𓆱

[discardingimages]

enchanted island

Guillaume de Machaut, Dit du Lion, Paris 1350-1355

BnF, Français 1586, fol. 103r

[calleido]

[pullupinthewhiplikewagwansexy]

medieval horse armour

[nephranexus]

[voidapostle-deactivated20190415]

[astaliechoes]

[tragbarerpanzrabwehrkomplexfagot]

Albrecht Dürer – Knight on Horseback, 1507

[the-lady-and-the-unicorn]

Medieval dragons across Europe and the Middle East

[rosieandthemoon]

Burg Eltz {via}

[1unaaaaa]

Excalibur (1981) dir. John Boorman

[paganalia]

Pavel Tatarnikov Arthur of Avalon

[whenthegoldrays]

Georges Rochegrosse, Le Chevalier aux Fleurs (The Knight of the Flowers) (detail) (1894), oil on canvas

[rosieandthemoon]

Bouzov Castle in Moravia, Czech Republic

[erikkwakkel]

Medieval book transport

You are looking at two ‘wraps’ (top), the outside and inside of a box (middle), and a leather satchel (bottom). What they share is not just their old age (they are all medieval), but also the purpose for which they were made: to transport a book from A to B. The actual reason for transporting books in these objects varied considerably. The wraps are late-medieval girdle books, which were hanged from the owner’s belt by the knot. The text inside - which was often of legal or religious nature - could be consulted quickly and easily: just unwrap it and read. The box (and the ninth-century book inside) had a more exotic use: the package functioned as a charm for good luck on the battlefield, where it was carried in front of the troops by a monk. The satchel, which also dates from the ninth century, was just a bag to transport a book while on the go - it was popular among monks. Read more about these fascinating devices in my blog post “Medieval Books on the Go” (here).  

Pics -  Wrap at top: Stockholm, Royal Library (16th century, source); Wrap below it: Yale, Beinecke Library, MS 84 (15th century, source); Box: Dublin, Royal, Irish Academy, D ii 3 (8th/9th century, source); Satchel: Dublin, Trinity, College, MS 52 (Book of Armagh, 9th century, source).

[museum-of-artifacts]

Ferdinand II armour. Created by Lucio Piccinino (1550-1589). Gift from Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza

[omnia-mors-aequat-nstrwa]

Dongni Hou

[the-two-factions]