I've moved, once again.

You can find the new Venti Belli at http://ventibelli.wordpress.com/...

News From London, part 1

Morning all, here are some thoughts from the last few days (feels much longer). This began as a facebook note, but it struck me that it would make great blogging material, of which I've provided too little these days...And I can build on it in the next few days.

Note: stick with the overnight flight, because arriving during the day can create massive jetlag problems.

Note: check to see if there's going to be a strike on during your visit, esp, if said strike is going to result in limited service and hours at the archives (more than 2 hours to get documents!!). Good thing I have some documents left over from Saturday to keep me busy tomorrow...

Note: The good folks at the National Archives seem to be able to get Chancery documents a HECK of a lot faster than Exchequer documents. Probably has to do with the fact that Chancery documents are for the most part nicely bound.

Note: Don't lose your phone on the tube. Just don't do it. Bad idea under any circumstance. 'Nuff said.

Positive note: I walked into King's Mall the other morning, looking for postcards and a post office, and discovered that Sports Centre was closing their store--70% off a pair of Everlast jogging pants and a sweatshirt. The colors look suspiciously like those of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Hmmm... Listed for a combined $100 (roughly); got them for $26. Go me!!! I am my mother's son...

Positive note: The hostel is pretty cool, as I'm in the newly finished room. Very nice. A week for about $120. Can't beat that in London, really. And the WiFi works in the room, since for a change I'm not on the bloody third floor. Cool beans.

Positive note: Maybe losing my phone will allow me to get that upgrade I've been dreaming about for a while. All those cool-but-useless features that let people know you're "hip" with consumerism. I kid. Sort of.

Positive note: Day off, to catch up: $4 (in other words, beer). Getting good advice from a close friend on how to tend a wounded knee; $1600 (roughly the cost of this trip!). Spending fun time with Kiwi friends in London: priceless.

Positive note: Berlin and my friend Kira on Friday. Life as the jelly doughnuts know it is about to end.

Very positive note: Having people on whom one can thoroughly rely to keep the conference rolling. My friends Emily and Dani are the reason anything is happening at all here. Visit the website and register: http://www.rochester.edu/College/HIS/Dissent/

So much to do, to learn, to read, and to write...and so little time. Back to work! I get to read drafts, a friend's proposal, and my own books today, and see how far I can get with this bulk order at the archives. Stay well, do good work, and keep in touch.

The English language, Women and War, and the recent Huntsville tragedy

I don't mean to draw any connection between the last two items in the title--they just happen to be articles of interest I read yesterday.

A friend drew my attention to this article on The Dictionary of Old English project at Toronto, and another friend posted this link to a Medievalists.net masters thesis from last year. Worth looking at, I think. Personally, I'm a huge fan of Edginton and Lambert's Gendering the Crusades, and Deborah Gerish's article on gender theory and crusades studies, so I'm curious as to how Illston modifies the picture.

And, finally, some comments on the recent tragedy at Huntsville, imported here from the Wormtalk and Slugspeak blog--very trenchant commentary, and right on the button, I think. And a rather depressing article, and reactions, in the Chronicle of Higher Ed, on the same subject...I'll pontificate my own views later, but right now I have to get ready to go to campus and work on student papers all day, and prep for a discussion section on the French Revolution...

Some fairly recent military news of note...And the crusades

I've been pretty busy of late, and haven't kept up with the news as I wish. I'm trying to broaden out a bit, as well, and look at military affairs in general, in addition to just the same old Hundred Years War/Crusades stuff (not that that's boring, in any way, but variety is good...).

Here's an interesting article from February 11 on the debate over McGill's military R&D research programs. Well-written, makes you think. Not sure what about, but it makes you think.

On the other hand, this lengthy, in-depth discussion of the military investigations over Barg-e-Matal suggests some disturbing leadership trends in the U. S. Army. If the facts are as they are reported here, I can't say I'm impressed with the leadership and responsibility of some members of the Army command...Speaking of Afghanistan, however, the new strategy seems to focus on sparing civilians--minus that unfortunate air strike a few days ago. We will probably never reach the stage where there are "no civilian casualties" in war...

One of the biggest issues facing nations such as Germany, or so I've always understood, has been a lack of long-range strategic airlift capability (and after all, what would they need that for?). Given Germany's involvement in various NATO ops, however, that need has become apparent; unfortunately, it seems that the Airbus program is running into trouble...

Time was when I looked somewhat askance at women in the military, and I know this issue remains complicated in some aspects (as in the story below). But, if a woman wants to serve her country, she should be able to do that, be afforded some recognition of any special circumstances, and NOT be told to put her child in a foster home so she can deploy with her unit. At least they didn't court-martial her...On the other hand, from the army's perspective, you can't very well have individual soldiers deciding when they will or will not deploy, and I think that's valid too--you can't run a military that way. I wonder if the situation would be any different, though, for a single father in the same circumstance (not that it makes much difference).

Apparently Christopher Tyerman's massive tome, God's War, has not sated the public's fascination with the crusades. Tom Asbridge, a fine scholar in his own right, has published a nearly-800-page book on the crusades, reviewed in The Guardian here. I wonder if he's still as critical of Richard I's generalship as he was in Avignon, when I was on a panel with him...Eh, that's another story.

Now, I don't answer for the opinions or phrasing of this article, which presents a politically-charged summary of revisionist crusades scholarship, but it is worth perusing because a) in very broad strokes, it's hews more-or-less to an accepted interpretation, and b) it highlights the difficulties we crusades scholars face in providing a nuanced interpretation, revising the old knee-jerk "crusaders-were-animals" reaction, without getting sucked into this kind of religious/cultural posturing.

The crusades were still popular in the 1700s, as Gluck's opera Armide suggests. Here's a review of a recent performance...

Fifteenth Century Conference 2010

This in yesterday from Adrian Bell, at the University of Reading:

We want to draw your attention to the call for papers for the Fifteenth Century Conference to be held at the University of Southampton, 2-4 September 2010.

Proposals for papers or sessions on any fifteenth-century topic are welcome. However, it is intended that sessions will reflect a particular focus on social and economic history (broadly conceived), and the theme of England’s wars 1399-1500 (as a follow up to the England's Wars 1272-1399 conference last year).

More details are available here:

http://www.soton.ac.uk/history/news/conf-02-09-10_fifteenth.shtml

War elephants

Here's an old, but still useful, article on war elephants, courtesy of the History of the Ancient World blog/news forum. I always feel that "elephant" is a funny word. In fact, I recall this really, really old joke book on elephants, called, appropriately enough, the "elephant joke book." Silliest jokes you've ever heard, but some were really funny, I think...if I could only remember them.

Here endeth the first lesson, as it is said. Yeeaaaah, pretty deep for a Wednesday, as you can tell.

Credit Finance in the Middle Ages (workshop at U of Reading)

This just in from Adrian Bell, at the University of Reading:
(more details can be found here.

Medieval Credit Finance/Sowing the Seeds II

ICMA Centre, University of Reading, 30 March 2010

The Middle Ages are popularly seen as a period of economic stagnation. In fact, historians have long been aware that there is ample evidence for innovative economic and financial developments. For example, bills of exchange and the growth of pan-European merchant societies contributed to an expansion of long-distance trade, while governments consolidated their authority and increased their revenues by establishing systems of direct and indirect taxation. At the same time, tools developed for modern financial and economic analysis have the potential to expand our understanding of the medieval economy, where it is possible to reconstruct appropriate data sets from the surviving medieval sources. There is thus considerable scope for collaboration between medieval historians and economists and this one day seminar will showcase recent research, with the aim of encouraging future projects.

The seminar is presented in two parts, and participants are welcome to attend the morning, the afternoon, or all day - just let us know your preference. There is no registration fee (and lunch and dinner is provided for delegates) but please note that places at the morning session ('Sowing the Seeds II') and the conference dinner may be limited; lunch and dinner will only be provided for those who have registered in advance. Anyone interested in attending should contact Dr Tony Moore (t.moore@icmacentre.ac.uk) as soon as possible.

It's GROUNDHOG DAY!!!!!!!

The seer of seers, the prognosticator of prognosticators, has declared six more weeks of winter!!! Boo-hiss, as someone I used to know would say...Apparently, Punxsutawney Phil has several rivals, among them Staaten Island Chuck, who didn't see his shadow--but we all know that Staaten Island doesn't count (for much of anything...who said that!?). Some great pictures from this charming but ridiculous ritual.

Apparently it's Candlemas. Who knew? I suspect quite often that modern ignorance concerning the liturgical year is a more serious handicap to understanding the Middle Ages than we know...

A few new medieval links, and some news...

A few recent databases and catalogs to which I was introduced the other evening by a friend:

The Morgan Library and Museum has digitized their manuscripts, and I can't wait to explore the collection...

France might lack organization in other aspects of government and society (that's more an observation than a judgment), but academically the French government has its act together. The Ministry of Culture has a web portal for all museum holdings and catalogs in France. Vive la France!


And apparently a major conflict archeology study has been completed, or nearly completed, and the true location of Bosworth field is about to be revealed. Among the speakers will be familiar names, such as Anne Curry, Matthew Strickland, Steve Walton, and Robert Hardy.

Also from Medieval News, something about which I know virtually nothing: medieval Sweden. Apparently the major Swedish statesman Birger jarl is having celebrated his eighth centenary. There's even a facebook group about the event--sobering to think that, less than a decade after it was created, Facebook has become the benchmark of whether an event is "noteworthy."

Just to follow up on that thought for a moment, I'm one of the "first wave" of college facebook users, since Rice was one of the first batch of schools to be allowed access to the site after the Ivies. Memory fails as to when exactly I joined, but it must have been in the autumn of 2004, since I had my own individual dorm room, and I believe the site was opened up around June or so. I recall one of my roommates berating me for not being more technically and socially savvy, and creating an account for me right there. How times have changed...The younger generation soon won't be able to remember a time without this tool. And it remains a very useful tool, I think.

Kalamazoo 2010 Program!!!

The International Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo, May 13-16, 2010, has been posted!! Let the good times roll...Ah, wine hours. I'm really looking forward to this one, and will probably be more than ready for a break at the end of the semester. See you there!

Web links for Medieval Studies

Well, it's taken me long enough, but I finally put my collection of medieval studies links and bookmarks in order, and they are now up on my webpage. Currently, they are just titles and links, although eventually I hope to get some annotations written as well. The links will naturally grow in number over time. So, there's one thing done...

In other news, here's a link to GameTrailers.com's brief notice of an up-coming video game on the crusades, entitled Lionheart: Kings' Crusade. Apparently this is a follow-up game to an earlier release entitled Crusaders: Thy Kingdom Come. A bit more info can be found here. Might be worth checking out. I'm of the opinion that academics should keep up on fields such as video games, since many of our students draw their initial knowledge from such things.

King John, the Dark Ages, oh my...

So, Bad King John's castle/palace at Kings Clipstone has been repaired...Good-o. Medieval News and Chad.co.uk have more details:
http://medievalnews.blogspot.com/2010/01/king-johns-palace-saved-from-collapse.html
http://www.chad.co.uk/sherwood/King-John39s-Palace-repair-scheme.5972642.jp


Here's an interesting, and fairly recent, article, by Rabbi Avi Shafran, critiquing aspects of the BBC's The Crescent and the Cross. In some respects he has a point, since casting the wars for control of Jerusalem in terms of "ownership" will strike modern ears with a very particular significance, and will only assist interested parties in highjacking the historical narrative for their own ends (yes, yes, I know, who doesn't do that, but that's not the point). The point is that by subtly portraying the Jewish presence in the Levant as fairly recent, the BBC is giving fodder to current political/moral debates.

On the other hand, to put the crusades in context, in 1095 any Jewish presence in and/or claims to the Holy Land were a non-factor. Neither the Frankish armies, nor the Byzantines, nor the Fatamids, nor the Seljuks gave much thought to the Jewish communities, unless it was to persecute them (the Franks, naturally, being the worst offenders here). Rabbi Shafran says, "And so, an ignorant but attentive student of the BBC will conclude from the network’s history lesson that Jerusalem is sacred to Christians and Muslims, and that adherents of the two faiths have fought over it for centuries" That "ignorant but attentive student" would be broadly correct in those conclusions. His next sentence, concerning the consequences of portraying the Jewish presence as a recent phenomenon, is more on point, but the fact of the matter is that, for both Gregory VIII and Saladin in 1188, the issues had nothing to do with the Jewish faith, since they would have agreed that Judaism had been superseded centuries earlier. The larger lesson here, I suppose, is that historians do not work in a vacuum, and, especially with a subject like the crusades, we need to consider the consequences of our words and works...

Now, HERE is the mother-load of badly written, pompous, slick, condescending, twisted, bulls*** attempts to write a "smart" bit of popular "history." So much wrong with Rob Kezelis' analysis here that I can hardly begin to analyze it. And I'm not talking about the modern political commentary, only the medieval "facts" he claims to be presenting. Worse than William Manchester's A World Lit Only By Fire, just when I thought that wasn't possible...And the absurdity of trying to use Charlemagne's situation as a historical comparison with President Obama should be patent to anyone who knows anything about medieval history. Ugh...well, I'll come back to this piece of nonsense later. (Pardon my anger, but this is really an affront to everything I believe is valuable, honorable, and worthy in the historical profession. I'll probably be told I'm over-reacting.)

And I wonder sometimes where my students get some of their ideas about the past...

Brief round-up of random medieval items...

Here's a few new stories that involve medieval figures in some way...Yes, yes, some of it's pretty random, but whatever. The Black Prince is the Black Prince is Edward of Woodstock...

Let's lead off with a great article from Telegraph, about why we're more interested in the Middle Ages than ever!!!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/6952220/Why-were-in-the-grip-of-medieval-mania.html


Speaking of the Black Prince, apparently it was one of the early ironclads...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/31/new-era-dawns-in-naval-warfare/


The Bardi and Peruzzi put in historical economic meltdown perspective. There's nothing new under the sun.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/1231/1224261470650.html

An interesting ramble from a chap who seems to conflate the Hundred Years' War with the Wars of Religion. And I wonder why my students seem to have trouble grasping the complexities of medieval society.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977991420&grpId=3659174697241980

A recent assessment of the war against fundamentalist terrorist activity somehow manages to mention Bosworth, Castillon, and the Hundred Years' War. Not too bad on the whole...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/03/al-qaida-taliban-iran-afghanistan

Henry V (Shakespeare's version, anyway) becomes a model for CEO's and business strategists--you see, he "transformed his noisiest and most disruptive doubter into a vociferous supporter" [sic]. That's one way of looking at the St. Crispin's Day speech, I guess...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/08/AR2010010803780.html

And lastly, for now anyway, the reference in this short piece to poor farmers getting rich from aristocratic ransoms doesn't really have it right. YES, theoretically it was possible to have this kind of rags-to-riches story, and military indentures were careful to spell out procedures for prisoner ransoms, exchanges, and reimbursements. In practice archers, especially earlier levies raised by array, often didn't land the big prisoners, and if they did they would sometimes be obliged to surrender the prisoner, or sell him at a comparative loss to their captain (or sometimes, depending on the prisoner's status, the king). Not everyone was John Copeland at Neville's Cross, 1346. And receiving knighthood and some money often had problems of its own, since the new knight still didn't have the resources to support his position. Sooooo, relating "combat pay" to plunder and ransom is rather over-simplistic. Anyway...
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htmoral/articles/20091230.aspx

Ok, this last one was pushing relevancy limits, but whatever. Good night!

Chinese 1602 world map

This just in from Medieval News:

http://medievalnews.blogspot.com/2010/01/rare-1602-world-map-first-map-in.html

Very interesting, and I'm always fascinated by just how accurately they could make maps in the days before satellite. And also, it's a reminder why the University of Minnesota enjoys the reputation it does.

It is cold as heck there, just so you know. Fantastic history department...

Haiti and Bipolar disorder, really?

Here's a link from a short piece Dr. Grimsley posted on his blog a short while ago.
http://warhistorian.org/wordpress/?p=2184#more-2184
Interesting, but I'm not sure when being financially careful (a trait I don't seem to have, incidentally) suddenly became a symptom of bipolar disorder. Now, I fully intend to donate some part of my funds to Haitian relief, but anyone who's done something like that can tell you that not all charities and philanthropies are equal, not by a long shot. Ideally, you need to do a bit of background research on the group in question, because, especially with large ones, it is possible that few cents of your dollar actually make it to the front lines--that Red Cross scandal some years back is simply a case in point. Hopefully the situation is somewhat improved, since they are the donation link on the page.

Also, at times of crisis like this, there are any number of "charity" scams that suddenly sprout up and take advantage of people's generosity. CNET's article is helpful here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10434237-36.html. And here is the FBI bulletin, http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel10/earthquake011310.htm. Hopefully these will be of some use...

So, I wouldn't be too hasty in attributing brief hesitation to a disorder. But that's just me. And incidentally, my total credit line is less than $20,000--comes with the grad student territory, I guess.

Program up for St. Louis crusades conference

Well, the program for the crusades conference has been posted. This looks very exciting--not quite as exciting as that conference over in Syria and Jordan recently, but close. I'm afraid nothing quite beats going to a conference session in the Krak de Chevaliers...

Here's the link to the program: http://crusades.slu.edu/symposium/schedule.htm

The annoying thing is that the sessions are concurrent, which will necessitate a bit of jumping around--I've learned that, at events like this, time is too precious to adhere to the normal dictates of politeness and attend an entire session just to hear one paper. The chance to hear my former advisor, Eva Haverkamp, give what will doubtless be another excellent presentation, is my main reason for going. However, the program looks very exciting in any case, and I've observed that conferences are, for my own part, extremely exciting and dynamic occasions...Among the papers I'm looking forward to hearing (barring the plenary sessions, which will happen as a matter of course):

"Turks on the Hills: The Seljuks of Asia Minor Fighting Crusaders and Byzantium"
Roman Shlyakhtin, Central European University

"The Rhetoric of Reconquest: Pope Urban II and the Populus Christianus"
Matthew Gabriele, Virginia Tech University

"What Pope Urban II Understood by Crusading"
Paul E. Chevedden, Ctr. for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCLA

"Rough Diplomacy in the Crusade of Henry VI"
Daniel Webb, Saint Louis University

"National Identity, Language, and Internal Conflict in the Armies of the First Crusade"
Alan V. Murray, University of Leeds

"'A Man Totally Devoted to War and to God': The Spiritualization of Godfrey of Bouillon, 1100-1145"
Simon John, Swansea University

"The Self under Siege: Ideas of Identity and the "Other" in the Era of the Crusades"
Mith Barnes, University of Louisville

"Gregory VII and the Idea of a Military-Religious Order"
Paul Crawford, California University of Pennsylvania

"Visionary Intellectual or Ordinary Knight? The Early Career of Philip of Mézières"
Anne Romine, Saint Louis University

"The Last Crusade in Medieval Spain: the War for Granada (1482-1492)"
Bárbara Boloix-Gallardo, Washington University

"Ecclesiastical Chivalry: A New Model of the Military Orders"
Sam Conedera, S.J., Fordham University


Can't wait...

La Chanson de Roland, 1978

Does anyone know where to find a copy of this film: La Chanson de Roland, 1978, dir. Frank Cassenti? I have been unable to turn up anything on Amazon.com, Ebay, or iOffer, to name a few websites.