Category: Medieval & Renaissance History

Why the Crusades Matter

Why the Crusades Matter

Christopher Tyerman— The crusades offer features to fascinate and disturb modern audiences. Surviving evidence–literary, archival, archaeological, visual and material–allows access in some detail to individual experiences as well as large… READ MORE

Understanding the Impossible

Understanding the Impossible

Carlos Eire — Levitating saints raise questions that no historian should avoid. Never mind the metaphysical questions, that floating ten-ton anvil that historians dare not touch, much less acknowledge. Aside… READ MORE

The Strange Speech of Sultan Valad

The Strange Speech of Sultan Valad

Michael Pifer— Sometime in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century, a Sufi poet named Sultan Valad was trying his hardest to get out of delivering a public sermon. He… READ MORE

The Life of Christina of Hane

The Life of Christina of Hane

Christina of Hane— Although it is somewhat embarrassing to write about how she overcame her enemy and how she kept the treasure of her chastity unstained, it is still a… READ MORE

The (Mis)Fortune of “Coga the Sheep”

The (Mis)Fortune of “Coga the Sheep”

Nick Groom— William Harvey’s understanding united conventional classical models with new post-Paracelsian thinking, investigating blood through physical observation and examination, rather than by deferring to ancient authorities. Following Harvey’s groundbreaking… READ MORE

Pigs At Work

Pigs At Work

Jamie Kreiner— When much of the human world was in lockdown this spring, the animal world seemed to come out of its own kind of quarantine. Dolphins had a holiday… READ MORE

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