Lincoln Readings of Texts, Materials, and Contexts: Supplementum to Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Sources

<p>The interpretation of historical sources, in whatever form and of whatever date, is at the root of the research not only of historians but also of archaeologists, linguists, and literary scholars, to say nothing of numismatists, onomastic specialists, and countless other disciplines. It is through analysis of sources – what we can, and cannot, learn from them – that we frame our knowledge and understanding of past peoples, cultures, and societies. The articles in <em>Lincoln Readings of Texts, Materials, and Contexts</em>, a special issue of <em>Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Sources</em>, are all driven by a shared engagement with evidence, the building blocks of modern scholarship on the late antique, medieval, and Renaissance world. By returning to and asking basic questions of the sources, the essays presented here offer fresh approaches towards and new perspectives on matters ranging from Christological controversies and local Church councils in Late Antiquity to origin stories for the Greek alphabet and the exercise of power by local and national elites, to the curious phenomenon of trial by ordeal, a rare form of late medieval barn in Lincolnshire, and the wealth of material relating to the voyage of the Mayflower to America held in Lincoln cathedral. Their objective is to inspire and stimulate new debates and discoveries in turn.</p>