St Benedict delivering his rule to the monks of his order.
WikiCommons
Monks who failed to factor in the leap day placed spring equinox on the wrong day, which meant Ash Wednesday, Lent, Holy Week and Pentecost were also marked on the wrong day.
A miniature of the Erythrean Sibyl, writing.
British Library, Royal 16 G V f. 23.
While the wider literature tells us that medieval women were silent and passive, their letters and embroideries tell a different story.
Dogs being taken care of in an image from Livre de la Chasse (Book of the Hunt).
The Morgan Library and Museum/Faksimile Verlag Luzern
The place of dogs in society changed when hunting became an aristocratic pastime, rather than a necessity.
The interior of Sainte-Chapelle, a Gothic chapel in Paris.
SIAATH/Shutterstock
The Middle Ages are often portrayed as dark and dirty. New research is revealing that it was, in fact, a period filled with light and colour.
Plato, Seneca and Aristotle in an illustration from a medieval manuscript circa 1325.
The Picture Art Collection/Alamy Stock Photo
The sheer quantity of data these processes will make available has significant ramifications for scholarship.
This 15th-century medical manuscript shows different colors of urine alongside the ailments they signify.
Cambridge University Library
Your doctor’s MD emerged from the Dark Ages, where practicing rational “human medicine” was seen as an expression of faith and maintaining one’s health a religious duty.
Knights travel to battle in an illustration from a Medieval manuscript.
British Library
For the 50th anniversary of Tolkien’s death, I want to celebrate some of his major contributions to the study of medieval literature.
Battle in the margins from the Gorleston Psalter (1310-1324).
British Library
Snails were recognised in medieval times for their unusual strength, given that they were able to carry their home on their back.
A stone statue of Dewi Sant inside St Davids Cathedral in Pembrokeshire.
Peter Barritt/Alamy
Much of what we know about the life of the sixth century monk, St David, comes from medieval texts written several centuries later.
An artistic impression of how the Newport Medieval ship may have looked .
David Jordan/Newport Museums and Heritage Service
The Newport medieval ship is the most complete section of a 15th-century European vessel discovered to date.
More people moved into Scandinavia in Viking times than at any other time period analysed in the study.
Shutterstock
DNA analysis reveals a large migration of people into Scandinavia during Viking times.
Getty Open Collection, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles,
Many people gathered and slept in a shared warm space in medieval times.
Medieval city on a river, by Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1815).
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie / Andres Kilger
The press, films and series and even everyday language still reflect a derogatory conception of the Middle Ages. Was the period really that bad?
An anonymous 15th century painting of Isabella and Richard II.
Wikimedia Commons
When Stephanie Trigg was a young reader, The Gentle Falcon, set in 1396, introduced her to the beauty and danger of the medieval world.
‘Le Régime du corps’ described a variety of ways to maintain health by keeping the body in balance.
The Bute Painter, circa 1285, MS Arsenal 2510, © Bibliothèque nationale de France
This illustrated health manual dating back to the 13th century provides a glimpse of daily life in aristocratic households during the Middle Ages.
An Instacart worker loads groceries into her car for home delivery. There is a strong argument to be made that gig work is false self-employment, meaning that workers are not actually freelance.
(AP Photo/Ben Margot)
Feudalism has been replaced by capitalism, and the new villeiny — or neo-villeiny — has emerged to reflect a relationship between a worker and an organization.
They call her The Wife of Willesden.
Marc Brenner
Zadie Smith’s first play delivers on what women want.
In ‘The Queen’s Gambit,’ chess doubles as a game of life for protagonist Beth Harmon.
Netflix
Ever since players tweaked the game to reflect the medieval social order, poets and writers have used chess as an allegory for love, duty, conflict and accomplishment.
Woodcut, circa 1400. A witch, a demon and a warlock fly toward a peasant woman.
Hulton Archive /Handout via Getty Images
The idea of organized satanic witchcraft was invented in 15th-century Europe by church and state authorities, who at first had a hard time convincing regular folks it was real.
Chaucer commended those who followed their societal roles and condemned those who didn’t.
Morphart Creation/Shutterstock
Poets and the wealthy were angered by those who saw their opportunity to rise above their station after the plague.