peripherialpal

inacom: British Library, Add MS 47682, detail of f. 34r. Bible...

Fri, 17 May 2013 06:52:17 -0700

British Library, Add MS 47682, detail of f. 34r. Bible (the ‘Holkham Bible Picture Book’) c. 1327-1335

fotofacade: This is a simply beautiful ‘Stonehenge’ moment...

Fri, 17 May 2013 06:38:15 -0700

This is a simply beautiful ‘Stonehenge’ moment #rightplacerighttime

- captured a once in a year event last night over in Manchester - sunlight through the Italianate/Byzantine Campanile of Walters former Congregational Church in Castlefield

medieval: Doodles by a child in Medieval Novgorod. The Art of...

Tue, 14 May 2013 19:06:59 -0700

medieval:

Doodles by a child in Medieval Novgorod.

The Art of Onfim: Medieval Novgorod Through the Eyes of a Child

The Elements and Their Inhabitants

Sun, 05 May 2013 18:17:07 -0700

Just as visible Nature is populated by an infinite number of living creatures, so, according to Paracelsus, the invisible, spiritual counterpart of visible Nature (composed of the tenuous principles of the visible elements) is inhabited by a host of peculiar beings, to whom he has given the name elementals, and which have later been termed the Nature spirits. Paracelsus divided these people of the elements into four distinct groups, which he called gnomes, undines, sylphs, and salamanders. He taught that they were really living entities, many resembling human beings in shape, and inhabiting worlds of their own, unknown to man because his undeveloped senses were incapable of functioning beyond the limitations of the grosser elements.

Link to Salamander image http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/bbb/0318/12v/medium

inacom: A scribe copies from an exemplar, L’Estoire del Saint...

Sun, 05 May 2013 12:33:20 -0700

inacom:

A scribe copies from an exemplar, L’Estoire del Saint Graal (British Library MS Royal 14 E III, fol. 6v), c. 1300-1315.

theoddmentemporium: Guillotine Toy Following the bloody...

Sun, 05 May 2013 10:56:58 -0700

theoddmentemporium:

Guillotine Toy

Following the bloody conclusion of the French Revolution “The toy shops put on the market little guillotines with which little patriots could behead figures of aristocrats. There still survive some specimens of this pretty and diverting machine, of which one bears the date 1794 [above].

In December, 1793, [one man] asks his mother in Frankfurt to get him such a toy guillotine for his son … and in her reply he certainly got some home-truths. In her decisive manner she wrote to him by return post: ‘Dear Son, Anything I can do to please you is gladly done and gives me joy;—but to buy such an infamous implement of murder—that I will not do at any price. If I had authority, the maker should be put in the stocks and I would have the machine publicly burnt by the common executioner. What! Let the young play with anything so horrible,—place in their hands for their diversion murder and blood-shedding? No, that will never do!”

erikkwakkel: A time capsule from the Middle Ages emerges - In...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 03:59:10 -0700

Note from steward to chamberlain, dated 4 Dec 1461.

Note attached to file used in legal case, dated 22 Feb 1518.

Receipt for payment to a carpenter, c. 1500.

Receipt for the delivery of wheat, 16 Aug 1502.

Note with request for delivery of wild roses to the count, 31 mei 1486.

Pile of notes and the 1577-bookbinding in which they were hidden.

erikkwakkel:

A time capsule from the Middle Ages emerges - In the Book History class I am running with the book historian Paul Hoftijzer we recently discovered the remains of a medieval archive. It concerns 132 notes, letters and receipts from an unidentified court in the Rhine region, jotted on little slips of paper. Such objects rarely survive from medieval society because they were normally thrown away after use. In fact, the same happened with these slips, be it that an early-modern bookbinder fished them out of the bin and recycled them as boards. The importance of the notes is not just connected to their low survival rate, but also because they tell us every-day things that we normally rarely hear about in historical sources. “Could you please send me 6 guilders?,” writes the Steward to the Chamberlain. “Could you please send me some wild roses, preferably not yet in bloom?,” says a note from the duke himself. Here are five samples from the large pile, charming and vulnerable stowaways that traveled through time hidden inside a binding. The book with the archive is part of the Bibliotheca Thysiana, a seventeenth-century library in Leiden. The discovery featured in Dutch and Flemish national newspapers on 25 April, 2013. The images in this blog were taken by Giulio Menna (@sexycodicology). Check out some other discoveries made in our Book History course on our Flickr stream. I am tweeting new discoveries via #thysiana (@erik_kwakkel).

erikkwakkel: Musings: Funny letters - It was not particularly...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 19:21:48 -0700

erikkwakkel:

Musings: Funny letters - It was not particularly fun being a medieval scribe. “The fingers write, but the whole body hurts,” was a popular saying in the scriptorium. Still, humor brought a bit of warmth in a scribe’s miserable existence. This image shows such a little ray of sunshine: practice letters in a 12th-century book that are deliberately shaped so as to bring a smile to the beholder’s face. Two monks forming a letter B, a man trapped in a duck that is the letter S. I think the trick worked then as it does now. And what a great thought that is: that we can share a moment, a joke, with a witty scribe that lived almost 900 years ago.
(Pic: Leiden, University Library, BPL 111-I, 12th c)

theoddmentemporium: Hex: The Chained Oak Legend In a small...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 19:20:58 -0700

theoddmentemporium:

Hex: The Chained Oak Legend

In a small woodlands known as Barbary Gutter near Alton Towers theme park in Staffordshire, England, lies a great oak tree shackled by thick, rusted chains, which provides the eerie setting to a famous 19th century legend:

Returning to his home, Alton Towers, by carriage one autumn evening in the 1840s, the Earl of Shrewsbury, was accosted by an elderly woman who appeared suddenly in the road. She begged for a coin but was cruelly dismissed by the Earl, who ordered her off his land. In a rage the woman called after him, “For every branch that falls from this old oak tree, a member of your family will die,” cursing, legend has it, him and his entire family.

Initially the Earl paid her no heed, but, later that night, when a violent storm tore a branch from the tree and his son inexplicably died, the devastated Earl ordered that the branches should be chained up to prevent any future tragedies.

A slight variation in the tale has the son riding through the woods the next day when the branch falls on him, which is slightly more plausible as there are records of a riding accident in the area at this time. In fact, various elements of the original story have a factual basis, for example, the tree, which, as aforementioned, still exists, did once sit beside a roadway the Earl would have frequented to get to the nearby church, and he would have been the only person with the authority to have the tree chained. In 2007 one of the main branches collapsed, the chain having become integral to the tree’s structure and rusting through, but the family confirmed no one died.

[Sources: Photographs are mine | Chained Oak | Alton Towers Heritage]

abandonedography: Beneath Greenock lies an old line which once...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 19:20:11 -0700

abandonedography:

Beneath Greenock lies an old line which once ran to the Princes Pier Station at the now Ocean Terminal. It originally ran from St Enoch through Paisley and Kilmacolm however that part of the line closed many years ago. Surprisingly the rails are still in place which is probably as a result of it being used to run freight to the container terminal.

Greenock Tunnels by Bora Horza

fotofacade: There’s a spectacular sky scape beyond the northern...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 19:09:51 -0700

fotofacade:

There’s a spectacular sky scape beyond the northern mill and over Blackstone Edge this morning

sacred-circle: Planets and zodiac around a man pierced with...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 19:08:24 -0700

sacred-circle:

Planets and zodiac around a man pierced with converging blades, Italian manuscript, c. 1400

mediumaevum: FUN FACT: Nunneries tried and failed to ban the...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 19:06:15 -0700

mediumaevum:

FUN FACT: Nunneries tried and failed to ban the keeping of dogs as pets in various convents. Nuns were warned not to bring their pets into church and the pets included dogs, hunting dogs, rabbits, squirrels, birds and even monkeys.

image: Miniatures of a sheepdog, a hunting dog in pursuit of a stag, a hunting dog in pursuit of a hare, and (bottom) the story of the dog mourning by the body of his murdered master and identifying the killer; from a bestiary, England, 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 13th century (after 1236), Harley MS 3244, f. 45r

myimaginarybrooklyn: The Archive of Forchtenstein Castle,

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 19:02:18 -0700

myimaginarybrooklyn:

The Archive of Forchtenstein Castle,

erikkwakkel: The closed book - This is my favorite picture in...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 18:52:09 -0700

erikkwakkel:

The closed book - This is my favorite picture in the latest update of my project’s Flickr stream (MedievalFragments). It was taken by Julie Somers while we were looking at a big pile of 12th-century books in Leiden University Library. The leaves you see make up a medieval book with classical texts, but the image doesn’t actually show you anything to read. Still, the uneven and stained edge of the book suggests the object was used, loved, and that someone took a lot of time and effort to create it. There was obviously a good reason for this manuscript to exist. This is what I love about studying medieval books: they tell you these things from what they look like - even when you decide to not open or read them.
(Pic: Leiden, University Library, BPL 191 A, 12th c)

erikkwakkel: I tweeted these animal-inspired images as a series...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:39:46 -0700

Oxford, Bodleian, Bodl. 264 (14th century)

Grenoble, BM, 41 (13th century).

Grenoble, BM, 25 (12th century)

London, BL, Add. 49622 (14th century)

Getty Museum 100 (12th century)

NY, Columbia University, X533H43 (15th century)

NY, Public Library, Spencer 60 (16th century)

London, BL, Royal 5 D.i (13th century)

London, BL, Royal 14 B.v (13th century)

erikkwakkel:

I tweeted these animal-inspired images as a series on 22 February, 2013 (#ManuscriptZoo, @erik_kwakkel).

discardingimages: King Solomon’s cat ‘The king sat to sowper...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 06:18:07 -0700

discardingimages:

King Solomon’s cat

‘The king sat to sowper and othre, wyth whom sat marcolph, and had alle pryvely put into hys sleve thre quyk myse. There was norysshyd in the kinges house a catte, that every nyght as the king sat at sowper, was wont to holde betwyxt hyre fore feet a brennyng kandell upon the tabyll. Thanne lete marcolph oon of the myse go out of his sleve. As the catte that saugh, she wolde have lept aftyr: but the king gave hyr a wynke or countenaunce, that she bode stylle syttyng and removyd not. And in like wyse dede she of the secunde mowse. Thanne lete marcolph the thrydde mowse go, and as the katte sawe he cowde no lenger abyde, but kaste the kandell awaye and lept aftyr the mowse and toke it. And as marcolph that sawe; sayde to the king. Here I have now provyd before you that nature goth afore lernyng. The king sat to sowper and othre, wyth whom sat marcolph, and had alle pryvely put into hys sleve thre quyk myse. There was norysshyd in the kinges house a catte, that every nyght as the king sat at sowper, was wont to holde betwyxt hyre fore feet a brennyng kandell upon the tabyll. Thanne lete marcolph oon of the myse go out of his sleve. As the catte that saugh, she wolde have lept aftyr: but the king gave hyr a wynke or countenaunce, that she bode stylle syttyng and removyd not. And in like wyse dede she of the secunde mowse. Thanne lete marcolph the thrydde mowse go, and as the katte sawe he cowde no lenger abyde, but kaste the kandell awaye and lept aftyr the mowse and toke it. And as marcolph that sawe; sayde to the king. Here I have now provyd before you that nature goth afore lernyng.’

Hans Vintler, Die pluemen der tugent, Vienna 1450.

Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, cod. s. n. 12819, fol. 130r

historical-nonfiction: On Jan. 28, 1393, during a riotous...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 06:17:40 -0700

historical-nonfiction:

On Jan. 28, 1393, during a riotous wedding at the royal palace of Saint-Pol, Charles VI and five French nobles dressed up as wild men using linen costumes covered with pitch and hair and ranged among the guests, howling like wolves and daring them to guess their identities. One guest approached too closely with his torch and set them ablaze. The Duchess of Berry had the presence of mind to throw a cloak over the king, and one of the nobles managed to dive into a barrel of water. “The other four were burned alive their flaming genitals dropping to the floor, [the Monk of St. Denis] remarks with a sharp but on this occasion rather unsavoury eye for detail, releasing a stream of blood,” notes Jan R. Veenstra in Magic and Divination at the Courts of Burgundy and France. “Three of them, the count of Joigny, the bastard of Foix and Aymeri de Poitiers were deeply mourned; a fourth victim, Huguet de Guisay, was left wailing in agony for three days before he too expired, but he was not mourned, the Monk of St. Denis explains, since he was a vicious man and people were glad to see him perish.”

fotofacade: fotofacade: Worked out what the dash of light was...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 06:40:51 -0700

fotofacade:

fotofacade:

Worked out what the dash of light was during my sunrise time-lapse last week - a bank of fog backlit by the golden orb

Morning :) Here’s something simple, beautiful and timeless - and it happens every day #photoserotonin

Temptation and Fall: Adam and Eve, holding the fruit, with the...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 05:04:03 -0700

Temptation and Fall: Adam and Eve, holding the fruit, with the Serpent