Holy Rulers and Blessed Princesses


Book Description

A study of medieval Hungarian and central European royal saints.




Queens, Princesses and Mendicants


Book Description

The decades between ca 1280 and ca 1380 were marked by a striking affinity to the Mendicant orders on the part of many female members of royal and princely courts. And yet, "Queens, Princesses and Mendicants" is both an innovative and comparatively neglected juxtaposition in medieval studies, for historical research has generally tended to neglect the relationship between Mendicants and aristocratic women. This volume unites twelve articles written by experts from seven European countries. The contributions cover a wide array of medieval European kingdoms in order to facilitate direct comparisons. Was affinity towards the Mendicants a prevalent phenomenon in the late Middle Ages? Can one even term "philomendicantism" a late medieval European movement? The collection of essays provides answers to these and other questions within the field of gender, religious and cultural history.




Sabaudian Studies


Book Description

This collection of interdisciplinary essays introduce the history and culture of the lands ruled by the sovereign house of Savoy during the late medieval and early modern periods, territories now part of France, Italy, and Switzerland. Because the Sabaudian realms were geographically, linguistically, and culturally diverse and did not evolve into a single modern nation-state, their early history has been overlooked by historians whose perspectives were often informed by a narrow, national framework. An international team of scholars offers new research that de-provincializes many of the existing rich scholarly assessments of the historical significance of these lands, which were important for rulers and subjects throughout early modern Europe. The volume explores the concept of “Sabaudian studies” and identifies historiographic developments and current trends in the field. Beginning with the geography and the history of the area, the essays examine Sabaudian political culture (diplomatic practice, judicial institutions, and political thought), dynastic representation (court festivals and celebrations, and the projection of dynastic prestige abroad, with attention to the sacred heritage of the house), and territorial domination (its fiscal, religious, feudal, and composite dimensions). Contributors include Eva Pibiri, Laurent Perrillat, Rebecca Boone, Alessandro Celi, Thalia Brero, Stéphane Gal and Preston Perluss, Michel Merle, Toby Osborne, Kristine Kolrud, Guido Alfani, Marco Battistoni, Matthew Vester, and Blythe Alice Raviola.




Medieval Self-Coronations


Book Description

The first systematic study of the practice of royal self-coronations from late antiquity to the present.




Place and Space in the Medieval World


Book Description

This book addresses the critical terminologies of place and space (and their role within medieval studies) in a considered and critical manner, presenting a scholarly introduction written by the editors alongside thematic case studies that address a wide range of visual and textual material. The chapters consider the extant visual and textual sources from the medieval period alongside contemporary scholarly discussions to examine place and space in their wider critical context, and are written by specialists in a range of disciplines including art history, archaeology, history, and literature.




Medieval Considerations of Incest, Marriage, and Penance


Book Description

Medieval Considerations of Incest, Marriage, and Penance focuses on the incest motif as used in numerous medieval narratives. Explaining the weakness of great rulers, such as Charlemagne, or the fall of legendary heroes, such as Arthur, incest stories also reflect on changes to the sacramental regulations and practices related to marriage and penance. Such changes demonstrate the Church's increasing authority over the daily lives and relationships of the laity. Treated here are a wide variety of medieval texts, using as a central reference point Philippe de Rémi's thirteenth-century La Manekine, which presents one lay author's reflections on the role of consent in marriage, the nature of contrition and forgiveness, and even the meaning of relics. Studying a variety of genres including medieval romance, epic, miracles, and drama along with modern memoirs, films, and novels, Linda Rouillard emphasizes connections between medieval and modern social concerns. Rouillard concludes with a consideration of the legacy of the incest motif for the twenty-first century, including survivor narratives, and new incest anxieties associated with assisted reproductive technology.




Legitimizing the Order


Book Description

The various strategies as to how the Ottoman sultans and the ruling elite tried to inculcate their understanding of authority and legitimacy into the Ottoman population are the focus of the articles in this collected volume.




Of Chronicles and Kings


Book Description

This volume collects the proceedings of a symposium on the manuscript Kiel, University Library S. H. 8 A. 80, which contains the earliest copy of the so-called “Roskilde Chronicle” as well as the complete monastic Offices and Masses of the Danish saint Knud Lavard. Thirteen scholars offer a variety of analyses of the manuscript, including studies of the crusades and crusaders in the liturgy, kingship and sanctity in the lives of British and Scandinavian saints, and the writing of patriotic history.




Symbolic Identity and the Cultural Memory of Saints


Book Description

This volume examines the relationship between medieval cults of saints and regional and national identity formation in Europe both during and, to some extent, beyond the Middle Ages. It studies how collective identities have been expressed through saints’ cults and their appropriations in texts, visual representations, and music. Attention is given to various aspects of the role of medieval saints’ cults in European identity formation, as saints were used in the service of both religious and political agendas. Focusing on a range of European regions, this volume uses cults of medieval saints and their religious, cultural and political appropriations over time as a vehicle for studying changing cultural and social values. The articles here report research carried out under the European Science Foundation’s collaborative EuroCORECODE project: Symbols that Bind and Break Communities: Saints’ Cults as Stimuli and Expressions of Local, Regional, National and Universalist Identities (2010–2013/14), an international, interdisciplinary research venture funded by the National Research Councils of five countries: Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, and Norway.




The Horoscope of Emperor Baldwin II


Book Description

In The Horoscope of Emperor Baldwin II Filip Van Tricht presents a microstudy of political, social and cultural life in Latin-Byzantine Constantinople and Romania. A ‘new’ set of sources is used to question the traditionally negative view of the Byzantine capital under Latin rule. Combined with an analysis of other underused historical materials, mid-13th century Latin-Byzantine Constantinople is redefined as a city that—in spite of the Western conquest during the Fourth Crusade—remained dynamic, with vibrant internal and international politics, and with interesting developments in the social, religious, artistic, and scientific spheres. Against the background of a shared Roman past the metropolis on the Bosporus became a fascinating laboratory of Latin-Byzantine interaction.