Daily Medieval

In a surprising turn in 1439, during a time when the papacy was in turmoil and rival popes were almost commonplace, the Council of Basel cho...

Isabelle Romée (1377 - 1458) grew up in Vouthon-Bas and move to Domrémy when she married Jacques d'Arc , a wealthy farmer who had inheri...

Pius II was the only pope to write an autobiography while he reigned. Lest you think he probably sanitized his life so that it seemed more a...

Others may dispute it, but I call Nicholas V the Last Medieval Pope because he saw the Fall of Constantinople to the Turks and the end of th...

(Parts one , two , and three .) There are several parables in the New Testament that are set in the context of a slave-master situation. The...

In 1451, Pope Nicholas V wanted to establish a library at the Vatican. A "library" existed already—since popes had gathered import...

Lorenzo Valla was born about 1407 in Rome. His father was a lawyer for the pope. Lorenzo studied under Leonardo Bruni (sometimes called the ...

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