discardingimages:

gorgeous smile 

Ars bene moriendi, France 1470-1480.

Marseille, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 89, fol. 63r

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mediumaevum:

A brief history of the EARLY CIRCUS

With the decline of the Roman Empire many of its former vassal states were left defenseless and unable to protect themselves from invasions from aggressive people. Communications broke down and left small communities isolated.

Groups of traveling entertainers began appearing - going from village to village bringing news, singing songs, and telling stories, after the Saxon fashion. For many these travelers were the only source of information and became very popular. In England these performers were called “gleemen”; eventually  known as minstrels.

Later in the Middle Ages, after the 1066 invasion by the Normans, a new entertainer appeared - the jugglour or jongleur. They supplanted the minstrels in popularity, but, like the rest of the country, the Saxon and Norman performers soon combined their skills and language.

image: Festival of History 2009, Kelmarsh Hall by Etrusia UK.

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medieval:

Happy St. George’s Day.

Paolo Uccello, 15th C.

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mediumaevum:

How Science Found the Loch Ness Monster

Walter of Bingham (d. c. 1197) was a minor cleric from Nottinghamshire who, unable to fulfill his vow to go on the Third Crusade, made a pilgrimage to the holy sites of Scotland.

Walter’s encounter with Nessie came one summer evening, as he approached the banks of the River Ness…But what is perhaps more remarkable is the drawing of Nessie, now severely faded and barely visible with the naked eye. 

Using a pioneering technique known as Re-Zoom Spectroscopy (RZS), scientists took multiple photographs of the page in question, which were overlaid and processed using a “Guggenheim manipulator”. The resulting image demonstrates that Walter of Bingham made a careful depiction of Nessie, and can now be revealed as the earliest known picture of the Loch Ness Monster.

Read on

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mirousworlds:

pilcrowpalaver:

discarded manuscript illustration, 1305

via Neatorama

Why am I laughing so hard?

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Appearance

-Feathered winged serpents

-According to Herodotus:

• “[they are] Winged Snakes of varied colour” [1]

-Sometimes called Ophies Amphipterotoi which means ‘Serpents with Two Pairs of Wings’ [1]

Location/Origin

-Live in Arabia and live in spice-bearing trees [1]

-Ophies are said to be the snakes that attack Egypt [1]

Traits and Characteristics

-Because they live in the spice-bearing trees, and make it difficult for people to approach and collect the spice, smoke is used to drive them off.  [1]

-According to Herodotus:

• “when they copulated, while the male is in the act of procreation and as soon as he has ejaculated his seed, the female seizes him by the neck, and does not let go until she has bitten through. The male dies in the way described, but the female suffers in return for the male the following punishment: avenging their father, the young while they are still within the womb gnaw at their mother and eating through her bowels thus make their way out.” [1]
• This is why there’s so few of them

-According to Aelian:

• -The Ophies are nocturnal [1]
• -Their urine burns skin [1]

Sources:

[1] Breverton’s Phantasmagoria: A Compendium of Monsters, Myths and Legends, by Terry Breverton

Will add more information as I learn more