mercoledì 28 febbraio 2007

Medieval Art on web

Medieval Art on web
Art Images for College Teaching (AICT) is a personal, non-profit project of its author, art historian and visual resources curator Allan T. Kohl . AICT is intended primarily to disseminate images of art and architectural works in the public domain on a free-access,
free-use basis to all levels of the educational community, as well as to the public at large. The images displayed on this site have been photographed on location by the author, who consents to their use in any application that is both educational and non-commercial in nature.
go to the site:
http://arthist.cla.umn.edu/aict/html/medieval.html

martedì 27 febbraio 2007

Medioevo Armeno

Il Medioevo in Armenia
L’VIII e IX secolo rappresentano un momento di stasi, oltre il quale l’attività artistica riprende nel X secolo con una notevole intensità e porta ad una moltiplicazione delle opere architettoniche. Le tipologie antiche si modulano e arricchiscono di forme e combinazioni volumetriche e l’opera di progettazione rivolge la propria attenzione anche ai complessi monastici. Nel X secolo la rinascita dell’architettura armena è associata al nome di Tiridate, architetto di corte del casato dei Bagratouni, che risulta aver diretto il delicato lavoro di restauro della cupola di S. Sofia a Costantinopoli nel 989, distrutta da un terremoto. Successivamente Tiridate riprese la sua opera precedentemente iniziata ad Ani, che divenne da allora centro della sua attività. Muovendo dalla basilica a tre navate cupolata, egli arricchì le pareti esterne con capitelli di piccole dimensioni, eleganti finestre e sottili colonne, conferendo alla struttura una maggiore leggerezza, senza tuttavia toglierle il carattere monumentale. Molte chiese del tempo sono arricchite da decorazione parietale ad affresco, ma soprattutto a rilievo, di cui si rivestono in particolare le pareti esterne e il cui vertice è rappresentato dalla chiesa della Santa Croce di Aghtamar (X secolo).
Il medioevo armeno è altresì caratterizzato dalla fioritura di un genere scultoreo che gli è peculiare ed unico. Si tratta del Khatchkar, letteralmente Croce-pietra (khatch, ‘croce’, kar, ‘pietra’), consistente in una stele lapidea di forma parallelepipeda (ma centinata negli esemplari più antichi), spesso di grandi dimensioni, scolpita su una faccia a bassorilievo, in forma di croce più o meno riccamente ornata e contornata da cornici a motivi di intreccio, inserita ad incastro in un apposito basamento ricavato da un blocco di roccia.
Vai al sito:
http://www.mekhitar.org/ITA/arte2.shtml

domenica 25 febbraio 2007

Animation Médievale

Animation Médievale
Yggdrasil est une entreprise québécoise spécialisée dans l’animation médiévale, le jeu de rôle grandeur nature et la guerre médievale qui vous propose une gamme très diversifiée de produits. Mariage, banquet, classe-nature, festival, musique, danse, atelier éducatif, journée thématique et théâtre d'aventure ne sont que quelques exemples de ce que nous pouvons vous offrir.
Notre équipe peut se rendre sur place ou vous accueillir dans notre magnifique site boisé, situé à 1hrs et 15min des ponts de Québec, et qui offre une ambiance incomparable. Il permet, grâce à ses nombreux décors et sites décorums, la tenue d'activités palpitantes à saveur médiévale.
Les amateurs de grandeur-nature fantastique seront également comblés. Un système de règles simple et efficace, un syst�me �conomique réaliste et diversifié, des animateurs-comédiens chevronnés et une ambiance de jeu exceptionnelle, font d'or et déjà notre réputation.
visitez le site:
http://www.animationyggdrasil.com/index.htm

mercoledì 14 febbraio 2007

Medieval Russia

A Brief History of Medieval Russia
A casual glance at the map of Europe and Asia will reveal quite clearly certain of the physical conditions under which Russia has developed. Compared with England, France, or Spain in point of size, what a vast extent of territory is embraced by a single state: running east and west, from the Baltic to the Sea of Kamchatka; and north and south, from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea, the Caspian, and, as it may some day appear, the waters of the Indian Ocean. A heritage truly imperial, and offering a greater expanse of continuous land than any other empire. Examined more closely, other features in contrast to the states of western Europe begin to appear. The mountains of Continental Europe lie for the most part in the western and southern quarters. But easterly from the Carpathians, the Continent broadens out into a huge monotonous plain, watered by rivers of considerable length. And were the Ural Mountains correctly appreciatedÑtheir blackness on the ordinary map making them seem much more formidable than they really are, being for the most part only hillsÑit would appear that this vast plain extends almost uninterruptedly from shore to shore of the several bodies of water mentioned above. Scarcely within this enormous expanse of level country is there to be found any one feature which offers itself as a natural frontier or boundary line. The essential unity of the whole, physically, seems to have contributed in no small measure to the political unity which is now fast being achieved.
go to the site:
http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/MorRus.html

lunedì 12 febbraio 2007

Medieval Music

Medieval Music of Cyprus
Cyprus was an ideal staging area during the crusades, a vital point of supply and a strategically important bastion for the Western armies. It also offered first-rate harbours (Famagusta for example) only two-days' sailing from the Egyptian coast and mere hours from Syria. Cyprus' climate, foodstuffsand raw materials made it a paradise on earth. In 14th century French poetry, the island was frequently referred to as "Engaddy, la precieuse vigne" (Engaddy, the precious vine).
During the Third Crusade, Richard the Lion-Hearted was unable to resist the island's charms, and in 1191 added it to his possessions. A year later he sold it to the Templars for œ40,000. Unable to afford the luxury of a private island they resoldit to the dispossessed king of Jerusalem, Guy de Lusignan, scion of a noble French family from the Poitou region.
go to the site:
http://www.cypnet.com/.ncyprus/culture/music/medieval/

domenica 11 febbraio 2007

Medieval sources: Turkey

The Legends and poetry of the Turks Turkish literature is of a less advanced character than that of most of the Semitic literatures from which it is sprung. An epigrammatic summary of the Turkish character has said that every fourth word of Turkish is Arabic, every third idea Persian, and every second impulse Mohammedan. This, while not seeming to leave much of the original Turk, is perhaps not an unfair estimate of the extent of the Turks' indebtedness to the earlier races and religion upon which their civilization is built. The Ottoman Turks, that is, the Turks who founded the present Turkish Empire, were a Tartar or Turanian tribe from Central Asia who adopted the Mohammedan faith and began their conquest of the Mohammedan world about the year 1300. They then possessed legends or childish tales of their own which still survive; and these are still told among the mass of the people with simple faith. One or two of these are given here, to show the natural human character of the race. The Turks next turned, in literature, to poetry. Persian Mohammedan poetry was then at its best; and the Turks imitated, but scarcely improved upon, its forms. So great, indeed, became the Turkish admiration for poetry that almost every Turkish Sultan, from the year fourteen hundred down to the present, has written poetry.
go to the site:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/turkishpoetry1.html

sabato 10 febbraio 2007

Medieval Games

Medieval History for children
The games of medieval Europe were mainly the same as those of Egypt, Greece, and Rome: dice, knucklebones, marbles, checkers.
Chess, invented in the Islamic Empire, began to be played in Europe toward the end of the Middle Ages, and after paper reached Europe from China, playing cards also began to appear in the later Middle Ages.
We also see more children's toys from this time: whistles and little dishes and dolls.
As for spectator sports, the gladiatorial games of the Roman Empire ended with the fall of Rome. In the Christian era, men no longer fought men to the death in the arenas.
But many similar entertainments survived and flourished. In the old amphitheaters, many of which still continued to be used, men continued to fight animals: bears and bulls were the most popular of these, because they were the most dangerous. You can still see bull-fights today in Spain (and in Mexico), and they are still fought in amphitheaters. And people who had been convicted of crimes continued to be executed as entertainment.
go to the site:
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/medieval/games/index.htm

venerdì 9 febbraio 2007

Medieval Minds

Medieval Minds: Britain 1066-1500: Pupil's Book (Think Through History) This is the first book in a series of four, each one tailor-made for one of the first four study units of the new curriculum. A teacher's book accompanies each student's book and offers 60 copymasters with a wide range of activities for all abilities. Authors: Jamie Byrom and Christine Counsell.

giovedì 8 febbraio 2007

La Polonia Medievale

La Polonia dei Piast (X-XI secolo)
Il nome della Polonia trae origine dal nome della tribù dei Polanie, ovvero popolo che lavora i campi (campo = "pole" in polacco), che viveva nel bacino del fiume Warta, nella zona più tardi denominata Wielkopolska (Polonia Magna). Il centro del potere si trovava allora a Gniezno. Nel corso del X secolo, i duca Polanie (i Piast) conquistarono ed unirono sotto la loro autorità le altre tribù che vivevano nel territorio racchiuso fra i fiumi Odra e Bug, il litorale baltico e i Carpazi. Il primo duca della dinastia dei Piast, menzionato dalle fonti dell'epoca, fu Mieszko I (intorno al 960-992), considerato il fondatore dello Stato polacco, che riorganizzò i territori conquistati e li riunì in un sistema statale omogeneo.La Polonia dal X al XII secolo, come del resto tanti altri Stati del primo Medioevo, fu una monarchia, considerata dai suoi sovrani come proprietà dinastica – cioè patrimonium. Il duca e il gruppo di pochi magnati che lo circondava, disponevano di un potere forte e centralizzato mentre l’esercito era formato da una squadra di alcune migliaia di soldati scelti, equipaggiati e mantenuti dallo stesso duca. Lo stato fu diviso in provincie in maniera simile alla divisione dei territori tribali, le provincie si dividevano a loro volta in circa cento distretti urbani. vai al sito per il contributo:
http://www.ambasciatapolonia.it/Files/Dossier/Storia/Storia_Polonia1.htm

domenica 4 febbraio 2007

Education pour le Moyen Age

Qu'appelle-t-on Moyen Age?
Période couvrant dix siècles environ, le Moyen Age s’étend de la fin de l’Antiquité au début de la Renaissance, de la fin du Ve à la fin du XVe siècle. Traditionnellement, les historiens font commencer le Moyen Age en 476, date de la déposition du dernier empereur romain, Romulus Augustule, par le chef barbare Odoacre. 1492, année de la “découverte” de l’Amérique par Christophe Colomb, marque la fin du Moyen Age.
Des changements importants étaient survenus dans t’empire romain aux IIIe et IVe siècles. La religion chrétienne, autorisée par l’empereur Constantin en 314, était devenue la religion officielle. L’empire romain avait été divisé en deux parties, chacune dotée d’une capitale: Rome pour l’empire d’Occident, Constantinople, fondée par Constantin sur le site d’une ville dont le nom grec est Byzance, pour l’empire d’Orient.
Le site est une education au Moyen Age pour les enfants:
http://education.france5.fr/moyenage/

sabato 3 febbraio 2007

Medieval appointments

Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture and Its Meanings: 25 - 30 June 2007
This conference aims to encourage heritage practitioners and academics from different disciplines to debate the key terms of its title. It encourages them to discuss the methods by which they analyse material culture, but also the way they present their findings: how the analytical languages and methods of presentation used within their disciplines reconstruct material culture for a wider audience. Those working on such issues both within and outside the periods under consideration are invited to come and talk about the transferability of methodologies - to debate the existence of a specifically pre-modern material culture. More intormations to the site:
http://www.crems.bham.ac.uk/objects.htm

giovedì 1 febbraio 2007

Digital Mirror


Digital Mirror: Medieval Astronomy
The oldest scientific manuscript in the National Library is NLW MS 735C, which contains various Latin texts on astronomy. The volume, written in Caroline minuscule, consists of two sections, the first (ff. 1-26) copied c. 1000, in the Limoges area of France, probably in the milieu of Adémar de Chabannes (989-1034), whilst the second (ff. 27-50), from a scriptorium in the same region, may be dated c. 1150.
go to the site:
http://www.llgc.org.uk/drych/drych_s060.htm

Resources for Medieval Studies

Resources for Medieval Studies
Resources for Medieval Studies The Labyrinth: La Georgetown University sponsorizza un sistema di ricerca telematica sulle fonti del Medioevo suddivise per tematiche.
go to the site:
http://labyrinth.georgetown.edu/