Medieval research in Estonia before the 1990s concentrated mainly on the history of peasants and agriculture. The new generation of historians who generally studied at the University of Tartu in the ...1980s and 1990s substantially changed this situation. The amount of medieval research increased significantly, and the scope of research topics became much wider. Over the last two decades, medieval research in Estonia has discovered several new ways of history writing, such as microhistory, gender
studies, oral history, the history of animals, etc., which have undoubtedly brought richer and more diverse knowledge about medieval history. This also enabled historians to provide a more comprehensive picture of society and the social, cultural, etc., development of Livonia in the Middle Ages.
Due to the active international cooperation, supported by the political changes in Europe at the end of the twentieth century, medieval Livonia increasingly became a topic of interest for scholars outside Estonia and Latvia. Over the last two decades the publication activity (including publications in foreign languages) of Estonian medievalists increased several times and certainly represents one of the most active and deeply internationally networked fields of the Estonian humanities.
The central areas of medieval research in the 2000s and 2010s have been the Baltic Crusades, the history of the Teutonic Order, social history dominantly in the urban context, and the history of everyday culture. The outcome of interdisciplinary cooperation between historians, archaeologists and art historians has become important. A remarkable general tendency that can be observed is the more integrative presentation of medieval Livonian society compared to the traditional understanding. Research tends to stress interaction and mutual cultural impact between social and ethnic groups instead of conflict and isolation. The political history of medieval Livonia is dominated by examination of the activities of the Livonian Teutonic Order, and here it is remarkable that scholars have detailed account of the personal and political connections of individual actors outside Livonia, with the papal curia or emperor, for example.
As the Tallinn City Archives are one of the bestpreserved medieval archives in the Hanse area, urban history and the history of Tallinn deserve closer attention. Scanty written sources make research into small towns a convoluted and sometimes even impossible task. Luckily, the absence of written records is sometimes compensated for by archaeological findings, which makes cooperation between historians and archaeologists in this research field necessary. Medieval research in Estonia has also focused on important ecclesiastical and religious processes, especially on the spread of the Lutheran Reformation in Livonia. Regarding both urban and rural populations, the themes of everyday life, such as food or festivals, became more important than traditional interest in international trade or agricultural productivity. The lack of personal and material resources has limited the work on medieval source publications. In this regard the digital age is without doubt a major new challenge to Estonian medievalists, and, furthermore, leads to innovative approaches to medieval history.
Gratian the Theologian shows how one of the best-known canonists of the medieval period was also an accomplished theologian. Well into the twelfth century, compilations of Church law often dealt with ...theological issues. Gratian's Concordia discordantium canonum or Decretum, which was originally compiled around 1140, was no exception, and so Wei claims in this provocative book. The Decretum is the fundamental canon law work of the twelfth century, which served as both the standard textbook of canon law in the medieval schools and an authoritative law book in ecclesiastical and secular courts. Yet theology features prominently throughout the Decretum, both for its own sake and for its connection to canon law and canonistic jurisprudence.
Whalen explores the belief that Christendom would spread to every corner of the earth before the end of time. During the High Middle Ages the Western followers of Rome imagined the future conversion ...of Jews, Muslims, pagans, and Eastern Christians into one fold of God's people, assembled under the authority of the Roman Church.
This paper analyses the archaeological record of six villages of Álava, north-central Iberia, in the High Middle Ages (11-13th centuries AD): Armentia and the deserted villages of Zornoztegi, ...Zaballa, Aistra, Torrentejo and Dulantzi. The approach focuses on their churches, their associated structures and the relationship with the surrounding domestic households, with a double aim. ...to assess whether these changes, if identified, had any connections with the implementation of the Catholic parish network, a process that so far has been almost exclusively studied after the written sources. Keywords: High Middle Ages; material markers; ecclesiastical rents; proprietary churches; episcopal powers; peasant communities. 1.
Proponemos en este artículo explorar antecedentes de elementos fantasmales en la Edad Media mediante la tratadística didáctico-moralizante de la época. Desde la antigüedad, la mayoría de apariciones ...se vehiculaban mediante los sueños. Posteriormente y con el cristianismo, serán propios de la cultura medieval temas macabros como el de los tres muertos, que se manifestarán a los tres vivos para advertirles de la fugacidad de los placeres mundanos. En el medievo aparecerán muertos reclamando un buen entierro, clamando venganza por su muerte, o bien, simplemente incordiando y burlándose de los mortales. Para constatar todo esto, analizaremos relatos del tratado de Johannes Nider, el Formicarius (1437-38), importantísimo no solo porque sirvió de base al posterior Malleus Maleficarum (1486-87), sino porque se trata de la primera exposición sistemática que se escribió sobre estos temas: apariciones de fantasmas, casos de brujería, endemoniados y exorcismos.
Sin entender el territorio, nuestro conocimiento del pasado constituye un paisaje incompleto. La tierra ha sido, es y será esencial en la vida del ser humano. Este trabajo pretende ayudar a completar ...ese paisaje analizando el papel que tuvo el territorio en dos momentos clave en el proceso de construcción de las identidades colectivas: la formación de los topónimos y la creación de una imagen de honra y orgullo, en este caso, durante la Edad Media. De todos los elementos del territorio que sirvieron para ambos casos, el agua adquirió un especial protagonismo. Madrid, objeto de análisis que cerrará este trabajo, es uno de los ejemplos más claros de ese papel del agua en la construcción de una identidad.
Jan of Rabštejn († approx. 1450), the father of Chancellor Prokop († probably 1470), the humanist Jan (1437–1473) and three other Rabštejn brothers, is identified in the literature with Ješek ...Rabštejn, who was a member of the town council in Žatec multiple times between 1402 and 1414. The aim of this paper is to provide a critical examination of this repeatedly stated yet never confirmed hypothesis. The author places the examined matter in the broader context of research on the settlement of the nobility in Bohemian towns in the late Middle Ages, observes the genesis of the current interpretation and, based on an analysis of relevant sources, reaches the conclusion that the nobleman Jan of Rabštejn and the Žatec burgher Ješek Rabštejn were very probably two different people.
The study sheds new light on the genesis of the 45 articles of John Wyclif condemned by the University of Prague in 1403. Based on the study of the manuscripts, the author draws attention to the ...hitherto unknown redaction of the articles. By its analysis, he proves that the Prague master Johannes Hübner did not select some of the condemned propositions directly from Wyclif’s books, as was previously thought, but took them from this neglected redaction. The author traces its origins against the background of Wyclif’s English ecclesiastical prosecution, and also examines its reception in Bohemia. The study includes a list of the manuscripts of 45 articles and their three redactions, two of which the author critically publishes in print for the first time in an appendix.
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