Medievalitsy

The Book of the City of Ladies | Christine De Pizan

Today on #Medievalitsy: meet Christine de Pizan. A woman writer, thinker and advocate of women's rights to study and be part of the cultural circles.
She even wrote the book quoted in this blurb which imagines a city built and inhabited by the most diverse ladies all with amazing qualities and strengths.
She fought the popular writers of her time who dismissed her because of her gender. All in all an amazing woman and ahead of her time.

ephemeralwaltz I just learned about her last year - She was so ahead of her time! I've been needing to read this for a while. 6y

ofbooksandme @ephemeralwaltz I did a seminar in her last year, my thesis director is a fan of hers lol. I just fell for her. Even though some of her views are hard to grasp (for me as an atheist, medieval Christianity is hard to get) when she talks about women and their place in society I feel like she's talking about me. I can relate. Which is a jut sad but empowering as well. 6y

AlaMich This sounds fascinating! The first thing it brought to my mind was Sor Juana, even though they lived in different eras. 6y

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ofbooksandme

Book of Kells | R a MacAvoy

I'm creating a hashtag called #Medievalitsy (see what I did there?) just because, but if you like it we can do it a regular thing, like "On Wednesday we wear coat of mail".
I don't know if you know, but I'm starting my PhD on medieval lit and I'm keen on sharing what I love with you.
In this case, The Book of Kells. Probably the most beautiful book in the world. Medieval books were not so much to read as they were works of art. (Cont on comment)

ofbooksandme The Book of Kells was created sometime in the IXth century in the Abbey of Kells. It's drawings are an exquisite mixture of Christian and Celtic arts,thoigh it was severely mutilated in the XIXth century (a destine shared in that period by many manuscripts). 6y

ofbooksandme What I shared with you is the first folio of the St John's Gospel (the Book of Kells is a Bible). In between all those drawings it says "In principio erat verbum et verbum". Yes, it says that. I know, right? And at the top there's a cute drawing of St. John. 6y

ofbooksandme This was loooong. If you got here, thank you! If you want to #askmedievalkaru (that's me) something, please feel free to do it! I love talking about this! 6y

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SmallestAct @ofbooksandme Did you see the movie The Book of Kells? It has amazing artwork, I love the animation. It's about the people who illuminated the texts. 6y

ofbooksandme @SmallestAct Yes! I love it (the same Irish studio has another movie called The song of the Sea that I also highly recommend). The animation of the film is so deeply entrenched with the style of the manuscript. It's truly amazing. 6y

SmallestAct @ofbooksandme The song of the sea is high on my 'To watch'-stack! I'm so glad I found someone who knows these movies:D 6y

BookishMe Fascinating! 6y

LoveToReadLiveToRead Interesting post! I really like this type of art, I remember studying some similar stuff in school. I think it must have been the Lindisfarne gospels as I‘m from the north east of England so that would make sense. (edited) 6y

LoveToReadLiveToRead Also, The Song of the Sea made me weep like a baby when I watched it on a flight a few years ago! 😭😭😭 6y

ofbooksandme @BookishMe I know, right? Heres a random fact for your enjoyment: contrary to what the drawings show, the copy of the actual text is somewhat careless. It has many mistakes, omitted words and repeated phrases. All for this apparently shows that it was not meant for daily use, but for very few special occasions (like Easter mass) 6y

ofbooksandme @Lovetoreadlivetoread Yes! It just have been.The Lindisfarne gospels share some of the same Celtic influences. Another beautiful manuscript mixing the Christian, Celtic and Saxon traditions. If you're ever I Dublin and haven't been before, I recommend you go see Kells. It's such a precious experience. 6y

BookishMe 👍🏽 👍🏽 6y

drokka I visited the book when I was in Dublin, but it was open to a page with only text that day (they turn the page every morning). I felt a bit underwhelmed. I had to keep reminding myself that it's existence alone is an achievement. Then I saw other gorgeous psalters there and fell in love with one. I need to find the journal I wrote it's name in, but it was just a wee thing. 6y

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