Daily Medieval

The port at Benghazi, where it all began Benghazi has been much in the news lately. As with any part of the Eastern Hemisphere, it has b...

...and by "true story" I mean "the myth." Today is the anniversary of William Tell's famous feat in which he sh...

Albertus Magnus and a hermaphrodite from  Symbola aureæ mensæ We haven't talked about Albertus Magnus since his birthday last year....

from a Latin copy of  Gynæcology by  Soranus of Ephesus Hysteria describes two different states: exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion o...

The word "iconoclast" today usually denotes someone who challenges tradition, but the origin of the word was in the religiously ...

St. Theodore of Stoudios (759-11 November 826 CE) was a highly educated member of a well-connected family in Constantinople. His father an...

The term parchment is often applied to any animal skin used for writing on, but historically it was used for sheep or goat skin. Cow or c...

We know that books were rare prior to the development of the movable type printing press, but they weren't unknown. They could be a st...

Woodcut showing meteorite coming to Ensisheim. Today is the anniversary of the first meteorite the exact date of whose fall to Earth has...

A friend dared me to comment on this article on vulgar scenes from illuminated medieval manuscripts. Never one to avoid a challenge, I pi...

St. Felix of Valois Among other accomplishments, the Crusades created a large number of Christians held captive by non-Christians. These...

Recent stamp commemorating al-Khwārizmī Algebra—a method for doing computations using non-number symbols (such as " x " and ...

Yes, marshmallow. (Maybe Halloween has put me in mind of sweets.) Althaea officinalia (the "marsh mallow") is a perennial tha...

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...