A Crash Course in Network Analysis
These slides were used to introduce key concepts and terminology in network analysis to students in our 2024 digital research lab graduate course.
Atlas of a Medieval Life
The Networks and Itineraries of Roger de Breynton
Atlas of a Medieval Life
The Networks and Itineraries of Roger de Breynton
Networks of Hugh le Shipward
It can be challenging to view Medieval people as complex individuals. Or rather, one can imagine them having inner lives, whether illustrating manuscripts as scribes or making a tool as a blacksmith. But thinking of them as occupying complex positions…
John Lyghtfot: An (Un)usual Bailiff of 14th-Century Hereford?
The above document, numbered 2053, is a summary of one of several thousand of the Hereford Cathedral Muniments (HCM), or documents relating to the operation of the cathedral and city of Hereford. HCM documents are one of the major sources…
Connecting Sybil de Underwode and Richard de Penebrugge
When analyzing one person’s location in a network of great size from the data of the Hereford Cathedral Muniments, it is not uncommon for one node to only reach another through multiple degree levels, leaving them barely connected at all…
Networks of John Iweyn
John Iweyn was a steward, sheriff, and landholder who was active in and around Hereford until his death on May 28, 1321. He stewarded lands in Gower, Wales under William de Breose, the acting lord, and was also deputized by…
Robert de Gloucester, chancellor/historian, fl. c. 1260–c. 1300
In the traditional structure of a secular cathedral church’s chapter, four key dignitaries alongside the canons were the dean, the precentor, the chancellor, and the treasurer, known collectively as the quatuor majores personae, each holding a corner stall in the…
Our Student Collaborator’s Bill of Rights
Our work would not be possible without the involvement of students, both graduate and undergraduate. To help ensure all students who work with us know that we take their contributions seriously and are committed to fair and respectful collaboration, we…
Plotting the Land in Medieval Herefordshire
When I initially introduced myself to this course and its material, I had strong reservations about my place researching the life of a fourteenth century individual. While my academic background is varied and I have taken a few history classes…
Reflections on the Life and Legacy of “Saint” Katherine of Ledbury
What makes a saint? For most of the Catholic church’s early history, the canonization process was ill-defined. In the early church, all saints were martyrs, agreed upon to be in heaven after dying for the faith. However, as the Byzantine…
Inventing Roger de Breynton via Leaflet Storymap
The totality of this semester’s work converged upon the rallying cry: “we have to invent him.” This semester’s work meaning intensive study in digital humanities, medievalism, and biography; him being 14th century Hereford-based ecclesiastical administrator, Roger de Breynton. Roger embodies…
We have to code him: a video game thought experiment
What if we made a video game using the data gathered from the Atlas of a Medieval life project? It’s a simple question, but the answer stretches wide and far and in many directions like a system of a tree’s…
Bishops’ Registers and Biography and DH: Oh my!
Or, The Uses and Limitations of Bishops Registers in Biographical Exploration Using Digital Humanities Methods In Spring 2021, I worked on the Atlas of a Medieval Life project at the University of Texas at Austin. The aim of the project,…