Medieval Life Research Articles

Religious Orders' Impact on Medieval Europe: Origins, Influence, and Significance: A Literature Review

In summary, this literature review has offered a comprehensive exploration of the origins and evolution of medieval religious orders. We've traced the pioneering efforts of figures such as the Desert Fathers and Irish monks, who embarked on radical ascetic experiments. From these early efforts, coenobitic rules emerged, providing structured frameworks for religious life. Notably, the Rule of Benedict played a pivotal role in balancing prayer, labor, study, and moderation. The advent of mendicant orders marked a revival of religious fervor through their commitment to poverty, mobility, and dynamic preaching. The rapid expansion of religious orders was made possible by elite patronage, facilitating their spread across Europe. These orders left indelible marks on education, politics, and culture, shaping medieval life. Religious figures assumed prominent roles as counselors to rulers, influential doctrinal shapers, and builders of educational institutions. By synthesizing scholarship, this review illuminates the multifaceted journey of medieval religious orders, from their humble beginnings to their profound impact on European civilization. It underscores their significance and lays the groundwork for further research on their enduring roles.

Alle Thyng Hath Tyme: Time and Medieval Life, by Gillian Adler and Paul Strohm

<i>Alle Thyng Hath Tyme: Time and Medieval Life</i>, by Gillian Adler and Paul Strohm

Flavours of Pictish life: using starch grains and phytoliths to trace late Roman and early medieval culinary traditions

Understanding the seasonal and daily aspects of late Roman and early medieval life in northern Britain has been hugely challenging due to a dearth of excavated sites and poor preservation of settlement features where identified. This problem has been compounded by a very limited historical record for this era and region. But a new generation of archaeological data has begun to illuminate the Picts, a group first mentioned in late Roman sources and one that went on to become the dominant kingdom of early medieval northern Britain. These new datasets include innovative microbotanical analyses that can shed light on Pictish foodways, including culinary traditions, and specific plant foods consumed. This study employs non-destructive microbotanical analysis of pot sherds from Pictish settlement contexts and human teeth from Pictish burials, examining the presence of starch grains and phytoliths from six prominent sites spanning the Pictish period (AD∼300 – 900). Our research confirms that cereals such as oats and barley were the primary plants cultivated, cooked, and consumed in northeast Scotland during the late Roman Iron Age and early medieval period. These microbotanical residues add detailed evidence to previous studies of isotopic, pollen, and trace macrobotanical proxies, but also offer fresh insights into the potential composition of specific Pictish meal types. The approaches outlined here have greatly expanded and enriched our understanding of the dietary habits and lifestyle of the Picts, an important, but under-researched group.

Arthur J. Penty and the politics of the architectural profession, 1906–1937

ABSTRACT The British political theorist and architect Arthur J. Penty (1875-1937) is today remembered as the co-originator of ‘post-industrialism’ and as the first guild socialist. His writings evince a lifelong aversion to the evils of commercial society, as well as an intense appreciation for Medieval life. Yet Penty's conservative tendencies belie his attentiveness to what Harold Perkin would call ‘professional society.’ Though he abhorred capitalism, Penty believed in assigning status to workers on the basis of social function and technical expertise. Most surprisingly, given his reputation, he held that the guarantee of such status represented the first step towards a more democratic society. This essay accordingly recasts Penty as a political theorist of the professions. It does so through the analysis of not only his core interventions in political theory, but also his lesser-known trade writings. The first section focuses on Penty's early life and context. The second explains his historical understanding of architectural decline through his contrasting narratives of Classical and Gothic aesthetics. The third section outlines his theory of how to restore democratic architecture in modernity. The fourth section comments on Penty's larger significance in the history of ideas at a time of increasing populist references to ‘traditional’ aesthetics.

Applying Lessons From Ars Moriendi to Foster Dying Well in Acute Care Settings.

Medical and technological advances have made it possible to keep people alive well beyond what was once possible, leading health care providers to focus on life-sustaining measures rather than questioning the futility of such measures and considering quality of life. In the midst of the struggle to foster dying well in a medicalized environment, acute care nurses may be challenged with shifting the focus to providing optimal end-of-life care because of lack of training, time, and resources. A remedy for the current western societal approach to medicalized dying is to look back in history to a time during the late Middle Ages, when death was an accepted part of medieval life. A literary genre called Ars Moriendi (translated "the art of dying") was written and illustrated to provide instruction on how to die well and how to care for the dying. Nurses can apply lessons from this text to fulfill the ethical obligation to practice with dignity and provide compassionate end-of-life care. These lessons include helping patients and families identify goals of care and accept finitude, encouraging the participation of loved ones at the bedside, and fostering reconciliation at the end of life.

Alle Thyng Hath Tyme: Time and Medieval Life by Gillian Adler and Paul Strohm (review)

Alle Thyng Hath Tyme: Time and Medieval Life by Gillian Adler and Paul Strohm (review)

Emily Joan Ward, Royal Childhood and Child Kingship. Boy Kings in England, Scotland, France and Germany, c. 1050–1262. (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, Fourth Series.) Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2022

Emily Joan Ward, Royal Childhood and Child Kingship. Boy Kings in England, Scotland, France and Germany, c. 1050–1262. (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, Fourth Series.) Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2022

Erika Graham-Goering, Princely Power in Late Medieval France. Jeanne de Penthièvre and the War for Brittany. (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought. Fourth Series.) Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2020

Erika Graham-Goering, Princely Power in Late Medieval France. Jeanne de Penthièvre and the War for Brittany. (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought. Fourth Series.) Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2020

Entertainments from a Medieval Minstrel’s Repertoire Book

Abstract National Library of Scotland, Advocates’ MS 19.3.1 (the Heege Manuscript) is a large, late-fifteenth-century English miscellany manuscript from the border of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. Its first booklet, which existed independently of the manuscript’s other eight booklets throughout much or all of its medieval life, contains three texts: the tail-rhyme burlesque romance The Hunting of the Hare, a mock sermon in prose, and the alliterative nonsense verse The Battle of Brackonwet. This essay proposes that Richard Heege, the booklet’s scribe, copied these texts from the repertoire of a local entertainer, be that a gifted amateur or, very plausibly, a travelling minstrel working a regular beat. In this light, the booklet’s comic, crude, and sometimes frivolous contents take on new significance in the history of English literature, as they provide close evidence for what made up the entertainments of English oral culture—or minstrelsy—at the end of the Middle Ages.

:The Medieval Life of Language: Grammar and Pragmatics from Bacon to Kempe

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewsMark Amsler, The Medieval Life of Language: Grammar and Pragmatics from Bacon to Kempe. (Knowledge Communities.) Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2021. Pp. 264; color and black-and-white figures. €99. ISBN: 978-9-4637-2192-9.Christopher CannonChristopher CannonJohns Hopkins University Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Speculum Volume 98, Number 2April 2023 The journal of the Medieval Academy of America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/724300 Views: 24Total views on this site For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Study on Leisure and Sports in The Middle Ages from the perspective Of Daily Life

Life in the middle ages has always been a hot topic of great concern and debate in the history circle. In the past, people always thought that the life of medieval people was monotonous and difficult, and it was always closely linked with religion. With the deepening of academic research, especially the perspective of daily life history research, people's understanding of medieval life has been greatly broadened, and medieval life has become more three-dimensional and rich. As some scholars believe, life in the Middle Ages was actually happier and more leisurely. This paper is also based on the perspective of daily life history, focusing on the sports and leisure topics of medieval life through case analysis. In addition to introducing the academic debates of medieval life, this paper will focus on the basic background and main leisure ways of this period, such as football and intelligence games and other sports activities and game entertainment. This paper holds that the sports and leisure styles in the middle ages represent the common characteristics of the common people and the aristocrats in this period. These types of leisure and the rules or roles in the games can also be regarded as a powerful epitome of this period. Although this paper hopes to discuss the popular connotation of daily life, there are still some deficiencies in the detailed analysis of this paper. This paper is expected to cause extensive discussion on the study of daily life in the middle ages.

L’Ordre du Temple dans la Basse Vallée du Rhône (1124–1312) by Damien Carraz

Reviewed by: L’Ordre du Temple dans la Basse Vallée du Rhône (1124–1312) by Damien Carraz Michael Peixoto L’Ordre du Temple dans la Basse Vallée du Rhône (1124–1312). By Damien Carraz. (Lyon: Lyon University Press. 2020. Pp. 608. €35,00. ISBN: 9782729712129.) Originally published in 2005, this edition offers an updated re-issue of one of the most important recent contributions to the history of the military orders and the Crusades. While Dr. Carraz’s work centers on the lower Rhône region, the implications of his detailed study show how Templar activity in the region rippled through the medieval world. As an area that provided both rural economic opportunities, access to Mediterranean trade routes, a legacy of Carolingian culture, and persisting Roman urban centers, the Rhône valley offers an ideal case study for Templar activity outside of the Holy Land. Carraz brings together a comprehensive study of the documentary records (1,600 documents) of the Knights Templar along with archeological and narrative sources. Such exhaustive research allows Carraz to examine nearly every aspect of Templar life. He estimates numbers of written transactions, populations of Templar houses, tenure of individual commanders, internal organizational structures for house, and patronage relationships with regional elites to name just a few (chapter 5). The sources for the Templars in the south of France are especially rich and unique as local houses compiled cartularies, like their northern counterparts, but also drew from the local notarial culture and the more routine written transactional practices that accompanied it. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Templars were an omnipresent feature of the social and geographical landscape of the south of France. Their earliest establishments are recorded in donations dating to 1124, five years before the official foundations of the order in the Council of Troyes (p. 82). As much as the nobility supported the Templars, who were able to tap into a fervor of crusading support, much of the property attained by the Templars came by way of purchase. Templars consolidated land, making the most of donations by buying and selling to maximize efficiency. Carraz distinguishes the activities of urban houses from their rural and semi-urban counterparts, showing how urban houses were able to draw on trade networks and greater access to capital from ports, markets, and roads, while rural houses focused on natural resources. Templars similarly utilized their diversity of houses to appeal to different types of supporters. [End Page 185] The Templars played an important role in the religious landscape of southern France. Part of the early enthusiasm for the founding of local Templar houses came from the experience of inter-religious conflict and specifically the fear of Muslim piracy (p. 55). But Templars also offered a way to engage in religious life beyond traditional monasticism. In this capacity, they performed many similar functions as traditional Benedictine houses, such as memorializing donors and offering Masses, for a community that extended beyond the ranks of the nobility. Carraz explains the downfall of the Templars in the trials of 1307 and the subsequent Council of Vienne as an abrupt change, but one that was foreseeable. He dismisses the heresy charges that were leveled against them but does point out how the Templar membership had declined by the end of the thirteenth century. Estates were often inhabited by only a few brothers. While some Templars persisted even past the trial, their popularity seems to have waned as other types of popular religious movements, such as the mendicants, rose to replace them. Carraz’s work is essential reading for those interested in the Templars and the Military Orders, but his real contribution comes in the way he connects the activities of the Templars to the wider medieval context. In working from such an abundance of documentary sources, he elucidates the intersection of Templar history and nearly every aspect of medieval life, from religious devotion to royal and papal politics. In this, Carraz clearly shows how the military orders should not be thought of as a peripheral part of medieval history, but rather as the embodiment of many of its most important conceptual innovations, economics changes, and religious movements. Michael Peixoto University...

New Books across the Disciplines

New Books across the Disciplines

ALEXANDRU BĂRCĂCILĂ ȘI REVISTA „ARHIVELE OLTENIEIˮ

Alexandru Bărcăcilă (March 31, 1876, Bughea de Sus, Muscel - February 6, 1970, Bucharest) - one of the great personalities of Oltenia, archaeologist, professor and founder of cultural institutions, had close ties with the magazine Arhivele Olteniei. He created the magazine together with Dr Ch. Laugier, C.D. Fortunescu, Șt. Ciuceanu and others and supported it during 1922-1943, when it was printed. As a member of its board, he promoted the magazine in Mehedinți, and as a scholar he published numerous articles, studies and reading notes on subjects beyond his specialty - classical archeology and Latinism - but also more recent history documents related to the area where he lived and worked. Many of these concerned: the Romanian revolution of 1821 and its leader, Tudor Vladimirescu, as well his friend, Nicolae Zoican, villages and estates of Mehedinți (e.g., Nadanova, Studina), Roman and Romanian antiquities of Hațeg, funerary and religious monuments of Drobeta, its thermal baths, archeological artifacts from the Iron Gates area, the medieval life in Turnu Severin, the correspondence of Bishop Calinic of Râmnicu, travel notes from Gorj county, the cultural life of Turnu Severin and the intellectual movement Casa Luminii, the biography of I.G. Bibicescu and the library he founded. Also, indirectly, Al. Bărcăcilă made himself present in the magazine Arhivele Olteniei through a rich series of reviews of his scientific works, all published by C.D. Fortunescu. In short, Bărcăcilă was given the recognition he deserved by the magazine Arhivele Olteniei as a true scholar and historian.

Mark Amsler. 2021.The Medieval Life of Language: Grammar and Pragmatics from Bacon to Kempe. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 264 pp., 2 figures, 2 tables, € 106.00.

Article Mark Amsler. 2021. The Medieval Life of Language: Grammar and Pragmatics from Bacon to Kempe. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 264 pp., 2 figures, 2 tables, € 106.00. was published on December 1, 2022 in the journal Anglia (volume 140, issue 3-4).

Jackson Armstrong, England’s Northern Frontier. Conflict and Local Society in the Fifteenth-Century Scottish Marches. (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought. Fourth Series.) Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2020

Article Jackson Armstrong, England’s Northern Frontier. Conflict and Local Society in the Fifteenth-Century Scottish Marches. (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought. Fourth Series.) Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2020 was published on October 1, 2022 in the journal Historische Zeitschrift (volume 315, issue 2).

New Books across the Disciplines

New Books across the Disciplines

Ortaçağ Siyaset Teorisinin Kaynakları ve Ortaçağ Politikası ile Bağlantısı

Yüzyıllarca süren ciddi bir tarihsel çalışmanın ardından, günümüzde eğitimli insanların bile büyük çoğunluğunun hala Orta Çağ’ı, insanların tuhaf ve fantastik anlayışlarla yönetildiği bir dönem olarak gördüğünü söylemek muhtemelen doğru olacaktır. Orta Çağ hakkında gerçek bilgi arayışının daha çok Rönesans ve Yeni Öğrenme’nin aptal ve cahil belirsizliğiyle mi yoksa Romantik hareketin anlamsız coşkusuyla mı engellendiği gerçek bir şüphe konusudur. Rönesans, ortaçağ uygarlığını basitçe barbar ve irrasyonel olarak ele alırken, Romantik hareket ise, on dördüncü ve on beşinci yüzyıllarda grotesk şövalyelik düzenleriyle ilk Gotik canlanmanın gülünç oyununu gerçek ortaçağ dünyasıymış gibi algıladı. Hiç şüphesiz, ortaçağ yaşamının uygulanamaz bulunan ve modern dünya uygarlığının gerçek gelişimi ile uyumlu hale getirilemeyecek yönlerine her zaman gereken ağırlığı vermek zorunda kalacağız ancak bunların aşırı vurgulandığına ve bizlerin Orta Çağ’ın bazı uygulanamaz fikirlerini, çağın arkasındaki gerçek ve yönetici ilkelerle karıştırma eğiliminde olduğumuza inanıyorum.

The Continuing Importance of the Manor in Late Sixteenth-Century England: The Example of the Blount Family of the West Midlands

ABSTRACT The parish is acknowledged by historians to be the political unit of fundamental importance to the people of early modern England, with the manor, which had been central to medieval life, traditionally viewed as in decline. Recent work has countered this view of the manor, identifying its continuing vitality in local affairs until well into the early modern period. Using the case study of the Blounts, who were a prominent West Midlands gentry family in the sixteenth century, this article will consider the evidence for the continuing economic, social and political role of the manor, alongside that of the parish, providing further evidence for the continuing importance of the manor in early modern life and as a political and economic unit of some significance.

Getting Away from ‘Religion’ in Medieval Japan

The concept of ‘religion’ as modern, European-derived, and therefore problematic in premodern and Asian contexts is well established, but leaves us with a problem: if the church/state sacred/secular dynamic is a modern misconception even in England, as Fitzgerald argued, then how should we go about examining the central place of specific institutions, behaviour, and belief in the workings of medieval Japanese society that have formerly been classified or understood as ‘religious’? Abandoning ‘religion’ as a separate field of study from the ‘secular’ in Japanese history has the paradoxical effect of drawing attention to the pervasive centrality of activity, performance, mentality, and observance to every aspect of medieval life. Elements of practice, performance, and the sacred were essential, core, components of the functioning of public and private governance from the imperial system to local landholding. The great temple shrine complexes of the medieval period were centres of organisation, authority, and legitimacy, which are best understood not as ‘religious’ complexes which were also ‘economic’ and ‘political’ powers, but as institutions whose authority cannot be separated out into separate (modern) categories of ‘economic’, ‘judicial’, or ‘religious’ authority. Such distinctions cut across the deeply interconnected nature of law, landholding, family, lineage, place, and belief in the period, the networks and systems by which medieval life was ordered, but they also cut across the way that they were perceived by those living within them: the ways in which people thought, behaved, and interacted with each other. In order to understand the workings of what we think of as medieval Japanese society, we must understand these connected systems as composed of elements that might look ‘religious’ or ‘secular’ to modern eyes, but which were complementary, indivisible, even, in the period.