Filter By Series
Europe in the middle ages (Films for Humanities (Firm)) First light: Tuscany and the dawn of the Renaissance Holy wars (New York, N.Y.) Inside the medieval mind London, the making of a city Medieval mind Memoria de España Mystic women of the middle ages Scribes, scholars, and saints The David Macaulay SeriesFilter By Series
Europe in the middle ages (Films for Humanities (Firm)) First light: Tuscany and the dawn of the Renaissance Holy wars (New York, N.Y.) Inside the medieval mind London, the making of a city Medieval mind Memoria de España Mystic women of the middle ages Scribes, scholars, and saints The David Macaulay SeriesSummary: The illuminated psalm book of Sir Geoffrey Luttrell is a priceless treasure, containing beautiful calligraphy and extremely fine illustrations. Packed with scenes from the Bible and from everyday life-plus all manner of creatures, including bizarre monsters called babewyns-the book provides a mysterious glimpse of life during the Middle Ages. Section one of this charming program discusses how...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Until 1348, people in Sienna and Florence enjoyed the richest, safest, and most comfortable lives in their history. But almost overnight, their certainty of life-and even any hope of a good death-was gone. This program assesses the aftermath of the ferocious damage unleashed by the bubonic plague on the two city-states. Historians Alexander Nagel and Nicholas Terpstra, from the University of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: St. Francis of Assisi revolutionized Christianity in 13th-century Tuscany with his down-to-earth belief that poverty, chastity, and obedience should shape an individual's relationship with God. By going back to Christ's original message, he played a pivotal role in the genesis of the Renaissance. This poignant program investigates how St. Francis's infusion of emotion and nature into the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Iberia, Hispania, Al-Andalus-successive names for a crucible of ancient cultures, world powers, and major religions. This program explores World Heritage sites corresponding to Spain's deep-rooted Roman and Islamic influences. With stunning visuals of the aqueduct at Segovia, the Mesquita Mosque in Cordova, Granada's Alhambra Palace, and other magnificent locations, the program vividly...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Although rooted in religious misogyny and crude anatomical knowledge, the sexual mores of the medieval era were surprisingly complex. This program explores the attitudes and behaviors of a sexual culture that was by turns romantic, transactional, and perverse. Documents and historical accounts include the story of Christina of Markyate, who defied marital conventions and maintained a lifelong...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Writing in the late 1200s, the Spanish nobleman Ramon Lull listed various duties which no knight could ignore. They included fidelity to the monarch, defense of the Christian faith-and, only slightly lower on the list, maintaining order among the tenants on one's estate. This program examines the means by which such political "ideals" were implemented and enforced during the Middle Ages....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: October 14, 1066, was a day that saw the history of England and Europe change forever. This program describes the Battle of Hastings in its entirety: the position of Harold II's Anglo-Saxon army near a village that today is simply called "Battle," William of Normandy's surprise attack from Telham Hill, the cavalry charges and hand-to-hand fighting that steadily weakened Harold's troops, and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: The origins of the Book of Kells are uncertain; it was written and illustrated around the year 800, but the monastery where it originated has not been identified. It contains the Latin text of the four Gospels, with some pages in elaborate color; almost every page has brightly-colored birds and animals, and there are portraits of the four evangelists. This program not only shows but identifies...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program covers the founding of Constantinople as a second Rome, its flowering when the Roman Empire in the West was shattered, its gradual decline under the impact of Normans, Turks, Venetians, and the Crusades, and finally, its fall in 1453. The program describes the history, art, and religious significance of Byzantium, its attempts to restore the Roman Empire, its influence in the West,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The most celebrated work of Dante Alighieri is certainly the Divina Commedia-a vision of hell, purgatory, and heaven that provides a strangely surrealistic view of medieval attitudes on religious dogma and the price of disobedience. In this program, dramatizations of scenes depicting courtly love, sexual love, love of God, and love of the Virgin Mary are featured.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program delves into a period of violence and catastrophe in Spanish history as civil war and ongoing campaigns against the Moors, on the one hand, and the Black Death and economic and agricultural crises, on the other, ravaged the Iberian Peninsula. Dramatizations and maps, architecture and art, bring to life a narrative that spotlights pivotal events such as the Battle of Rio Salado and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program covers the social and economic organization of Europe in the Middle Ages: life in a medieval farming hamlet; the role of the feudal lord, whose role was to defend its inhabitants in return for a share of the produce and other tribute; the role of tenant farmers, indentured servants, and serfs; the economy of the peasant community and the landed estate; construction and organization...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program examines the forces behind European determination to capture Palestine, linking the belligerence of medieval Crusaders with their piousness. Drs. Klaus Herbers of Friedrich Alexander University and Patrick Franke of Martin Luther University draw surprising parallels between East and West, focusing on martyrdom as a vital component of the Crusader's motivation, interreligious...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program focuses on the rise of the Moorish civilization on the Iberian Peninsula. Spotlights on Moorish poetry, music, science, medicine, engineering, commerce, and agriculture during that time underscore Islam's lasting influence on the region.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: From within her own brief life to the present day, Joan of Arc's mystique has been appropriated by many groups and causes. This program, filmed in Orleans and Joan's native village of Domremy, allows her to speak for herself through voice-over readings of her letters and her responses before the Inquisition, as well as testimony from the minutes of her rehabilitation trial. Leading scholars...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program surveys the courtly culture of armored knights, their duties and privileges, and their significance in the religious and political conflicts of the Middle Ages. Presided over by royalty, knights formed an elite caste with a code of honor steeped in the arts of hand-to-hand combat and chivalry. Knights and Nobles examines their everyday customs, coats of arms, weaponry, and-with the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: As women mystics became more common throughout Europe in the late 14th and 15th centuries, the manner in which they expressed and practiced their devotion became more diverse. In this program, Kathy Garay, of McMaster University, presents Margery Kempe's unconventional life in context. Topics such as bridal mysticism are discussed, along with Kempe's pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The transcription...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In Roman times, London's population numbered 50,000; by the year 1000, the number was down to 20,000. St. Paul had become the city's patron saint, and the language of the Angles and Saxons had become the Vulgate, the language in which William issued the first charter of the city. The signs of the times point backwards-sheriffs replaced consuls-and forwards, with separate law courts for separate...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program employs dramatizations, maps, art, and architecture to follow the ongoing struggles between Christians and Moors-and among the Christians themselves-during the years 1213 through 1347 as the Christian reconquista changed into a Crusade. It also contrasts these clashes of arms with the cultural revival among Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Iberian melting pot.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Inspired by Saint Francis, Clare of Assisi abandoned a comfortable and privileged life to establish her own order; founded on vows of poverty, self-denial, and working for the poor, it flourishes to this day. This program provides a biography of Clare's life along with an in-depth analysis by McMaster University's Kathy Garay of Clare's relationship to the Church and to her peer St. Francis. A...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The 11th century saw calamities, famine, and war. The literate clergy interpreted these events as confirmation of the predictions in St. John's Book of Revelation. This program depicts this tumultuous time by dramatizing the life of Ademar de Chabannes, a monk who wrote a remarkable chronicle of the early years of the millennium. Through his eyes the whole range of 11th-century life can be...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In seeking to unite Spain under Catholicism, Queen Isabella expelled the Muslims from the country-and during that period, many Moorish buildings were destroyed. But the Queen spared the Alhambra because of its magnificent beauty. Using two contrasting castles-the gothic Segovia Palace, where she resided, and the Islamic-style Alhambra Palace-as the settings, this program paints a fascinating...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program illustrates life from the perspective of the medieval merchant: urban, financially sophisticated, and revolving around trade and travel. Demonstrating how the growth of European cities prefaced the end of feudal society and the founding of major universities-while unfortunately enabling the spread of the Black Plague-the program reveals surprising facts regarding city planning,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006