Topic description and stories

National Library of Ireland, Manuscript G11 403a10. Image, Irish Scripts on Screen www.isos.dias.ie

Lost Irish words rediscovered, including the word for ‘oozes pus'

30 Aug 2019

Researchers from Cambridge and Queen’s University Belfast have identified and defined 500 Irish words, many of which had been lost, and unlocked the...

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‘Murder map’ reveals medieval London’s meanest streets

28 Nov 2018

First digital map of the murders recorded by the city's Coroner in early 1300s shows Cheapside and Cornhill were homicide ‘hot spots’, and Sundays...

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Decorative detail on the Billingford Hutch

The Billingford Hutch and the moonwort fern – a medieval mystery solved

10 Dec 2017

A heavy oak chest in the Parker Library (Corpus Christi College) was used to store objects left as collateral for loans of money. Its ironwork...

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Discarded History exhibition lifts the lid on 1,000 years of medieval history

27 Apr 2017

Treasures from the world’s largest and most important collection of medieval Jewish manuscripts – chronicling 1,000 years of history in Old Cairo –...

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Revealed: face of ‘ordinary poor’ man from medieval Cambridge

20 Mar 2017

New facial reconstruction of a man buried in a medieval hospital graveyard discovered underneath a Cambridge college sheds light on how ordinary poor...

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Detail from the Cambridge Songs manuscript leaf that was stolen from and then recovered by Cambridge University Library.

First performance in 1,000 years: ‘lost’ songs from the Middle Ages are brought back to life

23 Apr 2016

An ancient song repertory will be heard for the first time in 1,000 years this week after being ‘reconstructed’ by a Cambridge researcher and a world...

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From Pulp to Fiction: our love affair with paper

17 Mar 2016

It may seem strange to describe paper as technology, but its arrival in England in about 1300 was a pivotal moment in cultural history. That story is...

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The Vikings are coming

Opinion: From Medieval kings to modern politics: the origins of England’s North-South divide

26 Feb 2016

Fiona Edmonds (Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic) discusses devolution and the medieval kingdoms of England.

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The "empericum that never fails" in the margin of the Compendium of Gilbertus Anglicus.The instructions are for making and applying an amulet for conception.

Remedies for infertility: how performative rituals entered early medical literature

24 Jan 2016

A study of one of the most important medieval texts devoted to women’s medicine has opened a window into the many rituals associated with conception...

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Derge iron water bottle.

Where to find a dragon in Cambridge

24 Jun 2015

The Cambridge Animal Alphabet series celebrates Cambridge's connections with animals through literature, art, science and society. Here, D is for...

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The ghostly faces under UV light

Ghosts from the past brought back to life

01 Apr 2015

One of the UK’s most important medieval manuscripts is revealing ghosts from the past after new research and imaging work discovered eerie faces and...

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Finds beneath the Old Divinity School, St John's College

Archaeologists unearth medieval graveyard beneath Cambridge College

01 Apr 2015

Archaeological investigations discovered one of Britain’s largest medieval hospital cemeteries, containing over 1,000 human remains, when excavating...

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