Greetings gentle readers,

This month we are highlighting Gaita and their latest collection of instrumental medieval music, ?Medieval Music: A collection of 12th to 14th Century?. Gaita is a specialist medieval music ensemble based in Edinburgh who have transcribed and published several manuscripts of medieval music and dance as well as producing several CDs of medieval dance music. To discover more in the Gaita range please go to the entertainment section on this site.

Throughout February new titles from the Stuart Peachey range will be added to the current range including a new DVD, ?Tudor Lives on DVD? following the daily routine of ordinary Tudor people living in the country.

Until next month we bid you all, Good Reading.

Paul and Loreena

Greetings gentle readers; we hope that the Festive season was a joyous and safe one for everyone. This month, the Creative Anachronist (CA?s) range has been expanded to CA153 as highlighted below. In addition we are proud to showcase the latest offering from the Tudor Tailor library: ?The Queen?s Servant; Gentlewomen?s dress at the accession of Henry VIII?. Keep watching for the Tudor Tailor pewter button range and Button DVD which will be added very shortly.

So until next month we bid you all, Good Reading.

Paul and Loreena

A little late this month, but midst the Christmas rush we have managed to add yet more titles including those highlighted below. For those interested in re-enactment tents, we will be updating our ‘Tents’ page regarding our new supplier ‘Past Tents’ shortly. ‘Past Tents is a UK based company who have been making quality re-enactment tents and pavilions for many years and their site is well worth a visit at http://www.pasttents.com/.

This year, Mainly Medieval will be closing for the festive celebrations (23rd of December to the 2nd of January 2012 inclusive). We look forward on our return to presenting a new range of re-enactment items as well as a host of new titles for your reading pleasure. Orders received in this time will be processed when we return.

To all our customers, we wish you a joyous festive season, and a safe and prosperous New Year.

Paul and Loreena

As the Christmas season approaches we have been extending our Stuart Peachey range of pamphlets, added two monthly magazines into our new category ?Magazines & Annuals? (Ancient Warfare and Medieval Warfare), a selection of the vast Osprey range as well as adding to our range of titles in areas such as Food and Beverages.

These items, along with another 50+ titles that have joined our library will slowly be featured below during the month, and we hope they will intrigue and stimulate.

Until next month we bid you all, Good Reading.

Paul and Loreena

Welcome gentle readers, to the new look mainly medieval site. It has been quite a while and we?d like to thank everyone for their patience during this time. A point to note is that wargaming section is now located at our sister site, Aetherworks. Mainly Medieval will continue to concentrate on the interests of all those interested in history and the needs of the re-enactment communities.

Some of the new features of the site will include a 3 tier ranking system,?located in the Staff comments, which will indicate whether an item is a?primary, secondary or a tertiary source. Copies of item instructions sheets and warnings will be supplemented with basic care and maintenance articles, and a new series of articles will be introduced which discuss the various uses of items; for example, table cutlery and dining habits.

Each month, a selection of new titles and items will be added to the site and we hope that you will make use of the customers review section to give your feedback.

As ever, we wish you all, Good Reading!

 

Paul and Loreena

 

Greetings. We have been very busy this past month with Trade shows, implementing new upgrades, researching and adding new re-enactor goods such as brass Ring brooches, and of course New titles. Of particular note:

“Success with Apples and Pears to Eat and Drink” by Alan Rowe(2nd Ed). This is for the serious gardener and those who love brewing and drinking Cider and Perry. A UK-centric book, it has a concise history of usage and cultivation of “Pomes” in Britain; a section devoted to the usage and cultivation of over 120 apple and pear varietals both ancient and modern with excellent illustrations, and a useful set of appendixes including a selection of old recipes, a hydrometer table and plans for a DIY press. While not a historical text, this book will start you on the right track of good horticultural and brewing practices and point you in the direction of the few remaining references.

For those who love a game of skill and chance while they enjoy their favourite tipple, a new title from English Heritage – “Played at the Pub; The pub games of Britain” by Arthur Taylor. This is a beautifully presented softcover with many photographs and illustrations of the games both historically, and being played in British pubs today. As with so many of the UK books written by enthusiasts, this is an intense examination of both the ancient history of the different games, their rules and equipment and their evolution into the present. It discusses regional variations played now and in the past, and even includes contacts for the clubs that are still playing, while providing resources for further research in the section “Links”. Games, or rather types of games, include Bowling games, Pushing and Shoving, Spoof and Tippet, Board and Dice, Lost Games as well as the more commonly known such as Pub Quizzes, Cue games, Skittles, Darts and Dominos. Not a book to read all at once, but something to dip into at regular intervals and revel in the unique intensity of the British Pub games history and phenomena.

Finally, a big thanks to all of you who came and visited us at MOAB on the October long weekend. It was great to see so many old friends and meet so many new people. We appreciate your feedback and look forward to seeing you at our next event, CanCon, in Canberra on the Australia day weekend in 2011.

Until next month, we bid you, Good Reading!

Paul and Loreena

 

The temperatures are rising and Spring is here. Unfortunately for us, the waning of winter saw the waning of essential bits of technology. This technological hiccup slowed the promised entry of new books and categories to the database, for which we apologise but be assured, they will be appearing very soon along with a plethora of new titles!

While the issues are being resolved we have had the time to muse a little on the future of books and book publishing; paper versus the much vaunted electronic form. There is no doubt that e-books will continue to grow in popularity. Thousands of titles can be held in a single palm sized unit saving space in the travellers luggage and on bookshelves at home. New titles can be downloaded from anywhere on the globe in moments and old titles rediscovered with ease at the readers convenience. Removal of favourite titles by publishers due to space constraints will be gone; the environment will benefit as the book industry becomes virtual and authors will have greater freedom to experiment.

And yet, we wonder. A book, once bought, does not require batteries for it to be used. It does not suffer from compatibility issues over time or when passed to another reader, nor require maintenance such as software upgrades. It does not disappear off the shelf nor its content undergo strange changes due to a virus or other bugs. And while a book doesn’t recover totally from an immersion in the bath, at least all the other books are not affected when it does.

There is no doubt that this is an exciting time for the whole of the book industry and we look forward to presenting the very latest works in whatever format is then current. Yet, while Publishers and Retailers continue to hail the advent of the paperless library, we believe there will always be a place for the handsomely bound book with brilliant prose and beautiful images, and we will always endeavour to find and present them don’t make plans for those bookshelves just yet!

As ever we bid you good reading!

Paul and Loreena

 

First, the new. This month will see the addition of more titles from amongst a host, Stuart Press and Bootleg Press. These booklets are very well researched and excellent starting points for anyone wishing to explore a new area. Included within the ranges are facsimiles of some of the more esoteric texts such as Needleworkes, and a number of transcriptions including “A Delightful daily exercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen”.

While not coffee table books, we find they quickly become part of the travelling kit and a fieldwork reference source.

ShireBooks, now a part of Osprey, has reprinted titles that had been removed previously due to publishing constraints. There are some absolute gems and as always, the standard of research is solid and the presentation excellent.

To the Old; As they say, all good things must come to an end but it is with great sadness that we relay the decision by the Mary Rose Trust to not reprint Before the Mastin the foreseeable future. There had been a possibility that this amazing book might be re-printed as a soft cover however, it is not to be. New titles in the series will be forthcoming shortly although as far as is known, they will not be covering the domestic paraphernalia of everyday life on board ship.

This month will see the introduction of our designation system. We are starting with the new titles and will gradually work our way through the back catalogue. Our aim is provide the reader with more information regarding the type of content; It is most definitely not meant as a reflection or a commentary on the quality of the content.

Last but not least, we will also be introducing a new category Re-enactor article care. This will contain the manufacturers instruction protocols and care instructions for many of the various re-enactor items sold on this site. Please be assured that full instructions will always be included with every item sold; this is merely a spare copy.

As ever we bid you good reading!

 

Paul and Loreena?

We are a little later this month as we have just returned from our first visit to Abbey Medieval Festival in Queensland. The new festival site is excellent and the infrastructure and support supplied by the Abbey organisers was amazing. They provided an excellent backdrop of structures for the re-enactors and vendors and we were particularly impressed with the attention given to disguising those essential services that a modern festival must have, while maintaining the medieval ambiance.

Thank you to everyone who dropped through our stall; It was great to meet and chat with so many of you. We have come back enthused, full of new ideas and already looking forward to attending next year’s festival. Meanwhile life returns to its normal rhythms. Please note that the new category T-shirts that has just appeared, is only a temporary category. For a variety of reasons, we only offer the T-shirts as an Event special and will be taking additional orders only for the next few days as a favour before removing this section.

New stock is being added to the website and in the near future we will also be introducing a grading system in the Further Details?section. This is to help qualify the books as regards being a primary, secondary and tertiary source. We have modified the standard definitions slightly to meet our own needs and a full description will be available when this system is in place.

So until next time, we bid you good reading.

Paul and Loreena

Its May already and CanCon and Rowany Festival are over; Where has the year gone! We’d like to thank all those who dropped into say hello and browse at our stall. We had a great time and look forward to being back at both events next year. The only low spot to date has been the transport issues due to the Icelandic volcano eruption, which are slowly but surely resolving. For those still waiting for their orders, I sincerely apologise and can only assure you we are doing everything we can to speed the process.

Plenty of new stock has arrived including new titles from the University of Toronto as well as the latest of the Boydell offerings and some tasty additions to our range of re-enactment goods. All of this and more will be appearing on the site in the not too distant future, we promise!

As always I bid you good reading.

Paul