The first Jewish medical graduates at the University of Padua qualified in the fifteenth century. Indeed, Padua was the only medical school in Europe for most of the medieval period where Jewish students could study freely. Though Jewish students came to Padua from many parts of Europe the main geographical sources of its Jewish students were the Venetian lands. However, the virtual Padua monop...

introducing three principal methods of determining the solar orbital eccentricity in the ancient and medieval astronomy (i.e., the method of seasons, of mid-signs, of three–points), the accuracy of the results obtained from each is being investigated. in doing so, two main goals have been targeted: (1) to determine the accuracy and the intrinsic limitation of each method with regard to their st...

This article places Nichiren within the context of three larger scholarly issues: de3nitions of the new Buddhist movements of the Kamakura period; the reception of the Tendai discourse of original enlightenment (hongaku) among the new Buddhist movements; and new attempts, emerging in the medieval period, to locate “Japan” in the cosmos and in history. It shows how Nichiren has been represented ...

BACKGROUND Ancient DNA analysis offers a way to detect changes in populations over time. To date, most studies of ancient cattle have focused on their domestication in prehistory, while only a limited number of studies have analysed later periods. Conversely, the genetic structure of modern cattle populations is well known given the undertaking of several molecular and population genetic studie...

This essay examines the similarities and differences between legal andother precepts outlining corporal punishment in ancient and medieval Indianand early medieval European laws. Responding to Susan Reynolds’s call for suchcomparisons, it begins by outlining the challenges in doing so. Primarily, the frag­mented political landscape of both regions, where multiple rulers and sphe...

Kingship in early medieval Kāmarūpa (Assam) was influenced by the collision of orthodox and heterodox Brahmanic traditions with various tribal cultures. Since the last part of the Śālastambha period (seventh–tenth century) the royal tutelary deity of Kāmarūpa was the menstruating Kāmākhyā, an ancient kirāta goddess. According to the Puranic tradition, the cult of Kāmākhyā was absorbed within Hi...

Thirty-one medieval skulls, mostly dating from the Black Death in 1348, were compared with 32 modern, untreated adults. The medieval population was unusual because the skulls could be so closely dated. Lateral skull radiographs were used for the comparison, based on the method of Seddon (1984). A method error study indicated that the measurements could be treated with reasonable confidence, alt...