An Old Swedish translation of Acts of the Apostles is preserved in MS Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, A 110, which was written the year 1385 or some years after in the newly established birgittine Vadstena monastery. One part of Chapter 9, in which Saul is struck to the ground by God on his way to Damascus, also appears in two fifteenth century manuscripts in a collection of legends, most of them derived from Legenda aurea. This legend text has been believed to have been copied from the Acts translation (Ståhle 1940), but a close study reveals that the legend text likely predated the Acts translation and was incorporated in it. The time and place of of the Acts translation is discussed from various perspectives and it is suggested, in line with Anderssons’s (2001) interpretation of the MS A 110, that it was carried out for the use within the Vadstena monastery, inaugurated in 1384.

ABSTRACT This article explores the role of child and youth labour within the converso community of Valencia in the first half of the fifteenth century, a period marked by economic necessity and legal frameworks that shaped social mobility. Through an analysis of 267 contractes d’afermament—formal agreements that governed apprenticeships and domestic service—it examines the ways in which these two activities structured the labour market for young individuals. Male youths typically entered artisanal trades, while female adolescents were predominantly placed in domestic service, often in pursuit of dowries for marriage, but sometimes also of vocational training. The study highlights the risks faced by young female servants, including exploitation and loss of honour, and underscores the forms of economic participation available to them. Religious identity played a key role in shaping labour markets, with conversos often employing both fellow conversos and Old Christians, creating a complex web of cross-confessional interactions. The article also examines how community solidarity and kinship networks helped integrate orphans and economically vulnerable children into these labour systems.

In late medieval London, concerns about the quality and authenticity of consumer goods converged with growing anti-immigrant sentiment. Using three craft guilds—the Goldsmiths, the Pursers, and the Glaziers—as case studies, this article illustrates how Londoners came to directly link the perceived threats posed by foreigners and false craft work by the end of the fifteenth century. Analysing the rhetoric and regulations of these three varied groups of craftsmen, it provides insight into medieval Londoners’ attitudes towards strangers, as well as the construction of artisan identity, arguing that members of these guilds defined themselves both by their artisanal skill and in opposition to outsiders. They were able to unite and concretise these two facets of their identities by accusing foreigners of false work.

This study reexamines the practice of Pyŏljinhŏn (special tribute offerings) carried out during the reign of King Sŏngjong at the request of the Ming imperial court, with the aim of reassessing the status of Chosŏn craft production in the fifteenth century from an art-historical perspective. Whereas previous scholarship has focused primarily on the political and diplomatic implications of Pyŏljinhŏn, this paper analyzes the tanja (itemized lists) recorded in the Annals of King Sŏngjong in order to reconstruct aspects of early Chosŏn craft culture that no longer survive today. The objects documented in these records represent the highest-quality royal crafts, embodying the advanced technical skills and refined aesthetic sensibilities of court artisans (kyŏnggongjang) of the period. Of particular note are the numerous ivory craft objects, which were produced despite ivory not being a native material of Chosŏn. Their presence attests both to the procurement of materials through international trade networks and to the highly developed processing techniques of Chosŏn artisans. In conclusion, the records of Pyŏljinhŏn provide concrete evidence of the high level of royal craft production in early Chosŏn and constitute a crucial source for understanding material culture exchange in fifteenth-century East Asia, including interactions between Chosŏn and Ming China.

This article explores the phenomenon of generating Crimea’s standardized geographical names on the material of Latin nautical charts from the fourteenth and fifteenth century, predictive standardizing in the modern language culture. The sources foundation of work was Medea-Chart Data Base for the Medieval and Early Modern nautical charts, developed under the supervision of Joaquim Alves Gaspar, in which author identified and studied over 130 Crimea’s maps from the fourteenth and fifteenth century. The ancient name of the peninsula, the Tauris, was totally forgotten in the Middle Ages by cartographers. The earliest designation of the Crimean Peninsula as Gazaria occurs on the map of Angelinus de Dulceto of 1325. The atlas of Andreas Bianco of 1436 was the first to mention Solkhat, which name was emphasized with red ink not as a seaport thus following the previous tradition, but as political center has Crimean tumen. Moreover, it was Bianco who for the first time indicated the Gotia related to the western part of the peninsula in contrast to the Gazaria, or the eastern part of the Crimea. Increasing density of geographical nomenclature in the western and eastern parts of the Crimean region on the Latin sea maps from the fourteenth and fifteenth century was related with Latins’ involvement in the development of local natural resources.

This article analyzes a bone cross and a round copper icon excavated at the church and churchyard in the suburb of Soldaia and its port area. The cross, published in 2007, was not properly analyzed. Doubtless attribution relates it Rus’ian bone one-sided crosses documented by the excavations of Rus’ian cities of Moscow, Pskov, Suzdal, Tver, Pereyaslavl Ryazansky. The medallion, a rare artefact in Moscow Rus’, was not published before. According to the archaeological contexts and morphology, both artefacts in question from the second half of the fifteenth to the first half of the sixteenth century. It is clear that there were several centers of their production. According to the archaeological context, the finds from Sudak finds date from the middle or second half of the fifteenth century. As the number of archaeological artifacts produced in Moscow Rus’ and discovered in the south-eastern Taurica gradually increases, there is every reason to consider that this was the period of active contacts between two territories. Although the relations between Rus’ and the Crimean Khanate have repeatedly become the subject of special studies, the Rus’ contacts with the Orthodox communities of the eastern Taurica, which was controlled by the Genoese, have not been analyzed in detail. According to archaeological sources, these contacts manifested themselves particularly in the import of Christian rarities. It is still possible that the Russian Tsar planned to use the support from this population. This fact is also important in analyzing the nature of the relationship between the two states aimed at successfully confronting the Great Horde, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and Poland.

Background: The research takes inspiration from field trips at the Uffizi Gallery organized by the Department of Medicine of the University of Florence, in which professors encourage students to discuss medical aspects of artworks, and the participation of an art historian fosters interdisciplinary dialogue. Methods: The research started with the historical contextualisation and stylistic and iconographic analysis of the painting. Then, it dealt with the evaluation of Renaissance medical sources and the bibliography about the painting. Lastly, it compared the painting with contemporary texts and images. Results: The research evidenced that Pesellino meant to represent an anatomy lesson as it used to be carried out in Medieval universities, under the guise of a miracle of saint Anthony of Padua. Conclusions: The paper could contribute to the investigation of anatomical knowledge of artists and iconographic documentation of medical practice in the fifteenth century.

Although viticulture was widespread in the Eastern Mediterranean, some of its areas possessed a special “wine” reputation. The island of Euboea was among such centers. This article attempts to analyze the state of wine production and wine trade on Euboea from the twelfth to first half of the fifteenth century, in the period when the island was ruled by Byzantium, the Latin triarchs, and Venice. The research is based on Byzantine narratives, decrees of the Venetian Senate, and archaeological data. The author concludes that the twelfth to thirteenth centuries were a time of prosperity for winemaking on the island and that the Latin conquest of Euboea in the early-thirteenth century did not fundamentally affect this sector of economy. Greeks remained the main population group on the island keeping their traditional lifestyle and occupations. In the fourteenth century, wine export continued. In the years of the Venetian rule of the island, called Negroponte by Latin sources, in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, local wine production and wine trade experienced a decline. This was largely due to the general deterioration of agriculture in Euboea in connection with the growing Turkish threat and burdensome Venetian taxes, which generally resulted in the demographic decline and economic downfall. Under the circumstances, the retail trade in wine, its protection from external competition, and the attraction of new settlers to Euboea to revive wine production became main objectives in Venice’s economic policy towards its colony. Although this policy had a positive effect in the 1430s and 1440s, it did not change the economic situation on the island in the long term.

This article examines the specifics of pro-Turkish sentiments in the urban community of Thessalonike during two Ottoman sieges of 1383–1387 and 1422–1430. Taking the works of Byzantine writers and Venetian documents into account, this article examines the causes of pro-Ottoman feelings in the urban environment, researching individual cases of Byzantines’ defection and the residents of besieged city’s attempts to make alliances with the Ottomans. The author concludes that ordinary Byzantines associated submission to the Turks with political and economic stability, while the attention paid by the imperial and local administration to the needs of Thessalonians during both sieges was perceived by the city’s residents as insufficient. In the author’s view, this was the reason why the urban community formed stable ideas of the necessity to change their subjection for the Ottoman. It was particularly evident during the siege of 1422–1430, as the townspeople’s dire economic situation, conflicts with the Venetian authorities, who had taken control of the city in 1423, and the previous experience of coexistence with the conquerors from 1387–1402 led to the polarization of the urban community and the exacerbation of social contradictions. Thus, strong pro-Turkish sentiments within the city, as well as the locals’ profound mistrust of the Latins, prevented the Venetian authorities from effectively organizing the city’s defense before the decisive assault in 1430.

This article examines the English chronicles’ accounts of the Ottoman expansion in the second half of the fifteenth century. Despite the fact that these events took place on the most remote borders of the Christian world, English chroniclers considered it necessary to inform their readers about the most important episodes of all-Christian history, such as the fall of Constantinople in 1453, which became a tragedy for the whole Christian world, the siege of Belgrade in 1456, the initiatives of Pope Pius II to organize a crusade, the capture of Negroponte by the Ottomans in 1470, the appearance of the Ottomans in Apulia, and the Battle of Rhodes in 1480. Although English chronicles generally tended to focus on the internal political problems of the kingdom, their accounts also reflected the events related to the Turkish expansion. During this period, the Ottoman question was an important aspect of the Papacy’s diplomacy and the aspect of global history that could serve a glue for the Christian world. The presence of common enemy threatening Christian states and common goal, as well as the attempts to revive the crusading movement could become an important unifying factor. The authors conducted a textual analysis of the messages of several English chronicles to establish possible ways of transmitting information. They revealed the influence on them of Foresti’s Supplementum chronicarum, Werner Rolevinck’s Fasciculus temporum, and the texts by Pope Pius II.

Historiography on the Jewish community in Florence has traditionally focused on the period following its official admission to the city in 1437. This essay, by contrast, seeks to investigate the reasons why the Florentine government had previously refrained from allowing Jews to settle permanently within the city. While medieval Western Europe was pervaded by a pervasive cultural substratum of anti—Judaism—an essential premise for any discussion of the subject—this study argues that, in the Florentine case, economic considerations played a more decisive role. The absence of a Jewish community, and particularly of Jewish moneylenders, prior to the consolidation of Medicean rule, will be examined in relation to the fiscal model developed by Florence in the early fifteenth century. Within this framework, the years of the War of Lucca (1429–1433) will emerge as especially significant, as they marked a moment of unprecedented fiscal pressure that shaped the Republic’s economic policies and social dynamics.

This paper examines the complex connections between religious painting and vernacular narratives during the Ming dynasty through a case study of the Miaoshan story mural in the Vairochana Hall (Piludian 毗盧殿) of Guanyin Monastery (Guanyinsi 觀音寺) in Xinjin 新津, Sichuan (near Chengdu). This mural constitutes the earliest precisely dated surviving example (completed in 1468 and renovated in 1756) of pictorial representations of the Miaoshan story in China, the popular hagiography of Bodhisattva Guanyin that gained wide circulation in Buddhist communities during this period. Although this narrative painting has already attracted scholarly attention, many questions concerning its origins and meaning remain unresolved. Through a comparison with the earliest extant textual variants of the Baojuan of Xiangshan (香山寶卷, reprinted editions of 1772 and 1773), this paper demonstrates the distinctive features of the Xinjin mural. It further situates the mural within the broader history of visual representations of the Miaoshan story from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that survive in Sichuan and Beijing. This case study reveals the significant influence of vernacular narrative traditions on Buddhist art during the Ming dynasty, while also showing that the Xinjin mural represents an independent version of the Miaoshan narrative that was not preserved in later written sources.

Between 1913 and 1942, the Dutch Archaeological Service was responsible for the conservation of cultural heritage in the former Dutch East Indies. For a significant part this concerned Javanese temples from the Buddhist and Hindu era (roughly 700 AD-1550 AD). Although the restoration of temples, and the ways they were presented to the public, were strongly influenced by European views, restoration appeared to be a concern already in the fifteenth century during the heydays of the Hindu Majapahit empire. Old Javanese manuscripts report of the need for restoration as volcanic circumstances and the tropical climate impacted temples from the moment of construction onwards. In the centuries following Majapahit, Buddhist-Hindu and animistic beliefs kept on resonating. Temples and temple ruins gradually became home to the spirits to which people offered, where spirits were worshipped, or where ritualistic meals were held. Official heritage policy often clashed with such practices. For many local people, the maintenance of the spiritual balance seemed even more important than that of the material remains. To better understand the possible tensions between material preservation and (local) meaning, the policy of the Dutch Archaeological Service, will in this article be placed first within the much older tradition of heritage preservation dating back to Majapahit. This will then be contrasted with the actual attitudes and practices towards heritage, as were still common amongst Javanese people in the twentieth century, to finally assess what can be learned from these tensions regarding possible heritage policies for the future.

The Carthusian hagiographical tradition is intimately tied not only to the history of its genre and the history of Saint Bruno of Cologne, the founder of the order, but also, in a unique and decisive manner to the order’s distinctive character. The article provides a concise overview of the literary development of Saint Bruno’s cult, while acknowledging the concurrent growth of introspection and the gradual confirmation of Bruno’s position as the founding figure of the Carthusian order. A pivotal moment in these developments is the 1514 decree by Pope Leo X, which allowed the Carthtusians to publicly venerate their founder. Additionally, several vitae were written at the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. An analysis of these texts reveals the emergence of a specific Carthusian genre, aptly named autoordography. This article will explore the factors that contributed to the creation of this genre, including the Carthusian Order’s limited external interactions, their strict rule, and various criticisms directed at them. Besides, it will describe the unique characteristics of this genre, which forms an intriguing blend of hagiography, apologetic literature, and a distinctive form of speculum religionis.

By the fifteen century, Inari worshipers had created a vast mythology for their kami that carefully navigated the shifting religious landscape of Japan. <em>Engi</em>, or “origin stories,” from the thirteenth through fifteenth centuries show that authors of such stories were intent on crafting relationships for Inari that carved out an independent identity while curating associations with prominent institutions of the time. In this article, I analyze how medieval proponents of Inari Jinja crafted new narratives of the deity’s origins and deeds in a concerted effort to forge an independent identity for the deity while maintaining vital ties with both Buddhist and Shinto institutions. What provided the Inari tradition with renewed coherence and relevance was not the unification and clarification of these narratives and relationships, but rather their fundamental diversity and ambiguity.

This article analyzes the emergence of the Safavid state within the context of the profound political, social, and ideological transformations that took place in the South Caucasus and the Iranian Plateau at the end of the fifteenth century. The study examines the systemic crisis of the Aq Qoyunlu state, the decline of the tribal confederation model, and the interrelation of these processes with the transformation of the Safaviyya order from a mystical-religious community into a military-theocratic organization. Particular emphasis is placed on the activities of Shaykh Junayd and Shaykh Haydar, the formation of the Qizilbash confederation, and the decisive role of the Anatolian factor. The campaigns of Ismail I between 1499 and 1503, the battles of Sharur and Hamadan, as well as the conquest of Tabriz in 1501, are presented as key stages in the legitimation of Safavid rule and the consolidation of imperial power. The study demonstrates that the establishment of the Safavid state was not merely the result of charismatic leadership, but rather the outcome of the complex interaction of political fragmentation, social mobilization, and ideological synthesis. The article substantiates that the political, religious, and cultural legacy of the Safavids played a decisive role in shaping the long-term ethno-confessional identity of Azerbaijan and Iran.

Abstract This article explores how and why English armies changed between the mid-fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. It thereby addresses a topic that has hitherto not received the attention it deserves, especially the issue of change and continuity across the late medieval and early modern divide. Administrative sources, such as indentures of war and inventories, are examined to trace changes in the terminology used to describe soldiers, the weaponry with which they were equipped and ratios of different types of combatants. This evidence is used to demonstrate that the role of men-at-arms and archers changed markedly over the course of the fifteenth century, with the latter evolving into a form of hybrid infantry. The reign of Henry VII was especially significant, with key developments including the emergence of new categories of soldiers. Contrary to past assessments, the bill only became the preferred English melee weapon in the last quarter of the fifteenth century, with the pike used alongside it in large numbers. European influences were important in driving these changes, which were integrated into a distinctive English style of warfare.

ABSTRACT This article examines the economic activities of Jews, Mudejars and, above all, New Christians in the Kingdom of Aragon during the fifteenth century. It argues that these confessional communities cultivated complementary economic practices that sustained a pragmatic mode of urban coexistence. This equilibrium was first unsettled by the anti-Jewish riots of 1391 and later reshaped by the mass conversions that followed the Disputation of Tortosa (1413–1414). A distinctive converso micro-society then emerged, whose elites – jurists, notaries, merchants and brokers – rapidly integrated into civic life, especially in Aragonese towns, where their absorption proved less conflictive than in Valencia or Catalonia. Drawing on notarial protocols, inquisitorial records and municipal documentation, the study reconstructs these groups' economic networks and analyses their roles in credit, commerce and the professions. Particular attention is paid to women's participation in property transmission and marital strategies, and to the prominence of Jewish and converso physicians, whose expertise often enabled social mobility across confessional boundaries. By situating Jewish and converso economic profiles within the multicultural framework of late medieval Aragon, the article highlights both minority resilience and the structural tensions that ultimately culminated in the establishment of the Inquisition.

Three traditions of astronomical tables for the latitudes of Venus and Mercury circulated among medieval astronomers in al-Andalus: the Almagest tradition, the Handy Tables tradition, and the Indian tradition. These traditions came to the attention of scholars whose literary language was Hebrew or Judeo-Arabic (Arabic written in Hebrew characters) through Arabic zijes, either directly or indirectly. The present study offers an in- depth examination of eleven tables for the latitudes of Venus and Mercury, composed in Hebrew or Judeo-Arabic in the Iberian Peninsula and southern France from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, focusing on their structure, entries, and terminology. We find that each of the three traditions had at least one representative in Hebrew or Judeo-Arabic. Additionally, we provide a biographical overview of the compilers of the tables, present the various manuscripts in which the tables are extant, and include either full transcriptions of the tables or transcriptions of the variants in other tables in the same tradition. Finally, we review the variety of Hebrew terms used by the authors under discussion for «inclination», «slant», «latitude», and «proportion», as well as for the name of the planet Mercury, highlighting the different strategies employed in their usage.

ABSTRACT In the fifteenth century, Castilian politics transformed the town of Escalona into a major strategic point: many key political figures sought to possess this land as a lordship throughout much of this century. Diego López Pacheco was one of them. He had highly valued his confiscated marquisate of Villena but, after its loss, had no choice other than to focus on managing his duchy of Escalona, if he wished to gain substantial income. The town had lost part of its luster, making it necessary to devise a plan to secure its recovery, especially from a demographic point of view. Like other lords, the Marquis set his sights on the Mudejar population of the town. In this case, Muslim revolts in Granada and the Archbishop of Toledo’s responsibility in creating discontent among them served as an excuse for López Pacheco to develop a policy of attracting Muslims to his lordship, especially those coming from the lands of the Archbishopric.