The Gesta Roberti Wiscardi: A ‘Byzantine’ history?

In the last 150 years of scholarship, opinions have always differed as to just who William of Apulia was, and for which audience his epic poem the Gesta Roberti Wiscardi (completed c. 1099) was written. Many have felt that the work is not only pro-Norman, but vehemently anti-Byzantine. This article reconsiders the arguments about William’s poem. Firstly, William seems to have particularly identified with those who exhibited a marked respect for, and association with, the eastern empire. Secondly, it will be suggested that not only did William know Greek ― not an uncommon phenomenon in southern Italy ― but that he may well have drawn on sources written in that language, perhaps even the same material used by his near contemporaries Michael Attaleiates and John Skylitzes. Thirdly, despite the fact that observers normally emphasise William’s preference for the image of muliebres Byzantines, it is argued that the Gesta Roberti Wiscardi actually underscores their virtus.     

Carrot (Daucus carota L.) in Medieval Kraków (S. Poland): a cultivated form?

A large quantity of what appear to be processed fruits of Daucus carota L. were found in Rynek G?ówny (the main market square) in Kraków in a medieval organic layer dated to the 14th century AD. The fruits possess only slight traces of spiny secondary ridges, a characteristic feature of fruits used for sowing. Comparative measurements of the fruit dimensions also show them to be significantly different to other finds of D. carota in medieval Kraków. This therefore is perhaps the first archaeobotanical evidence indicating the cultivation of carrot in medieval Poland. Unprocessed carrot fruits, wild and cultivated forms being indistinguishable, are found in Europe from the Neolithic period onwards.     

City networks: breaking gridlocks or forging (new) lock‐ins?

There is today a global recognition that we live in an ‘urban age’ of near‐planetary urbanization where cities are at the forefront of all sorts of agendas. Yet little attention is offered to the active role of cities as political drivers of the urban age. There might today be more than two hundred ‘city networks’ globally, with thousands of para‐diplomatic connections actively defining relations between cities, international organization and corporate actors. This actively networked texture of the urban age shapes all areas of policy and, not least, international relations, and holds much promise as to possible urban solutions to global challenges. Based on an overview of a representative subset of this mass of city‐to‐city cooperation (n=170), this article illustrates the landscape of city networking, its issue areas and institutional shapes, and its critical features. As we argue, city networks today are faced by a crucial challenge: while trying to overcome state‐centric ‘gridlocks’ cities are, at the same time, building both political–economic as well as very material ‘lock‐ins’. We need to pay serious attention to this impact of city diplomacy in international affairs, developing a greater appreciation of the path dependencies and responsibilities this diplomatic activity purports.     

HM Ship Roebuck (1690–1701): Global Maritime Heritage?

William Dampier, his literature, and the associated archaeological remains, notably HM ship Roebuck, are of undoubted global significance. While there are acknowledged legal rights to the remains in respect of the Crown, and of Ascension Island where Roebuck was lost, there also exists a number of nations possessing an interest in this famous 'pirate and hydrographer' and his ship. Australia is one of those nations and in March 2001 a team under the auspices of the Western Australian Maritime Museum conducted research, search and survey aimed at finding out more about William Dampier and his lost ship. This is a precis of their results.
© 2004 The Nautical Archaeology Society     

Elizabeth Elstob (1674–1752): England's First Professional Woman Historian?

Elizabeth Elstob was a scholar of Anglo‐Saxon, who published two important books and was admired by the leaders of the new movement for Anglo‐Saxon studies in the early eighteenth century. She was able to be part of this community because her brother William encouraged and enabled it. His death in 1715 was a catastrophe, marking the end of her productive life as an intellectual and plunging her into poverty. She disappeared for almost twenty years, but was discovered and rescued by the first generation of bluestockings. A project she had begun – a history of intellectual women – was taken up and completed by George Ballard. His Memoirs of British Ladies(1752) included Elstob's memories about Mary Astell, and is, among other things, the single most important source of information about this pioneer feminist.     

知识即权力?——英国医生的话语建构与发展趋势(1800-1948)

19世纪至20世纪中期是英国医生依托专业知识构建话语权力的关键时期。临床医学的进步推动了医生话语权力的塑造。医疗空间的变化造成惠顾体系的瓦解和诊疗方式的转变,确立了医生在医患关系中的家长式权威。医学专业化造成全科与专科的分离,专科医生凭借知识与技术优势后来居上,改变了过去以全科医生为主的行业格局。两者之间在医疗观念与利益上的冲突,加重了行业内部的竞争和分歧,但也让他们认识到了分工与合作的重要性。1948年国民健康服务体系的建立,是英国工党政府通过国家干预规制医生权力,挽救了知识—权力语境下全科医生群体的日趋衰落,同时促使医生职业在资本利益与人道主义之间做出平衡。从知识—权力话语主导下的家长式权威到医学人文精神的回归,表明英国医生的职业发展呈现出以患者为中心的新趋势。     

Wie sozialisiert man eine Hochschule? Die Eröffnungsfeiern der mittelalterlichen deutschen Universitäten und die Gründung der Erfurter Universität (28. April 1392)

In pre-Reformation Germany, nearly all university foundations culminated in elaborated opening celebrations which were closely linked to the local liturgy. This article tries to understand these well-recorded acts as rituals and asks how social knowledge of what a university actually was was transmitted to the non-academic environment. It shows that the opening celebrations were designed both to make the new institution acceptable and to distance it from its environment, thus reducing its vulnerability.     

A noble diet at the Hof van Leugenhaeghe (Steendorp,Belgium): pig skulls as a fourteenth–fifteenth century delicacy?

The animal remains found at the fourteenth–fifteenth century Hof van Leugenhaeghe are crucial to reconstruct the life of the noble inhabitants, as all buildings were destroyed with the construction of a later estate on the property called the Blauwhof. The diet confirms the high social status of this nobility with the suspected consumption of pig skulls, a possible sign of wealth in late-medieval Flanders. Other signs of a noble diet are found as well: juvenile cattle, a diverse spectrum of game, partridge and grey heron. The observed pattern of a wealthy diet is consistent with the zooarchaeological assemblages found at other noble sites in late-medieval Flanders.