Expats have loosen roots and look for peers to reconstruct a sense of community and navigate everyday life together. Here is Augustinus’ story… from 1450s. Augustinus de Lovana was a 15th c. baker fro...

Medieval wills are precious mines of information for historians, art historians, scholars of fashion and material culture, but also for sociologists, anthropologists, economists.Behind the dryness of ...

Medieval wills are precious mines of information for historians, art historians, scholars of fashion and material culture, but also for sociologists, anthropologists, economists.Behind the dryness of ...

Siena State Archives, Notarile Antecosimiano 54 (1349) Waste and reuse are key topics in modern consumer society, but in the Middle Ages, there was no discussion around them. Considering the high cost of producing new objects, everything had to be reused, recycled, or transformed down to the very last bit. Parchments were made from animal skins (sheep, goat, or calf) and were therefore very durable and quite expensive.

Have you ever walked through the cloister of Vic Cathedral and noticed a group of three slender Gothic columns marked at their base with a small coat of arms depicting a castle? These aren’t just decorative elements. They are the material legacy of a fourteenth-century canon who ensured his memory would be carved into the very stones of the cathedral he served.