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The Newsletter for the Medieval History Site at About.com Vol. II, No.9 June 20, 1999   •Time Trip •Win $100 Grand! •Tudor Trash •Internet's Patron Saint

 

Our Latest Feature

Time Trip

Uncle Harry's time machine is new & improved, and you can use it to travel back to any point in time from 499 to 1699. Where will you go, and why? Get your traveling papers.

 

 

About.com Sweepstakes

Win $100,000!

Run wild with About.com and you could win $100,000! To enter, point your browser to the start page, click on the Golden Arrow, and start your journey on the 100K Course. Along the way you'll visit just a sampling of our incredibly diverse GuideSites and see for yourself that we're about whatever you're about. What's more, you'll be headed down the road to riches without even breaking a sweat.

In the News

Tudor trash dump reveals fascinating details

A recently discovered rubbish dump dating to about 1560 has provided a wealth of items from everyday Tudor life. Shoes, armor, tools, toys and a banana are generating some scholastic excitement among historians and archaeologists. For more information, see the article by Dalya Alberge at the Times. There's also a related article on that exciting banana.

Movement to make St. Isidore patron saint of the web

St. Isidore of Seville, born in the mid-sixth century, produced a 20-volume encyclopedia that has been regarded as the first database. The Vatican is now considering a proposal to make Isidore the patron saint of the Internet. For more information see the article by Richard Woods at the Sunday Times.

Dark-age plague brought to Europe with ivory

New discoveries in Zanzibar reveal the port of Unguja Ukuu may date to the sixth century, and was likely the point of departure for large quantities of ivory headed for Europe, where it was in high demand. Hitch-hiking with the ivory was the black rat, rattus rattus, the remains of which have also been found in Unguja Ukuu and which very likely carried the plague back to Europe. So devastating was this epidemic of the mid-sixth century that it is regarded by some as the beginning of the Dark Ages. For more, see the article by Nigel Hawkes at the Times.

 

 

Medieval Minutia

Eyeglasses were first devised sometime before the thirteenth century was out, but it is unknown who was responsible for the invention. In both Europe and China, magnifying lenses in frames were used for reading at this time.

The first recorded mention of eyeglasses is by Roger Bacon in 1268; the first portrait to show eyeglasses is one of Hugh of Provence, painted by Tommaso da Modena in 1352. In 1480, Domenico Ghirlandajo painted St. Jerome at a desk from which dangled eyeglasses, and as a result, Jerome became the patron saint of the spectacle-makers' guild. In 1517, in a portrait of Pope Leo X painted by Raphael, a concave lens for myopia is first evident.

Source: The Encyclopedia Britannica

For more on technological developments in the Middle Ages, see our page of links on Science and Technology.

 

 

Site Update

Directory Reorganization

Our expanding list of links on Daily Life has been broken up into five pages:

Daily Life: General

Clothing & Fabrics

Economics

Food & Famine

Games & Pastimes

You can find all our daily life link pages in our Daily Life index.

New Links

New links have been added to the following pages:

Castles

Castle and Siege Terminology

 

Daily Life

Daily Life: General

Manorial Glossary

Clothing & Fabrics

Modesty to Majesty: The Development of the Codpiece

Economics

Money and Coinage

Food & Famine

The Assizes of Bread and Beer and Lucrum Pistoris

Cooking Glossary

Dining in State: A High Cuisine Guide

Dinner at Cowdray House

The Flour of Chivalry

Games & Pastimes

Ancient and Medieval Falconry

Games

 

Health & Medicine

Satan Triumphant: The Black Death

 

Medieval Asia

Medieval Asia: General

Internet East Asian History Sourcebook

 

Medieval Europe

The Carolingians

Charlemagne and the Carolingian Renaissance

 

Military History

The Crusades

The Holy Crusades

Heraldry

Chivalric and Heraldic Terminology (also added to Knighthood)

An Elizabethan Armorial (also added to General Britain)

Heralds and Heraldry in Elizabethan England

(also added to General Britain)

Medieval Flags and Banners

A Primer of Blazonry

 

Music

The Dulcian

 

Reference Tools

Glossaries

Medieval Resources

Pimbley's Dictionary of Heraldry

Maps

Ireland c. 1500 (also added to Ireland)

Scotland and the Borders (also added to Scotland)

Tudor England (also added to General Britain)

Tudor London (also added to General Britain)

Western Europe c. 1550 (also added to Europe)

Cartographic Images: Early Medieval Maps.

Cartographic Images: Late Medieval Maps

Cartographic Images: Renaissance Mapslso available.

 

Religion in the Middle Ages

General Christianity

Ecclesiastical Terminology

Heresy & the Inquisition

Heretics, Heresies and the Church

 

 

 

Medieval History Chat Schedule

This Monday we have a special chat topic:

Time Travel
How would you use a time machine to study history?

Eastern U.S. Time: Monday at 8:30 PM

Eastern Australia Time: Tuesday at 10:30 AM

Universal Time Coordinated (UTC): Tuesday at 12:30 AM

Our other chats continue as normal:

Midweek Break
Get through the middle of the week with a chat about the middle ages. We start early and stay longer than usual, so drop in any time!

Eastern U.S. Time: Wednesday at 5:00 PM

Eastern Australia Time: Thursday at 7:00 AM

Universal Time Coordinated (UTC): Wednesday at 9:00 PM

The Wizards of Oz
A special weekend chat for our friends in Australia--and anyone else who'd like to drop in.

Eastern U.S. Time: Friday at 9:30 PM

Eastern Australia Time: Saturday at 11:30 AM

Universal Time Coordinated (UTC): Saturday at 1:30 AM

Any changes in the schedule will be posted at the log-in page.

 

 

New Quizlet

What do you know about the Danish Kings of England? Come to our Quizlet page and test your wits.

Elsewhere at About.com

The Internet is a great place to get the freshest news. For the best in significant links, breaking news, and in-depth background, visit Keith Porter's Current Events -- World site at About.com.

Coming Soon to the Medieval History Site

Survey Responses

 

  

Quote of the Knight Sumer is icumen in, Lhude, sing cuccu! Groweth sed, and bloweth med, And springth the wude nu The Cuckoo Song (anonymous); 13th century

 

I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Knightly Newsletter. Thanks for reading, and thanks for visiting the Medieval History site!

Melissa Snell
Your Medieval History Guide at About.com

 

 

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Check out issue II.8 of the Knightly Newsletter.
Visit our index of previous issues.

 

 

 

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