu, 15th Master of the Templars
1256 St. Peter Nolesco

Events:
893 Coronation of Charles III, "the Simple" as King of France
1077 King Henry IV submits to the Pope at Canossa
1256 William, King of the Romans, was killed
1393 "Bal des Ardents;" Death of the Count de Joigny, Yvain de Foix,
Aimery Poitiers, and Huguet de Guisay

Jan. 29:

Deaths:
591 St. Sulpicius
1118 Pope Paschal II
1119 Pope Gelasius II

Events:
904 Sergius III crowned pope - beginning of the "Pornocracy"
1327 Coronation of Edward III of England

Jan. 30:

Saints:
Holiday of Three Hierachs (Eastern Orthodox)
http://www.goarch.org/en/chapel/saints.asp?contentid=408

Death:
680 St. Bathild, Queen to Clovis II of France

Events:
435 Rome made peace with the Vandals, ending the "Fall" (some say that
this is the beginning of the Middle Ages)
1118 Election of Gelasius I as Pope
1328 King Edward III of England re-marries Phillippa of Hainaut
1349 Election of Guanther of Schwarzberg as King of Germany
1380 St. Catherine of Siena suffers a stroke
1487 Bell chimes invented

Jan. 31:

Death:
410 St. Marcella
626 St. Aidan (Madoc) of Ferns

Events:
314 St. Sylvester becomes Pope
1298 Peace of Tournai
1405 Jean de Bethencourt goes to France to obtain materials to
establish a colony on the Canary Islands


Feb. 1:

Death:
523 St. Bridgid
1328 Charles IV, "the Fair," King of France

Events:
Candlemas Eve
772 Election of Adrian I as Pope
1327 Coronation of Edward III as King of England
1411 First Peace of Thorn


Words of the Week:

quotidian--a terrific word, borrowed from French, cotidien, from Latin
quotidianus, from Latin adv. quotidie....daily, every daily, the every
day. Interesting word, comes into English in the 14th century and is
first used by Richard Rolle, soon to be followed by Wycliffe and Gower a
half century later or so. But it does rather roll off the tongue.

creel--a fifteenth century word in English whose roots are unknown.
OIrish had criol, a chest, and since this is a Scottish and Northern
word, this might be the source of the English word, but the vowels are
difficult to explain (going from OI to ME). Likewise Old French had
greille, from Latin craticula, hurdle work, which some think may have
had a variant *creille. Its a largem deep wicker basket in English used
to transport goods, now used chiefly of fishermen's creels for keeping fish.

guile-- guile is an intereseting word indeed. It first shows up in
English the early 13th century, c. 1225. But its etymology and spelling
are uncertain. It is related to "wile" as in "wiley". But Old
English/Middle English "wil" doesn't show up in the language until 1154
for an entry in the Parker Chronicle. Further, it seems to show up in
places of Scandinavian influence, and so may be a borrowing of Old Norse
vel, an artifice, a craft. It is unlikly though that the ON form gave
immediate rise to "guile". The "guile" form does appear in OF, and may
come into OF from ON, or may result from Frankonian. *wigila related to
Old Frisian wigila, a trick, sorcery, witchcraft. Things etymologically
are further confused by the trying to figure out the precise
relationship between OE/ME wil, and Old English wiglian, to practice
divination or sorcery, wiglere, a sorcerer, and wiglung, sorcery,
divination. That they stem in some way from the same roots is true.
Ah, confusion on multiple levels, gotta love it.

cudgel--as confusing and uncertain as guile/wile/wiel (descendant of
wiglian) are, a far more simple word etymologically speaking is our cudgel. It is used in the Old English period and then as now is a short, thick stick used as a weapon, a small club. It probably comes from a Proto-Germanic *kuggilo, possibly from a PIE root *geu- to bend or curve. What makes it interesting and worth mentioning here is that it is not known in cognate languages.


Upcoming Medieval Television:

Sat. Feb. 3, Castles and Dungeons, History International

Mon. Feb. 5, Conquest, a look at Chivalry

Wed. Feb. 11 Meet the Ancestors looks at a site below Bamburgh Castle

Thur. Feb. 8, Line of Fire, a look at the Battle of Agincourt and Henry V

Thu Feb 8, 2 parts of a 3 part series on the program Ancient Almanac looks at the Normans

Random Site of the Week: http://orkneyjar.com/index.html The Orkeny Jar, a site that focuses on Orkney.

Quote of the Week:

Our abode in this world is transitory, our life therein is but a loan, our breaths are numbered and our indolence is manifest. Al-Siddiq (Abu Bakr)