There's a picture in my personal image database that has irked me for ages now. It's from a popular science book about the Middle Ages:

Hägermann, Dieter: Das Mittelalter. Die Welt der Bauern, Bürger, Ritter und Mönche. RM Buch und Medien, 2001.

There are plenty of illustrations in that book, and some of them state where they are from (or at least roughly), some of them don't. Of course, I'm talking here about one from the latter category. I've been looking for that image ever since I've seen it in the book, but to no avail - but maybe someone of you has?

Here it is:

[caption id="attachment_6015" align="alignnone" width="412"] From Hägermann, Dieter, p. 154. The description says "Travelling merchants with pack animals. They exchange information. French book illustration, 1448."


This might have been a marginal illustration somewhere, as it has been cut out from the background; some of the marginal images from the Luttrell Psalter have been treated similarly for the book. It might be a cut-out part from a "proper" image, too, though - the style somehow looks not so marginal to me. But then, I'm no expert on illuminations. I'd just really, really like to know where this comes from, so I can cite it properly and learn about the context and maybe see if there's more like it in the same manuscript - because it's one of the rare images where you have a woman merchant/traveller among the group, and I find that wonderful and fascinating.

So. Have you seen these merchants, by chance? Or do you know any similar pictures of travelling merchants that include women? Please let me know!

Update: They have been found. You can read about who did it, and where they are from, here.

Resources! Stuff to read and watch!

I always enjoy stumbling across repositories or book lists where you can download fresh, juicy research. (Admittedly, I do download more than I actually read. I'm trying to get everything sorted into my library database, at least, though I'm eternally not caught up with that. The reason? See above - stumbling across repositories... resulting in a little search-and-download splurge.)

My newest discovery is the DiVA portal. That's short for Digital Vetenskapliga Arkivet, a Scandinavian site where you can search for theses and papers from 49 university and research institutions. It looks like it's very well tagged in English, too - searching for "textiles" and either "history" or "medieval" yields a number of results, some of them in English, most in Swedish. Also nice: you can limit the search results to things with full-text available.

Many of these are student papers, so it's research that you don't get to so easily otherwise - delightful to have the possibility to see these via the portal. And if you don't read Swedish (or Norwegian), most should have an abstract in English. Plus you can look at images in any language.

Definitely in English is the upcoming series of the British Library in their Food Season, where there's a number of online events about different aspects of modern and historical food and food culture. If you're a foodie, it's definitely worth checking out.

I've done a little research work these past days, and I've stumbled across, the title might be a hint, free books!

The University Publisher of Kassel University offers books (dissertations, but other types as well) both as printed volumes and as pdf downloads, the latter being entirely free. You can see the whole programme of the publisher here.

Two books that I came across that may be interesting for you, too, are Presche, Christian: Kassel im Mittelalter and Wolkewitz, Ursula: Die gravierten Messinggrabplatten des 13. und 14.Jahrhunderts im Bereich der norddeutschen Hanse - ihre Herkunft und ihre Bedeutung.

There might be more, but unfortunately there is no good search function for the catalogue, and I have not had the time (nor the inclination or patience) to click my way through the long list. In case you find something interesting, too, please let the rest of us know in the comments!

In case you're looking for (research-y) summer reading stuff, you might want to check out JSTOR, who have expanded their free reading scheme from six to one hundred articles per month, to support researchers during the COVID-19 crisis. This is very nice, and very generous!

You need to register with them for access (which is free), and then you can read up to 100 paywalled articles; there is also a number of open-access articles on their page.

Happy reading!

I've recently mentioned the Open Access books available at OApen.org - and I've found now that the books available include Karina Grömer's book about prehistoric textiles, both in the German and the English version. You can find them here - enjoy!

If you're looking for things to go to, or something to read, here are possibilities:

The EXAR conference, which will take place in Vienna on September 26 to 29, has its programme online. Registration is possible via their website, with a reduced fee if you register before August 15. As there is still space in their poster session, you are also welcome to hand in an abstract for a poster.

There will be a conference "Craftsmen and Metalworking in medieval cities: 35 years later" in Paris on September 12-14. The programme of the symposium is finished, but not available online yet; you can contact the organising committee via their website, though. Registration is open until September 5 or until the limited number of places is taken.

If you are looking for even more conferences, check out the "Conference" section on the RMBLF.be website, where there is a long list of all kinds of them, or the EXARC webpage.

Finally, the book thing - Jane Malcolm-Davies and Ninya Mikhaila are publishing "The Typical Tudor", which will be delivered in May 2020. If you are interested in Tudor-era clothing, this might be an interesting book for you; read more about it on their website (where you can also pre-order).

The 60th issue of the Archaeological Textiles Review is due out soon, and this issue is focussing on the study of Early Modern knitted items. It includes articles on two 16th century caps (including the earliest known example of Danish knitwork), 16th century wool stockings, 17th century silk stockings, shipwrecked items including mittens from the Netherlands and Sweden, and a proposal for a new protocol for recording evidence for knitting.

The volume contains 99 pages devoted to knitted fragments and garments with many colour photographs and detailed specifications such as gauge, yarn and fibre for each item. It is available through subscription to the ATR friends and costs 250 DKK (which is about 34€ or 38 USD or 30 GBP).

The Uni of Copenhagen will decide on how many issues to print depending on the number of subscriptions, so you might want to put in your subscription as soon as possible if you want one - copies will be sent out early in the next year, according to my information.