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Sam Ottewill-Soulsby

@samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social
3.9K followers 927 following 1.6K posts

Medieval historian and charismatic megafauna enthusiast at the University of Tübingen. Blogs at salutemmundo.wordpress.com

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Reposted by Sam Ottewill-Soulsby
Samuel Rowe @samdrowe.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
A new post concerning a strange symbol on a coin-type of Gisulf II. After an initial, convoluted attempt to explain it, I found the answer in older historiography (which should never be dismissed out of hand, a fact well illustrated here). #medievalsky mundusbarbarorum.wordpress.com/2026/09/28/t...
mundusbarbarorum.wordpress.com
The Mysterious Monogram of Gisulf II
© Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. “Le emissioni dei duchi di Benevento, con Solidi e Tremisses, si distribuiscono in termini piuttosto monotoni per tutto l’VIII secolo.”Ermanno Arslan, “Emis…
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Sam Ottewill-Soulsby @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
A gentle note to Americans involved in university degree structure discourse, your friends who did more focussed undergraduate courses (or who didn’t go to university) can read what you’re writing.
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Sam Ottewill-Soulsby @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The village of Waldenbuch, including the castle, which belonged to the Dukes of Württemberg and the fourteenth-century church of St Vitus, a site of pilgrimage for those suffering from St Vitus’ Dance.
Photo of the castle from above under a blue sky, with white plaster walls, red tile roofs and a tower peaking behind it.Photo from the small but charming town square, with a fountain in the foreground and a yellow stone church in the background with a red-tiled roof and a white tower.Photo of the town square from the other side. The fountain is surrounded by red flowers. In the background are traditional historic timber buildings.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I tend to think the core thing that differentiates liberalism from 'hard' uncut socialism (as distinct from market or democratic socialism) is that while both agree on human equality of dignity, liberalism seeks to limit the community's claim on the individual, socialism seeks an unlimited claim.
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Jesse Keskiaho @jkeskiah.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Just got my hands on this fine looking volume, including my piece on a Carolingian copy of the first eight books of De civitate carrying annotations probably made in or near Arles in the early sixth century, possibly in the entourage of bishop Caesarius doi.org/10.30965/978...
Cover of the volume Augustine's De civitate Dei. Text, Context and Reception, ed. by Anthony Dupont, Marina Giani and Gert Partoens, showing a woodcut print depicting Aurelius Augustinus as a late medieval scholar
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Jon Dell Isola @medievaljon.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Shorter post this time about what I call "competitive history", or the frustrating trend to typologize and compare historical places, people, and events. Or, in other words, the "RIP to them but I'm different" theory of history #medievalsky
among-the-ruins.ghost.io
On "Competitive History"
A few weeks ago I was delivering a lecture on the Mongols, and noted how Chinggis Khan ruled over the "largest land empire in history," a phrase that gets bandied about all over the internet. I asked ...
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AFP News Agency @en.afp.com · 23/09/2026
Polls open in the only American election that really matters: Fat Bear Week u.afp.com/S9o4
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Sam Ottewill-Soulsby @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
A wonderful time, can be had on this website, full of translations, of great waka poetry, from pre-modern Japan folks.
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Matt Gabriele @profgabriele.com · 23/09/2026
please to see that my latest academic article is out now: "Ghost in the Machine. Crusade Medievalisms in the 21st-century United States" I take on the ghost of Samuel Huntington and some right-wing tropes in scholarship open access so free to read --> www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
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James Without End @neverendingjim.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
My easy guide, TWO HOURS TO TWO BODIES: UNLOCK THE SECRET POWER OF MEDIEVAL MONARCHS draws on secrets previously known only to historians to show YOU how to develop your body politic and take control of the kingdom of your life.
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Laury Sarti @laurysarti.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The Codice Diplomatico Longobardo I, ed. von L. Schiaparelli (1929) now has a digital edition!! werkstatt.formulae.uni-hamburg.de/corpus/urn:c...
werkstatt.formulae.uni-hamburg.de
Formulae - Litterae - Chartae: Codice Diplomatico Longobardo I, ed. von L. Schiaparelli (1929) Inhalt
Medieval Latin Formulae and their German translations in the Capitains Format
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Sam Ottewill-Soulsby @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Slightly odd question but can anyone recommend a translation of the Man’yoshu? I’m particularly interested in books 6 and 8.
Picture of Heijo palace in Nara for visual interest. A timber multiple storey building with red pillars, white walls and large black roof.
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Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 22/09/2026
www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8tg...
youtube.com
Classic Sesame Street - Monsterpiece Theater Me Claudius Full Version HQ 1979
YouTube video by Rohail Hashmi
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Sam Ottewill-Soulsby @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
‚Don’t touch the figs.‘
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Sam Ottewill-Soulsby @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
When hiking in an unfamiliar area, it’s important to pay attention to local maps.
Photo of a map of the Siebenmühle valley just south of Stuttgart, with a place called ‘Bastard’.
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Dr. Nick Posegay @nposegay.northsky.social · 21/09/2026
A damaged magical amulet featuring a human-like figure surrounded by Arabic incantations (ca. 11th-12th c). The figure (human, jinn, demon?) has a snake draped over its shoulders. The text is mostly nonsense sounds intended to invoke a magical effect when recited. @theul.bsky.social #medievalsky
Dark brown paper manuscript fragment, badly torn around the edges, with a large drawing of a human-like figure with a rectangular torso, conical hat, misaligned eyes, and a snake draped over its shoulders. Arabic text in black ink fills much of the empty space. The fragment sits on a blue background next to a yellow label that reads T-S Ar.51.112 (https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-TS-AR-00051-00112/2).
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James T Palmer @jtpmedieval.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Author copies for Charlemagne's Dream... and new History Today magazine with an essay on the rise and fall of the Carolingians!
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Sam Ottewill-Soulsby @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The unsettling moment when eerie and unplaceable music starts playing just as you’re about the reach a Celtic burial mound in the middle of the forest. Best case scenario - I’m off for an adventure in the Otherworld. Worst case scenario - I’m about to be sacrificed by irate Swabian druids.
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Monica H Green @monicamedhist.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
For those who want to follow along (& I have to say, at this point, I have no idea how many days this will take), I want to give a "deep dive" into how historians of medicine (#histmed) who work on the pre-modern/pre-print era actually go about researching a question. Today, I just discovered this:
The first part of an entry for a 13th-century English cardinal, Hugh of Evesham, who is said to have died in Rome in 1287 as the result of either "pestilence" or poisoning. Below is both the French text and an English translation.
"Hugues Atratus de Evesham. - Né à Evesham (Angleterre), il fréquenta les Universités de son pays natal, puis celles de France et d'Italie, se livrant surtout à l'étude des mathématiques et de la médecine. Il obtint des prébendes ecclésiastiques en Angleterre et fut appelé à Rome, en 1280, pour donner son avis sur des questions médicales. On a prétendu, à tort selon Marini, qu’il avait été le médecin du pape Martin IV, qui le fit cardinal."
"Hugh (the Black) of Evesham. Born at Evesham (England), he attended the universities of his home country, then those of France and Italy, focusing especially on the study of mathematics and medicine. He secured ecclesiastical prebends [appointments] in England and was called to Rome in 1280 to give his advice on medical matters. It is said (erroneously, according to Marini) that he was the (personal) physician to Pope Martin IV [r. 1281-1285], who made him a cardinal.The latter part of an entry from Wickersheimer's 1936 biographical dictionary of medieval French medical practitioners, for a 13th-century English cardinal, Hugh of Evesham, who is said to have died in Rome in 1287 as the result of either "pestilence" or poisoning. Below is both the French text and an English translation.

"Il mourut à Rome, en 1287, du poison suivant les uns, de la peste suivant d'autres[2] et fut enterré dans l'église Saint-Laurent « in Lucina ». Il composa divers ouvrages dont deux de médecine, Canones medicinales et Super opere febrium Isaac[3]; le seul qui ait été conservé est un Sermo in dominica Septuagesime [4]."

He died in Rome, in 1287, from poisoning according to some, from "pestilence" according to others, and was interred in the church of Saint Laurence in Lucina. He composed various works of which two were on medicine: "Medical Canons" and "On Isaac [Israeli's] Work on Fevers." His only work that survives is a sermon on Septuagint Sunday [the ninth Sunday before Easter].
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Dr Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Using big words may not demonstrate all that much, but the assumption of a certain kind of British person that if it requires more than two syllables, it must be pretentious nonsense is even sillier. And in this instance it was definitely the right word.
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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
at one point he discusses a Tang dynasty criminal who had tattooed on one arm 'alive I do not fear the city prefect' and on the other 'dead I do not fear King Yama' (the judge of hell) which is more proof of the Tang being the most metal dynasty
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Sam Ottewill-Soulsby @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Beautiful words from Carney: In the heart of Germany, above Weimar, there is a wooded ridge called Ettersberg. For decades, Goethe walked, thought, and wrote there. An oak on that ridge came to bear his name, a living monument to the highest ideals of European culture www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/spee...
pm.gc.ca
Prime Minister Carney delivers an address to the European Parliament
Thank you for granting me the honour of addressing you all at the beginning of this decisive session.
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Florian Louis @florianlouis.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Hincmar - Actes du concile de Fismes et Exhortation sur l’organisation du palais À paraître en novembre aux Belles Lettres
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Sam Ottewill-Soulsby @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I’m reading T.G. Otte’s July Crisis on the start of the First World War and I love the often savage pen portraits of some of the people involved. On the Russian foreign minister, Sazonov: ‘His greatest weakness was the Achilles’ heel of many politicians - he was filled with good intentions.’
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Francesca Tinti @francescatinti.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
At long last, my article on Languages, Identities and Communication in the Age of Bede has come out in the EHR. And it is open access! academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...
academic.oup.com
Languages, Identities and Communication in the Age of Bede*
Abstract. This article seeks to address the underexplored role of language as a marker of identity in the early medieval period by focusing on England in t
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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Fascinating comparative graphic here: shows the UK's emphasis on early modern history especially. (no, I am not clear on the methodology)
bar chart comparing history publications by historians in Germany, France, UK and Netherlands
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Noah Blan @noahwblan.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I’m thrilled to share that my book Carolingian Ecological Sovereignty is out now with @archumanities.bsky.social ! You can order physical copies now, and the open access versions will be available sometime in early October. www.arc-humanities.org/978180270283... Keep an eye out for updates here 📚
arc-humanities.org
Carolingian Ecological Sovereignty - Arc Humanities Press
During the early Middle Ages, the ecological was political—as it is today. For the Carolingians, the governance of nature was integral to the making of emp...
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Clare Downham @downham.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Just got the proofs back for this baby, now to check through and index (the publisher keeps checking that I actually want to index it myself, which makes me feel like I have some weird indexing kink) Publication in April #medievalsky
penguin.co.uk
The Vikings in Britain and Ireland
The impact of Scandinavian invaders on the peoples of the Britain and Ireland was incalculable. Raiders on a sometimes large scale, they initially attacked coastal and river settlements, but ended up ...
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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
As I prepare to teach about Charlemagne, here's a translation of his Thionville capitulary of 805, famous for its list of eastern border posts that regulated trade: blogs.ed.ac.uk/cwest3/2026/...
map showing location of border posts
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Sam Ottewill-Soulsby @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The book I’m currently reading for research was printed in the 1920s on cheap, tear-if-you-so-much-as-look-at-it paper, so I’m turning the pages with utmost delicacy while fantasising about having a nice robust medieval manuscript in front of me instead.
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jawanaka.bsky.social @jawanaka.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
The one thing I can say is that I’m completely Suetonius pilled now. Tiberius tortured a man with a fish. Caligula declared war on the ocean and made his horse consul. Nero fiddled while Rome burned. They did all of this because they were insane and bad people.
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Sara McDougall @sarannmcd.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Happy pub day to me! And to Jehanne. I hope she might be glad of my admiration for her: her jokes, her style, and her incredible grit. #medievalsky #skystorians. Come celebrate with me and @sarahweinman.com tonight or @harvardbookstore.bsky.social tomorrow @princetonupress.bsky.social
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Sam Ottewill-Soulsby @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I think the emphasis on bigger grants is counterproductive in the humanities, where you can do a huge amount just by providing a salary and reasonable overhead. Forcing people to apply for vast sums they don’t actually need for their core project adds to the pressure and reduces resources elsewhere.
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Dr. Erika Graham-Goering @jeanneologist.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
For the record, "fewer larger grants" is the opposite of how to fund good research. Give a bunch of researchers financial stability and basic funding, without wasting their time on increasingly competitive applications and widening the have/have-not gap, and look how far we'll go.
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Dr. Nick Posegay @nposegay.northsky.social · 14/09/2026
This is a marriage contract ('ketubba') from Ramla for the wedding of Sarwa bat Mevorakh and Marwan ben Toviyya, dating to 1052 CE. It was the second time the pair had married each other, but the vertical lines through the document suggest it also led to their second divorce. @theul.bsky.social
Vertical white-tan sheet of parchment with large sections torn from the right and left sides. There are about 20 lines of Hebrew text in black ink on the first two thirds of the page. The bottom third is filled with straight rectangular patterns of sewing stations, showing where this parchment was sewn into the cover of a book. The fragment sits on a blue background with a yellow label that reads T-S 16.123 (https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-TS-00016-00123/1).
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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Reconstructed village mosque from 11th-century al-Andalus (La Graja)
Tiled building. Source: https://doi.org/10.1093/jis/etae023
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Sam Ottewill-Soulsby @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Writing up a paragraph exploring the possibility that an eighth-century Patriarch of Jerusalem might have been faking relics of martyrs to sell to westerners and realising that the way I’ve phrased it implies that he was shanking people in dark alleys for their bones.
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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
A ghost goes to see an exorcist, says “I’m so depressed, for I linger on this plane, my purpose yet unfulfilled.” Exorcist says “I know what will allow you to leave mortal ties behind …”
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Surprised Eel Historian, PhD @greenleejw.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Looking for something else, I ran across this, which I drew some time back:
Black and white drawing made to look like Rodin's sculpture, "The Thinker" except it has a mouse's head and tail. Above the image is the title, "Rodint"
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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I'm tired of hearing this stuff from politicians. 'McDonald said prime minister Andy Burnham had personally told him he wants more of the UK’s “world-class research” to foster growth and jobs.' www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
researchprofessionalnews.com
New science minister: funding system ‘destroying’ value of research - Research Professional News
Chris McDonald says he wants fewer and longer-term grants, plus a “smoother and simpler system”
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Rory Naismith @rorynaismith.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Early medievalists may be happy to know that Simon Keynes’s collection of maps of Anglo-Saxon England has now been made freely available via @trincolllibcam.bsky.social These were commissioned by Simon and drawn (by hand) by Reg Piggott between 1991 and 2012. archives.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php/ma...
archives.trin.cam.ac.uk
Maps of Anglo-Saxon England - archives.trin.cam.ac.uk
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Trevor Wiley @mearcsteppende.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Want to learn how early medieval people living on the coast in Scotland hunted seals and seabirds? Or how collecting sea snails on the beach was part of new Christian practice? You should check out my new article in Water History! link.springer.com/article/10.1... #medievalsky
link.springer.com
Wild animals, small practices, and the formation of an early medieval coastal landscape on the Firth of Forth - Water History
The large-scale landscape changes that occurred in northern Britain from roughly 400–800 C.E. were built on a vast array of smaller shifting practices which reflected the realities of local environmen...
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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Kilger's 2008 map of coin hoards with Islamicate coins, ie dirhams (undated, but I guess c. 850-1000).
Kilger's map of coin hoards with Islamicate coins in Eurasia
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Sam Ottewill-Soulsby @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
‘The Russian Orthodox church has sent a fragment of a medieval warrior prince’s remains to troops fighting in Ukraine, saying the relic would “spiritually strengthen” soldiers and help them achieve victory.’ www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
Orthodox church sends medieval prince’s remains to Russian troops in Ukraine
Part of Dmitry Donskoy’s right hand sent to ‘spiritually strengthen’ soldiers
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Samuel Rowe @samdrowe.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I don't circulate this again with much hope, but as we have had a speaker drop out, there is one last opportunity to send me something by 6 PM CEST today; at that point, the submission is being sent "sí o sí". #medievalsky #imc2026
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Sam Ottewill-Soulsby @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Proofs! More on this when it comes out but I'm feeling very happy about it.
Screenshot of the title, reading 'Chapter 4. The Wolf's Mouth Escalating Crises on Parallel Carolingian Frontiers, Sam Ottewill-Soulsby'.
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Ricky Broome @karanthir.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
New blogpost from me, in which I dive down the rabbit hole of folklore. Featuring nails, Christmas trees, piglet month, and bedstraw (among other things). longhairedkingsblog.wordpress.com/2026/09/10/w...
longhairedkingsblog.wordpress.com
Was the Codex Ragyndrudis subjected to a Germanic pagan nailing ritual?
It’s a truism that any article which has a question for a title will contain the answer ‘no’. I’ve even done this myself before. And this is going to be another example. Or at least a firm ‘maybe b…
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Hannah O’Regan @palaeohan.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
📣 new #bear paper! Dr Liam Lewis and I gathered the evidence for bears and bear-baiting in #medieval England and northern France. We looked at bones, literature and archival accounts. We found that evidence for live bears increased after the #Norman Conquest 🧵
A sculpture of a muzzled and chained bear lying down with its right front paw crossed over the left. It’s carved as the floor rest on the tomb of Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick, located in the Beauchamp Chapel at the Collegiate Church of St Mary in Warwick. Photo by Liam Lewis.
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Sven Meeder @svenmeeder.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Proofs! Great to see the first contours of our article 'Law and Marriage'. It discusses the canonical tract known as the 'De Ratione Matrimonii' and offers its first critical edition + translation. Soon in Traditio, volume 81! See: canones.org/topics/news/
Preview of article 'LAW AND MARRIAGE BETWEEN THE EIGHTH
AND TWELFTH CENTURIES: THE TEXT, CHARACTER,
AND RECEPTION OF THE DE RATIONE MATRIMONII' by BRUNO SCHALEKAMP, GIDEON DE JONG, AND SVEN MEEDER
Abstract: The short canonical tract entitled De ratione matrimonii, dating to the late eighth or early ninth century, offers straightforward rules on marriage drawn from a variety of authoritative texts. Its enduring appeal is evinced by the survival of at least twenty-three manuscript witnesses from the early ninth to the twelfth century, uninfluenced by important developments regarding marriage within Christian society during that period. Despite its potential to shed light on fundamental thoughts on the topic of marriage within Christian society between the eighth and twelfth centuries, this short tract has escaped the close attention of modern scholars. This article presents the tract, describes its context and character and provides its first critical edition with an English translation. An examination of the text
reveals its dependence on a peculiar version of the Irish Collectio canonum Hibernensis, offering insights into the development of this important early medieval canonical collection. In addition, the tract is a rare example of a set of pragmatic guidelines for early medieval societies, through its focus on practical rather than doctrinal norms about starting, living in, and ending a marriage. The study of the
mostly fragmentary witnesses to the text not only sheds light on medieval concerns about rightful marriage but also reveals the conscious editorial choices made by individual scholars and copyists throughout this period.
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Rutger K. 🟥 @anotheraspirin.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Out of nowhere - or to celebrate finishing the proofs of my book - here's a public appreciation message for @rogerpearse.bsky.social and his blog at www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/. So much good stuff there, from musings & analyses to simply sharing data. Including on Saint Nicholas. Thanks for that!
roger-pearse.com
Roger Pearse
Thoughts on Antiquity, Patristics, putting things online, information access, and more
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