Medieval

Michael Camille shows how the marginal illustrations of a 14th-century psalter became some of our most familiar images of everyday life in medieval England.

The social, sexual and demonic power of women was an important theme in the popular print of Germany and the Low Countries in the 16th century, as Julia Nurse shows.

‘There’s no discouragement...Shall make him once relent...His first avowed intent... To be a pilgrim.’  Women, however, endured vexations of their own as Diana Webb outlines.

On June 15th, 1098, the army of the First Crusade discovered the Holy Lance – the very spear that had pierced Christ’s side on the cross - in the city of Antioch.

Having made many powerful enemies, the Dominican friar and puritan fanatic Girolamo Savonarola was executed on 23 May 1498.

The monastery was the focus of the local community in many medieval towns. Emma Mason describes the way of life of the monks and the young people in their care in the 11th and 12th centuries.

Steve Gunn samples two books on English government and politics in the Middle Ages.

Casting Islam and Muslims as the enemy was crucial in the Crusades, and the context of conflict has colored Christian-Islamic relations since.

Richard Cavendish describes the brief rule of Cola di Rienzi following his coup d'etat on May 20th, 1347.

Alex Barker discusses St Augustine's Abbey Museum.