Monday, June 25, 2007

Medieval News

Mysterious medieval maze restored:
http://www.24dash.com/news/58/22379/index.htm

Ethiopia's 'lost' Muslim towns belie Christian past:
http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070615-051900-6778r

Othello's Cypriot citadel on the brink of ruin:
http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=entertainmentnews&storyID=2007-06-15T190741Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_India-303299-1.xml

Medieval fun to see in 800 years of city:
http://www.wetherbynews.co.uk/wetherby-news?articleid=2954987

Marking market's start, Charter Market in Cricklade:
http://www.wiltsglosstandard.co.uk/news/latest/display.var.1474814.0.marking_markets_start.php

Up and coming star' librarian to catalog Westminster Abbey books:
http://www.news.uiuc.edu/news/07/0612cook.html

Claim that £1m El Cid sword is a forgery provokes a duel of words:
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2651055.ece

Romanian government criticized by lawmakers for returning 'Dracula
Castle':
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/14/europe/EU-GEN-Romania-Draculas-Castle.php

Monday, June 18, 2007

More Medieval News June 8-16

Medieval News June 8-14

Bodies from Viking ships to be exhumed

Ancient Hill of Tara is put on 'crisis list' backed

Israel Museum unveils rare Biblical manuscript from 'silent era'

Is this Chaucer's astrolabe?

Konstantin der Große - Landesausstellung in Trier


English manuscript unveiled in LA


June 8

Saint:
William, Archbishop of York, d. 1154

Death:
218 Macrinus, Roman Emperor
410 St. Melania the Elder
632 Muhammad
1042 Harthacanute, King of Denmark and England
1154 St. William of York
1376 Edward, the Black Prince
1383 Thomas de Ros, 5th Baron de Ros, English Crusader
1384 Kanami, Japanese actor
1476 George Neville, English archbishop and statesman
1492 Elizabeth, wife of King Edward IV of England

Events:
68 The Roman Senate accepts emperor Galba.
536 St. Silverius consecrated as pope
793 Norsemen sack Lindesfarne
1042 Harthacnut, King of England & Denmark, dies, is succeeded in
England by Edward the Confessor, in Denmark by Magnus, King of
Norway
1147 King Louis VII and Queen Eleanor of France leave St. Denis on
crusade
1191 Richard I, King of England, lands at Acre
1287 Revolt of Rhys ap Meredudd
1333 Edward III orders seizure of the Isle of Man
1374 Chaucer given the office of Controller of Customs
1405 Richard le Scrope, Archbishop of York and Thomas Mowbray, Earl
of Norfolk, executed in York on Henry IV's orders.
1495 First written record of Scotch Whisky




June 9

Saints:
Ephrem the Syrian
Columba
Willibald of Eichstät

Death:
68 Nero, Roman Emperor
373 Ephrem the Syrian, Christian hymnodist
597 St. Columba (Colum Cille)
630 King Shahrbaraz of Persia
1171 St. Silverius consecrated as bishop
1290 Beatrice, Dante's inspiration
1361 Philippe de Vitry, French composer

Events:
1064 Coimbra is taken by Ferdinand, King of Castile
1075 HOMBURG (defeat of Saxons by Henry VI of France)
1156 Marriage of Friedrich "Barbarossa" King of Germany, to
Beatrix of Burgundy
1198 Otto IV chosen King of Germany
1247 Carpini, Papal Legate returning from the Mongols, reaches Kiev,
Russia
1310 Duccio's Maestà Altarpiece, a seminal artwork of the early
Italian Renaissance, is unveiled and installed in the Siena
Cathedral in Siena, Italy.
1358 MEAUX (Jacquerie defeated by Captal de Buch and Gaston Phoebus)
1365 Pope Urban V excommunicates Don Pedro, King of Castile
1480 Turks attack Malta

June 10

Saints:
John Dominic, Archbishop of Ragusa

Birthday:
1213 - Fakhruddin 'Iraqi, Persian philosopher

Death:
1075 Ernest of Austria
1190 Friedrich "Barbarossa," King of Germany, Burgundy, and the Holy
Roman Empire,drowns in the Saleph River while leading an army to
Jerusalem.
1424 Duke Ernest of Austria

Events:
1179 Baldwin IV defeated by Saladin
1194 Much of Chartres, France, destroyed by fire
1248 Destruction of Bergen, Norway, by fire
1258 Provisions of Oxford Issued
1376 Election of Wenceslaus as King of Germany
1429 Defeat of the Earl of Suffolk by Joan d'Arc


June 11

Birthday:
1403 John IV, Duke of Brabant
1456 Anne Neville, wife of Richard III of England

Death:
1183 Henry the Young King, son of Henry II of England
1216 Henry of Flanders, Emperor of the Latin Empire
1216 Henry, Emperor of Rumania supposedly poisoned by his wife
1292 Roger Bacon
1488 King James III of Scotland

Events:
1144 Dedication of the Abbey Church of St. Denis, the first great Gothic church in France
1186 The Glastonbury Abbey "Lady Chapel" is consecrated
1258 Provisions of Oxford reforms proposed by Parliament
1381 "John Ball hath rungen his bell" Peasant revolt in England
1474 Louis XI, King of France, ratifies the "Perpetual Peace"
1488 SAUCHIEBURN; Murder of James III, King of Scotland
1496 Columbus returns to Spain

June 12

Saints:
Barnabus the Apostle
Pedro Rodrigues and Companions, Military Martyrs

Birthday:
1107 Emperor Gaozong of China

Death:
816 St. Leo, Pope
918 Ethelfleda, daughter of Alfred "the Great," King of England
1020 Lyfing, Archbishop of Canterbury
1418 Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac, Constable of France
1435 John FitzAlan, 14th Earl of Arundel, English military leader
1479 St. John of Sahagun

Events:
1298 Wm. Wallace routs English
1349 Edward III, King of England, orders the practice of Archery
1365 King Edward III bans football in London, orders archery practice
1381 Peasants' Revolt: In England rebels arrive at Blackheath.
1402 John, Duke of Burgundy, massacres 3500 people in Paris
1418 An insurrection delivers Paris to the Burgundians.
1429 Hundred Years' War: Joan of Arc leads the French army in their
capture of the city and the English commander, William de la
Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk in the second day of the Battle of
Jargeau.
1442 Alfonso V, King of Aragon, crowned King of Naples
1446 Peace of Constance
1458 College of St. Mary Magdelen founded, Oxford, England

June 13

Saints:
Anthony of Padua

Birthday:
823 Charles II (the Bald), King of France & Emperor

Death:
1103 Ali az-Zahir, caliph
1231 St. Anthony of Padua
1256 Tankei, Japanese sculptor

Events:
1290 Coup on the Slave Dynasty in India
1329 The Kingship of Robert I, "the Bruce," King of Scots, is
recognized by Pope John XXII
1373 Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of Alliance (world's oldest) is signed
1374 Chaucer given an annual pension from John of Gaunt
1392 Pierre de Craon attempts the assassination of Clisson, Constable
of France
1483 Richard of Gloucester accuses Jane Shore of sorcery

June 14

Saints:
Methodius I of Constantinople
Joseph the Hymnographer

Birthday:
1444 Nilakantha Somayaji, Indian mathematician
1479 Giglio Gregorio Giraldi, Italian poet

Deaths:
775 Saint Ciarán of Disert-Kieran, Irish saint and writer
847 St. Methodius of Constantinople
1161 Emperor Qinzong of China (b. 1100)
1381 Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury

Events:
1144 Consecration of Notre Dame, Paris
1170 Coronation of Henry III as King of England
1191 Phillip II of France orders a general assault on Acre. It fails
1272 Founding of Gouda, Holland
1325 Ibn Batuta leaves Tangier to make Pilgrimage to Mecca. He does not return for twenty-nine years.
1334 The Mongol Khatun (Princess) Bayalun journeys to Constantinople
1381 Richard II makes promises to rebels
1497 Murder of Duke of Gandia, Juan Borgia

Quote of the week:
Bernard of Chartres used to say that we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size.--John of Salisbury

Friday, June 08, 2007

Poetry Day

Robert Frost:

'OUT, OUT--'
The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Five mountain ranges one behind the other
Under the sunset far into Vermont.
And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,
As it ran light, or had to bear a load.
And nothing happened: day was all but done.
Call it a day, I wish they might have said
To please the boy by giving him the half hour
That a boy counts so much when saved from work.
His sister stood beside them in her apron
To tell them 'Supper'. At the word, the saw,
As if to prove saws knew what supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap--
He must have given the hand. However it was,
Neither refused the meeting. But the hand!
The boy's first outcry was a rueful laugh.
As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all--
Since he was old enough to know, big boy
Doing a man's work, though a child at heart--
He saw all spoiled. 'Don't let him cut my hand off
The doctor, when he comes. Don't let him, sister!'
So. But the hand was gone already.
The doctor put him in the dark of ether.
He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.
And then -- the watcher at his pulse took fright.
No one believed. They listened at his heart.
Little -- less -- nothing! -- and that ended it.
No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.


From Beowulf in honor of Karen:
Forth he fared at the fated moment,
sturdy Scyld to the shelter of God.
Then they bore him over to ocean's billow,
loving clansmen, as late he charged them,
while wielded words the winsome Scyld,
the leader beloved who long had ruled....

In the roadstead rocked a ring-dight vessel,
ice-flecked, outbound, atheling's barge:
there laid they down their darling lord
on the breast of the boat, the breaker-of-rings,
by the mast the mighty one. Many a treasure
fetched from far was freighted with him.

No ship have I known so nobly dight
with weapons of war and weeds of battle,
with breastplate and blade: on his bosom lay
a heaped hoard that hence should go
far o'er the flood with him floating away.

No less these loaded the lordly gifts,
thanes' huge treasure, than those had done
who in former time forth had sent him
sole on the seas, a suckling child.

High o'er his head they hoist the standard,
a gold-wove banner; let billows take him,
gave him to ocean. Grave were their spirits,
mournful their mood. No man is able
to say in sooth, no son of the halls,
no hero 'neath heaven, -- who harbored that freight!

taken from the translation of http://www.kami.demon.co.uk/gesithas/readings/bss_me.html