Monday, June 29, 2009

How to read a charter

how to read a charter -- the quick and dirty way



Nota Bene: this may not be ideal; rather, it represents what my brain starts doing after about 20 of the things...

In Jesus/God's name Donors!
Blah blah blah reason for donation!
Blah blah blah recipient!
Blah blah blah stuff donated!
Blah blah blah curses on you if you try to take this stuff away from those nice monks!
Blah blah date blah pathetic monk who wrote this down!
Witness list.


ETA: translation? me? Seriously, though -- just ran into one where the blah blah reason is 'ob metum gehennae aeternae et premium vitae aeternae seu pro remedio animae nostrae aut remissione paccatorum nostrorum' and then a lot more blah blah fear blah blah reward blah. Not exactly the normal formula.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Not what I intended

Not what I intended



Apparently, my paper is going to be a lot more about gender than I thought. Because data searches are better for finding things that stick out rather than supporting normativity.


Hmmm.

Or so it appears so far.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Formula bleg

Formula bleg



Does anyone know/can anyone think of a situation in which we might see the phrase "per manum" for a male donor of property? (for the MA, preferably)

At the moment, I'm thinking it's pretty much used for female donors...

Update: I've just found an interesting variation in my own sources -- CDF 613, "signum Ruotgeres qui hanc traditionem potestiva manu quatuor supra memoratorum germanorum rogatu fecit."

hmmmmm ....

ideas? because this isn't the same as "trado per manum X", which you see mostly with widows or spouses ...

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Carnivalesque 51

Carnivalesque LI



The latest edition of Carnivalesque is now up at Medievalist, food history person, and sf/f writer Gillian Polack's Food History Blog. It's got a cool organizational theme, and the Food History blog has all sorts of other interesting posts as well.

Friday, June 12, 2009

A quick thought...

A quick thought...



Sorry for the lack of blog visiting and blogging. I am away earning quick money with a marking gig at BaaRamU and trying ot get writing done. But apropos of these posts at Tenured Radical and Historiann, and my comment at TR's, I had a thought.

It might not be a particularly good one, but here goes.


I looked at it again, and noted that one of the fields that is supposedly in decline is economic history. And again, I was struck by how us early folk are pretty much written off, invisible, unimportant to the generalizations of what history is and what it's good for. Because, well, Chris Wickham's prize-winning Framing the Early Middle Ages sure as hell seemed to be largely economic history to me. But then I thought, "ah, but Wickham's a Marxist historian, isn't he? and that is also that narsty non-traditional stuff."

Except, well, Marxist historiography is certainly nothing new.

Anyway, even if that's a crap argument (I've had 4 hours' sleep and travelled all day), here's my thought:

Where is this absence of traditional fields when you look at us pre-Modern types?

It doesn't exist.

Medievalists (and I'm including the Late Antique folks here) are still doing economic history, diplomatic history, military history, legal and constitutional history ... all of those things and more. And doing a booming business.

Now, I ws thinking that part of why this never seems to be the case is that most of us have to use whatever tools are in our bags to get the job done, and most of us can move around a bit, because we've had to.

But here's my other thought: to others -- including our colleagues in history, who dammit should know better -- we are medievalists. To the outside world, we don't get to classify ourselves by subfield (except for period, pretty much). Is Steve White a legal historian? Nope, he's a medievalist. Is Charlie Bowlus a military historian? Nope, he's a medievalist. Judith Bennett a social historian? Nope. She's a medievalist, too.

I should go somewhere with this, but not now.

Sunday, June 07, 2009

For your Sunday Amusement

For your Sunday Amusement



The Dreambears bring you just a little camp to start your week...




(found via a friend on the intarwebs)

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

PSA -- MA in Medieval Archaeology

PSA -- MA in Medieval Archæology




MA in Archaeology by Research - Fee Waiver
Visualising Late Antiquity: Everyday Life AD 300-650
Centre for Late Antique Archaeology, University of Kent


The School of European Culture and Languages is able to offer two MA fee waivers at Home /EU rate for the academic year 2009-2010, to support guided research into the Visualisation of Everyday Life in Late Antiquity. This degree will be taught through tutorials and guided research, although it will also be necessary to attend lectures and seminars on late antique archaeology in the first term. Assessment will be based on a 40,000 word dissertation, though students will be asked to write preparatory essays in the first term, connected to their subject. The theme of the dissertation will be set by their supervisor and may include topics such as the architecture, furniture and material culture in late antiquity.

Programme Duration: Full-time 12 months
Start date: September 2009

Entry Requirements: Applicants are generally expected to have obtained an upper second-class honours degree, or the international equivalent, in archaeology or a related field. Applicants whose first language is not English are expected to have obtained IELTS 6.5 or TOEFL 570. Candidates should have an established interest in late antiquity and its architecture or material culture, and intend to progress to a PhD at Kent on this theme, if the opportunity presented itself. Excavation experience and organisational skills are desirable, as students will be expected to participate for one month in the Ostia Excavation Project, and offer some administrative assistance to the Centre for Late Antique Archaeology during the year. Knowledge of one or more modern European languages (French, German and Italian) would be an advantage, as would experience of Mediterranean archaeology.

Fee Waiver: the successful candidates will be offered a fee waiver of 3,670 GBP to cover one year of postgraduate fees at home / EU rate. No maintenance fee would be offered. Fees could be repayable in whole orpart if the degree was abandoned without completion, or if efforts made were deemed to fall below the acceptable minimum standard for MA work.

Application Process
To be eligible for these studentships, candidates must send to Dr Luke Lavan (via email) a CV and a letter explaining why they would like to be considered for the University of Kent studentship, accompanied by a piece of written work. The deadline for submissions is 16th June 2009.
Selection will be based on written submissions, with the option of interview by telephone / email.

Contact: Dr Luke Lavan,
Email: l.a.lavan AT kent.ac.uk
Tel: 01227769665
School of European Culture and Languages,
Cornwallis North West,
University of Kent,
Canterbury,
Kent CT2 7NF
http://www.kent.ac.uk/secl/classics/staff/LukeLavan/
www.lateantiquearchaeology.com