Cicero’s Life Reconsidered: Late Medieval and Early Humanistic Approaches

Details about Cicero’s life – well attested through many documents from antiquity – were almost forgotten during the Middle Ages. Substantial interest in his biography reemerged in the fourteenth century in the context of the North-Italian city-states (comuni).

Christoph Pieper • September 27, 2024

A World in the Back of a Book

Why was a medieval note on the world's regions added on a scrap of parchment at the end of a Roman geographic work (Leiden UB, BPL 68)? From India to Ireland, Cappadocia to cannibals, the note's mixture of fact and fiction showcases a reader's interest in the bounds of their known world.

Irene O'Daly • September 06, 2024

Hidden in Plain Sight: Mosquitoes, Malaria and Herbs in the Medieval Low Countries

Medical sources shine a light on the presence and awareness of mosquito-borne malaria in the medieval Low Countries. At the same time, these sources allow an insight into past human-environmental interactions.

Claudia Moreira Calzadilla and Nina Witteman • August 02, 2024

Before bones became waste: the biography of reused bone tools

Reuse was not an unusual phenomenon in the early Middle Ages. While it is more commonly known that precious materials such as marble and metal have been reused, easily available and mundane materials such as bone have also been reused.

Cynthia Kromotaroeno • July 12, 2024

ʿAṭṭār, Khayyām & Ghazāli: Scholars of the Past, Influencers of Today?

In the whirlwind of modern life and the ceaseless march of technology, universities and prospective students grapple with the question: do classical works still resonate in our contemporary world?

Siavash Rafiee Rad • June 07, 2024

A new reading of medieval ‘doodles’

Doodles in medieval manuscripts are often interpreted as idle and mindless scribbles. But is this an accurate assessment? Could doodles instead reveal a hitherto unexplored way that people in the Middle Ages interacted with their manuscripts?

Nina Witteman • May 02, 2024

To be continued. Medieval and modern motivations for literary continuation

Series, sequels and spin-offs are at the centre of the modern media landscape. But our literary culture has a rich history of continuation and narrative transformation, in particular when it concerns the medieval romance tradition.

Jelmar Hugen • April 05, 2024

Op zoek naar de bijl van Sint-Olav

Een bijl, een aartsbisschop en een scheepswrak. In dit blog blikt Louis Sicking terug op zijn zoektocht naar kerkschatten uit middeleeuws Noorwegen.

Louis Sicking • March 22, 2024

YouTube series on the 'East' and the 'West' in the Early Middle Ages: Behind the Scenes

How do you go about making a YouTube series on cultural contacts between early medieval England, Northern Africa and the Middle East? Fatima al Moufridji shares her behind-the-scenes experiences.

Fatima al Moufridji • March 08, 2024

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Singing along in the margin