Le présent travail s’inscrit dans le regain d’intérêt pour le complexe des chroniques médiévales de l’ordre Teutonique. Afin de mieux cerner les fonctions de l’écriture historiographique au sein de l’Ordre, il fait le choix de s’attacher en particulier à une compilation méconnue de la première moitié du XVe siècle, l’Ancienne Chronique des Grands-Maîtres. Riche d’une tradition manuscrite touffue, la chronique se présente pour l’essentiel comme la mise en prose des œuvres plus célèbres qui l’ont précédée au XIVe siècle. La nouvelle donne politique et militaire qui affecte alors un ordre Teutonique en crise oblige pourtant à s’interroger sur les ressorts et les limites de cette apparente continuité d’un discours historique dont tout par ailleurs paraît attester la caducité. Appuyée sur les outils de la philologie et de la codicologie, l’enquête s’efforce de retracer le cycle de vie d’une compilation, depuis ses « prétextes » du XIVe s. jusqu’à sa réception, en ses manuscrits et au-delà, étudiée jusqu’à 1550 environ. La résurgence historiographique dissimule en réalité un contexte d’écriture nouveau. La chronique est née dans les années 1430 d’un projet éminemment partisan alors que l’Ordre se déchire entre plusieurs factions, mais tire précisément sa force d’avancer masquée, sous la forme d’une chronica nullius. Dès lors, la réception du texte apparaît sous le jour d’un processus de neutralisation progressive d’un manifeste tendancieux. Elle montre aussi que ce précis d’histoire, en dépit de sa large diffusion, échoue in fine à devenir une vulgate historiographique. L’étude est prolongée par une nouvelle édition critique du texte, ambitionnant de remplacer l’édition de 1866 / This PhD aims at giving an insight into the uses of historical writing within the medieval Teutonic Order, whose chronicles have been the focus of a renewed scholarly interest for two decades. It focuses on a little-known compilation dating back to the first half of the 15th century, the Old Chronicle of the Grand Masters. Preserved in many manuscripts, this text reads at first glance as a prose version of more famous masterpieces from the 14th century. The political and military “new deal” a weakened Teutonic Order has to cope with in 15th-century Prussia raises a wide range of questions around this permanence of a historical discourse which was otherwise considered at odds with the real situation of the Order after Tannenberg. Applying the tools of codicology and philology, this work tries to shed light on the complete span of a chronicle’s life, from its “foretexts” to its reception until the middle of the 16th century. As a matter of fact, the apparent revival of an “outdated” historical discourse conceals a wholly modified set of conditions impinging on history writing. The text proves to be a biased manifesto under the guise of an “authorless” unveiling of the true history, and is as such deeply embedded within a context of internal rivalries between “regional” clans within the Order. The further reception of the text therefore needs to be reasserted as a process of step-by-step neutralization. At the same time, the inquiry into the chronicle’s reception shows that the Old Chronicle of the Grand Masters, despite a widespread diffusion, failed to become a historical vulgate of sorts. A new critical edition of the text is given to replace the old edition by Toeppen, flawed with many shortcomings

The purpose of this study is to explore how the court and church in Livonia worked together to remain the sole authority in the country. The Teutonic knights waged crusades in the Baltic countries during the 13th century, formed the country Livonia and ended up staying. In a country where an ethnic German minority held most of the positions of power it became important to legitimize the reason for it being so. This study will focus on the court case of Thiess from 1691, a man charged with being a werewolf and who refused to acknowledge the German ideology. To highlight the power structure, I turned to Louis Althusser and Marxism which theories included the repressive state apparatus and ideological state apparatuses. With those theories in mind, the use of text analysis and literature on the history of Livonia, the power struggle has become clearer. My findings show the importance of making an example of Thiess due to his influence of the peasants.

The hagioscope—a small tunnel or opening usually set at eye-level in a church wall—is a complex and multifaceted device that appears in Europe during the late medieval period. Despite an increased interest in the  history of the senses, the hagioscope has been overlooked until now. Drawing from Hans Georg Gadamer’s ideas  about hermeneutics, Jacques Le Goff’s work on Purgatory, and the medieval intellectual Peter of Limoges’ thoughts on vision, this study aims to shed light on why the hagioscope appeared when it did and how it may  have been used.   This case study of the hagioscope concerns the known hagioscopes with connected cells on the island of Gotland.  It is introduced with two themes that combined, create a conceptual understanding of the hagioscope: the first is the device as a physical boundary or spatial division in a church room resulting from changes in theology and liturgy and the second is the device in the context of a medieval discourse on visuality, derived from the widespread thirteenth century treatise, De oculi morali. With this understanding in mind, the last chapter presents and discusses previous theories on the Gotland hagioscopes. In contrast with previous research, this thesis proves that the cells of Gotland are clearly of two different kinds: earlier cells are small, lack windows and have trefoil-shaped hagioscopes and a deep niche that significantly distances the observer from the nave. Later cells are bigger, equipped with a single window, have a niche spatially closer to the nave, and have differently shaped hagioscopes.

This dissertation deals with the life story of the medieval nobleman Ulrich III. of Neuhaus. The goal of the dissertation is to portray his life and work and put them in a larger context of the period in which he lived, that is the first half of the fourteenth century. Despite the fact that Ulrich III. did not hold any important office but devoted his life to administering his large dominion instead, he is one of the most important persons of the Neuhaus family. He contributed significantly to the structural changes of Jindřichův Hradec, for example by issuing an order to complete the Saint John the Baptist Church and inviting the Order of Friars Minor Conventual to live there. A confirmed Catholic, he lead the first Crusade against the Waldensians, who settled on his dominion. He also had a chamber in the Jindřichův Hradec castle decorated with a wall painting based on the legend of Saint George, the patron saint of the Teutonic Order, an order that had settled in Jindřichův Hradec alongside the Knights Templar. Due to the fact that he belonged to the Neuhaus family, he acquired the Castle of Telč in Moravia. The Castle subsequently became a significant property of the Neuhaus family until the Neuhaus family became extinct in 1604. With regard to the politics, Ulrich III supported King John of...

The hospital of the Holy Spirit in Krnov in 14th to 16th century in context of medieval hospice care in middle Europe
 The thesis is focused on the hospital of the Holy Spirit in Krnov in 14th to 16th century and his inclusion into the context of medieval hospice care in the middle Europe. It is based on proseminar and seminar works focused on medieval hospice care and in importance and theme is follow up of author's Bachelor thesis Špitál sv. Alžběty ve Wrocławi v širším kontextu středověkého špitálnictví ve střední Evropě (The hospital of st. Elisabeth in Wrocław in wider context of medieval hospitality in middle Europe). The hospital if Holy Spirit was erected in later period than hospital of St. Elisabeth. That is the reason why is the diploma thesis focused of hospitals which was erected in the peak of the Middle Ages these hospitals have got period of main development during the late Middle Ages. In the second chapter the thesis will be focused on analysis of the residential topography of this religious center in scope of medieval Krnov. In chapters 3rd to 6th will be exceptionally from the larger part based on the basic modern literature because the oldest literature is absent or unreliable. Medieval part of the hospital of Holy Spirit is these days existing only in rudiments and base of...