Academic literature on the topic 'Mediaeval Reliefs'

The goal of the paper is to define general types and the evolution of horse armor employed by elite warriors of Sasanian Iran, basing on literary sources and iconographical evidence with minor reference to archaeological finds in wider Eurasian perspective. The horse armor was an important part of cavalry equipment already in the chariot warfare however its re-emergence in mounted combat occurred when heavy cavalry was developed. The article divides Sasanian horse armor into several groups: 1. One-piece body protection, which overall cover mounts body the way modern horse blankets do. Within the group one may find following subgroups: 1.a Caparisons – known from numerous works of art (rock reliefs illustrating scenes of mounted combat at Firusbad and Nakš e Rostam as well as the on so-called Shapur cameo currently held in Louvre) having long Near Eastern and Eurasian tradition. 1.b Scale barding – which in fact is a sort of caparison covered with metallic scales sewn onto textile horse blanket, testified by literary sources, known from archaeological evidence from Dura Europos (despite the fact that these examples belonged to Roman cavalry, it is clear that they were fashioned in Iranian manner). Scale bardings of the type are known also from the works of art like graffito from Dura Europos, Trajan’s column, sculpture of Khalchayan and late Parthian Tang e Sarvak frieze. 1.c Chain mail horse armor – lacking strong and direct evidence from Sasanian period, iconography which may depict horses protected with chain-mail is rather crude however despite hypothetical nature, this sort of horse armor is very likely employed in Sasanian warfare. 2. Bardings composed of multiple elements and fragmentary bardings covering a part of the mount. Again these this group can be divided into two sub-groups: 2.a Full lamellar/laminar barding – can be identified on the sculpture of Khalchayan and late Parthian frieze Tang e Sarvak as well as on the seals of Late Sasanian spahbedan. They find numerous Central Asian (Old Turkic) and Far Eastern refernces. 2.b Fragmentary barding, best known from Taq e Bostan sculpture of an equestrian figure but with Central Asian, Chinese and Byzantine references. Following phases of barding development in ancient and early mediaeval Iran can be determined: 1. Late Achaemenid when armored cavalry required some protection for horses after employing shock tactics and subsequent close combat. 2. Mid Parthian, influenced by invasions of the steppe dwellers initiated by Xiong Nu expansion. Developed locally later. 3. Late Sasanian – resulting from contacts with Turkic warriors who transmitted some Eastern military technologies to Iran and through Avar influence to Europe.

The term stećak (pl. stećci) is used in the Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian languages to refer to mediaeval monolithic tombstones from Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well from the nearby territories of Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro. Their number is estimated at between 50,000 and almost 70,000. The earliest preserved stećci come from the 12th century, whereas the latest date to the beginning of the 16th century. Their forms vary, but most often they have the shape of a slab, vertical or horizontal monolith, or stylized cross. Some of them have images – engraved or carved in low relief – representing, e.g., weaponry, people, animals, genre scenes (hunting, fighting, dancing), various symbols and ornaments, and – very seldom – short inscriptions. In the past, they were attributed to the followers of the Bogomil heresy or the stock-breeding Vlachs, they were also regarded as original products of the mediaeval Bosnian population – created independently from external influences and models, as a sign of the revival of the traditional Slavic pagan beliefs dating back to the times of the Indo European community. According to the currently prevalent assumption, stećci – with their forms and symbols – fit the broad trend of European sepulchral art referring to the ethos of chivalry and Christianity, but at the same time they were a means used to manifest the distinctive character of the local elites and groups aspiring to be included in them. The images present on stećci – especially genre scenes and heraldic motifs – are an invaluable source of information about the culture and life of local elites in mediaeval Bosnia.

This article presents the first-time analysis of the stamped ceramic ware (“Stamped Monochrome Green Ware”) from the Golden Horde Period discovered in all the years of archaeological researches of mediaeval Sougdaia. Although there are publications of the pottery kilns where this ware was produced, the collection itself was not introduced into the scholarship before. Nevertheless, this collection is one of the most representative for the Crimean peninsula. In total, there are 84 glazed and non-glazed fragments, including archaeologically complete forms, and 10 qalyp matrices. From the morphological features, there are reasons to establish five main types. Three of them divide into two variants according to the functional purpose. Two types more are so far isolated vessels with no analogies among the materials of Taurica and nearby territories. Each of the selected types contains vessels of two technique groups. Relief designs form seven main elements, combined into seven main ornamental compositions with several variants. According to the archaeological contexts represented mainly by stratigraphic horizons featuring wide chronological framework, the stamped ceramics of Sougdaia dates from the fourteenth to the first half of the fifteenth century. It is not possible to distinguish the complexes from the first quarter of the fourteenth century. The distribution area of stamped ware and, above all, the most representative collections of Solkhat and Azak have been analyzed. The sources from which this ware came to the Crimea have been repeatedly analyzed. Among them could be Khwarazm, which is still disputed by some experts, and the territory of Transcaucasia.

Zeitgeis (jiwa zaman) memberikan pengaruh yang besar terhadap karakteristik hasil karya seni baik berupa lukisan, patung, relief-relief, ilustrasi, tulisan hingga berkembang menjadi iklan. Iklan merupakan salah satu karya seni yang muncul pada abad-17. Pada tahun 1880-an, beberapa produsen atau perusahaan mengadaptasi teknik-teknik yang penampilan iklan pada poster. Berbagai produsen makanan, minuman, obat dan peralatan mandi mulai memperkenalkan produknya melalui iklan poster. Pada tahun 1886 berdirilah The Coca-Cola Company di Amerika. Tahun 1906, William D'Arcy bergabung sebagai Creative Team yang merencanakan konsep iklan Coke dan memiliki pandangan bahwa "iklan Coca-Cola harus membuat adegan yang menarik orang-orang dalam dan membuat mereka bagian dari selingan menyenangkan dari kehidupan sehari-hari". Kajian ini merupakan tinjauan historis pengaruh gaya pada zaman Antiquity, Mediaeval, Renaissance, dan Baroque terhadap perkembangan gaya visual iklan cetak (print ad) Coca-Cola. Zeitgeis memberikan transisi terhadap perkembangan gaya visual iklan cetak Coca-Cola di setiap periode zaman.

Following the general approach to pilgrimage as established by anthropologists and other scientists, the paper analyses the pilgrimage in Nin to Our Lady of Zečevo. More specifically, this pilgrimage will be observed as a maritime pilgrimage, following relevant recent research. Based on the oral story about the apparition of Virgin Mary to a widow, the statue of Mary is transported from Nin in a boat procession via sea to a mediaeval church on the nearby uninhabited island of Zečevo. Pilgrimage practices include many sensorial and symbolic practices, so it will be analysed from several points of view and more than one theoretical approach, including the relational approach and mobility turn, applied also to maritime pilgrimage with a reflection on influence of tourism on pilgrimage activities, especially in the Mediterranean. The paper relies on the field research from 2020–2023 in Nin near Zadar in Croatia which has been supported in part by the Croatian Science Foundation under the project ‘PILGRIMAR’ (UIP-2019-04-8226).

Shalya Tantra, an ancient surgical discipline, encompasses all techniques aimed at removing elements that cause pain or unhappiness in the body or psyche. Shalya tantra therapy was popular in ancient times since it gave quick relief when compared to other methods. Sushruta is credited with upgrading the art of surgery to one of the most prestigious areas of medicine. Shalya Chikitsa was the favoured approach for conditions that required prompt treatment. Sushruta elevated surgery in mediaeval India to a new level, and the period became known as "The Golden Age of Surgery" in ancient India. The Indian Association of Plastic Surgeons salutes this famous Ayurvedic surgeon by honouring him with a prominent position in the association's logo. In this overview, we've tried to highlight some of the Sushruta Samhita's old surgical principles that are being used today with minor changes. Sushruta's original text goes into great length regarding numerous surgical treatments, such as how to deal with various sorts of tumours, bone fractures, internal and external traumas, problems during childbirth, and blockages in intestinal loops, among other things.

<p>Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz (Madrid, 1606-Vigevano, 1682), autor de una gramática filosófica de corte medieval en la que se resucitan muchos de los postulados de la gramática especulativa, Grammatica audax (1654) -hecho que se debe conectar con su posición claramente escolástica en el terreno de la filosofía y de la teología-, ha sido considerado uno de los antecedentes de la Grammaire généle et raisonnée de Port-Royal. Sus aportaciones en el terreno de la gramática general o universal han sido puestas de relieve por varios estudiosos (V. Salmon, H.E. Brekle, G. A. Padley, F. Delgado), cuyos puntos de vista se recogen aquí. Pero el objetivo de estas páginas es analizar su contribución en el campo de la gramática particular, y, en concreto, de la gramática española, y comprobar en qué medida están ahí presentes las pautas de análisis empleadas en su gramática general. Para ello nos basamos en la breve gramática castellana incluida en su tratado de poética Primos Calamos (Roma, 1663), obra en la que se observa una simbiosis de los planteamientos desarrollados por la gramática grecolatina clásica, asimilados por las gramáticas de las lenguas vulgares, y de algunos de los principios de la gramática especulativa medieval, que el autor había aplicado previamente en su gramática filosófica.</p><p>Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz (born Madrid, 1606-died Vigevano, 1682) was the author of a philosophical mediaeval style grammar in which many of the postulares of the speculative grammar Grammatica audax (1654) are resucitated. This must connected with his position in the terrain of philosophy and theology wich was clearly a scolastic one. Indeed, he has been considered as one of the forerunnes of the Grammaire générale et raisonnée of Port-Royal His contributions to the field of general or universal grammar ha ve been put finto relief by various scholars (V. Salmon, H E. Brekle, G. A. Padley, E Delgado) whose points of view are reviewed here. The objetive of what follows is two-fold a) to analyze his contribution to the fíeld of specific grammar, with especial reference to Spanish grammar, and b) to disco ver to what extent the anlytic guidelines employed in his general grammar are present there. We will be dealing with the brief Castillian grammar which is included in his poetic treatise Primos Calamos (Rome, 1663). In this study a symbiosis of the topics developed by classic Greek-latin and later assimilated by the grammars of common or vulgar languages can be observed, together with some of the beginnings of the speculative mediaeval grammar, which the author had applied previously in his philosophic grammar.</p>

The gate church of the Theodorite castle near the village of Funa appeared in 1459 and existed to 1778. Left unattended later on, it became decayed, quickly dilapidated, and finally turning into ruin after the earthquake of 1927. The experts’ conclusions concerning its origin are based mainly on the typical features of the architectonics and carved decoration of the structure, correlated with the traditions of Armenian architecture and Seljuk ornamentation. The most exquisite architectural detail of the building is the large slab with relief ornamentation that overlapped from outside the doorway of the south entrance. Two iconographic sources are published for the first time to supply new information about the slab in question along with the results of a substantive study of a large fragment of the artefact which was found by chance outside the castle short time ago. Almost a half of the composition that adorned the outermost part of the architrave survived. Its completely lost middle part can be reconstructed reliably by the photograph taken by N. N. Klepinin and the drawing by D. M. Strukov. The ornamental motif of the slab is one of the most popular in mediaeval art, being typical of the eastern decorative tradition. It is still not possible to discover the origin and exact date of the architrave which was secondary used in the church of 1459. Stylistically, structurally, and technologically it is comparable with carved architectural details of many main buildings of the capital town of Theodoro, which were erected in the 1420s. Therefore, the slab in question possibly has the same chronology, but still it could be made even earlier.

With the advance of the Ottoman Empire the Archiepiscopate of Esztergom was forced to leave its seat and move to Nagyszombat. The buildings of mediaeval origin on Castle Hill, first housing royalties and later the archbishop, were appropriated by the military forces and suffered considerable damage from sieges and the Ottoman domination. The rule of the Turks ceased in Esztergom in 1683, but the archbishopric did not return before 1820. Nonetheless, the archbishops of the 18th century were also preoccupied with the fate and future of the buildings on Castle Hill.Archbishop Ferenc Barkóczy (1761–1765, fig. 4) commissioned the Vienna-based architect of French origin, Isidore Ganneval (1730–1786) to plan a centre of ecclesiastical management on Castle Hill. Unfortunately, it is hard to glean from the fragmentary archival sources what exactly Ganneval was asked to design. His extant survey drawings are only about the renaissance Bakócz chapel which survived the vicissitudes of the centuries relatively intact. Ganneval’s fairly modest fee and his stay of a few months only permit the assumption that he was contracted only to draw up a sketchy proposal. The wooden model (fig. 5) only known from a photograph and possibly perished by now, which can hardly be fitted among the subsequent plan variants, might as well reflect the ideas inspired by his planning work in Esztergom. The conception documented by the wooden mock-up does not take into account the existing, mostly ramshackle buildings and fortifications. The “Navis Ecclesiae” idea represented by the model shows the cathedral flanked by wings of the archiepiscopal palace, the buildings of the theological college are situated lower, and the main road to Visegrád is lined by the canons’ houses. The sanctuary of the cathedral faces west breaking with the tradition of the eastern apse. The groundplan is a fusion of centralized and longitudinal plans, its basic element is the Bakócz Chapel (fig. 6) the mass of which is reiterated and enlarged in it.This proposal ignored the possibility of preserving the mostly mediaeval buildings and fortifications on Castle Hill. In December 1761, however, Archbishop Barkóczy was compelled to sign the obligation by the War Council to undertake the maintenance of the Castle Hill fortifications and in case of enemy attacks to accommodate imperial troops there. It was only through the intervention of the Queen, Maria Theresa, that Barkóczy could be exempted from this obligation in 1763.The next plan of a church administration centre was elaborated by Franz Anton Hillebrandt (1719–1797) whose first plan series was made during the validity of the military obligation from December 1761 to March 1763. It is quite possible that the style of the architect of the Hungarian royal chamber was closer to the taste of the baroque art patron Barkóczy than that of Canneval twenty years his junior, representing the progressivity of revolutionary architecture. The latter was also commissioned by Anton Christoph Migazzi to design the cathedral of Vác, whose style did not attract followers in Hungary.Apart from the principal plan known in the copy by Anton Hartmann (fig. 7) only four pieces of the first plan series survive, including the first floor plan of the seminary building (fig. 8). This baroque conception keeps the fortified walls and bastions around Castle Hill but demolishes the military buildings on the plateau (barracks, hospital, stalls, etc.). It is like an architectural counter-proposal to Ganneval’s wooden model, taking into greater consideration the relief features than the perfunctory mock-up. Hillebrandt delivered these plans to Archbishop Barkóczy on 10 March 1763 and forwarded the queen’s message at the same time: the financial obligation to maintain the military defences of Castle Hill had been abrogated. It immediately invalidated the plans just presented, and obstacles from the path of planning were removed. That was probably the stimulus behind the free-handed amateur linear drawing of a groundplan made perhaps by the archbishop or his representative for the architect in 1763 (fig. 9) in which the functions of the buildings are defined. In a sense it returns to Ganneval’s model which handled Castle Hill without any restrictions.Only few – a mere six sheets – of Hillebrandt’s plans are known from after the sketch. (A part of the plans were probably taken by architect István Möller to Budapest in the first decades of the 20th century and possibly perished during the siege of the capital in 1945 or during the reconstruction.) Anyway, it must have been on the basis of this second series of plans that the demolition of mediaeval remains, soil levelling and the laying of foundations began in 1763. In 1764, the collapse of an Ottoman minaret built using a mediaeval stair-tower caused the crushing of Porta Speciosa, the main portal of the mediaeval St Adalbert cathedral. Mainly preparatory construction went on until the death of Archbishop Barkóczy in 1765. That interrupted the building of a baroque church administration centre for good.Building commissioner János Máthes (1785–1848) summed up in his work published in 1827 how far the construction had arrived and what was built later. Maria Theresa requested Hillebrandt to plan a church dedicated to King Saint Stephen for the garrison reinstated on Castle Hill, which was constructed in 1767–1770. It was – on a smaller scale – on the site of the planned baroque cathedral, certainly not using its foundation walls. About the situation a layout drawing (fig. 12), groundplan and design plan (fig. 13) are included in Máthes’s book. In addition, a now latent or extinct, mock-up (fig. 14) made by Máthes also reflects the situation on Castle Hill in the last quarter of the 18th century. In the lower part of the model made in the early 1820s groundplans of the buildings on Castle Hill could be seen (fig. 16). One of the specialties of the church was the copy of the Hungarian royal crown placed on the spire as the crowning ornament. On the façade on top of the stairs adjacent to the broad ramp leading to the basilica of today the statues of Saints Stephen and Ladislaus carved by the Pest sculptor József Hebenstreit were erected. Surviving items include side altar pictures painted by Anton Karl Rosier of Pozsony which are today in the Esztergom church of the Sisters of Mercy of Szatmár. The later rebuilt garrison church was pulled down in 1821 to make room for today’s cathedral. One of the first moves of the new construction was the transfer of the Bakócz Chapel to its present place. The cathedral, the construction of which started on plans by Pál Kühnel (1765–1824) and János Packh (1796–1839) fitted into a conception of a church government centre the model for which might have been provided by Ganneval’s plan of nearly sixty years before.

The monuments in the land belonging to the village of Mogila have been visited and published by a number of prominent Bulgarian scientists and specialists. With their research, they predetermine the interest in the cultural and historical heritage of the region and thereby inspire the next generations for deeper and detailed studies of the archaeological sites. Unlike neighboring villages around the Madaro-Mogila plateau, such as the villages of Kalugeritsa (today's district of Kaspichan), Madara and Kyulevcha, no archaeological excavations have been carried out near Mogila so far. On the basis of the results of the field and scientific researches of some specialists that have reached the authors, we will try to present the archaeological monuments known so far, which can also be developed as objects of cultural tourism. There is a late antique and mediaeval fortress, 7 km southeast of the village of Mogila, in the eastern part of the Mogila Plateau, locked between the Provadiyska River (the Venchan/Provadiy Gorge) and its tributary Dalbok dol (Figs. 1, 2a–b). It was built in the Gurebahche kale area. It is situated on an elevation of a rocky promontory with a southerly direction, southwest of which Fulu or Hulu dol descends. The fortress wall blocks the promontory from the north-northwest. It is assumed that it is dual – with protechism. In the western part of the fortress wall is an entrance flanked by two towers for its defense. Inside the fortified area, remains of a large rectangular stone building were found. In the fortification, a two-part bronze seal was found, associated initially with Tsar Mihail Shishman (1323–1330), and later with Mitso (Micho) Asen (1256–1263) and six copper coins of Andronikos II Palaiologus (1282–1295). The ceramics on the surface are from the 3rd–5th and 12th–14th centuries, and the fortress wall is from the 5th–6th centuries. From the north, in front of the fortress wall on the plateau is a mediaeval settlement. On the surface there are stones from destroyed buildings and fragments of ceramic vessels, also from the 12th–14th centuries. There was a monastery on the lower level, on the steep rocks, under the fortress on the hill (Figs. 2a–b, 3, 5a–c). It consists of a church cut into the rock, fifteen cells and three niches – mostly inaccessible. It is known by the name of “Kosovski manastir” (Kosovo Monastery) or “Manastira” (the Monastery). On the southern slopes of the Mogila Plateau, 7.2 km southwest of the village of Mogila, there are rock cells that are also called “Manastira”. A room with two compartments – east and west for cells, has been formed on the rock. Southeast of the monastery, on a rocky massif located on the right bank of Peshterni dol (a tributary of the Kamchia River), there is a group of five cells called “Kosovskite peshteri” (Kosovo Caves), cut at a height of 7–8 m (Figs. 22a–b). Another group of nine cells called “Sodolskite dupki” (Sodola Holes) is located on the rock massif in the upper part of the Sodola Hill, which rises by the right bank of the Provadiyska River (Figs. 23a–b). It represents a gallery of alternating oven-shaped, additionally processed niches of different sizes, oriented to the west and located at a height of 8 to 10 m. On the opposite side, on the left bank of the Provadiyska River, two more groups of cells can be seen on the rock massif Malkoto bulo and on the Malkoto еleme Hill. They are in the land of the village of Nevsha, Varna Region. Probably, all the described cells and niches belong to one monastery complex, the center of which was the Kosovo Monastery, where the main church was. Its existence is dated to the time of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom, and the Kosovo Monastery itself probably to the 17th century. Some of the rock monasteries along the Provadian defile were built as early as the 5th–6th centuries, and others in the 10th–11th centuries. The authors will point out a few more sites about which less is known and which have also not been studied through archaeological excavations. Two km southwest of the village there is a Late Antique fortress, on the very eastern corner of rocky promontory of Gradishte duzu (Fig. 24). Its southwestern side is the most accessible from the plateau and was therefore best fortified. This is probably where the main entrance of the fortification was located. Fragments of ceramics from the 4th–5th centuries were found on the surface. The slope below the hill, between the valley of the Muhlenska River and the rocky valley of the Porach River, is called the town of Strazha. There are settlements from the Late Iron and Late Antique periods – from the 5th century BC to the 5th century AD, which also occupied the southern area of today’s Mogila Village. There are settlements from different eras, 1 km northwest of the village of Mogila, on a natural mound (Muhla tepe) (Figs. 25a–b). It is possible that there was a cult center on the mound or around it. The place was inhabited during the Chalcolithic, Iron, Roman (3rd–4th centuries) and Mediaeval (12th–14th centuries) periods. Many accidental finds are also known from the land belonging to the village of Mogila, which ended up in the collection of the Shumen Regional Museum of History. The accumulation of archaeological material and subsequent publications add to our picture of life in the area in all eras. If analyzed well, they would provide important information about the demographics of the region, the places of habitation, routes of penetration of influences, trade connections, settlement centers and production possibilities. There was probably a jewelry manufacturing center in the area during the Iron Age. Two stamps of precious metal, for printing a relief image on a sheet of metal, a tool (chisel), and the exposed blank for a fibula point us to these assumptions. The insufficient information about the commented objects in the present text can be supplemented by more targeted and regular archaeological field surveys.

All medieval monasteries possessed relics, which were among their greatest spiritual treasures. The relics collected in Cistercian monasteries in Bohemia were quite abundant and included highly prized relics such as the thorn from Christ’s crown of thorns, part of the wood of the cross of Christ, the finger of John the Baptist and many others. The relics were kept in precious reliquaries, which visitors to the monastery were able to see and share in their sanctity under certain circumstances, for example during regular festivals. In the Middle Ages, relics were seen as a source of grace that helped all those who came near them. In addition, another form of forgiveness of sins was associated with them; they were seen as a source of indulgences, which were believed to have the ability to relieve the faithful of the torments of purgatory. Indulgences represented the remission of part of the temporal punishments for sins. They were granted for a certain number of days, e.g. a forty-day indulgence was to be effective to replace an equal number of days of penance. Soon, however, indulgences came to be understood as forgiving part of the stay in purgatory, so that the number of days of indulgence was seen as reducing the stay in purgatory by those days. In addition to pious attendance at church, the condition for the faithful to obtain an indulgence was to assist the monastery. The charters usually speak of a helping hand, but this most often means financial assistance, although there may have been other forms of support. Since indulgences were closely linked to donations, they were also seen as one of the sources of income for the monastery. The relics, festivals, pilgrimages and indulgences formed an interconnected chain, the purpose of which was, on the one hand, to care for the souls of the faithful, and, on the other hand, to benefit the monasteries economically, which benefited greatly from these activities. Every year they brought to the Cistercian abbeys many visitors who wanted to participate in the sanctity of the relics and enjoy the benefits of the indulgences they could obtain thanks to them.

The article provides an evaluation of Aimoin of Fleury as a hagiographer and historian against the background of historiographical production at the monastery of St. Benedict at Fleury, Saint-Benoît- -sur-Loire, in the ninth through eleventh centuries. Not much is known of the life of Aimoin, who must have entered the monastery between 979 and 987, and began books II and III of the Miracula Sancti Benedicti in 1005. He also wrote a Historia Francorum in four books (before 1004), the Vita Abbonis (started at the end of 2004), a history of the abbots of Fleury (now lost), and a few minor texts. On the basis of his works, it is possible to reconstruct how Aimoin used his sources. He made a clear distinction between the distant past and the past which still survived in the living memories of his contemporaries; this borderline seems to have been 987–988. For his Historia Francorum, he relied wholly on written sources, which he quotes and dates as precisely as possible. In the Miracula Sancti Benedicti, he often had to rely on oral testimony. He has no problems with testimony of miracles having occurred in his own days, for which he can find living witnesses whose testimony he can evaluate. For miracles that occurred in earlier times, he has to rely on the memory of his monastic community. Sometimes, a story he describes can be localised at a particular place within his monastery, or at a precise locality, in which case he evaluates the evidence. If relics ought to have been available where a miracle was allegedly performed, Aimoin is clearly distrustful. If he can choose between oral tradition and written documentation, he prefers the latter. We cannot know whether he decided not to include stories of miracles for which he found the evidence wanting; we do know that, to complete his collection, he elevated certain ‘events’ to the level of miracles. Aimoin had high critical standards and doubted anything he had not witnessed; when dealing with the distant past, he always gave a reference wherever possible. He was not afraid to state his ignorance about events for which he had no sources. In Aimoin, we have an example of an early eleventh-century historian who would have earned the esteem of all but the severest of his modern colleagues.