יודישי ריטר

Brianna /bɹiænə/. she/her. I'm a medievalist who focuses on Jews and literature in the late Middle Ages. Completed my M.A. thesis on Arthurian literature in Old Yiddish and Middle High German. May also post classics, linguistics, and Tolkien.

[yiddishknights]

It's the moment you've all been waiting for...

...or some of you, at least. 😅 Ever since I finished my M.A. thesis way back in 2023(!), several kind people here have expressed interest in reading it, providing much-appreciated encouragement through the long process of adapting it into a publishable journal article. I'm now happy to announce that it has just been published in Arthuriana 35.4.

You can read it here: The Fifth World: Magic and Landscape in Vidvilt and Wigalois

[memories-of-ancients]

Ceramic plate, Vietnam, circa 1450

from The Cernuschi Museum

[heaveninawildflower]

Pendant for Horse Trappings (Portugese, 15th century).

Copper alloy, enamel, gold.

Image and text courtesy The Met.

[spore-carrier]

medieval troubadour gets isekaied into early 1970s england but ends up blending in perfectly with the local prog rock scene

[werewolf-transgenderism]

irritating as fuck when people get mad at Black people existing in premodern historical fiction/fantasy media. like first of all, you're racist. and second of all, you are acting as though Black people didn't exist in premodern Europe which is simply false. especially when we're talking about the Mediterranean, like what the fuck do you people think is along the southern half of the Mediterranean Ocean?? everyone's on boats, there are GOING to be interactions with Black people in Northern Africa, and there are GOING to be Black people in Mediterranean Europe. stop being stupid. your imagined homogeneous white European past is not historical reality, get over it you massive losers

[rilke]

Newly presented Lancelot-Grail cycle of the Arthurian legend — Master of the Liège Apocalypse, France, 13th c

[portalibis]

Narcissus, British Library, MS Harley 1766

[demonagerie]

Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. lat. 291, detail of f. 170v. Rabanus Maurus, De rerum naturis. 1425

[manuscriptbook]

Christine de Pizan: Literary Trailblazer

Climbing the social ladder or making a career was a bit more difficult in Medieval Europe than is the case nowadays – especially for women. The Church had a large influence on the position of women: due to the Bible, it was believed that women had to pay for mankind’s expulsion from paradise. Therefore, women had to obey their father and husband, were kept out of public office, and were, with few exceptions, disallowed from wielding authority.

However, there exist some medieval manuscripts which describe the importance of women and moreover, women who step out of their subordinate position. One of these manuscripts is a fifteenth-century The Book of the Queen (British Library, Harley MS 4431), which includes work by Christine de Pizan (1364-c.1430), an Italian-French author. It was unusual that literature was composed by a woman and moreover, that women were put in the spotlight: The Book of the Queen, which shows the author composing the work (above, 4r) marks the contribution of women to society as highly important. As a result, De Pizan is often indicated as the first woman to attack the medieval tradition of literary misogyny.

[medievalistsnet]

Medieval Beauty Secrets: Flowers, Cosmetics and Skincare

Medieval medical and cosmetic texts reveal how roses, violets, lilies and other flowers were used in skincare, haircare, perfumes and beauty remedies. These floral treatments were intended to cleanse the skin, whiten the complexion, scent the body and maintain healthy hair.

Read here

[metmuseum]

Box with Lid. 12th century. Credit line: Rogers Fund, 1948 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/450928

[baebeylik]

Beaker with Courtly Figures, Birds and Arabesques. Iran, 1200-1219.

The Aga Khan Museum.

[newhistorybooks]

A rich exploration of the everyday lives of Jews in medieval Ashkenaz that demonstrates the value of collaborative research, Beyond the Elite effectively portrays Jewish communities as deeply connected with medieval Christian society, while also emphasizing how Jews sought to differentiate themselves or adapt Christian practices to their own tradition.

[arthurianpreservationproject]

Who’s gonna grab this and scan it for us? 😂

Medieval King Arthur manuscript could fetch £2m at auction

Book containing early versions of the Merlin and Grail legends has remained in private hands for 700 years

[melanchol1e-deactivated20250809]

german keys from the 15th century

[tryxyhijinks]

Someone in the notes was asking about the locks, and whether they matched the intricacy of the key. I went and looked at the Met's collection, and found this one, which shows both the key and the lock. You can see the matching stars on the lock side!

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/191476

[whatmarvellousthings]

Carrying twins in the margins of the Romance of Alexander, Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Bodley 264.

[hexjulia]

his ancestor... ?

[uwmspeccoll]

Manuscript Monday

Today’s staff pick is a rare facsimile edition of the Kyiv Psalter, published in Moscow by the Russian art magazine Iskusstvo in 1978. The original manuscript, created in 1397, is one of the most important surviving works of medieval Ukrainian culture. Commissioned by Bishop Mykhail and written by the Kyiv archdeacon Spyrydonii, it consists of 228 parchment folios and nearly 300 richly detailed miniatures. 

The illuminator of the manuscript remains unknown; however, the style and visual characteristics of the miniatures show strong similarities to the frescoes and mosaics of Saint Sophia of Kyiv (1037) and St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery (1108). These connections point to a continuity of local artistic traditions associated with Kyivan Rus’. 

The manuscript’s later history reflects the movement of cultural objects across political boundaries. It remained within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for centuries, passing through Lithuanian noble collections, before being acquired in the nineteenth century by the Russian count Sergey Sheremetev. Today, the original is preserved in the Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library in Saint Petersburg. 

Scholarly interpretations have often attempted to place the Kyiv Psalter within a broad “Byzantine” framework or to connect it to Moscow-based traditions, sometimes downplaying its Kyiv origins. In contrast, its visual language and historical context point to a strong continuity with earlier artistic traditions of Kyiv. 

This facsimile edition allows us to engage with a manuscript that is both a masterpiece of medieval art and a reminder of how cultural heritage is preserved, interpreted, and, at times, contested. 

-- Kate, Special Collections Graduate Art History Fieldworker

View more posts with manuscripts.