Easter Week

Hi everyone,
I hope you're having a nice break - but not too much of a break, because essays are looming! Use time off lectures and tutorials to get ahead on your research if you can. In the meanwhile, here's some medieval Easter music to pass the time...

Resurrexi, Music for Easter Sunday, British Library, Crowland Gradual, c.1240.

The image shows a manuscript called a Gradual, which is a collection of musical items for the Mass. There are two musical pieces on the page. The decorated capital R is the beginning of the introit for Easter Sunday. An introit, as you might guess from the name, is sung at the beginning of the Mass. This one comes from Psalm 138, and reads, in Latin:

Resurrexi, et adhuc tecum sum, alleluia. Posuisti super me manum tuam, alleluia. Mirabilis facta est scientia tua, alleluia. Domine probasti me et cognivisti me. 

[I rose up and am still with thee, alleluia. Thou hast laid thy hand upon me, alleluia. Thy knowledge is become wonderful to me, alleluia. Lord, thou hast proved me, and known me]

Listen to a performance of a medieval setting of this psalm by Schola Cantorum here

Then, with the large black "h", begins another psalm, no. 118:
Haec dies quam fecit Dominus: exultemus et laetemur in ea

[This is the day that the Lord made: let us be glad and rejoice in it.]

Listen to a performance of a later (16th century) setting of this psalm by The King's Singers here

Can you make out any of the words, now that you know what it should say?

See you on Monday week,
Kathleen

SBS goes Medieval

So, this is the link I was talking about: The Beauty of Maps
It's a documentary about the amazing Hereford Mappa Mundi, a thirteenth-century map of the known (and unknown) world. The link is active for the next 6 days, so take advantage quickly!

Welcome to Medieval Europe Tutorial 12

Hi everyone & welcome. I'm Kathleen, and I'll be tutoring your group this semester. It's going to be fun!

To whet your appetite, here's a shot I took of an amazing document in the National Archives in London a couple of years ago. It lists all the precious jewelled rings that King Henry III of England gave away to his favoured nobles in the 1250-1260s, and tells us what kind of stones decorated them and how much they were worth. There are lots of rubies and emeralds there in the Latin, and on average the ones listed in this image cost 25 shillings and 8 pence (more than five months' wages for a carpenter at this time!).

Detail from the ring account account (TNA, E101/349/26)

They must have been very impressive objects!

You can read more about Henry's jewels and what he did with them here.
You can check out more information about medieval wages here.