Daily Medieval

Yesterday I mentioned that you would know who Jaʿfar ibn Yaḥyā al-Barmakī, an Abbasid vizier, was, even if you did not recognize the name. Y...

Yesterday mentioned the gold and silver cramp rings used in the Middle Ages in England to avoid cramps and epilepsy. (The sample here—alas!...

Anglo-Saxon England called it "devil-sickness" and felt that lupins were an effective treatment, and they might have been right . ...

When Pope John XXII became the target of an assassination attempt using poison and witchcraft, he decided that witchcraft should be labeled...

The history of witchcraft, like any historical phenomenon, is a combination of truths, falsehoods, reinterpretations, and misunderstandings....

John XXII (pope from 1316 - 1334 in Avignon) had a lot of opinions, getting involved in politics all over Christendom, opposing the Francis...

Scrofula, characterized by swellings on the neck, is caused when someone inhales air contaminated with mycobacterium. The bacteria infect th...

...are the hands of a healer." This line from The Lord of the Rings  sounds fantastical, but as a first-rate historian and medievalist,...

I recently mentioned a seiðr worker called in to prophesy. The term describes a range of magical and shamanic activities (magical healing,...