Medieval Studies Research Articles

DigiPal: Digital Resource and Database of Palaeography, Manuscript Studies and Diplomatic

DigiPal is a digital platform of paleographical primary sources that provides free access to a rich collection of medieval English manuscripts. Developed by the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London, United Kingdom, this project is designed to offer a way for paleographers and scholars of medieval studies to compare hands of transcription and patterns from different periods in time. It is a great example in the field of digital humanities as it brings new methods to the study of medieval handwriting.

QUAQUA

This is the first book devoted to a comparison between Eliot and Beckett, so the publishers proclaim. Aside from an introduction and conclusion, the book is composed of six chapters alternating between Eliot and Beckett, each devoted to a single work: ‘Eeldrop and Appleplex’, More Pricks Than Kicks, Murder in the Cathedral, Molloy, ‘East Coker’, and How It Is. These form three pairs, addressing ‘the affective, the ethical and the aesthetic’. That is to say, the first two are about embarrassment as an emotion, the second about the moral value attached to humility and humiliation, and the last about how humility can appear not just in the portrayal of a particular character, but also in the structure and presentation of a text itself. The volume is more concerned with theoretical issues than empirical ones. The allusions and relations that de Villiers treats are largely found in prior scholarship and are acknowledged as such. When something new is brought to light, it is overtly marked, for instance the ‘two overlooked sources’ proposed for ‘Eeldrop and Appleplex’ (Purgatorio XVI and Charles Péguy’s ‘De Jean Coste’). ‘This study offers a theory of mimetic humility by involving modernist literature in the conception of a virtue that has almost exclusively been defined by theology, philosophy and medieval studies.’ Given that literary theory is Continental philosophy applied to literature, it is unclear that the distinction between de Villiers’s book and what has come before is as significant as his words suggest, but the emphasis on humility and the juxtaposition of the two authors’ philosophical and theological interests is new. De Villiers sees the twinned words humility and humiliation as central to understanding both Beckett and Eliot and as points of departure for illustrating their many differences. This is the ‘low modernism’ of the title.

Nepantla in The Ninth Century: The Monastery of Redon and The Frankish-Breton Borderlands

Medieval scholars write often about frontiers, but infrequently about borderlands. In this essay I bring together medieval studies and borderland studies, specifically the work of Gloria Anzaldúa, to read anew the Gesta Sanctorum Rotonensium (Deeds of the Holy Men of Redon). This late ninth century text describes the establishment (in 832) and early history of the monastery of Redon, which took place within multiple, overlapping, and contested borders. By translating Anzaldúa’s nepantla into a ninth-century idiom, I read the Gesta as a borderlands text, written by and for residents of the Frankish-Breton borderlands. The fluidity of this borderlands region, I argue, fostered the conflict and becoming essential to nepantla. This enabled the monks to formulate a transgressive identity, and community, that worked around and between and sometimes against both secular and ecclesiastical power.

The Identities of Catherine de’ Medic. By Susan Broomhall. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions, 228. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2021. xiv + 394 pp. €157.00/$189.00 hardback.

The Identities of Catherine de’ Medic. By Susan Broomhall. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions, 228. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2021. xiv + 394 pp. €157.00/$189.00 hardback. - Volume 91 Issue 4

What Does the Gaze Want? Teaching the Breton Lais with Visual Culture and Psychoanalysis

This article reflects upon the ways that the Breton lais, specifically 'Sir Orfeo,' 'Lanval,' and 'Sir Launfal,' contribute to a dialogue about desire and the gaze within medieval studies. The visual elements so central to the Breton lais offer insight into the temporal and aesthetic dimensions of a politics of desire. Juxtaposing the Breton lais with visual culture studies provides opportunities to offer innovative pedagogical approaches in terms of the teaching of Arthuriana and the gaze, especially as it is explored within psychoanalysis and literary history. (EFL)

William Langland: Piers Plowman, The A Version by Michael Calabrese

Reviewed by: William Langland: Piers Plowman, The A Version by Michael Calabrese Arvind Thomas michael calabrese, trans. William Langland: Piers Plowman, The A Version. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2020. Pp. xlvii, 160. isbn: 978-0-8132-3343-7. $34.95. Michael Calabrese's new translation of, and introduction to, the A-version of Piers Plowman reimagines medieval England's great vernacular poem for our own time. As a translator, Calabrese animates the poem in its much-neglected A-version in ways that will undoubtedly hold the attention of contemporary readers and scholars, and especially those with little or no background in medieval studies. As someone who values reading texts in their original languages and tends to view translators as traditores, I was not only pleasantly surprised but also deeply moved by Calabrese's translation. Far from betraying Langland's poem, Calabrese delivers it in all its complexity and poetic beauty in an idiom that in many ways stylistically approximates and, in places, even enacts that of the original Middle English. To be sure, Calabrese's translation may call to mind several notable translations of the poem. The translations of Covella, Donaldson, and Schmidt are all, as Calabrese generously notes, works that he has studied, taught, or otherwise enjoyed; however, his translation stands apart from previous ones in at least two significant respects: 1) it is crafted to enable student readers to enjoy and understand Langland's poem and 2) it foregrounds a version of the poem that has thus far been largely neglected by students and scholars of Piers Plowman. So, what makes Calabrese's translation of Piers Plowman appeal more directly or even viscerally to modern students and scholars than any other translation of the poem? First, Calabrese takes care to render into modern English the rich variety of Langland's rhetorical registers in Middle English ranging from the demotic to the formal. Second, as Calabrese explains in his stimulating introduction to the poem and to the principles of his translation, he regards the A version of the poem as informed by conflict. Consider, for instance, the lines describing Waster's anger and pugnacity. Line 139 of Passus 7 reads thus: 'Then Waster got himself all angry, aching for a fight.' At first sight, we may not see much by way of poetic form apart from the alliteration. But when we listen to the line or hear it read out with a New York accent, the words 'all angry' come vibrantly, almost viciously alive, and sound like what one might hear on a subway platform. Likewise, the very next line 'Then some loud braggart burst forth as well' would call to mind or, more precisely, echo the opening line of the song 'Be True to Your School' by the Beach Boys. What we hear in such lines is Langland transposed or translated into North American cultural and linguistic settings ranging from New York to Southern California. Or, consider a few lines about Glutton's confession in Passus 5 (alliteratively entitled 'I'm sorry, so sorry'). Glutton finds himself in a bar amidst company that Calabrese translates in a way that renders them as much medieval as modern: Little Davie the ditchdigger and a dozen others—a fiddle player, a rat-catcher, a street-cleaner from Cheapside;a rope seller, a personal assistant, and Rosie who sells dishes,Godfrey from Garlic-heath, Griffin the Welsh guy, [End Page 150] and a big table of salesmen, doing some early morning drinkin'. (Passus 5.165–69) The diction and alliteration apart, the tone of voice, especially in the last half-line 'doing some early morning drinkin'' resonates with that of a New Jersey rhetoric in a bar, especially when one reads it aloud without enunciating the 'g' in 'drinkin'.' Such examples may suggest that Calabrese merely renders Langland into a demotic key. Far from it. Calabrese's translation exemplifies the wide range of linguistic registers that we find in Langland. For instance, in Passus 6, the register in which the tower of truth is introduced and described is stately and dignified: All the dwellings within, halls and chambers, are tiled notwith lead but with love and lowness...

Roberta Frank. 2022. The Etiquette of Early Northern Verse. Conway Lectures in Medieval Studies 2010. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, xxx + 265 pp., $ 65.00.

Article Roberta Frank. 2022. The Etiquette of Early Northern Verse. Conway Lectures in Medieval Studies 2010. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, xxx + 265 pp., $ 65.00. was published on December 1, 2022 in the journal Anglia (volume 140, issue 3-4).

In This Land: Jewish Life and Legal Culture in Late Medieval Provence by Pinchas Roth

Reviewed by: In This Land: Jewish Life and Legal Culture in Late Medieval Provence by Pinchas Roth Erika E. Hess Roth, Pinchas. In This Land: Jewish Life and Legal Culture in Late Medieval Provence. Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 2021. ISBN 978-0-88844-223-9. Pp. 168. Drawing primarily from medieval Provençal legal responsa––texts written by rabbinic scholars to answer questions about Jewish law or Halakhah––Roth reveals a colorful portrait of Jewish life in Provence from the twelfth through fourteenth centuries. In contrast to other rabbinic documents such as Talmudic commentaries or legal codes that turn back to older texts, responsa tend to be grounded in the moment––“specific legal questions, asked at a particular point in time by one person (or more) to another person (or group of people),” often practical in nature (4). Roth notes that the “temporal nature” of responsa provides rare glimpses into the culture, conflicts, and identities of Jewish life in medieval Provence (4). Some questions posed to rabbinic scholars centered on marital relations, such as a case in which a man sought guidance in regard to his adulterous wife, asking: “Is my wife forbidden to me or permitted?” (37). In another case, a questioner asked whether a man who suffered from “the black madness” or melancholy could divorce his wife (40). Other questions revolved around Jewish dietary rules, such as the scientific thinking behind kosher meat. Still others questioned components of Jewish liturgy, such as whether it was correct to recite the Kol Nidre on the eve of Yom Kippur. Although a number of responsa consider fabricated questions that were asked to resolve philosophical or legal matters rather than true questions that were cause for concern, Roth notes that they nonetheless underscore the “presence” of Jewish law in their lives (39). Roth additionally compares the rulings of specific rabbinic scholars, for example the rulings of Mordechai Kimhi from Narbonne (later, near Carpentras), and those of Abraham ben Isaac of Montpellier. As Roth notes, although they had a similar “cultural profile” as “recognized rabbinic scholars” and their “attitude toward philosophical rationalism was similarly moderate,” their rulings often differed significantly: “They held very different beliefs about the law and its place in society” (36). Especially after 1306, when Jews were expelled from the Kingdom of France and many migrated to Provence, we also find responsa relating to conflicts resulting from differences between the culture and traditions of Provençal Jewish communities and those of the newly arrived French Jews. As Roth points out, the personality of the rabbi often played an important role in their attitudes toward immigration and multiculturalism. Mordechai Kimhi’s son, Isaac, for example, “advocated a path of compromise and tolerance” both between Provençal and French Jews, and between Jews and Gentiles (119), whereas Isaac of Manosque and Abba Mari of Lunel “staked out confrontational positions” as they strove to hold a firm line within their “deeply divided community” (119). In addition to the vivid and sometimes surprising stories that Roth includes, his own enthusiasm for the subject contributes to the book’s easy readability. This book will be of great interest, not only to scholars of medieval Jewish history and culture, but to anyone interested in the European Middle Ages and in Judaism more broadly. [End Page 194] Erika E. Hess Northern Arizona University Copyright © 2022 American Association of Teachers of French

Arthurian Cosmopoiesis: Wolfram's Parzival

Offering five possible thematic pedagogical approaches to Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival (1200–1210), this article argues that the romance, often overlooked due to its complexity, is a rich and timely medieval work that will capture students' imaginations. We offer a practical guide for using the romance (or selected excerpts) to introduce students to current medieval studies approaches through its treatment of the Global Middle Ages, the medieval racial imagination, and the complexities of gender, and we explain how the social dynamics of Parzival' s narrative world-building recommend its inclusion in courses with topics such as medievalism, speculative fiction, and adaptation. (CN & AMR)

:Holy Digital Grail: A Medieval Book on the Internet

:<i>Holy Digital Grail: A Medieval Book on the Internet</i>

:Anglo-Saxon(ist) Pasts, PostSaxon Futures

:<i>Anglo-Saxon(ist) Pasts, PostSaxon Futures</i>

:Translation Effects: Language, Time, and Community in Medieval England

:<i>Translation Effects: Language, Time, and Community in Medieval England</i>

:World Medievalism: The Middle Ages in Modern Textual Culture

:<i>World Medievalism: The Middle Ages in Modern Textual Culture</i>

La ricerca sulle fonti e le sue sfide

Abstract This essay presents a reflection on the so-called auxiliary sciences, starting from the volume published by the Monumenta Germaniae Historica on the occasion of its foundation 200 years ago. The papers of the volume are integrated into the broader international debate on the prospects of medieval studies, both in relation to the „digital turn“ and to the risk that the Middle Ages will become marginalized in university curricula and „irrelevant“ to contemporary society and politics.

Review: Legions of Pigs in the Early Medieval West, by Jamie Kreiner

In Legions of Pigs, Jamie Kreiner uses pigs as a lens through which she examines the early medieval West from North Africa to the British Isles and Scandinavia. Pigs are unique among the medieval domestic mammals. Unlike cattle, sheep, goats, horses, and donkeys, pigs do not produce secondary products that can be extracted from live animals, such as milk, wool, hair, traction, and transport. Pigs produce meat and other primary products, such as skin and bone, that can be accessed only when a pig is slaughtered. Pigs are also biologically and behaviorally distinct from the other early medieval farm animals. They are smart and will eat almost anything, but they can be dangerous and require careful management so that they do not destroy agricultural fields and other aspects of the landscape and the built environment. Using pigs as a focal point, the chapters in this volume explore worldview and cosmology, agriculture and ecology, social organization, and religion across the late antique and early medieval West.The research that went into this volume is meticulous, and the scope of the volume is impressive. The geographic range includes North Africa, Iberia, and the Norse colonies in Iceland and Greenland, in addition to the more well-studied regions of early medieval western Europe, such as the British Isles and Francia. Kreiner is a documentary historian, but I was impressed with her knowledgeable and creative use of the archaeological and zooarchaeological data on early medieval animal husbandry and agriculture. She draws on zooarchaeological data to show how the relative importance of pigs in early medieval societies varied across both time and space. For example, while pigs played an important role in many early medieval societies, recent archaeological research has shown that they were introduced to Iceland at the beginning of the Norse settlement, but they declined rapidly thereafter, possible due to the damage that they did to the fragile environment.Kreiner begins by describing pigs as animals that provided meat, a commodity that early medieval people wanted, but also as animals that were intelligent and required management. She then links these animals to broader issues of early medieval cosmology and worldview. Her third chapter focuses on pigs in the early medieval landscape. This is where her interdisciplinary skills really shine. Kreiner draws on archaeological data to show how pig husbandry varied across the early medieval world as a result environmental differences and the choices that early medieval farmers and landowners made. She then explores the complex laws and negotiations that governed access to pannage for pigs in the woodlands during the acorn season. Kreiner’s historical data complement the archaeological evidence to provide a rich picture of early medieval pig management. Her next chapter explores the relationships between pigs and humans, ranging from the role of swineherds to the social context of pork consumption. Her final chapter explores the relationship between pigs and Christianity.The volume is extensively documented with over 50 pages of notes and a wide-ranging bibliography. It is also well illustrated with 32 pages of color plates, 7 useful maps that show the locations of the sites and regions discussed in the volume, and many black-and-white in-text figures.Early medieval studies are by their nature interdisciplinary, drawing on evidence from historical records, archaeological excavations, and art historical studies. This volume is one of the most creatively interdisciplinary volumes that I have had the pleasure to read. Kreiner has produced a truly multispecies history, using the relationships between pigs and people to explore the agrarian, social, and cultural history of the early medieval period. As a result, this book will be of great interest to early medievalists who work with texts and material culture, as well as scholars who work in interdisciplinary fields such as historical ecology and animal studies. I will use this book when I teach both medieval archaeology and zooarchaeology. My archaeology students will appreciate Kreiner’s careful and critical use of archaeological and zooarchaeological data, and they will benefit from her use of pigs as a lens to explore broader issues of early medieval cosmology, religion, and social organization. These issues are nearly impossible to study on the basis of archaeological data alone. The volume is clearly and engagingly written, and I recommend it in the highest possible terms.

Wege in eine mediävistische Komparatistik

Pathways into Medieval Comparative Literary Studies. With a Methodological Outlook Based on Religious Plays The literary traditions of the Middle Ages were interconnected across territorial and linguistic borders. Although there is general agreement that for this reason a comparative perspective is inscribed in medieval studies by virtue of its subject matter, there is still no ›medieval comparative literary studies‹. The article identifies central reasons for this desideratum, the lack of theoretical and methodological foundations in particular, and proposes four methods from textual analysis that can be used for medieval comparative inquiries on the basis of a semiotic approach. It thus aims to show perspectives for the foundation of medieval comparative literary studies, which must be achieved in collective work by scholars from all medieval literary fields.

(DE)CONSTRUCTION OF THE HISTORICAL NARRATION OF MODERN AMERICAN MEDIEVALISM: THE “INVENTION” OF THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS OF WESTEROS

Purpose. The purpose of the article is to deconstruct the constructed “historical” narrative in contexts of the social, political and economic features of the feudalism of the world of the Seven Kingdoms, imagined in the imitated narration of the American writer George Martin, presented in his novels that make up the “A Song of Ice and Fire” cycle.&#x0D; The novelty of the article lies in the study of the features of the social and economic history of the imagining medieval world of the Seven Kingdoms.&#x0D; Methodology. Methodologically, the article is based on the principles of interdisciplinary historiography proposed in intellectual and cultural histories, as well as in the study of medievalism as a synthetic form of mass ideas about the Middle Ages in modern consumer society.&#x0D; Results. It is assumed that George Martin proposed a model for the development of medieval society. The political relations and institutions described by G. Martin have parallels with those social forms of organization that arose and developed in the Medieval West. Therefore, in contexts of social history, the society described by George Martin can be defined as feudal. Critically analyzing George Martin’s texts as sources and deconstructing the narratives that form them, the author presumes that in the Seven Kingdoms the processes of feudal revolution led to the formation of a system of relations of vassalage and suzerainty. George Martin’s texts are a source on the history of the institutions of royalty, describing both the history of regional dynasties and the features of their subordination and integration into the state established as a result of the conquest of Westeros by Aegon I.&#x0D; Conclusions. The article shows that 1) George Martin became constructor of a parallel version of the social and political histories of the Middle Ages and feudalism, 2) George Martin proposed an image of the Middle Ages, genetically ascending in the history of Medieval Europe, 3) the analyzed texts can be identified as a source on the social, economic and political history of the Seven Kingdoms.

IMITATION AND SIMULATION OF THE MEDIEVAL NARRATIONS IN MODERN MEDIEVALISM: FEATURES OF THE STRUCTURE AND ITS (DE)CONSTRUCTION

Goal. The goal of the article is to analyze the constructed “medieval” narrative in the texts of George Martin and other American authors, who form synthetic versions of the political, social, cultural and religious history of the Seven Kingdoms.&#x0D; The novelty of the article lies in the study of the features of the historical narrative in the texts of George Martin in contexts of its imitation and simulation of the medieval narrative structure of the text in combination with elements and techniques of postmodern prose.&#x0D; Methodology. Methodologically, the article is based on the principles of interdisciplinary historiography proposed in intellectual and cultural history, as well as in the study of medievalism as a synthetic form of mass ideas about the Middle Ages in the modern consumer society.&#x0D; Results. It is assumed that George Martin and his co-authors proposed a successful model for imitation of the medieval historical narrative, simulating the style and narrative techniques of medieval historical writings. This article analyzes the problems of historical narrative in the contexts of imagination, invention, simulation, imitation, construction and deconstruction. The author analyzes the systemic themes that form the historical narrative of George Martin. The author believes that chronology, religiosity, the heterogeneous nature of the text, images of Otherness, the presence of a hero of history form the basis of the simulated medieval historical narrative. It is shown that George Martin’s texts formally imitate the style of medieval narration, but actually actualize the potential of simulation and imitation of modern postmodern culture.&#x0D; Conclusions. The article shows that 1) George Martin and his co-authors reproduce a conditional “medieval” text, which is actually a construct, 2) the analyzed text can be interpreted in the categories of construction, deconstruction, assimilation, simulation and imitation, 3) the analyzed narrative is a form of deconstruction of the past, constructing alternative and parallel images of the Middle Ages, 4) George Martin’s texts can be described as attempts to assimilate academic medievalism and mass cultural medievalism.

Automatic medieval charters structure detection : A Bi-LSTM linear segmentation approach

This paper presents a model aiming to automatically detect sections in medieval Latin charters. These legal sources are some of the most important sources for medieval studies as they reflect economic and social dynamics as well as legal and institutional writing practices. An automatic linear segmentation can greatly facilitate charter indexation and speed up the recovering of evidence to support historical hypothesis by the means of granular inquiries on these raw, rarely structured sources. Our model is based on a Bi-LSTM approach using a final CRF-layer and was trained using a large, annotated collection of medieval charters (4,700 documents) coming from Lombard monasteries: the CDLM corpus (11th-12th centuries). The evaluation shows a high performance in most sections on the test-set and on an external evaluation corpus consisting of the Montecassino abbey charters (10th-12th centuries). We describe the architecture of the model, the main problems related to the treatment of medieval Latin and formulaic discourse, and we discuss some implications of the results in terms of record-keeping practices in High Middle Ages.

Reception of John V. A. Fine Jr.’s The Bosnian Church: A New Interpretation: Interesting Sleeve of a Never Ending Historiographical Debate

Historiography about the medieval Bosnian Church is a vast and complicated labyrinth, with many different sections and subsections regarding its teachings, where authors are least likely to find a compromise, or some common ground. Very often, the ruling ideologies have intertwined their interests and influences in this field of medieval study, causing the emergence of very intense emotions in wider circles of population. One remarkable episode in history of research and study of the Bosnian Church is the occurrence of medievalist from United States of America, John V. A. Fine Jr., who arrived in Bosnia and Yugoslavia at the peak of the Cold War. Fine proved to be a very meticulous researcher, who produced a book under the title: The Bosnian Church: A New Interpretation. A Study of the Bosnian Church and its Place in State and Society from the 13th to the 15th Centuries which immediately caused disturbance and wide range of reactions. With his aligning with the historiographical stream which doesn’t see the Bosnian Church as a dualistic heretical institution, rather a monastic community independent from both of the big churches of the time, Fine gave additional fuel to this theory, a theory somewhat weakened in that period as its main protagonist Jaroslav Šidak had a change of mind. The main goal of this paper is to study the immediate reactions on Fine’s thesis, in forms of reviews of his book, as well its influence in the subsequent decades of the historiographical studies of the Bosnian Church.