History Compass
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This journal publishes literature reviews exclusively. Literature reviews are a particularly useful kind of journal article when doing research. They address the issues involved in a particular question and the debates among scholars. They map out the intellectual terrain succinctly and give you the major landmarks in terms of key authors and significant titles for greater understanding.
Recent examples:
Hilary M. Carey
"Astrology in the Middle Ages"
August 2010
Abstract: The article reviews the history of astrology in the middle ages including its classical inheritance, ascendancy under Byzantium and Islam, and development in the Latin west. Mediaeval astrology was a part of learned, scientific culture. However, the translation movement in the high middle ages brought challenges of integration to the Latin west, reflected in condemnations and anxieties about the orthodoxy and morality of astrological judgements. It was not until relatively late that astrology was practised on a large scale in mediaeval courts and it never achieved the same level of prominence as it did under Islam. The final section considers new work on the history of astrology, including astrology and medicine and astrology and the court. The article considers major figures, including Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy), Isidore of Seville (c. 600 ad), Māshā’allāh (Messahallah) (c. 735–815), Abū Ma’shar (Albumasar), Ahmad ibn Yūsuf (870–904), John of Seville (fl. 1135–1153), Alfonso X (El Sabio) of Castile (1221–1284), Albertus Magnus (1206–1280), and the fifteenth-century astrologer historian, Simon de Phares. It is argued that astrology was an integral part of the mediaeval world view and it is impossible to understand mediaeval culture without taking it into account.
Monica H. Green
"Integrative Medicine: Incorporating Medicine and Health into the Canon of Medieval European History"
Abstract: Hitherto peripheral (if not outright ignored) in general medieval historiography, medieval medical history is now a vibrant subdiscipline, one that is rightly attracting more and more attention from ‘mainstream’ historians and other students of cultural history. It does, however, have its particular characteristics, and understanding its source materials, methods, and analytical limitations may help those not trained in the field better navigate, explore and potentially contribute to its possibilities for illuminating the intersections of medicine and health with other aspects of medieval culture. Although this article focuses primarily on western Europe, many of its observations are also relevant to the Islamic world and Byzantium precisely because all three cultures shared many of the same intellectual traditions and social structures. The attached bibliography serves as a general introduction to the current state of the field.
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