The evidence is fading from years of the elements pounding upon it, but even stone can’t hold the image of a medieval knight forever — an image that suggests there might have been Europeans exploring America 96 years before Christopher Columbus. In 1954, the late Frank Glynn uncovered the figure, whose arms have been identified…

What inspired you to write The Abacus and the Cross? I was introduced to The Scientist Pope through an act of grace. Writing my previous book, The Far Traveler, about an adventurous Viking woman, I found myself making an imaginary pilgrimage to Rome just after the year 1000. Wondering which pope (if any) Gudrid the…

On the reams of choral chants in this Welsh medieval treasure I spotted a scribble of a man with a big nose. Satire hasn’t changed – and neither have we. It looks like something Jake and Dinos Chapman might do if they turned their hand to the creative defacement of illuminated manuscripts: the Viz-style gargoyle…

Royal intrigues are by no means a modern phenomenon – medieval monarchs were just as likely as our own to be involved in conspiracies and cover-ups, according to best-selling author Ian Mortimer. Ian will be giving an open lecture on medieval conspiracies, in particular the impact of an allegation that Edward II was not murdered…

Exhibition at the Getty Center features historical French manuscripts from the Middle Ages. These days, famous lines such as “let them eat cake” have made cultural icons out of historical figures like Marie Antoinette – despite the fact that they are historically false. But even back in the Middle Ages, when common pastimes included troubadours,…

Even more important than an engaging storyline, what every great mystery has possessed is a compelling character at its heart —- and this is obviously even more true for a continuing series. On this score, Jeri Westerson has succeeded perhaps beyond her own expectations. Crispin Guest is certainly the most unusual “detective” in the current…

The Taliban are frequently referred to in the press as “medieval”, Hannam says in this engaging history, but while life in the Middle Ages was often short and violent, it doesn’t deserve to be caricatured as backward or primitive. The denigration of the Middle Ages began in the 16th century, he explains, reaching its apotheosis…

A German researcher has studied medieval criminal law and found that our image of the sadistic treatment of criminals in the Dark Ages is only partly true. Torture and gruesome executions were designed in part to ensure the salvation of the convicted person’s soul. Peter Nirsch would have been seen as a monster at any…