Hundreds of years ago, people spoke Old English – but it is very different to English today.
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Articles on Middle Ages
Displaying 1 - 20 of 37 articles
Standards of beauty have been embedded in different cultures, in varying forms, from time immemorial. What endures is that women are still regarded as inferior to men.
We might expect that accounts of earthquakes from the medieval period have been lost to history, but some have survived.
During the Middle Ages, women were steadily excluded from both the practice and the study of medicine by an overwhelmingly male-dominated, institutional and hierarchical system.
Medieval manuscripts are littered with images of cats – sharing their owner’s dinner, keeping them company, and even cosplaying as nuns.
The press, films and series and even everyday language still reflect a derogatory conception of the Middle Ages. Was the period really that bad?
Churches’ struggles to respond to the plague and constant warfare in the 14th and 15th centuries helped shape the kinds of Christianity in the world today.
This illustrated health manual dating back to the 13th century provides a glimpse of daily life in aristocratic households during the Middle Ages.
The view of Valentine’s Day as a day for lovers can be traced back to two medieval poets who stood up for romance and the freedom to choose.
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.
Societies and cultures that seem ossified and entrenched can be completely upended by pandemics, which create openings for conquest, innovation and social change.
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.
In medieval times natural phenomena, such as comets and eclipses, were regarded as portents of natural disasters, including plagues.
Those experiencing stress and uncertainty amid the coronavirus may find guidance in medieval responses to plagues, which relied on both medicine and prayer.
Some medieval Christian women locked themselves away in the name of their faith. Here are their insights into self-isolation.
How science has been used to predict wind and rain for over 1,000 years.
Nativity scenes showing the birth of baby Jesus first originated in the small Italian town of Greccio.
Wherever and whenever ghost stories materialise, they tend to tap into the things we fear most.
Looking nostalgically to the past, a young architect sought to revive the building as a bulwark to the uncertainty of the Industrial Revolution.
The Notre Dame Cathedral was long a powerful symbol of church authority - but it wasn’t static. The design kept changing to keep up with the changing times.
Top contributors
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Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Department of Physics, University of York
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Professor in High Medieval History, Durham University
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Associate Professor in Experimental Psychology (Perception), University of Oxford
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Lecturer n History, The Open University
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Senior Lecturer, School of Philosophical, Historical & International Studies, Monash University
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Professor of English, Macquarie University
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Senior Lecturer, University of Liverpool
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Hansen Lecturer in History, The University of Melbourne
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Lecturer in Medieval History, Cardiff University
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Senior Lecturer in Medieval English Literature, Swansea University
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Associate Professor of English, UMass Amherst
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Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, Western Sydney University
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Lecturer in Organic Geochemistry, University of Aberdeen
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Byzantine History, Hitotsubashi University
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MA Student Conflict, Security and Development, King's College London
