Going Medieval – Medieval History, Pop Culture, Swearing

Let me explain something to you: the mendicants

So over at my cute little podcast We’re Not So Different we are currently running a book club for patrons. As a part of this I am rereading the classic The Name of the Rose, which has made me realise one of the arcane pieces of knowledge I possess as a ~~powerful mage~~ medieval historian is an understanding of the mendicant orders, or the begging orders, and I thought it might be helpful to impart it here so you know what I am always going on about. Also you can then read Eco on a nerdier level or whatever.

On gossip

I had the singular pleasure of visiting with a bunch of my high school friends the other week, and one of them put me on to a podcast I had not heard about before Normal Gossip. She said it was something she thought I would like because, well, a thing about me is that I am interested in gossip – and I mean this in several ways.

Firstly, I mean I am interested in gossip as an academic concept. I like thinking about the way gossip is discussed in medieval sources. Secondly, I also like to think about how gossip is conceptualised by anthropologists, which is to say, I enjoy thinking about what it is that gossip does socially. Because it does a lot. Thirdly, I mean, look, I am a social historian. My job is to gossip about dead people. I sit around and read what they have written, or what was written about them. I rifle through records of their house contents to try to picture how they were living their lives. And I think about who is talking about them in order to try to put together an idea of what they were like – and then I tell people all about it. And like, let’s just be honest – My interest in this means that I am a professional gossip who writes on gossip as a concept and that’s cuz �� I want to hear the gossip. You have some? Great, I want it. Is it about some people I have never even met and probably won’t ever meet? Even better. To me, every bit of anonymous gossip is my own private soap opera, and I simply love to hear it.

On fake medieval devices – both torture and sexual

I have had one of those weeks where people keep showing me things in order to make me mad. And because I am a very simple person that has worked. If you show me some fake medieval nonsense, I am gonna get angry, ok? I’m like a wind up toy, except what winds me up is myths about the medieval period.

So, today I thought I would write a little bit about some of the fakes that I encountered this week and talk about why they were faked into existence in the first place. Sometimes the answer is “to invent a sort of nationalist pride”, more often it is “to be sexual but with a veneer of respectability”, and it is always “to make myself and others feel superior.” Let’s go on a journey, shall we?

On Delft Old Church

Today we are talking about Delft Old Church (let’s fucking gooooooooo) because I went and I want you to know all about it – in video form.

We consider how the way churches are built tells us a lot about the society that built them … and how sometimes there are outside factors that do the same thing.

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My book, The Once And Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women’s Roles in Society, is out now.

On obscenity and modernity

It will come as a surprise to exactly zero regular readers that I have been contemplating the concept of obscenity lately. What may come as a surprise to you, however, is exactly why I have been thinking about that. And friends, it’s not because medieval people are being prudes – it’s because we are, now.

Bologna’s medieval canals

As a special treat for you all we are having class OUTSIDE for a little tour of Bologna’s medieval canals.

On the way we’ll learn to spot where medieval city walls, or even bridges, used to be in modern cities; we’ll consider the every day elements of city life like laundry, bathing, and watering animals; and we’ll see that medieval city life was complex enough to necessitate things like municipal housing. There is still, somehow, some swearing.

On women’s anatomy and the power of paying attention

Pretend you are me – the nicest, cutest, sweetest person who deserves a relaxing little Sunday, where she just goofs and maybe reads a ghost book ever. Nice right? Well, I also will have to imagine it as well because unfortunately my Sunday was irrevocably disfigured by the rantings of an idiot on the internet, and I was forced to think about my job. Yes, that’s correct no one has suffered in the way that I do. Thank you for noticing. What can you do to help? Well you are going to have to look at this right here:

Let me explain something to you: periodisation and the Middle Ages

Last week, I was having a nice little chat on BlueSky, my go-to site for chatting shit and avoiding work now that twitter is unusable, with some very nice people, and I was asked a thoughtful question about how we talk about the different eras of the Middle Ages.

On secret romantic communications

It’s the commercial day of love, and you know what that means – it’s time to buy things to prove your emotions, or something. And look, we all know that Valentine’s Day is made up and has nothing to do with St Valentine. Did people sometimes pass love notes around St Valentine’s Day? Yes. I mean, at least from the fifteenth century onward. Did people buy chocolates and book restaurants? Not so much. Anyway, other people have written about the oldest Valentine and the commercialisation of a forgotten saint’s day and I don’t need to add to that. Instead, I thought I would talk a little about fancy medieval people and their various ways of communicating about love.

My fav saints: St Margaret of Antioch

Friends, since I made you all think about death recently I thought I would keep it light for you real quick and talk to you once again, about one of my favourite saints – the good St Margaret of Antioch. I was thinking about her recently because I was writing up something about your good friend and mine, Joan of Arc. See, Margaret was such a cool saint that even noted badass Joan looked up to her, and claimed that Margaret was one of the voices that spoke to her and told her to go out there and beat up some English people. My love for several English people, and currently location in the capital of England notwithstanding, I do agree that probably it’s good to beat them up when they are in your backyard stealing your pig. So, I think it is probably good that she was out there inspiring anti-invader violence. ANYWAY! If she’s good enough for Joan, she’s good enough for you, so today we’re going to learn all about her and how you can spot her in medieval art.