Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the medieval scholar Gerald of Wales. Born around the middle of the twelfth century, Gerald was a cleric and courtier. For much of his life he was close to Henry II and the Church hierarchy, and wrote accounts of official journeys he made around Wales and Ireland in their service. Both Anglo-Norman and Welsh by parentage, he had a unique perspective on the political strife of his age. Gerald's Journey Around Wales and Description of Ireland are among the most colourful and informative chronicles of the Middle Ages, and had a powerful influence on later historians.With:Henrietta Leyser
Emeritus Fellow of St Peter's College, University of OxfordMichelle Brown
Professor Emerita of Medieval Manuscript Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of LondonHuw Pryce
Professor of Welsh History at Bangor UniversityProducer: Thomas Morris.
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In Our Time With Melvyn Bragg Folgen
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of ideas - including topics drawn from philosophy, science, history, religion and culture.
Folgen von In Our Time With Melvyn Bragg
1098 Folgen
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Folge vom 04.10.2012Gerald of Wales
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Folge vom 27.09.2012The Ontological ArgumentMelvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Ontological Argument. In the eleventh century St Anselm of Canterbury proposed that it was possible to prove the existence of God using reason alone. His argument was ridiculed by some of his contemporaries, but was analysed and improved by later thinkers including Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz. Other philosophers have been less kind, with the Enlightenment thinker David Hume offering one possible refutation. But the debate continued, fuelled by interventions from such heavyweights as Immanuel Kant and Kurt Gödel; and it remains one of the most discussed problems in philosophy.With:John Haldane Professor of Philosophy at the University of St AndrewsPeter Millican Professor of Philosophy at the University of OxfordClare Carlisle Lecturer in Philosophy of Religion at King's College LondonProducer: Thomas Morris.
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Folge vom 20.09.2012The DruidsMelvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Druids, the priests of ancient Europe. Active in Ireland, Britain and Gaul, the Druids were first written about by Roman authors including Julius Caesar and Pliny, who described them as wearing white robes and cutting mistletoe with golden sickles. They were suspected of leading resistance to the Romans, a fact which eventually led to their eradication from ancient Britain. In the early modern era, however, interest in the Druids revived, and later writers reinvented and romanticised their activities. Little is known for certain about their rituals and beliefs, but modern archaeological discoveries have shed new light on them.With:Barry Cunliffe Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the University of OxfordMiranda Aldhouse-Green Professor of Archaeology at Cardiff UniversityJustin Champion Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway, University of LondonProducer: Thomas Morris.
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Folge vom 13.09.2012The CellMelvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the cell, the fundamental building block of life. First observed by Robert Hooke in 1665, cells occur in nature in a bewildering variety of forms. Every organism alive today consists of one or more cells: a single human body contains up to a hundred trillion of them. The first life on Earth was a single-celled organism which is thought to have appeared around three and a half billion years ago. That simple cell resembled today's bacteria. But eventually these microscopic entities evolved into something far more complex, and single-celled life gave rise to much larger, complex multicellular organisms. But how did the first cell appear, and how did that prototype evolve into the sophisticated, highly specialised cells of the human body?With:Steve Jones Professor of Genetics at University College LondonNick Lane Senior Lecturer in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College LondonCathie Martin Group Leader at the John Innes Centre and Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of East AngliaProducer: Thomas Morris.