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A Treasure Trove of Books

Lombard trove in world heritage bid

Ivories on show in London before they leave to live in Canada

Medieval artefact rescued by amateur historian


St Mildred's Priory - Tower restoration to begin

The Sarmas Collection of Medieval Greek Coinage

Tithebarn could yield medieval treasures

Tudor 'correspondent' text online







Jan 21:
Saints:
259 St. Fructuosus
861 St. Meinrad

Birthdays:
1338 King Charles V of France

Deaths:

917 Erchanger, Duke of Swabia
1118 Pope Paschal II

Events:
911 King Louis the Child, last Carolingian ruler of Germany, dies

1189 Phillip Augustus, King of France, Henry II, King of England, and
Fredrick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor, begin assembling the troops for
the Third Crusade

1217 Matthew Paris enters St Albans as a monk

1287 The treaty of San Agayz is signed.
Minorca is conquered by King Alfons III of Aragon.

1472 Great daylight comet of 1472 passes within 10.5 million km of
earth


Jan 22:
Saints:
304 St. Vincent of Saragossa
628 St. Anastasius the Persian


Birthdays:
1263 Ibn Taymiya, Islamic scholar (d. 1328)
1440 Ivan III (the Great), Grand Prince of Russia

Events:
565 Eutychius is deposed as Patriarch of Constantinople by John
Scholasticus.
1498 Columbus discovers St Vincent Island


Jan 23:
Saints:
616 St. John the Almoner
667 St. Ildefonsus
1275 St. Raymond of Penafort

Birthdays:
1350 Vincent Ferrer, Spanish missionary and saint (d. 1419)

Deaths:
1002 Otto III, Emperor of the West
1199 Yaqub, Almohad Caliph (b. 1160)

Events:
393 Theodosius I proclaims his nine year old son Honorius
co-emperor.
1264 Annullment of the Provisions of Oxford
1295 Coronation of Pope Boniface VIII
1368 In a coronation ceremony, Zhu Yuanzhang ascends to the throne of
China as the Hongwu Emperor, initiating Ming Dynasty rule over
China that would last for three centuries.


Jan 24:
Saints:
97 St. Timothy
260 Babylas, Bishop, Memorial
Felician and Messalina, Memorial

Birthdays:
1287 Richard de Bury
1287 Richard Aungerville, English bishop (d. 1345)
1444 Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan (d. 1476)

Deaths:
661 Murder of Ali by a Kharajite
772 Pope Stephen III (b. 720)
1002 Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor
1125 David IV of Georgia (b. 1073)
1366 Alfonso IV of Aragon (b. 1299)
1376 Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel, English military leader
1438 The Council of Basel suspends Pope Eugene IV as Prelate of
Ethiopia, arrives at Massawa from Goa.
1458 Matthias Corvinus elected King of Hungary
1473 Conrad Paumann, German composer

Events:
1438 The Council of Basel suspends Pope Eugene IV as Prelate of
Ethiopia, arrives at Massawa from Goa.



Jan 25:
Saints:
363 Sts. Juventinus and Maximinus
Conversion of St. Paul, Feast Day
460 St. Dwynwen - Memorial, the saint of Welsh lovers

Birthday:
749 Leo IV (the Khazar), Byzantine Emperor
1477 Anna, Duchess of Brittany, wife of Charles VIII of France

Death:
389 Gregory Nazianzus, theologian and Patriarch of Constantinople
477 Gaiseric, King of the Vandals
817 Pope Stephen V
844 Pope Gregory IV
1067 Emperor Yingzong of China
1138 Anacletus, anti-Pope
1366 Henry Suso, German mystic
1431 Charles II, Duke of Lorraine
1494 Ferrante I, King of Aragon

Events:
817 Consecration of Paschal I as Pope
1077 Emperor Henry IV submits to Pope Gregory VII at Canossa
1153 Baldwin III, King of Jerusalem, attacks Ascalon
1325 Lithuania opened to settlement
1327 Edward III becomes King of England.
1356 Edward III, King of England, having no further use for him,
pensions off Edward Balliol, "King" of Scots
1494 Alfonso II becomes King of Naples.
1498 Vasco da Gama reaches Quelimane, on the Sofala coast



Jan 26:
Saints:
166 St. Polycarp
404 St. Paula
648 St. Conan
1100 St. Eystein of Norway 1
1108 St. Alberic (Aubrey)
1271 St. Margaret

Birthdays:
1497 Emperor Go-Nara of Japan

Deaths:
724 Caliph Yazid II
946 Eadgyth, German Queen

Events:
1266 Charles of Anjou becomes King of Sicily
1316 Revolt in Wales by Llywelyn Bren
1316 Edward Bruce and Irish fight English
1340 King Edward III of England is declared King of France.
1347 University of Prague authorized by the Pope



Blog Entry of the Week:
Myths of Britain at In the Middle

Quote of the Week:

I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile. Gregory VII

Words of the Week:

Dictionary.com brings us callow, meaning immature or inexperienced, from Old English calu meaning bald or bare, "many a man becomes bald suddenly" we're told in a proverb from the period.

D.com also brings us quietus, from Medieval Latin quietus est, meaning in English to be discharged, a final stroke or word that ends something, released from life, and even a period of inactivity. It is the perfect passive participle of the Latin verb quiesco, meaning to rest, to be at peace, be silent.

Continuing a medieval word theme it would appear, they also brought us upbraid, from Old English upbregdan, to twist, and by extension, to reproach, a word used by Wulfstan to encourage penance.


Webster's brings us a word not used much except in special applications in British English: hustings, from Old English which borrowed it from Old Norse, hus thing, house assembly, a court, and used in the 19th century to refer to the "stump" on which a candidate would make a speech.

There's also scarify, from French, from late Latin, from Greek meaning originally to scratch an outline, but in English meant to lacerate, either literally such as a wound, or figuratively, one's feelings or thoughts

The Medieval Review recent reviews:

Anlezark, Daniel Water and Fire: The Myth of the Flood in Anglo-Saxon England

Harari, Yuval Noah
Special Operations in the Age of Chivalry, 1100-1550

Garland, Lynda
Byzantine Women: Varieties of Experience, AD 800-1200

Bullón-Fernández, María, ed.
England and Iberia in the Middle Ages, 12th-15th Century

Knuuttila, Simo
Emotions in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy

Rosenwein, Barbara H.

Arnold, Martin
The Vikings: Wolves of War