This thesis aims to assess the social structure of budeč hillfort settlement during the second half of the 9th century to the 10th century in terms of biological anthropology. The first part deals with the processing of skeletal remains from a mass grave "Na Týnici" from the perspective of traumatology. The second part is devoted to anthropologically not assesed burial place around the church of St. Peter, which is the oldest example of the church necropolis in Bohemia. Thesis presents an anthropological analysis of human skeletal remains and their statistical comparison with cemeteries on Budeč hillfort and its hinterland (Zákolany, Na Týnici and Brandýsek) and other early medieval cemeteries in Bohemia and Moravia.

In 1290, members of the de Viane family donated a six-volume set of large, deluxe liturgical manuscripts to the Cistercian nuns of Beaupré in Grimminge, East Flanders. The three extant volumes and a later supplement are now known as the Beaupré Antiphoner (Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, W. 759-762). The nuns used, extensively revised, and supplemented the antiphoner for the next five hundred years until the abbey was suppressed in 1796 during the French Revolution. The manuscript offers a bottom-up perspective on the history of Cistercian chant in a women’s community. It also fills lacunae in the documentary sources related to reform and change in the history of the abbey. Revisions made in the late fifteenth century under the Observant movement suggest a revival of interest in St. Bernard and the “Bernardine” recension of Cistercian chant. Further alterations in the early modern period demonstrate that the nuns did not abandon their medieval chant tradition and adopt post-Tridentine versions until the late eighteenth century, approximately two hundred years after the publication of the Roman breviary of Pope Pius V (1568). The nuns viewed their carefully considered revisions as a necessary condition of continuity, not as a threat to it.

1 Abstract Plant macro remains from archaeological situations were studied in order to trace the history of gradual formation of today's synanthropic vegetation. Synanthropic plants represent a heterogeneous group of species with various qualities and strategies, as well as with various immigration histories. In general, the synanthropic flora is rich in aliens, so it is important to know, when exactly these species immigrated to our territory (to know their residence time). Besides the determination of the residence time of alien plants, also the dynamics of formation of urban flora and vegetation was studied. Special attention was paid to the Medieval Period, when the urbanisation process started. The emergence of urban agglomeration may have been the cause of the emergence of new habitats, followed by formation of new plant associations - the predecessors of the today's ones. In general, towns represent a special case of anthropogenic environment with many various synanthropic habitats, causing their species richness. Questions 1. When exactly the synanthropic flora of medieval towns emerged? Was the transition from the Prehistory to the Medieval Period rather gradual or sudden? 2. What particular species took place in the medieval change of synanthropic vegetation? Where did these species come from? Was...

During the later part of the 13th century, two female convents of the Dominican order were founded in the realm of Sweden, both in the diocese of Linköping. The Dominican order first came to Sweden as early as in the 1220’s, and the history of the brothers’ convents has been described to a much greater extent – at least up to the end of the 14th century –than the history of the sisters. Therefore, a conclusive history of the female convents is still lacking. In this master thesis, I aim to describe the foundation and the history of the Swedish sisters of the Order of Preachers from around 1270 to the closing of the convents in the Reformation Era, around 1540, and also attempt to clarify who the benefactors of the convents were. In part due to the fervour of the reformators, there is a substantial deficiency when it comes to source material pertaining to the Dominican order’s history in Sweden and especially concerning the sisters’ convents. I will therefore try to compile all available relevant source material, in order to build a comprehensive picture of the history of the convents. This is however not enough when it comes to describing the everyday life of the sisters. To this end, it becomes necessary to partake of research concerning the female convents of the Order of Preachers and the spiritual development in the rest of Europe, mainly in France, Germany and Italy, and compare it to what the Swedish source material can reveal. This research will also be used as a comparison with prominent features in the Swedish convents. Primarily the Swedish source material consists of charters and annals, but there are also some literary sources that will come into consideration. The theoretical framework discusses the possibilities of applying gender theory to the history of the sisters’ convents, furthermore a sociological approach to networks of families as well as any possible mentalities that could have influenced medieval women in their decision to enter a monastery. Certain modern research on Swedish female monasteries of different orders, or with a different historical aim from the one applied in this thesis, will also be discussed. The conclusions reached are that a modified version of gender theory might possibly be applied to the results, furthermore that there were visible connections between the patrons of the convents even though they are difficult to interpret, and that the mentality of women has to be taken into consideration when trying to outline the history of medieval monasteries. Another conclusion is that there still remains a great academic effort to establish and write the history of the Order of Preachers in Sweden in the middle ages, and the Orders’ impact on society, in its entirety.

With the collapse of the Visigothic kingdom, the judges of Catalonia and southern France worked to keep the region’s traditional judicial system operable. Drawing on records of judicial proceedings and church dedications from the ninth century to the end of the eleventh, this dissertation explores how judges devised a liturgically-influenced court strategy to invigorate rulings. They transformed churches into courtrooms. In these spaces, changed by merit of the consecration rite, community awe for the power infused within sacred space could be utilized to achieve consensus around the legitimacy of dispute outcomes. At the height of a tribunal, judges brought litigants and witnesses to altars, believed to be thresholds of Heaven, and compelled them to authenticate their testimony before God and his saints. Thus, officials supplemented human means of enforcement with the supernatural powers permeating sanctuaries. This strategy constitutes a hybridization of codified law and the belief in churches as real sacred spaces, a conception that emerged from the Carolingian liturgical reforms of the ninth century. In practice, it provided courts with a means to enact the mandates from the Visigothic Code and to foster stability. The result was a flexible synthesis of law, liturgy, and sacred space that was in many cases capable of harnessing spiritual and community pressure in legal proceedings.

The first part of the thesis deals with Romanesque rotundas. These are introduced and set in historical and cultural context of the early Middle Ages to understand the cause of their origin. A substantial part is devoted to formal analysis of individual rotundas located in Prague and its close surroundings, their function in various interpretations of Czech researchers. The next part of the thesis is dedicated to the work itself where the original parts of the individual rotundas are drawn. The theoretical principles are applied in the last part of the thesis, where they are united with a/r/tography research. It is described and used for subsequent methodical series of art education, which were taught at the first grade of primary school.

The History of the Cistercian monastery in Žďár nad Sázavou from the middle of 14th century to 1520 Abstract This diploma thesis thematically continues my bachelor thesis The Beginnings of the Cistercian Monastery in Žďár nad Sázavou written and defended at this Faculty in 2010/2011. It focuses on the historical development of the Cistercian monastery in Žďár nad Sázavou from the middle of the 14th century to 1520. The history of the monastery reflects political and religious circumstances at that time: the accession of the Luxembourg dynasty to the Bohemian throne, the rise and flourishing of the country during the reign of Charles IV and the decline of the country connected with the reign of Wenceslas IV which resulted in the Hussite revolution and the religious and political crisis and instability in Bohemia. All that left its mark also on the destiny of the monastery. The internal situation of the Žďár monastery in this period was especially influenced by frequent changes in exercising founders' rights. After the last member of the Lords of Obřany died in 1312 the first to take over the role of the founders was the Lichtenburk family and their relatives, the Lords of Ronov and Bítov. Around the middle of the 14th century the monarch's influence grew as well as the influence of the Margraviate of...

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