Medieval Studies Commons^™

Myth And Magic In Early Byzantine Marriage Jewelry: The Persistence Of Pre-Christian Traditions, Alicia Walker

History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Iconography: A Checklist Of Some Useful Sources For Scholars And Students Of Medieval Art And Drama, Clifford Davidson

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A classified bibliography of scholarship on medieval drama, art, and music compiled by Clifford Davidson in 2002. This reprint was created in 2014 for ScholarWorks at WMU, with some corrections to the content and the formatting of the 2002 version.

The Early Drama, Art, And Music Project: Publications 1977-2002, Timothy Christiansen, Clifford Davidson

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A bibliography of publications of the Early Drama, Art, and Music project at Western Michigan University, originally compiled by Timothy Christiansen and updated in 2002 by Clifford Davidson. This digital reprint was created in 2014 for ScholarWorks at WMU, with an addendum, an update, and a few corrections to the formatting of the 2002 publication.

British Saint Play Records, Clifford Davidson

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A list of the saint plays and pageants of medieval Britain compiled by Clifford Davidson. This reprint was created in 2014 for ScholarWorks at WMU, with corrections to the formatting of the original index, which appears to have been compiled in 2002.

Index For Ann Eljenholm Nichols, The Early Art Of Norfolk: A Subject List Of Extant And Lost Art Including Items Relevant To Early Drama, Ann Eljenholm Nichols

Early Drama, Art, and Music

A detailed index, prepared by Ann Eljenholm Nichols, to her The Early Art of Norfolk (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2002).

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.

On The Truth Of Holy Scripture, John Wyclif, Ian Christopher Levy

TEAMS Commentary Series

Wyclif sought the restoration of an idealized past even if that meant taking revolutionary steps in the present to recover what had been lost. His 1377-78 On the Truth of Holy Scripture represents such an effort in reform: the recognition of the inherent perfection and veracity of the Sacred Page which serves as the model for daily conduct, discourse, and worship, thereby forming the foundation upon which Christendom itself is to be ordered.

The Strange Races On The Hereford Mappa Mundi: An Investigation Of Sources, John H. Chandler

Masters Theses

The Hereford Mappa Mundi, a thirteenth-century world map, includes mention of fifty-four strange races. Many of the races can be found in three earlier sources: Pliny's Naturalis historia, Solinus's Collectanea rerum memorabilium, and Isidore's Etymologiae. By comparison to these three sources, the works used by the author of the map will be made clear.

This study provides an edition of all the inscriptions relating to these races, and compares them to excerpts relating to the races from the three above sources, as well as St. Augustine's De civitate Dei and Pomponius Mela's De chorographia. Translations …

“The Kingis Quair”: A Critical Edition, Michael D. Livingston

Masters Theses

Introduction

General Introduction

The Kingis Quair is a poem of clear Chaucerian descent, written in the same seven-line stanzas as Troilus and Criseyde, that marks the beginning of a Chaucerian movement in the literature of Scotland. The poem exists in only one manuscript, MS Arch. Selden B. 24 of the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, where it is twice attributed to King James I of Scotland (1424-1437). Indeed, it is due to the connection with James that the particular seven-line stanza format in which the poem is written is now known as "rhyme royal."

Second Thessalonians: Two Early Medieval Apocalyptic Commentaries, Steven R. Cartwright, Kevin L. Hughes

TEAMS Commentary Series

Apocalyptic speculation, in one form or another, is as persistent at the turn of this millennium as it was at the last. The commentaries of Haimo of Auxerre and Thietland of Einsiedeln offer glimpses of two links in [the] unbroken chain of the apocalyptic tradition.

The Cistercian Studies Conference, 2001, The Institute Of Cistercian Studies

Conference on Cistercian Studies Programs

Program for the 2001 Cistercian Studies Conference at Western Michigan University in conjunction with the 36th Annual International Congress on Medieval Studies. This conference happened between May 3-6 2001.

36th International Congress On Medieval Studies, Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University

International Congress on Medieval Studies Archive

The printed program of the 36th International Congress on Medieval Studies (May 3-6, 2001).

"I Am The Creator": Birgitta Of Sweden's Feminine Divine, Yvonne Bruce

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Study In Medieval Grief: A Modern Reader’S Interpretation Of The Pearl, Sumeeta Patnaik

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Death is an integral part of the life cycle and is perhaps the most dreaded and avoided issue in modem society. While our technologically advanced society has been able to delay death, it has not been able to avoid it. Death strikes indiscriminately and often without warning. Persons in medieval society also faced the inevitability of death, which despite the high mortality rate due to poor medical care and the recurrence of the plague, was not any easier to confront and understand. Throughout the centuries, individuals who lose friends and loved ones experience denial, rage and depression, which are all …

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.

Social And Political Violence In The Medieval Rhineland, Matthew Bryan Gillis

Masters Theses

This study is concerned with violence, attitudes toward violence, and how they affected society and politics in the Rhineland during the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. It maintains that, through the careful analysis of narrative sources, such as the Dialogus Miraculorum of Caesarius of Heisterbach, and legal sources known as Landfrieden, the attitudes of medieval people toward different forms of violence can be reconstructed, enabling one to understand and to categorize violence from a medieval perspective.

The results of the examination reveal that certain kinds of violence, including feuds, were legally acceptable, while acts of violence outside of …

The Cistercian Studies Conference, 2000, The Institute Of Cistercian Studies

Conference on Cistercian Studies Programs

Program for the 2000 Cistercian Studies Conference at Western Michigan University in conjunction with the 35th Annual International Congress on Medieval Studies. This conference happened on May 4-7 2000.

Shut Up Or Drown: Silence And Containment Of The Garrulous Woman In Medieval And Shakespearean Drama, Melissa Margaret Filosa

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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35th International Congress On Medieval Studies, Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University

International Congress on Medieval Studies Archive

The printed program of the 35th International Congress on Medieval Studies (May 4-7, 2000).

Monastic Approaches To Medicine In The Middle Ages, Christopher Callahan

Scholarship

Nature and God are linked through the creative power of the Word, for which Hildegard coined the term viriditas or “greening power”. Viriditas is the life force which brings all of us into wholeness and into balance with Nature, and is the key to finding our way to God. In this way, Hildegard stands at the pinnacle of medieval Christian medicine. Having evolved beyond excessive reliance on the occult and perched on the cusp of a revival of scholastic medicine, she exemplifies the naturalistic bent of the best of monastic thought. Fusing what ancient medical knowledge was available with a …

The Pitchman In Print: Oral Performance Art In Text And Context, Joseph Ugoretz

Publications and Research

Oral performance art, patterned performative speech for an audience, is perhaps the oldest and most ubiquitous human art form. Specific instances of this art include the performances of griots and guslars, troubadors and shamans, as well as rappers and riddlers, preachers and politicians. While this art form is by definition oral, it is also the case that, frequently, literary art has represented oral performance art. There is written art which depicts oral art, which describes it, appropriates it, criticizes and co‑opts it.

In this dissertation, I define oral performance art as constituting a separate and unique artistic genre, one which …

Delight, Subversion And Truth In The Canterbury Tales: Chaucer's Talking Birds, Terri Benson Blair

Masters Theses

Geoffrey Chaucer mentions birds over 240 times throughout The Canterbury Tales (Tatlock and Kennedy). This frequent allusion to birds is significant, especially since three of his twenty-four tales are actually about birds. What makes these three tales particularly fascinating is that their bird protagonists have the gift of speech. This study examines Chaucer's use of bird imagery in The Canterbury Tales, in particular, his use of talking birds in "The Squire's Tale," "The Nun's Priest's Tale" and "The Manciple's Tale." My theory is that Chaucer uses bird imagery and talking birds to question the sovereign power of the fourteenth-century …

As Different As Night And Day: Palamon And Arcite Reconsidered, William Hamilton

Masters Theses

Through an analysis of characterization and the sub-text of infernal allusions to the myths of Orpheus and the ravishment of Proserpina, my thesis demonstrates that the Theban cousins Palamon and Arcite are not only distinct but diametrically opposed characters who are more central to The Knight' s Tale than the present critical consensus allows. Chapter I analyzes Charles Muscarine, who so convincingly put an end to the once lively debate over the characterization of the cousins that the proposition that they are indistinguishable remains an a priori assumption in the criticism of the poem to this day. Chapter II analyzes …

The Significance Of Shape-Shifting And Transformation In Medieval Welsh And Icelandic Literature: The Ingenuity Of Medieval Writers, Samantha J. Cairo

Masters Theses

The folk-motifs of shape-shifting and transformation are an important mechanism in both Medieval Welsh and Icelandic literature. To better understand these motifs it is important to consider the ideas behind and the belief in these concepts. The role of the shaman and the separable soul, the Double, and the psychological projection all form a basis for shape-shifting in Medieval literature.

The Welsh literature will include: Pwyll, Prince qf Dyfed, Manawydan Son of Llyr, Math Son of Mathonwy, Lludd and Llefelys, Culhwch and Olwen, Peredur Son of Efrawg, The Hanes Taliesin,/em>, and the transformational poetry of Taliesin. The Icelandic literature …

Falcandus And Fulcaudus Epistola Ad Petrum Liber De Regno Sicilie Literary Form And Author's Identity, Gwenyth Hood

English Faculty Research

In Paris, in 1550, when the printing press was still relatively new, Gervais de Tournay published a medieval chronicle under the title, Historia Hugonis Falcandi Siculi De rebus gestis in Siciliae regno iam primum typis excusa [« The History of Hugo Falcandus the Sicilian, concerning things done in the Kingdom of Sicily, now printed for the first time »]. He had discovered this history, as he explains in his preface, in a codex placed at his disposal by Matthew Longuejoue, bishop of Soissons, a codex so ravaged by time that it looked repulsive enough to poison the hand that dared …

Córdoban Discourses: A Drama Of Interreligious Dialogue, James Mark Shields

Faculty Journal Articles

SETTING: Cordoba, Spain, 1135 CE, 29th year of the reign of ‘Ali “amir al-muslimin,” second king of the Berber Almoravid dynasty, rulers of Moorish Spain from 1071 to 1147. Cordoba, the capital of Andalus and the center of the Almoravid holdings in Spain, is a bustling cosmopolitan center, a crossroads for Europe and the Middle East, and the meeting-point of three religious traditions. Most significantly, Cordoba at this time is the hub of European intellectual activity. From the square—itself impressively large and surrounded by a massive collonade, the regularity and ordered beauty of which typifies the Moorish taste for symmetry …

The 1999 Cistercian Studies Conference, The Institute Of Cistercian Studies

Conference on Cistercian Studies Programs

Program for the 1999 Cistercian Studies Conference at Western Michigan University in conjunction with the 34th Annual International Congress on Medieval Studies. This conference happened between May 6-9 1999.

34th International Congress On Medieval Studies, Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University

International Congress on Medieval Studies Archive

The printed program of the 34th International Congress on Medieval Studies (May 6-9, 1999).