Search found 759 matches
- Mon Apr 16, 2018 9:38 pm
- Forum: 1100-1500
- Topic: Tanning fur
- Replies: 2
- Views: 43
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: 297
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: 297
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: 199
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: 424
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: 479
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: 479
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: 2366
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: 2366
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: 2366
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: 2366
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: 2786
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: 3551
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: 2203
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: 1385
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: 991
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: 1458
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: 1933
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: 1197
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: 1115
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: 1447
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: 1447
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...
- Sat Feb 18, 2017 8:29 am
- Forum: 1100-1500
- Topic: Artillery in UK castles during 14th century.
- Replies: 12
- Views: 2495
Re: Artillery in UK castles during 14th century.
Not a castle, but Canterbury's late 14th century city wall and drum towers (a rebuild over earlier walls) were built with loops for hand cannons - I have heard that this is the earliest example of such a feature in English towns and cities. The earliest mention of the guns themselves is in 1403/1404...
- Wed Feb 08, 2017 3:58 pm
- Forum: General History
- Topic: Being anti-social in Medieval England.
- Replies: 9
- Views: 1734
Re: Being anti-social in Medieval England.
My error - too much research into tithes has fuddled my thinking. This is from Mark Bailey's useful little book "The English Manor 1200 - 1500": By the fifteenth century it was increasingly common for both leet and manor courts to be amalgamated into one magna curia, a move which partly re...
- Wed Feb 08, 2017 12:18 pm
- Forum: General History
- Topic: Being anti-social in Medieval England.
- Replies: 9
- Views: 1734
Re: Being anti-social in Medieval England.
Tithes were the prerogative of the Church of Rome, first established in England under Ethelwulf in 855 and eventually given formal legal validity by the Statute of Westminster in 1285. So the Dissolution of the Monasteries by 1540 (and the end of the Catholic Church at that time) also meant the end ...
- Mon Feb 06, 2017 7:40 pm
- Forum: 410-1100
- Topic: More Old English pronunciaton question
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1321
Re: More Old English pronunciaton question
Middle English often provides clues to the earlier pronunciation of words - in this case "dawn" is ūghten in ME, which is said ooKHten (KH is a guttural in the throat). So the Old English uht is ooKHt. Ceare has that same ea diphthong mentioned in another thread, starting with e as in &quo...
- Fri Feb 03, 2017 3:10 pm
- Forum: General History
- Topic: Being anti-social in Medieval England.
- Replies: 9
- Views: 1734
Re: Being anti-social in Medieval England.
It's not possible to generalise, the feudal system was far more complex than most people today can appreciate. Unfree peasants (by far the largest group) belonged almost entirely to a feudal overlord and he set out exactly what was required of his own workforce - and this was usually completely diff...
- Thu Feb 02, 2017 1:05 pm
- Forum: 410-1100
- Topic: The easy and authentic way to speak "old English"
- Replies: 12
- Views: 2066
Re: The easy and authentic way to speak "old English"
"eald englisc"- and how would you pronounce that? could it be "old English"? At the risk of feeding the Troll, no it is not pronounced "old English" - that is the modern translation, not the pronunciation. The diphthong ea begins with the sound of e (as in "bed&qu...
- Mon Jan 30, 2017 4:31 pm
- Forum: 410-1100
- Topic: The easy and authentic way to speak "old English"
- Replies: 12
- Views: 2066
Re: The easy and authentic way to speak "old English"
This would be exactly the same as pretending that modern Italians speak Classical Latin, simply because both languages share many words - but ignoring the differences in meaning, pronunciation, grammar and syntax. So the premise is that this kind of speech can be pronounced as if it were made up of ...
- Sat Jan 28, 2017 9:52 am
- Forum: Buy and Sell
- Topic: WLTB medieval chair / stool
- Replies: 7
- Views: 1677
Re: WLTB medieval chair / stool
Furniture at that time was associated with (a) social class and (b) with a dwelling, specifically the dwelling of someone of means. The tax returns of 1294 and 1301 from Colchester showed that the most prosperous townsmen had no more than a bed or two and that many persons had nothing that a tax col...