Friday, October 31, 2008

Daily Life in Chaucer’s England: What’s New in the Second Edition?

The second edition is significantly expanded. I don’t have a final page count yet since I just turned in the index, but it looks like it will be about 50 pages longer than the first. We’ve added a lot of primary source sidebars, many of them directly related to Chaucer’s life, and added new material to the text, particularly on contemporary society, Chaucer’s world, deeds of arms and the profession of arms, archery and music, holding a medieval event and digital resources. The bibliography has also been updated.

There are fourteen new halftone illustrations. New line art includes new patterns for a pouch, belt purse and breeches and sheet music and lyrics for two songs from 14th century England, as well as a new exemplar for a cursive batarde script based on Chaucer’s own handwriting.

Daily Life in Chaucer's England, Second Edition

This is one of the major reasons my blogging has been light lately. I've completed the index and sent off my corrections to the page proofs. Woohoo!

It's scheduled for release in December.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Medieval Living History at Pennsylvania Colonial Plantation, October 18-19

An event in Media, PA. La Belle Compagnie will attend. So will I.

Update:

Venison marinated in red wine and roasted on a spit. Mmmmmm. There are many tasty ways to prepare venison, but this is hard to beat from the diner's viewpoint. It's the circle of life, little Simba. They ate our Rhododendron, and we ate them.

Living history. Before that weeekend, I didn't know what that tasted like. Now I do. It was a significant education.

Photos from the event here.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Machaut and the Robot

MESSENGER, our robot proxy near Mercury, has taken a stunning picture of the crater Machaut, named after the 14th century poet and composer. I always enjoy the opportunity to write about robots and the 14th century in the same blog post.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Staggeringly Recursive Marginalia Jokes

Got Medieval has a splendid post on an extended and erudite joke expressed by a grotesque figure in the margins of a medieval MS.

If you have any illusions that we are significantly more clever, acute or imaginative than our ancestors from 500 or 600 years ago, please discard them now. Evolution doesn’t work that quickly.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

In my Parallel Universe…..

Flying robots from the Holy Land protect the Pope. Who is battling a lawsuit filed on behalf of the Templars. Meanwhile, there’s a Zeppelin over London

Happy October Fools Day. Which is to say, the antipodal opposite of April Fools Day. On April Fools Day you pull people's leg by telling them things that aren't true. On October Fools Day....

More on the Recent Unpleasantness

Tyler Cowen has an excellent summary here.