Why is there such a paucity of academic literature on medieval punctuation? Is it (as Reimer, 1998, suggested) “[…] partly because there is so much evidence which needs to be studied, and partly because editors of texts have considered the effort needed to be a waste of time”? For a discussion of the subject, turn […]
Tag: medieval
Dirty Books: Quantifying Patterns of Use in Medieval Manuscripts Using a Densitometer
“The dirt ground into the margins of medieval manuscripts is one of their interpretable features, which can help us to understand the desires, fears, and reading habits of the past.” – explains researcher Dr Kathryn M. Rudy who is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Art History, of the University of St Andrews, Scotland. […]
Gold-digging ants – an(other) explanation
“In northern India there is a sandy desert and in this desert there live large ants, smaller than dogs but larger than foxes. A few ants that have been caught there may be seen at the king of Persia’s place. When digging their holes these ants throw out soil just like the ants in Greece […]
Medieval names to beware of
If, for whatever reason, you want to compile a list of medieval names, a web site called The Medieval Names Archive claims to steer you clear of unreliable sources: People have lots of different reasons for compiling lists of names, and most of them don’t result in good sources for medieval names…. When you are […]
“doesn’t know his patronyms from his epithets”
Historians, most of them, agonize over how much to trust the work of earlier historians. The Got Medieval blog writes of one terrible bout of agonizing: … Indeed, a reputation as a bungler who doesn’t know his patronyms (son of the horrible one/Uther) from his epithets (horrible son) is about the best that Geoffrey could […]
Computational gastronomy – part 3 – ‘Cooking with Dirty Data’
The Varshney twins – Dr. Kush Varshney (currently at IBM) and Professor Lav Varshney (previously at IBM) – have authored a series of papers on the theme of computational gastronomy, two of which — on Food Steganography, and on Active Odor Cancellation — we looked at recently. Example 3 : ‘Flavor Pairing in Medieval European Cuisine: A Study in Cooking with […]
For sleep-and-monks-and-nuns enthusiasts
Rare is the study that focus on how monks and nuns sleep. One is: “Ring the Bell for Matins: Circadian Adaptation to Split Sleep by Cloistered Monks and Nuns,” Isabelle Arnulf [pictured here], Agnès Brion, Michel Pottier and Jean-Louis Golmard, Chronobiology International, Dec., 2011, Vol. 28, No. 10 , pp. 930-41. (Thanks to investigator Yvette […]
Marginal image: nude bishop carrying his head
Here is another of the peculiar drawings that enliven the margins of a manuscript, made in or around the year 1350, of Jacques de Longuyon‘s poem “Les Voeux du Paon” (English translation: “Vows of the Peacock”).The Morgan Library owns a copy (Morgan Library MS G 24) and has put some of these images online. Here are a […]
Curious naked people in medieval margins: boulder man
This image [below], of a naked man holding a boulder as both hurtle down towards a meeting with what may be a homunculus playing with an airborne dog, puzzles some scholars who study medieval documents. It — and many other unexpected drawings, quite a few of which feature naked people pursuing vigorous activities — populate […]
Marginal images: Medieval trumpet and voiding
Peculiar drawings in the margins enliven a manuscript, made in or around the year 1350, of Jacques de Longuyon‘s poem ” Les Voeux du Paon” (English translation: “Vows of the Peacock”). The Morgan Library owns a copy (Morgan Library MS G 24) and has put some of these images online. Here are a few, each […]