Quotes About Medieval

If the existence of bullshit jobs seems to defy the logic of capitalism, one possible reason for their proliferation might be that the existing system isn't capitalism...In many ways, it resembles classic medieval feudalism, displaying the same tendency to create endless hierarchies of lords, vassals, and retainers.

most medieval governments threatened extremely harsh penalties on bankers unable to make restitution in such cases: as witnessed by the example of Francesch Castello, beheaded in front of his own bank in Barcelona in 1360.76

Knights" had originally been a term for freelance warriors, drawn from the younger or, often, bastard sons of the minor nobility.

The Malleus Maleficarum, the definitive guide for witch hunters published in 1486, wrote of a woman who stole dozens of penises, then hid them in a tree where they lived like birds in a nest.

As the medieval mind blamed God for human suffering, so the modern mind blames 'the system' for the industrial blight and plague of technology.

If all were equalized by death, as the medieval idea constantly emphasized, was it not possible that inequalities on earth were contrary to the will of God?

There are some examples of medieval kings who were terrible human beings but were nevertheless good kings.

The history of the Franks becomes, therefore, the history of the Netherlands.

No student of Chinese history can say that the Chinese are incapable of religious experience, even when judged by the standards of medieval Europe or pious India.

Economics, we learn in the history of thought, only became a science by escaping from the casuistry and moralizing of medieval thought.

The road to Jerusalem at the beginning is winding, my dear, dear Arn.

You have heard tales of the 'jacquerie' beginning in the villages?

It is, however, very important never to lose sight of the fact that the miniatures in illuminated books were not conceived as individual and independent paintings. They are book illustrations and are thus always intimately connected with a text.

It should be understood that in medieval eyes an artist was simply a craftsman, his activities having little to do with the twentieth-century notions of self-expression, individual genius and 'artistic temperament' that nowadays cling to his profession.

The Phaenomena of Aratus of Soli] became the fundamental textbook of medieval astronomy, a science of everyday importance, because correct observance of the Church's feast-days depended upon an accurate understanding of the movements of the heavenly bodies.

Although most Romanesque manuscripts are attributed to communities of monks, the great nunneries must have supported their own scribes and illuminators.

The majority of Gothic manuscripts provide some reflections of contemporary life, because the idea of representing even biblical scenes in any but the idiom of their own times was quite alien to medieval artists.

And then earlier than that there were the crusades. The crusades were totally fucked. Richard the Lionheart, who had the heart of a lion as well as his own. He ripped it out of the lion, and the lion was left with a bicycle pump and not much to do.

This Plantagenet king comes from the devil.

a messuage, a dovecote, a carucate of arable and ten acres of meadow.

Cat lovers take cover. Believe it or not, in the 15th century, there was a 'sport' involving the swinging of cats (by the tail) into the air where they would become moving targets for archers at fetes, fayres and country festivals. Crowded festivals would be described as having no room to 'swing the cat' as revellers would be in danger of being hit by stray arrows.   When

Ma Ravenna era anche un prospero centro commerciale, capoluogo di un entroterra ricco di pascoli e vigneti, vicino al mare e circondato di saline e peschiere, che garantivano al comune cospicue entrate daziarie; anche se i traffici, incentrati sull'esportazione di sale, pesce e vino, erano gestiti soprattutto da mercanti veneziani, e veneziana era la moneta corrente

baratteria, il termine con cui genericamente si indicavano corruzione, concussione e peculato. La baratteria era l'incubo della vita politica italiana (nel Medioevo, s'intende)

There were no large-scale irrigation facilities or huge tracts of irrigated and cultivated land in medieval Arabia. Combined with the isolation of the oases, this meant that there was no need for a centralized government.