Blending innovative art historical analysis with archaeology, epigraphy, history, liturgy, theology, and landscape and memory studies, The Medieval Monastery of Saint Elijah: A History in Paint and Stone is the first comprehensive interdisciplinary study of a deeply intelligent yet understudied male Benedictine convent near Rome. The only monastery known to have been dedicated to the prophet Elijah in the Latin West, it was rebuilt c.1122-26 with papal patronage. Today, the monastery is represented by its church of Sant'Elia, a stone basilica endowed with its original Cosmati marble pavement and liturgical furnishings, early and high medieval sculptures and inscriptions, and vibrant wall paintings that include unique depictions of the prophet Elijah and the twelve tribes of Israel as warriors, an apse program with a distinctly elite Roman origin, and an important narrative cycle of the Apocalypse. An outlying chapel marks the site of a theophany that sanctified the landscape and gave the monastery its raison d'etre. The Medieval Monastery of Saint Elijah makes significant contributions to current art historical debates concerning communal identity and the construction of social memory, artistic creativity and processes, the multisensory and exegetical capacities of works of visual art, intersections of topography and sanctity, and the effects of medievalism on our understanding of the Middle Ages.

This book explores the issue of ecclesiastical authority in Romanesque sculpture on the portals and other sculpted “gateways” of churches in the north Italian region of Lombardy. Gillian B. Elliott examines the liturgical connection between the ciborium over the altar (the most sacred threshold inside the church), and the sculpted portals that appeared on church exteriors in medieval Lombardy. In cities such as Milan, Civate, Como, and Pavia, the liturgy of Saint Ambrose was practiced as an alternative to the Roman liturgy and the churches were constructed to respond to the needs of Ambrosian liturgy. Not only do the Romanesque churches in these places correspond stylistically and iconographically, but they were also linked politically in an era of intense struggle for ultimate regional authority. The book considers liturgical and artistic links between interior church furnishings and exterior church sculptural programs, and also applies new spatial methodologies to the interior and exterior of churches in Lombardy. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, medieval studies, architectural history, and religious studies.

In medieval England, women in labor wrapped birth girdles around their abdomens to protect themselves and their unborn children. These parchment or paper rolls replicated the "girdle relics" of the Virgin Mary and other saints loaned to queens and noblewomen, extending childbirth protection to women of all classes. This book examines the texts and images of nine English birth girdles produced between the reigns of Richard II and Henry VIII. Cultural artifacts of lay devotion within the birthing chamber, the birth girdles offered the solace and promise of faith to the parturient woman and her attendants amid religious dissent, political upheaval, recurring epidemics, and the onset of print.

Of immense significance to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the Holy Land has been attracting visitors since the fifth century BC. Covering all the main sites both in the city of Jerusalem and throughout the Holy Land and including over 150 high quality site plans, maps, diagrams, and photographs, this book provides the ultimate visitor guide to the rich archaeological heritage of the region. Fully updated with all the latest information, this new edition includes updates on the crucial recent developments at the Holy Sepulchre and on six completely new sites, including a Middle Bronze Age water system in Jerusalem and what may be the original Pool of Siloam.

A complete reappraisal of the papacy of Honorius II, highlighting the strategies to which this pontificate turned in order to govern ecclesiastical institutions and to deal with secular matters.The papacy of Honorius II (1124-1130) has often been overlooked by historians, usually considered uneventful, transitional and colourless. This book offers a complete reappraisal, drawing on a detailed examination of the surviving letters produced by the papal chancery to show that conversely, it was a vital and innovative pontificate. It argues that during what was a stabilising period for the papacy in an era of peace, Honorius and the chancery were able to enact the instruments and ecclesiological claims dictated by external threats and produced during previous papacies. In particular, it shows that by adapting the content and form of the letters it issued, Honorius's chancery, led by the official Haimeric, played a decisive role in extending the ecclesiological thinking of the papacy. Furthermore, these years paved the way for ideas which were further developed later in the twelfth century, especially the arguments created by the warring parties in the Schism of 1130 to legitimise their respective popes. This study thus presents a different view of Honorius' administration, highlighting the strategies to which the papacy turned in order both to govern ecclesiastical institutions and to deal with secular matters, when previous protocols and routines could no longer be relied upon.

St. Sabas (439-532 CE), was one of the principal leaders of Palestinian monasticism, that had flourished in the sixth century in the desert of Jerusalem. As an abbot he was the first in Palestine to formulate a monastic rule in writing, and his activity as an ecclesiastical leader bore upon the life of the entire Christian community in the Holy land. He and his monks were active in the theological disputes that affected the fate of the Christian Church of Palestine, and shaped it as a stronghold of Orthodoxy. But his activity has transcended his place and time. His largest monastery - the Great Laura (Mar saba), functioned from the sixth to the ninth century as the intellectual centre of the See of Jerusalem. The most distinguished among its authors were Cyril of Scythopolis, Leontius of Byzantium, John Moschus and Sophronius, Antiochus Monachos, John of Damascus, Cosmas the Hymnographer, Leontius of Damascus and Stephen Mansur. Their treatises on dogma, and prayer, shaped Orthodox theology, liturgy and hymnography in Palestine and beyond. This literary activity in Greek was complemented by scribal activity of copying and translating of Greek manuscripts into Arabic and Georgian. There was also original composition in Arabic by Theodore Abu Qurrah and others. Monastic life in Mar Saba, that continued under Muslim rule with only short intermissions, preserved the Sabaite tradition, and contributed to its reputation, parallel to that of Jerusalem. Sabaite monks were renown as paragons of monasticism and dogma, who had inspired monastic and ecclesiastical reformers in later centuries throughout the Orthodox world. Its fame spread far and wide, from Rome and North Africa in the west, to Serbia, Russia and Georgia in the east, affecting Christian dogma and liturgy therein. The thirty-one studies included in this volume, each written by an expert in his field, present the various facets of the Sabaite heritage in the Orthodox Church, from the sixth century to the present.

Winner of the 2023 Early Slavic Studies Book Prize from the Early Slavic Studies Association (ESSA) (Best book) Medieval Moldavia – which was located within present-day northeastern Romania and the Republic of Moldova – developed a bold and eclectic visual culture beginning in the 15th century. Within this networked Carpathian Mountain region, art and architecture reflect the creativity and diversity of the cultural landscapes of Eastern Europe. Moldavian objects and monuments – ranging from fortified monasteries and churches enveloped in fresco cycles to silk embroideries, delicately carved woodwork and metalwork, as well as manuscripts gifted to Mount Athos and other Christian centers – negotiate the complex issues of patronage and community in the region. The works attest to processes of cultural contact and translation, revealing how Western medieval, Byzantine, and Slavic traditions were mediated in Moldavian contexts in the post-Byzantine period. Winner of the 2023 Early Slavic Studies Book Prize, awarded by the Early Slavic Studies Association (ESSA) for the best book published between Sept 1, 2021 and August 31, 2023 in the field of Early Slavic Studies (pre-1800). The awarding committee praised the volume as ‘the first English monograph to provide a comprehensive overview of Moldavia's artistic and architectural landscape during the 15th and 16th centuries, locating the region as a significant facet in the global map of art history.’ Official ESSA announcement.

This volume offers the first comprehensive collection of medieval Bulgarian sources in English translation. It includes literary works, documents, inscriptions on stone and metal, graffiti, as well as coins, seals and medallions, produced during the Middle Ages by and for Bulgarians of all walks of life.

Enigma in Rus and Medieval Slavic Cultures is a thematic essay volume to investigate the history and function of enigma in Orthodox Slavic cultures with a special focus on the cultural history of Rus and Muscovy. Its seventeen case studies across disciplinary boundaries analyze Slavic biblical and patristic translations, liturgical commentaries, occult divinatory texts, and dream interpretations. Slavic riddles inscribed on walls and compilations of riddles in question-and-answer format are all subjects of this volume. Not only written, but also pictorial enigmas are examined, together with their relationships to texts suggesting novel methodologies for their deciphering. This kaleidoscopic survey of Enigma in Rus and Medieval Slavic Cultures by an international group of scholars demonstrates the historiographical challenges that medieval enigmatic thought poses for researchers and offers new approaches to the interpretation of medieval sources, both verbal and visual.

This volume builds upon the new worldwide interest in the global Middle Ages. It investigates the prismatic heritage and eclectic artistic production of Eastern Europe between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, while challenging the temporal and geographical parameters of the study of medieval, Byzantine, post-Byzantine, and early-modern art. Contact and interchange between primarily the Latin, Greek, and Slavic cultural spheres resulted in local assimilations of select elements that reshaped the artistic landscapes of regions of the Balkan Peninsula, the Carpathian Mountains, and further north. The specificities of each region, and, in modern times, politics and nationalistic approaches, have reinforced the tendency to treat them separately, preventing scholars from questioning whether the visual output could be considered as an expression of a shared history. The comparative and interdisciplinary framework of this volume provides a holistic view of the visual culture of these regions by addressing issues of transmission and appropriation, as well as notions of cross-cultural contact, while putting on the global map of art history the eclectic artistic production of Eastern Europe.