Book of hours: April

My series of Book of hours calendar activities-posts is still going strong! Each month, I’ll present a bunch of illustrations from different volumes that I’ve found that has a calendar section with images. A bunch of the different books has the same kind of activity as others, and a few of them have another. Some of them have a bit more unique activities, and some has an activity that might be represented in another month much more often. But there’s some obvious themes in the different seasons, and now we’re heading in to spring! If you press a picture, you’ll get information about land origin and dating.

We had one day of spring this month so far, and that was April first that mocked us up here in the north! We got some lovely sun, and then a snow storm. So these images feel very far away right now… But in the Books of Hours, it seems to be time to take a walk in park.

The young and the rich seem to be out and about this month; hunting, walking, picking flowers to make wreaths and socializing! April seems to be the month when we take off the heavy clothes and leave the house. And that feeling I can relate to, feeling sun on my face and breathing fresh air again after a long and stuffy winter indoors.
But of course, the lower classes have already been out for a month and working, and that only continues for them!

It seems to be time to let out the animals and tend to their needs in April. We see cattle, sheep, goats and poultry. Watching over the animal seems to be a mans job, and milking seems to be done by the women.

But even if I can see the snow falling outside my window, these images certainly helps me imagen a greener season. And I do hope it arrives soon. Until then, there’s still sewing to be done. And that can be done inside in the warmth.

/Honorable Lady Gele Pechplumin
(Magdalena Morén)

Book of hours: March

My series of Book of hours calendar activities-posts is still going strong! Each month, I’ll present a bunch of illustrations from different volumes that I’ve found that has a calendar section with images. A bunch of the different books has the same kind of activity as others, and a few of them have another. Some of them have a bit more unique activities, and some has an activity that might be represented in another month much more often. But there’s some obvious themes in the different seasons, and we’re starting to see a change for the warmer now! Seems like spring is on the way… If you press a picture, you’ll get information about land origin and dating.

March seems like there’s nothing else but outdoor work! This is the gardening season according to the different books of hours, and who am I to contradict that? If I had a garden, or even a window box, I’d probably be pruning and planting now as well.

We have a big variety of cool and silly hats in these images! I especially like the man in the second image with the red cap that covers his ears. That was probably perfect for the cold and windy March days. He’s also wearing some kind of gloves, maybe for warmth and/or protection.

The one image I have to show with a different kind of activity is this one from Bruges, Belgium. This Book of Hours is dated to around 1525-1530. Here we have a group of ladies who seems to be playing different kinds of games. The man in the middle is probably levelling the ground and the dog in the background seems to have noticed a prey! Maybe a squirrel.

/Honorable Lady Gele Pechplumin
(Magdalena Morén)

Book of hours: February

My series of Book of hours calendar activities-posts is up an running! Each month, I’ll present a bunch of illustrations from different volumes that I’ve found that has a calendar section with images. A bunch of the different books has the same kind of activity as others, and a few of them have another. Some of them have a bit more unique activities, and some has an activity that might be represented in another month much more often. But there’s some obvious themes in the different seasons, and we’re well into the cold winter now! If you press a picture, you’ll get information about land origin and dating.

As in January, there’s still is a lot of hibernation going on, people are staying indoors and keeping warm in front of the fire.

But as we also can see, quite a few of these images also depicts the servant coming to the man of the house, carrying wood for the fire. In the January ones, it was more common for the servant to be carrying something for the meal, maybe a pitcher of wine or a plate of food. So maybe, February is less of a feasting month than the previous ones. Maybe there’s less of the meats left after the big slaughter in December, and now they’re just trying to keep warm and wait out the winter.

And as a friend pointed out after reading this post, February is lent time! So for 40 days before Easter, there were diet restrictions for everyone Christian. That of course is a great reason for there being less “feasting” images in the Book of Hours during February.

But, these wood carrying servants also leads to the second kind of activities that are common in the depictions of February.

While the richer man stays indoors to keep warm, the farmer and the workers are back at it, starting to prepare the lands for a new season of growth and cultivation. So maybe they got January off (probably not), but it wasn’t a long rest. Because the nature waits for no one, and if you want to benefit from it, you have to keep up.

And as a little bonus, this image from Belgium circa 1520! No one here seems to actually wear skates, but that isn’t stopping anyone from playing and having fun.

/Honorable Lady Gele Pechplumin
(Magdalena Morén)

Book of hours: January

My series of Book of hours calendar activities-posts is up an running! Each month, I’ll present a bunch of illustrations from different volumes that I’ve found that has a calendar section with images. A bunch of the different books has the same kind of activity as others, and a few of them have another. Some of them have a bit more unique activities, and some has an activity that might be represented in another month much more often. But there’s some obvious themes in the different seasons, and we’re still in the cold winter! If you press a picture, you’ll get information about land origin and dating.

It’s the middle of the cold season, so what do we do? And what would the people in the Middle Ages have done? Well, keep warm and cozy of course. Eat good food, put on all your warm clothes and sit by an open fire!

You’re getting a lot of these images since of course they overlap quite nicely with my big interest for tableware and such things!
A lot of these images are mostly lone men sitting close to an open fire, eating by themselves and maybe getting served by someone. They’re all dressed in a lot more clothes than we see in the previous months and some are even seen lifting hands or feet towards the fire to warm them even more.

All but one sitting at a table have a white tablecloth, and the last one has a green tablecloth. The image is from the 1520’s and Belgium and I love how the cloth and the pillows match.

There aren’t many other activities going on in January, at least not that I’ve found. And those few are related to first one. Bringing wood to keep the fires going, tending to the fire and putting on more clothes. So at least I won’t feel very bad this month when focusing on keep warm and snuggly. I don’t have an open fire, but I’ll light a few candles, maybe have some mulled wine and not go out unless I have to!

I’ll throw in a bonus image which is actually the zodiac sign for January, Aquarius. In a bunch of the Book of Hours, it’s a naked cherub in a water stream pouring water. But this one is a male server, circa 1480, and he’s carrying 2 beautiful white metal pitchers.

/Honorable Lady Gele Pechplumin
(Magdalena Morén)

Virtues with beer: franchise

A while back, a friend gifted me a bunch of homemade brews named with the theme of knightly virtues. The beers where quite tasty, and my plan was always to drink them and think a little about the virtue of the moment. The beers are gone, but here comes some thoughts! Last time I did courage, and now it’s time for franchise.

This is the one that confuses me the most. I’m not sure if it’s a language thing, the fact that English isn’t my first language. But before I started to do some research about this, the only thing I could think of was the system of franchise restaurants. And I’m not sure that has anything to do with the chivalric virtue… So let’s dive into what some other people has written about the subject!

So, the Oxford English Dictionary defines Franchise as Freedom, immunity, privilege and as an attribute of character or action; Nobility of mind; liberality, generosity, magnanimity or Freedom or licence of speech or manners. This makes me think that this virtue is more like a state of mind, than a cause of action. Lets keep looking.

MiddleWiki has a short section on franchise and mentions that it “may be simply the virtue of owning your place in society; not being a poser and knowing what is and is not your due.” Which adds to my view of it being a state of mind. Franchise is confidence, confident that you’re in the right. Or knowing when you don’t have the capacity, and have the confidence to say so and let those who are better in the matter do their thing.

Magister Lorenzo Petrucci puts it like this: “It can be hard for a modern person to feel comfortable emulating the Medieval notion of Franchise, couched as it often is in terms of nobility and gentle birth. Our egalitarian conditioning shies away from this sort of thinking. But in the SCA we have titles, awards, offices, and Peerages, which are bestowed upon us in recognition of our nature and our deeds. I think that perhaps Franchise is the ability to accept and take ownership of the station to which one has been raised, gracefully and without false modesty.” His words on ownership repeats my thought about confidence. Feel confident in what you have achieved, peer or not, but be graceful about it. He also mentions to have “noble bearing” to one’s actions and demeanor.” So it seems like a lot of franchise is connected to another virtue, noblesse. Which is simply put as “having a regal or noble bearing, good manners and polished social interaction” by MiddleWiki. But as Magister Lorenzo also says, franchise and noblesse has to be balanced with humility.

Count Sir Garick von Kopke describes the virtue with these words: “This then is Franchise, sometimes referred to as  “consistent nobility.” The first part of Franchise is simply having all of the other Chivalric Virtues and having them consistently. While this is by no means easy, it is not a separate attribute, but simply a constancy of all of them.” Also “There is a marked, if intangible, difference between the titled and the “enfranchised.”  It is a carriage (but not a swagger), a sense of noblesse oblige, a certain confidence, perhaps.  It can easily be overdone into arrogance or seem patronizing.” So with his words, we circle back to confidence. Confidence, but with a noble filter?

Leonhart Hunt of Wildmoor connects the virtue of franchise with the word accountability. “When you err, make amends in as public or powerful a fashion as that in which you made the error. Explain yourself in the simplest, most clear terms, and never make excuses. Own not only your own mistakes, but the mistakes of others when theirs resulted from yours.” But the words of his I take to heart is: “You must comport yourself in the present as the person you wish to become in the next moment, hour, day, and year.” Pretty much, dress for the job you want, not the one you have, but in action. Always strive to be better, in big steps or in small.
I’m not completely sure how his words connect to franchise, other than the general sense of confidence and ownership of you and your actions. So maybe it’s not so far fetched after all.

“Franchise: Emulating all parts of the code of chivalry in the hope that others will follow your example.” This follows Sir Garicks notion about franchise being the virtue that consists of all other virtues. But in this case, it’s also more clearly about setting a positivt example for others. Don’t just be good for you, but for the betterment of all.

Andrew Blackwood puts it nicely. “But not Franchise.  Franchise isn’t about doing something.  Franchise isn’t something you can learn. Franchise is about being who you are. […] Franchise is about being the KNIGHTLY YOU.  It’s about being the best, most Chivalrous, Knightly You that you can be.  It’s about being the Knight you know you Are. So that’s why it’s not enough for me to just be myself.  I have to be my Knightly self.  And that’s a better self than who I was Before.”

Okay, I need to stop, cause there’s so many wise people who has written about this topic, and I could continue forever. So I’ll just add this last one. Earl Cathyn Fitzgeralds wise words: “Franchise is the virtue of practicing the other eight virtues without any though of profit or personal gain. Franchise is the purest motive, selflessness in every action.” And: “Becoming virtuous for virtue’s
sake alone is the goal.”

So my initial thought was about right. “this virtue is more like a state of mind, than a cause of action.” This isn’t really something you do, but something you are, or grow into.

/Honorable Lady Gele Pechplumin
(Magdalena Morén)

Book of hours: December

My new series of Book of hours calendar activities-posts is now up an running! Each month, I’ll present a bunch of illustrations from different volumes that I’ve found that has a calendar section with images. A bunch of the different books has the same kind of activity as others, and a few of them have another. Some of them have a bit more unique activities, and some has an activity that might be represented in another month much more often. But there’s some obvious themes in the different seasons, and we’re starting of with the fall! If you press a picture, you’ll get information about land origin and dating.

December is overwhelmingly prone to one activity, and that is the slaughter of pigs. And that doesn’t surprise me very much at all due to the explanation of the abundance of food at Christmas. I’ve always heard that we have such a big feast at Christmas because of the slaughter of animals in the weeks before. Sure, we celebrate Christmas because of the birth of Jesus, but his birth was decided to be December 25th during the 3rd century and other pre Christian celebrations like the winter solstice, Yule and Saturnalia has been celebrated around the same time of the year. So did they slaughter because of the celebrations, or are the celebrations placed that time of year because of the slaughter? The animals had the opportunity to eat and get fat during the summer and fall, as we saw in the previous post about November. And you probably didn’t want to waste food during the harsh winters to keep the animals alive.
The killing itself seems to be something for the men to do, while there’s usually a woman there, collecting the blood from the pig. Nothing goes to waste in a society where food can be scarce. A frying pan with a long handle seems to be the way to go.

The other big activity that we can see a lot of during December is the baking! So more food for the holidays I presume. And to be that makes total sense. Not just the making of food for upcoming festivities, but also it’s a nice and warm activity to do during one of the cold months. So doing indoor chores seems logical!
Most of the bakers seem to be men, only a few women pass by. So maybe a lot of the baking was done by men, or the men we see are the bakers that has monetized the chore and turned it into a business. A lot of the domestic chores were done by women until someone realized, they could make money out of it, and then it became a job for men.

December is very clearly a month for food prep, as I haven’t seem to found an example of something else. So spend the food cooking delicious food, meat or no meat. Maybe give a few historical recipes a chance and see how they turn out.

/Honorable Lady Gele Pechplumin
(Magdalena Morén)

Virtues with beer: courage

A while back, a friend gifted me a bunch of homemade brews named with the theme of knightly virtues. The beers where quite tasty, and my plan was always to drink them and think a little about the virtue of the moment. The beers are gone, but here comes some thoughts! The last one was prowess and now it’s time for courage!

As I’ve done before, I’m heading over to Oxford English Dictionary as my starting point. They have a few different meanings of the word throughout the years.
“The heart as the seat of feeling, thought, etc.; spirit, mind, disposition, nature.” (c1300-1656)
“What is in one’s mind or thoughts, what one is thinking of or intending; intention, purpose; desire or inclination.” (c1320–1626)
“That quality of mind which shows itself in facing danger without fear or shrinking; bravery, boldness, valour.” (1382-)
And the last one is really the one that at least I connect with the word courage today. Even though I think that courage doesn’t have to come without fear. Courage is to do the scary thing, even if it’s scary, because it’s the right thing to do.

And I didn’t have to look for long until someone had the same thought as I did. MiddleWiki has the following words about courage. “Courage is not just the absence of fear. Be willing to say the unpopular truth, to stand up for what is right even if the group is heading in another direction. Willing to put yourself out on the line, to risk failure by reaching (that is a part of striving to be more than you are as well)”.

Count Sir Garick von Kopke writes that “Courage is a virtue cheaply bought in some contexts in the SCA, for it is easy to face death when it means only a short cessation of playing. It takes little true courage to charge into a wall of pikes. True courage in the SCA is not in facing death, but in facing losing.” And I’d agree with him, if we only viewed the SCA through the fighting glasses. But we don’t. SCA is so much more and we have lots of opportunity to be truly courageous. But I’ll get back to that.

Leonhart Hunt of Wildmoor keeps being wise. To start with, his accompanying words for courage is i ntegrity and honesty. “(…) a Knight must remember that stupidity and courage are cousins – pointless risk or sacrifice is not noble. Courage means taking the side of truth in all matters, rather than allowing for the expedient lie. Manifest your truth whenever possible, while remembering to temper justice with mercy.” And in theory I agree with him, but a lot of the time we have to filter our truths.

As it says in the Laurel ceremony; “Rightly or wrongly, a Laurel is taken as an authority, whose words carry considerable weight; do not therefore choose your words lightly. Remember that just as your praise can encourage a young artisan beyond any other force, your censure can crush a budding talent of which the land may, by your actions, forever be deprived.” So when it comes to feedback, we really have to consider the question if the feedback is asked for. And even then, ask for context about what kind of feedback the person is asking for.

“Courage: Choosing the more difficult path, rather than what comes easy; choosing to live by truth”. Hmm, I can’t really get behind this. This sounds unnecessarily hard on oneself. Courage is choosing the difficult path when you needed. Of course you should push yourself, to strive to be better, but have difficult as default seems like a solid way to wear yourself down. Be kind to yourself.

Cathyn Fitzgerald says that “For many, Courage is bravery in battle, or bravery in the face of danger.
These are but a sliver of the concept that is Courage.” And “Courage is standing up for one’s beliefs, in the face of danger, and in the face of peer pressure. Courage is doing what is right, rather than what is easiest. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is being able to act in spite of the fear.”

“Courage in the face of physical danger usually just lasts a few moments, a big burst of adrenaline and it’s passed. Courage in the face of social pressure lasts day after week after month after year.”
/Ælflæd of Duckford

Two words that stand very close to courage is encourage and discourage. The latter I’ve mentioned above when it comes to feedback and the very important advise the new Laurels get in their ceremony. Don’t be “brave” and “tell the truth” if it means you will destroy the confidence in someone. That’s not courageous.
The opposite, to encourage, is one of the most important thing you can do in both our society, and outside it. To give of your time to admire someones work, may it be a dress or a well cooked lunch, is a very important gift. Take those extra couple of minutes to ask some questions about their work. You don’t have to be an expert on the subject, but a simple “how long have you been cooking for?” or “is this period your main focus?” goes a long way when making someone feel seen.

Then of course, we have the kind of courage that is the more difficult kind. To speak up or out against our friends or perhaps people we don’t know, but that others admire. Because even though we’re a society based in chivalry and virtues, we’re a society of people. And people come in all shapes and with all kind of ideas about the world and other people. And it’s not easy to say to someone who’s been a knight for 20 years and been king twice that “hey, that was a pretty racist thing to say”. And it’s not easy to tell others that the man they thought was a lovely and helpful, abused you. And it’s not easy to hold your ground when you’ve been courageous enough to actually speak up. But my hope is that we can be courageous in group, and support each other. If someone does speak up against something that is wrong, have courage and stand behind them.

/Honorable Lady Gele Pechplumin
(Magdalena Morén)

Book of hours: November

My new series of Book of hours calendar activities-posts is now up an running! Each month, I’ll present a bunch of illustrations from different volumes that I’ve found that has a calendar section with images. A bunch of the different books has the same kind of activity as others, and a few of them have another. Some of them have a bit more unique activities, and some has an activity that might be represented in another month much more often. But there’s some obvious themes in the different seasons, and we’re starting of with the fall! If you press a picture, you’ll get information about land origin and dating.

By far, the most common activity I could find in the sections for November is this! Watching over the pigs, and also taking your stick and hitting the oak trees so the pigs can feed on some acorns to get fat and juicy. This will also make more sense when seeing the activity for December.
We’re seeing a slight change in the wardrobe of these shepherds. They’re putting on more clothes, extra warm layers like hoods under the hat and capes.
This also seems to be a mans job, and there aren’t many women present. We can see one picking acorns and one spinning.

Another fairly common theme for November seems to be preparing flax. To make linen fabric, there’s a lot of steps from the raw material to the finished product. In these images, the people has laid the flax in a circle and then the two men in the front beats the flax that has been soaking in water for several days; this process was called retting. After retting the flax is beaten which loosens the fibers from the flax stems. The women in each image are also doing one of the steps in the flax preparation. Using a scutching knife to scutch the flax, they’re remove the outer woody covering from the fibers. So the work with flax seems more to be a joint effort, by both men and women, even if the men is doing the more physical part.

We also have few examples of baking in November as well. But it does make sense that bread has to be made all year around. But it is intersting to think about the selection process of the one making these illustrations. Or did they get a list of activities that they had to put in there?

Next up is December! Which activities do you think will be the most common ones then?

/Honorable Lady Gele Pechplumin
(Magdalena Morén)

Virtues with beer: prowess

A while back, a friend gifted me a bunch of homemade brews named with the theme of knightly virtues. The beers where quite tasty, and my plan was always to drink them and think a little about the virtue of the moment. The beers are gone, but here comes some thoughts! First one up was largess, so now it’s time for prowess!

Prowess seems to generally be one of the easier virtues to pinpoint. Caid’s A&S department describes it as such: “Prowess speaks to skill. Not only having it, but striving for it. As an artisan, you must strive to learn more, create more, and push yourself to develop your skills.”

MiddleWiki says that “In simple terms, Prowess is skill and the striving for skill, and in this sense it can apply to more than just combat.”

Cathyn Fitzgerald wrote that “[P]rowess is. . .nothing more than physical skill. In our Society, this skill translates to winning swordfights. Prowess without Chivalry is cheating, Prowess without Honor is murder, Prowess without Modesty is braggadocio. Prowess without the other virtues is no virtue at all.”
“Prowess. Might. Strength. Skill. Important features of both Knights and bullies.”
These are strong words, but I think they’re necessary. The virtues aren’t all good standalone. Some needs to be paired with some others to work.

Andrew Blackwood says it well. “Prowess is the foundation of Knighthood, but it is the one virtue you can get better at without ever getting better as a person.  Prowess the smallest and the largest of obstacles to Peerage.  But it’s something you can learn.” And of course, there’s plenty of people in the SCA that are just there for the sport side of it, that wants to be a better fencer, fighter or sewing. They want to up their prowess, their skill, but aren’t necessarily interester in the other bits. And they have their spot in our society too. But prowess alone does not make you a pillar of the society.

In Lochacs Laurel ceremony guide is states that the peerage of Laurel is “Awarded for: supreme prowess in one or more fields of the arts and sciences, with teaching, service and peer-like qualities as deemed worthy by the Order and the Crown.” So here it’s used by another peerage than the knighthood to describe skill.

Leonhart Hunt of Wildmoor writes about prowess, which he connects to valor and excellence. “Strive for excellence in all endeavours expected of a Knight, especially martial, yet also otherwise. Embody strength which is used in the service of justice, rather than for personal aggrandizement and gain. Use your martial, intellectual, and moral strength to resist and defeat all forms of tyranny over the minds and bodies of all mankind. Remember that your mind will maintain strength longer than your body. Long after you pass, your declarations of word and stands for principle, if they are Knightly, will still have power to affect the course of events.”
Leonharts view in the virtue is first of all admirable. His talk about justice, moral strenght, defeating tyranny and standing for your principles is grand. This is one of few descriptions of prowess that makes this point, that it’s anything more than skill. His word seems to be strength, and I would agree with his analysis if that was the name of the virtue.

At this point, I start to wonder what the definition for the word is and head back over to Oxford English dictionary. And there’s the definition that I have in mind when thinking about prowess: “Exceptional ability or talent in a particular field or undertaking; skill, expertise.” Hmm, but that’s only a definition since 1668.. Hmm…
Lets have a look at the medieval ones!
“An act of bravery; a valiant deed; a daring feat or exploit.” (c 1300)
“Valour, bravery, gallantry, martial daring; manly courage, fortitude.” (c 1325)
“Moral goodness or excellence; virtue.” (c1395–1425)

“Prowess: Seeking excellence in all endeavors; seeking strength to be used for justice rather than personal gain.” Here’s another example of a view of prowess as something more than just skill.

By now I am slightly confused, I’ll admit that. But I’ll try to wrap my head around it and see what I think about all this.

To me, it seems like we’ve adopted the later definition of the word, for it to be used synonymous with skill. And I think that we’ve done that so we can use the medieval chivalric virtues to describe the other peerages, not just the knighthood.

Skill. Prowess, as we use the word, first and foremost seem to be about skill. Skill in any kind of martial arts, arts&science and/or service. If you can do it, you can to it well and build your prowess in that field.
Strength. This has nothing do to with the strength of your arms and legs. This is strength of heart and mind. This part of the virtue is connected to a lot of the other virtues like courage and justice. This is the part when you’re brave and maybe chooses the high road.

Maybe this wasn’t an easy virtue to describe. Maybe it’s not simple at all. Skill is simple, straight forward. But strength sure isn’t. Strength is a choice.

/Honorable Lady Gele Pechplumin
(Magdalena Morén)

The picnic cloth/blanket

So, yesterday we had a look at some men eating from a communal bowl of porridge or maybe soup, on my Facebook page. And in the discussion in the comments bellow, both blankets and table clothes for outdoor meals got mentioned, so I’d like to make a post here and show some of the table cloth pictures that I’ve found! Of course there are more pictures of outdoor meals, but most of them are with a more normal setting with tables and chairs, and now we’re looking for more ground adjacent cloths.

The first one with the cloth with food out to the left is from Belgium, Bruges, 1525-1530.
The second one with the soldier is from Milan, Italy, 1380-1385.
The third and fourth one is both from Belgium, ca. 1490.

Just two of them have the cloth directly on the ground and the other two seem to have some kind of low table. One of the ground cloth is clearly just to keep the food on and then you sit somewhere else. But one of the Belgian ones have some fairly close sitting and lying next to it. The men are not fully on the cloth, but they’re not completely off it either, like the ladies are.

I’ll keep looking for images like that, and hopefully I can do an update if I find more!

/Honorable Lady Gele Pechplumin
(Magdalena Morén)