San Antonio College Library

Dr Janina Ramirez unlocks the secrets of medieval illuminated manuscripts and shows how they gave power to the king and united the kingdom in an age of plague, warfare and rebellion. She discovers that Edward III used the manuscripts he read as a boy to prepare him for his great victory at the battle of Crecy and reveals how a vigorous new national identity bloomed during the 100 Years War with France (1340-1453). In the British Library's Royal Manuscripts...

Dr. Janina Ramirez unlocks the secrets of medieval illuminated manuscripts and shows how they gave power to the king and united the kingdom in an age of plague, warfare, and rebellion. She discovers that Edward III used the manuscripts he read as a boy to prepare for his great victory at the battle of Crecy and reveals how a vigorous new national identity bloomed during the 100 Years War with France. In the British Library's Royal Manuscripts collection...

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 seen, with all its hysteria, religious zeal, and visions of...

Dr. Janina Ramirez unlocks the secrets of illuminated manuscripts that were custom-made for kings and explores the medieval world they reveal. She begins her journey with the first Anglo-Saxon rulers to create a united England, she views the Liber Regalis at West Minster Abbey, encounters books in the British Library's Royal manuscripts collection which are over a thousand years old, and examines a royal family tree which is five meters long.

Using large-scale reenactments of 15th-century warfare, detailed maps, graphics, and expert commentary by Dr. David Chandler, military historian and former Head of War Studies at Sandhurst, this informative program explores the roots and the results of the brutal and exhausting civil war between the houses of York and Lancaster. From St. Albans to Bosworth Field, the program provides a penetrating examination of a complicated yet compelling period...

During the Middle Ages, Cluny Abbey dominated western Europe with a power that rivaled the papacy itself. The abbots of Cluny-men of great sanctity and commanding ability-centralized the Benedictine Order into a system in which they directly controlled all of the hundreds of other monasteries. Under their guidance, thousands of monastics joined together in studies and activities that greatly enriched medieval life. As an outgrowth of their efforts,...

This program provides an introduction to medieval Europe by showing surviving traces to provide a feel of medieval style and practice and by tracing the roots of the fall of civilization and the onset of darkness. Much that is medieval survives, sometimes in unlikely places: in a feudal community in sub-Saharan Africa, where an absolute ruler holds court surrounded by ministers, courtiers, and hangers-on, with paladins in mail and mercenaries who,...

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 death of King Harold himself-shot through the eye with...

After hundreds of years of ideological discord, one form of early Christianity, Roman Catholicism, defined itself as the only true version and began to eliminate all other versions. Using history as an analytical lens, this program looks at Christian heresy in the form of the Cathars, on the one hand, and the Apostolics, on the other-examples of two different types of alternative Christianity that were squelched in a similar way. Brutal military expeditions...

A 13th-century French mystic, Douceline de Digne established the first community for laywomen devoted to caring for the sick and the poor. This program presents an in-depth biography of an early mystic who embraced an ascetic life and who was emulated by many, both rich and poor, male and female. Commentary from Kathy Garay, of McMaster University, offers insight into medieval culture and Douceline's role as a lay icon.