Medieval History Commons^™

The Historical Persistence Of Working-Class Culture: How Laborers Created The Ethical Foundation Of Western Civilization, Kenneth Atkinson

Faculty Publications

This article highlights four historical events that shape our present: the world’s first industrial strike in ancient Egypt to protest workers’ health and safety; working-class efforts to improve labor conditions during the Roman Republic and Middle Ages through strikes and the creation of guilds; the social justice activism of the prophets of Western religions (all working-class folks!); and the creation of the selfie and the transition from a culture of character to our present obsession with celebrities and individualism that began during the Renaissance. Each case highlights unique features of working-class culture, working class reactions to societal changes, and the …

Penitential Systems In The Latin West And Byzantine East, Elijah C. Dodson

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the development and organization of penitential discipline in early medieval Christianity through a comparison of the penitential tradition associated with Theodore of Canterbury in the Latin West and the canons attributed to John the Faster in the Byzantine East. The study focuses on how these texts regulated sexual sin and what their structures reveal about the institutional role of the Church in different historical contexts. The analysis is based on a comparative reading of penitential texts, supported by patristic writings and modern scholarship. By examining how specific categories of sexual misconduct are classified and disciplined, this study …

Rex Gothorum, Patres Conscripti, Et Senes Barbarorum: Balancing Monarchical And Aristocratic Power In The Ostrogothic Kingdom, Max Deloach

Honors Theses

The fourth and fifth-century migrations of “barbarian” peoples from beyond the Roman frontier to the heart of the Empire exacerbated an already unparalleled crisis of self in Roman society. With the settlement of these “barbarians” in the West, the facade of Roman dominion over its own territory and institutions had crumbled. In Italy, the Roman Senate, along with the Catholic Church and the Eastern Roman Emperor, became essential to the peninsula’s “barbarian” kings. At the same time, post-Roman monarchs were obliged to patronize their own nobility—the elite military class. This work evaluates the trilateral negotiation of power between post-Roman monarchs, …

Parallel Concepts Found In The Thousand And One Nights And Sufi Hagiography, Walaa Kamal Emam Kamel

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that The Thousand and One Nights functions as more than mere populist entertainment; rather, it constitutes a literary corpus imbued with Sufi mystical epistemologies that reflect the spiritual quests and Sufi concepts evident in hagiographical traditions. Through discourse and intertextual analysis of two Nights stories, “The City of Brass” and “The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad,” alongside Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār’s Tadhkirat al-awliyāʾ, this study demonstrates how shared rhetorical strategies—specifically David Pinault’s Leitwörter analysis and L.A. Paul’s Transformative Experience concept—reveal a narrative and rhetorical emphasis on the metamorphosis of the self from worldly attachment toward …

Infinite Line, Infinite Knowledge: The 'Spera' And Organized Chaos In Lambert's Encyclopedia, The 'Liber Floridus', Ava Romano

Theses and Dissertations

The Liber Floridus is a medieval encyclopedia renowned for its program of circular diagrams, or sperae. Inside this manuscript of 190 chapters, these diagrams frame and embody written knowledge, revealing a connection between encyclopedism and life in the Benedictine monastery by creating a coherent visual organization of chapters.

Problems And Possibilities Of Namelessness In Late Antiquity And The Early Middle Ages, Jamie Wood, Hope Williard, Máirín Maccarron, Julia Hillner, James R. Burns

Medieval People

No abstract provided.

A Detestable Nation Of Orcs: Echoes Of Eurasian Nomads In Early Fantasy And The Literary Ecosystem Behind Them, Axel Hansen

Journal of Tolkien Research

It is well known that Orcs and Easterlings in J.R.R. Tolkien's works share features with Eurasian nomadic peoples such as Huns and Mongols. The same is true for Tolkien's literary predecessor William Morris' Dusky Men in The Roots of the Mountains. This article will provide an examination of these features from a historical viewpoint, on how interactions with and subsequent records about various steppe nomads in European history can be tied to villains in early modern Fantasy literature. It will then present a short review of how a network of historic accounts, academic theories and pop cultural works – …

The Perry-Campbell Collection: An Analysis Of Byzantine And Roman Coins, Samuel A. Skokan

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

The Anthropology Collections of the Nebraska State Museum are home of the Gladys G. Perry Campbell and Iain Colin Gordon Campbell (I. C. G. Campbell) coin collection, which consists of an estimated 4,000 coins that date between the 1^st century BC to the 15th century AD. The collection consists of bronze coins (91%+) and billon (alloy) coins that represent low-denomination currency of the Roman and Byzantine Empires. There are approximately 3,200 Byzantine and 750 Roman coins. This study focused solely on the Byzantine coins of the Collection, to document their chronological range and research value. The collection can support …

The Grand Narratives: The Rise And Fall Of Universal Philosophical Systems, Gavin S. Litchford

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis reviews the development of narrative and systematic methods of argumentative legitimation in the Western tradition of philosophy from its conception until the present day. Utilizing both primary sources from central figures in key movements within this development process and supplementary secondary sources, this analysis notes which systems were used as appeals to higher authority and the trends in the adoption and transformation of new models. It is demonstrated that the Enlightenment era punctuated a progression begun in the premodern era from simple, cultural narratives to individualized, subjective, and self-perpetuating Grand Narrative systems, and that it generated the preconditions …

The Ascent Of The Balthi: The Emergence Of Visigothic Kingship In Late Antiquity, William Deloach

Tenor of Our Times

The first four centuries of the First Millennium AD witnessed the rapid development of political infrastructure among the Gothic people. Emerging from Scandinavia, Gothic group consolidated into more nuanced political confederations by the third century. Challenges to these power structures, both internal and external, became the catalyst for further consolidation. The adaptations of the third and fourth centuries resulted in the emergence of a more easily recognizable political unit: the Visigoths under a Balthi monarchy. These challenges, and forthcoming adaptations, places the Goths within the tradition of the Late Antique world. Late Antiquity, therefore, should not only be thought to …

“Some Small Kiss From Your Sweet Lips”: Navigating Hierarchy In Eastern Roman Letters, Nicholas Elijah Raffington

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The presence of homoeroticism in the letters of elite Byzantine men was both the product of long-term literary developments and was employed for many purposes. As a medieval society which saw a unique level of social mobility, an individual’s connections and how they managed and negotiated them within the competitive elite milieu was of utmost importance to their relevance. Letters naturally emerge as a suitable literary genre to affirm and recognize relationships, to ask for favors, or introduce a new member to the group. As the evidence suggests, homoeroticism was employed within the male-centered world of business and politics as …

The Mosaic Programs Of The Basilica Of San Vitale And The Great Palace Of Constantinople: A Unique Reinvention Of Roman Pasts, Justine Spencer

University Honors Theses

The Church of San Vitale and the Great Palace of Constantinople offer remarkable examples of artistic productions in early Byzantine mosaics. Bridging from the same Roman past they reinvented a classical medium with their unique interpretations of earlier traditions. They exemplify the diversity of Byzantine artistic productions that could coexist within the same medium and era. The mosaics of the Great Palace were part of a secular governmental public space and found deep in the heart of the Eastern Roman Empire. The mosaics of the Church of San Vitale were made for the domain of the newly reconsecrated Orthodox church …

Ecumenical Dialogue Between Reformers And Orthodox Under The Ottomans (15-16th Century), Svetoslav Svetoszarov Ribolov

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Despite the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453, the Orthodox Church continued to make contacts with the West. In the 15^th and 16^th centuries, Patriarchs Joasaph II and Jeremias II had ecumenical contacts and theological dialogues with two generations of Reformers. Martin Luther and Melanchthon, and later Martin Crusius, Jakob Andrеä, and their associates in Wittenberg took up the initiative for a serious ecumenical dialogue with Constantinople. Despite a sincere desire on both sides, lack of a common methodological framework in the talks did not allow for significant results. In the end, both sides did not …

Discovering Dune: Essays On Frank Herbert’S Epic Saga., Edited By Dominic J. Nardi And N. Trevor Brierly, G. Connor Salter

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

G. Connor Salter reviews Discovering Dune: Essays on Frank Herbert’s Epic Saga, edited by Dominic J. Nardi and N. Trevor Brierly, considering its new contributions to studies of Frank Herbert's work. Essays included fit into four categories (Politics and Power, History and Religion, Biology and Ecology, and Philosophy, Choice and Ethics) and range from Herbert's use of ecology in Dune to how game theory may help explain certain characters' apparent ability to see the future. Discovering Dune also includes an appendix which contains the only up-to-date bibliography of Herbert's work (primary and secondary sources).

Elite Women In The Mediterranean 31 Bc – 1380 Ad: An Investigation Into Female Agency, Identity, And Patriarchy Across Classical And Christian Paradigms, Julia Maurer

Capstone Showcase

This paper explores the responses of elite women to patriarchal regimes across the Classical Pagan and Medieval Christian paradigms in the Mediterranean from 31 BC to 1380 AD. While the current historiography acknowledges the radical differences between the two worldviews fundamental to the core values of Western Civilization, an investigation of three women that can be taken to be emblematic examples of the periods in which they lived reveals a striking continuity in the nuanced social roles available to women. This continuity contradicts expectations of significant changes reflective of this revolutionary paradigm shift.

I utilize Julia Augusti, Vibia Perpetua, and …

Mes 160: Classical Islamic Literature & Civilization, Kirsten Beck

Open Educational Resources

This open resource includes a syllabus, class schedule, grading rubrics, and guidelines/examples for digital poetry annotation.

The course website can be found here: http://mes160.social.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu/

In this course, we will take a journey through history, literature, and ideas, traveling through Islamic civilization from 600-1250 CE. We will learn about and contemplate the major events and concerns of Islamic civilization, from the dawn of Islam through the expansions, transformations, and fragmentations of Islamic empires, up until the end of the 13th century. Works of Islamic literature from a variety of genres will fuel our journey. Along the way, we will learn how …

Thinking Queerly: Medievalism, Wizardry, And Neurodiversity In Young Adult Texts, Jes Battis

Premodern Transgressive Literatures

Why do we love wizards? Where do these magical figures come from? Thinking Queerly traces the wizard from medieval Arthurian literature to contemporary YA adaptations. By exploring the link between Merlin and Harry Potter, or Morgan la Fey and Sabrina, readers will see how the wizard offers spaces of hope and transformation for young readers. In particular, this book examines how wizards think differently, and how this difference can resonate with both LGBTQ and neurodivergent readers, who’ve been told they don’t fit in.

Divine Or Demonic? A Social Approach To Epilepsy From Greco-Roman Antiquity To The Early Middle Ages, James Nicholas Sumrall

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to evaluate how epilepsy was defined, perceived and understood in ancient Greece and Rome, as well as how these ideas were adapted and changed during the early centuries of Christianity. To this end, the thesis is divided into six parts. The Introduction briefly explains epilepsy and discusses how the social approach method can be applied to the disease. Chapter I introduces the Hippocratic understanding of epilepsy and outlines the Greco-Roman religious concepts of pollution and purification, which frequently informed ancient perceptions of epilepsy. The first chapter also analyzes the general relationship between disability, disease and divine selection …

The Pursuit Of Salvation. Community, Space, And Discipline In Early Medieval Monasticism, Albrecht Diem

History - All Scholarship

This book is published with open access: https://www.brepolsonline.net/action/showBook?doi=10.1484/M.DM-EB.5.120300 A history of the monastic pursuit of eternal salvation in the early medieval West, revolving around a seventh-century monastic rule for nuns, the Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines ("Someone’s Rule for Virgins") The seventh-century Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines (Someone’s Rule for Virgins), which was most likely written by Jonas of Bobbio, the hagiographer of the Irish monk Columbanus, forms an ideal point of departure for writing a new history of the emergence of Western monasticism understood as a history of the individual and collective attempt to pursue eternal salvation. The book provides a …

Sexual And Erotic Transgression Through Aesthetic History: A Study Of Algernon Charles Swinburne, Ronny F. Ford

Beyond the Margins: A Journal of Graduate Literary Scholarship

This article examines the relationship between Algernon Charles Swinburne’s poetic writing and history, especially in regards to how he explores sexual transgressions. The article begins with how aestheticism works in tangent with history to further these transgressions within a historical context and especially within the realm of Victorian Christianity. Next, Swinburne’s medieval aesthetics in “The Leper” will be analyzed in regards specifically necrophilia and the taking care of a leper, and how the writing of this poem was both a condemnation of Christianity and an accidental upholding of it. The violent homoeroticism and monstrous femininity of “Anactoria” are also looked …

The Aesthetics Of Storytelling And Literary Criticism As Mythological Ritual: The Myth Of The Human Tragic Hero, Intertextual Comparisons Between The Heroes And Monsters Of Beowulf And The Anglo-Saxon Exodus, Daniel Stoll

Undergraduate Honors Theses

For thousands of years, people have been hearing, reading, and interpreting stories and myths in light of their own experience. To read a work by a different author living in a different era and setting, people tend to imagine works of literature to be something they are not. To avoid this fateful tendency, I hope to elucidate what it means to read a work of literature and interpret it: love it to the point of wanting to foremost discuss its excellence of being a piece of art. Rather than this being a defense, I would rather call it a musing, …

Between The Judean Desert And Gaza: Asceticism And The Monastic Communities Of Palestine In The Sixth Century, Austin Mccray

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The dissertation focuses on the religious culture of Christian monasticism in sixth-century Palestine. Rather than see the monastic communities of the Judean Desert, just to the east of Jerusalem, and those around Gaza as two independent monastic regions, as much scholarship has done, the dissertation focuses on the common threads that can be seen in the monastic teachings and idealized ascetic practices in the literature of the area. This dissertation reveals ways to redefine the boundaries between the monastic communities of Palestine during the sixth century as well as emphasizes the continuities between the monks of the Judean Desert and …

The Rise And Fall Of South Carolina College, Robert D. Cathcart Iii

Senior Theses

Through a thorough examination of the underpinnings of Classical education, as well as the history of South Carolina College, it is clear that the classical system is superior to the later University system imposed upon the College during the Reconstruction period. Classical education began in the Greek philosophic schools, such as the Academy and the Lyceum, and was intended to enrich the soul of its students, as well as to equip them for leadership in the future. But the most important aspect of this education was its universality. It is highly ironic that the original concept of the University …

Differentiating Averroes’ Accounts Of The Metaphysics Of Human Epistemology In His Middle And Long Commentaries On Aristotle’S De Anima, Caleb H A Brown

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

Averroes (an Islamic Andalusian philosopher in the 12^th century) discusses the metaphysics of human epistemology extensively, and his socio-religious context sheds light on this discussion. Several of his works, most prominently his three commentaries on Aristotle’s De Anima, attempt to explain how finite, particular minds interact with universal, eternal intelligibles. Current scholarship focuses on the two longer commentaries, the Middle Commentary and the Long Commentary, but there is no consensus regarding which of these presents Averroes’ final articulation of the metaphysics of human epistemology. Those who maintain that Averroes wrote the Middle Commentary last tend to minimize …

Literary Theories Of Circumcision, A. W. Strouse

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Literary Theories of Circumcision” investigates a school of thought in which the prepuce, as a conceptual metaphor, organizes literary experience. In every period of English literature, major authors have employed the penis’s hood as a figure for thinking about reading and writing. These authors belong to a tradition that defines textuality as a foreskin and interpretation as circumcision. In “Literary Theories of Circumcision,” I investigate the origins of this literary-theoretical formulation in the writings of Saint Paul, and then I trace this formulation’s formal applications among medieval, early modern, and modernist writers. My study lays the groundwork for an ambitious …

Research And Study Of Fashion And Costume History Spanning From Ancient Egypt To Modern Day, Kaitlyn E. Dennis Miss

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Through a generous donation to Morehead State University, research has been conducted on thousands of slides containing images of artwork and artifacts of historical significance. These images span from Egyptian hieroglyphs to the inaugural dress of every first lady of the United States. The slides are in the process of being recorded and catalogued for future use by students in hopes of furthering academic comprehension and awareness of the influence of fashion and costume history through the ages. Special thanks to the family of Gretel Geist Rutledge, faculty mentor Denise Watkins, as well as the Department of Music, Theatre, and …

Feral And Isolated Children From Herodotus To Akbar To Hesse: Heroes, Thinkers, And Friends Of Wolves, Karl Steel

Publications and Research

"In 1304, a small child of Hesse was taken by wolves, and lived with them for a while, eating well, learning to run on all fours, perhaps joining them in their raids on sheep and humans, until he was taken by hunters and forced to live, unhappily, in human society, compelled to learn to walk upright, and exhibited as a spectacle. This account, almost certainly legendary, belongs to a small set of similar stories of feral children from roughly the same time, which, unlike so many modern accounts of wild children, are not about isolation, deprivation, or a catastrophic separation …

The Vulgate Commentary On Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 1, Frank T. Coulson

TEAMS Secular Commentary Series

Composed around 1250 by an unknown author in the region of Orléans, the Vulgate Commentary on Ovid's Metamorphoses is the most widely disseminated and reproduced medieval work on Ovid's epic compendium of classical mythology and materialist philosophy. This commentary both preserves the rich store of twelfth-century glossing on the Metamorphoses and incorporates new material of literary interest, while the marginal glosses in many respects reflect the scholar interests of an early thirteenth-century schoolmaster. The Vulgate Commentary is always transmitted as a series of interlinear and marginal glosses surrounding the text manuscript, whereas other earlier commentaries were independent of a full …

The Struggle Between The Center And The Periphery: Justinian's Provincial Reforms Of The A.D. 530s, Mark-Anthony Karantabias

Theses and Dissertations--History

This dissertation analyzes the struggle between the imperial court and the periphery in the context of Justinian’s reforms in the early A.D. 530s. The reforms targeting select Roman provinces sought to reduce the size of the imperial bureaucracy while simultaneously attempting to maintain imperial vertical authority. The reforms epitomize the imperial court’s struggle to rein in the imperial bureaucracy in the provinces of the Roman Empire. The analysis is framed within the cultural, social, political and economic evolution occurring in Late Antiquity. It shall be proposed that the reforms are one example of the imperial court’s attempt to limit the …

Arthur: Where Did He Go?, Siddarth Palaniappan

A with Honors Projects

This essay discusses the historical and mythological origins of King Arthur. Concludes that, while there is enough evidence to identify individuals in history that correlate with the legend of Arthur, a preference toward romanticized Aurthurian tales was created through repeated use in both Christian institutions and British politics to promote financial and political agendas.