Medieval Miracles, Medicine and Miscellany
Back in November, during the drinks reception ahead of our annual Stenton Lecture, I got chatting to our social media maven, Chessie Baldwin. Talk turned to History’s blog and what we’d be doing as our Christmas series this year …
I am delighted to be able to share the following CfP for the International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 2023. Below you will find a copy of the CfP as a jpg image. A text version of the CfP can be found below that too. Text version: Searching for Health and the Holy: Traces [...]
I am delighted to announce that registration is now open for The Maladies, Miracles and Medicine of the Middle Ages, III ‘Patients, Prayers and Pilgrims’. The conference will be run in a hybrid format online and in-person at the University of Reading (UK). Please note that we have limited in-person attendance available, and this will [...]
I'm excited to announce that the third quadrennial 'Maladies, Miracles and Medicine' (MM&M) conference will be taking place on Friday 1 April 2022. The Call for papers (CFP) can be found below with further details about the conference theme and the submission of abstracts. The image is presented as a .jpg, however a .pdf version [...]
If you are anything like me you will be thinking that after what felt like a prolonged grey, cold winter it feels like we should’ve turned a corner into summer. I suppose it’s mild at least and that’s almost enough to break out into a rendition of Reading Abbey’s own thirteenth-century composition ‘Sumer is icumen [...]
So, it would be fair to say it's been quite a while since I've posted anything on this site. This was a much longer hiatus than intended but I'm looking forward to getting back into blogging a bit now (I wouldn't call this a 2021 resolution, but an aim for sure!) I might have been [...]
My research focuses particularly on the experiences of pilgrims who sought out miraculous cures from saint cults in high-medieval England. A key resource for this, therefore, are the hagiographical sources which include reports of the posthumous miracles (collected together in a subgenre called miracula) worked by various saints through their shrines. However, these formally written-up [...]
by Dr Ruth Salter 836 years ago, on a day much like this (possibly), Henry II was crowned at Westminster Abbey. His predecessor (and uncle), Stephen, had died just under two months earlier, much of his reign having been taken up by ‘The Anarchy’ – a civil war of succession following the death of Henry [...]
Feasting at King Arthur’s court. British Library MS. Royal 20 D.iv, f. 1r It was Christmas at Camelot, and there was the king with his leading lords and all his best soldiers, the famous company of the whole Round Table – celebrating in style: not a care in the world. Again and again strong men [...]
* forewarning: this is a long read - if you just want the ghost stories stop when you reach the map* ‘It would not be easy to believe that the corpses of the dead should sally (I know not by what agency) from their graves, and should wander about to the terror or destruction of [...]
Ruth J. Salter 