Apparently the four corners of a square reel used in this Huesca village in hemp yarn production represent four horses bound for France. I wonder which horses these were: those that awaited the Duke of Calabria, when he sought with three others to flee the court of King Ferdinand of Aragon, or others? (If folksy…
Given the spectacular contribution of Iberian merchants to the spice trade, why is it that none of my local friends will go anywhere near a lamb vindaloo?
Andrew Scull digs up and burns Foucault in the TLS: Foucault’s account of the medieval period fares no better in the light of modern scholarship. Its central image is of “the ship of fools”, laden with its cargo of mad souls in search of their reason, floating down the liminal spaces of feudal Europe. It…
Interesting bit in a NYT review of David Crystal’s The Fight For English: How Language Pundits Ate, Shot, and Left (via Conversational Reading): Crystal is … especially good on the Middle Ages. When printing came to Britain in 1400, English was a merry old mess. Choices had to be made, he says, and typesetters were…
Here‘s why I had a bugger of a time trying to imitate with compass, ruler and pencil the more complex designs I dug up after my first trip into parts Islamic. And it’s got a name that’s new to me and a whole host of experts, it has. (Via Stefan Geens, and do read the…
Another strange French trial: Following his master’s death in 1371, Aubry de Montdidier’s dog showed unremitting hostility to his master’s comrade, Richard de Macaire. Charles V ordered the two to fight, and the dog won, thus proving de Macaire’s guilt. (Cyclopedia of Universal Biography, via Google Books)
From John Drummond Hay, Morocco and the Moors: Western Barbary, Its Wild Tribes and Savage Animals (1861): There are descendants of the Moorish families of Granada now residing in Tetuan and Fas [Fez], who still preserve the keys, and it is said also the title-deeds, of the houses of their Mauro-Spanish ancestors, in the hope…
An excerpt in The Gentleman’s Magazine in 1835, translated by the excellent Louisa Stuart Costello, for whom the gents very sensibly made an exception: If I must fly thee, turn away Those eyes where love is sweetly dwelling, And bid each charm, each grace decay, That smile, that voice, all else excelling; Banish those gentle…