I've recently been cataloguing the papers of Frank Wise, a Labour MP, ILP member, and civil servant who worked as Director of the Soviet Union's Trade Office Centrosoyuz in the 1920s.
Amongst his papers is this photograph of an unidentified man (it isn't Frank!)
#OnThisDay in #history - in 1343, Jeanne de Clisson took up a life of piracy to avenge her husband's execution at the hands of Philip VI. She sold her lands, hired men, and attacked the possessions of those who had murdered her husband. She procured three warships and painted them black. Her flagship was named My Revenge, and she harried French ships, killing all but one sailor on each boat to carry her message.
She became known as the Lioness of Brittany. #OTD#histodons#France@histodons
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
Meet this #silver figurine of Hermes-Mercurius, holding his iconic kerykeion or caduceus staff in his left. With the two snakes winding around it, it has been mistaken for the Rod of Asklepios, the symbol of medicine, when in truth the caduceus is the symbol of commerce.
arrived in the mail today! we surprised Erik with it at the International Conference of the Medieval Chronicle this summer, an instance of a series of conferences instigated by Erik in the 1990s. the thickest (380 pp.!) volume in the series The Medieval Chronicle, with the most (28!) authors, the only one with an index, and the one I had the largest responsibility for (as co-editor of the series which Erik established, he always did more than I did). @medievodons@histodons
In this 1671 painting from Hubert van Ravesteijn we see an exclusively designed paper packet leaning against a clay pipe, ready for consumption in a tavern.
In order to sell small units of tobacco, paper was needed: used papers and freshly printed papers. Zoom in:
@dbellingradt@histodons The #Neolatin poet Jacobus Balde SJ (1604-1668) wrote a satire against the abuse of tobacco in which you've also got a reference to paper as wrapping material for tobacco:
"Exin, membranâ positâ, vis magna Tabaci, / Nimirum niger atque ingens evolvitur anguis." (Tab. 10,26-27).
(Context: tobacco smokers unpack the tobacco and once the paper is taken off, black tobacco appears like a snake).
🔖 Most recent contribution on early modern tobacco literature probably is Kühlmann, Wilhelm. ‘Schreckensvision oder Drogenfreuden: Kontroverse Perspektiven der spätbarocken lateinischen und deutschen Tabaklyrik: Der Nordhauser Gymnasialrektor Johann Joachim Meier versus Johann Christian Günthers studentisches “Lob des Knaster-Tobacks” (1718)’. Daphnis 51, no. 4 (20 September 2023): 563–632. https://doi.org/10.1163/18796583-12340095.
What do you see as the pro's and con's of #documentaries? I'm often not a fan, but want to be. My issues with them, and mostly it comes from I love to learn and want docs to be a starting point, not the end:
Credentials of the experts can be spotty
No sources given
No way to ask follow-up questions
Too much theatrics / reenactment
Not as detailed as a book
Often don't cover the topics I want (social science, #religion, #history, etc)
@theotherotherone@histodons you’re right, you have to invest all your faith in the documentary editor. They have total control over the impression portrayed.
@peterbrown@histodons To be fair, the same can basically be said about a single book, too. But it just seems with books, especially scholarly or academic, we're more willing to put some time into researching the author, their biases, and criticisms of the book. With a documentary, people tend to just accept it without any verification.
@TheConversationUS@histodons
A great read and a reminder that colonial leaders were business and plantation owners and more importantly slave owners.
Private property and business interests were important to them. Actual democracy (as in rule by ordinary people) was never really in their plan.
I believe Winston Churchill speculated on how different history would have turned out if the British government had reached out and offered colonial aristocrats a role in shaping imperial policy and laws (perhaps representation in parliament).
Christmas pudding is a relatively recent concoction of two classic medieval dishes: a runny porridge known as “plum pottage”, which featured any seasonal mixture of meats, dried fruits, and spices; and “figgy pudding” (yes, the one mentioned in the song), a mixture of sweet and savory ingredients bagged with flour and cooked by steaming.
@sebastianschroeder@histodons Wäre sicher gut das demnächst nur noch an Themenabenden mit historischer Einordnung zu senden. Dramaturgisch etc. waren die Nazi-Filme oft erschreckend gut. Und interessant auch, was im Kino dann doch so alles "durchging". Zara Leander's und Johannes Heesters' Leinwandcharaktere waren nicht gerade "brave Deutsche", sondern eigentlich zu hedonistisch und sexy. Manchmal brauchte vielleicht sogar das NS Regime eine Ablenkung von den eigenen Idealen?
@sebastianschroeder@histodons PS: Davon, die Filme gar nicht mehr zu zeigen, halte ich nicht viel. Ich fand es als Schülerin/Studentin schwierig, dass viel über "Nazi Propaganda" gesprochen wurde, dass man sich aber kein Bild machen konnte. Erst später konnte ich "Die Goldene Stadt" etc. sehen & besser verstehen, was den NS Film ausmachte. Ich war auch für die kritische Edition von "Mein Kampf" dankbar. Neonazis kommen an verbotenes Material auf eigenen Wegen: Internet & Flohmarkt im Ausland.
"a conversation to help teachers, at the K–12 & college levels, develop strategies to teach the #Palestine – #Israel conflict & many of the attendant sensitive historical topics it entails. It might seem that this history is a minefield worth avoiding, but thoughtful & engaged teachers have been teaching such difficult topics in a civil & empathetic way for decades"
From LSE Library: "Some hobbies and pastimes including "Hot Cockles", "Hoodman blind" and "Animals imitated", from 1801 rare book "Glig-Gamena Angel-Deod, or the Sports and Pastimes of the People of England’"
Noch immer eine meiner Lieblingsanekdoten über Engels:
"An einem wunderbaren Tage am Menaikanal in Bangor wurde [Friedrich Engels] sentimental und stimmte plötzlich mit seiner scharfen Diskantstimme in den falschesten Tönen "Ich weiß nicht, was soll es bedeuten" an. Wir stürzten entsetzt mit dem Ruf meines Freundes "Proletarier aller Länder, vereinigt Euch," auf ihn zu und brachten ihn mit einer über seinen dicken Schnauzbart von hinten geworfenen Serviette zum Schweigen."