#medieval science

[lunegrimm]

Transmutation II The second part to an already exisiting piece also expanding the collection of the albino werewolf pieces. This piece was long in the waiting phase. It was sketched alongside the other piece but always landed on the backburner somehow.

Okay quick update! Since posting this piece I've already got several messages of people asking me if the new piece will be available as well. I've decided to extend the tapestry form until Sun. 17th of November & adding the new piece to the selection!

[s-skiba-filmmaker]

This medieval manuscript illumination shows a pair of mandrake roots depicted as humanoid figures with leaves sprouting from their heads - because when your taproot naturally forks into something vaguely person-shaped, medieval people assumed you were basically a tiny earth demon. According to folklore, pulling up a mandrake root would cause it to scream and kill anyone who heard it, so people tied the roots to dogs and made the animals pull them from the soil, sacrificing the dog to harvest the plant. This is either brilliant problem-solving or proof that medieval humans had a deeply twisted relationship with both botany and pets. The first-century Greek physician Dioscorides was among the first to document mandrake as an anesthetic for surgery, and it remained Europe's primary anesthetic until ether was discovered in the 19th century. The plant contains hallucinogenic tropane alkaloids that make it genuinely medicinal in small doses and genuinely deadly in large ones, which means medieval physicians had to know the exact threshold between "you're asleep for surgery" and "you're just asleep forever." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandrake

[talesfromtheenchantedforest]

snake are beasts of the air, that’s a new one to me

“I’ll tell you what I did,” she said, “I had spent a long time raising in my castle one of the beasts they call serpents; he was more useful to me than you can imagine. Yesterday, that beast flew by chance to this mountain and found a lion cub that she carried to this rock. You ran after her with your sword and killed her, though she had done nothing to you. Tell me why you did this. Had I done something to you to warrant this killing? Was the lion yours or in your charge, so that you felt obliged to fight on its behalf? Are the beasts of the air so insignificant that you can kill them without cause?”

— The Quest for the Holy Grail, Chapter 29, E. Jane Burns translation

[medievalistsnet]

10 Medieval Articles from the journals of the Royal Society

Here are ten fascinating articles from the Royal Society’s journals that shed light on the Middle Ages.

[gawrkin]

I am getting that urge again to post about Astronomy/Astrology and how it plays a role in Medicine lore.

It's really kinda important to understanding why Morgan learns magic in a nunnery/convent of all places.

As places of learning for women, and more importantly, a place for women to learn Medical Knowledge, Morgan learning mystical practices in a religious center is not at all unusual. (Aside from the historical quirks about Celtic Christianity)

And for that matter, the Seven Liberal Arts (which includes Astronomy), which is a requirement in order to be a doctor in the Medieval era, being a recurring element found with sorcerous individuals

(EDIT: Astronomy is also really important to the Church because its an important tool for Calendar making and the marking out of holidays, especially Easter.)

[verminetroglodyte]

Please balance my humors:

Flegmat

Sanguin

Coleric

Melanc

Voting ended onMay 19, 2024

[cuties-in-codices]

detail of an astronomical tool in the "liber quodlibetarius" (illustrated encyclopedical manuscript), bavaria, ca. 1524.

source: Erlangen, Universitätsbibliothek, MS.B 200, fol. 17 recto

[thoughtportal]

Matthew Gabriele and David M Perry speak to David Musgrove about their book The Bright Ages, which tackles the big themes of the Middle Ages and challenges some widely held views about the history of medieval Europe.

(Ad) Matthew Gabriele and David M Perry are the authors of

The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe (HarperCollins, 2021). Buy it now from Waterstones:

https://go.skimresources.com?id=71026X1535947&xcust=historyextra-social-Histboty&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.waterstones.com%2Fbook%2Fthe-bright-ages%2Fmatthew-gabriele%2Fdavid-m-perry%2F9780062980892