5 Tips To Reinvent Your Research
Research is more than Wikipedia. These five links give you tips to finding more out of what you see and read.
British Library Buzz
The British Library is your best online SCA scribal friend. But why?
Cherry-picked Scribal Books
What are the most helpful scribal books? The ones that strengthen most your scribal skills and knowledge. I have favorites to share.
Old School v. New School
Thoughts on how we look at information today and how we research it. Knowing how to seek information with old school and new school methods broadens your possibility to recreate what you want.
The Wikipedia Conundrum
You’ve probably noticed how often the links in my posts are to a Wikipedia article. It’s like when you google and the search engine puts Wikipedia’s information in a fact box, or Apple’s Siri replies with it to answer your question. They’re an easy link to include to give you more information. I know it’s not the highest scholarly source. Some articles don’t even cite quality references for you to verify. Yet there is no other free resource like it. There are things you should know about Wikipedia itself if you don’t already. Wikipedia’s noble goal is to eventually cover every knowledgeable topic in the world. This impossible mission has made it a top ten most searched website in the world. But did you know Wikipedia was not the first online encyclopedia? Seven others attempted it first. And Wikipedia began as part of one of them, Nupedia. Also, Wikipedia’s operation is unique. It works through a volunteer gaggle and without traditional advisory boards or editors. A contributors’ pool that is prompt, authoritative and effective. But this force is shrinking while Wikipedia’s needs have increased. Its articles have grown in length. Plus it must also defend against the worlds vandals and manipulators. To revitalize it Wikipedia’s owner developed legal and technical ways to adapt its website and software to handle this. It created new editing tools and vetting procedures. And their automatic programs now reverse incorrect format changes and warn probable vandals they’re caught. These stiffer quality control measures reduce shams and hoaxes making things better for you and me, […]
Throwback Criteria
Calligraphy Criteria -Novice While it’s not Thursday yet I thought you’d like to see a throwback of sorts from August of 1996. Years ago the Kingdom of Calontir had Arts and Sciences’s Criteria that were different than those we use today. The other day I was reorganizing some papers and my copies for both calligraphy and illumination resurfaced. I’d been […]
Internet Round Up 5
Again my internet surfing snared websites too good to keep from you. These turn up as I sleuth out information for blog posts. I’ve been saving them to post in one place. These popped up relating to life-long e-learning. And learning about Medieval history, its people and its things are what we do in the SCA. The Medieval History section of Thought Company. This is a life-long learning website with 20 years creating educational content. Each section has its own ‘guide’ editor highlighting interesting topics and commentary articles. There’s a helpful Section Guide with their interests and an email newsletter for you to keep learning something daily. Khan Academy is a non-profit organization offering you personalized learning videos and an individualized dashboard so you can study at your own pace. Its intriguing Introduction to the Middle Ages is a perfect starting place for Medieval private study. Academia.edu is for more scholarly research. It a way academics share research papers with masses of people for free. The company’s mission is to accelerate the world’s research. But it also allows them to monitor analytics impacting their research, and tracking the research they follow. Academia.edu is widely read attracting over 37 million visitors a month. Related Prior Post: Internet Round-Up 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Internet Round Up 4: Armour and Illuminated Manuscripts
Morgan M.456 Avis aus roys Folio 34v, 1340-1360 A.D., Paris, France Manuscript Miniatures is not exactly what you think it is from its name. It is a medieval armor research source with insight through illuminated manuscripts. The website’s intent is to make it easier to hunt for online digitized images from numerous manuscripts. A way to quickly view 15,000+ miniatures from 1500+ manuscripts of 15+ countries. It’s not a manuscript holder, so once you find an image you’ll want to verify its accuracy. But that’s easy. By clicking on the picture you’ll find its source. You can then verify its accuracy with the manuscript’s owner. Manuscript Miniatures has a tagging method that’s innovative. The labels are created by viewers sometimes with interesting spellings or descriptions. It’s also why you might find unique images included within a tag. As a scribe, you might not find illumination’s common term for things either. Its brickwork and brick pattern tags are what you’d call “diapering”. One of its best tags is ‘elephant‘. Its 75 images show Medieval people had little idea what an elephant looked like. But there’s more for you here than illuminated manuscripts. From this web page, you can tab to other similar item categories with separate URLs like Armour In Art, Effigies & Brasses, and Aquamanilia. Each offers similar ways to search. Its Effigies & Brasses’ Links also connect you to related external armoring information. While this isn’t exactly a blog round-up, it is a work-in-progress webpage collection with contributions welcomed. And I thought […]
British Library’s Own Internet Round-up
This may seem to you like cheating, but these are too good not to check out. Cutting from a University of Padua diploma c. 1465-79 They are the British Library‘s collection of blogs. A group of interesting, knowledgeable blogs all in one place. You could say they are its own “internet Round-Up”. One blog is perfect for SCA book artists. It’s their […]
Cat Love
Llull’s Llibre de meravelles (BNF Fr. 189, fol. 283), second half of the 15th-century You have my new cat Luna to thank for this blog post. I’m lounging with my tablet because she wants a nap. But this Luna-break gave me a reason to look up medieval pet cats. And so I came across a ninth-century poem about a monk’s white cat named Pangur Ban. While the poem was written by an Irish monk it was found in a monastery near today’s Austria on Reichenau Island. In the poem, the monk compares his search for knowledge to the cat’s hunt for mice and the pleasure both get from their efforts. In the poem translated by Robin Flower the monk shows the fondness he had for his cat. He named it and called his pet a “he” not an “it.” So in peace our tasks we ply, Pangur Bán, my cat, and I; In our arts we find our bliss, I have mine and he has his. That is a person who adores his cat. “Pangur Ban” is a delightful poem relevant to us in the SCA today when you take joy in hunting for history’s knowledge. Aren’t you elated when you snare an elusive information tidbit? Don’t you want to show it off as a cat displays a trophy-mouse to its owner? Related Prior Post: Searching For Illumination Manuscript Humor SCA Award Texts External Related Links: Cats as Pets in the Middle Ages Larsdatter on […]
5+ Medieval History Blogs – Internet Round-up 2
From the 1430 Milanese illuminated manuscript Bréviaire de Marie de Savoie As I work on SCA projects I come across things I think would interest you. They don’t always come with pretty pictures like this Milanese rabbit, but I thought as a group you might find them interesting. So I put five together in one post with a similar topic. These blogs are by a variety of professional historians. Although Karen Larsdatter is also in the SCA. I know you’ll find them as interesting as I did. And be careful. You might lose track of time or get “hooked” by one or two. Enjoy. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ History Of The Ancient World gives you “news, articles, and videos about antiquity, from prehistoric times to the Roman Empire.” It is edited by Peter Konieczny and Sandra Alvarez who you may also know for the website Medievalists.net – a premier resource for those interested in the Middle Ages. Material Culture Blog where M. Karen Larsdatter “blogs about stuff from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, including clothing, armor, and artwork. News about museum exhibits and new books.” Don’t miss her showpiece links page where you can click on anything and be amazed. Medieval Histories is another Larsdatter bonanza you won’t want to skip. This one is her traditional blog. The Public Medievalist is Dr. Paul B. Sturtevant’s unique blog about how the Middle Ages are currently featured in popular culture, museums and in education. You even find posts about SCA culture. Medieval Hungary is a blog written by Zsombor Jékely in English “about medieval art history, with […]
How-to Educate Yourself In Scribal Skills? Learning And Teaching Them
At Lonely Tower’s scribes gathering recently Ly. Kristin asked what the basic illumination skills were that she should learn. Kristin is an accomplished preprint painter with wonderful skills, but she wants to take it a step further. How does she know what skills she should learn? Where would you look? A great starting place is this archived article “A Guide For The […]
5 Inspiring History Recreation Blogs – An Internet Round-up
How about an inspiration boost? Websites you might browse to charge your creative history juices. An Internet Round-up. Here are five blogs from different eras each painting their own authenticity recreation picture. Your introduction to their personal history journey. This pretty is from a Book of Hours Belgium, Bruges, ca. 1520 MS M.307 fol. 174v I enjoy losing myself in photos and stories other history buffs have. […]
Free JSTOR For Your Use
I’m so excited. While I may be behind the times, I just found out I can now read free articles on JSTOR, Up to six a month. I use to only be able to afford this by driving to my local university library where I paid for an economical annual membership. But it was worth it because it had JSTOR’s digitized issues of academic journals. The only other way to afford this was to be a college student or professor. Sorry, I neglected to tell you, JSTOR is short for Journal Storage and is a digital library founded in 1995. It has improved since I last used it because it now includes books, primary sources and full-text searches of 2,000 journals, with older domain content free. Try it. But use Google Scholar for your topic first to see what Medieval academic stuff turns up. Then access it using your monthly six free reads. See what interesting nerdy stuff you can learn. Related Prior Post: Wow! Scribal Research Has Changed
Resource Mining
One trick to learn when doing SCA research I call “Resource Mining”. It is more fun than saying you can “get resources from the Bibliography” of the book or article you’re reading. A bibliography is a list of books, articles, speeches, private records, diaries, websites, and other sources an author used when writing a paper. You may find it at the end of an article or non-fiction book. Sometimes it’s called Works Cited or Works Consulted. These lists are useful for the person who creates it because it gives credit to all the authors cited works. It also makes it easy for the enquiring readers to find the source used, but also to later researchers and curious people who are following similar paths. Think of bibliographies as time-saving and access keys to your SCA explorations. Works cited in bibliographies may include more than books, articles, and websites. They may list professional journal article abstracts or summaries that are hard to find or expensive to acquire. The abstract or summary may have just enough information for your SCA project. Or give you a strong reason to seek out the full source. Resource mining is even better when the bibliography is annotated. In an annotated bibliography each listing gives you its content and value, clues to whether you should read it. If you read a listing that describes the work as “ground-breaking” or otherwise amazing, it’s a clue. It may give you an overview of the source, critique it, or comment on its […]
The 6 Best Scribal Facebook Groups
Lonely Tower’s Scribes I’m not the Scribal-Answer-Lady, and I don’t care to be. However, discussing things scribal with others is important to build skills, knowledge, connections, and fun. Where do you go for that? As a 35-year SCAdian, it pains me to answer…Facebook. Facebook provides you comfort, hope, purpose, and validation as a member of a community. It’s a place to share […]
8 Scribal Books For Cyber-Monday Ordering
Cyber-Monday is tomorrow, so I hope you see this in time. There’s also little for scribal illuminators at local bookstores. And nothing on history, gouache application, or medieval manuscript terminology. So shopping for these items Monday online is perfect timing. These are not new publications. There aren’t many current books in this category. But they are books I have and use to this day. So here’s my list: The Art of Calligraphy: A Practical Guide To The Skills And Techniques, by David Harris, Dorling Kindersley, New York, 1995. Creative Calligraphy: A Complete Course by Marie Lynskey, Thorsons Publishers Ltd., England, 1988. A History of Illuminated Manuscripts, by Christopher De Hamel, Phaidon Press, 1997. The Illuminated Alphabet, by Patricia Seligman and Timothy Noad, Running Press, London, 1994. Illumination for Calligraphers: The complete guide for the ambitious calligrapher, by Marie Lynskey, Thorsons, London, 1990. Medieval Calligraphy It’s History and Technique, by Marc Drogin, Dover Publications, New York, 1989. Medieval Illuminators and Their Methods of Work, by Jonathan J.G. Alexander. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1992. Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts, A Guide To Technical Terms, by Michelle P. Brown. The J. Paul Getty Museum in association with The British Library, 1994. Related Prior Post: 6 Scribal Books For Your Cyber-Monday Shopping Holiday Scribal Gift Ideas
SCA Award Texts
Scribe lettering. Recently I was asked to create text for an award scroll. It’s something I like doing and use to do often. The common awards are based on period charters and patents of arms. The period inspirations are not actual awards but often legal documents giving land or other rights. They sound very lawyerly because they were legal documents then. […]
SCA Curiosity And The Internet Medieval Sourcebook
I’ve been hunting down my favorite online medieval sources. Some time since I composed my last text the Internet Medieval Sourcebook received a new look. In fact the whole Internet History Sourcebooks Project (IHSP) has been updated. It’s new and improved. As someone in the SCA, if you haven’t found the IHSP yet you are missing out on heaven. The IHSP is a website with troves of ancient, medieval and modern primary source documents. It also has links to maps, secondary sources, bibliographies, images, and music. It was created in 1996 as a textbook alternative. The IHSP is located at the Fordham University History Department and Center for Medieval Studies. Its editor is Paul Halsall, and Jerome S. Arkenberg is the contributing editor. The IHSP is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented without advertising. The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is a humongous collection requiring constant updating. In addition to the large individual collections of the Medieval, Ancient, and Modern Sourcebooks, the IHSP also includes separate Sourcebooks on African, Byzantine, East Asian, Global cultural interaction, Indian, Islamic, Jewish, LGBT, Science, and Women’s History. While many sources would help if you were doing persona research I particularly like ancient or medieval legal sources for writing scroll text. The great thing about the revised format is the search box found in the upper right corner. Through it, I found specific useful search entries: charters, patents, Burgundy, scribe. Additionally, the IHSP include a Brief Citation Guide. This is a great help if you plan to enter a […]
Searching For Illumination Manuscript Humor
While waiting to leave for an appointment the other day I decided to see what funny and weird illuminated manuscript stuff I could find with Google. This is a fun time suck that must be used sparingly or it will make me late to my appointment. British Library’s Harley 7026 f. 16 These handmade devotional books often had margins filled with tiny pictures called “marginalia.” While not all were weird many had pictures of bawdy whimsy, fanciful animals, political satire and even sexually explicit jokes. Seen through our modern eyes they appear outlandish because we’re not used to seeing lurid detail displayed in holy books, especially from a distant time we think was conservative and proper. Immediately I hit paydirt with three posts on io9.Gizmodo a popular weblog. Bizarre and vulgar illustrations from illuminated medieval manuscripts by Vincze Miklós General medieval weirdness mostly. Why do knights fight snails in illuminated manuscripts? by Lauren Davis With this writing, I found an interesting link to the British Library’s manuscript blog post Knight v. Snail Are these the dirtiest manuscript doodles of the Middle Ages? by Cyriaque Lamar Those led me to this Spanish post. There are lots of medieval paintings of knights fighting giant snails and nobody knows why. by Matías S. Zavia Amazingly I thought some of those too odd to include in an SCA scroll. While I still had time I returned to my google search and clicked on these. Naughty Nuns, Flatulent Monks, and Other Surprises of Sacred Medieval […]
An Itinerant Scribe 