...ars sine scientia nihil est...

If you have come looking for information on medieval Korea, be sure to visit my website where things are hopefully grouped together coherently.

http://www.medieval-baltic.us/korea.html
http://www.medieval-baltic.us/kortea.html is about the history of tea culture and ceremonies.
http://www.medieval-baltic.us/korot.html for information about mid-Joseon period womens' dress.

If you're looking for information about medieval sign lexicons, and language, see:
http://medieval-baltic.us/msl.html

Castronovo, Joseph Anthony, Jr. (1998) Reading Hidden Messages Through Deciphered Manual Alphabets on Classic Artwork [PhD Thesis: The University of Arizona.]

I found about this thesis by following a footnote on Wikipedia to a press release describing Castronovo's impressive-sounding research. However, except for the brief mention of the TV series "The Sign of Artistic Signatures," the only other work I could find was his 1998 thesis. So that's what I'll be giving a brief review of.
( Read more... )

After finding a whole pile of illustrations of Geoffrey Chaucer, (and an interesting post from Got Medieval about who was copying who) it's interesting to see that the G and C handshapes were drawn along with each new version. Although it seems to have mutated from G to H over time. And the items he's holding are added or substituted, although his rosary stays remarkably constant when he's not trying to ride a horse.

( Read more rambling... )

Abacus atque vetustissima veterum Latinorum per digitos manusque numerandi consuetudo by Aventinus (Johannes Turmair). 1532.

http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/0002/bsb00026192/images
Page 9 on has woodcuts of finger-reckoning and the letter substitutions.

Found via Historia del alfabeto dactilológico español [PDF] by Antonio Gascon Ricao, after trying to figure out if Spanish Wikipedia was right.
(I'm still not sure if Doctrina para los mudos–sordos is supposed to have ever existed, and what mauscript was found in 1986. Anyone?)

Edit: Ricao's PDF on page 5 says (badly translated by me and Google Translate):

...the assertion of Hervas y Panduro, which attributed to Ponce the manual alphabet, was categorically denied in 1986. Documentation rescued by Eguiluz Angoitia, exposed in his work
Fray Pedro Ponce de León, La nueva personalidad del sordomudo a short text, handwritten by Pedro Ponce, which explains in great detail how it was actually his particular manual alphabet. The document can be found in the Clergy section, bundle 1319, of the National Historical Archive in Madrid.

It seems that Ponce had modified the musical gesture system developed by the Italian monk Guido of Arezzo. and it sounds awfully close to the finger-joint arthrologie systems that appeared in the 17th century.

Via gunnora blog, linking to Aardvarchaeology.

She's wearing a floor-length dress. And a shawl. And four finely sculpted bead strings. This is a standard depiction of an aristocratic lady of the later 1st Millennium.... The high seat is Odin's, allright. But the occupant is most likely Frigga or Freya. Or maybe, just maybe, Thor in drag during the hammer reclamation mission. That is so cool! This find will mess with everybody's mind!

So cool! Go visit the blog!

Three more goodies to link to:

I've uploaded to my site two PDFs, one is the substitution cypher written about by Venerable Bede (under 8th century) and the other is a rather large PDF with the manual alphabets of Thesaurus Artificiosae Memoriae (1579), Refugium Infirmorum (1593), Reducción de las letras y arte para enseñar a hablar a los mudos (1620), Didascalocophus (1680), Digiti Lingua (1698), modern ASL and modern BANZSL in a big table for easy comparison. (Stuffed in under '16th century' although I'm not sure that's the right place.)

Yes, a lot of it is 17th century, but I think it needs to be there -- there are differences between de Yebra and Bonet's alphabets, and there are differences between them and modern ASL, even though so many publications imply they are all the same. Dalgarno and Digiti Lingua are included because I'm horribly biased and think it's important to know where BSL-derived fingerspelling seems to have originated.

The third link, is GoogleBooks has put the entirety of Libro llamado Refugium infirmorum, muy útil y provechoso para todo género de gente, en el cual se contienen muchos avisos espirituales para socorro de los afligidos enfermos, y para ayudar a bien morir a los que están en lo último de su vida; con un alfabeto de San buenaventura para hablar por la mano.(Book called refuge of the sick, very useful and beneficial for all kinds of people, in which is contained much spiritual advice for assistance of distressed sick persons, and for helping those who are at the end of their lives to die well; with Saint Bonaventure's alphabet to speak by the hand) online, and can be downloaded as a PDF.

GoogleBooks now has a version of the 1620 text you can download as a PDF.

I'm still hoping somewhere there is an online version of the 1890 English translation by Dixon (Simplification of the letters of the Alphabet and Method of Teaching Deaf-Mutes to Speak), but I can't find it. Neither can I find any full online versions of either of Bulwer's books. Anyone else seen them?

Oh, and three more images of pre-1600 Korean women are now up here. (Two 14th century, and one redrawing of a teeny tiny [5mm wide in my source print-out] 16th century figure.) Just so the people who read this blog for costume details don't feel left out. :)

The Latvia Institute looks to have updated the English section of their website, with a general introduction to dress from 'Ancient' times (ie. 7th century) up to the 19th century. Even better, the little booklet the information is drawn from is available in PDF.

Thought people who are fans of pretty pictures might appreciate the link. :)

This is from about 2004 (according to this article [PDF]), but the BBC program See Hear had a special on the history of BSL and it looks like it included a re-enactment of the wedding of Ursula Russell and Thomas Tilsye.

And check out the fingerspelling quiz, which compares modern BANZSL fingerspelling with the 17th century Digiti Lingua! (scroll down to 'England'.)

The Edo period (1603 to 1868 CE) was when the persecution of Japanese Christians increased. From the 1630s,
fumi-e were used to test people's faith, and the movement went underground, becoming 'hidden' (ie. kakure).

The Tokyo National Museum mentions a fumi-e made from a siezed medallion of St. Dominic receiving the rosary.
There are two photos of rosaries from the exhibition here, but no real details.

I found a photo of a hemp rosary, and a different one here.

The Kyushu National Museum also seems to have hosted the exhibition as well, or at least had overlapping items, so here are another three undated rosaries.

Edit:
Hasekura Tsunenaga
may be carrying a rosary in a 1615 picture, and these were seized from his estate in 1640. If wikipedia is to be believed.
There is apparently a pre-1587 wooden rosary (no pictures though),

Costumes provide antidote to mundane:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/31/2729437.htm

Did they just compare the East-Germanic tribe of Goths, or the Gothic era with the modern goth subculture? Or did they just moosh two articles together, only linked together by two groups of people who use the word 'mundane' far too often?

Also: I must still have a filthy mind after going out last night, but Hrothgar wants to 'take' a sheep? O_o
At least the SCA looks like they're dorks in on some big joke. The goth video just seems painfully serious.

Marseille Tarot line art:
http://karenswhimsy.com/tarot-cards.shtm
http://karenswhimsy.com/tarot.shtm

Rider-Waite Line art:
http://tarotinstitute.com/free/waite/majors.html (Chariot and Justice are missing)
http://sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/index.htm (but only on the thumbnails, enlarged cards are in colour.)

Hello Kitty Tarot (probably not very legal):
http://www.scribd.com/doc/4937335/Hello-Kitty-Tarot-6x13 (need to sign up to scribd.com)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samiam010203/sets/72157601128562309/

Kingdom Hearts Fanart Tarot:
http://color-me-club.deviantart.com/art/Kingdom-Hearts-Tarot-Pack-87988356

The Universiteetsmuseenes Fotoportal has photos from lots of exciting Norwegian museums, including the Kulturhistorisk Museen in Oslo, and heaps of photos from the Oseberg find.

There is also the cutest little brooch from Nordheim if you search for 'spenne' and go to the second page. I can't quite figure out how to search for specific things, but it's Bestillingsnummer Cf23110_10.

Page 3 has photos of the inside of brooches. Oooooooh.
and Bestillingsnummer Cf21586_35, which looks really interesting.

Ah, if you go here: http://www.unimus.no/arkeologi/sok.php you can also find the pictures and extra information, too.

Via the Medieval Textile & Clothing Discussion</i> List (or at least, I think that is what that's what it's called in full).

The French periodical Histoire et Images Medievales publishes very pretty and picture-rich articles on aspects on the middle ages.
Volume 20, although I can only find it mentioned on volume 25, was devoted to Merovingian fashions. They have PDF copies of the articles to download, if you are so inclined.

My keyboard has stopped working properly, but page 122-3 of the Google Books version of Merovingian Mortuary Archaeology and the Making of the Early Middle Ages has a bit of extra information about the Arnegunde gravefind, that is a bit more up to date than the last time I read anything about it.

Updated some tiny bits of the website, including two more references for the 'deaf weddings' page. Hopefully there will be an improved version of the Court of King Arthur page by tonight.

The International Institute of Social History (IISH) List of Datafiles of Historical Prices and Wages
http://www.iisg.nl/hpw/index.php

Also has some interesting presentation papers if you click on the 'conferences' link.

To December 1st.
The list of suggested articles appears to have become more focused, surely there are some martial types who could assist?
Surely someone could put together something on 'basic starter garb'!

http://www.sca.org/kwh/index.html

I have a weird feeling I have linked to this before.

But, here is a 1966 report, mentioning a pisanka, with a black and white drawing. Here is a colour photo.

If you click on the second link, and navigate through the Zabytki z badań w Gieczu menu on the left, there are some gorgeous photos of all sorts of things.

The Katalog Znalezisk Archeologicznych wiki have more pisanka photos, but I don't think they're 'new' examples for the ceramic egg fans. For the sake of including things while I remember them, an egg found in Fröjel, Gotland, and another on page 6 of this PDF
(No, I cannot conjugate Polish correctly, what is the plural of pisanka? Pisanki?)

Also, a 12th century figure from Płock, and the Płock diadem.

This wasn't what I was looking for at all, but it might be useful for someone.
Ana Azinović Bebek 2008. "17 and 18th century rosaries from Čazma"
Opvscvla Archaeologica Radovi Arheološkog zavoda (32)1 pp. 167-194
http://hrcak.srce.hr/file/58251

Edit: I suspect this is a further elaboration discussing some bead and rosary finds that were published in 2005.
Tajana Pleše and Ana Azinović Bebek 2005. "Archaeological Research at the Parish Church of Mary Magdalene at Čazma" Opvscvla Archaeologica Radovi Arheološkog zavoda 29(1) pp.287-306
http://hrcak.srce.hr/file/26652

For the back issues of the journal, see: http://hrcak.srce.hr/opuscula

J.T. Rhodes "Syon Abbey and its Religious Publications in the Sixteenth Century" The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 44(1) 1993.

Says that there is an illustration of the pardon beads 'illustrated in Bodl. Lib., MS Gough liturg. 19, fo 21v but not in the correct order'.

Well, Gough liturg. 19 is online, and here is the illustration of the beads:
( Cut for picture )

I don't think the evidence quite stacks up. That the artist was not familiar with what the pardon beads is implied by them being drawn in a symmetrical pattern rather than according to the actual white-red-black-black-white design. R.N. Swanson in Indulgences in late medieval England: passports to paradise? also notes that in a footnote on page 275 doesn't even mention Syon in relation to the beads.

But, it is an illustration, and it does seem to show a string consisting of only five beads. I'm still not entirely sure what to make of it. Anyone have an opinion?