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The Æthelmearc Gazette

~ Covering the Kingdom of Æthelmearc of the SCA

The Æthelmearc Gazette

Tag Archives: manuscript

Breaking News: A Brief History of Fart Jokes

01 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by Lis Gelatt in Aoife's Links, Esoterica, Humor

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Aoife, Aoife's Links, April Fools, Historic Document, illumination, Lisbeth Gelatt, manuscript

NOT SAFE FOR WORK!

Some manuscript examples in the links below contain medieval drawings of nudity, which may or may not contain intimate body parts your boss will hate to see on your work monitor/device. Seriously. You might not want to show your squeamish spouse, either. In fact, I’m not too sure I want to see them again. Read on at your own intellectual peril, because fart jokes, while perfectly historical, may cause your employer to fire you and your I.Q. to drop alarmingly. ~Aoife

Img: The Fridge Art Society    IMG source: The Fridge Art Society. Bodily Function has been humorous throughout our period of study.

Just in time for April Fool’s Day, I am …proud? No. …excited? Not quite. Superlatives fail me, but I have plumbed the depths of the internet to find something funny to satisfy your inner twelve-year-old on this esteemed holiday.

Our historical counterparts weren’t as squeamish as we modern versions might be when it comes to bodily functions. And hey, show me somebody who has never laughed at a fart joke, and I will show you some pantalones del fuego. Here, for your delectation therefore, I present to you a list containing images and anecdotes of historical folks making themselves one with the internal winds of nature. From Shakespeare to Abu Hassan, who farted so loudly that it was used as a time reference from then on (you know, like ‘after the Hurricane’). Behold, the power of farting.

I shall now slink ashamedly into my cave and beat myself with a cat o’ nine tails until a more adult topic comes to mind for my next links list. Suggestions welcome.

Cheers,

Aoife
Dame Aoife Finn of Ynos Mon
m/k/a Lis Gelatt
…somewhere in Aethelmearc.

Who knew illuminated manuscripts contained so many fart and poop jokes?  This is a brief article on farts and related bodily functions in marginalia, as those weird little decorations on medieval manuscripts are called. Oh, how the creation of those drawings must’ve been very tedious, given all the naughty illustrations they contain. There are links to more images, in comments at the end of the article.

bull

Img: People of Color in European Art History

Saturday Timewaster: Japanese Fart Scrolls  “I did find out enough to know that this isn’t the only farting scroll out there in existence – in fact, in the 90s, a collection of fart scrolls sold for $1,500 at the famous Christie’s auction house.” So says Hiyoshi, the page author. Sadly, he also made a video to accompany the images. I was not brave enough to try it, but go ahead. You know you want to.

Collectors Weekly: Naughty Nuns, Flatulent Monks, and Other Surprises of Sacred Medieval Manuscripts   Kaitlyn Manning of B. L. Rare Books and Manuscripts said ““I think it’s such a shock when you have this idea in your head of what medieval society was like,…and then you see these bizarre images that make you question your assumptions.” The wild mixture of illustrations challenges our contemporary need to compartmentalize topics like sex, religion, humor, and mythology.”

Funny Junk: Medieval Marginals  “Medieval Marginalias, dating from 500-1500 CE. In these photos we see that the true evolution of the human race is only the methods in which we consume fart, poop, and penis jokes. And of course, a vast number of homicidal bunnies.”

Untitled

IMG source: Portable TV

 UltraGross: The Fart Jokes of William SHakespeare  “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow!” The authors of Ultra Gross have combed Shakespeare for references to flatulence. You might be surprised at how many references they found!

Portable TV. Fart Proudly: The Best Fart Jokes in the Classics   This web article is in the form of a slideshow. From Ulysses to Benjamin Franklin, scholarly hours have been spent reading and combing the classics for fart references. As far as juvenile-subject work goes, I am amazed that this was a terrific read.

Further Fart Reading

Ramsey G. 2002. ‘A Breath of Fresh Air: Rectal Music in Gaelic Ireland’ in  Archaeology Ireland Vol. 16, No. 1. Dublin.

Enders, Jody, Ed./Trans. 2011 “The Farce of the Fart” and Other Ribaldries:  Twelve Medieval French Plays in Modern English. Philadelphia.

Yes, those books are real, scholarly works on farting. No joke.

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Websites for Digitized Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts

12 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by aethgazette in Arts & Sciences, Scribal

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

A&S, calligraphy, illumination, manuscript, scribal, scribe

Both aspiring and experienced scribes can learn a lot from looking at actual period manuscripts. Every day more and more medieval books are digitized and made available online, and many websites offer the ability to zoom in and see fine detail close up. Here are some wonderful sites for seeing a wide array of medieval and renaissance manuscripts that can provide scribal inspiration for years to come.

The British Library site offers not only complete manuscripts, but also detailed information on the time, place, artistic style, and provenance of each manuscript, along with a very robust search function that lets you narrow your results with great precision. Want to find Arabic medical manuscripts from 1000-1100, or Italian Books of Hours dating to the early 15th century? This is your site.

British Library Manuscript collection

British Library Manuscript collection

DMMapp is the granddaddy of manuscript sites. It offers a map of the world with links to specific libraries’ or museums’ collections. Click a link to browse the selected location’s offerings. Bonus: it’s also the home of the “Sexy Codicology” Blog, with a link to their Facebook page. Its weakness is that each site is distinct and separate, so there’s no way to search all of them by keyword from DMMapp. The quality and ease of navigation of the sites is also highly variable.

Digitized Medieval Manuscripts site

Digitized Medieval Manuscripts site

The Getty Museum recently made many of its books available as free PDF downloads, including several about its collection of medieval manuscripts. Examples include Elizabeth C. Teviotdale’s “The Stammheim Missal” and “Flemish Manuscript Painting in Context: Recent Research,” edited by Elizabeth Morrison and Thomas Kren.

Medieval Writing has a huge amount of information about medieval paleography (the study of writing) including snippets of calligraphy from many different manuscripts. Use its Index of Scripts to take a guided tour of styles ranging from 4th century Roman to 16th century Humanistic. One of its best features is the ability to mouse over samples from period manuscripts and see the words printed in modern text as shown below, which is tremendously helpful in figuring out unusual or hard-to-read letter forms.

medievalwriting.50megs.com

The Medieval Writing site shows you the words when you mouse over the calligraphed text

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, like the Getty, offers some of its books on medieval art as free downloads. Use the search categories on the left to narrow the list of options. Examples include “The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry” by Timothy Bates Husband, and “The Art of Medieval Spain, A.D. 500–1200” by the Museum.

The National Library of Wales has a small collection, but it’s one of the few places to find Welsh manuscripts like the Book of Llandaff, the Laws of Hywel Dda, and the Black Book of Carmarthen, which is one of the earliest manuscripts written in Welsh.

Trinity College of Dublin has a number of period manuscripts, but none more famous than the magnificent Book of Kells; a portion of folio 2r is shown below zoomed in close. Use the “By Dates” search feature to find manuscripts at Trinity College dating to SCA period.

Book of Kells

Closeup of a page from the Book of Kells, housed at the Trinity College of Dublin

The Vatican Library recently announced that they will be vastly expanding their collection of digital manuscripts over the next few years, so this is a space to watch! Use its Advanced Search feature to search by elements like Beginning and Ending dates, though navigation is a little clunky and sometimes frustrating. When you find a manuscript, click the book icon next to its name to see the actual pages. Clicking the manuscript’s name displays a very brief description of the manuscript including its date, size, and name.

Is there a site for scribal inspiration that you love which isn’t on our list? Post a link in the comments!

– Submitted by Mistress Arianna of Wynthrope

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