Astrology is a science which has had an uncertain status throughout its history, from its beginnings in Greco-Roman Antiquity to the medieval Islamic world and Christian Europe which led to frequent debates about its validity and what kind of a place it should have, if any, in various cultures. Written in the second century A.D., Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos is not the earliest surviving text on astrology. However, the complex defense given in the Tetrabiblos will be treated as an important starting point because it changed the way astrology would be justified in Christian and Muslim works and the influence Ptolemy’s presentation had on later works represents a continuation of the method introduced in the Tetrabiblos. Abū Ma‘shar’s Kitāb al-Madkhal al-kabīr ilā ‘ilm akām al-nujūm, written in the ninth century, was the most thorough surviving defense from the Islamic world. Roger Bacon’s Opus maius, although not focused solely on advocating astrology, nevertheless, does contain a significant defense which has definite links to the works of both Abū Ma‘shar and Ptolemy. As such, he demonstrates another stage in the development of astrology. These three works together reveal the threads of a trend of a rationalized astrology separated from its mythical origins which began with Ptolemy and survived through both medieval Islam and medieval Europe. In the two examples of defending astrology I have used, Abū Ma‘shar and Roger Bacon, Ptolemy’s influence can be seen to have persisted from the second century through to the thirteenth, and the nature of the differences in their defenses illustrates the continuation and evolution of the tradition of defending astrology.

This thesis is a study of the reasons for the failure of the Third Crusade to achieve its stated objectives, despite the many advantages with which the venture began. It is proposed herein that the Third Crusade—and by extension all of the previous and subsequent Crusades—were destined to fail because of structural disadvantages which plagued the expeditions to the Holy Land. The Christians in the Holy Land were not selfsufficient, and they depended on an extensive amount of aid from Europe for their existence, but the Christians of Europe had their own goals and concerns which did not allow them to focus on building a stable kingdom in the Holy Land. For European Christians, crusading was a religious obligation, and once their vows were fulfilled, they no longer had any desire to remain in the Levant. Although the Crusaders did score some short-term victories over their Muslim adversaries, the Christian presence in the Holy Land was unsustainable, for the Crusades—from the European perspective—were a religious movement without a tangible, long-term political objective, and given those circumstance, any crusade would be unsuccessful.

Astrology is a science which has had an uncertain status throughout its history, from its beginnings in Greco-Roman Antiquity to the medieval Islamic world and Christian Europe which led to frequent debates about its validity and what kind of a place it should have, if any, in various cultures. Written in the second century A.D., Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos is not the earliest surviving text on astrology. However, the complex defense given in the Tetrabiblos will be treated as an important starting point because it changed the way astrology would be justified in Christian and Muslim works and the influence Ptolemy’s presentation had on later works represents a continuation of the method introduced in the Tetrabiblos. Abū Ma‘shar’s Kitāb al-Madkhal al-kabīr ilā ‘ilm akām al-nujūm, written in the ninth century, was the most thorough surviving defense from the Islamic world. Roger Bacon’s Opus maius, although not focused solely on advocating astrology, nevertheless, does contain a significant defense which has definite links to the works of both Abū Ma‘shar and Ptolemy. As such, he demonstrates another stage in the development of astrology. These three works together reveal the threads of a trend of a rationalized astrology separated from its mythical origins which began with Ptolemy and survived through both medieval Islam and medieval Europe. In the two examples of defending astrology I have used, Abū Ma‘shar and Roger Bacon, Ptolemy’s influence can be seen to have persisted from the second century through to the thirteenth, and the nature of the differences in their defenses illustrates the continuation and evolution of the tradition of defending astrology.

This study concerns the concept of sacred architectural imitation, using the Platonic notion of mimesis which then later finds expression in the medieval idea of imitatio. In Religious as well as in artistic and architectural forms of expression, the notion of imitation is indeed a very central and complex issue. At the heart of this concept is the question of meaning, or, more precisely, the transference or translation of meaning; from original to copy, from prototype to reproduction. / In order to better illustrate and understand the principles guiding the notion of medieval sacred architectural imitation I have chosen to focus on five specific instances surrounding the replication of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, arguably the most revered landmark in Christendom. / A close examination of the relationships which exist between model and copy will bring to the fore the dynamics which govern the process of mimesis by which meaning is reproduced in the architectural replicas. / From this comparative analysis will emerge a more universal picture of the medieval concept of religious imitation. Indeed, if anything, a preliminary survey of the great many imitations of the Holy Sepulcher spread throughout Europe reveals to the observer a surprising trend, namely a consistency of inconsistencies in their effort to "copy". / The present study will demonstrate that these seeming inconsistencies within the application of the mimetic process nevertheless reveal a somewhat unexpected structure. / From the pattern of these inconsistencies will emerge a clearer picture of the principles governing the transfer of sacred meaning via the method of imitatio during the Middle Ages.

abstract: The transition from Late Antiquity to Early Medieval Europe (ca. AD 400-900) is often characterized as a period of ethnogenesis for a number of peoples, such as the Franks. Arising during protracted contact with the Roman Empire, the Franks would eventually form an enduring kingdom in Western Europe. However, there is little consensus about the processes by which they formed an ethnic group. This study takes a fresh look at the question of Frankish ethnogenesis by employing a number of theoretical and methodological subdisciplines, including population genetics and ethnogenetic theory. The goals of this work were 1) to validate the continued use of biological data in questions of historical and archaeological significance; and 2) to elucidate how Frankish population structure changed over time. Toward this end, measurements from the human dentition and crania were subjected to rigorous analytical techniques and interpreted within a theoretical framework of ethnogenetic life cycles. Results validate existing interpretations of intra-regional biological continuity over time. However, they also reveal that 1) there are clear biological and geographical differences between communities, and 2) there are hints of diachronic shifts, whereby some communities became more similar to each other over time. These conclusions complement current ethnohistoric work arguing for the increasing struggle of the Frankish kingdom to unify itself when confronted by strong regionally-based politics. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Anthropology 2015

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This thesis explores the diverse range of textual and visual architectural representations in twelfth-century didactic texts. It argues that these representations are not arbitrarily chosen frameworks for holding data; instead, architecture can perform a certain pedagogical role. In this role architectural representations mediate between imperceptible abstract concepts in the text and the tangible world of the reader. By focusing on the relationship between text and image this thesis argues that the two play a meaningful part in conveying intangible elements of the world to the reader. The thesis creates an alternative to the historiography on architecture and its representations by redirecting focus from the development of technical drawings and onto the intellectual context of the drawings, and ultimately questions why architecture, in particular, appears so frequently in didactic manuscripts of the period. The argument is framed by two points. First, it recognises the manifold ways in which architectural representations appear by focusing on three particular examples: quadrivial texts, Richard of Saint Victor's In visionem Ezechielis, and Honorius Augustodunensis' Gemma animae. These texts provide case studies to argue the primary point of thesis, namely, that architectural representations were used to provide tangible or kinaesthetic models to aid readers' understanding of difficult material. Second, the language and structure of the three studies reflect a dimensional framework that was used to articulate particular aspects of the drawings. The dimensional aspects of the drawings appear in texts as references to length, width, height, and the typological qualities of architecture. Overall the thesis has two important implications. First by recognising the important relationship between text and image it is possible to draw out the pedagogical aims and processes present in some twelfth-century didactic works. Second, common examples of architectural representations, such as Gospel canon tables, are recognised as part of a broader spectrum of heuristic images and diagrams.

This dissertation is a comparative study of children who succeeded as kings of England, Scotland, France, and Germany as boys under the age of fifteen in the central Middle Ages. Children are often disregarded in the historical record, even those divinely-ordained as king. The research undertaken in this thesis aims to uncover a more human aspect to medieval kingship by combining social aspects of childhood and gender studies with a political and legal approach to the study of the nature of rulership and royal administrative practices. Part I provides vital context of how royal fathers prepared their underage sons for kingship. I argue for the importance of maternal involvement in association, demonstrate the significant benefits a comparative approach brings to our understanding of anticipatory actions, and reveal the impact which changes in the circumstances and documentation of royal death had on preparations for child kingship. In Part II, I focus on vice-regal guardianship to expose how structural legal, social, political, and cultural changes affected the provisions for a child king. The symbolic meaning of knighthood, which had been a clear rite of passage to adulthood in the eleventh century, later became a precursor to kingship. The child’s progression to maturity was increasingly directed by legalistic ideas. These developments meant that, by the first half of the thirteenth century, queen mothers faced greater challenges to their involvement in royal governance alongside their sons. Part III presents a challenge to the idea that periods of child kingship were necessarily more violent than when an adult came to the throne through an analysis of instances of child kidnap, maternal exclusion from guardianship and departure from the kingdom, dynastic challenge, and opportunistic violence. Children often appear as passive actors controlled by the adults around them but accepting this unquestioningly is too simplistic. Child kings could make an impact on the political landscape even if they could not do so alone. Through an innovative comparative analysis of a child’s preparation for rulership, the care of king and kingdom, and the vulnerabilities and challenges of child kingship, I demonstrate far greater political continuity across medieval monarchies than is usually appreciated. This constitutes a fresh and original contribution towards the study of medieval rulership in northwestern Europe.

This thesis will argue that the Beowulf Manuscript, which includes the poem Judith, Saxo Grammaticus’s Gesta Danorum, and the Old-Norse-Icelandic Laxdæla saga highlight and examine the tension between the female pagan characters and their Christian authors. These texts also demonstrate that Queenship grew fragile after the spread of Christianity, and women’s power waned in the shift between pre-Christian and Christian Europe.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales de Paris, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 186-194).