fuckyeahmerlin:

And no fucks were given.

(Source: kilrain)

medieval:

St. Sergius and St. Bacchus

An interesting read, open to wide interpretation: When same sex marriage was a Christian rite.

Adelphopoiesis, or adelphopoiia from the Greek ἀδελφοποίησις, derived from ἀδελφός (adelphos) “brother” and ποιέω (poieō) “I make”, literally “brother-making” is a ceremony practiced at one time by various Christian churches to unite together two people of the same sex (normally men).

 There is some opposition to the theory that this was anything like a marriage.

Would we be correct in assuming that this is possibly like a bromance, but more official? I don’t even know.

mediumaevum:

Needless to say, I hope, this is a detail from Bosch’s Last Judgement.

And now comes one of the coolest things I’ve seen lately.

HERE you can buy (if a member) miniatures of all those delightful figures that came out of Hieronymus’s head. Like this witch from the detail above:

Even my favorite Prince of Darkness from Garden of earthly delights:

medieval:

Swordfighting: Not What You Think It Is

medieval:

La caravane de Marco Polo voyageant vers les Indes.  From the Catalan Atlas, 1375 c.e.

dreaming-valhalla:

Four linen bras that were found in an Austrian castle date back to the 15th century, meaning that the undergarment appeared 500 years earlier than previously thought, the University of Innsbruck said on its website on Thursday.

The discovery was made during renovation works at the Lengberg Castle in East Tyrol, Austria, in 2008.

Four linen textiles resemble modern bras. The criterion for this classification is the presence of distinct cut cups.

“Two more fragmented specimens appear to be a combination of a bra and a short shirt,” said Beatrix Nutz, the archaeologist who made the discovery.

“The third ‘bra’ looks a lot more like modern bras with two broad shoulder straps and a possible back strap, not preserved but indicated by partially torn edges of the cups onto which it was attached,” she went on.

The fourth undergarment can be described as a longline bra and most resembles modern undergarments.

Brassieres were commonly thought to have appeared about 100 years ago, and until now nothing indicated that bras with clearly visible cups existed before the 19th century. Certain medieval written sources sometimes mention “bags for the breasts” or “shirts with bags.” Written records also indicate that medieval women used “breast-bands” to bind down oversized breasts.

jothelibrarian:

Pretty medieval manuscript of the day is death on a cow! From a book of hours illustrated by French artist Jean Poyer sometime around 1500, it’s another fascinating book from the collections of the Walters Museum. What a place it must be! So many remarkable manuscripts all in one place.

Image source: Walters Museum MS W.430. Released into the public domain, with the description Creative Commons licensed. All via Wikimedia Commons.