The Accessible Medievalist

This episode talks about the value of open educational resources (OER), especially for medieval studies, as well as discusses the beginning stages of the creation of an OER Introduction to Medieval Disability. Topics: open access, medieval textbooksBibliography:“Increasing Accessibility and Access to the Medieval through Open Textbooks.” New Chaucer Studies: Pedagogy and Profession. Special issue on “Access.” 6 (2025).Mentioned in Episode:Heritages of Change: Curatorial Activism and First-Year WritingMedieval Disability Sourcebook: Western EuropeMedieval Disability GlossaryMyth-Busting Medieval Disability PosterWhy Do I Have to Take This Course?: A Guide to General EducationCredits: Music - Medieval Theme 01 by Strobotone is licensed under a Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

In this episode, the Accessible Medievalist explores the disability miracles in the Book of the Foundation of St. Bartholomew’s Church, which details the legendary founding of London’s oldest surviving parish church and hospital in 1123CE. Topics: physical disability, mental disability, caretakers, hospitals, literary analysis, hagiography, saintsBibliography:Biomedicalization: Technoscience, Health, and Illness. Eds. Adele E. Clarke, et al. Duke University Press, 2010.Book of the Foundation of St. Bartholomew’s Church. Translated and edited by Humphrey H. King and William Barnard. Rahere’s Garden, 2005. https://www.raheresgarden.org/Book-of-the-Foundation.pdf.Buterin, Toni, Amir Muzur, and Bojan Glažar. “Saints and ‘Possession’: A Case Review Bordering Ethnopsychiatry and Cultural Diversity.” Journal of Religion and Health 60 (2021): 1116–1124.Johnson, Ruth W., Joan S. Tilghman, Lorrie R. Davis-Dick, and Barbara Hamilton-Faison. “A Historical Overview of Spirituality in Nursing.” ABNF Journal 17, no. 2 (2006): 60-62.Parkinson, H. “Patron Saints,” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company, 1911. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11562a.htm.Tracy, Kisha G. “Middle English Saints Healing, Catalyzing, and Experiencing Disability.” Forthcoming in Oxford Handbooks of Disability and Literatures in English. Oxford University Press. Eds. Tory Pearman, Rick Godden, Leah Pope Parker.Tracy, Kisha G. ​​“Speech: Medieval Representations of Speech Impairments.” In Cultural History of Disability in the Middle Ages. Eds. Jonathan Hsy, Joshua Eyler, and Tory Pearman Bloomsbury: 2020. 99-113.Credits: Music - Medieval Theme 01 by Strobotone is licensed under a Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

In this episode, the Accessible Medievalist delves a bit into the history of prosthetics, especially the story of a man from the Longobard area of Veneto, Italy, between the sixth and eighth centuries CE, who had an amputated hand and a knife-hand prosthetic.Bibliography:"A Call to Spy.” Blesma: The Limbless Veterans, May 4, 2021. https://blesma.org/news-media/blesma-news/2021/a-call-to-spy/, accessed February 27, 2026.Ashmore, Kevin, et. al. “ArtiFacts: Gottfried ‘Götz’ von Berlichingen-The ‘Iron Hand; of the Renaissance.” Clin Orthop Relat Res 477, no. 9 (September 2019): 2002-2004.Binder, Michaela et. al. “Prosthetics in antiquity—An early medieval wearer of a foot prosthesis (6th century AD) from Hemmaberg/Austria.” International Journal of Paleopathology 12 (2016): 29-40. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1879981715300231.British Museum. “cartonnage (prosthetic toe).” https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA29996, accessed December 27, 2025.Daley, Jason. "This 3,000-Year-Old Wooden Toe Shows Early Artistry of Prosthetics.” The Smithsonian Magazine, June 21, 2017. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/study-reveals-secrets-ancient-cairo-toe-180963783/, accessed December 25, 2025.Egyptian Museum. “Prosthetic toe of Tabaket en Mut.” https://egypt-museum.com/prosthetic-toe-of-tabaket-en-mut/, accessed December 27, 2025.el Damaty, Sarah, Simon Hazubski, and Andreas Otte. “ArtiFacts: Creating a 3-D CAD Reconstruction of the Historical Roman Capua Leg.” Clinical orthopaedics and related research 479, no. 9 (2021): 1911-1913. https://journals.lww.com/clinorthop/citation/2021/09000/artifacts__creating_a_3_d_cad_reconstruction_of.8.aspx.Li, Xiao, et. al. "Archaeological and palaeopathological study on the third/second century BC grave from Turfan, China: Individual health history and regional implications," Quaternary International 290-291 (2013): 335-343. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1040618212003370.Micarelli, Ileana, et al. “Survival to amputation in pre-antibiotic era: a case study from a Longobard necropolis (6th–8th centuries ad).” Journal of Anthropological Sciences 96 (2018): 1–16.Sajjadi, S.M.S., M. Casanova, L. Costantini, and K.O. Lorentz. “Sistan and Baluchistan Project: Short Reports on the Tenth Campaign of Excavations at Shahr-I Sokhta," Iran: Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies 46, no. 1 (2008): 307–34. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/05786967.2008.11864751?needAccess=true.Credits: Music - Medieval Theme 01 by Strobotone is licensed under a Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International LicenseSound - WinHarpsichord.wav by Fupicat; License: Creative Commons 0Song - James Bond (Original) - Theme Song from the Internet Archive

Ever watch a movie or a TV show supposedly set in the Middle Ages - or inspired by the Middle Ages - and wonder if things were really like that? This episode might help a bit! It is a companion to the Accessible Medievalist’s #MedievalSoMuchMore BINGO Card, a handy guide when checking out any new medieval-esque media. Episode Content Warning: discussions of rape, various forms of prejudice, reference to torture.Want more? Take a look at Why Study the Middle Ages? (ARC Humanities, 2022).Bibliography:Kennedy, Kathleen E. “Everyday Life in Late Medieval England.” Open Access Companion to the Canterbury Tales, 2017. https://opencanterburytales.dsl.lsu.edu/refeverydaylife/, accessed January 27, 2026. The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America. Edited by Brian P. Levack. Oxford, 2013.Sturtevant, Paul B. “Was Sexual Abuse Normal in the Middle Ages?” The Public Medievalist, May 28, 2015. https://publicmedievalist.com/got-rape-and-middle-ages/, accessed February 13, 2026.Tracy, Kisha. Why Study the Middle Ages? ARC Humanities, 2022.Tracy, Larissa, host. “Talking about Medieval Torture.” Medieval Mischief and Mayhem. August 29, 2025. https://youtu.be/ntSlQdb2kIc?si=pkmyaJCJF2EpxS_x, accessed February 13, 2026.Mentioned in Episode: Open Access Companion to the Canterbury TalesMedieval Mischief and Mayhem, Dr. Larissa TracyThe Public MedievalistCredits: Music - Medieval Theme 01 by Strobotone is licensed under a Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International LicenseSound - Back of Hall during Bingo by IESP; License: Attribution 3.0Clip - Monty Python and the Holy Grail from MovieSounds

In this episode, the Accessible Medievalist takes a look at medieval evidence for Down Syndrome as well as issues with diagnosing historical disability and what burial practices can tell us.Check out more on the Accessible Medievalist web site! Bibliography:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Living with Down Syndrome.” November 22, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/birth-defects/living-with-down-syndrome/?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/birthdefects/downsyndrome/data.html, accessed January 3, 2026.Holst, Malin. “Osteological Analysis Coppergate York.” York Archaeological Trust For Excavation & Research. York Osteoarchaeology, 2010. https://research.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/CoppergateOsteologicalAnalysis.pdf.  JORVIK Viking Centre. “The People of JORVIK.” https://www.jorvikvikingcentre.co.uk/the-vikings/the-people-of-jorvik/, accessed January 4, 2026.Martinez-Frias, Maria Luisa. “The real earliest historical evidence of Down syndrome." American Journal of  Medical Genetics 132A, no. 2 (2005): 231.Nolan, Blair, et. al. “Disability and Care in Late Medieval Lund, Sweden: An Analysis of Trauma and Intersecting Identities, Aided by Photogrammetric Digitization and Visualization.” Open Archaeology 11, no. 1 (2025): 1-18.Rivollat, Maïté, et. al. “Ancient Down syndrome: An osteological case from Saint-Jean-des-Vignes, northeastern France, from the 5–6th century.” International Journal of Paleopathology 7 (2014): 8-14.Starbuck, John M. “On the Antiquity of Trisomy 21: Moving Towards a Quantitative Diagnosis of Down Syndrome in Historic Material Culture.” Journal of Contemporary Anthropology 2, no. 1 (2011): 19-44.Mentioned in Episode: Lectures on TapCredits: Music - Medieval Theme 01 by Strobotone is licensed under a Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International LicenseClip - Mulan from MovieSounds

The welcome episode of the Accessible Medievalist! Check out more on the web site! Mentioned in Episode: Dr. Dayanna Knight Credits: Music - Medieval Theme 01 by Strobotone is licensed under a Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International LicenseClip - The Adventures of Robin Hood from MovieSoundClips