James T Palmer on the Early Middle Ages and Other Things
This is a much-reduced summary of a lecture I gave at the Paris IMS Conference 'Le temps' in July 2019 What is time? A mystery? The calendar? The movement of the heavens? Money? One thing medievalists have long agreed on is that it is important to understand the senses of time societies used to… Continue reading Encountering Early Medieval Time
One of the most famous manuscripts of the eighth century is Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 10837. It is famous because it contains the calendar of St Willibrord (d. 739) – an Englishman from Northumbria whose early story is told by Bede in his Ecclesiastical History (731). Willibrord travelled to Rath Melsigi in Ireland… Continue reading Willibrord’s Astronomical Horologium
“How is your book… your novel going?” Angus inquired politely as he sipped at his coffee. “The one about the Scottish saints?” Antonia sighed. “Not very well, I’m afraid. My saints, I regret to say, are misbehaving”. Love over Scotland, Alexander McCall Smith And indeed, for Antonia, they are. They get grumpy and might not… Continue reading Writing ‘Early Medieval Hagiography’
