Medieval Thrones

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02-03-2007, 04:12 PM
O'nus

Hello,

Through my studies, it would appear that I may also attain a minor in medieval or classics history. At this time in my medieval course I am doing a project on medieval thrones.

However, I am having tremendous difficulty finding anything about any of them!

I have tried for the life of me to search out Socttish or English thrones. I have spoken with my teacher who has given me very vague advice, (ie. "Have you gone to the library..? Oh.. hm.") and searched through a plethora of sources.

For those of you who are interested in medieval studies, or for those of you who want to laugh at the bases I have searched here they are:

The Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies (the ORB) - http://www.the-orb.net/
Internet Medieval Sourcebook - http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html
Fordham University - http://www.fordham.edu/index.asp
Netserf, internet connection for medieval sources - http://www.netserf.org/
Google, Yahoo, Alatvista, Hottopic, dictionary.com, etc.

Anyone have any advice..? The best line I have been chasing is "sedes" which is Latin for seat or chair and was commonly used for a bishop's throne or office (the "See" of Rome, for example, comes from "sedes Romana"). "Cathedra" is another Latin term, again used for a bishop's chair. The bishop's church is therefore a "cathedral" church.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. (And no, wikipedia is evil in this university.. very very evil)

~
02-04-2007, 01:51 AM
The Blue Meanie

Well, I'm a 3rd year history student, medieval history included in that, and I'd be a damned poor one if I couldn''t help. Just to clarify: You're doing an assignment on the "thrones" as actual physical objects, right? Like, the throne someone sits on, rather than the apstract political concept of "The Throne"?

Firstly: Yes, Wikipedia is bad bad bad. Use it for very vague background indications and pointers only, and never ever cite it. But if you're doing a history paper, you should be relying on books from your library as the backbone - there's no way around that. If you're using the internet as your main source medium, well... urgh.

You will want to add "scone", "stone of scone", "stone of destiny", and "coronation stone" to your search terms. They refer to the "stone" that scottish kings ewere coronated on, and which formed part of the scottish throne.

You will also want to use JSTOR (www.jstor.org), an online multidisciplinary collection of fulltext scholarly journals, many of which are historical in focus. You SHOULD be able to get access through your uni - most good universities subscribe to JSTOR to provide their students access. In fact, your university SHOULD have an online index of journal and bibliographical databases it subscribes to that you can get access to. But the main thing is, learn to use your university's online library search feature. Go to the advanced search page, if it has one, learn to use booleans.
02-05-2007, 02:58 PM
O'nus

Quote:

Originally Posted by The

Well, I'm a 3rd year history student, medieval history included in that, and I'd be a damned poor one if I couldn''t help. Just to clarify: You're doing an assignment on the "thrones" as actual physical objects, right? Like, the throne someone sits on, rather than the apstract political concept of "The Throne"?

Firstly: Yes, Wikipedia is bad bad bad. Use it for very vague background indications and pointers only, and never ever cite it. But if you're doing a history paper, you should be relying on books from your library as the backbone - there's no way around that. If you're using the internet as your main source medium, well... urgh.

You will want to add "scone", "stone of scone", "stone of destiny", and "coronation stone" to your search terms. They refer to the "stone" that scottish kings ewere coronated on, and which formed part of the scottish throne.

You will also want to use JSTOR (www.jstor.org), an online multidisciplinary collection of fulltext scholarly journals, many of which are historical in focus. You SHOULD be able to get access through your uni - most good universities subscribe to JSTOR to provide their students access. In fact, your university SHOULD have an online index of journal and bibliographical databases it subscribes to that you can get access to. But the main thing is, learn to use your university's online library search feature. Go to the advanced search page, if it has one, learn to use booleans.
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Yes, that is exactly what my professor just recently told me (about the stone of scone). Thanks for bringing it up - I have never heard of it before this project.

And yes, I am doing the project entirely upon the actual chairs/cathedra/thrones. This is why I wanted to avoid books first because computers will offer more visuals and better use of them.

Looks like the Coronation Chair is my best bet - there are not many medieval Scottish thrones out there it seems. I can tell that there is a whole whack of history involved here.

Thanks for the help.

~