#OnThisDay in #history - in 1559, Sophie Brahe was born. Sophie was the youngest sister of astronomer and scientist Tycho Brahe, and she grew up interested in the sciences, encouraged by him. She learned about medicine, astronomy, and horticulture, often assisting Tycho at Uraniborg. Her astronomical measurements - made without a telescope - were passed on to Tycho's pupil, Johannes Kepler, which he used in his works and so she indirectly influenced Isaac Newton. #OTD#histodons@histodons
So I'm merrily working through bundles of archive records that require resizing to strengthen the paper structure and straight forward paper repairs when I get to this little challenge.
Land survey on tracing paper with fugitive ink. #Archives #PaperConservation #Histodons @histodons
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
Das Arolsen-Archiv braucht Unterstützung! Es geht um das Übertragen von Namen/Daten in ein Online-Formular – mit z. B. Karteikarten des KZ Stutthof. Eine leichte, aber keine angenehme Aufgabe, aber hilft, die tausenden Karten (& Schicksale von Menschen) aufzuarbeiten. Man kann einfach via Browser ausfüllen. Helft mit! 🙏
@iieksi@histodons & das obendrein Erschütternde: Dass diese Online-Aktion noch immer nicht fertig ist. Entweder haben noch zu wenig Leute mitgemacht oder aber diese unendlich scheinende Masse an Menschen, die durch das NS-Regime gelitten hat...
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.