Sometimes you stumble across something really cool while looking for something entirely different. In my latest case, I was looking for an image from a specific manuscript (which, by the way, I did not manage to find online), and I happened across the Troubadour Melodies Database. It is based on Katie Chapman's dissertation, and you can search the database with over 300 melodies from medieval manuscripts, and even compare melodies from different authors and different sources.

I have a thing for medieval music, so I find this very exciting, even though I won't be doing much with it (because of time being no infinite resource, sadly). But maybe it will come in handy somewhere else, or at least give someone besides me the "oh that is cool" moment.

 

Digitalised medieval manuscripts are a wonderful thing - though, I have learned, they can also be a wonderful time sink. However, when you are looking for image sources for medieval stuff, those illuminated texts can be a treasure trove. Calendar illuminations are one thing I have found especially helpful in quite a lot of cases, as they show working people doing agricultural jobs - dressed in simple, suitable clothing for the most parts.

One very nice digitised manuscript is the Bamberger Psalter, dating to 1220-1230. It has a lot of text (of course!) but includes both a calendar and some splendid full-page illuminations, one of them showing a knight in shining (well, more or less) armour (fol 63r, looks like David vs. Goliath to me).

You can have a look at the Psalter on the webpage of the Bamberger Staatsbibliothek. Have fun!

 

On my task list for the upcoming weekend is a presentation about medieval fabrics... and on my personal task list for this thing is "explain samite". Because I believe that, if you are interested in the fabrics used in the Middle Ages, you need to have at least a very basic understanding of what complex weaves are, as they were used for high-status garments throughout the High and Late Middle Ages.

There are very few people these days who still make medieval-style complex weaves, and one of them is Sylvia Wiechmann, who runs a weaving workshop in Munich. She made a reconstruction of a type of samite called "Kölner Borten" a while ago, and has a video on Youtube showing how they are made, and explaining the process. In German - but maybe watching it is still interesting for you even if you don't understand the text:


 

While doing my prep for the weekend (so many fascinating things trying to side-track me! So many things I'd like to do more research about! So many questions remaining!), I stumbled across an open access online journal about Archaeology of the Low Countries. Sadly, this lovely little journal only had a few issues before coming to a stall, but the Journal for Archaeology in the Low Countries website might still be worth a visit for you - especially since vol. 2, published in 2010, includes an article by Chrystel Brandenburgh about early medieval textile remains.

 

More of the things-going-on-here info: I am sitting here working on an overview about fabrics in the Middle Ages. This is a large topic, and a complicated one, with many facets and many aspects and rather bad sources. Fortunately I'm "only" going for a two-hour talk, so the bad sources don't matter too much, as there's too little time anyways to go into detail of such a kind that I'd need much better sources. (Though, of course, things would be easier with better source material, which means a) more textile finds that are b) published in an easily accessible way...)

At the moment, I'm still in assembly mode. I usually start presentation outlines with a more or less rough idea of the things I want to cover, then gather all the necessary info for this, stick in a lot of pictures, think of even more things that are definitely relevant, thus stick in more stuff, then do a test run and discover I have to cut things down by about two thirds... which I then do and manage more or less, only to find things during that process that have to be added in for things to make sense, which usually makes things interesting again.

Right now, though, more things get added, and a bit later, I'll do a run-through where I babble to myself to find out how long the monster will take, to consequently enter the next stage. While I am working on that, here are two potentially time-consuming links for you - enjoy!

The Archaeological Textiles Newsletter (now the Archaeological Textiles Review) has been around for quite a while, and they have published a lot of very interesting articles, most of them short but informative.
Because the ATR people are very nice indeed, you can download the back issues up to issue 59 (which is from 2017) from their website, for free. Of course you can also subscribe to the Review, which will then bring you the more recent ones.

If that's not enough to keep you occupied, you can head over to the website of the Bamberger Staatsbibliothek and leaf your way through the digitised Bamberger Apokalypse, dating to the early 11th century. (If you're in the area, there will also be an exhibition, starting soon, about the manuscript.)

 

I've recently mentioned the Open Access books available at OApen.org - and I've found now that the books available include Karina Grömer's book about prehistoric textiles, both in the German and the English version. You can find them here - enjoy!

It's time for some random links for you again (in hopes of getting my huge number of browser tabs diminished into something remotely sensible looking) - so here you go:

A new method for baking bread in minutes - researchers in Vienna are baking bread by sending electricity directly through the dough, which is looking especially good for things like gluten-free breads. You can read more about it here (in German).

If you put things on the Internet, chances are that someone else will see them and maybe feel inspired by them. Or... "inspired". There's also a chance that the idea might be taken and something entirely different made from it. Like in this case:
Bernadette Banner has made a dress reconstruction for herself, and the image of this has been used as the basis for a knockoff, sold very cheaply. So she bought a knockoff of her own dress, and made a long video about this:


If you prefer to read things to watching videos, you might want to go and browse the OpenAccess books at the OApen Library - for example the archaeology section.

There's also a bit of information online about Viking Age brocaded tablet-woven bands, as the teaser to a paper being presented at NESAT 2020.

Finally, here's something about giving media interviews as a scientist. I've been interviewed a couple of times now, and it's always exciting, and a little bit scary as well - but being well-prepared, as the article also states, definitely helps a lot.