Medieval Studies Commons^™

A Look At The Astrolabe, Emily Storrar

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors program.

Otto Gründler: In Memoriam (1928-2004), Richard Utz

Medieval Institute Affiliated Faculty & Staff Publications

Eulogy on Director of the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University.

Medieval Nominalism And The Literary Questions: Selected Studies, Richard Utz, Terry Barakat

Medieval Institute Affiliated Faculty & Staff Publications

Like few other topics in the academic study of medieval literature, the search for the possible parallels between philosophical and literary texts reveals the not always peaceful coexistence among the three basic approaches to the study of medieval literature and culture: While hard-core medieval philologists would not accept any claims for a “literary nominalism” unless direct textual dependence can be demonstrated, scholars in medieval studies and the comparative study of medieval literature have shown themselves more accepting of investigations which diagnose a certain nominalistic Zeitgeist, mentality, or milieu especially in late medieval culture; and scholars preferring presentist/postmodern approaches have wholeheartedly …

Gods, Heroes, & Kings: The Battle For Mythic Britain, Christopher R. Fee, David A. Leeming

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

The islands of Britain have been a crossroads of gods, heroes, and kings-those of flesh as well as those of myth-for thousands of years. Successive waves of invasion brought distinctive legends, rites, and beliefs. The ancient Celts displaced earlier indigenous peoples, only to find themselves displaced in turn by the Romans, who then abandoned the islands to Germanic tribes, a people themselves nearly overcome in time by an influx of Scandinavians. With each wave of invaders came a battle for the mythic mind of the Isles as the newcomer's belief system met with the existing systems of gods, legends, and …

Chaucer And The Discourse Of German Philology: An Addendum, Richard Utz

Medieval Institute Affiliated Faculty & Staff Publications

Contains several additions to the “Annotated Bibliography” of German and Austrian Chaucer criticism between 1793 and 1948 published in Chaucer and the Discourse of German Philology (Turnhout: Brepols, 2002)

Church Island : A Description, Frank Prendergast, Michael Ryan, Kevin Mooney, Barry Masterson

Books/Book Chapters

None

History As Literature, Graeme Dunphy

TEAMS Medieval German Texts in Bilingual Editions

This volume presents excerpts and translations of three thirteenth-century South German verse chronicles: Rudolf von Ems's Weltchronik, the anonymous Christherre-Chronik, and the Weltchronik of Jans Enikel. These three works are close in language, in date, and in conception, yet they also differ significantly, representing the perspectives of three distinct sections of medieval society: courtly, monastic, and urban. The excerpts have been chosen from the beginning of Rudolf's chronicle, the middle of the Christherre-Chronik and the end of Enikel, so that taken together they give something of an impression of the chroniclers' arrangement of material in a continuum from …

Ava's New Testament Narratives: "When The Old Law Passed Away", James A. Rushing Jr.

TEAMS Medieval German Texts in Bilingual Editions

Ava is the first woman whose name we know who wrote in German. She wrote her poem - or poems - on the lives of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ sometime early in the twelfth century, no later than 1127. It seems certain that she was a layperson, and her work reflects a level of learning that raises all sorts of interesting questions about the education of the laity, especially the education of lay woman, and about the nature of authorship in the Middle Ages, generally and particularly in medieval Germany.

Saxo Grammaticus: History And The Rise Of National Identity In Medieval Denmark, Christopher L. Bailey

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Review Of David Matthews, The Invention Of Middle English, Richard Utz

Medieval Institute Affiliated Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Studies In The Harley Manuscript: The Scribes, Contents, And Social Contexts Of British Library Ms Harley 2253, Susanna Fein

TEAMS Varia

Studies in the Harley Manuscript is the first comprehensive examination of a manuscript that is of supreme value to literary scholars of medieval English literature. In an Introduction and fifteen essays a team of scholars considers many aspects of the 140 folios of this trilingual miscellany that preserves 121 items (or 122 depending on how one counts) from which we get a strange and privileged glimpse into the rich literary heritage that existed in England prior to the flourishing of vernacular poetry in the Richardian era. As the Contents indicates, the history and composition of the manuscript are considered, as …

Sovereignty And Salvation In The Vernacular, 1050-1150: Das Ezzolied, Das Annolied, Die Kaiserchronik, Vv. 247-667, Das Lob Salomons, Historia Judith, James A. Schultz

TEAMS Medieval German Texts in Bilingual Editions

These texts will be of interest because they represent a kind of writing - at the intersection of ecclesiastical and secular power, drawing on the whole range of medieval Latin learning, yet written in vernacular verse - that is not found elsewhere in the European Middle Ages. In addition, they may be of use in teaching since, although relatively short, they illustrate a great number of characteristic medieval ways of writing and can be linked to a number of quite remarkable historical figures.

Medieval Exegesis In Translation: Commentaries On The Book Of Ruth, Lesley Smith

TEAMS Commentary Series

This book brings together and translates from the medieval Latin a series of commentaries on the biblical book of Ruth, with the intention of introducing readers to medieval exegesis or biblical interpretation. . . . Ruth is the shortest book of the Old Testament, being only four chapters long. It is partly for this reason that it lends itself so well to a short book introducing medieval exegesis; but it is also of interest in itself. Ruth poses a number of exegetical problems, including the basic one of why such an odd book, in which God never appears as an …

A Slice Of Life: Selected Documents Of Medieval English Peasant Experience, Edwin Brezette Dewindt

TEAMS Documents of Practice

"Since the audience for this text is assumed to be primarily students of medieval history, nothing from a specifically literary text has been included. Further, since archaeology deals in artifacts and other physical remains, it is impractical to supply material from that discipline. Therefore, only material from record sources is provided . . . These are the only written materials that permit some measure of personalized contact with specific men and women from the past, so this gives them a special importance." - from the Introduction

Sources For The History Of Medicine In Late Medieval England, Carole Rawcliffe

TEAMS Documents of Practice

The material contained here derives from a wide variety of printed and manuscript sources, chosen to give some idea of the rich diversity of evidence available to the historian of English medicine and its place in society during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and early sixteenth centuries. Latin and French have been translated into modern English, while vernacular texts have been slightly modified, and obsolete or difficult words explained. Middle English has otherwise been retained to give the past an authentic voice and to emphasize the similarities as well as the differences between the experience of modern readers and that of the …

Mirror Of Chivalry: Salah Al-Din In The Medieval European Imagination, John Victor Tolan

Faculty Book Chapters

This collective volume is the result of the Second Annual Conference on Cross-Cultural Encounters in the Mediterranean held at the American University in Cairo, 5-7 May, 1996. The contributors, David R. Blanks, John Victor Tolan, Nabil I. Matar, John Rodenbeck, Thabit Abdullah, E.M. Sartain, Omaima Abou-Bakr, and Nadia M. El-Cheik, take an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from sociology, anthropology, political science, history, and literature, in medieval their examination of past attitudes, in particular images of the 'Other' in medieval Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, in order to trace the origins of modern stereotypes. The essays are divided into three …

Christian Missionary Activity In The Early Middle Ages (Book Review), June-Ann Greeley

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Six essays by author Richard E. Sullivan. "Church historians, medieval historians, and all medieval scholars, especially those of the early Middle Ages, take note: this is a volume of well-written, expertly documented, and perceptive scholarship, well worth a close read from cover to cover"--from the review.

From Roman Britain To Norman England Continuity And Change - C. A. D. 284 - 1066, Gary Philip Priolo

History Theses & Dissertations

Prior to the Norman Conquest English Society was different in many ways. To understand these differences one must look at the various influences that over eight centuries combined to create Saxon England. This study examines how Saxon English society was created from the contributions of the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, church, and Vikings.

Contemporary authors such as Bede and Gildas, and supporting archeological evidence indicate that the invaders and Christian missionaries had a significant impact on the native population of medieval Britain. Evidence suggests that the Romano-Britons were either killed or put to flight by the Anglo-Saxon settlers, the church first converted …

Ordering The Urban Environment: City Statutes And City Planning In Medieval Todi, Italy, Samuel Gruber, Samuel D. Gruber

Art & Music Histories - All Scholarship

Presents examples of how legal system and city government action ordered the urban environment through regulations and actions for streets size and widths, building materials, size and appearance, and distribution of activities. As demonstrated in the medieval Umbrian town of Todi, such regulations helped create the image of the medieval town we appreciate today.

The Study Of Chivalry: Resources And Approaches, Howell Chickering, Thomas H. Seiler

TEAMS Varia

In a series of essays readers will find information about modern scholarship on the subject of chivalry and various suggestions for ways to teach some familiar and unfamiliar chivalric materials. Short bibliographies are provided for teachers' further use.

Literary Visions Of Edward Ii And Isabella Of France, Dana L. Sample

Institute for the Humanities Theses

The historical Edward II and Isabella of France do not always resemble the literary Edward and Isabella. Chronicles written after their deaths produced romances about their lives that to this day have colored historical scholarship. Other literature in the form of plays and novels have also been responsible for nurturing legends about Edward and Isabella. This thesis examines first the contemporary chronicles and government records in order to establish some facts about the ill-fated king and queen; then it analyzes the romances and the media that produced them, in an effort to test their reliability. Although some of the legends …

A Book From The Library Of Christoph Scheurl (1481-1542), Gail P. Hueting

The Courier

This article examines a book written in 1530 by the German jurist and humanist Christoph Scheurl, a book which now resides in the Syracuse University Special Collections. The book is actually an amalgamation of nine total works, ranging in diverse topics such as royal weddings, wars (Italy and Spain in particular), genealogy, health, and theology. Originally in favor of Martin Luther's reforms, Scheurl remained a Catholic after the Church's division, and one of the works argues against Luther's views.

The Troubadour Poets: Their Influence On Their Times, Georgia M. Jarrell

Institute for the Humanities Theses

Troubadour poetry was a phenomenon which occurred in the South of France during the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries. The style was one of political and social invectives and panegyrics, as well as a sophisticated love poetry. The tradition flourished and then died with direct relations to the political and religious events of the era. Through this poetry, the modern reader can not only understand the feelings of the individual poets but also gain insights on the lifestyles of the period and the events which had a bearing on the history of the period. The troubadours were truly mirrors of …

The Renascence Of Classical Thought And Form In The Carolingian Period, Sara James Laster

Institute for the Humanities Theses

The political stability established under the rule of Charlemagne (768-814) was conducive to the flourishing of the simultaneous resurgence of art and learning. Inspired by the achievements of the Roman Empire, Charlemagne wished to give his subjects a feeling of spiritual unity, a sense of continuity with the past, and an enhanced intellectual life. The classical intellectual tradition is traced from ancient times to the Carolingian present to demonstrate that classicism was a continuum. The thesis examines the classical tradition in the intellectual life of the Carolingian period, its conscious rejuvenation in the figurative arts, and its manifestation in the …

The Monastic Libraries Of The Diocese Of Winchester During The Late Anglo-Saxon And Norman Periods, Steven F. Vincent

Masters Theses

The objective of this thesis was to describe the libraries of the monastic houses of the diocese of Winchester in the century following the Norman Conquest. An analysis was made of lists of surviving books and of books which could be identified through other primary and secondary sources. A study was also made of the careers of bishops, abbots, priors, and other scholars known to have worked at each of these establishments, in order to determine the nature of the intellectual activity at each monastery. Catalogs of other twelfth century monastic libraries were compared with the works identified in the …

An Evaluation Of The Importance Of The Period 1140-1270 In Western Civilization, Joyce Nell Brewster

History Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines the possibility of establishing a linear relationship between the modern era and the High Middle Ages. Its inspiration is the English poet William Blake, who conceived man' pilgrimage in three stages: Innocence, Experience and Organized Innocence, The focus of the study is the apogee of the High Middle Ages and the particular question of whether that era can be equated with Blake's initial, integrated state of Innocence. Analysis of the literature, art, and. architecture of the period. suggests the validity of Blake's model and its potential value as a framework for understanding and coping with the contemporary …

"The Longest Walk In The Universe", John Ciardi

Special Collections: Oregon Public Speakers

No abstract provided.

Phantastes Chapter 5: Romance Of Sir Launfal, Thomas Chestre

German Romantic and Other Influences

A medieval poem of 1045 lines telling of a knight who loses status and wealth and who meets a beautiful woman who gives him love and wealth as long as he keeps her existence a secret. The motif of the lover’s prohibition appears in several medieval texts, and MacDonald makes use of this motif in this chapter.

6. England: A Case Study In Successful Monarchism, Robert L. Bloom, Basil L. Crapster, Harold A. Dunkelberger, Charles H. Glatfelter, Richard T. Mara, Norman E. Richardson, W. Richard Schubart

Section V: The Rise of Capitalism and the National State to 1500

England led the way to national consolidation and a strong monarchy for a number of reasons. The geographical advantages have already been briefly mentioned. Of some importance were the Anglo-Saxon precedents in force between the seventh and eleventh centuries. Roman Civilization was never much more than a thin veneer in England and with the withdrawal of the Romans this veneer wore away. In its place rose Saxon England, and despite the partially successful invasions of the British Isles by the Northmen a degree of cultural homogeneity developed. In fact, these invasions promoted the levying of a royal tax known as …

Monasticon Praemonstratense: Id Est Historia Circariarum Atque Canoniarum Candidi Et Canonici Ordinis Praemonstratensis / Vol. 3, Norbert Backmund, O.Praem.

Monasticon and Other Premonstratensian Texts

This fundamental work, three volumes in all and written in Latin, details the history of each Premonstratensian foundation from the beginning of the Order in 1121 through 1956. The volumes are organized by circary, each with a short history, bibliography and a list of abbots for each foundation. The volumes also include genealogical charts, circary maps, and images of the coat of arms for each abbey, if available.