Medieval literature is often filled with heroic battles and noble knights. But one fourteenth-century poem turned war into absurd comedy, mocking the very idea of military glory.

Discover how medieval craft guilds regulated trade, trained apprentices, enforced quality standards, and shaped urban life across Europe during the Middle Ages.

This six-week course, beginning June 2nd, has live sessions each Tuesday from 12:00 – 2:00 pm EST.

Silver mines, flooded tunnels, and fierce political rivalries lay at the heart of a medieval struggle for wealth and power in the Alps. This book reveals how controlling water and underground resources helped reshape society, technology, and economic life in thirteenth-century Europe.

This three-week course begins June 10th, with live sessions each Wednesday from 2:00 – 3:30 pm EST.

The Yellow River brought both prosperity and calamity to China’s dazzling medieval capital

This collection of texts may date from the eighteenth century, but the works it contains are all medieval in origin. Together, they offer a diverse glimpse into the Eastern Orthodox tradition that shaped the religious life of the Byzantine world.

...on my lap A heavy cardboard box containing about a dozen reviewer (aka proof) copies of my new book CASTLES just arrived.

If you are interested in the connections between Christian and Islamic cultures in the Middle Ages, physical objects can reveal remarkable stories of exchange and interaction. This book brings together ten essays exploring the materials, artifacts, and goods that moved between these two societies, shedding light on the cultural ties that linked the medieval Mediterranean world.

Archaeologists in Germany have uncovered a rare medieval notebook in a Paderborn latrine, preserving 700-year-old wax tablet writings that may reveal the life of a medieval merchant.

Surrounded by rivals on every frontier, the Byzantine Empire of the tenth century relied on far more than battlefield victories to survive and expand. George Theotokis explores how emperors and diplomats used strategy, alliances, bribery, fortifications, and warfare to navigate a dangerous geopolitical world stretching from the Balkans to the Middle East.

A lost medieval manuscript has been reunited with Heidelberg’s famous Bibliotheca Palatina after researchers traced the codex’s centuries-long journey across Europe.