Daily Medieval

A diagram of the heavy plough with mouldboard One of the tools that most shaped European culture and improved life in the Middle Ages wa...

The first of February is the date of the Irish quarter-year festival called Imbolc. Imbolc is Old Irish for "in the belly"; it ...

Okay, it wasn't that bad Much of the United States is experiencing lower-than-usual temperatures recently—and the forecast is that ...

MS. Marsh 144, fol. 135v, Bodleian The contributions of the Muslim world to astronomy are many, and I have only briefly touched on some ...

In 1401, during the reign of King Henry IV of England, Parliament passed a law known by the phrase, De heretic comburendo ["Regardin...

Much is made of Charlemagne and his unification and christianization of much of Western Europe. What is the other side of the story, however...

Remains of an irminsul in Friedrichsgrund The Royal Frankish Annals have an entry for 772: The most gracious Lord King Charles then h...

Detail of the Venetian Arsenal from the Civitates Orbis Terrarum [1572] When we think of Venice and boats, we think of gondolas being...

[I am on a brief vacation, so here is a post from the past. This post first appeared 25 August 2012.] Speaking of æther ...* In Greek my...

[I am on a brief vacation, so here is a post from the past. This post first appeared 23 August 2012.] In Dante's Inferno , the eighth ...

[I am on a brief vacation, so here is a post from the past. This post first appeared 2 December 2012.] When Anna Comnena was born in 10...

Climbing Lucifer in Dante's Inferno A long time ago (it seems) I touched on gravity and said "there was no working theory of g...

Clearly, Old New Year is still a big deal! Happy New Year! Today, 14 January,* is the "original" New Year's Day in the J...

Today presents many opportunities to tie into previous posts. It is the date of the deaths of St. Rémy in 533, of Abbot Suger in 1151. I...

St. Adrian of Canterbury Yesterday's post on the Leiden Glossary mentioned its two chief contributors, Adrian of Canterbury and The...

You can get your own copy here The Leiden University Library in the Netherlands, founded in 1575, was an important part of the Enlighten...

from a 1499 woodcut by Jacob Locher Hippocrates was aware of the phenomenon of conjoined twins, and offered an explanation: the male pr...

The results of Justinian's plan for re-unifying the Empire The Byzantine Emperor Justinian was known for—among other things—establis...

A medieval reliquary from the collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Over a year ago I touched on funeral practices . A recent com...

Holding hot iron in a Trial by Ordeal. In the post on Margaret Eriksdottir we saw an example of how Trial by Ordeal doesn't always ...

Retrieving an object from boiling water without suffering burns would prove innocence. Margaret (or Margareta) Eriksdottir of Sweden (c....

[ Notate bene : this post is based on one that originally appeared on 30 June 2012. ] Pope Paul III, as played by Peter O'Toole in ...

The early history of the founding of religious buildings goes hand-in-hand with visions and miracles, such as the August snowfall in Rome ...

Benedict holding his Rule; you can see the raven that saved him from poisoned bread. In the discussion of time I mentioned Benedict of ...

William , Duke of Normandy, who won the Battle of Hastings and conquered England, has been brought up many times in this blog. He ruled f...

Art over the door of the Santa Maria Maggiore basilica I said on Monday that Pope Liberius was usually known for one thing—his part in t...

The week, as you can imagine, is very hectic around the world for many people, and I am no exception. In  lieu of a regular post, here is a ...

Way back here we mentioned Pope Liberius, sent into exile by Constantius II because he wouldn't censure St. Athanasius for condemning...

A medieval marriage, from a British Library ms. The Christian churches that have survived until the modern era (Roman Catholicism, Easte...