lost and found

Things I've picked up along the way...

[medievalistsnet]

How fruits spread along the Silk Road in the Middle Ages - Medievalists.net

New research reveals that many of the most familiar fruits in our kitchens today were cultivated in Central Asia over a millennium ago

[libraryjournal]

Blue Reflective Surface on Twitter

“When libraries troll their patrons.”

[necclibrary]

(Image from Olin Library, Cornell University.)

[bodleianlibs]

Today is the feast day of St Catherine of Alexandria, patroness of libraries and librarians!

[sexycodicology]

Mondsee Gospel Lectionary, Rock crystal with crucifixion, and ivory evangelist portraits, Walters Manuscript W.8, Upper board outside by Walters Art Museum Illuminated Manuscripts http://flic.kr/p/oCr1dD

[jothelibrarian]

Wow, stunning.

[medievalistsnet]

New Database of 45,600 Family Names Dating Back to the Middle Ages - Medievalists.net

A new book and database of family names has been released this month, allowing users to learn about over 45,600 of the most frequent surnames in Great Britain and Ireland, many of which date back to the Middle Ages.

[bodleianlibs]

This beautiful box of wax seals - snipped from hundreds of letters - is part of the Fox Talbot archive currently being catalogued by our archivists.

The contents of the letters is a mystery!

[jothelibrarian]

Oooh! These are great. I wonder what they were from? Business correspondence, love letters, family news...

[jothelibrarian]

Medieval manuscript of the week is a stunningly bound manuscript from Flanders or France. It is one of the treasures of the Bodleian library, and currently on display in the new Treasures exhibition in the Weston Library.

I’d love to tell you more about the manuscript, but my computer isn’t cooperating tonight, so you’ll have to savour the photo of the luxurious binding and wait for more details later in the week!

Image source: Author’s own. Released into the public domain. The manuscript is Bodleian MS Auct D 4.2

[jothelibrarian]

Medieval manuscript of the week is a unicorn! This is an illustration from a late medieval (circa 1550-1560) manuscript produced in Paris. The text is Greek, and the book is rich with eighty illustrations of animals. This image seems to conjure a unicorn by combining a lion with a hint of goat! Isn’t it great?

Image source: British Library MS Burney 97; image in the public domain.

[jothelibrarian]

Medieval manuscript of the week is the beautiful Bentivoglio Bible, one of the treasures of the Walters Museum in Baltimore. This lovely manuscript dates from around 1220. I love the vividness of the colours, the elaborate historiated initials, and the lovely  marginal art. Look, a tiny dragon and a trumpeter!

Image source: Walters Museum MS W.151, 188v; Creative Commons 0 licensed.

[jothelibrarian]

Medieval manuscript of the week depicts Margaret of York, duchess of Burgundy kneeling at prayer before the resurrected Christ. At their feet is Margaret’s little dog, who looks to be a whippet or greyhound. This is an example of a ‘donor portrait’, depicting the person who commissioned and would use the manuscript. The book is a devotional text titled ‘Dialogue de la Duchesse de Bourgogne à Jésus Christ ’, which was written especially for Margaret. At the end of her life, she gifted the book to her lady in waiting Jeanne de Hallewin.

You can read more about this remarkable manuscript, and its remarkable owner, over here on the British Library website.

Image source: British Library, image in the public domain.

[jothelibrarian]

Medieval manuscript of the week is a memento mori, a full-page miniature from British Library MS Egerton 1070, the Hours of René d'Anjou' 

As we approach all hallows (aka halloween), this is macabre and appropriate. A page like this, a memento mori, reminds the owner of this manuscript of their own mortality. The depiction, of a rotting corpse wearing a crown, and clutching a scroll that unfolds to remind the reader that one day they too will return to dust. The illustration reminds the reader to be devout in their faith, and in their good deeds, because one day they would be judged.

Image source: British Library, image in the public domain.

[todaysdocument]

Our DPA Picture Is Showing Soviet Tanks at Friedrichstrasse, Approximately 150 Meters Behind The Border in East Berlin, 10/28/1961 [Translated Title]

Series: Photographs Relating to World War II, the Cold War, and U.S. - West German Diplomatic, Economic, and Military Contacts, ca. 1951 - 1994. Record Group 306: Records of the U.S. Information Agency, 1900 - 2003

Two months following the creation of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961.

Read more via the @jfklibrary at: The Cold War in Berlin - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum.

[todaysdocument]

It’s National Canning Day!

“Can All You Can Its a Real War Job!"  Series: World War II Posters, 1942 - 1945. Record Group 44: Records of the Office of Government Reports, 1932 - 1947

See what other GIFs we’ve put up for winter on the new National Archives Channel on @giphy!

(via GIPHY)

[jothelibrarian]

Coincidentally, we made roasted tomato passata today, using up the last of the tomatoes from our garden. Now neatly canned and cooling in the kitchen. I don't think we celebrate national canning day in the UK, but perhaps we should!

[jothelibrarian]

Medieval manuscript of the week is  British Library MS Additional 11695  f. 6, a labyrinth, from a Spanish manuscript dating from the late eleventh century.

Image source: British Library, image in the public domain.

I’m returning to tumblr after a long break! Looking forward to bringing you more beautifully illuminated manuscripts, and celebrating treasures from the middle ages

[jothelibrarian]

Internship in the medieval manuscripts department.

[jothelibrarian]