This incredibly preserved Roman legionary’s boot was found at Vindolanda, a fort on Hadrian’s Wall. It fully enclosed the foot and would have had a sturdy sole with hobnails in it. The hobnails protected the boot on long marches and perhaps were also useful in battle for stamping on prone enemies.
drop me in a country in europe, I will find a medieval well. 📌crljivica, croatia
@medievalmarginalia.com hi! Just wanted to say how much I LOVED the anchoress talk yesterday. One of the most interesting talks I've been to in a long time. I hope you manage to give the talk you hinted at about female devotional practice - I'd be super keen to learn more!
me: *looks at my child* child: “…portcullis” (slightly menacing tone)
update from this week’s heat dome bodleian library, ms douce 134
Fascinating detail here about how and why women, rather than men, became telephone operators.
depths of wikipedia@depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 2mo agohave just finished my third read through of this. each time [this g-d book] happens to me all over again.
“That looks like the Monster Energy drink logo.”
April 14, feast day of Saint Lidwina, a 14th century Dutch mystic. Aged 15 she fell and broke a rib ice skating, causing her paralysis and chronic pain. Lidwina turned to God in her suffering, practicing intense fasting & prayer. She is remembered as the patron saint of ice skating & chronic pain.
My #sundaysentence this week relates to the dangers found on the road to Galicia: "One French guidebook of the early twelfth century issued grave warnings of the loose morals of the people who dwelled there, such as Navarrese farmers 'who practice unclean fornication' with their mules and mares."
I LOVE WHEN PEOPLE LEARN THIS
Liesbeth Corens@onslies.bsky.social · 4mo agoPop Leo asked if he should put on gloves to turn pages in the gorgeous Renaissance Bible and the librarian explained why it’s better to do so with bare hands. Glorious reaction. Every rare books librarian & archivist feeling very seen, I gather. www.instagram.com/reel/DUcpEBY... #BookHistory
Happy birthday to Irish artist Harry Clarke, born #onthisday in Dublin in 1889 (on #StPatricksDay no less). Here he is in a self-portrait as an absinthe drinking Mephistopheles from Goethe's Faust. More in our essay "Harry Clarke’s Looking Glass" publicdomainreview.org/essay/h... #OTD
Love the glimpse into the beautiful mind that notated this used copy of Moby Dick I got
Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Blind Leading the Blind. A little late for medieval, but shh, let me have this one. I could stare at the details all day.
