Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 15 - 2024 i Medieval World Culture & Conflict Magazine

On 15 April 2019, fire engulfed the cathedral of Notre-Dame in the heart of Paris, causing much damage to this masterpiece of Gothic architecture. I remember being left in awe seeing pictures and videos of the spire crumbling to the flames, and questioning the fate of this glorious medieval monument. Once the fire stopped and the damage was assessed, the restoration work was underway. As the building reopened in early December 2024 after rebuilding and restorations, what better way to celebrate this milestone than with a special issue on this cathedral. The theme articles cover the history of Notre-Dame de Paris, its design, construction, and decoration, ritual uses and transformations over time, and the application of modern technology in the study of its architecture and decoration. Through accessible content and…

A remarkable discovery has linked the remains of a medieval skeleton, found in a well at Sverresborg Castle in Norway, to an event described in the Sverris Saga, an 800-year-old Norse account. In 1197, during a military raid, a body was reportedly thrown into a well. DNA analysis, conducted by researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, has provided evidence that corroborates this tale, identifying the so-called “Well-man” as a real historical figure. The remains, first discovered in 1938 and later excavated in 2014–2016, belonged to a man aged 30–40 with injuries to his body and a separated head. Through radiocarbon dating, scientists confirmed the remains were around 900 years old, aligning them with the saga’s timeline. Although the cause of death remains uncertain, this alignment between archaeology…

For a large percentage of the medieval European population — who spent their lives working the land — time followed a course dictated by the changing seasons. This agrarian lifestyle was frequently reflected in medieval art. Known as the Labours of the Months, it consisted of a cycle of twelve images, each showing the work associated with each month of the year. Such cycles commonly appeared in both sculptural schemes and the prayer books produced for the wealthy. These rich patrons lived radically different lives than the peasants toiling on their estates. As such, these monthly illustrations often combine depictions of common labour alongside more aristocratic pursuits, such as hunting and feasting. It was also common for each image in the cycle to be matched with its corresponding zodiac sign,…

Work above ground started with the choir, approaching the level of the vaults by 1177. The new high altar was consecrated in 1182 and was available for church services while work progressed west into the transept and nave. The rapid pace of construction activity was especially remarkable given that the scale of Notre-Dame de Paris greatly surpassed other churches in the region. Boasting an extraordinary length of 128 metres and soaring nave vaults 33 metres above ground level, Notre-Dame de Paris was the most ambitious and tallest church of the time, surpassing other early Gothic churches by over 8 metres. In addition to this feat, the clerestory walls of the cathedral are only 70 centimetres thick and there are 113 stained glass windows distributed throughout the building. How did medieval…

From the 1220s, major modifications were made to the cathedral, including the enlargement of the high windows of the main nave, which led to the removal of the oculi, or circular openings, which had previously opened onto the top of the galleries. Viollet-le-Duc restored them in the nineteenth century in the transept and in the bays of the nave and choir adjoining the crossing. From the second quarter of the thirteenth century, chapels were added to the sides of the building to respond to the increase in the number of Masses by members of the clergy and brotherhoods, which required a greater number of altars where they could be celebrated. The phenomenon first concerned the nave, then the choir, and finally the chevet where the radiating chapels were completed at…

The Crown of Thorns moved to the cathedral in 1803 (where it was used as part of Napolean’s T Sacre ceremony), but it first arrived nearly eight centuries ago after a long and arduous journey from Constantinople (via Venice). In Paris, the event was marked by a multi-venue procession with a significant stops on the Ile-de-la-Cité and ritual festivities at Notre-Dame de Paris. Holy Paris It was King Louis IX (1214–1270), later Saint Louis (canonised 1297), who received the Crown of Thorns in 1239, whereupon he instantly earned a widespread reputation for his piety. His opportunity to acquire the relic had emerged during a crisis in the Latin East; the Crusader state of Constantinople was on the verge of collapse and (the last) Latin Emperor, Baldwin II (1217–1273), had pledged…

The portal is comprised of sculptures of several styles. The earliest from around 1208, can be seen in the sculptures of the Virtues and Vices along the embrasures. The sculptures of the archivolts are primarily of a ca. 1220 and ca. 1230 style, while the tympanum and lintel show the most variation. The head of the figure of Christ as Judge bears striking similarity to the head of Childebert, made for the SaintGermain-des-Prés around 1239. The style of the drapery on the angel holding nails from the Passion next to the kneeling Virgin Mary is strikingly different to that of the angel holding the Cross. The latter angel stands on carved wedge, placed at an awkward angle, presumably to keep this figure in plumb with the others. The halo behind…

The central portal, as visible today, bears the imprint of the restoration begun in 1843 under by Lassus and Violet-le-Duc and carried out by sculptor Geoffroy de Chaume. The slight difference in coloration of the stones that were added makes their restoration apparent to the trained eye. Their design proposed to restore the central portal to its pre-1771 state. This required the removal of several original fragments of sculpture on the first and second level of the lintel, to either side of the Gothic arch that had been cut by Soufflot. This was because the new lintel needed to be made from a single piece of stone. The sculptures that were removed were carefully replicated by de Chaume, while the architects completed what was missing using their artistic imagination. Other…

Buddhism itself originated in India in the fourth to fifth century BC. Introduced to Han Dynasty China in the third century, Buddhism was prevalent across that empire by the year 50 AD. Over the next 500 years, the religion flourished, becoming widespread through multiple Chinese dynastic cycles, making its way to Korea in 372 AD and then to Japan in 552 AD. Buddhism in Northeast Asia At this point in history, Buddhism was divided into many sects and off-shoots, but the main branches were Therevada and Mahayana. The Therevada school generally sought to help a practitioner reach enlightenment through meditation and the recitation of scriptures. The Mahayana school sought to free practitioners from human suffering and to help others reach enlightenment. The former, then, was centered on the individual’s journey…

The story of Margaret begins in fourth century Antioch, during the time when Christians were persecuted and martyred in the reign of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian. While it is unlikely that Margaret was a historical individual, her story held tremendous appeal across the Middle Ages. Here is how one version from fourteenth-century England relays it… The girl who would become Saint Margaret was born in Antioch to a powerful pagan father. She was sent away from her family shortly after her birth and soon converted to Christianity. One day when she was fifteen years old, Margaret was in a field tending sheep when the emperor Olibrious spotted her. Olibrious was the powerful, wicked, tyrannical ruler of Antioch and Asia. Delighted by her beauty, Olibrious commanded Margaret to be his…

The Gargoyles of Notre-Dame: Medievalism and the Monsters of Modernity By Michael Camille University of Chicago Press, 2009 ISBN: 978-0226092454 Notre Dame de Paris By Alain Erlande-Brandenburg Martiniere Bl, 2015 ISBN: 978-2732473956 The Hunchback of Notre Dame By Victor Hugo Introduction by Isabel Roche Barnes & Noble Classics, 2008 ISBN: 978-1593081409 Music and Ceremony at Notre Dame of Paris, 500-1550 By Craig Wright Cambridge University Press, 2008 ISBN: 978-0521088343 Faire parler les pierres: sculptures médiévales de Notre-Dame Edited by Damien Berné Éditions Faton, 2024 ISBN: 978-2878443820 Sculpture from Notre-Dame, Paris: A Dramatic Discovery By Carmen Gómez-Moreno The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979 ISBN: 978-0300201291 Notre Dame Cathedral: Nine Centuries of History By Dany Sandron and Andrew Tallon The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2013 ISBN: 978-0271086224 Restoring Notre-Dame de Paris: Rebirth…

A new study reveals stark differences between the Vikings of Norway and Denmark. It appears that Norway’s Vikings were much more violent. Researchers have found evidence suggesting that interpersonal violence in Norway – combat, feuds, and even murder – was far more common than in Denmark. These findings challenge the long-held belief that Viking societies across Scandinavia were similarly violent. David Jacobson, a sociologist from the University of South Florida, and an international research team, has brought these differences to light through an analysis of skeletal remains. Norwegian graves tell a story of a warrior society where violence was the norm. The researchers found that 33% of Norwegian skeletons bore signs of healed injuries – clear evidence that violence was part of daily life, while 37% of the skeletons showed…

Notre-Dame stands at the eastern end of the Île de la Cité, which was already occupied in the Gallo-Roman era. Sculpted elements discovered on site in the eighteenth century, such as the first-century votive monument the ‘Pillar of the Boatmen’, now in the Cluny Museum, serve as key evidence of the early settlement. Archaeological investigations at the cathedral have also revealed traces of several churches dedicated to the Virgin Mary, Saint Stephen, and Saint John the Baptist. The largest church, approximately 70 metres long, stood under the front part of the Gothic cathedral and overflowed to the west under the current narthex. Remains of its foundations are visible in the archaeological crypt created following the excavations of the narthex area between 1965 and 1970. To the north of the façade…

The wooden structure supporting the roof of NotreDame — known as ‘the forest’ because of its vastness— was an intricate construction of beams. Concealed under a lead tiled roof, this wooden framework would not have been visible to viewers, and certainly not from the vantage point offered in this artistic recreation. After the 2019 fire, the twelfth-century wooden framework of the roof — known as the charpente — was destroyed and many of its large beams damaged the nave as the roof collapsed. Ateliers Perrault, the carpentry company entrusted with rebuilding this structure for Notre-Dame in anticipation of the 2024 reopening, used over 1400 oak trees and traditional, medieval methods to reconstruct this portion of the cathedral.…

The sculptures of the central portal of Notre-Dame depict the culminating moment in history according to Christian theology: the Last Judgment. In thirteenth-century French portal sculpture, this vision of final justice, emphasized the potential of salvation through the figural sculpture of Christ showing his wounds in his hands and side. Intercessory figures and angels, placed to either side of Christ further emphasize the possibility. However, the sculptures still represent a separation of humanity into the Blessed and Damned, as described in Matthew 25.…

Technically, a stone-carved mythical figure fixed to the walls or roof of a building is a chimera or grotesque. The gargoyle is a subset with a practical purpose: to drain rainwater. Thus, they are usually placed at the end of gutters and lean out, away from the buildings so that the water falls away from the wall. Their name comes from the Old French gorge and gueule meaning “throat” and “mouth” respectively. Medieval literature sometimes describes them as babewyn – from the Italian for baboon. Many of the figures on Notre-Dame are not, in fact, functional gargoyles, but decorative grotesques. Several were carved in the form of chimeras, one of the most famous of NotreDame’s is just such a creature in fact: a mythical beast made of the parts of…

The County of Ferrette (or Pfirt) was a feudal jurisdiction in the Middle Ages in Alsace, roughly corresponding with the Sundgau and comprising the lordships of the noncontiguous territories of Ferrette, Altkirch, Thann, Belfort, Rougemont, among others. The county bordered territories of the dukes of Burgundy. During the reigns of the four Valois dukes, they attempted to annex Ferrette. Strategically located, Ferrette switched hands between France and Austria during the Middle Ages. The county was established in the eleventh century. By the early fourteenth century, it was acquired by Austria through the marriage of Jeanne, Countess of Ferrette, with Albert II, Duke of Austria. It then came under Catherine of Burgundy’s control following her marriage to Duke Leopold IV. The officers of Ferrette paid homage to Catherine in February 1404.…

The medieval knight, bedecked in his heraldic finery, is one of the most enduring images in European history. After its emergence in the twelfth century, heraldry evolved from the customary use of personal insignia on the battleground and tourney field, toward a formalized system for the display of hereditary status, essential to the pomp and splendour of the noble class. In a time when temporal authority descended by ancestral right, heraldry was also the visual expression of politics. Donning a new device, as Edward III of England did in pursuit of the French crown, was a claim to power and prestige, whether real or pretended. History and legend Just as the art of heraldry colours our view of the Middle Ages, so too did it shape how medieval Europeans imagined…

Jewish Poetry and Cultural Coexistence in Late Medieval Spain By Gregory B. Kaplan ISBN: 978-1641891479 ARC Humanities Press, 2019 $95.00 (hardback) www.arc-humanities.org/ The idea that a relatively tolerant coexistence developed between Jews, Christians, and Muslims in medieval Spain has exercised the imagination and hope of scholars and readers for some time. While the question of how real any kind of Convivencia actually was tends to inspire extreme reactions, Gregory Kaplan’s brief book is content to find evidence for it in an unassuming and otherwise overlooked place: a genre of poetry that originated in twelfth-century French monasteries and later spread to northern Spain, centering on the Camino de Santiago. Cuaderna vía poetry was composed of rhyming quatrains (the name means “the fourfold way”), and in the hands of Cluniac monks it…

A 500-year-old engraving by a colossus of late medieval art – found at a rubbish dump by an 11-year-old boy – has been sold at auction for £26,500. The museum-worthy engraving, almost lost forever in landfill, was identified as a work by Albrecht Dürer, a painter and printmaker regarded as one of the most gifted artists of all time. Born in 1471 in Nuremberg, Germany, when the city was part of the Holy Roman Empire, Dürer became one of the most important figures of the Northern Renaissance. He knew renowned Italian artists, including Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci, and created works for Emperor Maximilian I from 1486 to 1519. However, if it were not for eagle-eyed Mat Winter, the valuable artwork – titled “Knight, Death and the Devil” – would…

How did people in the medieval world know how to tell time? Surviving devices to measure time such as sundials, astrolabes, water clocks, and other mechanical innovations can help us understand the Medieval concept of time. Obviously, in all these devices the tracking of celestial bodies was the preeminent function and not the counting of minutes or hours. The invention of new devices slowly began to change this emphasis of ‘looking up’. But it began with the stars, and how to track their path across the night sky. Star gazing Islamic medieval scholarship showcases some of the earliest developments in timekeeping science. Written in the Persian city of Shiraz during the 950s, Al-Sufi’s treatise Suwar al-kawākib (The Book of Fixed Stars) is a vividly detailed textual star map of all…

But with circumstances beyond his control, and the machinations of a father-in-law in search of a throne, any throne to fill the void of having lost his own, Theodore was forced to fight for the very realm he had molded into being, against a man he had once called a brother. THE SCRAMBLE FOR ANATOLIA At its birth, the empire of Nicaea was very nearly stillborn. Forged in the frantic years after Constantinople’s fall to the Latin Crusaders in 1204, there was no guarantee that it would last out the decade of its inception, let alone one day rise to retake the imperial capital from the western interlopers. That it survived its earliest days was a miracle of durability in the face of constant onslaught from multiple directions. Anatolia –…

In addition to the famed procession of the Passion relics in 1239 and the services of yearly holy feasts, Notre-Dame was a site of other major celebrations during the Middle Ages. In 1431, Henry VI of England was crowned King of France at the cathedral as the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) was nearing its end. He may have chosen the cathedral as a way legitimize his rights against Charles VII, who was also crowned King of France in 1429 in Reims. In 1447, Charles VII celebrated the recapture of Paris from the English at the end of the Hundred Years’ War with a Te Deum (hymn of festivals and triumphs) at the cathedral. The sixteenth century also saw several marriages confirmed at Notre-Dame: Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, and Francis…