#medieval letters

[jandrichov]

Further - Epilogue

—

Further series

Part I - The First Step

Part II - Where I Fit

Part III - Of Perfect Days and Where They Come From

Part IV - And the Sky Came Down

Part V - Of What Remains

Part VI - The Shape of Distance

Part VII - Still Here

Part VIII - Your Man

[historicalwhore]

i need more women in medieval studies at my school, like no hate to the guys but i need someone to freak out over letters written by women hundreds of years ago with me

(not that men can’t, but in my experience most don’t)

[yiddishlore]

The Cairo Geniza illuminates many fascinating aspects of Jewish life under Islamic rule, but one that I find especially interesting is how some Jews used Islamic courts! Under Dhimmi laws, Jews were second-class citizens but retained the ability to have their own courts, known in Hebrew as a “Beit Din.”

To pressure Jewish courts to rule in their favor, many people threatened to turn to the ruling Islamic court for help if they lost their case (Oded Zinger argues that this was a particularly useful strategy for women, who were usually disadvantaged in local Jewish courts)

In some cases, they followed through on this threat. For example, TS 12.16 includes an 11th-century letter from the Jewish community of Rafah (now part of the Gaza Strip) complaining about a member going to an Islamic court after losing an inheritance dispute.

Cairo Genizah : Letter; prayer

Letter, in Judaeo-Arabic with an opening in Hebrew, ca. 1020 CE, from Josiah Gaʾon to Solomon b. Saʿadya and the community

[mrspizzle]

I did a medieval illumination course where we learned to make a fancy manuscript “A”

couldn’t resist taking it a step further

[beyond-crusading]

I tried to write a postcard in Latin to a friend, about my holiday in Normandy ! After about two or three hours, here's the result:

Because of my master's thesis I accumulated WAY too much knowledge about Medieval epistolography and I had to use it in some way or another x)

I tried to respect all rhetorical rules of letter-writing (except cursus rules because it's far too complicated), so there frequent references to God, to the saints, to my correspondent's first name and to the medieval ideal of friendship (a common theme in ancient and medieval letters). There's even a captatio benevolentiae after the salutation and a petitio ad the end (really proud of both of those !)

Of course if anyone who actually knows Latin ends up seing this post, feel free to correct me on my mistakes.

[upennmanuscripts]

LJS 211 - Roger Bigod deed

Who doesn’t like a letter? This is the record of 3 grants of land in Suffolk by Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, to the sons of magister William de Risinges, for which Bigod received a riding horse, a windmill with a rood of land (possibly the earliest mention of a windmill in Suffolk), and an annual fee. It was written in 17 long lines, in a chancery script, with the central part of a wax seal still remaining on a parchment tag. The remnant of the seal shows part of an equestrian figure on one side and a heraldic lion on the other. It was written between 1201-1205 CE.

Click here for additional information, here for the facsimile, or here for the video orientation!

[beyond-crusading]

MS Paris, BnF fr. 1584, Voir Dit, f. 227r - Lettre 'A Guillaume'

A man gives out a letter folded in two to a messenger. On top of the letter, you can read "A Guillaume", "For William" in French.

[beyond-crusading]

The history ask game - 4 and 11 !

4. Least favourite historical misconception ?

There's many but I especially don't like when people project their modern understanding of religion on religions of the past !

A typical example would be Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven (2005) opposing "bad" crusaders who want to fight Saladin and "good" crusaders wanted to live in peace - when war between Saladin and the Christians was inevitable at that point. The good crusaders are presented as not really caring about religious differences or even not caring about religion altogether. This is a projection if very modern ideas about religion and crusading and completely distorts the reality of the time.

11. Favourite type of primary sources ?

I'm currently researching crusading letters, so I will say medieval letters for now ! They're so interesting and understudied !

But if we're talking about pure coolness factor, I'd have to choose stone engravings... Epigraphy can cross time and remind the world of lost civilizations like no other sources.