Medieval views on Holy Days and Relaxation

It is the beginning of August. Time for rest and relaxation: a holiday. The word holiday is literally derived from the Holy Day, when people had the day off to participate in a religious festival.

Elizabeth den Hartog • August 03, 2018

Pigs and Bagpipes: Geoffrey Chaucer's Miller in Context

Geoffrey Chaucer drew on various medieval traditions surrounding pigs to characterise one of his most memorable characters in the Canterbury Tales: Robin the Miller

Thijs Porck • February 02, 2018

Who’s That Guy? Identity Crisis in a Fifteenth-century Woodcut

In fifteenth-century illustrated printed books printers regularly re-used their illustrations. When working with this material, a feeling of déjà-vu is not uncommon. But sometimes you recognize just one person, and you ask yourself: Who’s that guy?

Anna Dlabacová • January 19, 2018

Dolls for Adults

Dolls as devotional aids, liturgical props and objects of desire: on the various ways medieval adults interacted with dolls and lifelike sculptures.

Lieke Smits • November 10, 2017

A sculptural puzzle: The demolished church of Kerkdriel

The virtual 3D-reconstruction of a church’s building history is all the fashion in architectural history. But how does the study of architectural sculpture fit in? Can 3D-modelling be a tool to help locate architecture that is no longer in context?

Elizabeth den Hartog • October 27, 2017

Lucky pigs and protective boars: The medieval origins of the Glücksschwein

Why are pigs associated with good luck? Traces of 'lucky pigs' are found in late medieval board and card games, while the use of boar effigies as talismans is attested as far back as the early Middle Ages.

Thijs Porck • October 13, 2017

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