Medieval History Commons^™

The Ethics Of Mourning: The Role Of Material Culture And Public Politics In The 'Book Of The Duchess' And The 'Pearl' Poem, Tarren Andrews

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This project is a socio-historic analysis of two late 14^th century dream visions: Chaucer’s Book of the Duchess and the Pearl poem. Utilizing Robert Pogue Harrison’s concept of objectifying grief through ritualized communal mourning, this thesis examines the ways in which mourning literature functioned as consolatory device, and a form of public performance for the powerful patrons who commissioned the pieces. By engaging with pre-existing communities of grief, material culture, and courtly discourse these poems perform the work of mourning while simultaneously enacting modes of public performativity that stress the ethics of grieving, and suggest that, for royal patrons, …

“…Tamquam Civili Causa” – The Reception Of Vegetius And Frontinus In Geremia Da Montagnone’S Compendium Moralium Notabilium, Aaron J. Bolarinho

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis explores the transmission of the Epitome Rei Militaris of Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus and the Strategemata of Sextus Iulius Frontinus in the Compendium Moralium Notabilium. Completed by Paduan judge Geremiah of Montagnone in around 1310, the Compendium Moralium Notabilium is a large medieval florilegium contemporary with Thomas of Ireland’s Manipulus Florem. The Compendium is distinct from typical medieval florilegium due to its lay author, its internal organisation, and its inclusion of many classical Roman and Greek authors as well as common Italian proverbs and secular liturature. The Compendium also includes over 199 distinct selections from the military manuals …

Reform In 1215: Magna Carta And The Fourth Lateran Council, Kenneth Pennington

Scholarly Articles

By 1215 King John had lost almost all of his northern continental possessions. The core of the Angevin empire, Normandy, was lost. Anglo-French barons who still held lands in Normandy owed their primary allegiance to King Phillip Augustus, not to King John. The barons and churchmen who remained under his sovereignty chaffed under his rule. It is clear from the document that the barons forced John to sign when they met with John on Runnymede in 15 July 2015, they intended to impose reform on the king. We might sum up their objectives as being the administration of justice and …

Robot Saints, Christopher B. Swift

Publications and Research

In the Middle Ages, articulating religious figures like wooden Deposition crucifixes and ambulatory saints were tools for devotion, techno-mythological objects that distilled the wonders of engineering and holiness. Robots are gestures toward immortality, created in the face of the undeniable fact and experience of the ongoing decay of our fleshy bodies. Both like and unlike human beings, robots and androids occupy a nebulous perceptual realm between life and death, animation and inanimation. Masahiro Mori called this in-between space the “uncanny valley.” In this essay I argue that unlike a modern person apprehending an android (the uncanny human-like object that resides …

Monstrous Muslims? Depicting Muslims In French Illuminated Manuscripts From 1200-1420, Benjamin Anthony Bertrand

Honors Theses and Capstones

This paper examines depictions of Muslims in illuminated manuscripts produced in France between 1200-1420 that feature images of Christian-Muslim interactions. The study specifically looks at three popular manuscripts from the time: the Histoire d'Outremer, the Grandes Chroniques de France, and the Roman d'Alexandre en Prose. By examining the depictions of Saracens in these three manuscripts I attempt to gain an understanding of the artists' perceptions of Muslims. I argue that through analyzing the topoi employed by these artists we can understand how they and their audiences viewed Muslims. These images demonstrate that these artists understood Saracens to …

The Liturgical Dramas For Holy Week At Barking Abbey, Anne Bagnall Yardley, Jesse D. Mann

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

The Queer And The Bodily: Explorations Of Power In Women's Visionary Writing In The Book Of Margery Kempe 2014, Jayne Emerson Stacconi

Master's Theses

The provocative Book of Margery Kempe is a seminal text in the history of female authorship. Claiming to be the first written autobiography, The Book serves as a literary representation of womanhood during the late fourteenth to the fifteenth centuries when Margery was writing, and also speaks to circulating medieval discourses of religion, pilgrimage, and sexuality. Participating in medieval women’s visionary writing as a genre, Margery’s visionary power is a tool by which she is able to emancipate herself from the limiting roles of wife and mother. Additionally, by working within the conventions of visionary writing, Margery is able to …

Bound By Words: Oath-Taking And Oath-Breaking In Medieval Lceland And Anglo-Saxon England, Gregory L. Laing

Dissertations

The legal and literary texts of early medieval England and Iceland share a common emphasis on truth and demonstrate its importance through the sheer volume of textual references. One of the most common applications of truth-seeking in these sources occurs in the swearing of oaths. Instances of oath-taking and oath-breaking, therefore, are critical textual loci wherein the language of swearing unites an individual’s socially constructed reputation and his personal guarantees under the careful supervision of the community. Traditionally, scholars looking at truth and attestation from the later medieval period tend to view early cases of swearing as procedural, artless, or …

Medieval Women In Film: An Annotated Handlist And Reference Guide, With Essays On Teaching The Sorceress, Virginia Blanton, Martha M. Johnson-Olin, Charlene Miller Avrich

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Review Of Reviving The Eternal City: Rome And The Papal Court, 1420-1447 By Elizabeth Mccahill, Brian Maxson

ETSU Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Student-Centered, Interactive Teaching Of The Anglo-Saxon Cult Of The Cross, Christopher R. Fee

English Faculty Publications

Although most Anglo-Saxonists deal with Old English texts and contexts as a matter of course in our research agendas, many of us teach relatively few specialized courses focused on our areas of expertise to highly-trained students; thus, many Old English texts and objects which are commonplace in our research lives can seem arcane and esoteric to a great many of our students. This article proposes to confront this gap, to suggest some ways of teaching a few potentially obscure texts and artifacts to undergrads, to offer some guidance about uses of technology in this endeavor, and to help fellow teachers …

John Of Salisbury's Metalogicon And The Equality Of Liberal Arts Education, Abigail E. Dehart

Grand Valley Journal of History

When examining the historical development of society, perhaps the most determining factor is education. During the development of Western education, there is, conceivably, no time more formative to modern views of education than the Middle Ages, for out of it emerged the first universities, and with that, what has contributed largely to today’s concept of general education programs. Of the Middle Ages, the twelfth century was particularly formative to the shaping of education, and has even been called the birthplace of Western pedagogy. One of the best twelfth-century sources we have regarding this time in history is John of Salisbury’s …

With One's Own Arms: Condottieri, Machiavelli, And The Rise Of The Florentine Militia, Michael N. Boncardo

Student Publications

This paper examines the use of mercenary warfare on the Italian peninsula during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. It later focuses on the unique political and economic environment in Florence that led to Niccolo Machiavelli orchestrating the creation of the Florentine militia.

Joan Of Arc And The Franco-Burgundian Reconciliation, Ryan Andrew Schaff

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In the year 1429 France was a torn kingdom with Burgundy, a vassal and valuable ally to France, assisting the English in the war that historians would later dub the Hundred Years War. The war had been fought since the early-mid fourteenth century and France had seen little success in those years save for a brief period towards the end of the fourteenth century. France’s heir, who hid in southern France, was disinherited as a result of the Treaty of Troyes in 1420 which passed the throne to the English. Without Burgundy, France faced a two-front war with Burgundy in …

Welsh Manipulations Of The Matter Of Britain, Timothy J. Nelson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

"Welsh Manipulations of the Matter of Britain" examines the textual relationships between Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae and the Welsh Brut y Brenhinedd in the Cotton Cleopatra manuscript. This thesis initially provides an overview of the existing scholarship surrounding the Welsh translations of Geoffrey's Historia with a specific focus on the Cotton Cleopatra Brut. The textual examination of the two histories begins with an extended commentary on the general textual variations between the two texts before concentrating on the specific changes that were made in the Cotton Cleopatra to reflect the adapter's pro-Welsh nationalistic and political biases. The general …

Jewel Of Womanhood: A Feminist Reinterpretation Of Queen Katherine Howard, Holly K. Kizewski

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In 1540, King Henry VIII married his fifth wife, Katherine Howard. Less than two years later, the young queen was executed on charges of adultery. Katherine Howard has been much maligned by history, often depicted as foolish, vain, and outrageously promiscuous. Her few defenders often attempt to exonerate Katherine by claiming that she was chaste, innocent of the adultery charges brought against her, or a victim of rape. Both detractors and defenders usually reduce Katherine to her sexuality.

However, the surviving primary sources about Katherine reveal a more complex individual. In fact, examination of conduct books for young women of …

The Orkney Islands In The Viking Age, Moira Speirs Ms

Oglethorpe Journal of Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

Long May She Reign: Portrayals And Interpretations Of Mary, Queen Of Scots, In Popular Media, Scott Culpepper

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

No abstract provided.

Divine Omnipotence In Descartes' Philosophy, Alfredo Rodriguez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present thesis explores various aspects of Rene Descartes' doctrine of divine omnipotence within the context of his overall philosophy and with reference to his medieval heritage. This thesis shows that, contrary to his multiple and explicit statements that God's power cannot be limited in any way, Descartes took a more nuanced position on divine omnipotence that incorporated aspects of the widely accepted medieval position that God's goodness is a constraint on his power. Furthermore, Descartes used the medieval concept of universals as he experimented with the use of modes to explain how a thing's actual existence is possible by …

"Veiled With A Special Veil": Rabi'a Of Basra And The Ascetic Reconfiguration Of Identity, Olga Solovieva

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.