Meanwhile, inside the Cloisters' stone walls, conservators and curators continue to immerse themselves, and their visitors, in the world of the Middle Ages, even as they contemplate apps and the contemporary-art set.
Hans Kueng, a distinguished Catholic theologian and former close friend of the Pope, has accused Benedict and his peers of spiritually still living in the Middle Ages, while Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, an Italian biblical scholar who died recently, wrote on his deathbed that the Catholic Church still needed radical reform and was "200 years behind the times".
They are essential for the study of medieval attitudes towards piety, and the spiritual needs and wellbeing of an urban population in the middle ages.
One should not downplay the importance of literacy, too, as the printing press and the ability to mass-produce cheap paper ignited an explosion in publishing throughout Europe in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
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The role was created in the middle ages and then, as now, reports directly to the Commons Speaker.
The tradition dates back as far as Egyptian times, where relief paintings on tomb walls depict the activity as far back as 2300 BC, and continued throughout the Middle Ages, primarily in France, where tournaments were staged for kings and queens and at local festivals.
The ancient Egyptians ate goose, and it has been popular in Europe since the Middle Ages.
The Tanzverbot was first established by the church and was later adopted by many city governments starting in the Middle Ages, said Wolfgang Kaschuba, director of the Institute for European Ethnology at Humboldt University in Berlin.
It survived the fall of Rome remarkably well and continued with some small changes in vocabulary into the Middle Ages.
Robert Irwin, from the School of Oriental and African Studies, says the stories were written to entertain in normal, conversational Arabic of the late Middle Ages - and were aimed at the tradesmen and the lower-middle classes.
The excavations have found that after the Romans left it was occupied in the Middle Ages, then by the Tudors and it was the home of the Governor of Alderney.
When it comes to teaching, the productivity of a professor in the Middle Ages and that of a professor today are not very different.
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While it can be a difficult role to fulfil today, in years gone by it was downright dangerous - five Speakers were beheaded by order of the King in the Middle Ages and Tudor period.
The tradition of gingerbread making appeared in certain European monasteries during the Middle Ages and came to Croatia where it became a craft.
The old bazaars in Kandahar are like a scene from the Middle Ages with men and young boys running tiny shops or working as jewellers or tinsmiths.
Take Prato, a beautiful town in Tuscany that grew rich on foreign trade in textiles during the Middle Ages and has the churches and paintings to show for it.
There have been several books published recently touting the historical contributions of Islamic scholars to the early history of science (in the Middle Ages), but fewer assessing the relationship between Muslim tradition and the challenges that modern science presents to it today.
It is reputed to be haunted by more than 20 ghosts - including a choir of nuns and Sir Roderick of Portchester who was murdered outside the manor in the Middle Ages.
"This unique instance of a hospital and its records surviving from the Middle Ages is exceptionally rare in this country, " said Derrick Murphy, Leader of Norfolk County Council and Chairman of the Norfolk Records Committee.
Paradigm shifts like the rise of the corporation in the late Middle Ages, paper money, free labor and central banking, among many others, all came about as a response to particular political, social and technological pressures, needs, and problems.
Europeans in the Middle Ages also developed a taste for trade with China and the Indies.
Arguments about the connections between creativity and culture on the one hand and political unity and fragmentation on the other are reassuringly abstract particularly when safely placed in the Middle Ages.
Gothic architecture added narrative in colored stained glass to the figurative repertory, and frescoes at the close of the Middle Ages.
In the Middle Ages, European craftsmen refined the design, improving the efficiency and allowing pack animals to do more work with less strain.
In the high Middle Ages, chess became a popular pastime for the upper crust, both men and women.
Since he replaced Pope John Paul II, Benedict has made repeated calls for religious tolerance and freedom in Islamic countries - most notably in his 2006 speech at Regensberg where he quoted a Byzantine emperor from the Middle Ages criticizing Islam for seeking to spread its message by the sword.
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Created by A-lister Kasper Holten, the Dane known for his Copenhagen Ring cycle and now director of opera of London's Royal Opera House, this "Lohengrin, " which is set in the Middle Ages, actually has principals dressed in medieval-looking costumes.
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