The nobility of Italy (Italian: Nobiltà italiana) comprised individuals and their families of the Italian Peninsula, and the islands linked with it, recognized by the sovereigns of the Italian city-states since the Middle Ages, and by the kings of Italy after the unification of the region into a single state, the Kingdom of Italy.. Nobles had a specific legal status, and held most of the ...

Cassino (Italian pronunciation: [kasˈsiːno]) is a comune in the province of Frosinone, Southern Italy, at the southern end of the region of Lazio, the last city of the Latin Valley.. Cassino is located at the foot of Monte Cairo near the confluence of the Gari and Liri rivers. The city is best known as the site of the Abbey of Montecassino and the Battle of Monte Cassino during World …

The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period.The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were intended to recover Jerusalem and its surrounding area from Islamic rule.Beginning with the First Crusade, which resulted in the …

The Palais des Papes (English: Palace of the Popes; lo Palais dei Papas in Occitan) is a historical palace located in Avignon, Southern France.It is one of the largest and most important medieval Gothic buildings in Europe. Once a fortress and palace, the papal residence was a seat of Western Christianity during the 14th century. Six papal conclaves were held in the Palais, …

The migration period was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes. The term refers to the important role played by the migration, invasion, and settlement of various tribes, notably the Franks, Goths, Alemanni, Alans, Huns, early Slavs, …

It was once believed that the Baptistery was originally a Roman temple dedicated to Mars, the tutelary god of the old Florence. The chronicler Giovanni Villani reported this medieval Florentine legend in his 14th-century Nuova Cronica on the history of Florence. Excavations in the 20th century have shown that there was a 1st-century Roman wall running through the piazza with …

Livorno (Italian: ()) is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017.It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronounced / l ɛ ˈ ɡ ɔːr n / leg-ORN, / ˈ l ɛ ɡ h ɔːr n / LEG-horn or / ˈ l ɛ ɡ ər n / LEG-ərn).. During the Renaissance, Livorno ...

The Humiliation of Canossa (Italian: L'umiliazione di Canossa), sometimes called the Walk to Canossa (German: Gang nach Canossa/Kanossa) or the Road to Canossa, was the ritual submission of the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV to Pope Gregory VII at Canossa Castle in 1077 during the Investiture controversy.It involved the Emperor journeying to Canossa, where the …

East Francia (Medieval Latin: Francia orientalis) or the Kingdom of the East Franks (Regnum Francorum orientalium) was a successor state of Charlemagne's empire ruled by the Carolingian dynasty until 911. It was created through the Treaty of Verdun (843) which divided the former empire into three kingdoms. It is considered the first polity in German history.

The iconography of military saints Theodore, George and Demetrius as horsemen is a direct continuation of the Roman-era "Thracian horseman" type iconography.The iconography of the dragon appears to grow out of the serpent entwining the "tree of life" on one hand, and with the draco standard used by late Roman cavalry on the other. Horsemen spearing serpents and …

The history of banking began with the first prototype banks, that is, the merchants of the world, who gave grain loans to farmers and traders who carried goods between cities. This was around 2000 BCE in Assyria, India and Sumeria.Later, in ancient Greece and during the Roman Empire, lenders based in temples gave loans, while accepting deposits and performing the change of …

In China, Fengdu has a long history in the Taoist tradition of being a portal to hell. In Derweze, Turkmenistan, a burning natural gas fire in the middle of the Karakum Desert is known as the Door to Hell or Darvaza gas crater.; According to Hawaiian folklore, Waipio Valley contains an entrance to the lower world, Lua-o-Milu, which is now concealed with sand.

Roman Italy (called Italia in both the Latin and Italian languages referring to the Italian Peninsula) was the homeland of the Romans and metropole of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in classical antiquity. According to Roman mythology, Italy was the ancestral home promised by Jupiter to Aeneas of Troy and his descendants, who were the founders of Rome. ...

The Cantigas de Santa Maria (Galician: [kanˈtiɣɐz ðɪ ˈsantɐ maˈɾi.ɐ], Portuguese: [kɐ̃ˈtiɣɐʒ ðɨ ˈsɐ̃tɐ mɐˈɾi.ɐ]; "Canticles of Holy Mary") are 420 poems with musical notation, written in the medieval Galician-Portuguese language during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile El Sabio (1221–1284). Traditionally, they are all attributed to Alfonso, though scholars have ...