This image of Pope Benedict IX (d. 1056) does not do his reputation justice. He was put in power by a male relative at the young age of 20, and lived such an immoral life that he was forced to abdicate twice. He managed to worm his way back into power, serving as pope for […]
This painting by al-Qazwini (1203-1283) shows a monster from the Gog and Magog legend. The Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Qur’an each mention Gog and Magog as either monstrous people or wild places. Their stories evolved, but usually referred to a threatening, beastly pseudo-human group that threatened a righteous (usually Godly) and civilized
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Statue made of Birchwood of the Virgin Mary, with glass eyes. Autun region of France, c. 1130-40.
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If you wanted to feel special in the 14th c., you might have tried to get ahold of objects like these: reliquaries were sacred containers of the holy bodily remains of Europe’s medieval superheroes, the Christian saints. This shoe (suggesting that inside was part of a foot) depicts Saint Margaret just having busted her way
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Hieronymous Bosch, “Third Day of Creation,” (c. 1490-1510). Bosch was a proto-surrealist oil painter from the Medieval Netherlands with a wonderfully twisted imagination. This painting represents the world as he imagined it before the creation of animals. Here, the color scheme (typical for the exterior of tryptichs, which this was) brings out the drabness of
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This is a photo of the Charles Bridge, spanning the Vltava River in the city of Prague. One of the loveliest Medieval bridges still extant, it was finished in 1402. There is a really neat animation that in three minutes shows how the bridge was built (it actually took 45 years IRL). Unfortunately Instagram won’t
There’s a famous children’s book called _Everybody Poops_, and this photo might look like some sort of rendition of that. Here you can see birds, horses, dogs, pigs, and rabbits all in the act of defecating. Our own human species is represented in the second row, right next to the donkey. This visual diagram is
This is a medieval rendition of Porphyry of Tyre, a philosopher who lived in the late Roman Empire (c 234-305 CE), and one of the most articulate advocates of vegetarianism from Ancient world. Porphyry was renowned for many philosophical contributions, including writing the standard textbook on logic that lasted for over a thousand years, as
The dome above the mirhab in the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordova, 965 CE. The octagonal-faceted dome is worked with gold and crafted with some of the finest mosaic tile-work in the world. The mirhab oriented Spanish Muslims to the direction of prayer. The fact that it was funded with gold from the Christian Byzantine Empire illustrates
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This illustration from a French _Book of Hours_ dating c. 1475 depicts a bleeding Eucharist wafer that medieval people considered miraculous. It even has a name: “the Sacred Bleeding Host of Dijon.” Medieval people were spellbound by miraculous bleeding communion wafers such as this one, but there was an ugly underside to this devotion: it
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Our modern university is a direct descendant of the Medieval institution. Of the many differences between these early centers of education and our modern ones (eg, only dudes allowed), there are some significant similarities. You can see from this illuminated illustration from 1400 that the lecturer up at the podium to the left is not
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The ruins of Suso Monastery in San Millán de la Cogolla look eerily beautiful in this image, evocative of a distant past whose details are lost to us now. Situated in northern Spain, they are some of the last surviving remains of the Visigothic Kingdom that ruled the Iberian peninsula from the late fifth century
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The Knights of the Round Table, part of the adventurers of the Medieval Arthurian legends, included the nobleman featured here in this manuscript from about 1350. He was courageous, he helped his mother gain political power, and he was a bad-ass fighter. And also, Sir Morien was black. King Arthur et al were not real,
This is a pretty good artistic rendering of a tapestry so damaged that I didn’t bother posting a photo of it here. And although it’s hard to see, if you look just right you’ll make out a bunch of human dead (probably) bodies hanging from the branches. You can see their limbs dangling and their
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Anglo-saxon manuscripts, like the 8th century Vespasian Psalter pictured here, frequently used the color yellow. It was reminiscent of gold, but much less expensive than gold leaf. And gold was a favorite of these Early Medieval people. Anglo-Saxon writers liked to talk about the beauty of the way gold flickered and glimmered in the firelight.
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Cats hunting for mice in a medieval manuscript. Although most medieval written records about cats viewed them in purely functional terms, many nuns and monks kept small animals as pets that they felt affectionate for.
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Charlemagne (d.814), ruler of much of Western Europe, wanted to revive learning in his lands. So he gathered scholars from all over the place to cultivate an intellectual circle. Sadly, even though he wanted to be educated, he was unable to learn how to use a stylus and never could write. (His contemporary and biographer
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This map shows a likely location for the Irish forest of Focluth, where St. Patrick was brought as a slave before his escape to eventually become a missionary. The slave trade into Ireland was robust in Patrick’s fifth-century world. Slaves were the lowest members of a relatively poor society, living alongside clan chieftains (Tuath) and
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Modern copy of a Japanese _juunihitoe_ or “twelve layered” kimono worn by aristocratic women from the Heian period (9th-12th centuries). These outfits actually weighed women down because of the amount of fabric involved.
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A page from the _Etymologiae_ by the 6th-century scholar Isidore of Seville. In the Middle Ages, this was considered one of the most important books written. Isidore tried to cram in every bit of knowledge he thought was important. Although this book preserved a lot of Ancient Roman and Greek knowledge, the book’s popularity ironically
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