MEDIEVAL STUDIES MAGAZINE FROM MEDIEVALISTS.NET

MedievalNumber 42 November 16, 2015

Restoring the Basilica ofthe Nativity

The Battle of Morgarten Love Advice from the12th-Century

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The

How to defraud your lord on the medieval manor

Magazine

Making theMedievalRelevant

Medievalists in the humanities and sciences

The Medieval Magazine November 16, 2015

22 Ancient and ByantineShipwrecks discovered

In the 1260s, Robert Carpenter, a freeholdfarmer and former bailiff living on the Isleof Wight, wrote detailed instructions onsix ways you could commit fraud.

How to defraud your lord on themedieval manor

Making the Medieval Relevant

A report from a conference held lastweekend at the University of Nottingham

In the twelfth century, courtly love was allthe rage with the French nobility. Toparticipate in this trendiest of trends,though, you actually needed to know therules.

How to Tell if Your 12th-CenturyLover is Just Not That Into You

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Archaeologists find remains of ships in theAegean Sea.

THE MEDIEVAL MAGAZINE

Edited by:Peter Konieczny Website: www.medievalists.net This digital magazine is published eachMonday. Cover Photo: World map by Martellusfrom 1489 - image from the British Library

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Restoration reveals beautiful art at the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem 22 Ancient and Byzantien Ships discovered in the Aegean Sea New Drought Atlas maps 2,000 years of climate change in Europe The Fields of Britannia: Continuity and Change in the Late Roman and EarlyMedieval Landscape How to defraud your lord on the medieval manor Isidore of Seville on... De trimodo dicendi genere Making the Medieval Relevant The Battle of Morgarten How to Tell if Your 12th-Century Lover is Just Not That Into You

Table of Contents

Restoration revealsbeautiful art at the

Basilica of theNativity in Bethlehem

Medieval News

By Saher Kawas, Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem

Mosaic from the Basilica of the Nativity - photo courtesy Latin Patriarchate ofJerusalem

Bethlehem – for more than two years, one of the world’s holiestchurches has been undergoing restoration work. In this report, wewould like to give a historical background about the wooden doorand the mosaic covering the walls of the nave.

The wooden doors From the humility door, heads of believersand visitors bow down in reverence to thechild in the manger. Just in front of the door,we face tall wooden doors that separate thenarthex and the nave, covered through thecenturies by layers of dust and smoke comingup from oil lamps. Now, the restoration comesand reveals a corner worthy of contemplationand appreciation, which previously visitorsused to overlook. The doors, which were builtat the hands of two Armenian believers andthen presented as a gift by the Armenian kingHethum I in 1227, were installed at theentrance of middle royal door. The doorswere beautifully produced with crosses andother elements of ornamentation engravedon them, as well as inscriptions in Arabic andArmenian on the top part of them. The Armenian inscription in Englishtranslation reads as follows: “In the year 676, the door of the Holy Motherof God was accomplished by the efforts ofFather Abraham and Father Arachel, at thetime of the Armenian King Hithum the son ofConstantine. May God have pity on theauthors (of this work).” While the Arabic inscription in Englishtranslation reads as follows: “This door was completed with the help ofAllah, may He be exalted, in the days of ourlord, the sultan al-Malik al-Mu’azzam in thedate of (the month of) Muharram the year 624(= Dec.1226-Jan.1227).” It may seem, from the inscription, that al-Mu’azzam initiated the construction of thedoors but it is most certain that the project

had nothing to do with him and he wasmentioned merely because he was the rulerat the time of the construction. Mosaics After passing through the wooden doors, onearrives in the nave of the basilica. Looking upat the walls, people can see a set of mosaicworks on the upper northern and southernwalls that date back to the 12th century. 1) A set of 6 angels located between thewindows with their face directed at themanger. Originally, there were 12 angels ofwhich remained 7. Last March, a seventh angelwas discovered behind a layer of plaster;restorers believe that it was covered for fearof destruction or falling-off. In 1169, theminiaturist Basilius Pictor created theseworks of art and his name appears on the thirdangel from the right on the northern wall. The putting of the plaster of the 7th angeldates back to the 19th century where it wascoated by a layer of ordinary paint. Mosaicistsat that time relied on the Byzantine techniqueof creating their works; three layers can beseen: – The preparatory layer which was afoundation of stone. – The mortar layer which resembles glue inits consistency. Mosaicists used to draw asketch in colors where each colorcorresponds to a different type of tesserae(Latin for cubes or dice) which are pieces ofstone, glass or metal (gold or silver) that havebeen cut in triangular or square shapes. – The layer of tesserae.A very innovative technique of applying

– The layer of tesserae. A very innovative technique of applyingtesserae in the upper walls of the nave wasthe tilting and setting gold and silver piecesat sharp angles. This procedure enhanced thereflection of light that is coming through thewindows that separate the angels, and thus,increasing the amount of light that goesdownward in the direction of visitors. Over the centuries, many tesserae of theangel mosaics were lost. Therefore, restorersare filling in these lost parts with a layer thatthey engrave to give onlookers an idea of howthey appeared before.

2) Mosaics in the middle part of the southernwall represent the names of Jesus’s ancestorsaccording to the Gospel of St Luke (ch3:23-38) while the mosaics in the middle partof the northern wall represent the genealogyof Jesus according to the Gospel of St Matthew(ch1: 1-7). Today, only seven of the ancestorscan be seen with their names written in Latin. Moreover, the southern and northern wallscontain texts in Greek and Latin surroundedby geometrical shapes separated by acanthusleaves, candlesticks and incense burners.These texts represent decisions of theEcumenical and local synods.

The restoration work taking place at the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem -photo courtesy Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem

More photos of the art work from the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem

The findings in the Fourni archipelago in theGreek Islands bring to light ancient tradenetworks that once connected the entireMediterranean. "The concentration of ancient shipwrecks isunprecedented," says Peter Campbell,University of Southampton archaeologistand project co-director from the US basedRPM Nautical Foundation. "The volume ofshipwrecks in Fourni, an island that had nomajor cities or harbours, speaks to its role in

navigation as well as the perils of sailing theeastern Aegean." The wrecks date from the Archaic Period(700-480 BC) through the Late MedievalPeriod (16th century). Several date to theClassical (480-323 BC) and Hellenistic(323-31 BC) periods, but over half of thewrecks date to the Late Roman Period (circa300-600 AD). The ships' cargos point to theimportance of long distance trade betweenthe Black Sea, Aegean Sea, Cyprus, the Levant,

22 Ancient and Byzantineshipwrecks discoveredin the Aegean SeaAn archaeological expedition has recorded 22 shipwrecks over 13days in what may be the ancient shipwreck capital of the world.

Archaeologists survey the scatter of a Late Roman shipwreck, Photo by V.Mentogianis / University of Southampton

Levant, and Egypt - in all these periods. "What is astonishing is not only the numberof the shipwrecks, but also the diversity ofthe cargos, some of which have been foundfor first time," says Greek director GeorgeKoutsouflakis. At least three of the sites havecargos that have not been found previouslyon shipwrecks. Archaeologists mapped each wreck usingphotogrammetry to create 3D site plans.Representative artefacts were excavatedand raised from each wreck site for scientificanalysis. These artefacts are primarilyamphoras, which were terracotta jars thatcarried bulk goods prior to the invention ofwooden barrels. The finds are currentlyundergoing conservation at the Ephorate'slaboratory in Athens and may go on displaysin museums in the future. Fourni is a collection of thirteen islands andislets located between the eastern Aegeanislands of Samos and Icaria. The small islandsnever hosted large cities, instead theirimportance comes from their critical role asan anchorage and navigational point in theeastern Aegean. Fourni lies along a majoreast-west crossing route, as well as theprimary north-south route that connectedthe Aegean to the Levant. This is the firstunderwater archaeological expedition to theislands. The project's success has comethrough working with local sponge divers,fishermen, and free divers together withtechnology and archaeological methods. "The local response to the project has beenincredible and it is through working with thecommunity that we were able to exceedexpectations," says Southampton's PeterCampbell. "Archaeology is about people;those in the past as well as those in thepresent. The highlight has been bringing thepast back to life for people that are engagedwith their history." The expedition was a collaboration between

the Greek Ephorate of UnderwaterAntiquities (EUA) and RPM NauticalFoundation (RPMNF), directed by GeorgeKoutsouflakis (EUA), Jeffrey Royal (RPMNF),and Peter Campbell (RPMNF/University ofSouthampton). Funding was provided by theHonor Frost Foundation, a UK charity thatsupports research in the easternMediterranean through an endowment frompioneer maritime archaeologist Honor Frost.Sponsors included Carrefour Ikaria,Eurobrokers, and the Municipality of FourniKorseon. The discovery adds 12 per cent to the totalnumber of known ancient shipwrecks inGreece. The findings suggest a great quantityof the shipwrecks still await discovery inFourni. "In a typical survey we locate four orfive shipwrecks per season in the best cases,"says George Koutsouflakis. "We expected asuccessful season, but no one was preparedfor this. Shipwrecks were found literallyeverywhere." For comparison, the United States recentlycreated a national marine sanctuary in LakeMichigan to protect 39 known shipwreckslocated in 875 square miles. Fourni now has22 known shipwrecks in 17 square miles. Theprevious record in Greece for a season was10 ancient wrecks discovered over 10 daysduring a 2008 survey in Chios. Less than five per cent of Fourni's coastlinehas been explored for underwater culturalheritage. Local fishermen and sponge divershave reported many more leads that will befollowed up in future seasons. The team plansto return next year.

Together with two previous drought atlasescovering North America and Asia, the OldWorld Drought Atlas significantly adds to thehistorical picture of long-term climatevariability over the Northern Hemisphere. Inso doing, it should help climate scientistspinpoint causes of drought and extremerainfall in the past, and identify patterns thatcould lead to better climate model projectionsfor the future. A paper describing the newatlas, coauthored by scientists from 40institutions, appeared last week in the journalScience Advances. "The Old World Drought Atlas fills a majorgeographic gap in the data that's important todetermine patterns of climate variability backin time," said Edward Cook, cofounder of theTree Ring Lab at Columbia University'sLamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, andleader of all three drought-atlas projects."That's important for understanding causes ofmegadroughts, and it's important for climatemodelers to test hypotheses of climateforcing and change."

For example, if Europe had a wet year north ofthe Alps and a dry year to the south, thatprovides clues to circulation patterns andsuggests influence from the North AtlanticOscillation, one of the primary sources ofclimate variability affecting patterns inEurope. "You can't get that from one spot ona map," Cook said. "That's the differentiatorbetween the atlas and all these wonderfulhistoric records - the records don't give youthe broad-scale patterns." The new atlas could also improveunderstanding of climate phenomena like theAtlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation, a variationin North Atlantic sea-surface temperaturesthat hasn't been tracked long enough to tell ifit is a transitory event, forced by humanintervention in the climate system, or a naturallong-term oscillation. By combining the OldWorld Drought Atlas with the Asia and NorthAmerica atlases, climatologists and climatemodelers may also discover other sources ofinternal climate variability that are leading todrought and wetness across the NorthernHemisphere, Cook said.

The long history of severe droughts across Europe and theMediterranean has largely been told through historical documentsand ancient journals, each chronicling the impact in ageographically restricted area. Now, for the first time, an atlas basedon scientific evidence provides the big picture, using tree rings tomap the reach and severity of dry and wet periods across Europe,and parts of North Africa and the Middle East, year to year overthe past 2,000 years.

New drought atlasmaps 2,000 years ofclimate in Europe

In the Science Advances paper, Cook and hiscoauthors compare results from the new atlasand its counterparts across three time spans:the generally warm Medieval Climate Anomaly(1000-1200); the Little Ice Age (1550-1750);and the modern period (1850-2012). The atlases together show persistently drier-than-average conditions across north-centralEurope over the past 1,000 years, and a historyof megadroughts in the Northern Hemispherethat lasted longer during the Medieval ClimateAnomaly than they did during the 20th century.But there is little understanding as to why, theauthors write. Climate models have haddifficulty reproducing megadroughts of thepast, indicating something may be missing intheir representation of the climate system,Cook said. The drought atlases provide a much deeperunderstanding of natural climate processesthan scientists have had to date, said RichardSeager, a coauthor of the paper and a climatemodeler at Lamont-Doherty EarthObservatory. "Climate variability tends to occur withinpatterns that span the globe, creating wetconditions somewhere and dry conditionssomewhere else," said Seager. "By having treering-based hydroclimate reconstructions forthree northern hemisphere continents, we cannow easily see these patterns and identify theresponsible modes of variability." The hemispheric scale adds to the potentialuses of what was already the gold standard ofpaleo-hydroclimate research, said SloanCoats, a climate dynamicist at the Universityof Colorado who studies megadroughts usingthe atlases. "The fact that the drought atlasesprovide a nearly hemispheric view ofhydroclimate variability provides anincredible amount of information that can beused to better understand what was happeningin the atmosphere and ocean," Coats said. In Europe and the Mediterranean, the newdrought atlas expands scientists'understanding of climate conditions during

historic famines. For instance, an unusually cold winter andspring are often blamed for a 1740-1741famine in Ireland. The Old World Drought Atlaspoints to another contributor: rainfall wellbelow normal during the spring and summerof 1741, the authors write in the paper. Theatlas shows how the drought spread acrossIreland, England and Wales. The atlas also tracks the reach of the greatEuropean famine of 1315-1317, whenhistorical documents describe how excessiveprecipitation across much of the continentmade growing food nearly impossible. Theatlas tracks the hydroclimate across Europe andshows its yearly progressions from 1314 to1317 in detail, including highlighting drierconditions in southern Italy, which largelyescaped the crisis. The atlas may also help shed light on morerecent phenomena, including a record2006-2010 drought in the Levant that a recentLamont study suggests may have helped sparkthe ongoing Syrian civil war. The North America atlas, published in 2004, hasbeen used by other researchers to suggest thata series of droughts starting around 900 yearsago may have contributed to the eventualcollapse of native cultures. Likewise, the Asiaatlas, published in 2010, has led researchersto connect droughts, at least in part, to the fallof Cambodia's Angkor culture in the 1300s, andChina's Ming dynasty in the 1600s. The tree ring data used to create the new atlasincluded cores from both living trees andtimbers found in ancient construction reachingback more than 2,000 years. They come from106 regional tree ring chronologies, each withdozens to thousands of trees, and werecontributed to the project by the InternationalTree Ring Data Bank and European tree-ringscientists.

The Fields of Britannia:Continuity and Change inthe Late Roman and EarlyMedieval LandscapeNew research from the University of Exeter has found that theRoman influence on our landscape extends beyond the legacy ofour urban infrastructure to also shape the countryside and ourrural surroundings.

The findings are outlined in a new book, TheFields of Britannia: Continuity and Change inthe Late Roman and Early MedievalLandscape, which has been written byleading researchers at the University. The book explores the extent to which thelandscape of Roman Britain continues toinfluence our modern day approaches to landmanagement and explains that more of ourcountryside dates back to the Roman periodthan previously thought. Co-written by Professor Stephen Rippon, DrChris Smart and Dr Ben Pears from theUniversity's Archaeology Department, TheFields of Britannia is based on findings fromThe Fields of Britannia project whichhighlights the enduring legacy of Roman landpractises. Professor Rippon, Project Director, said:"Although it was well known that some of ourtowns and cities are built upon Romanfoundations, before starting this research wehad no idea that the same was true of ourcountryside. "To ask, 'What did the Romans do for us' is abit of a cliché, but across much of Britain theycreated the fields that our farmers still use

today." Funded jointly by the Leverhulme Trust andthe University of Exeter, The Fields ofBritannia project explores the relationshipbetween Romano-British and medievallandscapes and draws on archaeological andpalaeoenvironmental evidence fromhundreds of excavations to investigateRoman field systems and land-use acrossRoman and early Medieval Britain. Findings from the project will form animportant and innovative contribution to thecurrent debate over one of the majorformative periods in British history: thenature of the transition from Roman Britainto medieval England. The Fields of Britannia, published by OxfordUniversity Press, is Professor StephenRippon's latest publication. Previous workshave included Beyond the Medieval Village:The Diversification of Landscape Character inSouthern Britain (2008), and Making Sense ofAn Historic Landscape (2012). For more information, please visit the TheFields of Britannia project website.

How to defraudyour lord on themedieval manorIn the 1260s, Robert Carpenter, a freehold farmer and former bailiff living on theIsle of Wight, wrote up a formulary – a collection of form letters and legal textsthat would be useful for local administration. In the middle of these texts,however, he added detailed instructions on six ways you could commit fraud.

This work has been translated and analyzedby Martha Carlin in her article ‘Cheating theBoss: Robert Carpenter’s EmbezzlementInstructions (1261×1268) and EmployeeFraud in Medieval England’. Carpenter doesnot provide any introduction to these texts,nor does he give a hint on why he decidedto include it in this work. Some scholarssuggest he was bragging about his pastexploits, others that he wrote it to warn hisreaders of ways they could be defrauded.Carlin adds another possibility – that it was“simply as a form of wry recollection orhumour with which to entertain himself andhis intimates.” Carpenter’s first fraud is a simple one – if youare a bailiff or reeve that managed a flock ofsheep, you would know that not all breedingewes would have lambs during a year. Whenreporting you the numbers you couldmisrepresent the totals, giving an exampleof how to get 12 lambs for yourself out of aflock of 150. The second fraud occurs when you go to selllambskins – if you have 160 lambskins youwould take 25 of the best lambskins and sellthem for a penny each, then use that money

to buy 50 lambskins for a half-penny each.After that you could replace the lambskinsyou took and deliver them to your lord, whilekeeping the other 25 for your own use. The third fraud is “to make a sheepskinappear to be that of a ewe that died ofmurrain. As soon as it it flayed, let the skinbe placed in hot water and then immediatelydried, and it will become as if the ewe weredead of murrain.” In this way, you wouldconvince everyone that the animal wasdiseased and that’s it flesh could not beeaten – meanwhile the flesh, which is reallyfine could be yours to eat or sell. The fourth fraud involves two shepherdsworking together – as long as they bothmanage flocks with the same brand. Theysteal three sheep from one flock, which theycan sell, but when it comes time for the flockto be counted, you would borrow the threesheep from the other flock. Later on, whenboth flocks are together on a commonpasture, these three sheep would thennaturally return to their own flock. The fifth fraud was one to be directed againsta shepherd – when the sheep are to be

A Book of Hours showing men moving sheep around a farm. British Library MSEgerton 1147

sheered, one will find that some of the woolis damaged or of poor quality. You wouldkeep this substandard wool separate fromthe rest, and when it came time to measurethe wool, you would have this portion used.This could allow you to blame the shepherdfor not taking good care of his flock, andperhaps fine or punish him. The final fraud involved cheese-making,which was done during the spring andsummer. Carpenter writes: First, on the day when they begin to makecheeses, let the milk be divided equally intoeight parts, and let the eighth part be keptuntil the following day, and from the otherparts let one cheese be made immediately.And the next day, let the milk be divided in thesame manner, and one that day let two partsbe taken from the milk, and let the first part,which was taken first, be poured into the othermilk, from which the cheese is madeimmediately. And thus every day let the milkbe renewed. And on the seventh day you willhave eight portions of new milk and sixportions from the previous day, and thus onethe seventh day you will make two cheese ofthe same size as the others. This last fraud is particularly ingenious, asthe amount of milk you take each day willonly make the size of cheese 1/8 smaller,which won’t likely be noticed by your lord,and you do not risk your milk spoiling. At theend of each week you have enough milk tomake an extra cheese, which you can eat orsell yourself. Carlin notes that even in the Middle Agesthere was employee fraud – various recordsshow that rulers and lords were trying tomake sure that their servants were not tryingto embezzle their money or goods. Thefifteenth-century writer Christine de Pisanexplains in her book The Treasure of the Cityof Ladies that “there are some dishonestchambermaids who are given greatresponsibility because they know how to

insinuate themselves into the great housesof the middle classes and of rich people bycleverly acting the part of good householdmanagers. They get their position of buyingthe food and going to the butcher’s, wherethey only too well “hit the fruit basket”, whichis a common expression meaning to claimthat thing cost more than it really does andthen keep the change.” Carlin concludes, “Robert Carpenter’sembezzlement instructions do not tell usanything new about moral compromise inmedieval England, but they do offer anunusual window onto the practical logisticsof employee fraud, and they make it clearthat, like employee fraud today, systematicpilfering by corrupt manorial officers andother workers could well have siphoned offa significant fraction of medieval manorialproduction.” Her article, ‘Cheating the Boss: RobertCarpenter’s Embezzlement Instructions(1261×1268) and Employee Fraud inMedieval England’ appears in CommercialActivity, Markets and Entrepreneurs in theMiddle Ages: Essays in Honour of RichardBritnell, edited by Christian D. Liddy (Boydell,2011). Martha Carlin is a Professor at theUniversity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, whereshe specializes in daily life in the Middle Ages.Her most recent book is English Society,1200-1250: Lost Letters of Everyday Life.

The three registers of speaking 1. One ought to speak of humble things softly, of dramatic matters emphatically, of variedmatters moderately. Indeed, these are the familiar three registers of speaking: humble,middling, grandiloquent. Now when we say great things, they should be uttered grandly;when we speak of small things, delicately; when things of the middling sort, temperately. 2. For in small causes nothing should be spoken grandly or loftily, but one should speak ina simple and ordinary manner. But in greater causes, where we deal with God or humansalvation, more magnificence and brilliance should be displayed. 3. Inmoderate causes, where nothing is treated in order to effect an action, but only thatthe audiencemay be pleased, one should speak with moderation, somewhere between thetwo. But even though someone may speak of great things, nevertheless he should not alwaysteach grandly, but humbly, when he teaches; moderately, when he praises or chastisessomething; grandly, when he calls to conversion minds that are turned away. In the humblestyle adequate words should be used; in the middling, showy; in the grand, ardent.

De trimododicendi genere

What did Isidore of Seville, the 7th-century Archbishop of Sevilleand author of Etymologiae, have to say about speaking? Here isan excerpt from his section Rhetoric and dialectic:

Isidore of Seville on...

The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville has been edited and translated by StephenA. Barney, W. J. Lewis, J. A. Beach and Oliver Berghof, and was published byCambridge University Press in 2006 Click here to visit the Publisher's website for more details

This past weekend the British Academy andthe University of Nottingham held a two-dayconference to discuss the future of medievalstudies and how medievalists can stayrelevant in a time when liberal arts andhumanities departments are experiencing arecord number of cuts to their programmes. ‘Making the medieval relevant: Connectingearly-career researchers studying400-1500’, was organized by Conor Kostick,who is currently the Marie Curie ResearchFellow at the University of Nottingham. Hebrought together eight other prominentmedieval scholars to consider the ways inwhich research into the medieval era canshed light upon ‘big picture’ humanitiestopics. A full-room of 40 people attended theconference, with many more watching onlineover its live-stream feed. Here are some ofthe highlights from the conference:

From Three Norfolk Manors to the KnownWorld: a Personal Odyssey In an impassioned keynote address, ProfessorBruce Campbell of the University of Belfasturged medievalists to apply for post-doctoralfellowships, saying that it is, "terriblyimportant for the future of medieval studies”. Campbell wants to debunk the notion that theacademy is an elitist organization byhighlighting the fact that it encouragesscholars and the public to attend its openlectures, debates, and seminars. "Don’t beintimidated. Every last one of us recognizesthat you are the seed core of our subjects. Weall recognise the struggle there is to getestablished academically. You will find usvery encouraging." Medieval studies has often been viewed as

Making theMedievalRelevant

By Sandra Alvarez

Is medieval studies still relevant? Can research into medieval topicshelp further and compliment research in the sciences andhumanities? Medievalists came to Nottingham, England, to showhow they are breaking boundaries.

the preserve of a predominantly maleenclave. Campbell, who also a Fellow of theBritish Academy, added that this organizationis fighting to change that perception byincreasing the number of female membersand encouraging women’s scholarship."Women have made a strong scholarlycontribution to medieval studies,” saidCampbell, "The academy is strenuouslytrying to break this down and constantlyreminding us of the gender distribution ofprofessors and fellows. Last year, we hadmore women than men welcomed. We’retrying very hard to reflect the diversity in oursociety." Campbell expressed his concern for thefuture of medieval studies as the number ofmedievalists appears to be dwindling, andgovernment bodies increasingly pressureuniversities to prove the relevance ofprogrammes like medieval history andphilosophy. How do we as medievalists prove

our “value" to the academic community, orto society at large? Medievalists are under thegun to to justify how their area of studyfurthers departmental ends or has socialrelevance. Campbell drove this point homesaying, "Science should not be exclusive toscientists; we need to be rigorous in what wedo. We need to push the government not tocut funding to the social sciences. We arelobbying very hard to say, not only should younot cut us, you should increase investment inour research." Out of 42 research fellows per year, only 1-2are medievalists, and between 2-5medievalists are supported by the Academy.Although it is encouraging to see thatmedieval historians are being incorporatedinto the British Academy every year, Campbellbelieves it’s not enough. Historians arefeeling the bite of funding cuts and seeingtheir programmes slashed because they havebeen deemed irrelevant

Jennifer Edmond of Trinity College Dublin speaking at Making the medievalrelevant: Connecting early-career researchers studying 400-1500

by government officials and universityadministrators focused on immediateresults, and return on investment. They lackthe foresight to see greater relevance in thehumanities over the long term. Campbell wants to improve those odds. He

went on to offer a glimpse into his academicjourney and offered insight and tips tobudding medievalists on how to tackle thisproblem and make themselves relevant in anenvironment that’s hostile to the humanities.

Medievalists are grappling with immensechanges to the academic system while tryingto compete for limited resources andresearch spaces. Campbell encouragedmedieval historians to push harder for a pieceof that cake, "The context in which we operateis changing. The cake will only go so far, andwe want a bigger cake.” Making Connections: From One ResearchQuestion to the Next Conor Kostick kicked off the second day ofthe conference talking to us about the parthe played in a research project looking atmortality and major climatic events by usingdigital diagrams, medieval documentaryrecords and dendrochronology. “Mortality”was a problematic term because it could

cover many types of death so they had tonarrow it down ir order to discern anysignificant patterns. Kostick worked closely with Dr. FrancisLudlow, of the Yale Climate and EnergyInstitution to gather information. They lookedat extreme weather associations with societalstress. Was there a co-occurrence with humanfamine and "bad years” for trees? Theirresearch was able to determine thatoutbreaks of disease for humans coincidedwith difficult years for trees, however, thisdidn’t appear to be the case in the MiddleEast. Kostick preferred to rely on two typesof sources: 1.Eyewitness or contemporary with a reliablechronology

Bruce Campbell’s 9 Tips on How to Succeed as a Medievalists 1. Develop a broad vision of your subject, its relevance and significance2. Think comparatively in time and space; think outside - we tend to be Anglo-centric in England and that’s not good.3. Capitalise on serendipity!4. Collaborate with fellow medievalists, non-medievalists and non-historians -don’t go it alone, broaden your tool kit.5. Seek grant funding to grow your research. Try and take control of this - whatyou want to do, and where you want to go, don’t let the institution dictate thisfor you.6. Make the most of technology. We need to give the impression that we arenot technologically inept, medievalists must embrace it (technology) andchampion it.7. Be proficient at working with numbers.8. Polish your presentation skills9. Convene conferences and join networks.

2.. Eyewitness or contemporary but withsome chronological uncertainty It was important to work with reliable data,and then be able to present the informationdigitally. How Does this Medieval Research Help: TheCross Disciplinary Angle Kostick presented his findings at theMedieval Congress at Kalamazoo this pastMay and later received an email fromsomeone in Nevada who was part of a teamthat studies ice cores. They contacted Kostickbecause their ice core data was telling aslightly different story from the Danish data.They wanted to collaborate and see ifKostick’s research was able to resolve adispute where there was a seven year gap indata between the Nevada and Denmark. Itturns out that Kostick’s data was able to helpthem. The collaborative work between thetwo was covered by media outlets fromaround the world, including in The Telegraph

under the flashy title: Did AmericanVolcanoes Trigger the Fall of the RomanEmpire. Kostick also stressed the importance ofstrong work relationships; saying, "If you findthe right person, it makes a huge differenceto your research.” Kostick is very proud ofthese achievements, and of his work withLudlow. It goes beyond being justintellectually compatible; it's aboutcollaboration and sharing information to helpeach other succeed. Bald’s Eye salve: An Anglo-Saxon Antibiotic? Earlier this year, Dr. Freya Harrison and a teamof microbiologists at the University ofNottingham discovered that a 1,000 year oldAnglo-Saxon onion and garlic recipe was ableto treat MRSA (meticillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus) infections, a.k.a.“superbugs”.

Conor Kostick of the University of Nottingham

Harrison’s work aimed to bring togetherpeople from different backgrounds to discussinfection and answers these questions: Howdid epidemics spread in the past? Did peopledevelop effective treatments for infectionbefore germ theory and the advent of modernantibiotics? Lastly, how did medieval peoplerespond to disease? Harrison hopes to findsome answer by studying European medicaltexts from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries. Using Bald’s Leechbook, an Anglo-Saxonmedical text written in Old English, Harrisonand her team tried one of the recipes for aneye salve. The Leechbook describes a “wen”in your eye, which is most likely a sty fromthe eyelash follicle caused by bacteria. Thesalve for this infection was created in a

laboratory at the University of Nottingham.Harrison followed the recipe precisely. "Wewere actually quite thunderstruck by what wesaw” she said, noticing that the number ofcells dropped from about a billion active cellsto a few thousand cells, after the bacteria wastreated with Bald’s Eye Salve. This killed99.9% of the germs. To be sure theirexperiment wasn’t a one-off, they made theeye salve nine times and it has always yieldedthe same remarkable results. They took it onestep further, and with collaboration fromscientists at Texas Tech University, they triedthe salve on chronic wound infections in mice.Bald’s Eye Salve killed 90% of this bacteriain 4 hours. This is better than our currentmodern "last line"

CENDARI: Integrating Medieval DigitalArchives Jennifer Edmond of Trinity College Dublincame to the conference to talk about CENDARI(Collaborative European Digital ArchiveInfrastructure), a consortium of fourteenpartners in eight countries, and worth€6.5million. This collaborative archiveinfrastructure project is scheduled to wrapup its four-year run in January 2016 but iscurrently in talks with the EuropeanCommission to get funding for another fouryears. Edmond explained the goal of the projectwas, “To pilot a research infrastructureleveraging analogue networks to integratedigital resources for historical research in away that is easy to use/access andharmonised with researcher requirements." CENDARI is not a library, and it is not a glorifiedversion of Google; it has a different mission,but it assists scholars by creating intelligent,accessible searches. For example, for thename ‘Albertus Magnus’, it will detectdifferent forms of the name, thereby makingyour search smarter.

Edmond pointed out that the Europeanarchives were unprepared for sharing data ona mass scale so it was important for the projectto help make rich data easily accessible toscholars. CENDARI respects the analoguefoundations of scholarship, Edmond stated,“You have to have the interaction with theoriginal scholarship…think of this assomething that enhances enquiry, and fillsthe gaps.” In addition to filling a research void,the project hopes to raise awareness withlibraries and archives about joining forceswith digital research infrastructures. Among the other participants at conferencewas Martin Pickard, speaking on ‘WritingSuccessful Grant Proposals’, Turi King on ‘KingRichard III: The Project and its Impact’, VictoriaHaywood on ‘Medievalists and Horizon 2020’,Daniel Curtis on “The ERC ProjectCoordinating for Life’, and Christina Lee on‘Crossing Boundaries: InterdisciplinaryStudies on Disease and Disability’. Check onMedievalists.net to read more reports fromthe conference. The field has been plagued by the perceptionthat medievalists are isolated and cliquey;conferences such as Making the Medieval

antibiotic used to fight MRSA infections inhospitals. The groundbreaking discovery generated amedia storm across the globe and thrustHarrison and her colleagues into thespotlight. The marriage of a medieval textwith modern microbiology appears to havemade a 1,000 year old medical recipe thatcan kill the bacteria that it was intended tokill. However, Harrison’s work is far from over.Now that the clamour has died down she isback in the lab studying these findings in

depth to see why the recipe fell out of useand what outcomes arise from using differentcombinations of the listed ingredients. Can we use begin to use pre-modern medicaltexts as a database for new anti-microbialcompounds? Can we solve modern medicaldilemma’s with medieval solutions? There isno definitive answer yet, but this project givesus hope that the potential is definitely there.

Relevant are trying to change that byhighlighting the need for medievalists tocome together, discuss strategies, work withscholars outside the field, and demonstratethat the discipline hasn’t stagnated butevolved and is a valuable contributor ofsolution for current scholarly and non-academic issues.

The Battle ofMorgarten

Known as the Battle of Morgarten, theevents of this day have been made intolegend, and is considered one of the mostimportant moments in the formation ofthe nation of Switzerland. For militaryhistorians, it also for noteworthy for beinga fight where simple footsoldiersdefeated an army of knights, thebeginning of an era where cavalry wouldno longer dominate the medievalbattlefield. The Battle of Morgarten, which this weekis marking its 700th anniversary, is alsoan event we know little about. As onehistorian notes, “Few details are knownabout the course of the battle. Primarysources are almost nonexistent; thechronicles offer mostly contradictoryreports. Neither the exact location of thebattle nor the number of combatants oneither side is known.“ The battle took place between Leopold I,Duke of Austria, and the men of the OldSwiss Confederacy – an alliance of thecantons of Schwyz, Uri and Unterwalden.It seems that the conflict was triggered bya border dispute between the Benedictinemonastery of Einsiedeln and the canton

of Schwyz. The monastery was raided theprevious year, and had called upon theDuke to protect it. In the words of the 14th century chroniclerJohn of Winterthur, the Austrian Dukesummoned his forces, and “the men of thisarmy came together with one purpose, toutterly subdue and humiliate thosepeasants who were surrounded withmountains as with walls.” Meanwhile,according to another chronicler, the jesterof the Duke of Austria, on being asked whathe thought of the invasion plan, replied,“You have all taken counsel how best toget into the country, but have given noexplanation of how you are going to getout again!” In her dissertation, The Swiss Way of War ,Katherine Becker offers a detailed accountof the events of the battle. She explainsthat people of Schwyz, led by WernerStauffacher, and had prepared theirdefences and blocked off most of theroutes into their territory so that theAustrian forces would need to comethrough the narrow pass of Morgarten.

On November 15, 1315, an Austrian army of at least a few thousandmen marched along the shores of Lake Ägeri in centralSwitzerland. It was here that they were ambushed by over athousand Swiss farmers.

Illustration from the Tschachtlanchronik depicting the Battle of Morgarten

On November 15th, the Duke and his forcesleft the city of Zug intending to attack thecanton of Schwyz. One legend about thebattle states that an Austrian knight,believing that his side was so superior to theSwiss peasants, actually shot an arrow to theenemy camp carrying a message saying thatthey would be marching through Morgartenand that the peasants should just flee. Once scouts had reported that the Austrianswere coming Werner Stauffacher orderedmost of his soldiers to take cover along awooded ridge and wait for the Duke to comealong the narrow road by Lake Ägeri, wherethey soon found it blocked by a wall. Beckerwrites: The entire vanguard was forced to halt, yet thecenter and rear of the army continued to moveforward oblivious to the problem ahead. Theresult was that the entire Austrian armybecame locked in a bottleneck. Furious, thathis march was halted, the Duke ordered thewall stormed—probably by dismountedknights, since his infantry were in the rear ofthe army. Just as the knights began climbingover the roadblock, a shower of boulders andtree-trunks came rolling down the slope on theknights’ right flank. The dismounted knightsran for their lives, but as Winterthur tells usthey were caught like “fish in a net and wereslaughtered without any resistance.”Eliminating the vanguard on the narrowestpart of the pass, the attack of the forest cantonshad cut down most of the aristocrats. Thehorses of those behind were thrown intoconfusion as their riders, knowing that theycould not charge uphill, attempted to turn theirmounts. The entire mass of knights was nowpinned between two sheets of rock on the sides,and their own packed forces and a lake belowthem. They were thrown into panic. Then,suddenly, movement was spotted from above:a huge body of halberdiers in dense columnbegan rolling out from the woods and downfrom the ridge. Swiss pelters went before themunleashing avalanches of rocks, while thepowerful Swiss halberd column rammed into

the Austrian flank slashing and thrusting. Themoment is captured by the illustrator ofBendict Tschlachtlan’s 1493 chronicle DieSchlacht am Morgarten. John of Winterthur describes the halberd asa very effective weapon: “Also the Swiss havein their hands death weapons, which havebeen called in popular speech ‘Helnbarten,’and are very frightful. These slice like a razorand slash into pieces such strongly armedopponents.” With it they were able to launcha devastating attack against the Austrians. John of Winterthur offers this vivid picture: It was not a battle, but a mere butchery of DukeLeopold’s men; for the mountainfolk slew themlike sheep in the shambles; no quarter wasgiven, they cut down all without distinction.So great was the fierceness of the Confederatesthat scores of the Austrian foot-soldiery, whenthey saw the bravest knights falling helplessly,threw themselves in panic into the lake,preferring to drown rather than to be hewnabout by the dreadful weapons of theirenemies. Estimates for the number of dead among theAustrians go as high as 1500 dead, and therest were forced to flee. John of Winterthur,who was a schoolboy at the time, remembershow that very night he saw the retreatingDuke, stating that “he seemed to be half-deadfrom extreme sorrow.” The immediate effect of the battle was to rallythe other Swiss cantons to the side of theconfederacy. Becker explains that: … politically speaking, Morgarten was a water-shed moment. Three little democraticallygoverned peasant communities—Schwyz, Uriand Unterwalden—in the heart ofSwitzerland’s central valleys, had demandedindependence from foreign governors,establishing it by defeating their imperialarmy. These “inner” or Forest Cantons laid thefoundation for the

Confederate militia system when they signedthe Bundesbrief of 1291, and renewed it in1314, swearing oaths of loyalty for mutualprotection against any aggressor. With thisagreement they created the originalConfederacy. In 1315 the “Oath Brothers” wereput to the test and their united effort succeededagainst a powerful enemy—an AustrianHabsburg army. Their success won theconfidence of other Swiss communities,several of which had fought against them atMorgarten. Among these new members to thealliance were the “outer” cantons of Zu rich,Zug, Glarus, Luzern, Zu rich, Fribourg,Graubu nden, Bern, and others, which eitherjoined or, in the case of Graubu nden, alliedwith the Confederates after Morgarten. Despite the importance of the battle to Swisshistory, we know little else about it. Earlierthis year archaeologists found 14th centuryartefacts in the Morgarten area, which mightbe from the battle. They include two knives,

a knife scabbard, two arrows from a crossbowor bow, and a dozen coins that date from thethe year 1275 to the early 14th century – clickhere to read more. Meanwhile, in an articlejust published in The Holocene, researchersexamined the history of the water level ofLake Ägeri and found that it had recededbetween 2 and 3 metres since the time of theBattle of Morgaten. However, this has nothelped them to identify the site of the battle,as they could not find a location which wouldbe by the lake and also close enough to steepslopes. You can also learn more about the battle fromMedieval Histories and find out about eventscommemorating the event atMorgarten2015.

Sources: Katherine A. Becker, The Swiss way of war: A study on the transmission and continuity ofclassical and military ideas and practice in medieval Europe (PhD Dissertation, Ohio StateUniversity, 2009) Hans Delbruck, History of the Art of War, Volume 3: Medieval Warfare (Lincoln, 1982) Kelly DeVries, Infantry Warfare in the Early Fourteenth Century: Discipline, Tactics, andTechnology (Boydell, 1996) Markus Egli et al., “Multi-methodological reconstruction of the lake level at Morgarten inthe context of the history of the Swiss Confederation,” The Holocene – published onlineJuly 1, 2015 William Denison, McCrackan, The rise of the Swiss republic: a history (Boston, 1892)

How to Tell if Your12th-Century Loveris Just Not ThatInto You

In the twelfth century, courtly love was all the rage with the French nobility. Toparticipate in this trendiest of trends, though, you actually needed to know therules. Enter Andreas Capellanus, author of The Art of Courtly Love, a bookheavily based on Ovid, but with the definite thumbprint of its author. Althoughhe is a capellanus (“chaplain”), Andreas is as interested in the ins and outs oflove and sex as any editor at Cosmopolitan, and is full of scandalous tales (likethat time he barely stopped himself from having sex with a beautiful nun) andhelpful advice. There is so much about this book that is worthy of mention, butfor today, here are five ways to know if your courtly lover is just not that intoyou anymore (all quotations are from John Jay Parry’s translation).

By Danièle Cybulskie

1. She avoids you. Andreas says, “If you see that your loved one is missing all sorts of opportunitiesto meet you or is putting false obstacles in your path, you cannot hope long toenjoy her love” (p.157). If she’s missing your feast because she has to wash herhair, chances are she’s just not that into you. 2. He asks for too many gifts. When it comes to gifts, Andreas has many firm rules. It’s okay to accept some(specific) gifts from your lover, but you should only accept money if you are inurgent need. Otherwise, you’re not a true lover. Gifts, Andreas says, are a good

14th century depiction of Frau Minne, the personification of courtly love

You can follow Danièle Cybulskie on Twitter @5MinMedievalist

test, because although someone who asks for gifts “may pretend that he is in love… he is a long way from having the affection of a lover; what he wants is not tolove, but to enjoy the wealth of somebody else” (p.159). Beware twelfth-centurygold-diggers at all costs. 3. She spends too much time on personal grooming. This is a tricky one, says Andreas, because she could be prettying herself up foryou: “If you find that she is paying more attention to the care of her person thanshe had been doing, either her love for you is growing or she is interested in thelove of someone else” (p.158). Don’t jump to conclusions. If you want to find outfor sure, just use “the greatest care and subtlety” (p.158) and pretend to be in lovewith someone else for a while. If she’s jealous, you’re good. 4. She tries to hide from your messenger. This is the twelfth-century version of using call display, and it’s a solid sign thatyour love affair is doomed, according to Andreas. He says, “if she tries to hide fromyour faithful messenger, there is no doubt that she has turned you adrift in themighty waves and that her love for you is only feigned” (p.157). (Now you knowhow to answer you friends when they ask you about that girl who won’t returnyour calls.) Andreas says that if she’s not sending you messages, or if her messenger“is becoming a stranger to you” (p.158), it’s pretty much over. 5. She’s unenthusiastic in the bedroom. Andreas doesn’t shy away from talking about sex, but he uses the code word“solace” for propriety’s sake (no one can accuse him of being smutty). When itcomes to solace with your lady, pay close attention. For example, “if you find her,for no reason at all, growing half-hearted about giving you the usual solaces, youmay see that her faith is wavering” (p. 157); likewise, “if you find her less readythan usual to grant or to seek solaces, you may know that your love will not lastmuch longer” (p.157). Ladies need good solace, too, so if she’s not seeking solacewith you, she may be seeking solace with somebody else. This may hurt to hear,but “if at the very moment of delight when she is offering you her sweet solacesthe act is more wearisome to her than usual, or if you see that your solaces boreher, you need not doubt that she has no love for you” (p.158). Trust Andreas: thekey to a good relationship is solace, so if the solace is boring, the relationship isprobably already over. When it comes to relationship advice, who better to trust than a twelfth-centurychurchman? For more helpful advice on love and solace, check out the rest of TheArt of Courtly Love.

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