CLA: Center for Medieval Studies

Counterfeit Saints and the Drama of Discernment in the Visions of Ermine de Reims: A talk by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski

Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski is a professor of French and Italian at the University of Pittsburgh. As a specialist in medieval French literature she has varied research interests: she studied the history of Caesarean birth for her book Not of Woman Born (1990); she has worked on saints lives and particularly on holy women in the later middle ages. She is currently interested in the literature surrounding the Great Schism of the Western Church (1378 - 1417). Other major areas of interest are the role the classical heritage plays in medieval culture, a topic she investigated in Reading Myth (1997), and Christine de Pizan (1364-1431), the first professional woman writer in Europe.

Posted by Ctr for Medieval Studies at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the late eleventh century, what two Catalan noblemen had a falling out over an inheritance dispute that led to the one dying in a "hunting accident" and the other ceding the inheritance to the dead man's brother before undertaking a pilgrimage to Jerusalem that coincided with the First Crusade?

Please send trivia responses by email to umn.cms.triva@gmail.com.

Posted by Ctr for Medieval Studies at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There were no correct answers to last week's question, though Tim Jones does get the no-prize for writing that Margaret was still a little Norwegian princess in 1288 when she supposedly made her decree. The question will stand for another week to give everyone another chance, but I will provide a hint.

According to a legend first recorded in a 1606 pamphlet entitled "Love, Courtship and Matrimony," in 1288 Queen Margaret of Scotland decreed that during a leap year any woman was legally allowed to do what? Later, during the Early Modern period, when this custom was actually observed for some time, women who enacted their right were required out of fairness to wear a red dress while doing so.

Posted by Ctr for Medieval Studies at 7:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Professor John Pryor, University of Sydney, will talk to us about "A Medieval Maritime Revolution: the Logistics of Crusading by Sea, 1097-1204." Please join us at 4:00 p.m. in 140 Nolte.

Posted by Ctr for Medieval Studies at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Professor Walt Schalick of the University of Wisconsin-Madison will talk to us about "Mephibosheth in the Middle Ages: Disabilities, Children and the Most Vulnerable of the Vulnerable in Medieval Europe." Please join us at 4:00 in 140 Nolte.

Posted by Ctr for Medieval Studies at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to a legend first recorded in a 1606 pamphlet entitled "Love, Courtship and Matrimony," in 1288 Queen Margaret of Scotland decreed that during a leap year any woman was legally allowed to do what? And, for a completely worthless bonus point, what is the most obvious indication that the story is ahistorical?
Send answers to umn.cms.trivia@gmail.com

Posted by Ctr for Medieval Studies at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)