Shajar al-Durr—known as “Tree of Pearls”—began her remarkable career as a child slave, given as property to the Ayyubid Sultan Salih of Egypt. She became his favorite concubine, was manumitted, became the sultan’s wife, served as governing regent, and ultimately rose to become the legitimately appointed sultan of Egypt in 1250 after her husband’s death.Continue reading “New Publication: Tree of Pearls: The Extraordinary Architectural Patronage of the 13th-Century Egyptian Slave-Queen Shajar al-Durr, by D. Fairchild Ruggles”
Category Archives: Publications
New publication: Architecture of Disjuncture: Mediterranean Trade and Cathedral Building in a New Diocese (11th-13th Centuries), by Joseph C. Williams
Through careful analysis of the Romanesque cathedral of Molfetta (in Apulia, southern Italy), Williams demonstrates how the commercial boom of the medieval Mediterranean changed the way churches were funded, designed, and built. The young bishopric of Molfetta, emerging in an economy of long-distance trade, competed with much wealthier institutions in its own diocese. Funding forContinue reading “New publication: Architecture of Disjuncture: Mediterranean Trade and Cathedral Building in a New Diocese (11th-13th Centuries), by Joseph C. Williams”
New Publication: Medieval Things: Agency, Materiality, and Narratives of Objects in Medieval German Literature and Beyond, by Bettina Bildhauer
What does medieval literature look like from the point of view not of knights and ladies, but of treasure, and rings, nets and the grail? How does medieval literature imagine the agency of material things, and what exactly distinguishes human subjects from inanimate objects? Medieval Things: Agency, Materiality, and Narratives of Objects in Medieval German LiteratureContinue reading “New Publication: Medieval Things: Agency, Materiality, and Narratives of Objects in Medieval German Literature and Beyond, by Bettina Bildhauer”
Call for Applications: ICMA Viewpoints Series Editor(s), deadline 15 July 2020
Applications due July 15, 2020, for position beginning January 1, 2021 The International Center of Medieval Art and the Pennsylvania State University Press announce a new book series: ICMA Books—Viewpoints. This series aims to engage with and instigate new conversations, debates, and perspectives not only about medieval art and visual-material culture, but also in relation toContinue reading “Call for Applications: ICMA Viewpoints Series Editor(s), deadline 15 July 2020”
New Publication: Rome in the Eighth Century: A History in Art, by John Osborne
This book addresses a critical era in the history of the city of Rome, the eighth century CE. This was the moment when the bishops of Rome assumed political and administrative responsibility for the city’s infrastructure and the physical welfare of its inhabitants, in the process creating the papal state that still survives today. JohnContinue reading “New Publication: Rome in the Eighth Century: A History in Art, by John Osborne”
New Publication: Catalan Maps and Jewish Books: The Intellectual Profile of Elisha ben Abraham Cresques (1325-1387), by Katrin Kogman-Appel
This books describes the life of Elisa ben Abraham Cresques, known to many as the author of the Catalan Atlas, and focuses on the Jewish aspects of his fascinating career, his professional profile, and his scholarship. This book presents a small chapter in the intellectual history of the Jews of Majorca. Its key figure isContinue reading “New Publication: Catalan Maps and Jewish Books: The Intellectual Profile of Elisha ben Abraham Cresques (1325-1387), by Katrin Kogman-Appel”
New Publication: Building the Caliphate: Construction, Destruction, and Sectarian Identity in Early Fatimid Architecture, by Jennifer Pruitt
A riveting exploration of how the Fatimid dynasty carefully orchestrated an architectural program that proclaimed their legitimacy This groundbreaking study investigates the early architecture of the Fatimids, an Ismaili Shi‘i Muslim dynasty that dominated the Mediterranean world from the 10th to the 12th century. This period, considered a golden age of multicultural and interfaith tolerance,Continue reading “New Publication: Building the Caliphate: Construction, Destruction, and Sectarian Identity in Early Fatimid Architecture, by Jennifer Pruitt”
New Publication: Stone Fidelity: Marriage and Emotion in Medieval Tomb Sculpture, by Jessica Barker
With 33 colour and 63 black & white illustrations, it’s a beautiful study of “double tomb” effigies in the Middle Ages. Pioneering investigation of the popular “double tomb” effigies in the Middle Ages. Medieval tombs often depict husband and wife lying side-by-side, and hand in hand, immortalised in elegantly carved stone: what Phiilip Larkin’s poem An ArundelContinue reading “New Publication: Stone Fidelity: Marriage and Emotion in Medieval Tomb Sculpture, by Jessica Barker”
New Publication: Christ on the Cross, edited by Shirin Fozi and Gerhard Lutz
Volume 14 in the series Studies in the Visual Cultures of the Middle Ages, this publication provides a comprehensive view of the first generation of monumental crucifixes to appear in medieval Europe, which balances examinations of the history, theology, styles, and material properties of these evocative objects.
Book Launch: ‘Gothic Architecture in Spain: Invention and Imitation’, 6.30-8pm, Weds 12 February, Courtauld Institute of Art, London
Please join us for the launch of Gothic Architecture in Spain: Invention and Imitation, eds Tom Nickson and Nicola Jennings: https://courtauld.ac.uk/event/gothic-architecture-in-spain-invention-and-imitation-book-launch 6.30pm, Research Forum South Room, Courtauld Institute of Art, Vernon Square, Penton Rise, London WC1X 9EW From the dazzling spectacle of Burgos Cathedral to the cavernous nave of Palma Cathedral or the lacy splendour of SanContinue reading “Book Launch: ‘Gothic Architecture in Spain: Invention and Imitation’, 6.30-8pm, Weds 12 February, Courtauld Institute of Art, London”
Medieval Art Research 