The ten rectangular red clay tiles which comprise the collection known as the "Tring Tiles" depict stories from the apocryphal Infancy of Christ Gospels and are dated to before the second century. The eight tiles held at the British Museum and the two tiles and fragments at the Victoria and Albert Museum are believed to be the remains of a longer series which were mounted as a wall frieze in Tring Parish Church. The images on the tiles portray Jesus, from ages three to eight, performing miracles of killing and revival, trickery, and acts of charity. The final tile depicts a wedding feast similar to the feast at Cana. Explanation for the placement of these tiles, produced with a rare technique and containing unusual portrayals of Jesus, in a parish church, is dependent upon the examination and interpretation of religious and social perspectives in early fourteenth-century England.

<p> Historians of the Middle Ages have long reflected on the chronicles and archival sources of Western Europe, seeking to find the birth of the modern state. This thesis represents one such contribution to this historical problem, exploring the question of political centralization in the kingdom of France during the reigns of Capetian kings between 1151 and 1247. Focusing on the county of Anjou, this thesis contends that local aristocrats not only constructed their own political community but also used local customs to shape the contours of centralization in Anjou. Angevin sources suggest that state-building in France emerged less from conquest and occupation than as the result of cooperation between the political center and peripheral communities. The kings of France benefited from the loyalty of the Angevin political community, while local elites used royal concessions to define and defend their political and legal rights as Angevins.</p>

Because the sheriffs of late twelfth-century England played such a crucial role in maintaining law and order and in collecting royal revenue, the way that the king managed this position, either directly or through his justiciars, provides insight into his administrative competence. In the case of Richard I of England (1189-1199), to whom historians generally ascribe negative attributes, royal appointments to shrievalties indicate that Richard concerned himself with this local office, chose capable and loyal men, and used the office wisely as a means of raising much needed money. Furthermore, the justiciars named by King Richard governed well while in power, skillfully safeguarding the kingdom and doing so in large measure through judicious shrieval appointments. / The majority of those used as sheriffs did not, contrary to commonly held views, originate in the curial class; and even though secular and ecclesiastical magnates served the king in this capacity, they made up only a small minority. Instead, the typical sheriff for Richard I was a man of local stature but who had limited contacts at the royal court. Nevertheless, it was those from the curial and magnate classifications who benefitted most from the distribution of royal patronage. Remarkably, possession of a shrievalty did not provide the advantage expected for someone with such frequent access to the sources of power. / The view of Richard I as an irresponsible and unconcerned monarch, therefore, must be altered, for he fits well into the type of administrative kingship modeled by the Angevin family as a whole. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-03, Section: A, page: 1059. / Major Professor: Ralph V. Turner. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

This manuscript is housed at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and its catalogue designation is TCD 592 (T). It was published face a face with the other medieval manuscript of the same title (Rawlinson B 490) by the EETS with marginal glosses in 1898. This is the first time it is presented with full critical apparatus, however. / It is likely that T is a late fifteenth century copy of an early fifteenth century translation which was probably done by James Yonge, a Dublin notary working for James Butler, the fourth earl of Ormond. This conclusion was reached mainly because the two surviving medieval manuscripts of this work are both paired by their respective scribes with Yonge's established version of Secreta Secretorum. / Besides an apparatus criticus and textual linguistic and explanatory notes, there is an introduction describing the date, origin, authorship, and historical background of the piece with a chapter discussing Giraldus Cambrensis, author of Expugnatio Hibernica upon which T is based, and his interest in the prophetic material of Merlin Silvester. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-03, Section: A, page: 0927. / Major Professor: Eugene J. Crook. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

The study attempts to show how the presence and writings of Antonio Beccadelli helped to transform the image of Alfonso IV of Aragon into the most admired and exalted sovereign and Patron of the Arts, Alfonso V the Magnanimous, King of Naples. The first chapter treats the historical, political, and religious conditions of Italy prior to Alfonso's conquest of Naples in 1442, especially from the Anjou period to the court of Robert The Wise, who started a tradition of literary and artistic Patronage in Naples. Chapter two examines the Neapolitan years of Alfonso, his judicial and administrative reforms as well as the King's relation with his subjects. Alfonso's humanistic court, the creation of his library, his passion for manuscripts and the works written in the King's honor represent the contents of the third chapter. Beccadelli's major work De dictis et factis Alphonsi Regis Aragonum is analyzed in Chapter Four with the purpose of showing the idealization of Alfonso's figure and the rapport between the author and his friend and royal protector. Additional elements, such as the Triumphal Arch, medals and coins showing Alfonso as a symbol of imperial glory are included in the fifth chapter to further validate the thesis's premise of Alfonso's transformation. Literary sources from the centuries following Alfonso's era illustrate the fame acquired in Spain and in Italy by the Aragonese sovereign, especially through the ever-increasing popularity of Beccadelli's Dictis et factis. In fact, the work was translated into several languages and excerpts of it were even incorporated in other collections of similar genre, for the transformation of Alfonso's image and his renown through the centuries that followed his death is indeed due exclusively to Antonio Beccadelli's book. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-02, Section: A, page: 0501. / Major Professor: David H. Darst. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

Roscelin of Compiegne (ca. 1050-ca. 1121) usually is regarded as the founder of nominalism. I show that Roscelin did not originate this position on the question of universals, but instead is an early Mediaeval representative of a tradition of anti-realism which has its roots in the Early Stoa, and perhaps earlier in the Sophists. / In the first chapter I trace the origins of anti-realism to the relativistic humanism and empiricism of the Sophists. I lay out Plato's early theory of Forms as a response to the Sophists, and then I examine Aristotle's criticisms of the Forms from the Topics and the Categories. I then introduce the Stoics' rejection of the Forms as the origin of what in the Middle Ages became anti-realism. / Chapters II through IV trace the development of the question of universals as a distinct philosophical problem, and anti-realism as an answer, in the context of Platonic, Aristotelian, Stoic, and Roman Grammatical traditions. I examine the works of major figures, from Porphyry to Berengar of Tours, to show the development of the various answers to the question of universals. / In Chapter V, I take a close look at the only book devoted to Roscelin's life and thought, Roscelin Philosophe et Theologien, written in 1911 by Francois Picavet. I show that there was a tradition of dialectical anti-realism of which Roscelin was but one early twelfth century representative. / By showing that Roscelin was not the originator of anti-realism, I am suggesting that an examination of the early Mediaeval debate on universals in light of its descent from much earlier traditions demonstrates the philosophical richness of the early Middle Ages and is greater than is commonly supposed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-08, Section: A, page: 3159. / Major Professor: C. David Gruender. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

William of Rubruck was a Franciscan friar who travelled to the court of Mongke Khan at the time when the Mongol empire was reaching its apogee as the largest empire in the world. His attempt to start a Catholic mission there failed. The report he wrote to King Louis IX of France has survived and has proven to be extraordinarily reliable, but historians have not seriously questioned how his motives for writing influenced the contents of this report. William's education and ambitions affected both his perceptions and what he chose to describe. William sought to salvage his failure by including information for future missions in his report on the many competing religions in the polyglot Mongol capital. Because of this, William's report contains invaluable information concerning the beliefs of Nestorian Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, and shamans in the Mongolian empire.

John of Biclar, a Gothic abbot (later bishop) in sixth-century Spain, wrote a chronicle in Latin for the years A.D. 567 to 590 in the tradition of Christian chronicles begun by Eusebius of Caesarea. He records a period of political consolidation of the Spanish peninsula under the Arian Visigothic king, Leovigild, as well as events during the reigns of the contemporary Roman emperors. John's accomplishment is unusual for a Goth at this time, as is his education in Greek and Latin, received during a stay of seventeen years in Constantinople. John's Chronicle reflects ideas from his predecessors (Victor of Tunnuna and Prosper of Aquitaine) as well as Byzantine and Gothic influences. An English translation of the Chronicle is included in this study.

Chaucer's insistence on the name of Sarpedon signals the importance of the Iliad, with its treatment both of the hero and the theme of necessity, for the development of his Troilus. Chaucer's access to the Iliad was second hand through the Italians who were cultural heirs to the Greeks. The story of Homer's Troy reached Chaucer through three traditions: the classical, euhemeristic, and epic recountings of the people and gods of Troy; the romance tales of the fall of Troy and its lovers; the Christian mythographic allegorizing of the Trojan material. The mythographic is itself an offshoot of the epic because it also treats of Gods and men while the romance debunks the otherworldly in favor of earthly affairs. Finally, Chaucer takes a pagan tale, views it through a Dantean lens, and presents it to a fourteenth century Christian audience, integrating the romance back into the epic by expanding its scope beyond the material universe ruled by fate to a world within the Dantean universe which uses fate as an instrument of Providence but leaves men free to choose. Chaucer's Troilus, developed from Priam's two word epitaph to the hero and derived from Sarpedon, Achilles, and Hector, becomes more understandable in light of Sarpedon's acknowledgment of fate and assertion of will. Chapter One traces Sarpedon and necessity from Homer to Chaucer through the epic material about Troy. Chapter Two develops the emergence of Chaucer's Troilus from the suppressed deeds and characteristics of Homer's Sarpedon, Achilles, and Hector. Chapter Three examines Chaucer's adaptation of the mythographic method. In place of Christian allegoresis he employs myth as subtext, using Sarpedon's feast as a center of a debate about fate and using Cassandra to join the fates of Thebes to Troy and Troy to London. Chapter Four explores the Thomistic synthesis, examining the necessity soliloquy as scholastic parody and comic center for Chaucer's theme of fate and will and using Dantes's Purgatorio to interpret Troilus' Christian apotheosis, beyond the pagan apotheosis of Sarpedon's immortalization as hero, by Troilus' removal to the spheres of the Dantean universe.

This study discusses the L'Homme arme tradition in Burgundy and places the six Naples L'Homme arme masses in that tradition. The first part of the thesis describes the court of Burgundy and the Order of the Golden Fleece as well as masses based on L'homme arme possibly connected to the Court. The second part shows how the six anonymous masses based on L'homme arme, now conserved in Naples, are connected to the Burgundian court and, by extension, the Order of the Golden Fleece. I show how the coat of arms in the manuscript of the masses could be of Burgundian origin. I then show how the language of the dedication and also the Kyrie tropes points to a Burgundian genesis.