Cóir Anmann is a late medieval Irish tract made up of numerous 'entries', each of which purports to explain the meaning of a particular epithet associated with a character in early history or mythology. Two separate recensions of this tract have long been known to exist, but in the course of the present study a third recension was identified. One of the main purposes of this thesis is to provide diplomatic editions of these three recensions based on all extant manuscript copies. On the way to producing these editions the manuscript tradition of the tract is reviewed, and a stemma is drawn up for each of the recensions preserved in more than one MS text. English translations have also been made available. In the introductory discussion linguistic and stylistic evidence is used to establish a chronology in which the recensions can be placed relative to one another. To this end verbal systems for the recensions have been prepared. Since the entries in <I>Cóir Anmann </I>are founded on borrowings from pre-existing sources, extracts from independent tracts corresponding to material contained in it have been identified, and suggestions on how these were handled and adapted for use in <I>Cóir Anmann</I> have been advanced. Together with the conclusions reached as to the chronology of the recensions, this study enables the way in which the tract was compiled from disparate sources and 'grew' through the extant recensions to be discerned. The dates of works quoted in <I>Cóir Anmann,</I> internal references and certain aspects of the language are then reviewed to determine the approximate compilation period for each recension. In a final consideration of the development of the tract, this thesis examines histories and genealogies written in the Early Modern period and after for which <I>Cóir Anmann </I>itself served as a source of material.

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The most important religious order in the later medieval and early modern kingdom of Castile was without any doubt that of the Order of Friars Minor. To date, however, historians have devoted remarkably little attention to the history of the Franciscans and the significant contributions which they made to the spiritual and social life of the period. Moreover, such studies as there are tend to concentrate on either traditional hagiographical themes or matters related to the history of ecclesiastical politics. This thesis attempts to study the growth, popularity, and spirituality of the Franciscans within the context of the social and political trends of the period. The first half is about patronage, the role played by the friars in the Durango heresy, the phenomenon of the Illuminists, and the growth of anti-semitism. The second half is particularly devoted to the female religious, who have been almost entirely ignored, or treated perfunctorily as handmaidens to the dominant males. Numerically of great importance as members of the Second and Third Orders, of the Order of the Immaculate Conception, and as beatas, this thesis analyses their financial problems and organisation, their dowries and social background, their demography, and their fascinating spiritual experiences. The chronological period covered runs from c.1640 to c.1560, and the second half tends to focus, but not exclusively, on female religious in Cordoba and Toledo.

My dissertation is a study of how merchants in Trecento Italy used the imagery they commissioned as a form of moral self-representation and as a practical tool in their pursuit of eternal life in heaven. The study is grounded in the theoretical framework of Michael Baxandall’s concept of the “period eye,” that is, the belief that “social facts lead to the development of distinctive visual skills and habits.” (Baxandall, 1988) A primary social fact affecting medieval merchants was their long association in Christian culture with the individual and societal evils related to the pursuit of money and wealth—the sin of avarice. This linkage was expressed across the entire range of medieval cultural expression, in texts, sermons, and imagery. The challenge for merchants, therefore, was to publicly demonstrate that they earned their money ethically and legally, that they led a morally sound life, and that they used a portion of their money for the common good, especially in caring for the poor. The commissioning and public/semi-public display of imagery thus became a way of portraying a merchant’s moral identity as a worthy civic and Christian citizen, with all of the temporal and spiritual benefits that might produce. In order to better understand how such imagery served these objectives, I have developed an analytical framework I call the Merchant’s Moral Eye. This framework consists of eight primary dimensions that I believe were fundamental to the formation of merchants’ moral beliefs and behaviours during this period. These dimensions are: 1. Purgatory 2. Medieval Spaces 3. Christian Symbolism 4. Obligation & Reciprocity 5. The Virtues & Vices 6. Fama 7. Hospitality 8. Coats of Arms Collectively, these interlaced, multidisciplinary dimensions provide a systematic approach to produce the robust contextualisation needed to explore why, and how, merchants used imagery to achieve their objectives. However, while this study’s focus is solely on the moral and salvific functions of this imagery, it needs to be remembered that the same imagery also served other more worldly objectives, be they social, economic, or political. As an analytical tool this framework enables three fundamental functions with respect to the underlying motives, meanings, and uses of merchant-commissioned art in Trecento Italy: - an assessment of the feasibility of existing interpretations - the enhancement or nuancing of existing interpretations - the identification and explication of wholly new interpretations To demonstrate the effectiveness of the framework in achieving the above, I have selected, as case studies, three merchants in three different locations, whose artistic commissions spanned the entire Trecento. These individuals and their imaged artifacts are: 1. Enrico Scrovegni of Padua and the Arena Chapel, decorated by Giotto 1303-5. 2. Domenico Lenzi of Florence and his illuminated manuscript, Lo Specchio umano (The Mirror of Humanity), produced c. 1340; 3. Francesco Datini of Prato and the Palazzo Datini, decorated in the 1390s. These individuals represent a cross-section of Trecento Italian merchants in terms of status, wealth, and public profile. These merchants and their commissioned artworks are discussed in detail using the framework dimensions as modes of enquiry to show how this imagery supported their self-representation as honest merchants and dutiful Christians, and generated the prayers and other suffrages they assumed they needed to eventually get to Heaven. In all three case studies there were significant findings that fulfilled each of the analytical functions noted above, thereby confirming the utility of the Merchant’s Moral Eye Analytical Framework as an effective methodological approach. / Graduate / 2022-05-27

Devotional and charitable confraternities were a characteristic feature of late medieval Florence. The popularity of the former, and particularly the laudesi and flagellants, stemmed from the fact that they enabled the layman to participate in areas of worship which had been previously the exclusive dcanain of the clergy. The laudesi specialised in singing lauds which during the fifteenth century came to be perfomed by professional singers and musicians. This helped the companies to maintain their devotion, but at the same tine removed the necessity for members to attend daily services. Moreover the'laudesi societies' acceptance of bequests meant that some became as concerned to provide services for the dead as for the living. In contrast flagellant canpanies retained their vitality by emphasizing a strict penitential devotion and refusing to become involved in the administration of property. ) The most important charitable cccpany was Or S. Michele, which was founded in the late thirteenth century to supervise the cult of the miraculous Madonna and to distribute the public's oblations to the poor. During the Black Death the conpany inherited a large fortune which changed the character of many of its activities. Successive governments sought to protect Or S. Michele from litigious heirs and corrupt carpany officials and then proceeded to borrow money to help cover its own debts and finance catrnunal construction projects including the oratory of Or S. Michele. After the Black Death alms were no longer distributed to a large number of paupers, but to a more exclusive clientele. By the end of the Trecento Or S. Michele had a tarnished reputation and the cult had lost much of its vitality except as a centre for public festivals. This decline was shared by the Misericordia, and Florence was thereby deprived of the services of any large private charities until the foundation of the Buonanini di S. Martino in the mid-fifteenth century.

Book Summary: Florence in the Early Modern World offers new perspectives on this important city by exploring the broader global context of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, within which the experience of Florence remains unique. By exploring the city's relationship to its close and distant neighbours, the interdisciplinary chapters reveal the transnational history of Florence. The chapters orient the lenses of the most recent historiographical turns perfected in studies on Venice, Rome, Bologna, Naples, and elsewhere towards Florence. New techniques, such as digital mapping, alongside new comparisons of Architectural Theory and merchants in Eurasia, provide the latest perspectives about Florence’s cultural and political importance before, during and after the Renaissance. From Florentine merchants in Egypt and India, through actual and idealised military ambitions in the sixteenth-century Mediterranean, to Tuscan humanists in late medieval England, the contributors to this interdisciplinary volume reveal the connections Florence held to early modern cities across the globe. Steering away from the historical narrative of an insular Renaissance Europe and instead identifying the significance of other global influences, this volume is essential reading for students and scholars of early modern cities and the Renaissance.

The late Middles Ages saw the development in Europe of increasingly complex, ambitious, and self-conscious forms of creative literature. In the works of poets such as Dante, Petrarch and Chaucer new models of authorship and poetic identity were being explored, new kinds of philosophical and aesthetic value attributed to literary discourse. But these creative developments also brought with them new dangers and tensions, a sense of guilt and uncertainty about the value of creative literature, especially in relation to the dominant religious values of late medieval culture. In this thesis I explore how these doubts and tensions find expression in Chaucer’s poetry, not only as a negative, constraining influence, but also as something which contributes to the shape and meaning of poetry itself. I argue that as Chaucer develops his own expansive, questioning poetics in The House of Fame and The Canterbury Tales, he problematises the principle of allegory on which the legitimacy of literary discourse was primarily based in medieval culture and the final fragments of The Canterbury Tales see Chaucer struggling, increasingly, to reconcile the boldness and independence of his poetic vision with the demands of his faith. This struggle, which emerges most strongly and polemically in the final fragments, I argue, runs in subtle and creative forms throughout the whole of Chaucer’s work. By seeing Chaucer in this light as a poet not of fixed, but of conflicted and vacillating intentions – a poet productively caught drawn between ‘game’ and ‘earnest’, radical ironies and Boethian truths – I attempt to account, in a holistic manner, for the major dichotomies that characterise both his work and its critical reception.

This essay discusses the width of the late medieval desertion of farms in Sweden from an archaeological perspective. The object of the essay is to investigate if archaeological investigations and research during the last 10-15 years have changed the view of the late medieval desertion in relation to the Scandinavian research project on deserted farms and villages. The essay also deals with questions on causes to the desertion and when desertion occurred. An ambition of the essay is also to give a general picture of archaeological investigations during the last 10-15 years considering the late medieval desertion. The analyses-material consists mainly of reports from archaeological investigations. Most of the investigations analysed in this essay are investigations of single farms. Because of this it is natural these investigations do not say much about the width of the desertion. As long as an archaeological investigation is not a part of a large project, where the purpose is to show the width of the desertion, one cannot expect that one single investigation will give much information or knowledge about the width. However, if the ambition is to obtain a complete picture of a medieval deserted farm or village, this essay confirms that an archaeological investigation is necessary, willingly in an interdisciplinary cooperation.

This thesis explores the spectrum of signification of disability, impairment and embodied difference in medieval drama. Drama is an important medium in which to explore what the body is used to signify as it provides an extra dimension in the physical embodiment and performance of these physical and spiritual conditions. Despite the value of medieval drama in understanding the significations of physical and psychological affliction, it remains a neglected area of scholarly research. In order to understand the meaning of dramatic representations of disability and impairment, it is necessary to explore the spectrum of signification attached to these conditions, since they could elicit such unstable and ambivalent responses. In this endeavour, this thesis consults medical, historical and cultural sources in addition to play-texts and performance evidence in order to understand the construction and representation of specific types of physical and psychological affliction in medieval drama, and what these conditions are used to signify through the body. Over the four chapters of this thesis I examine the ageing body (chapter 1); the unconverted Jewish body (chapter 2); the disease of leprosy (chapter 3); and wounds, mutilation and dismemberment (chapter 4). The play-texts I use deliberately draw upon a wide range of characters and personified abstractions, from the moral and the sacred to the immoral and the profane, from biblical drama to morality plays. These diverse conditions and identities allow an overarching insight into their use and meanings in medieval drama. Similarly, the diverse range of characters allows me to consider how the body is used to reflect the moral and spiritual condition of a character through the embodied mode of dramatic performance. For each of my chapters, the conditions I discuss possess ambivalence in their contrasting meanings, which binds the thesis together as a whole in acknowledging the changing and contrasting significations of disability, impairment and embodied difference according to the context.

ABSTRACT CHANGING PATTERNS OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY IN ENGLAND FROM THE LATE MEDIEVAL TO THE EARLY MODERN AGES ULUD&Uuml / Z, &Ouml / ZLEM M.S. Department of History Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Recep Boztemur August 2003, 132 pages This thesis analyzes the changing patterns of the institutions of family and marriage in England. The period covers the late medieval ages to the early modern ages until the middle of the eighteenth century, 1753, which represents the acceptance of an important Act on marriage by the English Parliament that ended ambiguities on the law of marriage. This study attempts to investigate the family institution and marriage practices of England, which represented a different character from other European countries throughout the period. Many important historical factors occurred throughout the period, which influenced the family structure and marriage practices such as the Reformation. Within this framework, throughout this thesis, the religious, political, economic and social factors that paved the way for transition in family and marriage will be analyzed. iii