Mirator

Icelandic Hospitals, Clergy, and Disability in the Saga of Bishop Lárentíus

Ryder Patzuk-Russell — 2024-07-18

This study illuminates the evidence for two little-known hospitals for clergy in fourteenth-century Iceland, and contextualizes their existence in larger discourses about disability and clerical identity in Icelandic literature and culture, with a focus on Lárentíus saga biskups.

Olaus Magnus ja mereen liitetyt ihmeet keskiajan ja uuden ajan alun ruotsalaisessa kirjallisessa perinteessä

Toni Simanainen — 2024-07-18

Artikkelissa tarkastellaan mielikuvia, joita Ruotsin valtakunnassa liitettiin mereen keskiajalla ja uuden ajan alun alkaessa. Artikkelissa peilataan keskiaikaisten käsitysten heijastumista ruotsalaisen oppineen ja kirkonmiehen Olaus Magnuksen (1490–1557) teoksissaan esittämiin tietoihin. Tarkastelu painottuu asioihin, joita keskiajan ja uuden ajan alun ihmiset pitivät ihmeinä, latinaksi miracula tai mirabilia.

Olaus Magnuksen pohjoisen meren ja magian ihmettelyn kuvauksen takana on laajempi skandinaavinen ja pohjolaan liittyvä perinne, jota Olaus Magnus täydentää aikalaiskertomuksilla sekä antiikin ja keskiajan lähteillä. Keskiajan ruotsalaisen kirjallisen perinteen ja Olaus Magnuksen meren kuvaukset käsittelevät merta useista eri näkökulmista. Olaus Magnuksen meren ihmettelyn kuvauksissa on sekä yhtäläisyyksiä että eroja suhteessa ympäröivään kulttuuriperinteeseen. Olaus Magnuksen tuotannosta on nähtävissä, että hänelle oli välittynyt monia tietoja keskiajan ruotsalaisesta ja muustakin skandinaavisesta perinteestä. Kuitenkin hänen teoksessaan ja kartassaan on myös eroavaisuuksia, kokonaan uusia tietoja sekä omalaatuisia näkökulmia ja tulkintoja vanhemmasta perinteestä.

Availability and Consumption of Wooden Resource for the Construction of Late Medieval Roof Structures in Finland

Franziska Dalheimer — 2024-07-18

Only around two dozen examples of medieval structural timber in Finland's built environment outlasted the past 550 years, all of them as large-scale wooden church roof trusses. This research goes beyond the physical survey of the timber structure and reveals perceptions of the local resource management, more precisely the availability and consumption of wooden building material during the construction of major Late Medieval construction projects in Finland. This research follows the case studies of St. Olaf’s church in Ulvila and St. Henry’s church in Pyhtää. The main methods include field work studies, microscopic wood identification, analysis of pollen diagrams and a review of secondary literature to gain insights into the surrounding medieval built environment and possible forest stands. The findings give an impression of the roof structure’s weight and volume and indicate that Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) was the preferred building material for the nave roof structure of Pyhtää church, whereas a material shortage of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) caused Norway spruce (Picea abies) to be used in the nave roof structure of Ulvila church, most likely caused by a longer and more intense settlement history.

Cosmic Position in Chaucer's House of Fame

Dean Swinford — 2024-07-18

Chaucer’s House of Fame (ca. 1378-80) is a complex dream vision that presents its narrator, a stand-in for Chaucer himself, exploring a series of places shaped by his extensive reading. A quest for the source of fame, the poem is informed by similar narratives of dreams and imaginary journeys. Such voyages beyond the confines of the earth are expressions of the poetic imagination, but they also occur in medieval and classical literature within a divinely ordained and structured cosmos that included clear and symbolically important distinctions between the earth and the heavens. As a narrative of cosmic ascent, the House of Fame takes place within the imaginary space of the sphaera mundi, a model of the universe as a series of interlocking spheres with the earth at the center. The position of objects within this model determined their meaning and purpose. This essay examines astronomical details in Book II and argues that such details shape the setting of this part of the poem. Read in this light, the very air that the narrator moves through in Book II constitutes a setting equal in imaginative depth to the Temple of Venus in Book I or the House of Fame encountered in Book III.

Mikko Kauko: Pyhän Mechtildin ilmestykset

Leena Enqvist — 2024-07-18

Arvio Mikko Kaukon teoksesta Pyhän Mechtildin ilmestykset

Peter Biller & L. J. Sackville (eds): Inquisition and Knowledge 1200–1700. (Heresy and Inquisition in the Middle Ages 10.)

Saku Pihko — 2024-07-18

A book review.

Information and Lived Religion in Inquisition Records from Medieval Languedoc (15.12.2023, Tampere University)

Saku Pihko — 2024-07-18

Lectio pracursoria of Saku Pihko's doctoral defence.