Medieval History
Adam Davis is a historian whose research causes him to straddle centuries on a daily basis. Now, the associate professor has received a yearlong fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities to dig deeper into the 12th and 13th centuries in Champagne, France. Davis will study hospitals, wills, charitable practices of the day, and even medieval guilt.
On the face of it, examining the source documents of medieval French hospitals doesn?t sound like uncovering King Solomon?s mines, but Davis begs to differ. He says he?s actually studying a previously unknown charitable revolution.
In earlier times, monasteries provided care for the poor and sick. But during the 12th and 13th centuries, wealthy laypeople founded hundreds of hospitals to provide for Europe?s needy. In the Middle Ages, hospitals were multifunctional religious institutions?almost a hybrid between a shelter, nursing home, and inn?housing the sick, poor, and powerless, as well as travelers.
?By the 13th century, hospitals had become one of the most popular recipients of charitable bequests,? says Davis. ?In a number of regions, well over half of testaments, left by people from all cross-sections of life included bequests for hospices, hospitals, and leprosaries (quarantined houses for patients suffering from leprosy).?
Click here to read this article from Denison University
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Medieval History
Scholar to research charity and guilt in medieval Champagne
On the face of it, examining the source documents of medieval French hospitals doesn?t sound like uncovering King Solomon?s mines, but Davis begs to differ. He says he?s actually studying a previously unknown charitable revolution.
In earlier times, monasteries provided care for the poor and sick. But during the 12th and 13th centuries, wealthy laypeople founded hundreds of hospitals to provide for Europe?s needy. In the Middle Ages, hospitals were multifunctional religious institutions?almost a hybrid between a shelter, nursing home, and inn?housing the sick, poor, and powerless, as well as travelers.
?By the 13th century, hospitals had become one of the most popular recipients of charitable bequests,? says Davis. ?In a number of regions, well over half of testaments, left by people from all cross-sections of life included bequests for hospices, hospitals, and leprosaries (quarantined houses for patients suffering from leprosy).?
Click here to read this article from Denison University
- Aberdeen Bestiary Goes On Public Display For The First Time
The Aberdeen Bestiary, a beautifully illustrated manuscript that dates back to the twelfth century and which once belonged to King Henry VIII, can now be seen by the public for the first time at the the University of Aberdeen. The new exhibition Gilded...
- Minnesota Professor Receives Funding To Research Medieval Religious Women In Germany
In the past year, Jennifer Deane, associate professor of history at the University of Minnesota Morris, has received two grants: the University of Minnesota Grant-in-Aid-of-Research and a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend, which fund...
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Franklin T. Harkins, Ph.D., assistant professor of theology and medieval studies, is working to shed new light on the nature of theological education in the High Middle Ages. As part of a yearlong Mellon Fellowship at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval...
- Natalie Zemon Davis Wins Holberg Prize
Natalie Zemon Davis, a renowned scholar of late medieval and early modern history, has won the prestigious Holberg International Memorial Prize, worth $785,000 US, for outstanding scholarly work in the arts and humanities, social sciences, law or theology....
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