Nautical archaeologists and scholars often try to recreate how ships were built and maneuvered. Due to the delicate nature of older wooden vessels, there is often little archaeological evidence remaining to aid in these studies, and researchers must supplement what little they have with other resources, such as texts. By using computer programs to synthesize and enhance the information in the texts, scholars can better understand the vessel and explore questions that even hull remains may not be able to address. During the High to Late Middle Ages, Venice was a key city for trade and commerce. Its location on the Adriatic Sea connected merchants throughout mainland Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. Since its founding in the low Middle Ages, Venice has been connected to the sea, leading to a long history of seafaring and shipbuilding. By the end of the Middle Ages, Venice had established several trade routes throughout the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and one long sea route into the Atlantic, to Lisbon, Flanders, and London. Although no archaeological evidence of these galleys have been found, several contemporary texts describe the merchant galleys of the 15th century. Two of these texts, dating to the first half of the 15th century discuss the dimensions the galley: The book of Michael of Rhodes and the book of Giorgio "Trombetta" da Modone. Perhaps complementary copies of the same original, these texts contain enough information to reconstruct a 3-dimensional model of the galley of Flanders's hull, in this case using off-the-shelf software ((Rhinoceros). From this computer model the vessel can then be analyzed for volumetric information in order to better understand the hull capacity and how the ship was laden.

No description available.

No description available.

The field of medieval gender studies is a growing one, and nowhere is this expansion more evident than the recent increase in studies which address the roles of medieval women in times of war. While this change in research has been invaluable in helping to reveal the many important wartime roles performed by medieval women, previous studies have been too narrowly focused. Scholars have examined particular aspects of women’s military activities without analysing the full extent and significance of their involvement, and their studies have focused geographically either on women in Western Europe or on women in the crusade movement without considering the relationship between these two areas. This thesis bridges the geographic and analytical gap by looking longitudinally at the female military experience from the late-eleventh to the early-fifteenth century in Western European society (predominantly France and England), on crusade, and in the Holy Land. An examination of medieval legal, philosophical, and political debates and discussions provides theoretical understanding of contemporary attitudes toward women and their perceived roles in war. Subsequent chapters focus on how women functioned as military leaders, supporters of military activity, and victims of wartime violence. Perceptions of these women in the writings of contemporary chroniclers are also evaluated. The disparity between theoretical attitudes toward women in war and the realities of medieval women’s military experiences is revealed through discussion of their extensive, though largely unstudied, participation in wars of the period. It is argued that historians must adopt a broader understanding and awareness of not only women’s ‘involvement’ in war, but also the importance of their contributions to medieval military history.

No description available.

This paper endeavors to examine the mechanisms by which the crown of France was able to subsume the region of Languedoc in the wake of the Albigensian Crusade in the thirteenth century. The systematic use of Catholic doctrine and an inquisition run by the Dominican Order of Preachers allowed France to dominate the populace of the region and destroy any indigenous social, economic, and political structures.

The thesis attempts a portrait of The Cloud in the context of its position in the history of Christian mysticism. That the anonymous work owed much to spiritual writers of the preceding twelve hundred years is not debatable; what it owed maybe slightly less obvious. The Cloud is essentially a work of Dionysian mysticism, and various writers within that tradition who may have influenced or affected the teaching of The Cloud are examined. At the same time, however, the anonymous writer owes much to the western tradition of Augustinian theology, and the role of this, complementary to the Dionysian mysticism, is also considered. In Chapter II we look at the theological doctrine underlying the mystical doctrine of the Cloud corpus. Chapter III has two major parts, both concerned with the influence of The Cloud on the subsequent development of spiritual writing in England. The first considers the relationship with Walter Hilton. The second examines aspects of Puritan thought which may indicate that the influence of The Cloud, after the Reformation, was not restricted to Catholic thought.

This paper aims to give an account of, and to discuss the view-points and theories of different researchers on the christianization of Sweden, especially the province of Öland, during the early middle ages. Its purpose is to investigate how, and in what sense, their positions can be said to correspond to what we may know of the historical “facts”. This will be possible by comparing different points of view with a study of the development in a single parish. An overall difficulty however, is the nature of the sources relating to the time in question, they are scarce or even non-existent. Part I of the paper consists of an outline of the field of research and the different theories put forward on the subject. The account is thematic, since there are several different problematic areas linked to the subject of Sweden’s christianization that each needs separate attention – though they all are, of course, interrelated. The account continues in part II, but with the focus on the iron-age society of Öland, its social, administrative and economic structure, and the major societal change that occurred roughly around AD 1000 – a change wherein the christianization was an important aspect. Part III consists of a micro-study of Föra parish in the north of Öland through the years 400-1300 approximately. Finally, part IV gives a summary and the results of the study in part III are compared to relevant theories and view-points discussed in parts I and II. The conclusions that can be drawn from the comparison are A) Some of the view-points can be seen as tentatively confirmed (and some others as refuted), and B) An extended comparative approach could serve as an instrument for shaping theoretical models with a higher level of generality, since the comparison also shows that the results of historical research often is governed by a theoretical bias, even when empirical material is incomplete, corroborated or contradictory to the results.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Eurasian Studies and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Nov. 19, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-02, Section: A, page: 0695. Adviser: Christopher I. Beckwith.

Thesis (doctoral)--Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, 1995. / Cover title. Includes bibliographical references (p. 527-554) and index.