John Adams and Stuart Forbes: Syon House archaeology, library, the Herbal, and medical practices
The
Syon Abbey Herbal, written by their last known librarian, was also
the last herbal to be compiled before the Dissolution of the
Monasteries in 1539, and gives an insight to the common ailments,
their treatment, and healthcare in general in the Tudor period.
The library at Syon, almost completely lost, was one of the best in
Europe, and contained a wide range of up to date printed medical and
astrological-medical books unavailable elsewhere in Britain, as well
as rare medical texts in English.
The
speakers will discuss the archaeology of the site as well as the
Herbal.
On Saturday 9th February Paul Hardwick will be talking about “Animal iconography on misericords”
The main focus of Pauls research is upon English misericords in their devotional contexts. His monograph, English Medieval Misericords: The Margins of Meaning, was published by Boydell in 2011, with a paperback edition following in 2013.
The coffee bar will be open this week.
We will be holding the Annual General Meeting on Saturday 13th April, following the lecture. Papers will be sent out nearer to the date.
Toby Jones on Saturday 12th January, 2019 – 2 pm at Swarthmore
The
Newport Medieval Ship is a fifteenth century merchant vessel unearthed
in the heart of Newport in 2002. Work on the Riverfront arts centre was
paused while excavations could take place, and the timbers have since
been undergoing a lengthy conservation process so the ship can be displayed to the public.
The
ship was a formidable three-masted craft measuring over 30 metres in
length and capable of carrying around 200 tons of cargo. Examination of
the artefacts and remains found on board suggests that the ship probably
sailed the Lisbon-Bristol trade route.
Through
dendrochronology (the study of tree-ring data), it has been concluded
that the trees used to construct the ship were felled around 1449 in the
Basque Country, now split between modern Spain and France, where it was
probably built. It was brought to Newport for repairs or refit in about
1469 but was instead deconstructed, meaning it had a working life of
about 20 years.
It
is thought that, whilst in Newport, the cradle supporting the ship in
its pill collapsed. The hull was flooded and the majority of the ship
was then taken apart, leaving only the lower hull that we have today.
The Newport Ship was built using the ‘clinker’ or lapstrake shipbuilding method, first used by the Vikings. This method is characterized by overlapping planks, each fastened to its neighbours, as opposed to the ‘carvel’ tradition in which the planks are butted smoothly against each other. The clinker method remained popular in northern Europe and the Basque Country well into the Renaissance period.
The blog is now back up. Unfortunately in the transfer all the previous posts have been attributed to me so please remember that Bryan Sitch wrote all the informative ones 🙂
Openwork decoration from Whitby (courtesy of Christane Kroebel)
Hild was the first abbess of the Streoneshalh/Whitby monastery from 657 AD until her death in 680 AD. Within a few years, it rose to prominence as a centre for learning and for hosting the Synod of Whitby to decide the dating of Easter. Although few literary and documentary references to Hild and to Whitby are extant, the monastery continued to play an important part in the political life of Northumbria during the next three to four decades and is likely to have been an economic force afterwards. By the second half of the ninth century, all activity ceased and did not resume until after the Norman Conquest, when a Benedictine monastery was founded dedicated to St. Peter and St. Hild. This talk will trace Hild’s role and importance in the seventh century and her appeal throughout the Middle Ages and into the 21st century.
Small find from Whitby Abbey
Our speaker, Christiane Kroebel, is an independent researcher based in Whitby, North Yorkshire. She is hon. editor of Forum: the Journal of Council for British Archaeology Yorkshire, Whitby Museum curator for the abbey collection (volunteer) and was formerly hon. librarian and archivist of the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society (2000-13). She studied at Durham University (History MA, 2003) and the Catholic University of America, Washington DC (Library and Information Science MSc, 1983). Her research interest is Anglo-Saxon history but more recently she has broadened her scope into medieval and early modern Whitby and vicinity.
This will take place at 2pm at Swarthmore Leeds on Saturday 10th February. Non-members are welcome but a donation to the cost of running the section would be appreciated.
“Mirrors for Men?” a technological and cultural comparison of European and Japanese medieval swords by Stefan Maeder.
The Japanese Sword is often praised as the apex of the swordsmith’s craft. A direct comparison between European medieval swords, treated according to the traditional Japanese method of sword-polishing, and Japanese counterpart yielded a range of new results. These encompass a better understanding of technological and cultural common points, as well as of differences between the most prestigious and symbolic weapons of pre-modern Japan and medieval Europe.
Sword tip
Stefan’s background is in prehistoric and early medieval archaeology with a specialization in arms and armour studies. This is a rare opportunity to hear about a comparative study of Japanese and European sword-making traditions and culture.
I must confess I had an ulterior motive in inviting our December speaker, Dr Bart Lambert of the University of York, to give a talk about late Medieval migration. Migration has been one of the topics of Manchester Museum’s thematic collecting project for the last 18 months, which culminated for me in a visit to the Greek island of Lesvos to collect a refugee’s life jacket just over a year ago. As part of the project I’ve looked at Roman inscriptions from Mancunium or Manchester in the museum collection but the medieval period posed more of a challenge. Everyone’s familiar with the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans but Dr Lambert’s talk opened up a whole new chapter about the movement of people during the later Middle Ages.
Statue of the Black Prince in Leeds
We are certainly no stranger to late Medieval migration in Leeds. One of the city’s prominent landmarks in City Square opposite the railway station is a statue of the Black Prince created by sculptor Thomas Brock (1847-1922). It was set up thanks to the generosity and civic-mindedness of Colonel Thomas William Harding who sought a suitably distinguished subject to be the focus of the Italianate piazza he had created. That there was no direct link with the history of city mattered little and the bronze scroll around the base of the statue reads like a roll-call of the Ladybird book of well-to-do, respectable and famous people during the reign of Edward III: Sir John Chandos, Sir Walter Nanny, William of Wykeham, John Wycliff, Chaucer, Froissart, van Arteveldt and du Guesclin. Not to mention bronze panels depicting the battles of Crecy and Sluys and a plaque honouring the Black Prince himself, ‘Edward, Prince of Wales, surnamed the Black Prince. The Hero of Crecy and Poitiers. The Flower of England’s chivalry…’
Van Arteveldt’s name in the scroll around the plinth of the statue
Of these, van Arteveldt is credited with encouraging Edward III to bring Flemish weavers and dyers to England, which Colonel Harding may have believed helped to lay the foundations of the West Yorkshire textile industry. As our speaker explained it is more likely that van Arteveldt was finding a home overseas where political exiles from Flanders wouldn’t pose a threat.
If civic statuary inspired by Victorian medievalism is a rather dubious source of information about late Medieval migration, Dr Lambert presented data of far more reliable kind: the records of the country’s alien population that were created for taxation purposes during the reign of Henry VI in order to help fund the war in France. The tax operated between 1440 and 1447. Juries were appointed in each community to identify who was an alien. Returns from the alien subsidy highlights the presence of French people, many of whom must have been refugees fleeing parts of France which had been occupied by the English but were being recaptured by the French monarchy. There were also labourers and servants from the Low Countries who realised that they could earn more money on the other side of the Channel. Similarly, there were Scottish People on the borders and Irish people in the West Country who at that time would have been classified as aliens because they came from a different kingdom of the British Isles.
If any of this echoes recent events you might not be surprised to learn that the immigrants brought with them new skills in making fine and fancy goods including clothing, footwear and jewellery that native crafts people found difficult to compete with. This caused tensions that resulted in appalling acts of violence against the newcomers, and even threats to mutilate immigrant workers so that they could not compete with English (in practice London) crafts people.
The tax came to an end in 1487 because it had ceased to gather significant sums of money. Bart suggested that by this time people on local juries had formed relationships with the immigrants and had less reason to report them to the authorities for taxation. So what begins as a rather unpleasant story about penalising vulnerable people in medieval society develops into something more heartening, a story of solidarity not marginalisation of the other.
Someone once said there’s nothing new under the sun except perhaps the cigarette. In this lecture the echoes of Brexit were all too loud. Many thanks to Bart for making us think as much about the present as about the past.
