Siena's Palio Horse Race (Cool!)

Here's info about the Palio di Siena - Siena's Palio Horse Race!

But you've just GOT to see it for yourself! (Seriously.)

• Real Media format (or)
• Windows Media Player format

Want to know more about this strange (again, seriously!) enormously competitive horse race? Check out Wikipedia!

And Siena's a totally gorgeous medieval/renaissance city, almost totally intact from the way it was, like, 500 years ago! (It's even been declared a World Heritage Site by the UN!!)

Here's a virtual visit of the inside of the city's beautiful cathedral! (Be sure to use your arrow keys to look around... even up!)

A lovely little video tour of the city and the countryside... (only watch the first minute and a half!)

Enjoy!!

FYI - Newsflash: Skeletons Discovered: First African Slaves in New World

LiveScience.com - Skeletons Discovered: First African Slaves in New World

Late Italian Renaissance Map

Map of Italy during the late Renaissance, c.1494

FYI: The Lukeion Project -- Dust Free Antiquity!

The Lukeion Project -- Online Archeology Classes!

FYI - The History of Michigan J. Frog

"In 1897 a horned lizard (horny toad) was placed in the cornerstone of Eastland County, Texas' third courthouse. When that edifice was demolished in February 1928 to make way for the current Art Deco model, the cornerstone was opened.

According to published accounts, a crowd of three thousand showed up to see the opening of the old building's time capsule. Much to everyone's surprise, when the marble box was opened the interred lizard was still alive ? 31 years later.

Despite skeptics who questioned how the critter could have survived, the lizard was dubbed Old Rip (after Rip Van Winkle) and became an instant celebrity. Town folks took him on a tour of the nation that included a stop in Washington D.C. to meet President Calvin Coolidge.
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Old Rip died about 9 months later and was preserved, enshrined, had a leg broken off by Gubernatorial Candidate Connally, and was eventually even toadnapped and likely switched. He was also the inspiration for Michigan J. Frog, the popular character from the 1955 Warner Brother cartoon which tells the story of a frog who is freed from a cornerstone and sings ragtime jazz when no one is watching."

(from "The History of Old Rip" via linkfilter.net - fresh links daily)

FYI - Archeologists Find Ancient Ship Remains - Yahoo! News

Archeologists Find Ancient Ship Remains - Yahoo! News

FYI: "Money-tracking web-game informs mathematical model of epidemics"

Boing Boing: Money-tracking web-game informs mathematical model of epidemics

Doodles of a fifteenth-century student!

Some things never change! :-)

Doodles of a fifteenth-century student, University of Aberdeen Library (link from Scribbling Woman)

FYI: "Medieval fireplace found behind seven others"

Mirabilis.ca: Medieval fireplace found behind seven others

"Two Letters, 13th century" (to and from the medieval university student!)

"B. to his venerable master A., greeting. This is to inform you that I am studying at Oxford with the greatest diligence, but the matter of money stands greatly in the way of [attaining my degree], as it is now two months since I spent the last of what you sent me. The city is expensive and makes many demands; I have to rent lodgings, buy necessities, and provide for many other things which I cannot now specify. Wherefore I respectfully beg your paternity that by the promptings of divine pity you may assist me, so that I may be able to complete what I have well begun. For you must know that without Ceres and Bacchus, Apollo grows cold."

"To his son G. residing at Orleans, P. of Besansçon sends greetings with paternal zeal. It is written, 'He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.' I have recently discovered that you live dissolutely and slothfully, preferring license to restraint and playing and strumming a guitar while others are at their studies, whence it happens that you have read but one volume of law while your more industrious companions have read several. Wherefore I have decided to exhort you herewith to repent utterly of your dissolute and careless ways, that you may no longer be called a waster and your shame may be turned to good repute."

(excerpt from Weisner, Ruff & Wheeler,

Discovering the Western Past)

Dresden

Photo of ruins, 1947.

Dresden Cathedral Reopens, 60 Years After the Bombs!

Illustration of "Scratch Plow"

If you look closely on the third line, you'll see the depiction of a simple scratch plow in ancient Egypt, from the tomb of Sennedjen (19th Dynasty).

Newsflash: "3,000 year-old necropolis found under Roman Forum"!

Just when you think that they'd have already found everything!!

Mirabilis.ca - 3,000 year-old necropolis found under Roman Forum!

Assignment for 1/24: "Carmina Burana"

Recognize this music? It's a 20th c. arrangement of 1 of these medieval songs...

Text for Audio: "O Fortuna" from the Carmina Burana (arranged by Carl Orff in 1937)

Optional: More on Original Medieval "Carmina Burana" Manuscript (at right)

Assignment for 1/24: Readings on Medieval High Culture

• "Robert de Courçon: Statutes for the University of Paris, 1215"
• "Gregory IX: Statutes of the University of Paris, 1231" (Please consider also the 5 questions at the bottom!)
• "Medieval Sourcebook: Courses in Theology [1271] and Medicine [1270-74]"
• "Jacques de Vitry: Life of the Students at Paris"
• "Medieval Students' Songs"
• Medieval Book Curses
• Check out the Amiens Cathedral Project!

UPDATED: Assignment Calendar for January

Tuesday, January 17 - Introduction

Thursday, January 19 - Feudalism & Local Govt. in Medieval Europe

• Hunt, pp. 315-327 & 337-346.
• Duby, "Rural Economy" in Social Dimension
• Dig Gives New View of Colonial Housing
• Explore Medieval English urban history

Tuesday, January 24 - The Flowering of Medieval High Culture

• Hunt, pp. 346-387 & 413-427;
• Primary source webpages assigned on class blog

Thursday, Jan. 26 - The Calamitous Fourteenth Century

• Hunt pp. 429-450;
• John Keegan, "The Face of Battle: Agincourt, October 25th, 1415," in Social Dimension, Vol. 1;
• Henry V's payroll cuts Agincourt myth down to size
• Readings from Lualdi: The Black Death; Christine de Pisan, Lament on the Evils of the Civil War (pp. 105-120)

FYI - Case reopens on Black Death cause

[ancient_wisdom] Case reopens on Black Death cause

FYI: The Black Death!

The Diabolical Black Death Quiz
The Black Death "And now, learn about about black death while listening to cheesy midi files!" (from memepool)

FYI: The Bad Old Days - The Hoax

The Bad Old Days - The Hoax

FYI: Explore the Unicorn Tapestries!

The Unicorn Tapestries Explore & Learn The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Handy! Feudalism & Manorialism helps!!

• Subinfeudation
• Definitions
• The Manor
• Wheeled Plough

FYI: "What a Viking's smile revealed"

"What a Viking's smile revealed"