This month’s Saint of the Month is St Martin of Tours. Born around 316AD and died in 397AD.
He is Celebrated on Nov 11th.
Martin is believed to have been a soldier in the Roman army. Our replica badge depicts the legend of the cutting of Martins cloak in two in order to share it with a near naked beggar. That night, Martin received a vision in which the beggar revealed himself to be Christ. Martin vowed to abandon his military career for the life of a monk – later becoming Bishop of Tours.
Martin was the first confessor saint – one who became a saint through an exemplary life rather than through martyrdom.
This replica badge is based on an original found in the Netherlands, currently in a private collection. Purchase your own replica badge for St Martin of Tours here.
Further information about St Martin of Tours can be found on his wikipedia page.
In the medieval period, previous and semi precious stones had specific meanings. Below are some meanings taken from a 15th century English lapidarium. Different places and times had different meanings for their stones.
Our calendar of Australian medieval fairs is up to date with all of the 2022 events still to come, and a start on the 2023 season. The events of recent years have seen a lot of changes to the lineup, with several old favourites going by the wayside but interesting new events popping up in their place. Please let us know if we’ve missed an upcoming fair near you!
After a protracted migration and redevelopment, we’re thrilled to announce that our new online shop is – Open! Our updated shop is now mobile-responsive, with a compact layout when you browse from your smartphone or tablet, and live inventory data so if you can see a product on the shop, it’s in stock and ready to ship immediately.
For the moment, we have our top 3 most popular product categories available but over the next few months we will be bringing the rest of the catalogue online – including some exciting new additions.
There’s an exciting new translation of a 14th century Egyption Cookbook. It’s the first time it’s been fully translated into English.? What’s even more fascinating is that the author takes the time to talk about things that aren’t mentioned a great deal in the usual European sources.?
It talks specifically about how to make bread (delicious bread, which uses milk instead of water) and about various egg recipes. (A few European sources mention eggs briefly, but mostly to say that everyone knows about eggs so there’s no need to talk about it). It specifically talks about the kind of wood that a cook should use “pick dry firewood, which does not create a great deal of smoke due to it’s wetness, such as olive or dry oak. Wood of oleander and trees with milky sap and the like must be avoided, as should firewood from the fig tree and any wood high in moisture”. And there’s an entire chapter on incenses.
Nawal Nasrallah is a fantastic translator. The book is extremely informative without being too dry. (Nasrallah uses the index and glossary to go super in depth about the translation and to talk specifically about why particular translations should be used which is also extremely instructional.)
Overall, this is an excellent collection to anyone’s medieval cookbook collection.
There’s a few pictures and figures from 14th century sources scattered throughout the book, to help illustrate various points. Including an ancient Egyption hand mixer, glass beakers, and bronze perforated incense burners.
There is also 22 modern adapations of some of the recipes in the appendix, complete with beautiful food photography. Dried apricot stew looks pretty good!
The fourteenth-century Egyptian cookbook, Kanz al-faw?’id fi tanw? al-maw?id, is a treasure trove of 830 recipes of dishes, digestives, refreshing beverages, and more. Here, for the first time, it has been meticulously translated into English and supplemented with a comprehensive introduction, glossary, illustrations, and twenty-two modern adaptations of its recipes.
On August 5th, Company of the Staple member Roxy talked about Campfire cooking and cooking with ceramics on a campfire. These are the notes from that talk. These notes were originally posted to Companyofthestaple.org.au
We have exciting news. The time has come to undertake a major upgrade of the Mainly Medieval website! To facilitate this, we will be switching off the online store section of the website and stock will only be available for sale at events such as St Ives Medieval Faire. The calendar and our blog and Facebook will continue as normal with fresh posts and interesting snippets, and we will keep you all updated on progress.
For those customers with orders currently in progress or with back orders, we will,?of course, continue to process these and keep you updated.
We are really looking forward to the changes that are occurring and we thank you in advance for your patience as we work towards the new Mainly Medieval incarnation.
We’ve just had a workshop day for Mainly Medieval, going through and seeing what tasks need to be done.
We had noticed at the last event that the old Burgundian tent (about 8 years old now) was starting to leak water in from it’s seams. So time to fix that up, books hate rain!
We used a mix of beeswax and distilled pine resin (aka pine turpentine), which meant that the beeswax was easy to work with.
Take a small scoop, rub it into the seam and burnish it into the seams with a piece of leather (or with fingers).
Canvas tents are great and authentic, but they have one key disadvantage over plastic tents. It’s not availability, cost, weight or bulk;? it’s that they are prone to mould.
So, how can you avoid the scourge of tent mould, and what should you do if it does occur?
About Mould
Mould is a type of fungi that grows in moist, dark environments. If your tent stays damp and dark for long enough, mould will flourish and spread by spores. The mould?can consume the fabric of your tent and if you try to camp in a mouldy tent, the spores can trigger asthma and allergies.
Mould Likes: Dark Damp Neutral PH
Mould Hates: Sunlight Dry Acid or basic PH
Avoiding Mould – Dry, Air and Store
Ideally, you’d like to not get mould in the first place. Whenever possible, the tent needs to dry completely before being put away. Check the seams and where the tent touches the ground – these are often the places that take the longest to dry.?If you do have to pack the tent up damp or wet, air the tent as soon as possible.
Air the tent by opening it right up in a spot with good ventilation. You can put the tent up, or just spread it out to dry. Ideally, air the tent in direct sunlight for extra UV treatment.
Store the tent in a dry place between events. Ideally, pack the tent loosely in a bag that breathes, rather than in plastic. Plastic helps keep water out, but if the tent goes away with any moisture at all, plastic will keep it in and foster mould.
Check your storage spot regularly. Leaky sheds, flooded garages and damp basements will ruin your next camping trip.
Dealing with Mould – Kill, Clean and Waterproof
So, you’ve unpacked your tent and found mould?- there’s discolouration, it stinks and the fabric is permanently weakened. The first step is to kill the mould and prevent further damage. Mould hates sunlight, so get that mouldy canvas into direct, burning sunlight.
Next, brush or vacuum as much of the dead mould off the fabric as possible.
Mix a solution of one part white vinegar to ten parts warm water. Using a cloth, scrub the vinegar solution over the mouldy areas. This kills any remaining mould and cleans it off the fibres. Allow the vinegar to dry completely, and then use a firm brush or a scrubbing brush again to remove the mould spots.
Check all ropes. Medieval tents have natural fibre ropes that can be easily weakened by rot. If the rope has rotted, it will need to be replaced.
Air the tent again to completely dry the cleaned area and store.
Some tents may require re-waterproofing after cleaning. In period, tent canvas swelled up when wet and became waterproof. Many modern reproductions use thin canvas with a waterproofing agent though. If you find water coming through the newly cleaned spot, head to the camping store for some canvas waterproofing agent and re-proof the cleaned area.
Prevention is Better than Cure
So, that’s how to deal with a mouldy tent. The science is simple, but the task is gross. Keep your tent dry and aired, and tent mould will be something that only happens to other people.
When brought before the judge and required to comply with the rituals of the Roman ‘Pagan’ gods, Alban refused and declared, “I worship and adore the true and living God who created all things.”
According to the venerable Bede, Alban lived and was martyred in Verulamium (now St Albans) Roman Britain, sometime during the 3rd or 4th Century. There are several versions of the martyrdom but in essence, Alban converted to Christianity while sheltering a Christian priest from persecution having been impressed by the piety and faith of the priest. So much so, that when the Roman soldiers deployed to arrest the priest arrived at Albans house, Alban donned the cloak of the priest and gave himself up in the priest’s stead.
When brought before the judge and required to comply with the rituals of the Roman ‘Pagan’ gods, Alban refused and declared, “I worship and adore the true and living God who created all things.” (The words are still used in prayer at St Alban’s Abbey).
After various torture, Alban was sentenced to execution by beheading and it is during the journey to his martyrdom that Alban caused several miraculous events to occur including the drying up of a river to allow the execution party to cross to the place of beheading, and a spring to flow forth at the place of execution to slake Albans thirst.
It was here that Alban’s head was struck off, along with the head of the first Roman soldier who was miraculously converted and refused to execute him. Immediately after delivering the fatal stroke, the eyes of the second executioner popped out of his head and dropped to the ground along with Alban’s head so that this second executioner could not rejoice over Alban’s death. It is this scene which is typically depicted in the medieval pilgrim’s Badges of St Alban.
