Medieval Studies Commons^™

The Good Corporation? Google's Medievalism And Why It Matters, Richard Utz

Richard Utz

This essay investigates Google's nostalgic romanticism as a form of medievalism and demonstrates how one of Google's products, the n-gram viewer, has changed what we know about the history of the term and mindset of "medievalism."

The Nose Knows: Encountering The Canine In Bisclavret.”, Alison (Ganze) Langdon

Alison (Ganze) Langdon

No abstract provided.

Developing A Premodern Manuscript Application Profile Using Dublin Core, Sheila A. Bair, Susan M.B. Steuer

University Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

Librarians and catalogers, particularly at small repositories, often do not have the training or access to experts to fully describe a medieval manuscript for cataloging, much less digital access. But some descriptions must be available to attract researchers to work with the materials, which are often considered institutional treasures. Approaching manuscripts can be daunting for metadata specialists and catalogers. The Dublin Core Premodern Manuscripts Application Profile (PMAP), currently under development, is designed to be an educational and simple tool for medievalists with little knowledge of metadata and librarians with little knowledge of manuscript studies to facilitate discovery of manuscripts in …

There Is No Word For Work In The Dragon Tongue, Kevin Moberly, Brent Moberly

English Faculty Publications

The past decade or so has witnessed a relatively steady stream of scholarly interest in the mundane medieval—in labor, local economies, and their influence upon wider cultural production.¹ Despite this interest (and perhaps as a reaction to it), popular medievalism has continued to emphasize versions of the medieval that are decidedly more heroic—productions that are simultaneously (and paradoxically) more “realistic” and more “fantastic.” Labor plays, at best, a supporting role in these fantasies: while not absent, it rarely, if ever, has the same productive presence as it does in recent scholarly treatments of medieval economies. Inasmuch as popular medievalism …

Cornelius Aurelius: The Upcycling Humanist - A Study Of The Libellus De Patientia, Samantha James

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Cornelius Aurelius’ Libellus de Patientia (MS Leiden, UB, Vulcanius 66 f.45r-f.57v. [1524]), in terms of the author’s reception of the Manipulus florum, reveals much about the development of Northern Humanism, in the context of late medieval scholasticism and the Reformation. By thoroughly examining Libellus de Patientia, this paper will discuss Aurelius’ use of numerous quotations derived from the Manipulus florum as evidence of how this text should be situated in terms of intellectual continuity vs. change during this turbulent period with regards to the intellectual context of medieval scholasticism and renaissance humanism.

Obscurity In Medieval Texts, Lucie Doležalová, Jeff Rider, Alessandro Zironi

Jeff Rider

Modern readers of medieval texts often find them obscure. Some of this obscurity is accidental and inevitable due to the historical and cultural distance that separates modern readers from medieval authors, but medieval readers and authors also appear to have simply had a higher tolerance for textual obscurity than we do and even to have viewed obscurity as desirable and a virtue. They did not believe that obscurity could ever be eradicated and were not scared of the indescribable, indivisible, and ungraspable; they accepted reality as complex and ultimately unintelligible. Obscurity was not simply a riddle to be solved. It …

Lai Du Conseil, Brinduşa Grigoriu, Catharina Peersman, Jeff Rider

Jeff Rider

This is an edition of the thirteenth-century, northern French Lai du conseil by Brinduşa Elena Grigoriu, Catharina Peersman and Jeff Rider, with an Introduction and notes by Brinduşa Elena Grigoriu and Jeff Rider. The Lai du Conseil is a remarkable artistic achievement that offers us a realistic, sophisticated, sensitive and touching portrait of the most important moment in the imagined relationship of its two principal characters, the moment when they realize and confess their love for one another. The success of the poem, indeed, springs first and foremost from its author’s decision to focus on this emotionally charged, universally familiar …

Vice, Tyranny, Violence, And The Usurpation Of Flanders (1071) In Flemish Historiography From 1093 To 1294, Jeff Rider

Jeff Rider

No abstract provided.

The Enigmatic Style In Twelfth-Century French Literature, Jeff Rider

Jeff Rider

No abstract provided.

Corpus Christi Plays At York: A Context For Religious Drama, Clifford Davidson

Clifford Davidson

For roughly two centuries, the streets of the city of York were home to the annual performance of a cycle of mystery plays held in conjunction with the festival of Corpus Christi. Remarkable as the resilience of such an event is, no scholar has yet to survey fully the plays' urban setting, especially with a view to understanding how and why they might have continued to appeal to citizens and spectators. One theory has been that the City of York made the guilds perform the plays. Yet, as Davidson argues, this is not a satisfactory solution, despite the admittedly coercive …

Les Métamorphoses Historiographiques Chez Jean Molinet, Jeff Rider

Jeff Rider

No abstract provided.

The Cults Of Sainte Foy And The Cultural Work Of Saints, Kathleen Ashley

Kathleen M. Ashley

Bringing together artifacts, texts and practices within an interpretive framework, Kathleen Ashley here presents a comparative study of the cults of the medieval Sainte Foy at a number of sites where she was especially venerated. The book traces the history of the cult from the early Middle Ages into the present day.

Textual Obscurity In The Middle Ages, Lucie Doležalová, Jeff Rider, Alessandro Zironi

Jeff Rider

No abstract provided.

Hugh Of St Victor (1096–1141) And Anglo-French Cartography, Daniel Terkla

Daniel Terkla

Recent research in England and France on twelfth- and thirteenth-century cartography posits Hugh of St Victor as an important source for ideas incorporated in maps of the period. P. D. A. Harvey and Patrick Gautier Dalché have noted Hugh’s influence, and Peter Barber has described a ‘third-stream’ of map making flowing from Hugh’s concepts of mapping through the Munich Isidore map (c.1130) and into a group of important Anglo-French mappaemundi. This article shows how Hugh’s theography—his theological cartography—reached England from the Royal Abbey and School of St Victor in Paris. To do this I outline Hugh’s image-based teaching and major …

“A Singapore Ramayana: Academic Freedom And The Liberal Arts Curriculum”, Rebecca Gould

Rebecca Gould

No abstract provided.

The Medieval Dark Horse: Challenge And Reward In The Middle English Lyric, Andrew S. Marvin

English Faculty Publications

“The Medieval Dark Horse: Challenge and Reward in the Middle English Lyric” explores the genre’s history and literary merits while addressing the question of why this valuable and extensive body of literature has largely gone untapped by scholars.

The introductory sections detail the historical and modern contexts of the lyric, including the state of scholarship, manuscripts, editions, dating issues, purpose, audience, types of lyrics, and themes. This background informs a discussion of the genre’s difficulties and offers solutions with which to counter them. Close readings of eight poems are included to exemplify the lyric’s thematic range, stylistic diversity, and literary …

Zoomorphic Penannular Brooches In 6th And 7th Century Ireland, Esther G. Ward

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

In this thesis the author examines the evolution, manufacture, and societal significance of zoomorphic penannular brooches, a type of metal dress fastener used in early medieval Ireland that is often decorated. The brooches examined are dated to the 6^th and 7^th centuries, during which the Irish underwent a process of religious conversion from Celtic paganism to Christianity, and social rank was paramount. It is in this social context that the brooches are examined. Despite the significance of this time of social change, brooches from this period tend to be overlooked by scholarship in favor of the more ornate …

"His Head Rolled Forth Onto The Floor:" Women, The Abject, And The Male Gaze In Old English Poetry, Jaime Michelle Myers

Masters Theses

Old English poetry features several female characters who challenge androcentric authority by violently killing men. I argue in this thesis that three of these women—Modthryth, Grendel’s mother, and Judith—are linked together by their rejection or reversal of the male gaze. In their forceful refusal to be visually objectified, each character is portrayed as abject—outside of normal and outcast from community. They cause disorder, illustrate the fragility of androcentric control, and force a confrontation with death. In so doing, they create ambiguity and, at times, reverse the subject/object and masculine/feminine gender binaries.

"Sing To The Lord A New Song": Memory, Music, Epistemology, And The Emergence Of Gregorian Chant As Corporate Knowledge, Jordan Timothy Ray Baker

Masters Theses

Following the Christianization of the crumbling Roman Empire, a wide array of disparate Christian traditions arose. A confusion of liturgical rites and musical styles expressed the diversity of this nascent Christendom; however, it also exemplified a sometimes threatening disunity. Into this frame, the Carolingian Empire made a decisive choice. Charlemagne, with a desire to consolidate power, forged stronger bonds withRome by transporting the liturgy ofRome to the Frankish North. The outcome of this transmission was the birth of a composite form of music exhibiting the liturgical properties ofRome but also shaped by the musical sensibilities of the Franks—Gregorian chant.

This …

Myth Materialized: Thirteenth Century Additions To The West Façade Of San Marco And Their Value In Venetian History Making, Michelle Reynolds

Michelle Reynolds

The focus of this paper is on the basilica of San Marco in Venice and its relationship to the political and social culture in which it was erected. Looking directly at the set of four horses placed high above the five main entrances and the mosaics of the transfer of Saint Mark’s relics to Venice which originally decorated these portals in the thirteenth century, this paper looks to discover connections between these rather unique designs and stylistic choices and the unique sense of identity the Venetians had long perpetuated. The two different groups of works illuminate deliberate stylistic connections to …