Natale Medievale

Natale Medievale di Otranto

Tutto il centro storico e le maggiori piazze della città ritorneranno indietro nei secoli, ricreando la magica atmosfera del Natale Medievale. Nell’aria si respirerà l’odore del pane appena sfornato, delle caldarroste e dei dolci tipici natalizi.

Le strade si popoleranno di botteghe artigiane degli antichi mestieri (l’oste, l’impagliatore, il tintore, le ricamatrici, gli arcieri ed i costruttori di armature e di usberghi, il fabbro, gli speziali ecc...).
Ci saranno accampamenti di cavalieri teutonici e templari, falconieri che sosteranno sulla terrazza della Torre Matta.
All’entrata del centro storico San Francesco d’Assisi dialogherà con il lupo e reciterà il cantico delle creature.
Nella piazza dell’Immacolata ci saranno Erode ed Erodiade che assistono alla danza dei 7 veli di Salomè e di altre odalische.
L’ultimo giorno ci saranno i tre Re Magi, in groppa ai loro cammelli, che porteranno a Gesù Bambino oro incenso e mirra.
Tutti i figuranti indosseranno abiti risalenti al periodo storico.
Lungomare Terra d’Otranto, Centro Storico e maggiori piazze:
29/12/2007 - orario 17.00-22;
30/12/2007 - orario 10-22;
vai al sito:
www.natalemedievale.com/

Noel Medieval

Marchè de Noel Medieval

Créée en 1978, l’Association des Amis des Vieilles Pierres pour la Sauvegarde de RODEMACK s’est donnée comme objectifs la réhabilitation et l’animation du patrimoine local.
Depuis sa création, une succession de chantiers d’insertion et de jeunes bénévoles a permis la réhabilitation d’une grande partie des fortifications extérieures, des tours de flanquement, mais aussi des travaux intra–muros. D’autre part, des manifestations culturelles très fortes ont été créées : « les Créations Théâtrales » ont été lancées,«Rodemack Cité Médiévale en Fête » qui fêtera sa XXVème édition en 2004, et « les Palettes du Patrimoine » sur les Journées des Monuments Historiques, qui ont pris le relais du « Symposium de Peinture » qui avait été lancé en 1991.

visitez le site:

www.avp-rodemack.com/monsite/marchemedieval.html

Medieval Christmas

Medieval Christmas: a tale
Our word Christmas is derived from the Middle English usage "Christ's Mass," and central to the celebration of the Nativity was the liturgical activity which had been established by the year 600, and did not change in the Middle Ages. In Medieval England there were, in fact, three Masses celebrated on Christmas Day. The first and most characteristic was at midnight (the Angel's Mass), catching up the notion that the light of salvation appeared at the darkest moment of the darkest date in the very depth of winter. The second Christmas Mass came at dawn (the Shepherd's Mass), and the third during the day (the Mass of the Divine Word). The season of Advent, the forty days of leading up to Christmas, was being observed in the Western Church by the year 500. St. Nicholas was a very popular Medieval saint, and his feast day came in Advent (6 December), but he did not play his part in Christmas as Santa Claus until after the Reformation.Also important in the celebration of Christmas was the banquet, which necessarily varied in sumptuosness with the resources of the celebrants. The menu varied with soups and stews, birds and fish, breads and puddings, but a common element was the Yule boar, an animal for those who could afford it or a pie shaped like a boar for more humble tables. Churches and houses were decorated with ivy, mistletoe, holly, or anything green, which remained up until the eve of Candlemass. The gift-giving of the season was represented by the New Year Gift, which continued a tradition of Roman origin. The later Christmas present was not part of a Medieval Christmas. The sorts of things that people might have done to entertain themselves at Christmas apart from eating is succintly summarized in a letter written by Margaret Paston on Christmas Eve 1459 after she had inquired how her Norfolk neighbour, Lady Morley, had conducted her household in mourning the previous Christmas, just after Lady Morley had been widowed:

"...there were no disguisings [acting], nor harping, luting or singing, nor any lewd sports, but just playing at the tables [backgammon] and chess and cards. Such sports she gave her folk leave to play and no other."
go to the site:
www.godecookery.com/mtales/mtales09.htm

Medieval Russia

Medieval Russia

A casual glance at the map of Europe and Asia will reveal quite clearly certain of the physical conditions under which Russia has developed. Compared with England, France, or Spain in point of size, what a vast extent of territory is embraced by a single state: running east and west, from the Baltic to the Sea of Kamchatka; and north and south, from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea, the Caspian, and, as it may some day appear, the waters of the Indian Ocean. A heritage truly imperial, and offering a greater expanse of continuous land than any other empire. Examined more closely, other features in contrast to the states of western Europe begin to appear. The mountains of Continental Europe lie for the most part in the western and southern quarters. But easterly from the Carpathians, the Continent broadens out into a huge monotonous plain, watered by rivers of considerable length. And were the Ural Mountains correctly appreciatedÑtheir blackness on the ordinary map making them seem much more formidable than they really are, being for the most part only hillsÑit would appear that this vast plain extends almost uninterruptedly from shore to shore of the several bodies of water mentioned above. Scarcely within this enormous expanse of level country is there to be found any one feature which offers itself as a natural frontier or boundary line. The essential unity of the whole, physically, seems to have contributed in no small measure to the political unity which is now fast being achieved.
go to the site:
www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/MorRus.htm

Medieval Medecine

Medieval Medecine

The history of medicine, perhaps more than that of any other discipline or skilled occupation, illuminates broad social and cultural patterns of the period.To a medieval mind, the distinction between natural and supernatural was not always very clear. This shows in the perception of the causes of ailments, and the obscure treatments thought to help sick patients. The Catholic Church played a large role in development as well as management of medieval medicine. It contained it within bounds of one religion, disallowing most pagan healing practices.The underlying principle of medieval medicine were four humors - black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood. The balance of these four allowed for the well-being of a person.Medicine in itself developed. Based on some Greek and Near Eastern principles and embellished with the discoveries of the Middle Ages, it set the foundation for contemporary medicine.Medieval medicine, for most part, was very forgiving about who practiced and who healed. Clergy and laymen, men and women, were allowed to practice medicine. The extent of this practice was not limited all throughout the Middle Ages. The final unification came with the Black Death, when the need for doctors to heal the sick was stronger than any prejudice against their origin.The education system has developed in order to teach law and medicine to the willing. Guilds were created to allow crafts to prosper. The middle class of the society was in the making.

go to the site:
www.intermaggie.com/med/index.php

Medieval Houses

Medieval Houses of God, or Ancient Fortresses?

Investigations in Lalibela, Ethiopia, are revealing that Africa's most important historical Christian site is much older than previously thought. Up until now, scholars have regarded the spectacular complex of 11 rock-cut churches as dating from around A.D. 1200, but new survey work carried out by a British archaeologist suggests that three of the churches may have originally been "built" half a millennium earlier as fortifications or other structures in the waning days of the Axumite Empire.

"The discovery will completely change the way historians perceive the origins of Africa's most famous indigenous Christian site," says David Phillipson, professor of African archaeology at Cambridge University. His research, to be fully published next year, suggests that two of the churches, those of Merkurios (a local Ethiopian saint) and the archangel Gabriel, were initially carved out of the rock as some sort of elite palace or fortress complex. A third structure created in that same early period later became the church of Danagel (the Virgin Martyrs). The Merkurios and Gabriel structures were built in highly defensible positions and may well have been the core of a fortified complex created during the politically unstable period that saw the disintegration of the Axumite Empire in the mid-seventh century A.D. At its peak in the third to sixth centuries A.D., that empire controlled much of northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, and at times Yemen and even part of the Nile Valley.go to the site:
www.archaeology.org/0411/newsbriefs/ethiopia.html

Medievaraldic Pendants

Medieval Heraldic Pendants

Click on the thumbnails for a much larger image! Below are both hanging pendants ,leather stud type, and rivetted types. As requested I have left a link on the bottom of the page to the previously sold pendants.
go to the site:
www.theinterestingshop.com/pages/heraldicpendants.html

Medieval State of Zeta

Medieval State of Zeta

The Slav peoples were organized along tribal lines, each headed by a zupan (chieftain). In this part of the Adriatic littoral, from the time of the arrival of the Slavs up to the 10th century, these local magnates often were brought into unstable and shifting alliances with other larger states, particularly with Bulgaria, Venice, and Byzantium. Between 931 and 960 one such zupan, Ceslav**, operating from the zupanija of Zeta in the hinterland of the Gulf of Kotor, succeeded in unifying a number of neighbouring Serb tribes and extended his control as far north as the Sava River and eastward to the Ibar. Zeta and its neighbouring zupanija of Raska (roughly modern Kosovo) then provided the territorial nucleus for a succession of Serb kingdoms that in the 13th century were consolidated under the Nemanjic dynasty.
Although the Serbs have come to be identified closely with the Eastern Orthodox tradition of Christianity, it is an important indication of the continuing marginality of Zeta that Michael, the first of its rulers to claim the title king, had this honour bestowed on him by Pope Gregory VII in 1077. It was only under the later Nemanjic rulers that the ecclesiastical allegiance of the Serbs to Constantinople was finally confirmed. On the death of Stefan Dusan in 1355, the Nemanjic empire began to crumble, and its holdings were divided among the knez (prince) Lazar Hrebeljanovic, the short-lived Bosnian state of Tvrtko I (reigned 1353-91), and a semi-independent chiefdom of Zeta under the house of Balsa, with its capital at Skadar. Serb disunity coincided fatefully with the arrival in the Balkans of the Ottoman armies, and in 1389 Lazar fell to the forces of Sultan Murad I at the Battle of Kosovo.
go to the site:
www.njegos.org/medieval/zeta.htm

Medieval Tales

Medieval Tales

True stories, fables, and anecdotes from the Middle Age.

Angels:

Visions of angels, of dead saints, of departing souls, and of the Other World were numerous in the Middle Ages. Angels mande revelations to saints, talked with them, aided them in danger; they were seen by them in conflict with demons. People saw one or many angels standing by holy men at their devotions. The Venerable Bede says of St. Cuthbert that he was often allowed to see and converse with angels, and when hungry was refreshed by food prepared by the Lord. St. Columbia was said to have received many "sweet angel visits," when sleepless or in solitude. go to the site:

http://www.godecookery.com/mtales/mtales.htm

Detail of wall painting in the church of S. Angelo in Formis,late 11th or early 12th century

Medieval routes

Medieval Routes
work shop
The introductory presentation by Vince Gaffney discussed the major issues and the advantages for the project of computer-modelling systems, and was intended to set the scene for some of the later technical presentations. It considered key historical and archaeological issues related to logistics and military organization, and the relevance of digital technologies for their analysis. Specific emphasis was placed on the potential of GIS as a core technology for logistical study and a basic introduction to the nature and use of GIS technologies was provided for the benefits of participants not familiar with their use. Examples of relevant work were presented and the limitations of current applications and technologies considered.

Malcolm Wagstaff then presented a paper dealing with Network analysis, logistics and applied topology, since any analysis of the logistics of warfare must be concerned with routes and with nodes in networks of routes. Routes focus movement; nodes command intersections. Both are intimately related to the ways in which armies actually move across country and with the ways in which they are provisioned. Routes also mediate power, linking its loci with territory, its peoples and their use of land. They are essential to the exercise of control and the extraction of surplus. Thus, the reconstruction and analysis of the communications structure is basic to the examination of the logistics of medieval warfare in the regions proposed for study. The potential of graph theory in this respect and some of the indices that have been derived from it were discussed, some practical questions of making graph theory operational were presented, and some applications of graph theory published by Sanders and Whitbread were considered.
go to the site:
www.medievallogistics.bham.ac.uk/workshops/1/presentations.htm

Medieval Plants

Medieval Plants

Civilizations as early as the Chaldean in southwestern Asia were among the first to have a belief in plants that never existed, and the practice continued well beyond the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Originally, this was done to disperse the mystery surrounding certain seemingly-miraculous events and to symbolically embody in a physical form various aspects - wealth, happiness, fertility, illness, etc. Later, people began to invent "nonsense plants" to enliven the tale of an otherwise boring voyage, and with the invention of the printed book, to entertain readers who loved to believe in such fables. Even spices, which were an important element of Medieval food, commerce, trade, & society, were given exotic & incredible backgrounds. The fabulous trees and fauna discussed here are just a small example of the many fantastic plants our medieval forebears believed in. As will be evident, trees, because of their longevity and immensity, have been foremost among the plants considered sacred, mystic, or mythical.

Mythical Plants of the Middle Ages is based on the writings of Ernst & Johanna Lehner and William A. Emboden.

go to the site: http://www.godecookery.com/mythical/mythical.htm

Medieval Colours

Medieval colours

Series of cards with a design based on Medieval themes and on natural dyes common in Medieval times. The design panels all use textiles dyed with natural dyes on a base of handmade paper that often incorporates plant and vegetable artefacts.
Each 6" by 4" folded card (15cm by 10cm) is made from 100% recycled materials and bears a unique design on the centre of the front cover. The designs comprise a handmade paper background with a foreground of silk dyed with natural dyes and natural artefacts. All the cards are unique and the design may vary from the photograph. go to the site:
http://wildpaper.weebly.com/medieval.html

Bosnia nel Medioevo

Bosnia nel Medioevo

per scaricare il materiale, vai al sito:
http://www.maat.it/livello2/bosnia-1.htm

Russia Medievale

Un evento medievale epocale del secolo scorso: La scoperta delle BERJOSTY

Articolo dedicato ad un grande archeologo e storico russo contemporaneo: Valentin Lavrent'evic' JANIN

Quando il prof. A. V. Arcihovskii trovò le prime berjòsty nei suoi scavi a Novgorod nell’estate (è l’unica stagione buona per il lavoro di scavo qui nel Grande Nord) del 1951 (26 luglio) probabilmente non ne rimase molto sorpreso poiché qui e là nelle zone archeologiche dove lavoravano gli altri colleghi delle università statali nell’ex URSS di tali reperti se ne trovavano ogni tanto. E’ vero che, quando lo scritto non era visibile o riconoscibile, gli archeologi li avevano presi per “galleggianti per la pesca”, ma ora il fatto eccezionale fu che con il proseguire degli scavi in pochi mesi di campagna il numero dei reperti salì a varie centinaia! Fino ad oggi (anno 2000) di berjòsty ne sono state catalogate circa un migliaio in questa zona di scavi, ma restano ca. 20.000 reperti simili da mettere ancora in ordine e da decifrare!

Che cosa sono le berjòsty (il singolare è berjòsta in russo)? E’ presto detto! Sono delle strisce oblunghe (da 25 cm fino a 40 cm e oltre) di scorza di betulla di larghezza tipica standard fra i 4 e gli 8 cm sulla cui faccia interna mediante uno stiletto appuntito d’osso o di metallo o di legno (pisàlo in russo) si incidono agevolmente le lettere. Le strisce, per essere così scritte, devono essere preparate immergendole o bollendole in acqua calda per dare loro una maggiore elasticità. A questo punto la striscia inverte la sua proprietà di avvolgersi su se stessa e lo scritto sulla berjòsta arrotolata risulterà ora sulla faccia esterna. Subito dopo l’incisione i solchi infatti imbruniscono e la scrittura è subito leggibile e, se poi le condizioni lo permettono, ecco che queste lettere sui generis riescono a conservarsi per secoli per essere scoperte poi dagli archeologi.
vai al sito:
www.amoit.ru/CulturaRussa/Storia/Articolo4.html

Manuscrits médiévaux

Manuscrits médiévaux des monastères et chapitres vosgiens.
Catalogues et inventaires.présentés par Marie-José Gasse-Grandjean

Ce texte est une version aménagée du second volume de ma thèse intitulée Livres manuscrits et librairies dans les abbayes et les chapitres vosgiens des origines au XVIe siècle, thèse de doctorat en histoire médiévale de l'Université de Nancy 2, préparée sous la direction de Michel Parisse et soutenue en 1989 (2 vol., 752 p. + pl.).
Le premier volume, édité par les Presses Universitaires de Nancy, en 1992, dans la collection Lorraine, sous le titre Les livres dans les abbayes vosgiennes du Moyen Age, présente l'histoire des abbayes vosgiennes et de leurs livres, autour de la fabrication et de l'entretien des livres, de l'office et de la méditation, des études, de la vie littéraire, des librairies et des grands événements qui désorganisèrent celles-ci.
Le second volume, resté inédit, et qui réunit une documentation variée, se prêtait au balisage informatique et ne pouvait trouver meilleur support qu'Internet. Il comprend le catalogue des manuscrits vosgiens conservés, la présentation des anciens catalogues de livres des abbayes vosgiennes et la liste des mentions de livres relevées dans les archives et en particulier dans les livres de comptes romarimontains. Les communautés de Moyenmoutier, Senones, Saint-Dié, Etival, Bonmoutier, Epinal, Remiremont, Hérival, le Saint-Mont ont toutes possédé des manuscrits et inventorié leurs bibliothèques, mais leur activité autour des livres fut très variée.
visitez le site:
www.univ-nancy2.fr/MOYENAGE/ArtemTravauxenLigne/TheseMJGG/index.htm

Medieval Pilgrimage

Medieval Pilgrimage

His then was the situation encountered by Christianity when it began arriving in (what is often called) ‘pagan’ Europe during the 2nd through 8th centuries. Upwards of 3000 years had passed since megalithic times yet the influences of that era were still felt. Larger social centers had developed around many of the ancient megalithic settlement sites and the archaic stone rings, dolmens and earthen mounds continued to play a significant role in the religious life of the different pagan communities. While the pagan’s understandings of earth energies were perhaps diluted by thousands of years of cultural infusions, their mythologies and religious traditions were very often still associated with the megalithic sacred sites, and particular periods in different solar, lunar and astrological cycles (discovered during the megalithic era) were celebrated with festivities, maypole dancing and fertility goddess holy days.This continuing and powerful attraction which pagan people felt for their sacred places deeply disturbed the Christian authorities. This is evidenced by an edict of Aries in 452 AD:If any infidel either lighted torches, or worshipped trees, fountains, or stones, or neglected to destroy them, he should be found guilty of sacrilege. In the early centuries of the Christian era there was a wholesale destruction of pagan shrines at the sacred places. However, as the Christian church slowly recognized they could not catholicize the pre-existing cultures merely through the use of brute force, they developed the method of securing religious control of the people by placing churches and monastery foundations upon the pagan's sacred sites.
go to the site:

http://www.sacredsites.com/europe/medieval_europe_pilgrimage.html

Casteland

Casteland

Ce site est dédié à tous les passionnés de châteaux, de patrimoine et de vestiges anciens. De nouveaux sites et articles seront à votre disposition au gré de l'évolution de nos recherches.Cliquez sur la rubrique "Châteaux" pour commencer la visite ou retrouvez la liste complète des châteaux actuellement disponible sur le site.
http://www.casteland.com/

Medieval Banquets

Medieval banquets
There’s so much to explore in the setting of this fabulous Grade I listed Historic Hotel. Enjoy the sumptuous stately rooms and the beautiful landscaped gardens. Dreamily beautiful Littlecote House has hosted King Charles II and Elizabeth I. It was here that Henry VIII wooed Jane Seymour. This atmospheric house spans the centuries, with its beautiful Roman Orpheus mosaic and Cromwellian chapel. Explore its ancient rooms, relax in the pool, and enjoy live nightly entertainment.
http://www.historic-uk.com/StayUK/CastleBreaks.htm

Medieval Denmark

Medieval Denmark

Denmark probably has the largest amount of medieval wall paintings in Europe. In Danish they are called Kalkmalerier = Chalk paintings, as they are painted on a layer of limewash.
Denmark has about 1700 preserved medieval churches. Most of them has probably been decorated with wall paintings. Today we have about 600 churches with visible paintings and there are probably many undiscovered paintings behind the many layers of limewash which was used during the 18th and 19th centuries to cover the paintings. The oldest paintings from 1100-1300 are of Romanesque type and were painted by painters imported from south Europe, but during 1300 - 1600 it changed to a Gothic style and Danish painters took over and developed their own style.
During the Protestant Reformation in the 16th and 17th century, some of the pintings were destroyed but fortunatelly most of them was just covered with a layer of whitewash
During the 19th and 20th century these cultural treasures has been rediscovered. Some of them as late as during the last centuries.

go to the site:http://www.panoramas.dk/church-murals/index.html

Money and Coins in Wales

Money and Coins in Wales in the Middle Ages

Did any of the native rulers of Wales issue their own coins and how does the experience of Wales compare with that of other Celtic countries?

There is a half a chapter on numismatics in the book by Ian Jack:
Jack, R. Ian. Medieval Wales. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1972.
ISBN 0 340 12694 9.
Jack has a couple of pages on the coin struck for Hywel Dda in the 10th century and briefly discusses claims that other Welsh princes issued coins. The only one of these that Jack attaches much credence to is a report by Edward Lhuyd in 1698 that the Bishop of Bangor told him that one of his relations had possessed a coin issued by Llewelyn ab Iorwerth, or Llywelyn the Great, (who became Prince of Gwynedd in about 1197 and extended his rule over much of the rest of Wales in the next two decades, his reign ending with his death in 1240). Lhyud said that the Bishop (whose knowledge of Old Welsh was claimed by Lhyud himself to be even greater than his own) had shown the coin to many of his acquaintances who confirmed his story.
Lhuyd's account seems to imply that the coin had unfortunately been lost by the time he was told the story. Jack is much more sceptical of claims for coin production by other Welsh princes and concludes his discussion of the minting activities of native princes thus: "the evidence amounts to one virtually certain coin, one very doubtful coin of a doubtful prince, one well-attested lost piece of Llywelyn the Great and some lost triangular curiosities. With Norman and Angevin mintings in Wales, the evidence, though still uncomfortably scanty, is much more circumstantial." (page 201). English coins may have circulated in Wales to some extent before the conquest, but even as late as the 14th century payment in cattle was still very common. (See Davies, R.R. The age of conquest: Wales 1063-1415. Oxford: O.U.P.,1987).
go to the site:
www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/welsh.html

Strumenti musicali del Medioevo

Strumenti musicali del Medioevo

Quasi tutti gli strumenti musicali dell'Europa medioevale vennero dall'Asia: o dal Sud-est per il tramite di Bisanzio, o dall'Impero islamico attraverso il Nord Africa, o dal Nord-est attraverso la costa baltica. L'eredità diretta dalla Grecia e da Roma sembra essere stata piuttosto insignificante, e la Lira è il solo strumento che potrebbe essere considerato di probabile origine europea. Quindi l'Europa accoglie numerosissimi strumenti dalle altre culture limitrofe e lentamente ma inesorabilmente li modifica secondo i propri usi e costumi fino a farli diventare i capostipiti degli strumenti musicali che tuttora sono usati nell'esecuzione della musica del nostro tempo, sia classica che di altro tipo. Per quanto riguarda il Medioevo e soprattutto il periodo intorno all'anno mille, va subito detto che gli strumenti musicali raramente entrano a far parte delle esecuzioni di musica religiosa, come il canto gregoriano. Il canto cristiano fu infatti in origine un semplice ampliamento della preghiera di lode a Dio secondo la tradizione ebraica ed è spiegabile che esso respingesse ogni apporto strumentale. visita i siti:
www.harmoniae.com/strumenti_intro.cfm
ontanomagico.altervista.org/strumenti.htm
http://www.sangineto.info/

Les Machines du Moyen Age

Les Machines du Moyen Age

Découvrez un camp médiéval avec des animations pour les enfants et les grands qui vous initient aux techniques de l’Art de la guerre de siège. Un authentique camp de siège du XIIIe - XIVe siècles est installé aux abords du bourg castral. Certains des plus beaux engins, reconstitués à l'identique (dont un réduit au tiers de sa taille originelle pour être maniable même par les enfants), sont en place. Les noms sont évocateurs : "Pierrière", "Bricole", "Trébuchet", "Biffa", "Couillard", "Bombardelle", "Bélier", "Beffroi", "Bastille", "Trébuchet à flèches". On y trouvera bientôt d'autres engins, offensifs et défensifs, de jet, de bombardement, de sape et d'assaut : "Mangonneau", "Tonnelon", "Chatte" ou "Louve", ... Toute l'activité d'un camp de siège médiéval est évoquée avec la présentation de ceux qui servaient ces machines : cordier, tailleur de pierre, forgeron, charpentier.
visitez le site:
larressingle.free.fr/index.htm

Knights and Armor

Knights and Armor

Like most periods in history, the era of knights evolved gradually. The term "knight" originates from the Anglo-Saxon name for a boy: "cniht". Indeed, most early knights were not much more than hired "boys" who performed military service and took oaths of loyalty to any well-to-do nobleman or warlord offering the most promise of money or war booty.
In the chaos and danger of post-Roman Western Europe, the population had very little organized governmental protection from brigands and conquering warbands. Knowing there was safety in numbers, local lords (who could afford it) gathered around them young, fighting-age men to fend off rebellious vassals or conquering neighbors. These men, in turn, were rewarded with war booty for their service and loyalty. Soon, grants of land were made so the young soldiers could receive an income from those lands and afford the high cost of outfitting themselves with the accoutrements of war, such as horses, armor, and weapons. The era of the medieval knight had begun.
It wasn't long before some knights began to treat their land grants as hereditary rights (usually transferring ownership to the eldest son upon death), thus beginning the rise of knights as a "landed" class whose importance went beyond simply being a military "free-agent". Knights soon found themselves involved in local politics, the dispensation of justice, and numerous other required tasks for their sovereign, or liege lord.
go to the site: www.knightsandarmor.com/history.htm

Music mediévale
Je ne me lancerai pas ici dans une histoire de la musique instrumentale pendant cette période. Retenons seulement quelques grandes idées. La musique du Moyen Age est avant tout une musique vocale.
Jusqu'au XIII° siècle, le nombre d'instruments utilisés était très limité: les témoignages sont très discrets et les restes archéologiques encore moins nombreux. Les sculptures romanes sont la principale source pour la restitution de ces instruments.
A partir du XIII° siècle, des instruments variés apparaissent dans l'iconographie. Un certain nombre semble venir du Moyen-Orient, par la route des Croisades mais sans doute plus encore par l'Espagne, encore en grande partie musulmane.
Connaissant alors une évolution indépendante de celle des instruments orientaux, ils donnent progressivement, du XIII° au XVI° siècle, de nouveaux modèles. Certains sont abandonnés du fait de leurs limites. D'autres au contraire se normalisent à travers de nouvelles techniques de fabrication et donnent, au XVII° siècle, les instruments que nous connaissons aujourd'hui.
Les instruments d'origine sont très peu nombreux, et même inexistants avant le XV° siècle.
Les archéologues ont mis à jour des restes d'instruments, trop souvent partiels et déformés par le temps.
La principale source permettant de reconstituer ces instruments est donc l'iconographie. Enluminures, vitraux, fresques, sculptures,... font apparaître une grande variété de modèles. Encore faut-il trier ce qui relève de la fantaisie de l'artiste et ce qui est plausible.
http://www.instrumentsmedievaux.org/

Medieval Jewelry

Medieval Jewelry

The transcendent, timeless beauty of medieval jewels has not diminished with the passing of time. Made from the most precious and beautiful materials known to the medieval world—gold, silver, gems, pearls—, they also captivate modern beholders.
Few medieval jewels have come down to posterity. Because of the inherent value of their materials, many were destroyed, or rather, constantly recycled: they were melted down and reused in newer, more fashionable pieces. However, the significance of medieval jewelry goes far beyond its material or decorative value. Precious objects communicated complex meanings and connotations and thus constituted an indispensable part of the medieval language of signs.
go to the site:
ww.ceu.hu/medstud/manual/SRM/jewel.htm#raw

Medieval sights

Medieval sights and sounds
go to the site: www.evergreen.loyola.edu/~fbauerschmidt/HN240_00_images.html

Relitti medievali

Il sito archeologico di San Marco in Boccalama e i relitti medievali

San Marco in Boccalama era un'isola situata nella laguna centrale, scomparsa nel corso del XVI secolo a causa di subsidenza, eustatismo ed erosione.
L'antico insediamento è stato rintracciato alla fine degli anni '60 da Ernesto Canal, Ispettore onorario della Soprintendenza Archeologica del Veneto.
Nella zona individuata, tra il 1996 e il 1997 Magistrato alle Acque - Consorzio Venezia Nuova, di concerto con la Soprintendenza Archeologica - Nucleo Archeologia Umida Subacquea Italia Centro Alto Adriatico (NAUSICAA), hanno eseguito specifici rilievi archeologici nell'ambito di un progetto per lo scavo di canali e la ricostruzione di barene nell'area compresa tra le casse di colmata e Venezia.
Nel corso di queste attività di rilievo, ai margini dell'antico isolotto sommerso sono stati rinvenuti due antichi vascelli che, nel XIV secolo, furono zavorrati, affondati e ancorati con grossi pali perché servissero da casseri per il rialzo delle rive dell'isola, minacciata dagli allagamenti.
Un espediente che servì per breve tempo: pochi decenni dopo l'isola e il monastero agostiniano che vi sorgeva dovettero essere abbandonati.
Subito dopo la scoperta (1), i due scafi sono stati oggetto di indagini parziali per accertarne natura e datazione. Limitate sezioni trasversali di scavo hanno consentito di appurare che un relitto era attribuibile a un'imbarcazione da trasporto a fondo piatto, mentre l'altro relitto poteva essere identificato con una galea, per la caratteristica forma allungata dello scafo e la presenza della tipica scassa nella zona prodiera arretrata. Si trattava di una scoperta di grandissima importanza e unica nel suo genere. Per la prima volta in assoluto veniva individuato un relitto di galea grazie al quale poter conoscere le tecniche costruttive ancora segrete dei Priori dell'arsenale di Venezia.
vai al sito:
http://www.argovenezia.it/smb1.htm

Medieval Monastery in Taillin

Medieval Monastery in Taillin

In the Middle Ages, universities and the Cologne Monastery, established in 1221, were the centre of the Dominicans and of Western European science. It was in the universities where most recognised scholars of that era held their lectures and gradually, educational traditions of the Paris, Oxford and Cologne scholastics reached Estonia with the Dominican friars in the beginning of the 13th century.The Mauritian Institute, the Center of Medieval Spirituality and the Tallinn City Museum have put together a set of programs for tourists such as the :

SECRETS OF THE MEDIEVAL MONASTERY
It is a program that introduces the Dominican Monastery in Tallinn by exhibiting parts of the building that have firmly stood the test of time and are of great historical interest. As confirmed by art historians (E. Tool-Marran, The dominican monastery in Tallinn, p. 49), „rooms still remaining from the three-winged Claustrum can be found in the east wing where the most specific and also the most important rooms of the monastery – Sacristy, chapter room, dormitory for monks, prior's living quarters, library, refectory, etc. – were located
go to the site:
www.mauritanum.edu.ee/turism/english.html

Marriage during the Middle Ages

Marriage during the Middle Ages

Weddings during medieval times saw the origin of several modern traditions and customs. There was more to the Middle Ages than just castles, chivalry, and fancy colours. It was a time of developement for many social and marriage customs followed by brides today. This era between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Reformation was unique and through it all, faith was the ever-present catalyst for artistic, intellectual, social, and political developments. Medieval marriage was still the province of the Church, and the sacrament of matrimony was central to Christian doctrine. Grooms, on the average, were much older than their brides. Noble women sometimes didn't marry until the age of 24, but this was rare. More than 3/4 were married before they reached 19. By today's standards, western Europe was inhabited by the young, with more than half of the population under 20 years of age. http://www.medieval-weddings.net/

Medieval Cakes

Medieval Cakes
The center part (minus the turnable page) for my 65th birthday cake. Borders copy one from a medieval page along with my arms and the SCA symbol for the Order of the Rose. The arms and rose are on rice paper and painted with paste food colors. Left hand text is a "bastard" mixture of Latin, English and Spanish. Right hand page is a copy of text from a 16th century book of manners. Writing is done with a number 1 tip.

go to the site: home.netcom.com/~alysk/photos-medievalcakes.html

Medieval clocks

Medieval clocks

The Egyptians were big on sundials. The Chinese favored water clocks. In the early Middle Ages, time was first marked down the length of a candle in hourly increments. Next came large hour glasses, which were only good for an hour...or two.
Then, Brother Gerbert, who later became Pope Sylvester II, invented a simple mechanism in 966 that rang bells at regular intervals throughout the day to call his brethren to prayer. It was the beginning of mechanical clocks as we know them today.
Soon, cathedral towers were providing the rest of the faithful with their first glimpse of a right proper (although not always accurate) mechanical clock.
The earliest of these is credited to Jacopo de Dondi, who designed an astronomical clock for the cathedral tower in Padua in 1344. Curiously, almost every zodiac sign surrounds the clock face except for the balanced scales of Libra. (As the story goes, it was deliberately left out of the lineup by guild workers who felt they weren't treated fairly in salary negotiations.)
Strasbourg Cathedral's mechancial clock appeared in 1354, and was followed by the third, and most elaborate mechanical clock, built in Prague's Town Hall in 1410.
This being the Middle Ages, the Prague clock depicted earth at the center of the universe - with the sun, moon, and stars revolving around it. Blue and red halves separated day and night. With embellishments added over the centuries, today the clock remains a veritable funhouse of timekeeping.

go to the site:

http//.www.newyorkcarver.com/invetion4.htm

Saintes et travesties du Moyen Âge

Saintes et travesties du Moyen Âge
Recluses, ermites ou engagées dans le monde, les saintes travesties sont nombreuses jusqu’à la fin du Moyen Âge. Ayant valeur de transgression et/ou d’initiation, le travestissement permet à Thècle, Pélagie, Marguerite, Marine ou Eugénie de redéfinir non seulement la notion de virginité mais d’affirmer une sainteté au nom d’une intégrité qui dérange les catégories sexuées et renverse les notions de genre. D’autres, comme Galla, Paula ou Wilgeforte, délivrent de l’antagonisme des sexes. Et toutes, jusqu’à Jeanne d’Arc, bouleversent la destinée des femmes en perturbant l’ordre temporel des hommes. Ainsi apparaît la conquête d’un nouveau corps à travers la mission chrétienne et l’expérience mystique, qui déjoue la nature de femme et les vertus masculines. Vai al sito: http://clio.revues.org/document253.html

Medieval ships

Medieval Ships

In May 1990 a wreck of an unknown ship was discovered in the course of the dredging of the left bank of the
Pärnu River by a newly built pier of the yacht club. The wreck lay embedded under a 30-40 cm layer of mud at the depth of 1.5 m of water. Before dredging was stopped temporarily, a certain amount of fragments of the ship's planks and ribs were taken ashore by an excavator.On May 24, 1990, a preliminary inspection of the wreck site was carried out by the researchers of the Estonian Maritime Museum . Having seen that the ship's wood was black oak, the researchers decided that the find would need most serious attention and detailed investigation, so the digging of the river bottom could not be continued.In July a thoroughgoing research of the wreck was made. The site of the object was explored by means of iron rods and the measurements of the find were ascertained.
go to the site:
http://www.abc.se/~pa/publ/paernu.htm

Castilian Medieval Theatre

Castilian Medieval Theatre

This guide to castilian theater will ignore a theory asserting that dramatic activity never existed in Castile. Play of the Three Magic Kings is much more than an exception coming from Europe. It proofs the existence of a steady castilian dramatic tradition.
Things have changed after discovering of new texts and a comparative study of our theater inside a romanic context. Indeed finding of lost plays is always possible and can modify our present point of view.
Anyway, we still ignore wich were the literary works devoted to scene and wich were texts for an animated reading.
Tradition has chosen between the canon of possible texts, those that could be performed or not. We respect the scholar's authority when we introduce this exposition of medieval theatre, but we point out to the provisional nature of our view. Scholar authority let us go beyond the limits of year 1500: we stablish 1513 for medieval theater and 16th century for derivations of La Celestina.
We cannot even assert many things on performance of our masterwork, the Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea. These pages will be no more than a guiding introduction.
go to the site
www.spanisharts.com/books/literature/i_tecasmed.htm

Manuscrits médiévaux

Manuscrits médiévaux
Ce texte est une version aménagée du second volume de ma thèse intitulée Livres manuscrits et librairies dans les abbayes et les chapitres vosgiens des origines au XVIe siècle, thèse de doctorat en histoire médiévale de l'Université de Nancy 2, préparée sous la direction de Michel Parisse et soutenue en 1989 (2 vol., 752 p. + pl.).
Le premier volume, édité par les Presses Universitaires de Nancy, en 1992, dans la collection Lorraine, sous le titre Les livres dans les abbayes vosgiennes du Moyen Age, présente l'histoire des abbayes vosgiennes et de leurs livres, autour de la fabrication et de l'entretien des livres, de l'office et de la méditation, des études, de la vie littéraire, des librairies et des grands événements qui désorganisèrent celles-ci.
visitez le site:
http://www.univ-nancy2.fr/MOYENAGE/ArtemTravauxenLigne/TheseMJGG/index.htm

Art in medieval Hungary

Art in medieval Hungary
This site serves as an introductory research guide to the art of the medieval kingdom of Hungary. The kingdom, founded in 1000 AD, covered a much larger territory than modern Hungary, and included areas such as present-day Slovakia, Transylvania (today in Romania), as well as Croatia. The kingdom reached its peak during the 14th and 15th centuries, under rulers from the Angevin, Luxemburg and Hunyadi families, but essentially collapsed during the Turkish attacks of the early 16th century.

The site contains information primarily about the art of medieval Hungary, but the topic is framed in a larger Central-European context, with links to sites dealing with the medieval art of Bohemia, Poland and Austria as well. The main goals of this page at the moment are to provide an up to date list of publications about the region's medieval art and provide fresh information about medieval art in Hungary, as well as to collect useful Internet links.
go to the site
http://home.hu.inter.net/~jekely/

OHRID REGION

EARLY MEDIEVAL CULTURE IN OHRID REGION
During the excavation of the early Christian basilica at the locality Plaosnik (Imaret), remnants of secular Slavic architecture were found. It is believed that this building dates from the earliest period after the migration of the Slavs on the Balkan. n the middle of the 6th decade of 20th century, during the examination of Clement's church of St. Pantheleimon at Plaosnik (Imaret), it was found that the church was established on the remnants of an early Christian trefoil basilica. In Clement's life the church was built onto towards the west. According to Theopilact of Ohrid's "Life of St. Clement", Clement himself built his tomb. It is presumed that the church St. Pantheleimon was refurbished and decorated with frescoes in XIII century. Some further construction works were carried out until XV century, when the church was destroyed and converted into a mosque.On the site of the classical theatre, in the layers of the medieval horizons, a large number of ceramic pots have been found. Their distinctive shape and ornaments obviously indicate that one of the main crafts of Slavs was pottery.On the line starting from Gorna Porta (the Upper Gate), the excavations revealed the existence of a road. On its Northwest side the remnants of the original gate and curbstone were discovered. The road stretched in the northeast-southwest direction and towards the classical theatre. It had as much as 7.4 metres in length, and the curbstone 0.45 m. All examinations indicate that it was used even in the late Middle Ages.On a number of archaeological sites in the old part of the town several water reservoirs, underground pipelines, and large number of drains were found. This confirms the well-known thesis according to which Ohrid was a real centre in the Middle Ages, developed according to the example of the series of famous centres.
go to the site:
http://www.ohrid.org.mk/eng/istorija/ransrvek.htm

Russian Medieval Castles

Castles of Order of Sword-bearers and Livonian Order

Here you will find information about medieval (ancient) castles was built by Crusaders on Latvian's nowadays territory. This castles was built by Crusaders of Order of Sword-bearers and later Livonian Order. Furthermore some of the castles built in accord Riga's Bishops and Archbishops order. On this land Order's and Archbishop's liegemen (vassals) also built their castles.
go to the site:
www.castle.lv

Cluny

Abbey of Cluny:

Founded in 910, the Abbey at Cluny was the center of a monastic reform movement that would spread throughout Europe. The abbey was built on a forested hunting preserve donated by William I the Pious, duke of Aquitaine and count of Auvergne.Unlike most monastic patrons, William relieved the monks of Cluny of all obligations to him except for their prayers for his soul. It was much more common for patrons to retain some proprietary interest in the abbey and they usually expected to install their relatives as abbots. Thus Cluny was able to avoid the secular entanglements that plagued many other monasteries. Cluny answered to the Pope alone, and would come to develop very close ties with the papacy.The Abbey of Cluny was founded by Benedictine monks who wished to observe closer adherence to the Benedictine rule. One distinction was their commitment to offer perpetual prayer, emphasizing liturgy and spiritual pursuits over labor and other monastic activities.Another uniqueness of Cluny was in its administration. Before Cluny, most monasteries were autonomous and associated with others only informally. But when new monasteries were founded in the Cluniac tradition, these were designated "priories," not abbey, and were accordingly overseen by a prior who reported to the abbot of Cluny. The abbot of Cluny made regular visits to these priories and the priors met at Cluny once a year.
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/cluny-abbey.htm

Medieval Drinks

Medieval Drinks

Among the Medieval Drinks, beer was much in vogue. Charlemagne ordered that skilled brewers to be attached to his farms. Everywhere, the monastic houses had their own breweries, a tradition which is continuing even in our times (the Belgian Abbey Biers, like Leffe or Affligem are good examples). However, during the reign of St. Louis, there were only few breweries in Paris itself, and despite their privileges, the brewers had to leave the capital, as there was no demand for their product. They reappeared in 1428, and, either as a caprice of fashion or because wine was more expensive, the consumption of beer became again general across France. The flavored beers became much in fashion. The beer was sweetened with honey or scented with raspberries.
n the 13th Century, hydromel, composed of one part of honey and twelve parts of water, was especially appreciated by the monks, who feasted on it on the great anniversaries of the Church. Cider was also popular, and in the 13th Century, the inhabitants of the Auge and Normandy made cider their daily drink. Our forefathers, who loved dainty dishes, were also connoisseurs in wine. The cultivation of the vine became general, and kings themselves planted them, even in the gardens of their palaces. The wine became the most appreciated of all Medieval Drinks, and the wine trade had acquired an enormous importance, especially in France.
The trade of a wine-merchant is one of the oldest established in Paris, but this does not mean that the sale of wine was exclusively carried on by special tradesmen. For a long time, the owner of the vineyard retailed the wine which he had not been able to sell in the cask. A broom, a laurel wreath, or some other sign hung over a door, denoted that any one passing by could purchase or drink wine within. Sometimes, the wine-growers placed a man before the door of their cellar, who enticed the public to enter and taste the new wines. Others established a tavern in a room of their house, where they retail the drink. The monks also opened this kind of taverns in the monasteries, as they only consumed part of their wine themselves. The custom was adopted even by the nobles, who had the advantage that, whilst they were retailing their wines, no one in the district was allowed to enter into the competition with them.

The wines of France in most request from the 9th to the 13th Century were those of Cahors, Rheims, Choisy, Marne, Meulan, Orleanais. In the 13th Century, wines like the Beaune, in Burgundy, the Saint-Emilion in Guyenne, Chablis, Epernay, in Champagne, were much appreciated. In the 14th Century, a man of fashion would drink nothing but Saint-Pourçain.
go to the site:
www.medieval-spell.com/Medieval-Drinks.html

Medieval Library and collections

The Special Collections Department of the Syracuse University Library is fortunate to hold a small but significant collection of Latin medieval manuscripts on parchment of Spanish, English, Italian, French, Flemish, and German/Austrian origin which range in date from the thirteenth through the sixteenth centuries. The collection includes an apocalyptic text by Telesphorus; glossed decretals of popes Innocent IV and Gregory IX; a Dominican gradual of saints; a part of the Old Testament which consists of a fragment of the Books of Tobit and Esther, and a complete Book of Judith; and six Books of Hours.The artwork represented in these manuscripts vary in content and style from decorative initials to historiated initials, from intricately ornamented decorative floral borders to narrative scenes and borders, and from incompleted line drawings to partial and full page religious compositions.

go to the site:
http://library.syr.edu/digital/collections/m/MedievalManuscripts/mainpage/#top

Islamic Medical Manuscripts

Islamic Medical Manuscripts

Islamic cultures are among the most interesting, complex, and dynamic in the world. At the same time, they are among the least known in the West. From its dramatic rise in the seventh century A. D. to the present, Islamic civilization has covered a large part of the globe, incorporating many subcultures and languages into its orbit, and vigorously engaging the peoples around it.
Medicine was a central part of medieval Islamic culture. Disease and health were of importance to rich and poor alike, as indeed they are in every civilization. Responding to circumstances of time and place, Islamic physicians and scholars developed a large and complex medical literature exploring and synthesizing the theory and practice of medicine. This extensive literature was not specialized in the sense that modern medical literature is. Rather, it was integrated with learned traditions in philosophy, natural science, mathematics, astrology, alchemy, and religion. go to the site:
www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/arabic/arabichome.htm

Medieval Arab Cookery

Medieval Arab Cookery

Readers of Claudia Roden's masterworks have long been aware of the continuities in Middle Eastern cookery, others have been tantalized by the influence of Islamic cooking on the medieval West, all will rejoice in this new gathering of papers and documents relating to medieval Arab food and cookery. The French scholar, Maxime Rodinson's contributions are legendary, yet have only been seen in translation in Petits Propos Culinaires. We include those already published there, together with the text of his longest paper, 'Recherches sur les documents Arabes relatifs a la cuisine', translated by Barbara Yeomans. The American scholar Charles Perry has been entertaining participants at the Oxford Symposium with regular gleanings from his researches into medieval Arab cookery, and several of his papers are gathered here, together with a new study of fish recipes, and other items previously published in PPC. Subjects include grain foods of the early Turks, rotted condiments, cooking pots, and Kitab al-Tibakhah, a 15th-century cookery book.
go to the site:
www.kal69.dial.pipex.com/shop/pages/isbn912.htm

Medieval world in maps: the Arab world

Historical maps of the Arab world
Medieval arabic history in maps:
go to the site:
www.al-bab.com/arab/maps/maps2.htm

Meideval Russian Life

Sofya la Rus: 13th-14th Century Medieval Russian Life

During the first century A.D., the Goths started to move down out of Scandinavia - conquering and displacing the peoples they met. Among these peoples are mentioned the Venedae, the Sclaveni, and the Antes. Jordanis, a sixth century A.D. Goth, says that that these tribes gave rise to the Slavs. The Goths generally adopted the culture of the Sarmatians, so that the period from 500 B.C. to 500 A.D. was a time of general cultural continuity for the Eurasian plain.
The Huns arrived in the fourth century A.D. from Central Asia, after having been blocked from eastward movement by the construction of the Great Wall of China. They crushed the Alans between the Don River and the Sea of Azov. Many Alans fled west, pursued by the Huns, who then fought the Goths. This movement of the Huns gave rise to the "Great Migration of Peoples" as it caused massive dislocations. They forced the Visigoths (West Goths) and Ostrogoths (East Goths) and Alans out of the Eurasian plain. The Visigoths went to southern Gaul, then Spain. The Ostrogoths went to Thrace, then conquered Italy, destroying the Western Roman Empire. A group of the Alans moved into the Caucasus Mountains and became the Ossetians. (Joseph Stalin was Ossetin.) The Huns peaked under Attila and attacked the Eastern Roman Byzantine Empire in 447, invaded Frankish Gaul in 451 and attacked Italy in 452. Fortunately for all of western Europe, Attila died in 453 and his empire crumbled. But many historians believe that it was during this period of the Great Migration of Peoples that the Slavs began to migrate out of central and eastern Europe - heading east, south and west
After the Huns came the Avars, a mixed people of Turkish, Mongolian and Chinese decent, who conquered in the mid-sixth century and created a state reaching from the Volga River to the Elbe. They were powerful enough to pressure the Byzantine Empire into paying tribute in 581, and the Byzantine sources make it clear that Slavic groups were included in the Avar campaigns - refered to as Sclaveni. The Avars ruled (and oppressed according to the oldest Russian histories) until the seventh century when they were defeated by the Byzantine Empire.
In the eighth century, the nomadic Turkic Khazars arrived along the Black and Caspian seas to rule over the array of peoples now living in the Eurasian plain - Huns, Avars, Antes, Altaic Turks and Slavs. The Khazars developed lively trading relationships with the Byzantine Empire to the west and the rising Arab Empire to the east, and served as the middlemen between these two empires and the tribes living to the north. As a result, south Russia as a fairly cosmopolitan region at this time. Also by the eighth century, Slavic tribes had settled permanently along the Dnieper River, forming the basis for the future Kievan state.
In summary, there is no definite evidence of Slavs in the Eurasian plain until the sixth century, when Slavic or proto-Slavic tribes had moved east out of central Europe and spread along the Dnieper to form the nucleus of the eastern Slavs - the "Great Russians", the "White Russians" (Byelorussians) and the "Little Russians" (Ukrainians). Other Slavic tribes moved south into the Balkans and gave rise to the southern Slavs - Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, and Bulgars. Slavic tribes also moved west to become the western Slavs - Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Moravians, Kashubs and Wends.
go to the site:
www.strangelove.net/~kieser/Russia/

Famous men of Middle Age

Genseric the Vandal

he Vandals were another wild and fierce tribe that came from the shores of the Baltic and invaded central and southern Europe in the later times of the Roman Empire.
In the fifth century some of these people occupied a region in the south of Spain. One of their most celebrated kings was name Genseric (Gen’-ser-ic). He became king in 427, when he was but twenty-one years of age. He was lame in one leg and looked as if he were a very ordinary person.
Like most of the Vandals, he was a cruel and cunning man, but he had great ability in many ways. He fought in battles even when a boy and was known far and wide for his bravery and skill as a leader.
About the time that Genseric became king, the governor of the Roman province in the north of Africa, on the Mediterranean coast, was a man called Count Boniface. This Count Boniface had been a good and loyal officer of Rome; but a plot was formed against him by Aëtius, the general who had fought Attila at Châlons. The Roman emperor at the time of the plot was Valentinian III. He was then too young to act as ruler, so the affairs of government were managed by his mother Placidia (Pla-cid’-i-a).
Aëtius advised Placidia to dismiss Boniface and call him home from Africa. He said the count was a traitor, and that he was going to make war against Rome. At the same time he wrote secretly to Count Boniface and told him that if he came to Rome the empress would put him to death.
Boniface believed this story, and he refused to return to Rome. He also sent a letter to Genseric, inviting him to come to Africa with an army. Genseric was greatly delighted to receive the invitation from Boniface. He had long wanted to attack Rome and take from her some of the rich countries she had conquered, and now a good opportunity offered. So he got ready a great army of his brave Vandals, and they sailed across the Strait of Gibraltar to Africa.

go to the site:
www.authorama.com/famous-men-of-the-middle-ages-6.html

Medieval Scotland

Medieval Scotland

This is a collection of articles and resources aimed at anyone interested in Scotland between A.D. 500 and 1603, from about when the King of Dál Riata moved from Ireland to Argyll to when King James VI of Scotland inherited the English throne. Because medieval Scotland was not isolated from its surroundings in either space or time, there are also some articles concerning related regions and the focus time span is somewhat flexible.Some of the articles discuss not only what was done in Scotland in the Middle Ages but also how modern people might re-create aspects of medieval Scottish culture. While this may be of direct interest mainly to novelists and historical re-creators (such as those involved with battle re-enactment societies, renaissance fairs, or the SCA), this way of looking at things can also help clarify and illustrate actual medieval practice for anyone.
Go to the site
http://medievalscotland.org/

Le Bestiaire

Le Bestiaire

Le Lion: dans la Bible, le lion a une image tantôt positive (le lion de Judas, les lions du trône de Salomon, le lion de saint Marc), tantôt néfaste, lorsque Samson, David et Daniel doivent l’affronter. Vers le XIIe siècle, il prend une image positive et remplace l’ours comme roi des animaux. Selon les Bestiaires, les lionceaux naissent morts, et c’est leur père qui les ranime après trois jours en soufflant sur eux (c’est un symbole de la résurrection du Christ le troisième jour après sa mort) ; enfin c’est un animal généreux qui n’attaque l’homme que lorsqu’il a faim. Au Moyen Âge, le lion ne peut pas être considéré comme un animal exotique : il est présent partout, sur les armoiries, sur les chapiteaux des églises, dans les manuscrits, et, de manière très réelle, dans un très grand nombre de ménageries. À côté des ménageries abbatiales ou princières (comme celle de Charlemagne ou, au XIVe siècle, celle de Charles V à l’Hôtel Saint-Paul), il existe des ménageries itinérantes, qui parcourent l’Europe de foire en foire.
visitez le site:
expositions.bnf.fr/bestiaire/feuille/index_lion.htm

MEDIEVAL HOLIDAY AND FESTIVALS IN TRANSYLVANIA

Medieval holiday and festivals - Sighisoara, the best preserved and still inhabited medieval citadel in Europe
Shepherds Meeting on Mount Jina - a live insight on Transylvania’s traditions and customs.
The most famous Romanian Castles - always a good reason to travel to Transylvania - Peles Castle the most beautiful royal residences in Europe and Bran Castle - the place where Vlad the Impaller, also known as Dracula, was arrested and imprisoned.
Biertan - architectural jewellery, famous for its Fortified Church, you’ll find here the finest selection of handicraft in Romania.
Sibiu - chosen as the European Cultural capital of 2007, former Saxons capital in Transylvania, and its renown Village Museum.
Bears Cave - got its name from the skeletons of some very old species of bear (Ursus Spelaeus) that were found here.
Bicazului Gorges - the highest Romanian gorges and the famous Red Lake also called Killer Lake due to the pine trees that point out of the water like a forest of stakes.
go to the site:
www.visit-transylvania.us/romania-travel-transylvania/medieval-holidays-and-festivals-in-transylvania.html