What I’m getting is that all the women in Middle Earth ran off and set up their own civilization somewhere….
Doodles by a child in Medieval Novgorod.
The Art of Onfim: Medieval Novgorod Through the Eyes of a Child
This is one of many fascinating birchbark documents and notes that survive from medieval Novgorod. More about this type of document: http://geocurrents.info/cultural-geography/linguistic-geography/birch-bark-documents-from-novgorod-russia
so great
How well do you know poison ivy?
Recently, someone told me, “Poison ivy is everywhere! How can I ever go hiking?” The woods were so scary for her, and it broke my heart.
My talented friend Glen and I made a Poison Ivy Quiz that will hopefully help you beef up your plant-spotting skills. Glen did the programming, and I took photos in bogs, woods and the urban jungle.
Above: a medieval manuscript mended with embroidery. Photos via the Uppsala University Library. Here is some information about the manuscript from their page:
The pages of the book are made of parchment and they show typical damage in the form of holes and tears that happened while the parchment was being made. Some time after the book was copied, the holes and tears have been mended artistically with silk of various colours, mainly in blanket stitch as used in embroidery.
The old mending is in good shape except for those parts which were sewn with black silk. The thread is so fragile that it disintegrates on touch.
Read more here.
(via booksnbuildings)
Canadians are apparently lion cubs now.
lol this is too funny not to reblog
this idea was better than the one where the poster was a grown man calling to a bunch of baby carriages thundering towards him
cat wiggle - dust bath
(Source: catleecious)
Entertainment in a medieval book
The margins of a medieval book are usually empty. This is handy, because it means you can place notes in them, or fill them with doodles, like here. In this particular case the reader decided to add spectacular illustrations to the margins. Not only do they show us snapshots of medieval individuals living their lives, which is special enough, the images are often also quite funny. Humour is not an unusual occurrence in such old books, as I showed here. However, to have this much fun in the margins is not very common.
Pics: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 264 (14th c). Browse the entire manuscript here and start enjoying dozens more images.
(via booksnbuildings)
