I co-edited this collection of essays about color order and color ordering systems based on a workshop held at TU-Berlin in 2020.
https://bit.ly/Ordering_Colours

A Cultural History of the Sea in the Medieval Age, ed. by Elizabeth Lambourn.

The cultural history of the sea during the Middle Ages is a young and dynamic field. Born only recently in the literary criticism of European sources, this innovative volume pushes out beyond this European heartland to explore the shape and potential of a cultural…[Read more]

The early modern use of vegetal terms to explain the origin and growth of ores was widespread in mining industry, alchemy, and natural philosophy. In the writings of authors from many different backgrounds, mineral veins were often described as ‘trees’ which moved upwards, bore fruits, and underwent a life cycle. Accordingly, the existence in ore…[Read more]

From antiquity, Galenic physicians extensively discussed the active powers of simple and compound drugs. In their views, simple drugs, that is, single ingredients, acted according to their material qualities and the properties of their substance. As for compound drugs, their efficacy resulted from the mutual interaction of their ingredients and…[Read more]

Beyond the texts on women’s medicine associated with the name of a 12th-century female medical practitioner from Salerno named Trota (or the title, “Trotula”), the most widely circulated texts were those deriving from the ancient Greek *Gynecology* of Soranus (2nd century CE). In particular, the Latin translation/adaptation by Muscio (or Mustio),…[Read more]

More detailed discussions on Thomas Biggs: Sown Men and Rome’s Civil Wars. Rethinking the End of Melinno’s Hymn to Rome (Mnemosyne 76.3) and Gerlinde Bretzigheimer: Intertextualität und Intratextualität in Ausonius’ Epitaphia heroum (Wiener Studien 135).

This essay, which expands on my talk at the Colors and Cultures / Couleurs et Cultures conference in April 2021, charts the history and my plans for a broad exploration of Turkey red as both subject and as object in global history. In it, I move between the personal—the compulsions that led me to undertake this series of studies, and which c…[Read more]

This document lays out a series of points in regard to a recently posted pre-print on the history of plague in late medieval and early modern Europe: Marcel Keller et al., “A Refined Phylochronology of the Second Plague Pandemic in Western Eurasia.” I am a historian of medicine and I am presenting these as historical questions. I have written it…[Read more]

Thijs Porck, “Runenoefeningen. De Oudgermanistiek in Leidse kinderschoenen”, in Tot publijcque dienst der studie: Boeken uit de Bibliotheca Thysiana, ed. Wim van Anrooij & Paul Hoftijzer (Hilversum: Verloren, 2023), 118-119

Thijs Porck, “I can read Hollandsch very fairly. The Correspondence between James Murray (1837-1915) and Pieter Jacob Cosijn (1840-1899)”, in Language Use, Usage Guides, and Linguistic Norms, ed. Luisella Caon, Marion Elenbaas & Janet Grijzenhout (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2021), 107-129.

La théorie du chaos n’est pas aussi complexe qu’on le prétend souvent Comme l’observe Robert Juliano, le principe sous-jacent est que “dans le caractère aléatoire apparent des systèmes complexes chaotiques, il existe des modèles sous-jacents, des interconnexions, des boucles de rétroaction constantes, la répétition, l’auto-similarité , fractales…[Read more]

This paper aims to examine models by which symbolism of light and lamp in
the Mediterranean region was manifested in the early Christian visual culture,
i.e. lamp representations from Central Balkans. Lamps with Early
Christian representations are considered in the context of transculturality
of Late Antiquity, as well as political and…[Read more]

Elements of Christian visual culture appeared in
various media in monumental and applied art during the late
antique period, from painted decoration in the catacombs,
through funerary monuments, to utilitarian objects such as
jewellery and lamps. The paper analyses the symbolic meaning
of fish and maritime motifs in the context of the late…[Read more]

On a number of pilgrimage objects from Late Antiquity, St Thecla, a highly revered saint, also known as Thecla the Protomartyr, is shown accompanied by St Menas, whose tomb in Egypt was the pilgrimage centre associated with healing miracles. The saintly couple appear in ad bestias compositions or in a simplified variant as two saints with a cross.…[Read more]

Chaos theory is not as complex as it si often made out to be As Robert Juliano observes, the underlying principle is that “within the apparent randomness of chaotic complex systems, there are underlying patterns, interconnectedness, constant feedback loops, repetition, self-similarity, fractals, and self-organization.”

“Chaos has been for…[Read more]

Ang pagtanggi na ang “pagkamakasarili” ay ang laganap na pamantayan at mayroon lamang “limitadong mga anyo ng altruismo” Upang magsimula, idiin ko na, “Kahit na ang bakterya ay mas matagumpay sa pagpaparami sa presensya ng iba sa kanilang sariling mga species.” Ang ibig kong sabihin ay may connectivity ang bacteria para sa Diyos!
1. Sa isang araw…[Read more]

Historians have long argued that arbitration was the preferred means of
resolution for most disputes in later medieval England; but does this apply
also to the settlement of homicides? Despite the strenuous efforts of the
English legal system after the Norman Conquest to force homicides through
the royal courts, historians have argued that…[Read more]

De entre las muchas y generosas lecciones que el maestro don Julio Valdeón ha brindado al medievalismo hispánico destacaremos aquella que fundamentará las páginas siguientes: la importancia de la propaganda ideológica favorable a la dinastía Trastámara durante la guerra civil castellana entre los años 1366 y 1371. Este conflicto fratric…[Read more]

Aún en la actualidad, cinco siglos más tarde de que fuese escrito, todavía impresiona la honrada confesión con la que Juan Álvarez Gato cerraba su cancionero particular, rematando los folios en los que había recopilado todo su acervo lírico con una singular confidencia poética. A través de ella, el hombre maduro y el poeta veterano renegaba…[Read more]