Daily Medieval

Detail, Allegory of Good Government Ambrogio Lorenzetti, 1338 The hourglass has become a symbol of medieval technology, one of our first...

Gaza is currently the largest city in Palestine with over a half-million inhabitants. Its history stretches back more than 3000 years, its...

Found on Pinterest...seriously The five-paragraph essay was treated as the cornerstone of English classes when I was growing up: it was ...

The various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms Poor Æthelbert! All the attention this blog gives him is in regard to wergild . He deserves attention f...

King Æthelbert of Kent (c.560-616) was first mentioned here in an explanation of wergild , the price paid by law for a man's death by...

St. Peter Damian, letter writer Peter Damian (c.1007 - 21 February 1072/3), the author of the Liber Gomorrhianus , was more than just a ...

PLEASE NOTE : This post should have a NSFW [ N ot S afe F or W ork] label. My apologies if this is not to your liking. Illumination fr...

St. Michael and All Angels, Haselbury Plucknett On 20 February 1154, a fight broke out over a corpse. The corpse "belonged" to...

Today is the anniversary of the death of Kublai Khan (1215 - 1294), grandson of Genghis Khan . During his 34-year reign (he was crowned on...

A copy sold by Christies in 2002 for $688,000 About 1260, the Archbishop of Genoa, Jacobus de Voragine , wrote a collection of hagiogra...

[We pause in our discussion of The Golden Legend to share an entry from it.] Here beginneth the Life of Saint Valentine, and first t...

The post about Julian the Hospitaller mentioned its source in the Legenda Aurea ["The Golden Legend"] of Jacobus de Voragine. ...

St. Julian killing his parents. Oil on panel, c.1488, by Antonio della Corna Everyone knows the story of Oedipus . Not to be outdone, ea...

Poggio's notes on monument  [ link ] Many months ago this post mentioned a time when there were three popes at once, who were final...

Today is her feast day, as well as the anniversary of the St. Scholastica's Day Riot in Oxford. She was the twin sister of Saint Bene...

Pope Gregory XI arriving in Rome in 1377 Fresco by Giorgio Vasari Pope Gregory XI wanted land. He was the last pope to reside in Avigno...

A perpetual motion machine powered by magnetism, described by Peter Peregrinus Magnets/lodestones have fascinated people for at least ...

Fair Rosamund's Well today. Blenheim Palace is of fairly recent vintage—the early 1700s is "recent" in the context of a bl...

A copy of his work [ source ] ...was a typographical error. The word "acne" does not come from a classical language root; th...

Funerary monument to Hawkwood This is the story of how an English soldier of no particular background rose to such prominence that a mo...

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...