Five hundred years ago this week the monarchies of England and France met in the meadowland of the Pas-de-Calais. Today these flatlands are largely nondescript for the traffic that flashes past them on the A26, âlâAvenue des Anglaisâ, but even now the fields six kilometres to the east of GuĂŽnes, on the edge of the […]
Since I have the dubious honour of being the most active member of staff (here at Exeter) on social media, I’m periodically asked how students and scholars new to this brave new world should navigate it. Ultimately, there’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to go about social media engagement; but here are a few rather […]
Just over two months ago, we announced the start of a new project based at the Centre for Medieval Studies here in Exeter: Learning French in Medieval England. Our aim is to produce a digital edition of Walter de Bibbesworthâs Tretiz, a rhymed French vocabulary of the mid-thirteenth century that has attracted significant critical interest […]
Since Iâve been on maternity leave Iâve not surprisingly been pondering all things to do with pregnancy and baby care. Iâve also been thinking about medieval pregnancy advice, since itâs a topic Iâve touched on during my ongoing research on medieval fertility and infertility. Medical texts are probably the medieval sources which give most information […]
Vestez vos dras, biau douz enfaunz,â¨Chaucez vos brais, soulers, et gaunz.â¨[âŚ]â¨De une corroie vous ceintez ââ¨Ne di pas ‘vous enceintez’,â¨Car femme est par home enceinteâ¨Et de une ceinture est ele ceinte. Put on your clothes, my sweet child: don your breeches, shoes, and gloves. Lock up your belt-buckle — but do not say ‘knock up’, for a woman is knocked up by a man, but is locked up within a belt. This somewhat risquĂŠ passage of French […]
One of the pillars of the Medieval Studies community at Exeter, Emma Cayley, left the university over the summer to take up a post as Head of School of Languages, Cultures and Societies at Leeds. Our loss is Leedsâs gain, as I know from personal experience having been hired and served my probation during Emmaâs […]
As my colleagues at Exeter know, I have spent the past few years looking at the concept of news in the Middle Ages. Iâve been considering what the idea of ânewsâ meant in the medieval world, what sources remain for news, and what studies of news in the Middle Ages might tell us about news […]
Five hundred years ago, Henry Courtenay, earl of Devon (d. 1539), marked the coming of the New Year with a rare and costly gift for his king, Henry VIII: oranges (Earl Henryâs accounts do not record how many). Oranges were not unknown at the royal table â indeed Henry is known for his fondness for […]
Tuesday 16 July 2019 marks the 650th anniversary of the death of John Grandisson (1292-1369), Exeter’s longest-serving bishop. The cathedral and the diocese have been shaped by many hands over many centuries but arguably it is Grandisson, who led the diocese for forty-two years from 1327, whose imprint has proved the most enduring. Before his tenure, […]
The scorching summer of 2018 was a great gift for archaeologists. For the first time in almost two decades an unbroken dry spell brought features below the surface of the landscape clearly into view. These âparch marksâ, visible only for as long as the weather holds, provide the very fullest evidence of the foundations of […]