Antonella Liuzzo Scorpo

March 14, 2017June 11, 2020

Public and Private Emotions – Creative Analysis

In my second term module ‘Public and Private Emotions’ run by Dr Antonella Liuzzo Scorpo, we use a range of source material to study medieval perceptions and expressions of emotion: a field of inquiry which has recently received significant scholarly attention. We address themes such as love, friendship, hatred, fear and examine whether, and to what extent, concepts of private and public can be applied to a pre-modern era.

As 21^st-century historians, we must be able to engage with a range of different audiences through various means of media; so, for our first assessment, we were asked to produce a creative source analysis that could engage a modern-day audience in the discussion of a key theme from the module. This task aimed to enhance our ability to interpret, analyse and present primary source material and provided a refreshing change from our usual essay-based assessments!

I chose to use Facebook as a platform to present a modern interpretation of Guibert de Nogent’s twelfth-century autobiography, Monodies. I think that the selectivity of Facebook networks calls into question the definition of concepts such as ‘public’ and ‘private’, and demonstrates the comparable nature of exclusive twenty-first-century virtual ‘friendship’ networks and the self-regulated twelfth-century Christian communities which are prevalent topic of discussion in Monodies. Similarly, the format of Facebook allows for a mix of both introspection and interaction, which Guibert demonstrates in his autobiography by simultaneously engaging with personal memories and interacting with contemporary twelfth-century theological debates.

FB Status USE

I chose fear as the filter through which to discuss ideas of identity and otherness, and the divisions between mind and body in Guibert’s emotional autobiography. My analysis of Monodies aimed to highlight Guibert’s retrospective engagement with fear as an internal feeling, an emotional response and a socio-religious construction. I studied Monodies for my undergraduate dissertation, and I thought I was quite familiar with Guibert’s personal anecdotes; yet, examining this autobiography in light of a more nuanced historical discipline such as the study of emotions has radically developed my understanding of Monodies while simultaneously giving cause to question everything I thought I already knew!

King Arthur- A Hero for all Ages

King Arthur- A Hero for all Ages by Beth Williams

With the upcoming release of Guy Richie’s latest film King Arthur: Legend of the Sword the question in some people’s minds might be ‘do we really need another film about King Arthur?’ It’s a legitimate question. I can’t deny a certain weakness myself for all things Arthurian but it still seems curious to me that one figure has succeeded in inspiring generation after generation of storytellers. The 2004 film King Arthur, BBC’s Merlin and Starz short lived show Camelot are just three of the most recent examples in the English language, not even touching upon the many T.V. shows and films that predate these or those created globally elsewhere. Of course we shouldn’t forget that this isn’t a purely modern phenomenon as even a passing familiarity with the works of the romantic poets or the Pre-Raphaelites proves that the Victorians weren’t immune to the charms of Camelot and its fictional inhabitants either.

In spite of his enduring popularity every incarnation of the legendary king differs wildly from the one that came before. The reason why most likely lies in the original source material; there are so many ‘Arthurian Legends’ it means there is no definitive account, no single authoritative voice dictating who Arthur is or was. In modern adaptations of Arthur just as the plot and characters are inspired by Medieval Romance so is the trend of re-writing the stories to suit a contemporary audience. He remains a figure shrouded in mystery, half fact half fiction. As such, writers and artist are free to re-imagine him as they wish.

The earliest datable appearance of Arthur in literature is the Welsh work History of the British but it is Geoffrey of Monmouth who is widely credited with sparking the Arthur trend. The Arthur that appears in Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain is a great warrior King who successfully conquers England, Ireland, areas of Europe and even secures victories as far afield as Asia and Africa. This early incarnation of Arthur is an empire builder, who dies defending his land from his rebellious nephew Mordred. The idea of Arthur the Imperial victor has mostly fallen out of fashion, probably because the values of the conqueror are not ones shared by a modern audience.

Later traditions tended to focus upon the independent knights rather than the grand monarchical narrative. The most familiar version of the tale is from the romance of the high middle ages. The stories of Chrétien de Troyes in which Percival’s hunt for the Holy Grail and Guinevere’s and Lancelot’s doomed love appear for the first time. Arthur also spreads beyond its British origins amalgamating earlier stories into the Arthurian canon such as the tale of Tristan and Iseult. The far reaching popularity of the stories is demonstrated by the appearance of Arthur in the decorative carving of Modena Cathedral in Italy (it’s even been suggested that this is the earliest surviving depiction of him, although there is lively debate over its exact date).

Depiction of Arthurian characters, Modena Cathedral, Italy.

As Arthur grew in popularity the English monarchy started to use the reputation of the legendary king as a propaganda tools for themselves. Never is this more evident than in the round table still displayed in pride of place on the wall of what remains of Winchester Castle. It was made in the reign of Edward I who, like his grandson Edward III, used Geoffrey of Monmouth as historical antecedence for their claims over Scotland and the latter even suggested setting up his own round table of knights. The Tudors got in on the Arthurian action too with Henry VII calling his first son Arthur in the hope that he would become Arthur I of England; with Arthur’s premature death his brother Henry VIII wasn’t above playing up his welsh ancestry to suggest an hereditary link with the Arthur of old, and had the Winchester round table painted with a Tudor Rose and a portrait that bore a striking resemblance to Henry as a young man.

Arthur easily lends himself to being a hero for all time, because that is what he has always been. Each author has taken the name of Arthur and used him as a vehicle to present their idea of a great King. From the early incarnations of the fearsome warrior, to the epitome of Chivalric values Arthur can be everything to everybody because every writers creates their own new Arthur inspired by, yet independent from those that came before. From the look of the trailers Richie’s Arthur rejects his hereditary position being ‘raised on the streets’ in order to make a rough tough action hero who is more palatable to a twenty-first century audience than a privileged rich boy who hasn’t had to work for what he has. The hunt for the ‘real Arthur’ has spawned all kinds of studies, and ideas about the historical truth behind the legends but the reality is that the real life King Arthur, if there ever was one (a big if) will always remain unknowable but Monmouth did succeed in creating one of the most enduring popular fictional figures ever.

Beth Williams, February 2017. – Beth is currently undertaking a MA Medieval Studies course at the University of Lincoln.

For an Introduction to Arthurian Literature see:

Archibald, Elizabeth and Ad Putter (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to the Arthurian Legend (Cambridge, 2009).

February 28, 2017June 11, 2020

Pancake Day (Part Two): Cryspe

The second medieval pancake recipe I tried this Pancake Day comes from the 15^th century Harleian Manuscript (279) and is cited as the first pancake recipe in English. This manuscript demonstrates a contemporary French influence on cooking and refers to these pancakes as ‘Cryspe’ after the French crêpe (meaning ‘crispy’).

Ingredients:

2 egg whites
1 cup warm milk
1 tsp yeast
1 tbsp sugar
½ tsp salt
2 cups plain flour
Any grease

Original Method:

Take Whyte of Eyroun, Mylke, & Floure, & a lytel Berme, & bete it to-gederys, & draw it þorw a straynoure, so þat it be renneng, & not to styf, & caste Sugre þer-to, & Salt; þanne take a chafer ful of freysshe grece boyling, & put þin hond in þe Bature, & lat þin bature renne dowun by þin fyngerys in-to þe chafere; & whan it is ronne to-gedere on þe chafere, & is y-now, take & nym a skymer, & take it vp, & lat al þe grece renne owt, & put it on a fayre dyssche, & cast þer-on Sugre y-now, & serue forth.

I interpreted this method as follows:

Activate the yeast in the warm milk and sugar.
Add milk mixture to the egg whites and combine.
Whisk in the flour a bit at a time to make a runny batter (add more milk if necessary).
When the mixture is combined strain the batter to remove any lumps.
Place a heaping spoonful of batter into your hand and let the mix run through your fingers into a shallow pan of hot oil.
Create a thin lattice of batter in the oil.
Flip the cryspe to ensure that it is cooked on both sides before removing from the oil.
Drain the cryspe and repeat.
Serve warm with sugar.

Unlike Apicius’ 5^th century Ova spongia ex lacte, these 15^th century cryspes have a more traditional pancake batter recipe. However, the slightly unconventional French ‘drizzle’ method renders these cryspes more akin to a funnel cake than a crêpe-style pancake. (For more information on medieval funnel-cakes see the 14th century guidebook: Le Menagier de Paris, Trans. Gina L. Greco and Christine M. Rose (New York, 2009).) Nevertheless, this recipe was delicious!

While modern style pancake recipes don’t appear in English until the 16^th century, the two ‘pancake’ recipes I tried provided a glimpse into the fascinating medieval history of this humble dish.

For more information on the global origins of the pancake, please see:

Albala, Ken. Pancake: A Global History (London, 2008).

February 28, 2017June 11, 2020

Pancake Day (Part One): Ova spongia ex lacte

This Pancake Day I indulged my inner food-historian and recreated two medieval pancake recipes.

Galen explores the nutritional properties of literal ‘pan-cakes’ (têganitai) in his On the Properties of Foodstuffs (De alimentorum facultatibus, 2nd century); yet, historic recipes for traditional pancakes are rare due to their simple set of ingredients and easy cooking instructions. For this reason, the first ‘pancake’ I made comes from the Apicius Manuscript, an early 5^th century collection of Roman cookery recipes.

Ova spongia ex lacte (egg sponge with milk) does not call for flour like a traditional pancake recipe, but it is the earliest written example of a ‘cake’ made in a pan!

Ingredients:

4 eggs
A hemina (240 ml) of milk
Oil
Honey and pepper to garnish

Method:

Beat eggs into the milk
Heat oil in a frying pan
Cook egg/milk ‘batter’ on one side, then flip and cook the other side
Serve with pepper and honey

Unsurprisingly, this recipe turned out a bit like a soggy omelette. However, in his De alimentorum facultatibus, Galen suggests that the honey served with the Ova spongia ex lacte ‘gives rise to a humour that is a mix of thick and thin, and in healthy people [is] better for liver, kidneys and spleen than those [foods] that have been prepared without honey’. So, despite the odd texture, the honey garnish makes this ‘pan-cake’ beneficial for our internal humoral balance!

While the recipe wasn’t overly delicious, I was astounded by the ancient origins of the humble pancake.

Reading:

Albala, Ken. Pancake: A Global History (London, 2008).

Apicius. The Roman Cookery Book: A Critical Translation of the Art of Cooking, for Use in the Study and the Kitchen. Trans. Elisabeth Rosenbaum and Ed. Barbara Flower (London, 1958).

Galen, On the Properties of Foodstuffs (De alimentorum facultatibus). Trans. Owen Powell (Cambridge, 2003).

February 20, 2017June 11, 2020

Between The Sheets in Late Medieval England

Hollie Morgan

Recently, I met with Dr Hollie Morgan to discuss her newly published monograph Beds and Chambers in Late Medieval England: Reading, Representation and Realities.

This volume is the first interdisciplinary study of the cultural meanings of beds and chambers in late medieval England and sheds new light on how medieval people felt about their domestic space and how this shaped their ideas about wider concepts such as of love, God, sex and politics.

This monograph draws from Hollie’s doctoral research which she completed at the University of York in 2014. Hollie says that she did not face many problems while writing and publishing her study, but confessed to feeling like she had to resurrect the metaphorical PhD monster ‘only to slay it again’ with the publication of this book!

In Beds and Chambers, Hollie draws on an array of literary, pragmatic and visual sources including romances, saints’ lives, lyrics, plays, wills, probate inventories, letters, church and civil court documents, manuscript illumination and physical objects. When asked what her favourite source to work with was, Hollie replied that she has always liked medieval romances, her favourite of these being Sir Gawain and the Green Knight which appears at the start and conclusion of her book. In our meeting, Hollie strongly advocated the use of a range of source materials as well as an interdisciplinary approach to Medieval Studies in order to nuance our understanding of the period: a methodology that is successfully employed in her own work.

I was particularly interested to find out more about the manuscript illumination on the cover of the volume. Hollie chose to use the historiated initial ‘A’ of ‘Adulterium’ from James le Palmer’s Omne bonum, an encyclopaedia of universal knowledge, which shows a man and woman in bed, with the explanation ‘Adulterium est alieni thori violacio’: adultery is the violation of the bed of another. Hollie explained that this renders the bed itself the focus of the illumination, making it a highly fitting and intriguing image for the front cover of this volume.

Hollie’s long term research goal is to understand what ‘home’ meant in late medieval England. With this in mind, Hollie plans to examine the cultural meanings of hearths and halls in her future research.

Congratulations Hollie on the publication of your book, and thank you for a lovely meeting!

February 13, 2017June 11, 2020

The Earliest Valentine?

Trinity College, Cambridge, R.2.70, recto.

In this world of instant messages and emojis, we rarely have cause to put pen to paper. If you are finding it difficult to convey your feelings in a Valentine’s Day card this year, take heart (and inspiration) from this fifteenth-century Middle English poem recently re-discovered in Trinity College Cambridge.

Susane the secunde, patron of plesaunce 1

That called is so throwe alle lumbardye,

Righte demure of chere and of contenaunce,

And in daunsyng, sport and curtesie,

Wele demeand and lady of venerye:

Remembre your servaunt that righte true is;

With that reward not disdayne hym to kys.

And of youre gentilnes se that he

This frosty wedir be nat lost for colde,

And that not defawte in you founde be; 10

So that in somer it may be said and tolde

Ye kept him warm with your armys folde,

And with the chere that ye hym made

Fulle ofte ye made his hart righte glade.

Nowe redres of alle my sorowes smert, 15

That righte true be withouten variaunce,

I you biseche, with sore wounded hert;

Me counforte throwe youre daliaunce,

And of my body take youre plesaunce;

And kepe it secret and not disclose 20

Whome to be true I can suppose.

By him that in forestes walkethe wyde

Where noone may passe with out his gyd,

Nor kene may in dale nor doune

But that he is other blake or broune. 25

In her detailed review of this poem, Julia Boffey explains that these 25 lines of Middle English verse present a ‘humorously uneven’ tone that seems to poke fun at the clichés of contemporary courtly love poetry. The poem is addressed to Susane who is praised for her ‘pleasunce’, ‘gentilness’ and ‘curtesie’ by an anonymous admirer but is also revered as a ‘lady of venerye’: a mistress of hunting or sexual activity. The poem also refers to the couples’ ‘daliaunce’ and ends with a call for discretion, further adding to the sexual undertone of the verse. Like many modern-day Valentine’s cards, the admirer maintains his anonymity but offers a clue as to his real name in the final four lines.

Below the verse is a painted red heart, pierced by two red arrows. While bleeding hearts occur with some frequency in devotional contexts its appearance in this secular poem is somewhat unusual. The interplay between religious imagery and secular verse demonstrated in this poem is also briefly explored by Boffey in other forms of material culture such as ‘posey rings’. A beautiful example is the early fifteenth-century ring found at Godstow Abbey which has a secular verse inscribed on the inside but is decorated with images of the Virgin on the outside.

While this poem does not make a direct reference to St Valentine, Boffey argues that the poems’ allusions to the seasons ‘do not preclude the possibility that it was conceived as a Valentine’s day gesture’. Similarly, we cannot be certain that this poem changed hands in the form of a missive; yet, this fragment still raises the intriguing possibility that such poems were produced for personal delivery and not conceived simply as components of social ‘courtly love’ games. Thus, while the vogue for sending Valentine’s Day cards started in the late eighteenth century, this fifteenth-century love poem is testimony to practices of amorous exchange well before the commercialisation of St Valentine’s Day.

Boffey, Julia. ‘A Middle English Poem on a Binding Fragment: an Early Valentine?’, Review of English Studies 67 (2016), 844-854.

Further Reading:

Camargo, Martin. The Middle English Verse Love Epistle (Tübingen, 1991).

Kelly, Henry Ansagar. Chaucer and the Cult of St Valentine (Leiden, 1986).

O’Hara, Diana. Courtship and Constraint: Rethinking the Making of Marriage in Tudor England (Manchester, 2000).

Oruch, Jack B. ‘St Valentine, Chaucer, and Spring in February’, Speculum 56 (1981), 534-565.

Staff, Frank. The Valentine and its Origins (London, 1969).

Webb, Ruth Lee. The History of Valentines (London, 1953).

February 4, 2017June 11, 2020

History in Our Hands

Every Wednesday morning the MA Medieval Studies group has a session at the Cathedral Centre at the top of Steep Hill. Although it was overcast on this particular Wednesday, walking into our 9am session is always awe-inspiring as the Cathedral Centre (a beautiful thirteenth-century building in its own right) boasts an amazing view of the Cathedral’s West Front as well as the Castle: the two pillars of Lincoln’s medieval heritage!

We are currently studying Palaeography with Prof. Philippa Hoskin which (while initially daunting) is fascinating and unlike anything I attempted during my undergraduate degree. Thanks to Lincoln’s unique resources we are able to use medieval manuscripts from the Cathedral Library, giving us valuable hands on experience with items we don’t usually get the opportunity to interact with. This week we transcribed a fifteenth-century passage from Brut’s Chronicle by taking it in turns to hold and read aloud from the original manuscript. It definitely adds an element of ‘realness’ when you are able to hold 600 years of history in your hands!

Medievalists Outside the Cathedral Archives

Being so immersed in medieval history is well worth the early morning walk up Steep Hill; but, we usually decide to treat ourselves to a cup of tea and a slice of cake on the way down!

November 10, 2016June 11, 2020

Guy de la Bédoyère talking about Roman Britain, 9 Nov 2016

We were very pleased to host Guy de la Bédoyère at Lincoln yesterday, Wed 9 November 2016.

Guy is a historian who has written widely on Roman Britain and the Roman world, and has also published several books on the correspondence of the English seventeenth century diarists Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, among other subjects. He is best known to the general public for the fifteen years he took part regularly in Channel 4’s popular archaeology series, Time Team, between 1998 and 2013.

From 2007 to 2016 he taught History and Classical Civilization at Kesteven and Sleaford High School in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, and is pleased with the number of students who went on to study History, Classics or Archaeology at university. Despite his French name, Guy is also descended from the ancient Lincolnshire family of Thorold. Married, with four adult sons, Guy lives near Grantham and has now given up teaching to return to freelance writing, lecturing, travelling in the United States (indeed he was touring in southern California and Arizona only five days ago) and Australia and elsewhere, while also enjoying the recent arrival of his granddaughter. His next book, Praetorian; the Rise and Fall of Rome’s Imperial Bodyguard, is to be published by Yale University Press in March 2017.

Today’s talk was about “The Real Lives of Roman Britain”: an exploration of the evidence for individuals during the Roman era in this island. Using anthropological parallels and also the European arrival in Australia, this developed the idea that modern western societies, being classical in origin, can access the Roman classical record but have no other easy conduit into the culture of the indigenous tribal societies. The Roman sense of self, and the desire to record that in the transmissible form of epigraphic records and written histories, enables us to access Romanized identities because, culturally, we have inherited Roman language forms and methods of visual depiction. When the Britons are visible to us it is almost invariably because they have been recorded in Romanized form because their other methods are literally and metaphorically invisible to us. This includes the acquisition of Roman name forms, the use of the classical sense of realistic visual forms, and the medium of a Romanized individual choosing to record a Briton in his milieu. If a Briton presents him or herself within the record it is only because of the adoption, apparently willingly, of the cultural motifs and language of the invading Roman culture. This raises the question of a key paradox – if we need Romanized forms to access a Briton then when we have that opportunity has the essence of the Briton been destroyed in transmitting his or her identity through a Roman medium? The arrival of Europeans in Australia mirrors this to some extent. The record of Britain in Australia in the early years is of a colonizing imperial culture in which indigenous peoples are marginalized, barely understood and left as an opaque backdrop. This paper explores the evidence for the Britons within the Roman record and considers the extent to which access is an illusion or even simply impossible. This raises questions about our own upbringing and how rapidly we become configured within narrow cultural parameters that challenge access to wider understanding.

In a day in which the world was in shock after the results of the American elections, this talk provided a breath of fresh air which made us think about imperial culture, assimilation of indigenous traditions and customs, as well as acculturation in a different light, while also promoting the adoption of more interdisciplinary approaches to dig deeper into these subjects.

October 13, 2016June 11, 2020

Dr Ed Roberts: History and Heritage Research Seminar

First History and Heritage Research Seminar for this academic year!

Dr Ed Roberts (University of Liverpool) joined us on Wednesday 12 October (MHT Building, MC0024 from 4.30pm to 6pm) to talk about:

‘An ‘age of iron and lead’? Reassessing intellectual culture in the tenth-century West’

In continental western European history, the tenth century – long dismissed as an unsavoury ‘dark age’ – has recently seen a revival of interest which is leading to major reassessments of the period’s social and political history. Re-evaluation of tenth-century intellectual and cultural life has been comparatively lacking, however. Here the period still seems ‘dark’ next to the heady days of the Carolingian Renaissance and the apparent renewal of learning after the millennium which culminated in the advent of scholasticism and the ‘discovery of the individual’ in the twelfth century. Can the tenth century’s intellectual standing be salvaged, or was this really a dismal era of cultural malaise?

Ed’s paper examined two case studies of two of the period’s most learned but ‘idiosyncratic’ figures – Flodoard of Rheims (d. 966) and Rather of Verona (d. 974) – which might be useful to reframe the intellectual history of the tenth-century West. Ed argued that these individuals operated within a distinct and innovative intellectual community, which reflected changing attitudes towards scholarship and composition.

The paper was thought-provoking and it was followed by a lively debate. Staff and students asked about the criteria of selection of these two case studies and the extent to which they should be regarded as representative of their period; how ideas of intellectual networks within the Ottonian context reflected similar trends across Western Europe; as well as whether and to what extent the personal intervention of Rhather of Verona in his chronicles could be read as an ‘autobiographical’ statement and how this might help historians to answer questions of authority and reception of his work.

Ed also suggested that considering the political changes which followed the emergence of Ottonian power and the geographical shift of most ‘learned centres’ towards Lotharingia is extremely important when trying to answer some of the aforementioned questions. However, whether places like Rheims and Italy could be considered as ‘peripheries’ by the 10^th century is highly debatable and this was something which we continued discussing after the seminar…over a pint!

Many thanks to Dr Roberts for providing food for thought!

May 19, 2016June 11, 2020

Dr Wood and Dr Liuzzo Scorpo at the ICMS in Kalamazoo

The International Congress of Medieval Studies, hosted by Western Michigan University’s Medieval Institute, is an annual gathering of around 3,000 scholars interested in medieval studies. It is a sort of Mecca for any medievalists, who are encouraged to attend it…at least once in an academic life time!

The congress features 550-575 sessions of papers, panel discussions, roundtables, workshops and performances.

Dr Jamie Wood and I were involved in some of those sessions.

Dr Wood presented a paper on ‘Formative Spaces: Making Female Ascetics in Early Medieval Iberia’ in a session on Enclosure, Transgression, and Scandal in Medieval Nunneries. The session included also Victoria Kent Worth (Univ. of Massachusetts–Amherst), Michelle Herder (Cornell College) and Laura Cayrol-Bernardo (University of Paris).

Simultaneously, I was delivering my paper on ‘Kings in Each other’s eyes: Alfonso X of Castile and James I of Aragon. Regulating Emotions’ in a session entitled ‘Affect and Emotions II’ which was part of a series, which also included a conclusive roundtable for discussion. These three sessions were extremely productive, thought-provoking and good fun! Scholars who contributed to the panels, organized by Prof Simon Doubleday (Hofstra University), were: Alicia Miguélez (Universidade Nova, Lisbon), Emily Francomano (Georgetown Univ), Miriam Shadis (Ohio Univ.), Henry Berlin (Univ. at Buffalo), as well as Sarah McNamer (Georgetown University), who led the roundtable.

Dr Wood and I also had the chance to attend a lovely dinner organized by IMANA (Iberomedieval Association of North America), which gave us the opportunity to meet over 70 colleagues working on Medieval Iberian Studies across the world.

Excellent experience overall!