Yvonne Seale
yvonne@hcommons.social

I was talking to my dad today about various Irish heritage attractions over the years, & I'm pretty sure he thought I was making up Celtworld. But no! This myth-themed "educational" tourist attraction was indeed where the nuns dragged us on a primary school trip in the 90s. Few surviving pics, but more than enough to confirm its existence.

The animatronic Cú Chulainn shown in his ríastrad (body-warping battle frenzy) loomed out over the audience, which was terrifying. Peer closely at the map at point number 4, and you'll see the tree that had talking severed heads on it.

Good educational family fun!

A bigger than lifesize animatronic sculpture shown against a red background. The sculpture has bulging eyes, bristling hair, and giant spindly hands. A cutaway plan of the Celtworld site. Note that the giftshop (no. 5) was a good quarter of the whole space. Priorities. Front cover of the Celtworld brochure, with the Celtworld logo in a green, pseudo-Celtic typeface. The subtitle is "Where Legend Lives", and there is a photo of a dolmen against an evening sky. A screenshot showing I think the light/laser show at the beginning of the tour. There are some illustrated scenes at the top of the image, and on the bottom silhouetted figures on horseback against a pale background.
2 days ago
Yvonne Seale
yvonne@hcommons.social

This morning's class took a little swerve—it happens—from discussing the connections between power & sensory experiences in medieval Paris to teling my students about the bedazzled "catacomb saints" of central Europe. To be fair, they *are* attention grabbing.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/meet-the-fantastically-bejeweled-skeletons-of-catholicisms-forgotten-martyrs-284882/

A reclining skeletal saint Munditia, who is accompanied by a funerary plaque taken from the Roman catacombs. She has a golden crown, and an outfit of red and gold. In one hand she holds what appears to be a communion chalice. A seated skeleton, coated with wax and with a wig and halo, dressed in quasi-Roman armour, is seated on a throne in a very decorated alcove. At the foot of his throne is a legend that reads "Saint Deodatus, Martyr" The upper body of a skeleton, dressed in an elaborate red and gold outfit. One hand is raised. Its head is swathed in gauze with facial features and a crown picked out in gemstones and pearls. Close-up shot of a ribcage, wrapped in gauze and covered with jewels in a variety of colours.
5 days ago
Yvonne Seale
yvonne@hcommons.social

An excellent choice! I was fortunate enough to once meet Eavan Boland briefly, and tell her how much her poetry meant to me. So pleased to think a building I spent a lot of time in as an undergrad will now bear her name.

https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2024/1009/1474490-trinity-library/

October 09, 2024
Yvonne Seale
yvonne@hcommons.social

"The skeletons, discovered near Denmark's third-largest city Odense, were kept intact by high water levels and favourable soil conditions that prevented them from decomposing."

https://www.rte.ie/news/newslens/2024/0927/1472340-viking-denmark/

September 28, 2024
Yvonne Seale
yvonne@hcommons.social

What you get when you cross a giraffe and a noodle.

From a 15th-century German copy of the "Travels of Sir John Mandeville." Now St. Gallen, Stiftsarchiv, Cod. Fab. XVI, fol. 95v. (https://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/ssg/0016/95v/0/Sequence-1056)

A long narrow page with a column of text in medieval German. In the lefthand margin is a depiction of the artist's guess at what a giraffe looks like. It's yellow and furry with a very elongated neck that stretches the length of the page.
September 23, 2024
Yvonne Seale
yvonne@hcommons.social

A reminder about the upcoming online workshop, "#Medieval Women’s Networks: Exploring Techniques and Tools for Digital Analysis" which will take place on Oct. 17/18! I'm looking forward to taking part.

For more info and to register, visit https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTBgj3Q13gVS2vCrxeFsDUFask1fb1-Xp9XNdMnYwwLiTGoU61TOhsPxZvVl7kHm9DB9QvZ-noW9yYQ/pub

Medieval Women’s Networks: Exploring Techniques and Tools for Digital Analysis. INTERACTIVE PUBLIC WORKSHOP, 12:00-14:30 EST VIA ZOOM DAY 1, PROJECTS: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2024 DAY 2, DATA: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2024 INTERACTIVE PUBLIC WORKSHOP, 12:00-14:30 EST VIA ZOOM DAY 1, PROJECTS: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2024 DAY 2, DATA: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2024 KATHY KRAUSE AND LAURA MORREALE, ORGANIZERS Presenting scholars include Adrienne Williams Boyarin, Elena Brizio, Tracy Chapman Hamilton, S.C. Kaplan, Samantha Katz-Seal, Mariah Proctor-Tiffany, & Yvonne Seale. DH experts include Kalani Craig, Erin McCarthy, Jeffrey Rydberg-Cox, & Sébastien de Valeriola TO REGISTER: Please visit https://tinyurl.com/DHMedievalWomen TO REGISTER: Please visit https://tinyurl.com/DHMedievalWomen Mediev
September 10, 2024
Yvonne Seale
yvonne@hcommons.social

I have neither artistic skill nor hand-eye coordination, so I'm always super impressed by miniature pieces of art. This charmingly carved piece of whale bone stands just 4.4cm (1.75 in) tall, and would have once adorned a #medieval bishop's crozier.

Now Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1929.8.240.2

A carved piece of creamy-coloured ivory photographed against a grey background. A winged lion with a halo and holding a book is shown to the left of a spiral column; to the right of the column is an eagle with a halo. A carved piece of creamy-coloured ivory photographed against a grey background. A winged lion with a halo and holding a book is shown between two spiral columns. A carved piece of creamy-coloured ivory photographed against a grey background. An eagle with a halo and holding a book is shown between two spiral columns.
August 31, 2024
Yvonne Seale
yvonne@hcommons.social

I would love her multi-tasking abilities.

Fortune appearing to a seated Boccaccio, from a late 15th c. manuscript of "On the Fates of Famous Men".

BL Royal MS 14 E V, fol. 291r.

A medieval manuscript image showing a white woman in a blue hat and blue and green gown with long fair hair standing in a room. She has six arms. In front of her is a man with a red hat and blue gown. He is sitting at a desk with a book on it. On the other side of the room is a window, through which a rural landscape can be seen. A figure in a brown robe and black hat is sitting in the window.
August 29, 2024
Yvonne Seale
yvonne@hcommons.social

I'm bracing myself for re-entry as the new semester begins tomorrow for me. My syllabi are printed at least, and as we know, getting the printer to cooperate is always the first big hurdle to clear.

Two paper copies of two syllabuses on a wooden desk. One is called "Europe in the World, 300-1000" and one is called "Bright Lights, Big City: Urban Life in the Middle Ages" The former has an image of a late antique cityscape in shades of pink and blue with rivers running through it. The latter has a black and white woodcut showing a late medieval city.
August 26, 2024
Yvonne Seale
yvonne@hcommons.social

This is a lovely glimpse at how skilled #medieval craftspeople worked, showing a modern recreation of a plaque from an enamelled reliquary chest made in France ca. 1180. I always wonder at the amount of trial/error and time it must have taken to first develop these complex techniques.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKZ6RkudQf8

August 14, 2024
Yvonne Seale
yvonne@hcommons.social

No one can say that Tomyris, queen of the Massagetae, didn't know how to make a point.

Per Herodotus, she killed the warmongering emperor Cyrus, then dunked his severed head in blood saying "drink your fill."

Newberry Lib., Vault Case Ms 40, f.31r. (https://collections.carli.illinois.edu/digital/collection/nby_dig/id/34932)

A framed image from a 15th-century medieval manuscript showing woman with a red and yellow head dress and a long white and blue dress holding a bloody knife in one hand and a decapitated crowned male head in the other. She is about to dunk the head in a barrel of blood. Next to her is a seated decapitated body in a white, blue and gold outfit.
August 04, 2024
Yvonne Seale
yvonne@hcommons.social

I have a lot of questions about this "medieval museum" house, currently on sale in San Francisco.

Questions like, "how does a Catholic priest end up with a $1.2m, 3br house?", and also "why would you hang a piece of parchment in the most humid room in the house?"

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/999-Portola-Dr-San-Francisco-CA-94127/15134670_zpid

A bathroom with regular white porcelain sink and toilet, stained glass windows, and red tile on the floor. The toilet roll holder is shaped like someone in medieval armour, and there's a medieval manuscript leaf hanging on the wall and an incredibly gross-looking pair of curtains hanging right next to the toilet. Yuck. An office with white walls and black faux marble floors. There is a bookcase on one wall, reproduction medieval tapestries on two of the walls, a sofa, and an oversized throne chair. A living room, once more with stained glass windows and a red tile floor, those these tiles are mostly covered by a blue rug. There are many pictures hanging on the wall, a very 70s faux stone fireplace against the far wall, and two of the most aggressively mustard yellow, aggressively velvet couches I've ever seen. A kitchen with 70s-style brown wood cabinetry, a red tile floor, stained glass windows, and then copper pots and pans and blue-and-white delft hanging everywhere.
August 01, 2024
Yvonne Seale
yvonne@hcommons.social

A mischievous little dragon tries to gobble up all the light (אוֹר) in this page from the beautifully decorated Rothschild Mahzor, which was made in Florence in 1490.

Now Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary, NY, MS 8892. (https://makor.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/view/BookReaderViewer/01JTS_INST/1257205910007706)

A parchment page with two columns of Hebrew text in a semi-cursive hand. On the right of the right-hand column, a green and gold dragon with a long tripartite tail takes up most of the length of the margin. A detail of the previous page, showing a marginal illumination of a green and gold dragon. The dragon's long neck curls around a heading which reads "light" in Hebrew, and its mouth is open as if it intends to swallow the word.
July 31, 2024
Yvonne Seale
yvonne@hcommons.social

I'm so looking forward to taking part in the "Medieval Women's Networks" interactive public workshop, Oct. 17/18! We'll be looking at how some digital tools can help us think about medieval women's history in new ways.

Co-organised by Laura Morreale and Kathy Krause; registration coming soon!

Medieval Women’s Networks: INTERACTIVE PUBLIC WORKSHOP, 12:00-14:30 EST VIAZOOM DAY 1, PROJECTS: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2024 DAY 2, DATA: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2024 KATHY KRAUSE AND LAURA MORREALE, ORGANIZERS Scholars of medieval women agree that the promise of DH network analysis has fallen short of providing the kinds of insights into the relationships of medieval women they hoped it could. The goal of this public and interactive webinar-workshop is to explore potentially useful approaches to the study of medieval women and to consider best practices for extracting data & building models to analyze their networks using digital tools. The workshop is structured over two days. On day one, scholars will present their experiences working with DH network tools to study medieval women & the difficulties they have encountered; all online workshop attendees will be invited to comment, contribute, and commiserate. On day two, DH consultants will respond to the challenges presented the previous day by sharing strategies & tools. Both workshop days are free & open to the public by online registration. Presenting scholars include Adrienne Williams Boyarin, Elena Brizio, Tracy Chapman-Hamilton, S.C. Kaplan, Samantha Katz-Seal, Mariah Proctor, & Yvonne Seale. DH experts include Kalani Craig, Erin McCarthy, Jeffrey Rydberg-Cox, & Sébastien de Valeriola TO REGISTER: Please visit https://tinyurl.com/DHMedievalWomen
July 29, 2024
Yvonne Seale
yvonne@hcommons.social

What lovely portraits of the #Premonstratensian sisters of Sint-Catharinadal, which at 750+ years old is the oldest extant community of women religious in the Netherlands. Love the sense of connection to their history the sisters express here:

https://www.volkskrant.nl/kijkverder/v/2023/fotograaf-koos-breukel-portretteert-zusters-van-het-vrouwenklooster-eigenlijk-zijn-ze-heel-punk~v925693/ (In het Nederlands)

A black-and-white photo of the sisters of Sint-Catharinadal gathered in a tiled corridor. Eight sisters stand behind; four sit in the front. All are elderly white women, wearing white habits with black veils. Sister Simone, age 92. A black-and-white portrait of an elderly white woman sitting on a chair and facing the camera directly. She is wearing a white habit, a black veil, and glasses, and has a ring on one hand. She is smiling broadly. Sister Dorothea, 93. A black-and-white portrait of an elderly white woman standing in a hallway. She is wearing a white habit, a black veil, and glasses, and has an old fashioned camera in one hand. She is cupping her other hand to her ear.
July 27, 2024
Yvonne Seale
yvonne@hcommons.social

An overhauled version of my " #Premonstratensian Order in the Middle Ages" bibliography is now live! It's easier to search (by tag, source type, date and language) and much, much faster. Please let me know if you find it useful, or if you find any glitches.

Huge thanks to my Geneseo colleague David Warden for his tech wizardry!

https://www.geneseo.edu/researchweb/kerkoapp/seale-premontre/bibliography/

A screenshot of the webpage.
July 23, 2024