News of the Week:
St. Petersburg:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/arts/2006/12/05/baherm05.xml
UNESCO Church in Sofia Reopens with New Frescoes:
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=73564
Saxon jewelry: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/6200614.stm
An interesting take on the medieval in the modern:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/SiliconInsider/story?id=389513&page=1
Of note:
http://historymedren.about.com/od/carolingianempire/a/charlesgreat.htm
Dec 1:
Birthday of:
1088: Anna Commena
Saints:
660: Eligius of Noyons
Anniversary of the death:
1135 Henry I
Events:
1170: Becket returns to Canterbury
Dec 2:
Saints:
361: St. Bibiana
Anniversary of the Death:
537: Pope Saint Silverius
Dec. 3
Birthday of:
1368 Charles IV, King of France
Saints:
649: St Birinus of Wessex
Anniversary of the death:
1154 Pope Anastasius IV
1181 St. Galgano, a knight who plunged his sword into a stone as an
act of renunciation of warfare.
1469 Piero de'Medici
Events:
1059 BCE Earliest probable recorded observation of Halley's Comet
Dec 4:
Birthday of
1383 antipope Pope Felix V
1585 John Cotton, Puritan clergyman in Massachusetts Bay Colony
Saints:
235: St. Barbara (old calendar)
1099: St. Osimund, Bishop of Salisbury, aka Edmund
Anniversary of the death
771 Carloman, co-ruler of the Franks
1099 St. Osmund
1214 William, "the Lion," King of Scotland
1334 Pope John XXII at Avignon
Saint Day
306 St. Barbara, virgin, martyr (about 306)
450 St. Peter Chrysologus, archbishop of Ravenna - His Feast Day is
July 30th
655 St. Siran or Sigirannus, abbot in Berry, confessor
1075 St. Anno, archbishop of Cologne, martyr
1099 St. Osmund, bishop and confessor
Events:
265 Last of the wall around Verona, Italy, built
1093 Archbishop Anselm, of Canterbury, consecrated
1154 Election of Pope Adrian IV (only English Pope)
1183 The Siege of Castle Kerak is lifted; Saladin withdraws
Dec 5:
Birthday of
1443 Pope Julius II, patron of Michelangelo, Bramante, Raphael
Saint Day
304 St. Crispina, martyr
532 St. Sabas, abbot
566 St. Nicetius, bishop of Triers
1109 St. Gerald, Abbott of Moissac, who was appointed choir
director of the Cathedral of Toledo.
1160: Christina of Markgate
Events:
St. Nicholas's Eve (Netherlands)
Sven name day in Sweden
1212 Frederick II chosen King of Germany...again
1484 The Pope sets severe penalties against German witches and
magicians
1492 Columbus discovers Hispaniola
1496 King Manuel I orders the expulsion of all Jews from Portugal
Dec 6:
Birthday of
1421 Henry VI, King of England
1478 Baldassare Castiglione, Italian diplomat, writer, poet
Saints:
346: St. Nicholas!
484: St. Dionysia with her son, Majoricus, and sister Dativa
Anniversary of the death
342 St. Nicholas
1185 Alphonso I, King of Portugal
1352 Pope Clement VI
1475 Castilglione
Events
Election Day of the "Boy-Bishop:":
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02725a.htm
1240 Mongols take Kiev, Russia
1273 St. Thomas Aquinas ceases writing
1323 John of Nottingham and Robert Marshall of Leicester undertake
the murder of Edward II, King of England, by witchcraft
1362 Coronation of Pope Urban V
1491 Marriage of Duchess Anne of Brittany to Charles VII of France
1492 Haiti/Santo Domingo discovered by Columbus
Dec 7
Birthday of
521 St. Columba (Colum Cille)
1598 Giovanni Bernini
Saints:
374: Ambrose of Milan, see below
Anniversary of the death
983 Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor
1254 Pope Innocent IV
Events:
374:St. Ambrose Ordained
Words:
haplography-the inadvertent omission of a repeated letter(s) in
writing (e.g. writing philogy for philology)
This is encountered frequenly in working on medieval manuscripts and
texts.
machination--Anglo-Norman and Middle French machination plotting,
wicked contrivance or stratagem (13th cent. in Old French) and its
etymon classical Latin machinatio-machine making. The word enters
English in the second half of the 15th century.
skulk-a word borrowed from Old Norse, skulka--to lie in wait, lie
watching and comes into the English language fairly early. Maybe some
of our Scandinavian friends can speak to its continued life in those
languages. In the early period the word is usually used with adverbs,
so to "skulk away", or to skulk about. In English it seems to have
acquired a negative connotation almost right away, used in an early
Middle English version of the Ancrene Wisse (The Anchoresses' Rule)
warning against skulking away.
nawab--an originally Arab word, borrowed into medieval Persian, it was
taken over by Urdu from whence this form comes and referred first to a
native governor under the Moguls, then to a Muslim of high status in
India during the Muslim centuries.
Quote of the Week:, in honor of the holidays:
>From Carmena Burana:
Bibit hera, bibit herus,
bibit miles, bibit clerus,
bibit ille, bibit illa
bibit servus cum ancilla. (14.33-36)
The wife drinks, the husband drinks,
the soldier drinks, the priest drinks,
he drinks, she drinks,
barkeeper drinks, waitress drinks.'
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A Priest
13 hours ago