Category: Middle Ages
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Why corporal punishment on schools was invented
Until recently, it was common practice on schools to conduct corporal punishment on unruly students. Medievalist Dr. Ben Parsons researched the origins of this violent teaching method. He found out that medieval philosophers thought there were many benefits to these methods. For instance, it was believed that pain helped students to remember their wrongdoing. A…
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Bones of diseased medieval Britons digitized and exhibited online
A new website was launched yesterday with photo’s of bones of 1,600 medieval Britons. They deceased from a range of terrifying diseases, such as syphilis and leprosy. Some diseases are uncommon today. The gruesome bones shows the importance of keeping these diseases at bay. Their deformed remains are exhibited online as study-material, but f you are…
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Listen to a 500 year old music instrument – made by Da Vinci
Well ok, the instrument was not really made by Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1509), but designed by the Italian master. Five centuries ago Da Vinci sketched a bizarre instrument, a crossing between a piano and a cello. Da Vinci called it the ‘viola organista’. As was the case with many of his designs, Da Vinci never actually made…
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Important battle in Swiss history may have been made-up
Ask an arbitrary Swiss man or woman what the most important event in Swiss history was, and the battle of Morgarten is likely to be named. In 1315, the Swiss confederation beat the Habsburgers at Morgarten and gained independence from the Holy Roman Empire. Every history museum in Switzerland sports this legendary event, as it is…
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Disappointment: Germany’s oldest piggy bank is empty
Imagine you have a piggy bank that’s more than 700 years old. It must be so inviting to take a hammer, break it and marvel at the exposed riches. Luckily, that’s not the course of action taken by the Weimar Museum of History. They have Germany’s oldest piggy bank in their collection: the Tonschwein, created in…
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Charlemagne not so great after all
The historical image of Charlemagne, of Charles the Great (747-814) is as positive as it gets for a medieval king. Charlemagne was one of the most striking personalities throughout the Middle Ages. He was a tough warrior, but especially a man of the church, a state-builder and cultural reformer. He won most battles he fought, so he…
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Could it be Jesus?
A new publication on the Shroud of Turin tries to proof that the shroud is about 2000 years old, making it possible that the imprint of the body and face of a bearded man is indeed from Jesus Christ. That’s contradictory to earlier studies, where the shroud was also tested. Those experiments backed up the…