The traditional medieval ‘Fifteen Signs Before the Day of Judgement’ have recently become a subject of renewed scholarly interest. Nevertheless, more work has been done on vernacular versions than Latin ones and little attention has been paid to analytical or critical stances taken regarding the ‘Signs’. This article proposes to accomplish this, first by treating approaches taken by two Scholastic authors: Hugo of Novocastro and Guiral Ot. Then it looks at various Scholastic expressions of doubt.

This note provides an edition of the Latin text of a quodlibet by the Parisian master Peter of Auvergne concerning the knowledge of angels about the coming of Antichrist. The introduction to the edition argues that this quodlibet was not made in response to Arnald of Villanova's De tempore adventus Antichristi. Rather, it is best understood as a hypothetical inquiry regarding the ability of angels to communicate revelation to human beings.

The Conscriptio of Alfonso Pecha that treats the origins of the Great Schism of the West has not attracted the attention it deserves. Alfonso Pecha was the confessor and trusted familiar of Cardinal Pedro de Luna at the time of the outbreak of the Schism and was well located to be minutely informed of events surrounding the fateful conclave of April 1378. Hence his detailed narrative, albeit explicitly written to promote the cause of Urban VI, is a very valuable source. Aside from recounting numerous lively conversations and depicting vivid scenes, it contains a report of a hitherto unknown mission in the summer of 1378 to King Charles V of France that probably resulted in emboldening the cardinals to break unanimously with Urban in a new election. Moreover, the Schism narrative constitutes only one of three parts of Alfonso's Conscriptio: the other two seek to prove Urban VI's legitimacy by means of supernatural visions and confirmations from canon law. By the analysis of diverse evidence the conclusion is reached that Alfonso Pecha composed the Conscriptio in Genoa in 1386. The work was published by Franz Bliemetzrieder in 1909 on the basis of a single manuscript located in Basel. The present study with appended edition draws on a second complete manuscript copy located in Prague, particularly important for revealing the identity of the dedicatee, a councilor of Giangaleazzo Visconti. It also draws on a small portion of the text from a manuscript in Uppsala.

Mass casualty triage is the process of prioritizing multiple victims when resources are not sufficient to treat everyone immediately. No national guideline for mass casualty triage exists in the United States. The lack of a national guideline has resulted in variability in triage processes, tags, and nomenclature. This variability has the potential to inject confusion and miscommunication into the disaster incident, particularly when multiple jurisdictions are involved. The Model Uniform Core Criteria for Mass Casualty Triage were developed to be a national guideline for mass casualty triage to ensure interoperability and standardization when responding to a mass casualty incident. The Core Criteria consist of 4 categories: general considerations, global sorting, lifesaving interventions, and individual assessment of triage category. The criteria within each of these categories were developed by a workgroup of experts representing national stakeholder organizations who used the best available science and, when necessary, consensus opinion. This article describes how the Model Uniform Core Criteria for Mass Casualty Triage were developed.

(Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2011;5:129-137)

Mass casualty triage is a critical skill. Although many systems exist to guide providers in making triage decisions, there is little scientific evidence available to demonstrate that any of the available systems have been validated. Furthermore, in the United States there is little consistency from one jurisdiction to the next in the application of mass casualty triage methodology. There are no nationally agreed upon categories or color designations. This review reports on a consensus committee process used to evaluate and compare commonly used triage systems, and to develop a proposed national mass casualty triage guideline. The proposed guideline, entitled SALT (sort, assess, life-saving interventions, treatment and/or transport) triage, was developed based on the best available science and consensus opinion. It incorporates aspects from all of the existing triage systems to create a single overarching guide for unifying the mass casualty triage process across the United States. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2008;2(Suppl 1):S25–S34)

Although the study of high- and late-medieval eschatological prophecy has gained considerable momentum in the last few decades, much ground-level work remains to be done. A case in point is the state of knowledge concerning a prophetic vision attributed to “John, Hermit of the Asturias,” published in 1941 in Alsace by the Franciscan scholar Livarius Oliger. Because no sustained treatment of this thirteenth-century text has appeared since then, Oliger's publication has remained the sole point of reference. But it is inadequate. Oliger was unable to identify the author of the text or to come within decades of a correct dating. He was also unaware of much relevant data. Whereas he knew of only two independent manuscript copies of the vision and a version included in a life of Saint Dominic, I have identified four more manuscript copies, as well as a misplaced one and a substantial passage from the vision in a fourteenth-century treatise. Given that the text is a revealing document concerning the religious history of the second quarter of the thirteenth century, it is time to return to it.