pickOriginally read two essays for a class and then decided to read all of them. As all essay collections, somewhat uneven. Overall a pick, though, and I was especially amused that 90% had at least one paragraph complaining about Foucault (The History of Sexuality was pretty wrong about the medieval era.)
On the last essay, and finally able to have some opinions, because Old Norse.
pickThe maps always change…
I feel like 93% of the Edward II mentions I read forget that his main problem wasn't that he had male lovers, but that he was stupid about it (and also about everything else). Also, Isabella of France had a name.
Random book from our home library.
A) I'm begging for a translation from Middle English quotes. I realize this is a textbook, but you can't assume everyone is a full-fledged medievalist already. I read Latin easier than thisse boulleshet.
B) 85F (30°c) in the shade doesn't help.
I actually still like the book a lot. just fucking. translate the Middle English.
pickLots of illustrations, actually in colour too despite being in-line rather than those glossy sheafs of inserted images. I didn't love the snippets of fiction introducing each chapter; I understand their utility for some, but ugh, just get to the facts!
Most interesting fact: we don't think there really was an individual “scriptorium“ in most institutions. Book production probably just happened in cloisters.
Pre-exam brain is not making much headway with this right now, even though I find non-fiction soothing. Lots of history of Christianity, so far, which is pretty inevitable.
pickIt's fascinating to read about the amount and variety of medieval graffiti in churches, and the fact that it seems clear some of it at least was sanctioned and even had a devotional purpose. The author concludes little, which is unsatisfying, but he isn't wrong that in many of these cases we simply cannot know.
This is interesting so far, but mostly... we don't really know how to explain a lot of the graffiti, so there are few conclusions we can come to. Every chapter ends with a kind of “but really, we don't know“, which is fair, I just wish we did know!
