Project MUSE®: Essays in Medieval Studies - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/59
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Essays in Medieval Studies.daily12026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 18 (2001) through current issueLatest Articles: Essays in Medieval StudiesTWOProject MUSE®Essays in Medieval Studies1538-46081043-2213Latest articles in Essays in Medieval Studies. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Introduction
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/963251
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It is hard to underestimate the changes that academia has seen in the last five years since the COVID-19 pandemic started, as scholarly life and conferences have had to adjust to what one might call a new normal. As a result, the Illinois Medieval Association—under whose aegis Essays in Medieval Studies is compiled each year—has continued its practice of having a series of virtual symposia as opposed to a single conference. The result has yielded a real sense of community and impressive scholarly output. The essays collected in this volume evince that reality for the 2023–2024 academic year. The theme of the symposia reflects themes in the changing global and academic landscape as well. The authors here examine
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/59/image/coversmallIntroduction2025-06-15text/htmlen-USIntroduction2025-06-152025TWOProject MUSE®108132026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002025-06-15Royal Artisans in the Early Middle Ages: A Service Aristocracy? The Case of Autulus, Goldsmith in Benevento
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/963252
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When one thinks of service relations pertaining to craftsmen and kingship, we first think of a relationship based on the exercise of the artisan’s art and thus of production and exchange relations. The proximity of workshops to early medieval palaces, such as Reccopolis, Marlenheim, Orléans, Paderbond, Tilleda, or Pavia, is a strong indicator that kingship was supported by craft production in direct relation to power.1 Craftsmen and especially smiths were, as Ducun Wright beautifully put it, crafters of kingship since weapons, jewels, and precious metals were essential for the self-representation of the prince and the reinforcement of his fidelity network through gift-giving.2 For instance, in all stories relating
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/59/image/coversmallRoyal Artisans in the Early Middle Ages: A Service Aristocracy? The Case of Autulus, Goldsmith in Benevento2025-06-15text/htmlen-USRoyal Artisans in the Early Middle Ages: A Service Aristocracy? The Case of Autulus, Goldsmith in Benevento2025-06-152025TWOProject MUSE®1100392026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002025-06-15The Relation between Medieval Religious and Philosophical Texts and Apophatic Mysticism
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/963253
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The Mysticism of Unknowing is the subject of two important medieval treatises that deal with deeply significant elements of apophatic theology. Both texts were written anonymously and have introduced extensive theological, philosophical, and practical discussion on mystical practice through their linked subject matter. The identity of the author of the first text, Mystica Theologia, is unknown, but he is thought to have been a Syrian monk writing in Greek around 500 CE. The author of the second text The Cloud of Unknowing is also anonymous but is believed to have been an English clergyman writing in Middle English around the late 14th century.1 Both texts state that their intent is to provide a younger member of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/59/image/coversmallThe Relation between Medieval Religious and Philosophical Texts and Apophatic Mysticism2025-06-15text/htmlen-USThe Relation between Medieval Religious and Philosophical Texts and Apophatic Mysticism2025-06-152025TWOProject MUSE®732692026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002025-06-15Courting Lady Poverty: “Good Poor” and “False Poor” in Sacrum Commercium
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/963254
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Among the Franciscan virtues, poverty holds a special place.1 This is evident from the earliest documents in the Franciscan tradition. Case in point is Saint Francis’s own Salutation of the Virtues, which opens:Poverty’s inclusion, but especially its placement after wisdom and simplicity, is noteworthy. The ordering suggests that Francis, while valuing poverty, viewed it within a broader context, sharing a moral space with other virtues, subservient perhaps even to Queen Wisdom.3 Over time, however, shifting attitudes within the Order—shaped by worldly entanglements and materialism—recast poverty’s position. Poverty, once considered among the virtues, came to be viewed as the virtue par excellence—the defining
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/59/image/coversmallCourting Lady Poverty: “Good Poor” and “False Poor” in Sacrum Commercium2025-06-15text/htmlen-USCourting Lady Poverty: “Good Poor” and “False Poor” in Sacrum Commercium2025-06-152025TWOProject MUSE®536202026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002025-06-15Enchanted Beasts: The Limits of the Human in Le Bel Inconnu and Merlin, the Graphic Novel
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/963255
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Medieval monsters sometimes challenge our notions of humanity by presenting readers with hybrid characters with the ability to metamorphose while retaining their human intelligence in animal form, which suggests that humanity is “a matter of judgement rather than essence.”1 Classical philosophers such as Pliny the Elder and Isidore of Seville group human and animal life together under the universal category of living things, although they regard human life as superior in the hierarchy of animals.2 Similarly, Joyce Salisbury maintains that the distinction between human and animal life was somewhat ambiguous during the Middle Ages, but she nuances her analysis by insisting that concepts of humanity were closely
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/59/image/coversmallEnchanted Beasts: The Limits of the Human in Le Bel Inconnu and Merlin, the Graphic Novel2025-06-15text/htmlen-USEnchanted Beasts: The Limits of the Human in Le Bel Inconnu and Merlin, the Graphic Novel2025-06-152025TWOProject MUSE®1152902026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002025-06-15Pandemic Antisemitism in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Prioress’s Tale
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/963256
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Critics have long debated whether Chaucer’s The Prioress’s Tale endorses or critiques the antisemitic violence central to its narrative, which is fervently embraced by the Prioress, the Canterbury pilgrim telling the story. Views have ranged from ‘hard’ readings, which interpret the text as uncritically parroting antisemitic tropes, to ‘soft’ readings, which argue that the text exposes such rhetoric by satirizing the Prioress and her tale.1 Recent interventions by Geraldine Heng, Heather Blurton, and others have reinforced ‘hard’ interpretations of the tale, treating it as a vehicle for bolstering nativist rhetoric.2 Conversely, recent ‘soft’ readings have emphasized the need to address stylistic choices that
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/59/image/coversmallPandemic Antisemitism in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Prioress’s Tale2025-06-15text/htmlen-USPandemic Antisemitism in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Prioress’s Tale2025-06-152025TWOProject MUSE®880412026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002025-06-15