Category Archives: Literature

Charlemagne’s Actual Trip to Spain, 777-8

Posted on December 2, 2021 by Ruth

In the “Song of Roland,” the first premise is that Charlemagne has spent seven years campaigning across Spanish Andalusia, taking back territory from the perfidious Saracens. The famous battle in which Roland loses his life takes place in the mountain … Continue reading →

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The Song of Roland, 950

Posted on December 2, 2021 by Ruth

We’re jumping ahead by two centuries just for a moment, to touch on literature. The “Song of Roland” was the most popular epic of its time. Composed by a Frankish minstrel named Turoldus, the poem first appeared in written form … Continue reading →

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The pageant of Bible history

Posted on August 15, 2020 by Ruth

The most famous trend in medieval theater, the grand pageant of Biblical history, began with a 6th century sermon attributed to St. Augustine (probably authored by someone else?). During the Middle Ages, this sermon grew into a typical presentation made … Continue reading →

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Latin drama used to teach Latin

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Ruth

Christianity went west and east during the latter years of the Roman Empire. Of course, its language going west was Latin, while its language traveling east was Greek. Priests and monks needed to read Latin sounds at the minimum, so … Continue reading →

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Movable type crosses from West to East, 1493

Posted on April 22, 2018 by Ruth

Around the time Orban’s huge bombard was breaking down the walls of Constantinople, Gutenberg printed the first Bible with movable type. As with all past inventions, we take it for granted without stopping to understand just how many things had … Continue reading →

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Samarkand and the Math Emperor, 1405

Posted on February 26, 2018 by Ruth

Timur’s grandson Mohammed, son of Shah Rukh, was a huge nerd. It’s hard to be born into a notorious warlord’s family when you really just want to sit up at night in an observatory measuring the stars, or calculate Pi … Continue reading →

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Ibn Khaldun asks tough questions, 1377

Posted on February 10, 2018 by Ruth

The Ibn Khaldun family were descended from a Bedouin, Khaldun, who settled near Seville in the early years of Muslim conquest. Under Reconquista pressure in the 13th century, they moved to Tunis, where they were among the educated governing elite. … Continue reading →

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Ibn Battuta Sees the World and Meets Hermits, 1325-55

Posted on January 30, 2018 by Ruth

The Muslim world had grown so large that it was very hard for them to know all parts of their own lands, let alone the rest of the world. Around 1355, a Moroccan named Ibn Battuta dictated and published his … Continue reading →

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Marco Polo and the Golden Ticket, 1299

Posted on January 15, 2018 by Ruth

We owe the first descriptions of Xanadu and Khanbalik (Beijing) to Marco Polo of Venice, whose book was published in 1299, co-written by Rusticello of Pisa. The book was quickly translated into many languages; the oldest manuscript we have is … Continue reading →

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The Ilkhan Turns Muslim, 1291-95

Posted on December 21, 2017 by Ruth

In 1291, the Mamluks finally captured Acre, the last outpost of the Crusader states. The Christian world didn’t know that they’d never take back any of that land, but in fact, they never would, until after World War I. At the … Continue reading →

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