Photoset reblogged from Medieval with 2,669 notes
The Chained Library of Zutphen
I took these pictures during a visit to the 16th-century chained library of Zutphen, in the east of the Netherlands. It is one of three such libraries still in existence in Europe. Nothing much has changed here for 550 years.
More info: http://www.librije-zutphen.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=14&Itemid=111
Source: erikkwakkel
Photoset reblogged from Mary Quite Contrary with 1,279 notes
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, - BSB Cod.icon. 340, f. 33r. Beschreibung der historischen und allegorischen Personen der acht Inventionen zum Ringelrennen in den Aufzügen gehalten 1596 anläßlich der Taufe der Prinzessin Elisabeth von Hessen, 1600.
Source: demonagerie
Photoset reblogged from Medieval with 596 notes
Emblematic Alchemy in English verse, with an English version of the Visio mystica of Arnold of Villanova – Ripley scroll*
*Sir George Ripley (ca. 1415–1490) was an English author and alchemist.
Source: vintageprintable.com
Photoset reblogged from Medieval with 344 notes
Birth of purgatory
Medievalist Jacques Le Goffdefines the “birth of purgatory”, i.e. the conception of purgatory as a physical place, rather than merely as a state, as occurring between 1170 and 1200. Le Goff acknowledged that the notion of purification after death, without the medieval notion of a physical place, existed in antiquity, arguing specifically that Clement of Alexandria, and his pupil Origen of Alexandria, derived their view from a combination of biblical teachings, though he considered vague concepts of purifying and punishing fire to predate Christianity.
While the idea of purgatory as a process of cleansing thus dated back to early Christianity, the 12th century was the heyday of medieval otherworld-journey narratives such as the Irish Visio Tnugdali, and of pilgrims’ tales about St. Patrick’s Purgatory, a cavelike entrance to purgatory on a remote island in Ireland. The legend of St Patrick’s Purgatory written in that century by Hugh of Saltry, also known as Henry of Sawtry, was “part of a huge, repetitive contemporary genre of literature of which the most familiar today is Dante’s”; another is the Visio Tnugdali.
Other legends localized the entrance to Purgatory in places such as a cave on the volcanic Mount Etna in Sicily. Thus the idea of purgatory as a physical place became widespread on a popular level, and was defended also by some theologians.
image: Image of a fiery purgatory in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
Source: Wikipedia
Photo reblogged from Medieval with 81 notes
Ancient text gives clue to mysterious radiation spike
Eighth-century jump in carbon-14 levels in trees could be explained by “red crucifix” supernova.
His search found the eighth-century entries in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle at the Avalon Project, an online library of historical and legal documents hosted by Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Scrolling down to the year ad 774, Allen found a reference to a “red crucifix” that appeared in the heavens “after sunset”.
Photo reblogged from Medieval with 87 notes
From historical and legal texts, collected by William of Malmesbury. 1129.
Photo reblogged from Medieval with 145 notes
Door & well, Châteauneuf-en-Auxois castle, Burgundy, France.
Original by charallais on flickr.
Source: medievallove
Photo reblogged from Medieval with 11 notes
LORENZETTI, Pietro
Predella panel: Hermits at the Fountain of Elijah
1328-29
Tempera on wood
Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena
Photo reblogged from Erika Moen's Tumblr with 88 notes
Heraldic Panel: Arms of Lichtenfels and a Unicorn Hunt
Germany, (Freiburg ?) or Switzerland, (Basel ?), 16th century
Date: c. 1515
Medium: pot metal and white glass with silver stain
via Cleveland Museum of Art
Source: medieval
