Medieval Europeans were well aware of the balanced network of living creatures that populated their existence, but the great thinkers of the Late Middle Ages (about 1050-1500) were less interested in writing about the web of life than they were about trying to demonstrate the way the natural world pointed to spiritual truths. The Medieval […]
Medieval Bestiaries Read More »
Slander against the Islamic prophet Muhammad was rife in the Medieval Christian world. The religion of Islam spread rapidly and successfully, and in the agrarian hinterlands of Western Europe, many people’s fear of Islam was matched by their ignorance of it. Many depictions of Muhammad from the 12th to the 18th centuries reflect this. Here,
Depictions of Muhammad in Medieval Europe Read More »
Medieval culture repeatedly drew connections between animals and moralistic qualities. The pig — an animal ubiquitously eaten by Christians throughout the Middle Ages — developed an unusually bad reputation. This detail from a 15th-century prayer book shows a woman stroking a pig. While the overall image looks benign — the larger painting is all about
Pigs in Medieval Culture Read More »
We need to talk about pig farming in the Early Middle Ages. Pigs weren’t usually the most important domesticated animal for folks living in Western Europe between 500-1000 CE, but they shaped the lives of almost everyone. In a Michael Pollan “who’s-dominating-whom,” sort of vibe, historian Jamie Kreiner’s research demonstrates that although Medieval folks of
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This elephant ivory plaque from the Cathedral of Salerno dating to 1084 shows an image of God creating the animals. Early Medieval ideas about the place of animals in nature were shaped by Christianity. On the one hand, following Augustine (d 430) et al., who drew from the Genesis story, intellectuals thought that the animal
God Creating Animals Depicted on Ivory Plaque Read More »
“At one glanceI love youWith a thousand heartsLet the zealots thinkLoving is sinfulNever mindLet me burn in the hellfireOf that sin”This is just one snippet of a poem from an unusual source: Mihrî Hatun of the Ottoman Empire (1460-1515). In a place and time where most written voices were of men, the _meclis_ were intellectual
Mihri Hatun the Early Modern Ottoman Woman Poet Read More »
Yesterday, Shippensburg’s special collections librarian James Sterner gave a presentation about the history of book printing in Early Modern Europe. The university recently recieved a collection of rare books, including a 1609 copy of an English translation of Josephus’s _History of the Wars_.James Sterner used this copy to discuss the process of printing at this
Early Modern Book Printing Presentation Read More »
This is as close an approximation to a long-dead historical figure as we are likely to get: this is “Amir Timur” aka Tamerlane, one of history’s most brutal killers, who conquered much of Central Asia, modern Iran and Afghanistan during his lifetime of 68 years (d 1405). The reconstruction was done by a well-known Soviet
The Casualties of Timur (aka Tamerlane) Read More »
This is one of the coolest sources of Ancient Egyptian mythology, dealing with magical healing spells, the myth of the death and resurrection of the God Horus, and, most interesting from my perspective, the enormous power of the Goddess Isis. Dating from 380-342 BCE, the “Metternich Stela” has a hecking ton of hieroglyphs detailing magical
The Metternich Stela and Isis Read More »
“Born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth” is a common expression that means your family is rich. The origins of this saying go a long way back, and are connected to a tradition of giving silver spoons to infants getting baptized into the Christian faith. Wiktionary traces the first recorded statement to a 1721
Silver Baptismal Gift Tradition Read More »
This is a re-creation of the nomadic Seljuk Turkish dynasty’s tents, as they maybe looked in the late 11th century. The Seljuks are most well known for destroying the powerful armies of the Byzantines, inspiring their emperor to request military forces from Western Europe, and hence, kick-starting the Crusades. However, this is not the most
The Seljuk Turks and the “Plain of Testicles” Read More »
Oh, boo! Now I have to get walled off in a building surrounded by my own gold and given nothing to eat until I starve! — this might as well be the caption of the illumination here from the early 1400s, illustrating the death of the last ruler of the Abbasid Dynasty, often called the
The Death of the Last Abbasid Caliph, al-Musta Read More »
If you look for more than a second at the squiggles on this image, you will soon make out patterns of squares as well as some long lines joining them. These images made huge headlines in the fields of archaeology and history this month because of what they have revealed about an ancient civilization in
Ancient Civilization Discovered in the Ecuadorian Amazon Read More »
One of the most fascinating monsters in human cultures is the ghoul — here, you see a particularly nasty one about to be done in by the hero Shah Namah in a 10th-century Persian manuscript. The legends of ghouls extend back in time to the pre-Islamic Arabian Peninsula, but have persisted into modern times, much
The History of Ghouls Read More »
So if you’re into certain video games, Swedish metal bands, or the Young Adult fiction writer Rick Riordan, you may have heard the name “Naglfar.” Regardless, you can say you read about the most hideous ship in all of human history here. And that’s because Naglfar was a boat from Viking mythology made up entirely
Naglfar the Viking “Nail-Ship” Read More »
The effects of relentless (often religious-based) warfare in 16th-first half of 17th centuries brought horrifying new ways to suffer and die. Due to the widespread emergence of firearms and cannons, soldiers faced gunshot wounds, burns (often caused when the equipment blew up on the combatants intending to use their weapons), and loss of limbs. Although
Medical Advancements in Early Modern European Warfare Read More »
In the wake of the Protestant Reformation in Europe (c.a. 1500-1650), warfare changed dramatically. Shown by this illustration from 1535 with two men loading fieldguns (look how fancy these cannon-sized weapons are), firearms were a major feature. Cannons and handguns replaced pikes and plate-mail armored soldiers, resulting in combats that were less direct, but caused
Innovations in Early Modern Warfare Read More »
From the 1500s through the middle of the 1600s, near constant warfare beleagured Europe, taking on new horrifying expressions. This picture shows one moment where the fighting got so bad that people put aside their differences to ally themselves with one another in order to have a break from the violence — a brief episode
The Pacification of Ghent Read More »
My vote for the uttermost macabre U.S. state motto goes to Maryland. It comes from the original seal of the state dating to the early 1600s, which bears the words running across the horizontal banner below the two male figures, stating “FATTI MASCHII PAROLE FEMINE,” and we’re just gonna need a minute to process this.
Maryland’s State Motto Read More »
This painting is breathtaking — especially when you consider that an artist painted the original in about 1535 — this is a copy from the first part of the 1600s. Entitled “Vädersolstavlan,” the Swedish name translates into “The Sun-Dog Painting” and may be the first artistic rendering of this celestial phenomenon. Sun-dogs happen in the
Sun-dogs, Astrology, and Apocalyptic Thought in the Italian Renaissance Read More »
