What’s new in medieval studies? Here are ten open-access articles published in August, which tell us about topics including weddings in manuscripts and how the Middle Ages is reflected in the Russian-Ukrainian war.
This series on Medievalists.net highlights what has been published in journals over the last month that deal with the Middle Ages. All ten articles are Open-Access, meaning you can read them for free. We now also have a special tier on our Patreon where you can see the full list of 41 open-access articles we found.
Are there fitness benefits to violence? The case of medieval Iceland
By R.I.M. Dunbar and Anna Wallette
Evolution and Human Behavior
Males that behave violently to achieve social and reproductive objectives are a widespread phenomenon among mammals, as well as humans. Because this kind of behaviour can be socially very disruptive, its continued survival in human populations, in particular, remains a puzzle. We use historical data on the pedigrees of medieval Icelandic Vikings to test the hypothesis that males who killed had higher fitness than other males. Whereas most studies that examine the evolutionary benefits of behaviour focus on the numbers of offspring sired, in this paper we measure fitness more directly in terms of the number of grandchildren produced both directly and indirectly via collateral relatives, as well as determining the costs of pursuing alternative strategies in terms of experienced mortality rates. We show that, on average, killers gain a very significant fitness advantage despite the often high costs they pay and, more importantly, that they had a dramatic effect on the fitness of their male kin. We suggest that such behaviour represents a phenotypic, rather than genetic, response to opportunities provided by local circumstances.
Click here to read this article
A polyptych in the margins: accounting notes from early tenth-century Laon
By Ildar Garipzanov
Early Medieval Europe
This paper provides the first edition and thorough examination of marginal notes added to a ninth-century Carolingian manuscript (Laon, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 424). A detailed paleographic, codicological, linguistic, and historical analysis of these additions allows us not only to trace their provenance to the early tenth-century see of Laon but also to show that their anonymous author was a high-status cleric on the episcopal staff. The range of his practical marginalia – which included polyptych notes, lists of payments, and a list of names – points at various accounting practices he was involved in and indicates that he played an important role in facilitating the social power of ecclesiastical lordship over its localities.
Click here to read this article
The Boundaries of Popular Control in Late Medieval English Towns
By Eliza Hartrich
Journal of Social History
Scholarship on pre-modern popular politics often focuses on speech, identifying the ways in which people outside the elite could have a “voice” in government. Using examples from late medieval English towns, this article argues for the existence of a particular kind of popular politics that centered on seeing and hearing rather than speaking. This type of politics—labeled “popular control”—concerned the right of the urban political community at large to observe rituals of governance and to audit financial accounts. Through these acts of collective witnessing, lesser citizens and non-citizens exerted an indirect political power to restrict leaders’ freedom of action and to ensure that their performance of office abided by set rules. The unusually detailed Hall Rolls and Hall Books produced by the civic government of Lynn in 1412–13 and 1418–25 illustrate that “popular control,” far from being a vehicle for increasing the urban commons’ “voice” in municipal decision-making, often stood in opposition to principles of elected representation.
After 1418, more people were being admitted to the inner sanctum of virtuous individuals deemed capable of offering rational counsel to mayors and jurats, but there were fewer opportunities for the wider public to witness performances of governance by this expanded group of decision-makers. The crux of debate in fifteenth-century English towns—and, perhaps, in the tumultuous world of late medieval Europe more generally—was often less about who should exercise political influence and more about how popular political power could be exercised most appropriately and effectively.
Click here to read this article
The Politics of Byzantine Studies: Between Nations and Empires
By Mirela Ivanova and Benjamin Anderson
The English Historical Review
Byzantine studies is neither the oldest nor the largest of the historical disciplines, but it is among the oddest. Its peculiarities, however, are rarely discussed by its practitioners, nor have they been much noted by intellectual historians. The appearance in recent years of multiple book-length studies of the discipline and its histories is therefore welcome. The quality of the three works here reviewed is such that each simultaneously complements and complicates the image presented by the others. The resulting view, if still far from complete, is nevertheless much greater than the sum of the parts.
Click here to read this article
From Qin (Ch’in) to Cathay: Names for China and the Chinese on the Silk Road
By Samuel N. C. Lieu
The Medieval History Journal
This article examines the many names for China given to her by neighbouring peoples from the Han to the Yuan periods using documents from the Silk Road. It also surveys the many names given to the Middle Kingdom in Chinese (including Buddhist and ‘Nestorian’ Christian) sources and asks why these were not reflected in the way in which China was named by her neighbours and foreign occupiers
Click here to read this article
Military units and symbolism: Utilization of imagery from medieval Rus in the Russian-Ukrainian war
By Khrystyna Mereniuk and Illia Parshyn
Trames
The concept of Rus holds significant relevance in the context of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war, particularly when examining the military memory of Ukrainians. This paper aims to analyze the significance of Rus in Ukrainian military memory, as reflected in the names of modern military units. The current names of individual Ukrainian brigades are intricately linked to important figures from medieval Rus and Lithuania. Despite the majority of units being named after figures from the Cossack era or individuals associated with the Liberation struggles of 1917–1921, the inclusion of references to the princely period serves to evoke military pride. Russia’s narrative revolves around the Soviet concept of the Great Patriotic War, emphasizing figures from medieval times without delving deeply into their ties to Rus. The conclusions highlight a distinctive precedent in terms of divergent memory politics, showcasing the Ukrainian perspective’s active exploration of Rus’ past as pivotal in Ukrainian statehood.
Click here to read this article
The hydrogeology of sacred wells: insights from Ireland
By Bruce Misstear and Laurence Gill
Hydrogeology Journal
Sacred wells and springs are important cultural features in many societies. A recent study in Ireland may be the first detailed countrywide investigation of the hydrogeology and water chemistry of sacred wells. Key findings are discussed in relation to case studies elsewhere. A wide range of hydrogeological settings are represented. There is evidence of anthropogenic impacts at many sacred springs and wells. Communication of potential health impacts is necessary but challenging, because of the sensitivities surrounding these sacred water sources.
Click here to read this article
Shadow Diplomacy: Pisa, Denia, and a Lost Muslim-Christian Alliance in the Eleventh-Century Mediterranean
By David Romney Smith
Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean
This article combines a close reading of primary sources with speculation and circumstantial evidence to explore the possibility of an undocumented military alliance between Pisa, Denia, and possibly the Banū Ḥammād. Building on earlier scholarship, it posits that connections formed during the Sardinian War of 1015–1016 led to ongoing diplomatic or military links between the principals, aimed at countering the power of the Zīrid dynasty of Tunisia and Granada. This military alliance (if it existed) fell out of Pisan historical consciousness in the twelfth century due to disputes between Pisa and Genoa over the historical justifications for their hegemony in Sardinia.
Click here to read this article
A multi-disciplinary analysis of the Portrait of Philip the Good in Dijon
By Jan Verheyen, David Buti, Laura Cartechini, Raffaella Fontana, Magdalena Iwanicka, Marco Raffaelli and Piotr Targowski
Heritage Science
One of the finest fifteenth-century portraits of the Burgundian Duke Philip the Good resides in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dijon. This small yet exceptionally crafted panel holds significance for both historians and art historians alike. Surprisingly, prior to this study, the context, the dating and the authorship of the piece remained obscure, and the widely circulated hypothesis of it being “a copy of a lost portrait by Rogier van der Weyden” has never been corroborated by convincing arguments. Clarifying the context, dating and authorship of the painting were the primary objectives of the investigations discussed in the article.
Therefore, this painting underwent a multidisciplinary investigation spanning both the positive and human sciences. Macro-XRF scans were conducted alongside hyperspectral reflectance scans, multispectral imaging in the visible and infrared range, and optical coherence tomography. These analyses were complemented by an art historical study. As a result, a precise delineation between authentic and retouched sections was achieved.
This article does not merely present the various perspectives separately but constructs a coherent narrative based on all these foundations. This holistic multidisciplinary research methodology produced a clear account, albeit with some scope for future inquiry. The involvement of the painter Pieter Cristus was conclusively demonstrated. This painter, whether himself personally, an assistant in the workshop or a contemporary follower, is attributed to the genesis of this work, which is presumed to be not the original portrait but a contemporaneous copy, possibly commissioned by the Burgundian Duke himself. While we no longer remain in the dark and have lifted some veils, this study also paves the way for further investigation into this panel and the numerous other portraits of Philip the Good.
Click here to read this article
Visual Representations of Weddings in the Middle Ages: Reflections of Legal, Religious, and Cultural Aspects
By Jörg Wettlaufer
Religions
Wedding rituals and ceremonies have been depicted in various forms of literature, art, and illuminated manuscripts in medieval times. These representations offer valuable insights into the cultural, religious, and social aspects of weddings during that period. This article considers the state of research on visual representations of the wedding ceremony in the Middle Ages and how these pictures reflect legal, religious, and cultural/social aspects of medieval life in Europe.
Using examples from various religious, literary, and legal texts, several questions will be addressed: In which contexts were the pictures of wedding ceremonies created? What is depicted and what is not? Which legal, religious, and cultural aspects are reflected in the medieval visualizations of the wedding ritual and how do the visualizations correspond to the religious, legal, and cultural setting of the wedding ritual in the Middle Ages?
Illuminated legal manuscripts, particularly the Liber Extra, the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX, reveal much about the rituals that signified the essence of the medieval wedding ceremony: the exchange of consent, the joining of the right hands (dextrarum iunctio), and the blessing of the union by a priest. Since the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, marriage was considered a sacrament by the Church, making the ritual a fulcrum of religious life. However, only the consummation of a marriage was able to bring the property-related effects of marriage into effect, and some pictures from a secular context refer to this part of the wedding ceremony. The primary function of these visual representations of marriage was the illustration of the text, in both canon law manuscripts and medieval literature.
Therefore, they are, besides the textual transmission, valuable sources and crucial interpretive keys for understanding the legal and socio-cultural dimensions that shaped the institution of marriage in medieval Europe.
Click here to read this article
We found 41 open-access articles from June – you can get the full list by joining our Patreon – look for the tier that says Open Access articles in Medieval Studies.
See also our list of open-access articles from July
What’s new in medieval studies? Here are ten open-access articles published in August, which tell us about topics including weddings in manuscripts and how the Middle Ages is reflected in the Russian-Ukrainian war.
This series on Medievalists.net highlights what has been published in journals over the last month that deal with the Middle Ages. All ten articles are Open-Access, meaning you can read them for free. We now also have a special tier on our Patreon where you can see the full list of 41 open-access articles we found.
Are there fitness benefits to violence? The case of medieval Iceland
By R.I.M. Dunbar and Anna Wallette
Evolution and Human Behavior
Males that behave violently to achieve social and reproductive objectives are a widespread phenomenon among mammals, as well as humans. Because this kind of behaviour can be socially very disruptive, its continued survival in human populations, in particular, remains a puzzle. We use historical data on the pedigrees of medieval Icelandic Vikings to test the hypothesis that males who killed had higher fitness than other males. Whereas most studies that examine the evolutionary benefits of behaviour focus on the numbers of offspring sired, in this paper we measure fitness more directly in terms of the number of grandchildren produced both directly and indirectly via collateral relatives, as well as determining the costs of pursuing alternative strategies in terms of experienced mortality rates. We show that, on average, killers gain a very significant fitness advantage despite the often high costs they pay and, more importantly, that they had a dramatic effect on the fitness of their male kin. We suggest that such behaviour represents a phenotypic, rather than genetic, response to opportunities provided by local circumstances.
Click here to read this article
A polyptych in the margins: accounting notes from early tenth-century Laon
By Ildar Garipzanov
Early Medieval Europe
This paper provides the first edition and thorough examination of marginal notes added to a ninth-century Carolingian manuscript (Laon, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 424). A detailed paleographic, codicological, linguistic, and historical analysis of these additions allows us not only to trace their provenance to the early tenth-century see of Laon but also to show that their anonymous author was a high-status cleric on the episcopal staff. The range of his practical marginalia – which included polyptych notes, lists of payments, and a list of names – points at various accounting practices he was involved in and indicates that he played an important role in facilitating the social power of ecclesiastical lordship over its localities.
Click here to read this article
The Boundaries of Popular Control in Late Medieval English Towns
By Eliza Hartrich
Journal of Social History
Scholarship on pre-modern popular politics often focuses on speech, identifying the ways in which people outside the elite could have a “voice” in government. Using examples from late medieval English towns, this article argues for the existence of a particular kind of popular politics that centered on seeing and hearing rather than speaking. This type of politics—labeled “popular control”—concerned the right of the urban political community at large to observe rituals of governance and to audit financial accounts. Through these acts of collective witnessing, lesser citizens and non-citizens exerted an indirect political power to restrict leaders’ freedom of action and to ensure that their performance of office abided by set rules. The unusually detailed Hall Rolls and Hall Books produced by the civic government of Lynn in 1412–13 and 1418–25 illustrate that “popular control,” far from being a vehicle for increasing the urban commons’ “voice” in municipal decision-making, often stood in opposition to principles of elected representation.
After 1418, more people were being admitted to the inner sanctum of virtuous individuals deemed capable of offering rational counsel to mayors and jurats, but there were fewer opportunities for the wider public to witness performances of governance by this expanded group of decision-makers. The crux of debate in fifteenth-century English towns—and, perhaps, in the tumultuous world of late medieval Europe more generally—was often less about who should exercise political influence and more about how popular political power could be exercised most appropriately and effectively.
Click here to read this article
The Politics of Byzantine Studies: Between Nations and Empires
By Mirela Ivanova and Benjamin Anderson
The English Historical Review
Byzantine studies is neither the oldest nor the largest of the historical disciplines, but it is among the oddest. Its peculiarities, however, are rarely discussed by its practitioners, nor have they been much noted by intellectual historians. The appearance in recent years of multiple book-length studies of the discipline and its histories is therefore welcome. The quality of the three works here reviewed is such that each simultaneously complements and complicates the image presented by the others. The resulting view, if still far from complete, is nevertheless much greater than the sum of the parts.
Click here to read this article
From Qin (Ch’in) to Cathay: Names for China and the Chinese on the Silk Road
By Samuel N. C. Lieu
The Medieval History Journal
This article examines the many names for China given to her by neighbouring peoples from the Han to the Yuan periods using documents from the Silk Road. It also surveys the many names given to the Middle Kingdom in Chinese (including Buddhist and ‘Nestorian’ Christian) sources and asks why these were not reflected in the way in which China was named by her neighbours and foreign occupiers
Click here to read this article
Military units and symbolism: Utilization of imagery from medieval Rus in the Russian-Ukrainian war
By Khrystyna Mereniuk and Illia Parshyn
Trames
The concept of Rus holds significant relevance in the context of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war, particularly when examining the military memory of Ukrainians. This paper aims to analyze the significance of Rus in Ukrainian military memory, as reflected in the names of modern military units. The current names of individual Ukrainian brigades are intricately linked to important figures from medieval Rus and Lithuania. Despite the majority of units being named after figures from the Cossack era or individuals associated with the Liberation struggles of 1917–1921, the inclusion of references to the princely period serves to evoke military pride. Russia’s narrative revolves around the Soviet concept of the Great Patriotic War, emphasizing figures from medieval times without delving deeply into their ties to Rus. The conclusions highlight a distinctive precedent in terms of divergent memory politics, showcasing the Ukrainian perspective’s active exploration of Rus’ past as pivotal in Ukrainian statehood.
Click here to read this article
The hydrogeology of sacred wells: insights from Ireland
By Bruce Misstear and Laurence Gill
Hydrogeology Journal
Sacred wells and springs are important cultural features in many societies. A recent study in Ireland may be the first detailed countrywide investigation of the hydrogeology and water chemistry of sacred wells. Key findings are discussed in relation to case studies elsewhere. A wide range of hydrogeological settings are represented. There is evidence of anthropogenic impacts at many sacred springs and wells. Communication of potential health impacts is necessary but challenging, because of the sensitivities surrounding these sacred water sources.
Click here to read this article
Shadow Diplomacy: Pisa, Denia, and a Lost Muslim-Christian Alliance in the Eleventh-Century Mediterranean
By David Romney Smith
Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean
This article combines a close reading of primary sources with speculation and circumstantial evidence to explore the possibility of an undocumented military alliance between Pisa, Denia, and possibly the Banū Ḥammād. Building on earlier scholarship, it posits that connections formed during the Sardinian War of 1015–1016 led to ongoing diplomatic or military links between the principals, aimed at countering the power of the Zīrid dynasty of Tunisia and Granada. This military alliance (if it existed) fell out of Pisan historical consciousness in the twelfth century due to disputes between Pisa and Genoa over the historical justifications for their hegemony in Sardinia.
Click here to read this article
A multi-disciplinary analysis of the Portrait of Philip the Good in Dijon
By Jan Verheyen, David Buti, Laura Cartechini, Raffaella Fontana, Magdalena Iwanicka, Marco Raffaelli and Piotr Targowski
Heritage Science
One of the finest fifteenth-century portraits of the Burgundian Duke Philip the Good resides in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dijon. This small yet exceptionally crafted panel holds significance for both historians and art historians alike. Surprisingly, prior to this study, the context, the dating and the authorship of the piece remained obscure, and the widely circulated hypothesis of it being “a copy of a lost portrait by Rogier van der Weyden” has never been corroborated by convincing arguments. Clarifying the context, dating and authorship of the painting were the primary objectives of the investigations discussed in the article.
Therefore, this painting underwent a multidisciplinary investigation spanning both the positive and human sciences. Macro-XRF scans were conducted alongside hyperspectral reflectance scans, multispectral imaging in the visible and infrared range, and optical coherence tomography. These analyses were complemented by an art historical study. As a result, a precise delineation between authentic and retouched sections was achieved.
This article does not merely present the various perspectives separately but constructs a coherent narrative based on all these foundations. This holistic multidisciplinary research methodology produced a clear account, albeit with some scope for future inquiry. The involvement of the painter Pieter Cristus was conclusively demonstrated. This painter, whether himself personally, an assistant in the workshop or a contemporary follower, is attributed to the genesis of this work, which is presumed to be not the original portrait but a contemporaneous copy, possibly commissioned by the Burgundian Duke himself. While we no longer remain in the dark and have lifted some veils, this study also paves the way for further investigation into this panel and the numerous other portraits of Philip the Good.
Click here to read this article
Visual Representations of Weddings in the Middle Ages: Reflections of Legal, Religious, and Cultural Aspects
By Jörg Wettlaufer
Religions
Wedding rituals and ceremonies have been depicted in various forms of literature, art, and illuminated manuscripts in medieval times. These representations offer valuable insights into the cultural, religious, and social aspects of weddings during that period. This article considers the state of research on visual representations of the wedding ceremony in the Middle Ages and how these pictures reflect legal, religious, and cultural/social aspects of medieval life in Europe.
Using examples from various religious, literary, and legal texts, several questions will be addressed: In which contexts were the pictures of wedding ceremonies created? What is depicted and what is not? Which legal, religious, and cultural aspects are reflected in the medieval visualizations of the wedding ritual and how do the visualizations correspond to the religious, legal, and cultural setting of the wedding ritual in the Middle Ages?
Illuminated legal manuscripts, particularly the Liber Extra, the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX, reveal much about the rituals that signified the essence of the medieval wedding ceremony: the exchange of consent, the joining of the right hands (dextrarum iunctio), and the blessing of the union by a priest. Since the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, marriage was considered a sacrament by the Church, making the ritual a fulcrum of religious life. However, only the consummation of a marriage was able to bring the property-related effects of marriage into effect, and some pictures from a secular context refer to this part of the wedding ceremony. The primary function of these visual representations of marriage was the illustration of the text, in both canon law manuscripts and medieval literature.
Therefore, they are, besides the textual transmission, valuable sources and crucial interpretive keys for understanding the legal and socio-cultural dimensions that shaped the institution of marriage in medieval Europe.
Click here to read this article
We found 41 open-access articles from June – you can get the full list by joining our Patreon – look for the tier that says Open Access articles in Medieval Studies.
See also our list of open-access articles from July
Related Posts
Subscribe to Medievalverse