Carolingian gatehouse, Lorsch Abbey (Torhalle Kloster Lorsch) / Photo by Warrox, Wikimedia Commons The Carolingian Dynasty is...
Medieval History
Explore the medieval world from the end of antiquity through the fifteenth century. This archive follows political power and religious life across Europe and Byzantium, with perspectives reaching farther into Asia, while recovering how people worked and understood their place in a changing world.
Simon of Trent (1472 – March 21, 1475) was a Christian boy from the city of Trento,...
Cross of the Scriptures, Cathedral, Temple Doolin and South Cross / Photo by Ingo Mehling, Wikimedia Commons...
Initial Q: David Before Saul (detail) from a psalter, after 1205, Master of the Ingeborg Psalter. Tempera...
Egglestone Abbey, Barnard Castle in County Durham In medieval England, people in debt or who had broken...
Today, we tend to think that birth alone confers citizenship. Not so in medieval England. By Dr....
The economic system of the Middle Ages was founded on feudalism, supporting the overlords with the work...
The dispute between Gregory VII and Henry IV over episcopal appointments brought an emperor barefoot to Canossa...
1493 woodcut of Basle, from the Nuremberg Chronicle / Wikimedia Commons Population growth had exceeded the limits...
The Black Death was the largest demographic disaster in European history. By Dr. David Routt / 07.20.2008...
Scene from the Song Dynasty Illustrations of the Classic of Filial Piety, depicting a son kneeling before...
Svjatoslav Svjatoslav’s lands were divided by his sons, who fought a war of succession. By Dr. Sanderson...
Economic, legal, and social institutions emerged that were essential to the development of an extensive and complex...
Examining how the Church, a powerful force in the Middle Ages, was organized, why people went on...
Settlers brought relatives from the west, formed marriage alliances for themselves and their children in the east,...
Walters Art Museum, Creative Commons There is a common perception assumes that demonic possession, witchcraft, and superstition...
The Mongol Empire expanded through brutal raids and invasions, but also established routes of trade and technology...
From The Rurik Dynasty Exhibition / Visit St. Petersbug The Varangians ruled the medieval state of Kievan Rus...
Siamese ambassador Kosa Pan presents King Narai’s letter to Louis XIV’s court at Versailles, 1686 / Wikimedia...
The Garden of Earthly Delights, by Hieronymus Bosch, c.1500 / Prado National Museum, Wikimedia Commons These laws...
A man places a ring on a woman’s finger. c. 1370. (British Library) The marital debt referred to...
Heddal Stave Church (Creative Commons) These historic churches feature elaborate carvings that mix Christian and Viking symbols....
Luoyang longmen grottoes / Photo by Tgasrio, Wikimedia Commons Examining the Tang, Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties....
The second nun from Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) The Second Nun, her prologue,...
The Susruta-Samhita or Sahottara-Tantra (A Treatise on Ayurvedic Medicine) / Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Wikimedia...
One of the greatest treasures of Cambridge University Library is a Buddhist manuscript that was produced in...
Boydell’s Collection of Prints illustrating Shakespeare’s works / British Library, Public Domain Rhetoric was a much-valued skill...
Noria Waterwheel / Wikimedia Commons The fundamental processes of agriculture, pottery making, and cloth making, plus language,...
Nordic Sámi (Saami) people in Sapmi (Lapland) in front of two Lavvo Tents / Photo by Granbergs...
New DNA analysis reveals that, before their mysterious disappearance, the Norse colonies of Greenland had a “near...