Medieval History
In canto XVII of Inferno, Dante anticipated the principle of Galilean invariance 300 years before Galileo. Even earlier, Islamic steelmakers in Damascus unwittingly exploited nanotechnology in the manufacture of sabres that became the envy of the world. So the middle ages weren't so medieval.
Almost the only annoying thing about James Hannam's admirable book is his opening insistence on a conspiracy of "popular opinion, journalistic cliche and misinformed historians" to denigrate the middle ages, and he cites the compass, Columbus and the 1455 printed Bible of Gutenberg as advances of the middle ages. In this conspiracy, whenever someone discovered evidence of reason or progress in the 14th or 15th centuries, he writes "it could easily be labelled 'early-Renaissance' so as to preserve the negative connotations of the adjective 'medieval'." The OED gives no dates for the medieval period, but it tells me that the Renaissance began in Italy in the 14th century.
Click here to read the review from the Guardian
- Mysteries And Masterpieces: The Latest Stage In The ?american Conquest Of The Middle Ages?
In 2011, Harvard University Press celebrated the hundredth anniversary of the Loeb Classical Library, the renowned series that presents accessible editions of ancient texts with English translations on the facing page. The covers of the Loebs?red for...
- New Robin Hood Book Unravels Fact From Fiction
The legend of Robin Hood began more than 700 years ago. But Professor Sir James Holt, one of the world's leading medieval historians, believes the elusive character from Sherwood Forest ? if he existed at all ? lived even earlier. In a definitive...
- Ok, More Medievalism Stuff...
....this one from Douglas Rushkoff, "media ecologist" and author of Life, Inc. In this interview via the Reality Sandwich blog, Rushkoff contrasts the "Dark Ages" with what he sees as our corporate dominated future, and finds the Middle Ages were probably...
- Thomas Lawrence Long Reviews Kelen (ed.) Renaissance Retrospections
Thomas Lawrence Long recently reviewed Kelen, Sarah A. (ed), Renaissance Retrospections: Tudor Views of the Middle Ages. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2013, for Medievally Speaking. Perhaps because I have traversed three-score years...
- Cfp Deadline Soon
CFP: "Renaissance Medievalisms in Performance" (15 March; MLA, San Francisco, 27-30 December 2008) Renaissance Medievalisms in Performance Session sponsored by the Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society Modern Language Association Convention 27-30 December...
Medieval History
God's Philosophers by James Hannam ? review
In canto XVII of Inferno, Dante anticipated the principle of Galilean invariance 300 years before Galileo. Even earlier, Islamic steelmakers in Damascus unwittingly exploited nanotechnology in the manufacture of sabres that became the envy of the world. So the middle ages weren't so medieval.
Almost the only annoying thing about James Hannam's admirable book is his opening insistence on a conspiracy of "popular opinion, journalistic cliche and misinformed historians" to denigrate the middle ages, and he cites the compass, Columbus and the 1455 printed Bible of Gutenberg as advances of the middle ages. In this conspiracy, whenever someone discovered evidence of reason or progress in the 14th or 15th centuries, he writes "it could easily be labelled 'early-Renaissance' so as to preserve the negative connotations of the adjective 'medieval'." The OED gives no dates for the medieval period, but it tells me that the Renaissance began in Italy in the 14th century.
Click here to read the review from the Guardian
- Mysteries And Masterpieces: The Latest Stage In The ?american Conquest Of The Middle Ages?
In 2011, Harvard University Press celebrated the hundredth anniversary of the Loeb Classical Library, the renowned series that presents accessible editions of ancient texts with English translations on the facing page. The covers of the Loebs?red for...
- New Robin Hood Book Unravels Fact From Fiction
The legend of Robin Hood began more than 700 years ago. But Professor Sir James Holt, one of the world's leading medieval historians, believes the elusive character from Sherwood Forest ? if he existed at all ? lived even earlier. In a definitive...
- Ok, More Medievalism Stuff...
....this one from Douglas Rushkoff, "media ecologist" and author of Life, Inc. In this interview via the Reality Sandwich blog, Rushkoff contrasts the "Dark Ages" with what he sees as our corporate dominated future, and finds the Middle Ages were probably...
- Thomas Lawrence Long Reviews Kelen (ed.) Renaissance Retrospections
Thomas Lawrence Long recently reviewed Kelen, Sarah A. (ed), Renaissance Retrospections: Tudor Views of the Middle Ages. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2013, for Medievally Speaking. Perhaps because I have traversed three-score years...
- Cfp Deadline Soon
CFP: "Renaissance Medievalisms in Performance" (15 March; MLA, San Francisco, 27-30 December 2008) Renaissance Medievalisms in Performance Session sponsored by the Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society Modern Language Association Convention 27-30 December...