Chapter one provides a multifaceted panorama of the Genoese community in medieval Seville that helps to link Francisco Imperial, an early 15th century poet, to a group of foreigners and naturalized Castilian subjects who, despite their marginality, contributed greatly to the kin…
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The thesis starts from the premise that John Barbour's 14th century epic poem The Bruce, long used by historians as a largely reliable source for events in the War of Independence, should be viewed primarily as literature and therefore as potentially misleading where historical …
The present study investigates attitudes towards and teachings about the end of life and the soul’s passage to the next world, as expressed in late antique religious tales in Greek, particularly from Egypt and the Sinai. The intellectual setting is that of Chalcedonian Christian…
The doctrine of divine providence was considered fundamental to understanding the nature of reality in medieval Christian orthodoxy. One of our greatest modern impediments to proper understanding of this law are the radically different ontologies that flourished in the Latin Wes…
The reign of King Baldwin I (1100-1118) has thus far received little noteworthy attention by historians as the important pivotal period following the First Crusade conquest of Jerusalem in 1099. The two decades of his rule marked the extension of Latin conquests in the east, mos…
Fourteenth- and fifteenth-century recovery romances create a convergent set of fantasies that reflect desires both for the reclamation of the Holy Land and for the protection and ascendance of Christianity. The disunity of Europe and the emergence of the Ottoman Empire produced …
This study examines crusader kingship as a unique paradigm of monarchy in the twelfth century. Using crusade chronicles, chansons de geste, trouveres poetry, coronation liturgies, letters, treatises and artwork, three themes of royal power are identified and analyzed: chivalric …
The medieval crusades played a major role in the literature of the period. Some may consider crusade literature as primarily celebratory in nature; however, the examination of two medieval source texts, The Song of Roland and The Sultan of Babylon, reveals literature that reache…
This Ph.D. dissertation focuses on the nostalgic feelings of the Andalusian Arabs and Jews toward the East and on the role that eastern poetic conventions played in the literary composition of al-Andalus. The first chapter introduces a quick survey of nostalgia among Arabs from …
This dissertation explores two thirteenth century hagiographic poems by Gonzalo de Berceo, Vida de San Millán de la Cogolla and Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos, and two seventeenth century hagiographic comedias by Lope de Vega, El santo negro Rosambuco de la ciudad de Palermo and…
This dissertation explores the relationship between the compendios de castigos brought into Castilian during the last years of the reign of Fernando III and the first four years of Alfonso X's rule and the socio-political milieu in which they were circulated. The first two works…
This dissertation seeks to explore how theological and philosophical traditions during the medieval period lead to the establishment of views on the nature of God, the best manner of living, as well as the best way of remaining faithful to a proper mode of religious worship. Fur…
This study examines the ways in which the dream manual was materially bound together with collections of early Italian visionary literature. The Somniale Danielis was a widely circulated dream manual in the late Middle Ages. It guided the interpretation of dreams and also served…
Colored marble has been used throughout the Mediterranean as a building material, architectural veneer, sculptural material, even a support for painting since at least the second century BC. This thesis examines the poetics and symbolism of marbles, as a medium more than a mater…
Based on a broad survey of the reception of Firdausi's Shahnama in medieval times, this dissertation argues that Firdausi's oeuvre was primarily perceived as a book of wisdom and advice for kings and courtly élites. The medieval reception of the Shahnama is clearly manifested in…
From the 5th/ 11th century, madīh nabawī (praise poetry for the Prophet Muhammad) began to emerge as a distinct poetic genre and spread throughout the Islamic world. In al-Andalus, devotion to the person of the Prophet Muhammad became an essential element of Islamic faith for bo…