Anglo-Norman French, not something I had ever really come across until hearing Dr. Heather Pagan’s talk at Magdalen College. In fairness, I had only come across the Anglo-Normans briefly when in primary school, which was a fair few years ago, and being about 7 years old, always presumed they spoke modern-day English. But of course... Continue Reading →
Vespucci’s Odyssey: humanism and exploration
The wanderings of Odysseus on his return from the Trojan Wars to Ithaca have served as an archetype for more than two millennia of narratives about travel in western culture. Traditionally ascribed to the blind poet Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey are the culmination of an oral tradition dating back to the Mycenaean age,... Continue Reading →
From the garden to the place of skulls: illustrations of the Easter story in a Book of Hours
Some of the finest art of the Northern Renaissance can be found hidden in books – painted into Books of Hours. The Book of Hours was a popular form of prayer book, based on the hours of the monastic services (Prime, Terce, Nones, Lauds, etc.), but Books of Hours were usually made for an individual... Continue Reading →
Incunable fragments
One of my recent tasks has been the identification and cataloguing of just over twenty loose sheets of printed material, found as fragments at ECL. Most of these are from ‘incunables’, books printed before 1500, when the printing process was in its infancy. The rarity of printed books surviving from the 15th century means that... Continue Reading →
Edward IV, protector of Eton?
The end of 1460 had been a bad year for the Yorkists. Richard Duke of York and his younger son Edmond had been killed in battle. The elder son Edward was now Duke of York, and he assumed his father’s claim to the throne. The tide would now begin to turn in favour of the... Continue Reading →
