My best friend is LARPing a nun from 1290. She's a museum curator so I know that she's researched it to the nines. For Christmas, I'd like to make her a period-accurate item to use. What kinds of items might a nun use from that time period?

When I was eight I remember looking at pictures of stereotypical ancient Greeks in a children's text book. The teacher told us that it was no coincidence if we thought they resembled Romans (who we'd "leaned" about some months before) because the Romans copied there entire culture from the Greeks

What were the major states and how close were they to their Hapsburg rulers? I have also heard that many of the German states under the Empire were independent in all but name. How true is this?

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In movies and tv-series it often seems to be a gay prince whom is heir to the throne (Braveheart, GoT, etc.) But are there any real instances of this happening, and if so was it common or is it just hollywood being hollywood?

Okay, so I've always heard that they thought that when you sneezed it was demons trying to possess you. So how big of a deal was it when the pope sneezed? Was there mass hysteria or did he try and hide it? I can't get this stupid question out of my head and Google doesn't have the answer.

What are some other possible factors? I'm just curious as to how the Enlightenment originated and some backstory on it.

So near the end of courts decree Taney writes

"The counsel of the plaintiff has laid much stress upon that article in the constitution which confers on congress the power 'to dispose of an make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States,' but, in the judgment of the court, that provision has no bearing on the present controversy, and the power there given, whatever it may be, is confined, and was intended to be confined, to the territory which at the time belonged to, or was claimed by, the United States, and was within their boundaries as settled by the treaty with Great Britain, and can have no influence upon a territory afterwards acquired from a foreign Government. It was a special provision for a known and particular territory, and to meet a present emergency, and nothing more."

My question is this. Doesn't that make federal law non-holding upon new territories or states? I might not be reading or understanding it right but that makes it seem that the court is lessening the power of congress to make laws for new territories or states. Making them semi-autonomous from the Union.

I don't think I am understanding it correctly but I can't figure out why the court would seem to lessen the ability of the Federal Government to establish law in new states.

Why are Gypsies called Roma?

Hey all, since I'm away from a library which I have time and access to, and the only sources I routinely carry with me when I go adventuring (as I am now) are sagas, I don't really have any resources to research this. What I'm wondering is when native (that is, non-mercenary) cavalry became a frequent element of Scandinavian armies in the 12th-14th centuries. I'm familiar with German mercenaries appearing in some Danish forces in the mid-12th century, but nothing before then or further north until the Kalmar Union got rolling in the 15th century.

Full disclosure, this is going to help germinate an article on Scandinavian concepts of knighthood and whether or not it was initially linked to being a cavalry soldier, like on the Continent, or simply a concept inherited wholesale from the Anglo-French-German kingdoms.

Thanks!

It is definitely more than just one thing, but I want to the factors which played a part in this transformation from the once beautiful religion to what it is today.

Not just the tribes in the USA. Im talking about the Aztec, Inca, the Native tribes, everyone etc in 1491-1492 North and South America?

I'm researching about the proliferation and devaluation of titles, which I call "title drift," throughout history. I'm mostly focusing on corporate title drift, such as the rapid diffusion of the title Chief Executive Officer among American corporations during the 1960s and 1970s, superseding other titles such as President.

However, I would like to learn more about historical title drift, such as nobility and court titles. For instance, I have read about how the title sebastos (σεβαστός) was sometimes used by the Emperor himself, but by the 12th century, it was increasing awarded to lesser persons to the point there was a hyperinflation of the title with prefixes being added on to increase value.

I'm sure monarchs and nobility saw and understood this process; besides pride and power, what were the pressures to continue it? Were there any pressures to stop or reverse it?

Edit: Also, any good sources on this subject or generally about titles, nobility or otherwise, would be very helpful. The area of my research is about job titles in the workplace, but anything about titles gives me some good perspective.

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I'm probably understanding the story of the Maccabean revolt incorrectly, but it seems like it was very specific to the Seleucid empire's socio-political situation, yet its effects somehow reached Ptolemaic Egypt? How did this happen? And if I understand this subject incorrectly, how so?

Hi,

I'm a student working in continental philosophy and religion. I've recently gotten really interested in the relationship between religious and economic discourses around debt, and I've been thinking that, historically speaking, the question of usury seems like a particularly fruitful place to explore. The account of this period that I'm most familiar with is Jacques Le Goff's (via Your Money or Your Life, and Money and the Middle Ages). His account has been really helpful to me in thinking through these issues, but I want to get a broader sense for the literature on usury prohibitions in the period. I've noticed just in my own preliminary research that there aren't a whole lot of treatments that focus specifically on issues and contests around the usury prohibition, but that it features prominently (often given its own chapter) in most economically-inclined histories of the period. Which accounts of medieval economic history that deal with usury have been the most influential? Which ones would, say, a bibliography on the subject look incomplete without mentioning?

In popular history I mostly hear about obsidian used by the maya to create weapons for elite warriors, but obsidian seems like it would be extremely useful for many practical applications in an agrarian society like that of the maya. So would a farmer or other commoner have access to obsidian? And if so what might they use it for? How do we know?