Medieval Studies Commons^™

'Not Cruelty But Piety': Circumscribing European Crusading Violence, Susanna A. Throop

History Faculty Publications

Was there such a thing as “crusading violence”? Traditionally the crusading movement has been sharply distinguished from other forms of Christian violence motivated, or at least justified, by religion. However, we have increasingly come to recognize the difficulties of drawing clear-cut boundaries between crusading and other aspects of western European culture in the Middle Ages. This chapter assesses the ways in which crusader violence was like and unlike other forms of medieval Christian violence.

Shifting Ethnic Identities In Spain And Gaul, 500-700: From Romans To Goths And Franks, Erica Buchberger

History Faculty Publications

Traditional scholarship on post-Roman western culture has tended to examine the ethnic identities of Goths, Franks, and similar groups while neglecting the Romans themselves, in part because modern scholars have viewed the concept of being Roman as one denoting primarily a cultural or legal affiliation. As this book demonstrates, however, early medieval 'Romanness' also encompassed a sense of belonging to an ethnic group, which allowed Romans in Iberia and Gaul to adopt Gothic or Frankish identities in a more nuanced manner than has been previously acknowledged in the literature.

Mirrored Images: The Passion And The First Crusade In A Fourteenth-Century Parisian Illuminated Manuscript (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale De France, Ms Fr. 352), Susanna A. Throop

History Faculty Publications

This lavish mid-fourteenth-century Parisian illuminated manuscript (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS fr. 352) combines a description of the Holy Land with an abridged version of the history and continuations of William of Tyre in Old French known as the Eracles. It is both visually familiar to scholars and under-studied. Several of its Gothic panel miniatures, especially folio 62r, the conquest of Jerusalem, have been published more than once, yet the manuscript's illumination programme as a whole has not been assessed since Jaroslav Folda's 1968 doctoral dissertation. Analysis of folio 62r in the context of both the full illumination …

The Growth Of Gothic Identity In Visigothic Spain: The Evidence Of Textual Sources, Erica Buchberger

History Faculty Publications

In recent years, scholars have made significant progress in understanding the transition from a Roman world to a medieval world in Spain. New archaeological excavations have added to our knowledge of the early medieval landscape, and increasingly analytical discussions of the labels used to describe people and objects have brought new depth to both historical and archaeological studies. In place of black and white visions of Goth vs. Roman and continuity vs. discontinuity, it has become more common to see Visigothic Spain as a complex mix of elements on their own terms. What it was like be a Roman in …

Passion And Conflict: Medieval Islamic Views Of The West, Karen C. Pinto

History Faculty Publications

This article analyzes the representation of al-Andalus and North Africa in medieval Islamic maps from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries. In contrast to other maps of the Mediterranean, which display a veneer of harmony and balance, the image of the Maghrib is by deliberate design one of conflict and confusion; of love and hate; of male vs. female; of desire vs rejection. This paper interprets and explains the reasons behind the unusual depiction of Andalus and the Maghrib by medieval Islamic cartographers. In addition, this article develops a new methodology of interpreting medieval Islamic maps employing a deconstruction of …

"Knowledge Will Be Manifold": Daniel 12.4 And The Idea Of Intellectual Progress In The Middle Ages, J. R. Webb

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Gender Concerns: Monks, Nuns, And Patronage Of The Cistercian Order In Thirteenth-Century Flanders And Hainaut, Erin L. Jordan

History Faculty Publications

The Cistercian order, which had its origins in the late eleventh century, transformed the spiritual landscape of western Europe. The order's insistence on a return to the austerity and simplicity that had originally informed Benedictine life reenergized monasticism, spawning hundreds of new abbeys within decades. By the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Cistercians dominated monastic life, surpassing their black-robed predecessors in terms of popularity and replacing them among patrons as favored recipients of donations. Yet, while a sizable body of historiography exists concerning the ability of men's houses to translate this appeal into spiritual and material success, questions remain …

Richard Newhauser (Ed.), The Seven Deadly Sins: From Communities To Individuals (Book Review), Denise A. Kaiser

History Faculty Publications

Book review by Denise Kaiser:

ISBN 9789004157859

Vengeance And The Crusades, Susanna A. Throop

History Faculty Publications

This article demonstrates that the popularity of the idea of crusading as vengeance was not limited to the laity, and, instead of fading away after 1099, the ideology grew more widespread as the twelfth century progressed. The primary aim here is to present the evidence alongside preliminary analysis, reserving further, more detailed interpretation for future publications.