Why my research matters

So, I've been busy.

Most recently, co-organising and this workshop addressing how we (medievalists and early-modernists) present our research. It was a really fascinating day with some very interesting points made, here are the highlights:

Holy Saturday

This week is Holy Week and tomorrow many break their Lenten fasts, or feast on chocolate. The two are not mutually exclusive.

As part of the Easter story (well, that accepted in the Middle Ages), Jesus spent the time between his crucifixion and resurrection harrowing hell. This 'harrowing', a term which means either ploughing or the sacking of a place, essentially meant that those that had died, but were not sinners, were now permitted to enter heaven as a result of Christ's intervention. The gates of heaven were now open, death was no longer a waiting room for salvation.

There's shedloads of stuff to read regarding the harrowing of hell (Is it a part of the original easter story? Was it invented later? Was salavation only possible after?....etc.etc.), but like other famous myths it lends itself wonderfully to artists:

Happy Easter (tomorrow) everyone!

Baltimore, Walter Art Museum, MS W. 918 f. 149 v.

London, BL, Arundel 157, f. 110

 

New York, The Madison Library, MS W.2 f. 139 v.

Philadelphia, Penn Library, MS Codex 738, f. 127 r.

Patrologia Latina

I've missed a couple of weeks of blogs now - but for a good reason!

I'm in the process of putting together a first draft of my thesis which has resulted in much editing and rewriting, but little new research. No new research, means no new blogs. However, I do have an useful source to share with the interwebs and a nifty MS image.

The source is the Patrologia Latina which is essentially a source book for early church texts. It exists in physical form in many, many volumes or in searchable form via a subscription database (my nearest subscribing library is the Bodleian).

When chasing a single reference however, an online edition would be more helpful. Never fear! This wonderful website lists multiple sources for each volume:

http://patristica.net/latina/

You're welcome.

"Two women attempting to catch flying hearts", British Library, Stowe MS 955, f. 13r 

This image is in a collection of 16th century love poems and no, I'm not really sure why the ladies are capturing winged hearts. It's a lovely image though isn't it?

Monthly Round-Up

This month in medieval news begins with an encouragment to go to twitter and search #manuscriptthetube for a plethora of gorgeous MS images related to tube stops. Started by the British Library I believe.

A 15th c. ship in Netherlands complete with on board oven has been raised:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/medieval-trading-ship-raised-to-surface-almost-intact-after-500-years-on-riverbed-in-netherlands-a6870221.html

Medieval reading habits explored:
http://medievalbooks.nl/2016/02/26/dirty-old-books/?utm_content=buffere77e5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Monsters in map margins:
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/can-you-spot-the-monsters-in-this-medieval-map-of-the-world

  A particularly sneaky looking rabbit.

(14th c. Italy, Bibliotheque Municipale, MS 322 f.104v)

#ColourOurCollections

The 'craze' for therapeutic colouring has been upon us for quite a while. Recently however, it has reached important new heights - colouring books from museum and library collections.

While the urge to colour the beautiful images you see in manuscripts hadn't been one I'd actually harboured (I'm more of a desperately scout the gift shop for reproductions kinda girl), these do look really fun. A Google search will quickly bring up a number of results but here are my favourites:

Bodleian Library:
http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/197453/2016-Colouring-Book.pdf 

Museum of English Rural Life:
http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/197453/2016-Colouring-Book.pdf

Dittrick Medical History Center:
http://artsci.case.edu/dittrick/files/2013/12/DittrickColoringBook.pdf

The Getty:
http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/files/2016/02/ColorOurCollections__TheGetty.pdf

 

Heart Shaped books

In an attempt to have something vaguely Valentine's day themed ahead of tomorrow, have some eye candy in the form of heart shaped books.

I'm by no means a manuscript scholar, so if you're curious about them (and the heart as a symbol in general) I thoroughly reccomend this link which summarises a book on the topic:
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/391167.html

Now, onto the eye candy:

This paining is held in the Met Museum and is dated to the mid-fifteenth century. 

Depicted, is the elevation of the host during mass when the host is raised and "This is my body" is spoken. According to Eric Jager, the shape of the book demonstrates veneration of chirst and an association between "the worshipper's heart (cor) to Christ's body (corpus)".

The shape of the book is also symbolic of the "inner self" - but at this point we're venturing into a larger topic than this blog can handle!

Here are some examples of genuine heart shaped books however to sate your curiosity.

BnF, latin 10536

BnF, latin 10536

15th c., BnF Latin 10536, Book of Hours
http://classes.bnf.fr/dossisup/grands/ec060a.htm

 

 15th c., BnF Rothschild 297, Music book

http://classes.bnf.fr/dossiecr/gc178-4.htm

  

Monthly Round-up

Missed out on December's so let's get back into this!

London based medieval wine tour (20th Feb is the next one):
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/february-wine-tour-of-medieval-london-tickets-20779297438

Some medieval church graffiti:
http://hyperallergic.com/266861/witch-marks-curses-and-magic-in-the-neglected-history-of-medieval-graffiti/

Medieval handwriting app (good practice for palaeography):
http://www.medievalhistories.com/medieval-handwriting-app/

Academic writer's block tips:
http://www.raulpacheco.org/2014/05/five-strategies-to-get-your-academic-writing-unstuck/

Fingerprint analysis of wax seals:
http://www.newhistorian.com/5849-2/5849/

Medieval caption competition (weekly event via the British Library)
http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2016/01/caption-competition-number-4.html

Lego + academic gripes = my new favourite twitter account:
https://twitter.com/LegoAcademics

A biased recommendation as my supervisor is one of the guests. Melvin Brag discusses Eleanor of Aquitaine:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06yfhqk
 
- and finally, something you never knew you needed in your life, a pseudo medieval plaster wall frieze:

Blue Monday...almost

Blue Monday is almost upon us so in case you're feeling like you're surrounded by iditos, and nothing is going right - here's a touch of schadenfreude to brighten your day.

Eudes Rigaud, last seen in this blog post, had the misfortune of visiting churches to insure their priests were perfoming their jobs. Here's an extract from what looks like a particularly bad day at the office:

Déville - 29^th November, 1260

"It should be noted that Walter, priest at Bray-sous-Baudemont, brought before the synod of the Fench Vexin because he had been many times defamed of incontinence and of many other excesses of crimes, confessed all and each of the following in the presence or Archdeacon Stephen, Master John of Neuilly-en-Thelle, and Brother Adam Rigaud, who stood as our representatives there. 

He confessed that he had been defamed of one of his parishioners whom he had already abjured and he admitted that this ill fame was supported by the truth. 

Item, he confessed that he was defamed of having constructed a certain wax figure for purposes of witchcraft, but on oath he said that he knew nothing about this except on hearsay from a certain woman who had conceived and borne him a child and who had two other children. 

Item, he admitted being the father of these children. Item, he admitted that he was defamed of usary and of shady transactions. 

Item, he admitted having torn the supertunic of a certain woman who, he said, was a prostitute and with whom he had cohabited several times. Item, he admitted that he went to the assizes at Gisors upon citation by the bailiff. 

Item, he admitted that he led the dancing at the marriage of a certain prostitute whose marriage he had himself performed, and whom he, together with some of the neighboring priests, he had known at night, each of whom was acting with evil intent. 

The said Walter, priest, was peremptorily and personally cited to appear before us on a definite date, to wit, the day after advent, at Rouen or wherever we should be in that vicinity, to reply to these charges. He did appear before us at Déville. He did not wish to resign his church when we wished him to do so, where we declared him deprived of the church”

Notes

Morgan Library, Detail from Lust, part of the Book of Hours of Robinet Testard, Poitiers, France. c. 1475. MS M.1001, fol. 98r

'The Register of Eudes Rigaud', ed. by J. O'Sullivan (London: Columbia University Press), pp. 429-430

 

Storytime - The youth and the millstone

Today’s tale demonstrates that jokes about the burden of marriage have been knocking about for centuries. 

“There was once a crazy boy, a really wild youth, who did not want to marry just one girl, but insisted on three. Everyone tried to reason with him. His father, mother and elder brother urged him, if only for their sake, to marry only two, and to start with the younger girl; then, when a full month had passed, he could marry the older one. On that basis, he got married. 

When the first month was up, his family asked him what he thought of his elder brother’s taking just one girl, no more, to be his lawful wedded wife. The youth replied that there was no need for that, since he had a wife who would more than suffice for both of them. The family should tell his brother that, and shouldn’t bother about marrying him to another girl. The father of this foolish youth, a worthy man, had a mill with a fine large millstone. 

Before the boy was married, he was so strong that he could easily stop the stone with his foot, even when it was revolving very quickly. His great strength and boldness, before his marriage, made the stone seem light; after a month of marriage, he wanted to try his strenght as before, and went along to the mill one day. He tried to stop the stone, just as he had done in the past, but it knocked his legs from under him and threw him flat on the ground. The foolish youth picked himself up, cursing the wheel heartily: ‘All right, my fine millstone, just wait till you’re married!’”

If you struggle to understand the humour, don't worry. I did too.

Notes

 

Image: Jean D'Arras, Roman de Mélusine, BL Harley 4418, f. 36

Taken from Medieval Comic Tales, ed. D. Brewer (Cambridge, Boydell & Brewer Press: 1973) p. 40 and originally from the thirteenth century, Libro de Buen Amor, by Juan Ruiz (Archpriest of Hita, c. 1330)

Finding medieval images

Bestiary/Liber de natura bestiarum, England after 1236
BL, Harley 3244, fol. 55v

Happy New Year everyone!

The secret, I believe, to engaging people easily with your research is to show them something visual. This instantly helps to link the audience to the past through something tangible. It can often be difficult however to find images to match your research, as the success of your search queries is entirely dependent on how an image has been keyworded. Has the image been keyworded to include the marginalia, or has it purely been keyworded regarding content, or a main image? If you have an image of Adam and Eve, has the pear tree behind them also been included in the search terms?

...and so on, and so forth.

As a result, my new year's gift to you all is a compilation of the websites I use to find images when needed. If you have any that I've missed, please do comment below and I'll update the post.

Firstly, I always start with Google. It has a fairly low success rate if I'm honest and frustratingly, when you do find an image it is often uncited making it academically useless.

After google, Pinterest! Pinterest is wonderful for marginalia as there is an army of fellow medievalist combing the web and they often include the citation in the caption. Thank you pinners <3

Tumblr
Useful but also frustrating as often images aren't keyworded logically, or are uncited. 

Gallica
Yes it's in French, but with google translate and a bit of common sense you can navigate the website. Very useful for drawings and maps.

British Library Illuminated Manuscripts
Prime example of the problems with keywords. Only just touches the surface of the images the BL contains.

Morgan Library and Museum
Searchable by keyword and watermark free.

Aberdeen bestiary
If I need an image of animal this is pretty much my first stop everytime.

Getty Images
Hit and miss. Images always watermarked but you can sometimes find your way to an original image through Getty.

http://digital.library.ucla.edu/immi/
Not comprehensive, but useful for simple search terms i.e. "leprosy"

http://guides.nyu.edu/c.php?g=276597&p=1844931
List of different manuscript databases. Not all links work, but there are many listed.

http://guides.library.cornell.edu/c.php?g=31841&p=201679
Another list of manuscript databases.

Scriptorium
Lots of manuscripts catalogued, can't search for images specifically (yet)

http://arthistoryresources.net/ARTHmedieval.html
A little hit and miss, but still quite a few useful links especially for artefacts.

http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/pdfs/Manu_pubs.pdf
Bibliography of books of images ordered by subject i.e. flowers, magic

Bodleian
Leg work needed as you have to open each link individualy and then scan through the accompanying captions. More available here.