Divorce and the elite household in late medieval Cairo

2001 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
YOSSEF RAPOPORT
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Financial Compensation ◽  
Marital Relations ◽  
Late Fifteenth

This article examines the rate and causes of divorce among the elite households of late fifteenth-century Cairo. By using a unique contemporary chronicle, it is possible to estimate that a third of all marriages ended in divorce. Wives initiated divorces at least as often as their husbands. They did so by reaching a divorce settlement with their husbands for a financial compensation, or, in the case of desertion, by using the courts to impose a judicial divorce. In the vast majority of the cases, the causes for the divorce were grounded in marital relations. In spite of the importance of marriage alliances for the elite household, these marriages did eventually hinge on the mutual consent of the two individuals concerned.

scholarly journals The Gloss to the Saunteen Kesta (Seventeen Statutes) of the Frisian Land Law

2019 ◽  
Vol 87 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 30-64
Author(s):  
Jan Hallebeek
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Considerable Increase ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Land Law ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Indigenous Law ◽  
Late Fifteenth ◽  
Law Texts

SummaryThe Seventeen Statutes is one of the oldest classical texts of Old Frisian Law. In its late fifteenth century edition, as part of the Frisian Land Law, it was provided with Latin glosses. Analysis of these glosses, which were scarcely investigated until now, enables us to pronounce with more certainty upon the date of both the Frisian Land Law, as a compilation, and its Gloss. Moreover, the glosses to the Seventeen Statutes reflect a considerable increase of ecclesiastical competence, point to certain principles of Romano-canonical procedure and use Roman law texts when applying provisions of indigenous law. This all may indicate a stronger presence of learned law in late medieval Friesland than previously assumed.

Preaching to the Laity in Fifteenth-Century Germany: Johannes Nider's ‘Harps’

1983 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Dahmus
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Religious Literature ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Late Fifteenth ◽  
The Middle Ages

Bernd Moeller concludes in his often-quoted study of late medieval German piety that ‘one could dare to call the late fifteenth century in Germany one of the most churchly-minded and devout periods of the Middle Ages’. In his review of Moeller's work, W. D.J. Cargill Thompson points out that the ‘profound conservatism’ of this religiosity, which included devotion to the mass, veneration of saints and their relics, and the reading of vast amounts of religious literature, poses a problem for our understanding of the causes of the Reformation. How does one reconcile this traditional churchliness with the ‘remarkable suddenness’ of its collapse after 1520? One would have expected greater resistance to Lutheran ideas than actually occurred.

The Town Clerks of Deventer and Zutphen (IJssel Region, Eastern Netherlands) from c.1300 to the Late Fifteenth Century

Quaerendo ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 79-88
Author(s):  
Jeroen F. Benders
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Distinct Group ◽  
Local Variation ◽  
Comparative Methods ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Professional Characteristics ◽  
Late Fifteenth ◽  
The Town ◽  
Urban Administration

AbstractBy means of the prosopographical and comparative methods, this article aims at providing an explanation of local variation in the socio-professional characteristics of town clerks as a distinct group within the late medieval urban administration, using Deventer and Zutphen as case studies.

Wangara, Akan and Portuguese in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. I. The matter of Bitu

1982 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivor Wilks
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The World ◽  
Early Modern Times ◽  
Late Fifteenth

In late medieval and early modern times West Africa was one of the principal suppliers of gold to the world bullion market. In this context the Matter of Bitu is one of much importance. Bitu lay on the frontiers of the Malian world and was one of its most flourishing gold marts. So much is clear from sixteenth- and seventeenth-century writings, both African and European. A review of this body of evidence indicates that the gold trade at Bitu was controlled by the Wangara, who played a central role in organizing trade between the Akan goldfields and the towns of the Western Sudan. It is shown that Bitu cannot be other than Bighu (Begho, Bew, etc.), the abandoned Wangara town lying on the northwestern fringes of the Akan forest country, which is known (from excavation) to have flourished in the relevant period. In the late fifteenth century the Portuguese established posts on the southern shores of the Akan country, so challenging the monopolistic position which the Wangara had hitherto enjoyed in the gold trade. The Portuguese sent envoys to Mali, presumably to negotiate trade agreements. The bid was apparently unsuccessful. The struggle for the Akan trade in the sixteenth century between Portuguese and Malian interests will be treated in the second part of this paper.

scholarly journals Mac Giolla Phádraig Clerics 1394-1534 AD: Part I

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 42-65
Author(s):  
Mike Fitzpatrick
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Late Fifteenth ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Century Science

Mac Giolla Phádraig Clerics 1394-1534 AD is a three-part series, which provides an account of all known individual Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics in the late medieval era and details their temporalities, occupations, familial associations, and broader networks. The ultimate goal of the series is the full contextualisation of all available historical records relating to Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics alongside the genealogical record that can be extracted by twenty-first century science – that being the science of Y-DNA. The Papal Registers, in particular, record numerous occurrences of Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics, predominantly in the dioceses of Cill Dalua (Killaloe) and Osraí (Ossory), from the late fourteenth to the early sixteenth century. Yet, no small intrigue surrounds their emergence. Part I of Mac Giolla Phádraig Clerics 1394-1534 AD examines the context surrounding the earliest appointments of Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics, which is in neither Cill Dalua nor Osraí but the diocese of Luimneach (Limerick). Once that context is understood, a pattern of associations emerges. A ‘coincidental’ twenty-first century surname match from the Fitzpatrick Y-DNA project leads to a review of the relationship between the FitzMaurice of Ciarraí (Kerry) clerics and Jordan Purcell, Bishop of Cork and Cloyne (1429-1472). The ‘coincidence’ then leads to an examination of a close Y-DNA match between men of the surnames Purcell and Hennessey. That match, coupled with the understanding that Nicholas Ó hAonghusa (O’Hennessey), elected Bishop of Lismore and Waterford (1480-1483) but with opposition, is considered a member of Purcell’s household, transforms the ‘coincidence’ into a curiosity. Part I morphs into a conversation, likely uncomfortable for some, relating to clerical concubinage, illegitimacy, and the ‘lubricity’ of the prioress and her nuns at the Augustinian nunnery of St Catherine's O’Conyll. The nunnery was located at Mainistir na gCailleach Dubh (Monasternagalliaghduff), which lay just a stone’s throw from where Bishop Jordan Purcell and Matthew Mac Giolla Phádraig, the first Mac Giolla Phádraig cleric recorded in the Papal Registers, emerged. Part I makes no judgments and draws no firm conclusions but prepares the reader for Part II by ending with some questions. Do the Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics of Osraí, who rose to prominence in the late-fifteenth century, have their origins in Deasmhumhain (Desmond)? Could the paternal lineages of Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics be, at least from the mid-fourteenth century, with the house of the Geraldine FitzMaurice clerics of Ciarraí? And, could some of the modern-day descendants of the Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics be those Costigans, FitzGeralds, and Fitzpatricks who are found under haplotype R-A1488?

Multilingualism and Language Contact in the Cely Letters

2021 ◽  
Vol 139 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-364
Author(s):  
J. Camilo Conde-Silvestre
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Substantial Part ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Business Context ◽  
Business Transactions ◽  
Late Medieval England ◽  
Late Fifteenth

Abstract The Cely Letters is a well-known collection of correspondence exchanged by members of this London family of wool merchants and their associates between 1472 and 1488. A substantial part of the corpus was written and received by factors based in Calais, which had been an English outpost in France since 1346 and was strategically connected to the wool marts of the Low Countries. The great majority of the letters are monolingual English texts, thus attesting to the widespread use of the vernacular in personal correspondence by the late fifteenth century. Nevertheless, behind the monolingual English surface, traces of multilingualism are revealed. In this paper, I intend to analyse this issue with a twofold purpose. In the first place, attention will be paid to the multilingual background of the letters, considering both the persistent use of French in late medieval England and the specificity of the business transactions carried out at Calais and the marts, where language contact must have been the norm. In the second place, different textual reflections of such contact in the letters are examined and classified, both as regards the generic conventions of letter writing and as part of the multilingual business context where they were produced and received.

scholarly journals Psychology and the Soul in Late Medieval Erfurt

Vivarium ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 421-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pekka Kärkkäinen
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Late Fifteenth ◽  
The University

AbstractIn the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries the University of Erfurt was one of the strongholds of the via moderna in Germany. The present article examines how this school's identity was manifested in discussions on the soul and its powers, engaged in by three Erfurtian philosophers: Johannes Carnificis de Lutrea, Jodocus Trutfetter and Bartholomaeus Arnoldi de Usingen. In the various forms of their expositions these authors reveal a rather uniform stance concerning doctrinal issues. Their positions are largely based on the tradition of the via moderna going back to the early fifteenth century, and their argumentation is deeply bound to the problems arising from this school's position. Comparisons with concurrent Thomist and Scotist sources show that the Erfurtians describe the positions of other schools in an appropriate manner, although the arguments for and against these positions are often borrowed from the authorities of their own school rather than from contemporaneous discussion.

scholarly journals Phonotactics, graphotactics and contrast: the history of Scots dental fricative spellings

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
BENJAMIN MOLINEAUX ◽  
JOANNA KOPACZYK ◽  
RHONA ALCORN ◽  
WARREN MAGUIRE ◽  
VASILIS KARAISKOS ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Sound Pattern ◽  
The North ◽  
Late Medieval Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Fifteenth

The spelling conventions for dental fricatives in Anglic languages (Scots and English) have a rich and complex history. However, the various – often competing – graphemic representations (<þ>, <ð>, <y> and <th>, among others) eventually settled on one digraph, <th>, for all contemporary varieties, irrespective of the phonemic distinction between /ð/ and /θ/. This single representation is odd among the languages’ fricatives, which tend to use contrasting graphemes (cf. <f> vs <v> and <s> vs <z>) to represent contrastive voicing, a sound pattern that emerged nearly a millennium ago. Close examinations of the scribal practices for English in the late medieval period, however, have shown that northern texts had begun to develop precisely this type of distinction for dental fricatives as well. Here /ð/ was predominantly represented by <y> and /θ/ by <th> (Jordan 1925; Benskin 1982). In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, this ‘Northern System’ collapsed, due to the northward spread of a London-based convention using exclusively <th> (Stenroos 2004). This article uses a rich body of corpus evidence for fifteenth-century Scots to show that, north of the North, the phonemic distinction was more clearly mirrored by spelling conventions than in any contemporary variety of English. Indeed, our data for Older Scots local documents (1375–1500) show a pattern where <y> progressively spreads into voiced contexts, while <th> recedes into voiceless ones. This system is traced back to the Old English positional preferences for <þ> and <ð> via subsequent changes in phonology, graphemic repertoire and letter shapes. An independent medieval Scots spelling norm is seen to emerge as part of a developing, proto-standard orthographic system, only to be cut short in the sixteenth century by top-down anglicisation processes.

A Carol by James Ryman in the Holkham Archives

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (302) ◽  
pp. 850-866
Author(s):  
Richard Beadle ◽  
Anthony Smith
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Medieval Art ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Te Deum ◽  
Late Fifteenth ◽  
The Trinity

Abstract A late fifteenth-century manorial notebook in the archives of the Earl of Leicester at Holkham Hall, Norfolk, has been found to contain a hitherto unnoticed and apparently unique late medieval English carol, based on the Latin hymn Te deum. Comparison with other examples of the genre suggests that its author is more likely than not to have been James Ryman, a Franciscan friar of Canterbury, and a prolific writer of carols. His oeuvre includes a number of compositions deriving from the Te deum, to some of which the Holkham text bears significant similarities. The owner of the notebook is identified as William Wayte Jr of Tittleshall, Norfolk, who is known to have served as an estate administrator and agent for the well-known Norfolk lawyer Sir Roger Townshend of Raynham (c.1430–1493). Certain provisions in Wayte’s will suggest that his interest in the carol may have been connected to a devotion on his part to the Trinity, which in late medieval art was often expressed through imagery drawn from the Te deum.

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