Browse Items (167 total)

This manuscript image depicts Arthur’s coronation, a scene which occurs at the end of The Sword in the Stone. This image shows the barons crowning Arthur and Merlin is nowhere in sight, whereas in The Sword in the Stone Merlin is the one that crowns…

In this late fifteenth-century German ink drawing, King Arthur is shown next to Charlemagne, the famous Carolingian emperor, and Godfrey of Bouillon, one of the most prominent knights of the First Crusade. The arrangement of this image is to show…

In this page taken from the Abbey Bible, Franciscan and Dominican friars are singing at lecterns. Throughout various scenes in The Name of the Rose, the Franciscan friar, William of Baskerville is depicted singing along with other friars and monks…

Founded in the thirteenth century by Francis of Assisi, one of the ways in which the Franciscan Order differentiated itself from other Catholic orders was by proclaiming a life of corporate (or absolute) poverty. In Pope John XXII’s Cum inter…

This piece, made from steel, brass, textile and leather, is traditionally what a knight’s horse wore during the joust.  It was important for the horse to be protected. Horses were expensive, for one; in the film A Knight’s Tale (2001), in the joust,…

This walrus ivory chess-piece from twelfth-century Lewis Chessmen is one of 93, discovered in a sand dune on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland. The pieces and their garments are representative of the rigid social hierarchy of the time. The chess-pieces…

This image is taken from the 1511 Westminster Tournament Roll and depicts Henry VIII with Queen Katherine of Aragon watching the joust. It is 26 vellum membranes sewn together, and measures almost 60 feet long.  While 1511 is later than A Knight’s…

In this excerpt from Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, written in the late second century AD, not only can we get inside the head of a pivotal character in Gladiator, but we can also draw out certain themes seen in the film and how Marcus Aurelius’…

This picture of a Roman coin minted during Lucilla’s lifetime bears her image on one side and the goddess Venus on the other. Notably, the goddess Venus represented love, beauty, desire, sex, and fertility, which are traits that were consistent with…

The Roman Coliseum is the central place of action in Gladiator. It is, of course, where countless actual gladiators fought and died, and it is where the movie’s Maximus fought and died. It is a testament to the filmmakers’ attention to detail that…