Daily Medieval

I've touched on the Malleus Maleficarum  ("Hammer of Witches") briefly before . It was written by a Dominican who was frustrat...

On 5 December 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued a papal bull concerning witchcraft. Bulls are known by their opening lines, and so this one ...

When Cem, brother of Sultan Bayezid II, came to be incarcerated in Rome as the "guest" of Pope Innocent VIII , he had a very comfo...

When Bayezid II became sultan of the Ottoman Empire in 1481, he had a rival: his half-brother Cem (22 December 1459 - 25 February 1495). Ce...

Giovanni Battista Cibo was born in Genoa on 5 November 1432. His father was a prominent politician in Naples and then Rome, and Giovanni gre...

Yesterday's post on Mesih Pasha mentions the Siege of Rhodes in 1480, when a small garrison of Knights Hospitallers at Rhodes withstood...