Daily Medieval

Well, not exactly. It is the first recorded witch trial. That is, the first whose details are written down, rather than a terse "ha...

Even those of us who have studied some classical Greek would be surprised when first running across a pattern/practice called antistoichia...

William Thorpe before Arundel, 1407; a case of heresy Yesterday's post discussed Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, and sugg...

Thomas Arundel, Lambeth Palace Collection Let us talk about the "Worst Briton" of the 15th century, according to a 2005 poll o...

The 25th of October 1400 is the date of the death of Geoffrey Chaucer. Based on the records that exist from 14th century England that refe...

Diagram of an eclipse from a modern translation of Hipparchus It is not always easy to figure out dates from classical or medieval writi...

Albrecht Durer's illustration for a copy of the Lexicon The Catholic Encyclopedia says of Soudas/Suidas: Author of, perhaps, the m...

I shocked myself the other day when I mentioned Duns Scotus in the post on St. Ivo and found that I had nothing in this blog to which to ...

Gold coin depicting Clothar II The Edict of Paris, an outline of laws and rights in the kingdom of the Franks, has been called "the...

The term "John Doe" is familiar to just about everyone who knows anything about the North American* legal system. Who are these ...

Everyone has an intercessor in Heaven, even lawyers. Ivo of Kermartin (17 October 1253-19 May 1303) was born in Louannec, in Brittany. H...

The inexpertly carved stone The city of Bath in England has been an important location for human beings for millenia. The spring there p...

Edgar and his sister, St. Margaret, landing at Wearmouth after their ship was blown off course Yesterday was the anniversary of the Ba...

from "Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World" by Sir Edward Creasey, 1851 The Battle of Hastings took place on this date 947 ye...

Speaking recently of Dafydd ap Gruffydd and  medieval food prices  put me in mind of some of the data we have on the household of King Ed...

The brothers on Bayard arrive in Dordogne. c.1470 Yesterday I mentioned that the Ardennes region in northeast France was a wild area pro...

A university meeting Today is the birthday of the founder of the Sorbonne. The Collège of Sorbonne is arguably the best-known college in...

Yesterday's post on St. Anthony's Fire mentioned the Annales Xantenses , the Annals of Xanten covering 790-873. The manuscript was...

Victims of ergotism by Peter Bruegel Diagnosing medieval diseases has its difficulties. Modern research must rely on accurate recording ...

We have discussed the ultimate torture—to be Hanged, Drawn, and Quartered— here and here . Now let us take a brief look at the man whose...

Marketplace, from 16th c. Les Livres du gouvernement des Princes Yesterday we talked about the gold bezant and the difficulty in under...

Coins from Kingdom of Jerusalem in British Museum (l. to r.) dinar (1162-75), Arabic bezant (1140-80), Christian bezant (1250-) [ source ]...

Yes, it's the witch-weighing scene from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" There is a medieval anecdote in the so-called ...

The growing power and importance of Sicily in the Middle Ages was mentioned here . But the solution they found didn't quite last; co...

There is a lot more to say about Trial by Combat than can be put into a brief post. The history includes interesting anecdotes and surpri...

Christopher Columbus is about as late as a "medieval" blog should deal with, but to me it seems appropriate. The world that Colu...

The dueling area was typically 60 feet square. One of the things "everyone knows" about the Middle Ages is the idea of Trial ...

Cosmati floor, Westminster Abbey church, during a recent cleaning. When discussing the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey yesterday, I me...