scholarly journals Factors of selection and quality of wood used for woodcraft in medieval Polish strongholds and early urban centres

2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Cywa ◽  
Agnieszka Wacnik ◽  
Maria Lityńska-Zając
Keyword(s):  
Pinus Sylvestris ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Abies Alba ◽  
Fraxinus Excelsior ◽  
Taxus Baccata ◽  
Technical Parameters ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Two Stages ◽  
The Middle Ages

AbstractThis paper discusses various aspects of the use of wood for crafts in the Middle Ages, based on xylological analyses of 4211 crafted items of everyday use discovered at 62 archaeological sites in Poland. Over 1500 items were identified in the authors’ own analyses, and the remaining taxonomic data were taken from the literature. The research showed that the main types of wood used at the time were Pinus sylvestris, Quercus sp., Fraxinus excelsior, Picea sp. vel Larix sp., Taxus baccata, Alnus sp., Abies alba and Euonymus sp. Nineteen other taxa were used to make a much smaller pool of objects.At most of the analysed sites a similar set of materials was used to produce the items, regardless of their age and location. The choice of wood was selective and was based on the characteristics of particular tree and shrub species. Large coopered vessels were primarily made of wood from Quercus sp., Pinus sylvestris and Taxus baccata. The manufacture of turned utensils usually involved Fraxinus excelsior, while stave bowls were made using only Pinus sylvestris and Picea/Larix (mainly Picea abies).To verify the local availability of the source taxa, we used pollen sequences from natural and anthropogenic sites in the vicinity of the places where the examined artefacts were found. The choice of wood was limited by the availability of the trees and shrubs. In north-western Poland the most important taxa used for woodworking in the Middle Ages were Pinus sylvestris, Quercus sp., Fraxinus excelsior and Fagus sylvatica; in the south, Picea/Larix and Abies alba were used most frequently. Some items made of Abies alba, Picea and Larix were imported from other parts of the country.We inferred two stages of the use of wood by medieval Polish craftsmen. In the first stage, from the mid-10th century to the late 12th century, they largely used deciduous taxa; the second stage, from the 13th to the 15th centuries, saw the increased use of conifers.We found that the medieval craftsmen chose high-quality wood without defects. Radial wood with the best technical parameters was preferred. Its share increased in the late Middle Ages; this can be attributed to the craftsmen’s increasing familiarity with carpentry techniques.

Forma Dat Esse

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 423-446
Author(s):  
Sylvain Roudaut
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Progressive Decline ◽  
De Trinitate ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Middle Ages

Abstract This paper offers an overview of the history of the axiom forma dat esse, which was commonly quoted during the Middle Ages to describe formal causality. The first part of the paper studies the origin of this principle, and recalls how the ambiguity of Boethius’s first formulation of it in the De Trinitate was variously interpreted by the members of the School of Chartres. Then, the paper examines the various declensions of the axiom that existed in the late Middle Ages, and shows how its evolution significantly follows the progressive decline of the Aristotelian model of formal causality.

Venedig und der „wilde Osten“

2020 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 208-260
Author(s):  
Christof Paulus ◽  
Albert Weber
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Information Acquisition ◽  
Research Field ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Ranking Criteria ◽  
Areas Of Interest ◽  
And Control

AbstractVenice is considered the best-informed community of the late Middle Ages. The study examines the availability of information for the second half of the 15th century, particularly with regard to the key year 1462/1463, and as a case study concentrates on areas of the supposed Venetian periphery of interest, above all Hungary and the two principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. The result is a thoroughly differentiated system of information acquisition, verification and control. Means of communication, as well as different areas of interest of the Serenissima, can be identified. A distinction is made between information maps and communication maps. The latter also include the distribution of news from the lagoon city exchanged with foreign envoys. During the period concerned, news was exchanged in an astonishingly liberal way, in turn integrating the Serenissima into the information networks of the other Italian states. The study thus places the „information commodity“ within the research field of late medieval gift exchange and patronage structures. In short, a thoroughly pragmatic Venetian approach to news acquisition and evaluation can be observed. Verification of the quality of the information obtained was subject not least to quantitative and ranking criteria. Ultimately, the informational power of Venice was based above all on its outstanding reputation among its contemporaries.

The Venerable Bede on Prayer and Contemplation

Traditio ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 1-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott DeGregorio
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Good Sense ◽  
Venerable Bede ◽  
The Middle Ages

As a monk at the famous Northumbrian monastery of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede (673–735) produced a body of exegetical work that enjoyed enormous popularity throughout the Middle Ages. Something of that spirit seems to have reawakened in recent years, as Bede's commentaries are increasingly being studied and made available to wider audiences in English translation. One distinctive feature of this development is a growing awareness that Bede's reputation as an exegete is more multifaceted than has been previously realized, that it goes beyond what Beryl Smalley called “his faithful presentation of the tradition in its many aspects. Whereas earlier interpreters were content to regard Bede as a mere compiler reputed for his good sense and able Latinity, scholars are now paying homage to him as a penetrating and perceptive biblical commentator who did more than reproduce the thought of the fathers who preceded him. As I intend to show in what follows, Bede's treatment of prayer and contemplation in his exegesis attests well to this quality of his thought. The topic to date has received only minimal commentary, mainly on what Bede actually taught about prayer. My approach will be different. I begin with a discussion not of Bede's exegetical method but of his occupations and aims as a spiritual writer. Neither Bede's spirituality nor his role as spiritual writer have received the attention they deserve, and it is hoped that the reflections offered here will help rekindle interest in these neglected subjects. I then consider four prayer-related themes in his exegesis that bring his aims as a spiritual writer into view. Patristic tradition had commented widely on prayer, and Bede, we will see, did not set out to summarize this tradition in its entirety but rather to highlight and distill certain themes within it, those that best suited the needs of his Anglo-Saxon audience.

scholarly journals The evolution of the hospital from antiquity to the end of the middle ages

Curationis ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Cilliers ◽  
F.P. Retief
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Health Care Facilities ◽  
Public Hospitals ◽  
Nursing Facilities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Specialized Institutions ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Middle Ages

The evolution of the hospital is traced from its onset in ancient Mesopotamia towards the end of the 2nd millennium to the end of the Middle Ages. Reference is made to institutionalised health care facilities in India as early as the 5th century BC, and with the spread of Buddhism to the east, to nursing facilities, the nature and function of which are not known to us, in Sri Lanka, China and South East Asia. Special attention is paid to the situation in the Graeco-Roman era: one would expect to find the origin of the hospital in the modem sense of the word in Greece, the birthplace of rational medicine in the 4th century BC, but the Hippocratic doctors paid house-calls, and the temples of Asclepius were visited for incubation sleep and magico-religious treatment. In Roman times the military and slave hospitals which existed since the 1st century AD, were built for a specialized group and not for the public, and were therefore also not precursors of the modem hospital. It is to the Christians that one must turn for the origin of the modem hospital. Hospices, initially built to shelter pilgrims and messengers between various bishops, were under Christian control developed into hospitals in the modem sense of the word. In Rome itself, the first hospital was built in the 4th century AD by a wealthy penitent widow, Fabiola. In the early Middle Ages (6th to 10th century), under the influence of the Benedictine Order, an infirmary became an established part of every monastery. During the late Middle Ages (beyond the 10th century) monastic infirmaries continued to expand, but public hospitals were also opened, financed by city authorities, the church and private sources. Specialized institutions, like leper houses, also originated at this time. During the Golden Age of Islam the Muslim world was clearly more advanced than its Christian counterpart with magnificent hospitals in various countries.

scholarly journals composer phenomenon in a historical retrospect of an authorship idea formation in European musical culture of the middle ages

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (S2) ◽  
pp. 284-302
Author(s):  
Iryna Yu Konovalova
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Musical Culture ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
European Culture ◽  
Historical Retrospect ◽  
Idea Formation ◽  
The Middle Ages

The article is devoted to comprehension of specifics and formation prerequisites of composer’s and musical authorship phenomena historical formation in European culture of the Middle Ages. Genesis of composer’s phenomenon and individual musical authorship model is considered on the basis of historical, socio-cultural and aesthetic-artistic transformations, on awareness about their dynamic’s tendencies and general cultural institutionalization of an authorship phenomenon, as well as on an increasing role of individual creativity in an artistic realm. It is stated that multi-ethnic and anonymous culture of oral tradition, folklore and Christian singing practices, as well as instrumental improvisation’s traditions, became spiritual sources of this phenomena and turn into a strong foundation of musical professionalism and creative impulse for European authorial music evolution. It is emphasized that process of composer’s formation as a creativity subject and musical professionalism carrier was stimulated by the necessity of everyday vocal-choral practice, conditioned by the spiritual context of time, by intention on theocentric world’s picture and religious – Christian outlook dominance. Significant role of secular direction development in the context of music-author’s discourse formation and composer’s figure assertion in the late Middle Ages is highlighted. 

scholarly journals The Danse Macabre of the Beram Frescoes in the Chapel of sv. Marija na Škrilinah

2018 ◽  
Vol 73. (3) ◽  
pp. 409-410
Author(s):  
Mirela Lenković
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Illuminated Manuscripts ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
14Th Century ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Legenda Aurea ◽  
Artistic Heritage ◽  
The Middle Ages

The Danse Macabre as an iconographic theme appears in the Middle Ages across all of Europe carrying within it a message of the equality among people regardless of their station in life. Medieval artists used the various templates available to them: Biblia pauperum, Meditationes Vitae Christi, Legenda aurea, artistic templates, woodcuts, illuminated manuscripts, and the like. Scenes of the dying and death of ordinary people were not a theme of iconographic content prior to the Late Middle Ages, but rather begin to appear in the 14th century. There emerge at that time several categories of iconographic deaths. The Danse Macabre of the Beram frescoes (in the Chapel of sv. Marija na Škrilinah, 1474) contributes immeasurably to the artistic heritage of the Middle Ages as well as to Croatian cultural heritage.

Centralisation of Power: Christianity and Urbanisation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Sanmark
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Site Location ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Parish Churches ◽  
Assembly Site ◽  
The Middle Ages

This chapter builds further on the idea of the constantly shifting and evolving thing site, examining in detail the modifications that took place in assembly site location and features from the late tenth and eleventh centuries until the end of the Middle Ages in Scandinavia. Alterations in the tenth and eleventh centuries are most clearly seen in the rune-stone rich areas of the Mälaren region of Sweden and most of the evidence presented here relating to this time period is therefore from this area. The changes observed at this time can, however, be expected in other geographical areas too, bearing in mind the major societal shifts, such as urbanisation and Christianisation, that seem to have been driving them forward. Further changes in the following centuries, connected with to building of parish churches and cathedrals as well as urbanisation, are also investigated. The most striking pattern to emerge in the late Middle Ages is the gradual merging of top-level assemblies, trade and episcopal sees in the towns.

‘Nonnatus dictus quod caeso defunctae matris utero prodiit’. Postmortem Caesarean Section in the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandra Foscati
Keyword(s):  
Caesarean Section ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Routine Practice ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Different Sources ◽  
The Middle Ages

Abstract Historians call sectio in mortua the act of opening the abdomen of a woman who has died during pregnancy or in childbirth in order to extract a baby. According to recent studies, the sectio is considered to be a routine practice carried out by male surgeons from the end of the Middle Ages, particularly in Italy, where the evidence of the sectio being performed by a midwife is scanty. But was it really such a popular operation at the time, and can the figure of the midwife be seen as secondary? It is also known that the operation was qualified through aspects which went beyond the surgical sphere, such as religion, myth, and especially law. How did these fields interact? This article highlights the complexity of sectio through the interpretation of different sources spanning from the late Middle Ages to the Early Modern period.

Real Incomes in the Late Middle Ages: A Test of the Common Case for Diminishing Returns

1977 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-118
Author(s):  
Gerald Gunderson
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Formal Specification ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Diminishing Returns ◽  
The Common ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Substantial Decline ◽  
The Middle Ages

By now it is received doctrine of long standing that the economies of northwestern Europe were repeatedly held in check by diminishing returns in the Middle Ages. Much of this argument has been focused on the course of economic affairs in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This period is commonly pictured as the most dramatic example of the normal tendency for population growth to place increasingly severe pressure on the resource base. The evidence most frequently offered to support this thesis for the fourteenth century is the substantial decline in population to which the Black Death is believed to be a dramatic, but by no means exclusive, contributor. This is not to say that it has been generally believed that no growth occurred in the Middle Ages. On the contrary, many proponents of this view stress that there were lengthy subperiods within the era in which both per capita income and population increased. It is held that ultimately such gains were reversed and pushed back to the level of subsistence, however. The dominant force is seen to be diminishing returns à la Malthus in that population always continued to increase until eventually—intermittent growth notwithstanding—it spread the available nonhuman resources so thinly across the population that further increase in its size was impossible. Probably the best known spokesman for this thesis is Professor M. M. Postan. He has spent a good part of his distinguished career constructing the conceptual model and assembling the historical evidence to substantiate the hypothesis. The essentials of his position are supported by the other widely recognized commentators on the question-Georges Duby, N. J. G. Pounds, Sylvia L. Thrupp, J. Z. Titow, and B. H. Slicher Van Bath. Recently the view has been given a modern, formal specification in the works of Douglass C. North and Robert P. Thomas and that of Ronald Lee. In recent years some of the components of this explanation have been challenged by scholars such as Barbara Harvey, John Hatcher, Mavis Mate, N. J. Mayhew, and D. G. Watts. The traditional view seems to have survived such doubts, however, as is apparent in the tendency of scholars to continue to couch their investigations of economic affairs in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in that framework. The issue is certainly important enough, however, that a comprehensive reexamination of it is warranted.

scholarly journals Die Benennung und Bestimmung der Räume im südlichen Repräsentativteil des Geschosses des zweiten „Hochmeisterpalastes“ auf der Marienburg im Mittelalter im Lichte der Schriftquellen

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 315-340
Author(s):  
Sławomir Jóźwiak ◽  
Janusz Trupinda
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Intended Use ◽  
Written Sources ◽  
The Middle Ages

Nomenclature and intended use of the rooms of the southern (representative) part of the upper floor of the “palace” of Grand Masters in the Marienburg Castle in the Middle Ages on the basis of written sources   The analyses carried out in this article concerning the southern part of  the upper floor of the new (second) “palace” of the Teutonic Order’s superiors in the late Middle Ages allow to formulate several important conclusions. First of all, the building certainly existed before 11 September 1392, but it cannot be ruled out that it was erected at the beginning of the 1370s. In the fifteenth-century sources, its entire southern representative part (looking from the so-called Low and High Halls) along with five rooms of different sizes located there, were referred to as the “Summer (or, less often, Winter) chamber (gemach)”. This name comes from the most characteristic interiors located there: the “Summer Refectory” / “Great Summer Hall” in the western part and the Winter Refectory in the central part. The thorough analysis of medieval written sources carried out in this article allows for the formulation of the thesis that the chamber located in the easternmost part of the southern part of the “palace”, supported by two columns, should be  identified as the “Minor Summer Hall” (aula minor estivalis), which was recorded in the transumpt of 14 May 1456. Thus, all the suggestions concerning this interior and its supposed intended use in the discussed period, hitherto put forward by the researchers who have so far formulated their conclusions in isolation from the written accounts of the period, should be rejected. This name comes from the most characteristic interiors located there: the "Summer Refectory" / "Great Summer Hall" in the western part and the Winter Refectory in the central part. The thorough analysis of medieval written sources carried out in this article allowed for the formulation of the thesis that the chamber located in the easternmost part of the southern part of the "palace", supported by two columns, should be  identified as the "Minor Summer Hall" (aula minor estivalis), which was recorded in the transumpt of 14 May 1456. Thus, all the suggestions concerning this interior and its supposed intended use in the discussed period,  hitherto put forward by the researchers who have so far formulated their conclusions in isolation from the written accounts of the period, should be rejected.

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