#CfP: "Shifting Paradigms: Women, Rhetoric, & Power, c. 700-1300 CE" (London, Feb. 2024).
This conference is the kick-off event for an international research network of the same name. The organisers invite papers that broadly explore the question ‘What was power for medieval women?’ through the lens of exemplarity and exempla, that is the framing of individuals in the past as models for the behaviour of men and women in the present.
Abstract deadline: Jan. 8, 2024.
I'm enthralled by this stained glass from the cathedral at Le Mans showing the Virgin Mary whacking a man over the head with a hammer.
Henry Adams' "Mont-St-Michel and Chartres" says it depicts a miracle story told in the Maine about Mary, but I haven't been able to trace the story any further—anyone know? #medieval
Une nouvelle ressource à explorer pour les médiévistes: ARCA, résultant de la fusion des deux bases historiques de l’IRHT (Medium et la BVMM) et destinée à les remplacer.
Of course Santa's not dead—but if he were, might he be buried in a #medieval Irish ghost town? Irish people say yes!
I'm so pleased that I (with @hgwacha) will be getting to talk about the cartulary of Prémontré (and monastic cartularies in general) at next year's Leeds IMC! 📚
I'm not an engineer, but a ''highly critical static situation caused by the deterioration of the materials that make up the base'' seems concerning to find in any building, let alone one from the 12th century. The Garisenda Tower is mentioned several times in the works of Dante; let's hope it can be saved.
https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2023/1203/1419874-bologna-tower/
If I had to see Ridley Scott's "Napoleon", then with a group of other historians was probably the best way to do it. What a misfire of a movie! I alternated between hiding behind my hands at the battle scenes (Scott sure did make that CGI horse explode!) and giggling along with the others at the unintentionally (?) campy dialogue.
Come for the picture of the very old #medieval compass, stay for the picture of the equally old and partially mummified rats.
"Historien de l’époque moderne, rendu célèbre par 'Montaillou, village occitan de 1294 à 1324' (Gallimard, 1975), un best-seller sur une communauté cathare #médiévale et qui témoigne de son intuition sur l’importance du climat, Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie est mort mercredi 22 novembre à l’âge de 94 ans."
This is deeply fascinating to me: using a digital analysis of the distinctive "rhythms" of rune carvers' chiselling patterns to link together different #Viking Age runestones, and so make us reassess our thinking about the role of the early #medieval Danish queen, Thyra.
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0gr4csj/jelling-stone-3d-scans-reveal-power-of-viking-queen
At this time of year, other people read horror novels or watch scary movies. I just read about medieval Irish saints.
🪲
You should just be glad I didn't quote a previous passage about mucus.
(From Maeve Callan, "Sacred Sisters: Gender, Sanctity, and Power in Medieval Ireland" (2019), 130.)
![states that Ite “succoured many grievous diseases”; thus those in need can turn to her in their most agonizing moments. She knew great pain herself, for she endured “a stag-beetle as big as a lap-dog a-sucking her [that] destroyed the whole of one of her sides.” True to the humble and modest nature exemplified in her vita, Ite kept this suffering private. Her nuns happened across this nasty, gigantic bug, and killed it in horror. When Ite looked for her “fosterling,” the nuns pleaded, “Do not rob us of heaven! [...] ‘tis we that have killed it, for we knew that he was hurtful.”](https://spaces.hcommons.social/media_attachments/files/111/383/568/301/837/183/original/ac6819bc06069c5f.png "states that Ite “succoured many grievous diseases”; thus those in need can turn to her in their most agonizing moments. She knew great pain herself, for she endured “a stag-beetle as big as a lap-dog a-sucking her [that] destroyed the whole of one of her sides.” True to the humble and modest nature exemplified in her vita, Ite kept this suffering private. Her nuns happened across this nasty, gigantic bug, and killed it in horror. When Ite looked for her “fosterling,” the nuns pleaded, “Do not rob us of heaven! [...] ‘tis we that have killed it, for we knew that he was hurtful.”")
"The Rennes manuscript is beautifully decorated and contains a variety of material, including religious texts, place lore known as ‘dinnsheanchas’ and a copy of the earliest known Irish translation of ‘The Travels of John Mandeville’, made in 1475 by Fínghean Ó Mathghamhna."
https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2023/1016/1411228-irish-manuscript/
"A commemorative stone for Edward Bruce, the so-called "last High King of Ireland", has been officially unveiled in Co Louth [at the site where] Edward Bruce was killed in battle 705 years ago today."
I feel like I cycled through a variety of facial expressions on watching this news clip.
https://www.rte.ie/news/leinster/2023/1014/1410810-edward-bruce-commemorative-stone/
Love to see regional news picking up on the new MA programme in History that we're offering here at SUNY Geneseo—we're really looking forward to welcoming our first cohort of students in the new year!
This looks to be a great series of upcoming online lectures sponsored by the Jewish Women's Archive on #medieval Jewish women's history. The talks will be given by Sarah Ifft Decker, Elisheva Baumgarten, Sara Gardner and Renée Levine Melammed.
For more info and to register: https://jwa.org/events
I just spotted that this very useful resource for the #medieval studies classroom, the Online Medieval Sources Bibliography, has received a shiny new redesign—one to bookmark if you're not already aware of it!
I just noticed that right now my and @hgwacha's edition of the #cartulary of Prémontré is a whopping *40%* off on Amazon (US)! That makes for a big deal on a very big book, so if you or a library you know of are into #medieval #manuscripts, please check it out!