Angli cum multis aliis alienigenis: crusade settlers in Tortosa (second half of the twelfth century)

In the spring of 1147 Anglo-Norman and Flemish crusaders set out from Dartmouth in the direction of the Holy Land to take part in the Second Crusade. On their way they participated in the siege of Lisbon (October 1147) and the campaign against Tortosa which finished with the surrender of the city on the last day of 1148. A significant number of crusaders from the British Isles settled in Tortosa and its environs after the successful campaign, appearing in the documents as Angli, Anglici and Angles. The article describes the archival information for the role of these Anglo-Norman crusaders in the settlement of the region. They received grants from Count Ramon Berenguer IV, transferred real property, entered into credit and loan agreements, and established patrimonies. Many of the English settlers became part of the ruling oligarchy in the early years of feudal Tortosa, entering into transactions with the leading ecclesiastical and lay powers.     

Urban domestic slavery in medieval Ragusa

The orthodox account of the Bayeux Tapestry takes Bishop Odo of Bayeux to have been its probable patron. This article argues that a very feasible alternative candidate for the Tapestry's patron is Count Eustace II of Boulogne. The traditional theory fails to explain the prominence of Count Eustace in the Tapestry, given that, with English support, he launched an attack on Odo's castle at Dover in 1067 and that a close kinsman of his (his nepos) was captured by Odo's men. The relationship between Eustace and Odo, post-1067, is seen as the key to understanding the Tapestry's origin. It is suggested that the Tapestry was commissioned by Eustace as a gift to Odo and that it formed part of the process of their reconciliation. This thesis is examined in the context of the Tapestry's relatively sympathetic attitude to Harold and the probability of English design and manufacture. The minor characters Wadard and Vital are identified conjecturally as Odo's knights who defended Dover castle against the Anglo–Boulonnais attack, a conjecture for which there is at least some circumstantial evidence. The strength of the identification of the figure traditionally taken to be Eustace is also discussed.     

Archaeological Quantification of Pottery: The Rims Count Adjusted using the Modulus of Rupture (MR)

Archaeological quantification is a recurrent issue in research about pottery, its typologies and its distribution. We accept the validity of other methods of quantification—sherd count, minimum number of individuals (MNI) or sherd weight—but the methodology that we have proposed for quantification of assemblages of archaeological contexts is the rims count, which has to be transformed into coefficients of reference through a correction using the modulus of rupture (MR). Such correctors are obtained through measuring the percentage of preserved rim of a significant number of sherds of each type and establishing the average of that percentage. This quantification method is easily applicable to all pottery types and it is also statistically reliable. Besides, it can be used in any study in which the gross number of rims is published. Finally, in the case of ceramic transport containers, a second correction can be applied by multiplying the corrected coefficient (number of rims × MR) by its average capacity (AC), another corrector that will allow us to gather statistics according to the litres of transported product. We believe that the rims count (the easiest part to classify) is a fast, relatively easy and very reliable method that needs to be corrected using the MR.     

Andrew Dury's map of the present seat of war,between the Russians,Poles, and Turks (1769)

Abstract

The chance assembling of a number of different impressions of Andrew Dury's Map of the present Seat of War between the Russians, Poles, and Turks (1769) in the British Library led the authors to examine the map's carto‐bibliographical history. Nine states of the map, two of which were sometimes sold with printed paste‐ons, have been identified to date. The two earliest states of the map are now in the State Historical Museum, Moscow. Although both are best described as proof, or pre‐publication, impressions, each bears evidence of intensive use at the highest levels of the Russian army command. Indeed, the circumstances leading to the creation of the map by Andrew Dury and Peter Bell and to a succession of different versions over the three decades or so of intermittent Russian‐Turkish hostilities highlight the interplay of international politics, individual initiative and commercial factors in late eighteenth‐century map production in London.     

The Borda Count and its real-world alternatives: Comparing scoring rules in Nauru and Slovenia

This article examines strategic elements of voter behaviour in parliamentary elections where the voting method is a scoring rule other than plurality: the Borda Count, which is used for the election of ethnic minorities in Slovenia, and the Dowdall rule, which is used in the Pacific island state of Nauru in multi-seat districts. After first examining the general properties of scoring rules, and generating theoretical differences between the two rules, we look at empirical evidence from Nauru and Slovenia. This casts a doubt on predictions based simply on a voting rule's mathematical properties and on the accuracy of assumptions of sincere rank ordering.

本文研究了议会选举投票者行为的策略因素。议会选举中的投票方法是一个有别于多数法的计分法则：斯洛文尼亚少数族群选举使用的波达计数法;太平洋岛屿国家瑙鲁多席位选区使用的斗多尔法则。作者首先分析了计分法则的一般属性,并对两种法则做了理论区分。然后研究了瑙鲁和斯洛文尼亚的实证资料。作者对仅仅基于投票规则数学属性的预测以及有关纯粹排行假设的精确性表示了质疑。     

Bishop Benedetto of Cephalonia, 1207–post 1239

A fresh look at the few sources concerning Bishop Benedetto of Cephalonia, within the context of the recently revised history of the rule of Count Maio on the island, reveals that this first Latin bishop was a relative of the count who had an eventful and colourful rule lasting over 32 years. This chronological survey of Benedetto’s tenure illustrates the transition from a Greek to a Latin episcopacy in Frankish Greece, the restructuring of the Church following the Fourth Lateran Council, the shifting allegiances of the secular powers, and finally the problems caused by the frequently unlettered and scandalous resident prelates who ruled during the first decades after the Fourth Crusade: Benedetto was accused of simony, ignorance, negligence and sexual incontinence.