Search found 767 matches
- Wed Dec 04, 2019 11:17 am
- Forum: 1100-1500
- Topic: New Theory on the Fécamp Psalter
- Replies: 0
- Views: 308
New Theory on the Fécamp Psalter
The Dutch KB (Koninklijke Bibliotheek) website has recently published a new theory about the 12th century book of psalms formerly known as the Fécamp Psalter. This book, it suggests, was really written for Eleanor of Aquitaine in about 1185 and the portrait of the unknown "Lady Donor" in t...
- Wed Aug 21, 2019 9:37 am
- Forum: Food and Drink
- Topic: Emeles
- Replies: 5
- Views: 4395
Re: Emeles
Middle English pronunciation is a very complex subject and has been the subject of scholarly research for a very long time. It helps to have studied Old English and various Germanic languages, since there are strong connections but with some evolution in vowel sounds during the period when Middle En...
- Tue Jul 30, 2019 1:49 pm
- Forum: Food and Drink
- Topic: Emeles
- Replies: 5
- Views: 4395
Re: Emeles
It's an obscure variant form of almandes or almaundes, meaning almonds. It has three syllables, with the emphasis on the middle one.
- Mon Jul 29, 2019 6:37 am
- Forum: 1100-1500
- Topic: Is there any provenance for this helmet?
- Replies: 2
- Views: 3454
Re: Is there any provenance for this helmet?
As for its provenance, this object appears on the website of Medieval Armour by Avalon Shop. Also featuring on that site is this text: The kettle hat were first produced in England around 1011, is a type of helmet made of steel in the shape of a brimmed hat. The Kettle hats were very popular with fo...
- Sun Apr 28, 2019 6:54 pm
- Forum: Costumes
- Topic: Monks Habit
- Replies: 11
- Views: 7335
Re: Monks Habit
John Lydgate is more than a bit of an oddity and I have looked into his career with considerable interest. It is true that he was a Benedictine monk at St Edmundsbury from 1382, but his career took an unusual path as he began to take Holy Orders and was made a subdeacon in 1389 - the first step on t...
- Sat Apr 27, 2019 5:49 am
- Forum: Costumes
- Topic: Monks Habit
- Replies: 11
- Views: 7335
Re: Monks Habit
Brenticus, On the one hand monks would be unlikely to be outside their own monastic cloister, since their vows included one of "stability" (meaning to remain within the walls for life). On the other hand, there were a number of reasons for monks to be out and about with express permission....
- Sun Sep 02, 2018 9:34 pm
- Forum: 1100-1500
- Topic: The Nef and Prickers
- Replies: 3
- Views: 3707
Re: The Nef and Prickers
Incidentally, regarding you "have been told the Pricker, or as referred to above Spike, was only used for hunting purposes". The people telling you this are clearly confused, since they are referring to a completely different object. Known in Middle English as a tind(e) , this was a forked...
- Wed Aug 29, 2018 9:46 pm
- Forum: 1100-1500
- Topic: The Nef and Prickers
- Replies: 3
- Views: 3707
Re: The Nef and Prickers
Medieval tableware has been covered in many threads on this forum, but the origin of "nef" may not have been explained before. A nef was originally (early 12th century) a type of warship, or simply an Anglo-Norman term for any ship or boat. It came to the table by 1170 as a boat-shaped win...
- Mon Apr 16, 2018 9:38 pm
- Forum: 1100-1500
- Topic: Tanning fur
- Replies: 2
- Views: 3242
Re: Tanning fur
Tanning on the one hand and "keeping it white" on the other are sadly incompatible - unless you know some historic Native Americans who can do brain tanning in the old way. Apparently the Crows of the Northern Plains made the softest, whitest buckskin and buffalo hides - but nobody today c...
- Fri Apr 06, 2018 6:43 pm
- Forum: 1100-1500
- Topic: Grooming kit
- Replies: 4
- Views: 4096
Re: Grooming kit
As for supertunics (fur lined or otherwise), this is certainly covered in the Rule of St Benedict. Chapter 55 (again) says: "Let clothing be given to the brethren according to the circumstances of the place and the nature of the climate in which they live, because in cold regions more is needed...
- Fri Mar 30, 2018 11:20 am
- Forum: 1100-1500
- Topic: Grooming kit
- Replies: 4
- Views: 4096
Re: Grooming kit
You do not specify which type of monk you are interested in - nor the precise time period. "Personal" items were expressly forbidden by the Rule of St Benedict which governed the lives of all European monks, but that Rule was often less closely observed as the medieval period progressed (f...
- Thu Jan 04, 2018 12:12 pm
- Forum: General History
- Topic: Historical development of the English Archer
- Replies: 1
- Views: 3045
Re: Historical development of the English Archer
From the use of peasant bowmen at the Battle of Standard (1138) where the worth of the English Longbow was first realised The Battle of the Standard certainly did see the use of militia archers, mentioned by several contemporary and near-contemporary writers. Putting longbows in their hands is a st...
- Sat Dec 30, 2017 11:41 pm
- Forum: General History
- Topic: relationships between Herbalists, Apothecary and Alchemists
- Replies: 3
- Views: 4294
Re: relationships between Herbalists, Apothecary and Alchemists
You need to specify a time period. In England there were no apothecaries or alchemists before the 14th century and witchcraft was not really acknowledged before the 13th. Remedies, treatments and medicines in the 12th century came from monastic infirmaries, from local midwives and wise women, from h...
- Wed Nov 15, 2017 11:55 am
- Forum: 1100-1500
- Topic: Medieval gardening tools
- Replies: 3
- Views: 4043
Re: Medieval gardening tools
Medieval English people knew the difference between a spade (for digging) and a shovel (for moving stuff around), but this knowledge seems to have been lost today. Medieval shovels were very odd until the end of the period when metal shovels were introduced. They were all-wood construction, with a s...
- Wed Nov 15, 2017 11:53 am
- Forum: 1100-1500
- Topic: Medieval gardening tools
- Replies: 3
- Views: 4043
Re: Medieval gardening tools
It's probably worth expanding on the previous thread with some more tools and details. First, it is necessary to dispel a few misconceptions - this will sound a bit negative and critical, but it is meant to be helpful so bear with me. It would be incorrect to think that "these things probably h...
- Wed Jul 12, 2017 2:39 pm
- Forum: 1100-1500
- Topic: Templar Flag
- Replies: 10
- Views: 8406
Re: Templar Flag
This drawing may help to explain some of the points made above, illustrating Templar lance pennons and just a few of the known shield designs: Templar shields2.jpg Pennons: 1 is from the Templar frescoes at Cressac-sur-Charente, France, dating to about 1163 - it is associated with shield B. The cros...
- Sat Jul 08, 2017 3:41 pm
- Forum: 1100-1500
- Topic: Templar Flag
- Replies: 10
- Views: 8406
Re: Templar Flag
The Templar banner from 12th and 13th century sources:
The Italian Templar banner and shield, about 1270:
The Italian Templar banner and shield, about 1270:
- Wed Jul 05, 2017 11:15 am
- Forum: 1100-1500
- Topic: Templar Flag
- Replies: 10
- Views: 8406
Re: Templar Flag
Ne'erdowell is right about heraldry not being prone to symbolism, but even people at the time might occasionally see some meaning in the design even if it was not intended. The French canon regular Jacques de Vitry describes in his Historia Hierosolymitana of about 1220 how the black over white flag...
- Sat Jul 01, 2017 10:01 pm
- Forum: 1100-1500
- Topic: Templar Flag
- Replies: 10
- Views: 8406
Re: Templar Flag
Here's a few scholarly points to consider: (1) Any connection between Freemasonry and the Templars is relatively modern and tenuous at best, despite what the Freemasons claim (their first lodges date to the 18th century), so treat their opinions with an articulated lorry load of salt . . . In the wo...
- Sun Jun 18, 2017 9:53 pm
- Forum: Friends and Gossip
- Topic: What do MOPs mean when they ask if something is real?
- Replies: 15
- Views: 11771
Re: What do MOPs mean when they ask if something is real?
In my former living history roles I came to the conclusion that there are many factors at work here and the answer is far from simple. There is the MOP who thinks they can "see through" what's being presented as if it were a conjuring trick: I heard one lady turn to her friend during a par...
- Wed Jun 07, 2017 10:13 am
- Forum: Food and Drink
- Topic: 12th Century Cook Book "In the Works"
- Replies: 8
- Views: 7916
Re: 12th Century Cook Book "In the Works"
Having followed developments on the publication of this book over the past three years, it has today been confirmed to me by Catheryn Kilgarriff at Prospect Books that publication of "Zinziber: Sauces from Poitou" has now sadly been cancelled. I am aware of the reason and suffice it to say...
- Mon May 22, 2017 6:49 pm
- Forum: Food and Drink
- Topic: Anglo-Saxon cooking
- Replies: 5
- Views: 6274
Re: Anglo-Saxon cooking
I admit to being extremely sceptical about the majority of the so-called Anglo-Saxon recipes given in this document, for a number of reasons: [1] It is copied directly from another web page (http://www.tjurslakter.nl/viking%20recepten.pdf) which gives "recipes found on the Internet" as its...
- Sat May 06, 2017 6:54 pm
- Forum: Traders Discussion
- Topic: Medieval Chest
- Replies: 3
- Views: 5332
Re: Medieval Chest
Whichever route you decide to go down, you first need to decide on a particular type of chest and how much decoration it will have. "Medieval" is far too generic a term - is it 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th century? Will it have pin hinges (the earlier method) or metal strap-hinges (later)?...
- Mon Apr 24, 2017 6:57 pm
- Forum: 1100-1500
- Topic: Daily rations for a castle guard or medieval foot soldier.
- Replies: 2
- Views: 4111
Re: Daily rations for a castle guard or medieval foot soldier.
Very little has been written about peasant diet and the foodstuffs available on campaign or during garrison duty in the period you mention - there seem to be more sources for the 12th/13th centuries and I have been in correspondence with a prominent and helpful environmental archaeologist regarding ...
- Mon Apr 10, 2017 6:32 pm
- Forum: 410-1100
- Topic: Purple dye
- Replies: 3
- Views: 4943
Re: Purple dye
No, it means that at least some of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians and others who settled in England were very well versed in Biblical and Classical history - the classical authors were often translated into Old English, as was the Bible. "Fish dye" refers to the Hexaplex trunculus, He...
- Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:22 am
- Forum: Book, Film, TV & Music Reviews
- Topic: London Museum Medieval Catalogue 1940
- Replies: 0
- Views: 5075
London Museum Medieval Catalogue 1940
This is a 1993 reprint by Anglia Publishing (ISBN 1-897874-01-4) of the original 1940 Catalogue by J B Ward Perkins. To say the book is dated would be stating the obvious - "it does not reflect latest thoughts on the dating or significance of medieval objects", to quote the appreciation at...
- Tue Mar 21, 2017 10:49 pm
- Forum: 1100-1500
- Topic: Holy Orders in England, 13th c.
- Replies: 3
- Views: 4665
Re: Holy Orders in England, 13th c.
The first Knights Templar Preceptory (house, or more precisely a monastic or administrative complex) in England was established in High Holborn, London in the middle of the 12th century. These premises were soon to prove too small, so construction began in about 1165 on the famous Temple "churc...
- Fri Mar 10, 2017 7:31 pm
- Forum: 1100-1500
- Topic: Painting helmets
- Replies: 3
- Views: 4722
Re: Painting helmets
Consider first what medieval paints would have been used and how they might stand up to being bashed with any kind of weapon. Egg tempera was used on parchment, pigment mixed with linseed oil (just like modern tube oil paints) was used on wood and pigment mixed with wet lime plaster was used on wall...
- Tue Feb 21, 2017 12:19 pm
- Forum: General History
- Topic: St Valentine's Day
- Replies: 3
- Views: 5014
Re: St Valentine's Day
By way of evidence, this is the relevant calendar entry from the Westminster Psalter of about 1200:
It reads 18C, 16 days before the Kalends of March, [feast] of Valentine, martyr. This is the standard manuscript way of expressing 14 February.
It reads 18C, 16 days before the Kalends of March, [feast] of Valentine, martyr. This is the standard manuscript way of expressing 14 February.
- Mon Feb 20, 2017 4:54 pm
- Forum: General History
- Topic: St Valentine's Day
- Replies: 3
- Views: 5014
Re: St Valentine's Day
No English king needed to make any decree - various saints named Valentine were part of the Roman Church calendar long before Henry VIII or any of his ancestors. The Feast of Valentine (February 14) goes back to at least 496 AD when Pope Gelasius added Valentine of Terni to the list of Christian Sai...