What's in a name? Clerical representations of Parisian beguines (1200-1328)

This article examines how Parisian university clerics responded to the city's communities of beguines (uncloistered religious women), highlighting in particular the ways in which clerics employed the term ‘beguine’ in sermons and preaching material from thirteenth-century Paris. Because the beguines were not hidden behind convent walls but were instead a visible presence in the city, they were often the focus of Parisian clerics' ideas about religious women. Sermons preached, composed, and copied in Paris reveal the process by which Parisian medieval thinkers constructed, although not always consciously, a negative meaning for the term ‘beguine.’ Always poorly defined, ‘beguine’ evoked a wide variety of meanings and associations for clerical observers in medieval Paris. The varied ideas about and images of the beguine allowed the Parisian intellectual elite to include these women in discussions of their own position in society as clerics in charge of the religious instruction of the laity. Clerics used the beguine as an example of the contemplative life, often comparing their own intellectual approaches to religious knowledge with the beguines' mystical knowledge. These positive comparisons, however, were joined by negative accusations when clerics expressed concern that the beguine thought too highly of her spiritual gifts.     

Discourses of Mobility and Polycentric Development: A Contested View of European Spatial Planning

This article carries out an analysis of the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP), a policy document which represents a critical moment in the emergence of a new discourse of European spatial development. The analytical approach probes at the power relations which have shaped the ESDP framework and its contents, focusing on the twin core themes of spatial mobility and polycentricity. The analysis concludes that in the contested policy process a new spatial discourse of economic competitiveness is emerging at the expense of social and environmental interests. This new discourse will be further contested as implementation takes place in an uncertain policy environment.     

Camps and forts of units and formations of the Roman army

A previously outlined paradigm for laying out Roman camps was used to fit particular auxiliary units to certain small camps. A spreadsheet for estimating the numbers of cavalry and infantry within camps is described and illustrated by reference to the putative camps of a two-legion army group, a one-legion group and two subdivisions of a legionary army group. The same paradigm with different constants applied to forts and legionary fortresses with, on average, the intervallum 1/16th of the sq. root of the area it enclosed in the fort and 1/32nd in the fortress. In the forts of both auxiliary units and legionary vexillations, each notional cohort (480 infantry or 240 cavalry) was almost certainly intended to have eight actus quadrati (a.q.) within the intervallum. This allowed the forts later to contain larger auxiliary units. Dividing a fort's acreage by 3.25 indicates the number of notional cohorts for which it was probably first made. The vexillation fort at Longthorpe was probably intended for half a legion and the reduced fort built for two auxiliary units. In legionary fortresses each notional cohort had 12 a.q. The paradigm applied to the Heidenheim fort suggested that an ala milliaria comprised 24 turmae of 42 men. The fortress at York was probably first built as a legionary fort.     

Looking at Domestic Textiles: An Eye-Tracking Experiment Analysing Influences on Viewing Behaviour at Owlpen Manor

Decorative textiles were once ubiquitous and important, occupying a significant social and cultural space in the early modern interior, yet their impact upon how individuals engaged with domestic spaces is largely unknown. One way of approaching their impact is through an exploration of how present-day individuals engage visually with them in relation to other objects as they walk around an historic space. This article reports on one such investigation, an eye-tracking study which explored responses to the narrative hangings in Queen Margaret’s Chamber at Owlpen Manor in Gloucestershire. Using eye-tracking equipment, we compared the viewing behaviour of two groups of participants, to whom we gave key information before they entered the room. We found that both the expertise of the viewers and the information provided influenced their viewing behaviour. Our findings highlight the importance of individual understanding and information provided to viewers when engaging with historic spaces, and can inform museum and heritage practice as well as enhancing our comprehension of how viewers engage with such textiles in historic spaces.