Tag: 14th century

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Two books about Monsters in Medieval Manuscripts

Monsters are a common theme in Medieval times, and show up frequently in the marginalia of the manuscripts. So here are two books that are about the monsters.

Medieval Monsters
By Damien Kempf & Maria L. Gilbert

Medieval Monsters has a brief description of what the monster was and gives an example of a medieval text in which the creature is described. It is a very much imaged based with the text taking up only a small part of the page (if at all).

The siren is a monster of strange fashion, for from the waste up, it is the most beautiful thing in the world, formed in the shape of a women. The rest of the body is like a fish or a bird. She sings so sweetly and beautifully that once sailors hear her song, they cannot resist going towards her. Entranced by the music, they fall asleep in their boat, and are killed by the siren before they can utter a cry.

The images aren’t referenced within the text, but there is a bibliography explaining which manuscripts were used for the book.

Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps
by Chet Van Duzer

Unlike Medieval Monsters, Sea Monsters is a lot more text based. Duzer is keen to describe in detail why monsters were on maps (and in some cases, why they were not) and to describe in far greater detail the history of the various monsters. He makes reference also to the various legends about the monsters and to the characteristics they were said to had. Not just monsters such as sirens, dragons and mermaids are described but also what we now know to be ordinary creatures were also sometimes described as monsters.

the arms of the polyp (octopus) are so strong it can pull a sailor form a ship into the sea and then eat him.

I would recommend Medieval Monsters to those interested in the images, and Sea Monsters for those who have more interest in the history, legends and more importantly, 10th-16th century mappaemundi.

[tabs] [tab title=”Medieval Monsters – Publishers Blurb”] From satyrs and sea creatures to griffins and dragons, monsters lay at the heart of the medieval world. Believed to dwell in exotic, remote areas, these inexplicable parts of God’s creation aroused fear, curiosity and wonder in equal measure. Powerfully captured in the illustrations of manuscripts, such as bestiaries, travel books and devotional works, they continue to delight audiences today with their vitality and humour. Medieval Monsters shows how strange creatures sparked artists’ imaginations to remarkable heights. Half-human hybrids of land and sea mingle with bewitching demons, blemmyae, cyclops and multi-headed beasts of nightmare and comic grotesques. Over 100 wondrous and terrifying images offer a fascinating insight into the medieval mind. [/tab]
[tab title=”Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps – Publishers Blurb”]The sea monsters on medieval and Renaissance maps, whether swimming vigorously, gambolling amid the waves, attacking ships, or simply displaying themselves for our appreciation, are one of the most visually engaging elements on these maps, and yet they have never been carefully studied. The subject is important not only in the history of cartography, art, and zoological illustration, but also in the history of the geography of the ‘marvellous’ and of western conceptions of the ocean. Moreover, the sea monsters depicted on maps can supply important insights into the sources, influences, and methods of the cartographers who drew or painted them. In this highly-illustrated book the author analyzes the most important examples of sea monsters on medieval and Renaissance maps produced in Europe, beginning with the earliest mappaemundi on which they appear in the tenth century and continuing to the end of the sixteenth century.[/tabs]

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Images in the Margins – Review

Images in the Margins by Margot Mcilwain Nishimura

This is a cute little book about the marginalia often shown in medieval manuscript. It talks about th history of marginalia and how it started in the large capital letters of earlier manuscripts.

Images in the Margins does a good job of detailing which manuscript in particular the images come form so it’s possible to look up digital copies of the text later. There’s also brief history notes alongside the marginalia, talking about the importance of hunting for instance alongside hunting marginalia.

Marginalia often serve as a good insight into the mindsets of the people copying the manuscript. It also often gives us clues into the more common aspects which aren’t always depicted in other places, such as the image of the swimmers.

[tabs] [tab title=”Publishers Blurb”] “Images in the Margins” is the third in the popular Medieval Imagination series of small, affordable books drawing on manuscript illumination in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum and the British Library. Each volume focuses on a particular theme and provides an accessible, delightful introduction to the imagination of the medieval world. An astonishing mix of mundane, playful, absurd, and monstrous beings are found in the borders of English, French, and Italian manuscripts from the Gothic era. Unpredictable, topical, often irreverent, like the “New Yorker” cartoons of today, marginalia images drawn in the margins of manuscripts were a source of satire, serious social observation, and amusement for medieval readers. Through enlarged, full-color details and a lively narrative, this volume brings these intimately scaled, fascinating images to a wider audience. [/tab] [/tabs]

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Early English Meals and Manners- Review

Something that I think more people should look into is manners. We spend all this time on clothing and cooking but not on how the food was presented, why it was presented the way it was, and how good mannered people functioned in society in general.

So here’s the most comprehensive book available on the subject for 14-15th century re-enactors. Available free online!

Early English Meals and Manners

The first link is mostly just the editors summaries as given in the sidenotes, and is a condensed version of the original text.

The second link has the original text (in digital form) and then the editors summaries from the first link on the right. It’s a bit harder to follow though, as it appears a bit disjointed in this form and the original text.

Early English Meals and manners is a collection of various texts and poems which detail aspects of manners and dining in the 14-16th Century English time period. (I must find some texts about France and other countries manners because that would be awesome to see the differences between the various countries.)

Boke of Nature
John Russell is known to have lived in 1415 but his date of birth and death are unclear. It’s likely that the Boke Of Nature is early 15th C, although it is most likely based on an early text which would be late 14th Century.

This particular version of the text includes sections of the Boke of Carvery, which is a known 16th century text so the book has been copied several times since the authors death.

The table manners described in the Boke of Nature, are for a pretty noble table, as John Russell was in service to the Duke of Gloucester when he wrote this book.

It’s still a fascinating read into the intricate manners of the late 14th/early 15th Century.

Of course, there’s nothing quite like a physical copy of a book, so here’s the link to the book on book depository.

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Feature image is of a banquet given in Paris in 1378 by Charles V of France (center, blue) for Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor (left) and his son Wenceslaus, King of the Romans. Each diner has two knives, a square salt container, napkin, bread and a plate; by Jean Fouquet, 1455?60.

We sell napkins on our store, so if you need nice napkins for your feast kit, check them out.

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Women’s Secrets – Review

Women’s Secrets
A Translation of Pseudo-Albertus Magnus’ De Secretis Mulierum with Commentaries
Helen Rodnite Lemay

This is an English translation of either a late 13th or early 14th century text written by a disciple of Albertus Magnus. It is currently unknown what the disciple’s name actually was (hence Pseudo Albertus Magnus). The text is about human reproduction and demonstrates how 13th and 14th monks saw women (spoiler, it’s not super complimentary….)

This version also has two separate commentaries on the text – one from Lyons 1580 edition of the text and one from Venice 1508, which are interesting reading themselves.

This is NOT a medical text book and is not even representative what people in this time period understood about reproduction. It’s a social cultural explanation of what the (celibate) clergy understood about life and women.

As part of an overall collection on medieval texts, this would be a good book. It was an influential book in it’s time and provides good insight into what they were thinking.

But it’s not a good book for anyone whose just starting out or who is interested in the more practical aspects of medieval medical and health. It’s incredibly dry in places and is pure text. Even the commentaries are quite dry in places so it’s more for people interested in reading academic texts.

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Three Basic Beginner Medieval Cooking Books For Just Starting Out

It’s not as easy to be confident with medieval recipes as modern cooking. Even English medieval food is a foreign cuisine, translated from a foreign language and calling for strange ingredients. Here’s three great cooking books for those just get starting in medieval cooking.

Medieval Cookery by Maggie Black

One of the first medieval cookbooks, this book has been simplified for the modern tastebuds and is designed around a very simple shopping centre so it’s easy to get all the ingredients listed. Mostly uses 14th and 15th century english recipes.

 

 

Pleyn Delight

Constance Hiatt, Brenda Hosington, Sharon Butler?

One of my favourites, this one branches about a bit further with some roman and middle eastern recipes used as well. It has the initial translation of the recipes and then a modern interpretation of that recipe. I’ve found some of these recipes to be a bit simplified compared to the original text but it’s pleasing to modern tastebuds and the recipes do work.

 

The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy?by Odile Redon, Fran?oise Sabban, & Silvano Serventi?

Medieval Kitchen is a lot more specialised than the other two, focusing on 14th and 15th French and Italian recipes. I personally find the italian recipes to be a little more weird than the French ones, but again, these have been slightly simplified for modern tastebuds and the authors provide good substitutes for when ingredients are harder to find.

 

 

Bonus Recommendation

For some history in cooking and dining, plus a little bit on table manners, I’d recommend Cooking and Dining in Medieval England by Peter Brears. Although it hasn’t got a lot of recipes in it, it’s a great place to get an understanding of how the rooms were set out and how and why they cooked and dined they way they did.

 

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Featured image is from Livre du roi Modus et de la reine Ratio, a 14th century French manuscript, currently located in Bilblioth?que national de France. It depicts a scence of peasants breaking bread together.

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Free Online Resources for Medieval Cooking

While a physical copy of a book is best, sometimes it’s jsut impossible to get your hands on that rare translation.

So here’s a collection of medieval cookbooks online.

Single Books / Translations

 

Forme of Curye

Forme of Curye – Ebook THE 14th century English cookbook.

Menagier de Paris

English translation of Menagier de Paris

I love Menagier de Paris. It’s a story written by an older man for his new young bride. It not only has several very good (and rather plain compared to the fancy dishes often seen) but also talks about basic household stuff – how to remove stains, how to handle the servants, how to tell which fruit is ripe.

 

Collections of Medieval Cookbooks

Medieval Cookery

Medieval Cookery
It’s got several translations of medieval cookbooks with Andalusia, French, Netherlands, Romania, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Russia, England, Italy, Portugal and Spanish texts available (NB: Not everything is translated into English, mostly it’s translated into the modern language)

They also have a statistic page where you can see how many times a food group/item appears in a text to see how common it actually was as an ingredient (for instance with Forme of Currye, fish/seafood is the most common meat at 22% of the 286 receipes while duck is in only 2 or less than 1%), onions are in 15%, salt is in 47% and butter is in just 2%.

Open Hearth Cooking

Open hearth Cooking

3000 vintage Cookbooks

http://www.openculture.com/2016/07/an-archive-of-3000-vintage-cookbooks-lets-you-travel-back-through-culinary-time.html

 

Redactions of Receipes

Roxy’s 20 person lunch – 14th Century
I wrote this document, it’s the receipes I normally use to feed about 20 people for a show event.

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Dress Accessories 1150-1450 – Review

Dress Accessories 1150-1450
Geoff Egan
Fran?es Pritchard

Dress Accessories is one of the Museum of London Collections. And like all MoL books, it is faaaaaboulous.

I mean, the text is dry, this is very much an academic book. But for proper details regarding the found artifacts, with proper dates and context for the finds, MoL does it best.

Dress Accessories is about the accessories which people worn upon their persons. It contains finds found in London (and everything is English because it’s Museum of London so no need to worry about, would my persona have this) and this includes
girdles, buckles, strap ends (for belts), mounts, brooches, buttons, lace chapes, hair accessories, pins, beads, chains, pendants, finger rings, bells, purses, cased mirrors, combs, cosmetic sets, and needle cases.

Because it’s an academic text, each illustration of the finds has a scale on the page, which is very handy for anyone who intends to make the items discovered.

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Featured Product – Carved Lady with Hawke Knife

Carved Lady with Hawke is one of Adam McKay’s finer pieces of work.?Carved in the round, it portrays a young lady with a tame bird of prey. The form is modelled from a popular theme found across Europe and Scandinavia from c. 1200-1400 of young women with birds, dogs and musical instruments. Because extant examples are invariably from ivory, this reproduction is olive wood;?a fine carving wood and fitting substitute.

Beyond the sculpted handle, this is a fully functional carving knife, with a queen ebony bolster and high carbon tool steel blade. High carbon steels take and retain a razor edge, should you decide to put this artwork into service.

The accompanying vegetable tan leather?sheath is a suitable match for the carved handle. It?has been molded directly to the knife, hand stitched and decorated with hand-tooled panels, and finished with a beeswax polish for sheen and durability. The decoration is based on examples in the Museum of London.

More examples of carved handles can be seen at?Gothic Ivories Projects

Carved Lady with Hawke

While this knife is a unique work, Adam can be commissioned for similar knives via Mainly Medieval.

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Cleaning your linens

Taking care of your beautiful household linens – Table cloths:

With the best will in the world ? stuff gets spilled, and some things are more difficult to remove than others.

For a general wash;

  • Treat any normal stains with an oxygen-based or colour safe bleach, following the directions regards pre-soaking etc. We advise not using chlorine bleach as this can damage the textile.
  • A hot wash with a regular detergent on the delicate cycle should wash clean the table cloth, and help to keep the fringe from getting tangled.
  • To minimize or avoid ironing, lay the table cloth out wet from the wash on a counter or table, smooth out the wrinkles, and then hang so it falls straight. Otherwise, a short tumble dry – again, this is to keep the fringe maintenance down to a minimum.
  • Once dry, fold carefully and store under other linens so that the folds will set as seen in period art.
  • Alternatively, you can iron the patterns in as desired with a hot iron and steam.

 

To remove candle wax –

There are a number of ways to achieve this but our preferred method (and one used in period) is as follows;

  • simply scrape off the excess candle wax;
  • lay several sheets of CLEAN (non-waxed) paper underneath the candlewax spill and another sheet of paper on top of the area;
  • with the iron on a low heat, gently iron over the spot to allow the brown paper to draw out the oily residue left behind (yes, they did have irons ? though it took considerably more technique and experience to use them);
  • IMPORTANT!! Keep the Iron moving so that you don?t burn the fabric!
  • Move the affected area onto fresh sections of the paper so that they can draw the oils more efficiently.

 

To aid with the removal of Red wine stains;

  • Mop as much as you can but do NOT rub at the red wine ? it will just grind into the fibers;
  • If you can (depending on the state of the diners), dilute the stain with water ( or soda water) and mop with a clean towel;
  • Then (and this would have been an expensive fix in period), pour a generous amount of salt onto the freshly mopped red wine spill and allow it to dry;

Wash as usual, but before drying, check to see if the stain is still there ? some stain may require stronger solutions to deal with any residual stain.

 

Don’t have linens yet? Why not buy some of the beautiful ones at Mainly Medieval? The featured image on this post is our?

Household Linens – Napkins, towels and tablecloths

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Military Surgery 1300-1600 -Review

Military Surgery: 1300-1600
Caution, surgery operations are of two kinds, those which benefit the patient and those which usually kill him
By Jonathon Davies & Michael Harbinson

There are some excellent in-depth medieval surgery titles out there, such as
The Major Surgery of Guy De Chauliac, but for those who just want a quick, painless overview of the subject, there’s Davies and Harbinson’s Military Surgery: 1300-1600. At under $15, this punchy little pamphlet from Stuart Press, of Green Valley fame, weighs in at just 25 pages from title to bibliography.

What is there is excellent. It’s too short to go into great detail but that also means that there’s little waffle. Every sentence is an economical and useful slice through the topic.

There are brief descriptions of the various tools used by medieval surgeons, the various types of surgery that were performed, and the various types of wounds that a military surgeon might see. Burns, bruising and fractures are all covered.

Being focused on military surgery particularly, the kind of medical services available to soldiers is considered, and the type of wounds they sustained from the evolving weapons of the medieval battlefield. We follow the development of diagnosis and treatment as armour piercing infantry weapons, then firearms became commonplace.

This pamphlet is too basic for anyone already well studied in surgery or medieval military wounds, but it is an excellent primer. There’s no shortage of blood-curdling detail and grim realities of the horrors of medieval warfare for the curious, without gratuity.
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