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The Top 50 Medieval Books of 2015 MEDIEVAL STUDIES MAGAZINE FROM MEDIEVALISTS.NET The Medieval Magazine Number 46 December 14, 2015 The Top 50 Medieval Books of 2015 12th-century castle Offa, King of Mercia Star Wars and the Middle discovered in England Ages 4 33 38 The Story of Exodus (Anglo-Saxon Version) The Medieval Magazine December 14, 2015 Page 4 12th century castle discovered in England Archaeologists working in Gloucester have discovered the remains of a 12th-century castle. The find was made on the site of a former prison. Page 8 Top 50 Books in Medieval Studies of 2015 Our list of the best of the year! Page 33 Offa, King of Mercia Susan Abernethy profiles the Anglo-Saxon monarch Page 38 Star Wars and the Middle Ages The two most significant influences are in how the original trilogy has many similarities to Arthurian legends and how Jedi Knights are modelled on medieval warriors. Table of Contents 4 12th century castle discovered in England 5 Archaeologists unearth new evidence of Roman and Medieval Leicester 7 Isidore of Seville on... Books 8 Top 50 Books in Medieval Studies of 2015 30 Gratian’s Dilemma: The Man, the Prostitute, the Maid and the Infidel 31 The Story of Exodus (The Anglo-Saxon Version) 33 Offa, King of Mercia 38 Star Wars and the Middle Ages THE MEDIEVAL MAGAZINE Edited by: Peter Konieczny Website: www.medievalists.net This digital magazine is published each Monday. Cover Photo: Some of the books on our 2015 list Medieval News Twelfth-century castle discovered in England Archaeologists working in Gloucester have discovered the remains of a 12th-century castle. The find was made on the site of a former prison. Cotswold Archaeology announced the find for redevelopment. News of the discovery is on their website last week. They believe the leading to calls that the site be preserved. castle was built between 1110 and 1120, and Paul James, Leader of Gloucester City Council “was a large structure, with the keep, which explained to the Gloucester Citizen, we have now located in our work, an inner “Whatever is done on site needs to be bailey and stables. The keep was surrounded sensitive to the heritage of both the castle by a series of concentric defences which and the listed buildings there. We are comprised curtain walls and ditches, with the fortunate that we have a developer that cares drawbridge and gatehouse lying outside the about the heritage of the site. Having glass current site to the north.” flooring above it, allowing visitors to see through might be a possibility. The most The keep is believed to have been 30 metres important matter is to preserve it well, the long and 20 metres wide, and had walls as walls have been here for hundreds of years thick as 12 feet. Neil Holbrook, chief and we want them here for hundreds more.” executive of Cotswold Archaeology, told the Western Press Daily, “I am surprised by what we found. I knew there was a castle but I had expected more of it to have been destroyed.” He added the size and design would have been comparable to the Tower of London. “It would have been a powerful symbol of Norman architecture,” he said. “As you came to Gloucester you would have seen the cathedral and the castle, which is representative of how important the city was in Norman Britain.” The archaeologists have so far discovered Photo by Mark Price / Cotswold nearly 900 objects, including medieval Archaeology pottery and a six-sided die made of bone. It was believed that the castle had been destroyed in the 18th century when a prison was built on the site, but it seems that the gaol was built over the medieval structure. The prison was in use until 2013 and is set Archaeologists unearth new evidence of Roman and medieval Leicester University of Leicester team reveals insights into Roman and medieval domestic life beneath former city centre bus depot Archaeologists from University of Leicester opportunity to explore this part of the city. Archaeological Services (ULAS) have These excavations will provide important unearthed new evidence of Roman and new insights into the character of the medieval Leicester after recently completing settlement and the inhabitants living in the the excavation of two areas at the former southern half of the Roman and medieval Southgates Bus Depot, on the corner of town.” Southgates and Peacock Lane in the centre of Leicester. The project is funded by property developer Viridis and the University team has been Archaeologists, led by John Thomas and working closely with them and their Mathew Morris of ULAS, have been contractors WinVic to complete the investigating a series of medieval and post- archaeological investigation before medieval backyards dating from the 12th construction of new student apartments century through to the 16th century. These begins. are likely to be associated with densely packed houses and shops which would have The site lies at the heart of Leicester’s historic once fronted onto the important medieval core, close to significant Roman and medieval street of Southgates. sites such as the Roman forum and the Jewry Wall Roman public baths as well as the site Evidence recorded includes stone-lined pits of Grey Friars, the medieval Franciscan friary (possibly storage pits or cisterns), rubbish where the remains of King Richard III (d.1485) pits, latrines, wells, boundary walls and a were discovered by University archaeologists possible late 15th or 16th century cellar. Such in 2012. activity, and the evidence carefully collected and recorded from it, will give important new Once the medieval archaeology was insights into the lifestyles and industry of the painstakingly recorded and removed, people living along one of Leicester’s evidence of Leicester’s Roman past was principal medieval streets. slowly revealed. The junction of two Roman streets has been identified. These have thick, John Thomas said: “Having the chance to cambered gravel surfaces with drainage excavate in this part of Leicester is fantastic. gullies dug to either side. A number of large Because of the historic nature of the modern stone and timber buildings, and boundary city centre, archaeologists rarely get the walls, dating from the 2nd century through Late Roman industrial features are painstakingly excavated and recorded by archaeologists before building work begins. Photo credit University of Leicester stone and timber buildings, and boundary industrial activity going on in the vicinity in walls, dating from the 2nd century through the later Roman period. to the 4th century have been identified running along the sides of the streets. Mathew Morris added: “This part of Roman Leicester is very poorly understood because In some areas the Roman archaeology has there has been little previous archaeological been badly disturbed by later activity but investigation in the vicinity. One of the elsewhere Roman remains are very well Roman streets found on the site has never preserved with intact floors and rare been seen before in Leicester and isn’t on fragments of wall still surviving above floor any of our plans of the Roman city. This is a level. The broken remains of a mosaic significant find and raises exciting new pavement has been found in one building, questions about the layout of the early whilst pieces of painted wall plaster still Roman town and how it evolved through the survived on the walls in another. Roman period. It also means that the excavations are exploring three different This evidence will allow the archaeologists insulae or blocks within the Roman street to reconstruct what these buildings might system. So far, there appears to be have looked like. A wide array of artefacts contrasting types of occupation in the have been recovered during the excavation, different areas and this will give terrific new including coins, fine table ware, a copper insights into life in Leicester during the spoon, game counters, a number of bone hair Roman period.” pins and other pieces of jewellery. This suggests that Roman activity in the area was predominately domestic in nature with some Isidore of Seville on... Books Isidore of Seville's, 7th-century work Etymologiae, even covers some games and sports. Here is what he writes about books and bookmaking: Bookmaking (De libris conficiendis) Among the pagans, certain categories of books were made in fixed sizes. Poems and epistles were in a smaller format, but histories were written in a larger size. They were made not only on papyrus sheets or on parchment, but also on the intestinal membranes of elephants or on the interwoven leaves of mallows or palms. The terminology of books (De librorum vocabulis) A codex is composed of many books; a book is of one scroll. It is called a codex (codex) by way of metaphor from the trunks (codex) of trees or vines, as if it were a wooden stock (caudex, i.e. an older form of the word codex), because it contains in itself a multitude of books, as it were of branches. A scroll (volumen) is a book so called from rolling (volvere), as we speak of the scrolls of the Law and the scrolls of the Prophets among the Hebrews. 3. Liber is the inner membrane of bark, which clings to the wood. With regard to this, Vergil thus: The bark (liber) clings to the high elm. Whence what we write on is called a book (liber) because before the use of papyrus sheets or parchment, scrolls were made – that is, joined together – from the inner bark of trees.Whence those who write are called copyists (librarius) after the bark of trees. The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville has been edited and translated by Stephen A.
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