#sixteenth-century — Public Fediverse posts

Comments on the Djurhamn Sword

(response to a request from Martin Rundkvist https://archaeo.social/@mrundkvist)

A complex-hilted sword was found in 2017 at Djurhamn on an island in the Stockholm Archipelago. In the middle ages and early modern period the island was very important for merchant and royal ships, but post-glacial rebound has shrunk the nearby harbour. The find spot was just below a line of boulders marking the Late Medieval shoreline, as if it was dropped off a later dock or wharf.

Latin Christian Europe from 1000 to 1450 had strict and austere ideas of what a sword should be: straight, two-edged, with a crossguard, a pommel, and minimal decoration. Swords were understood as Christian crosses, and clearly distinguished from other long bladed weapons like sabres and falchions. In the fifteenth century and especially the sixteenth century these rules began to be broken, and it becomes hard to make general statements and create categories. As it became common to wear swords again, their role as male jewelry came to the forefront, and the hilts and pommels started to receive more ornament.

Unfortunately, there is no profession that gets paid to research swords from armouries and stately homes, like archaeologists get paid to study swords from graves. Most research on swords after the Viking Age is by amateurs like Ewart Oakeshott, James G. Elmslie (Facebook), Peter Johnsson, and Maciej Kopciuch, with the occasional curator like A.V.B. Norman (Wikipedia) or Alfred Geibig (Wikipedia). With limited resources, most have not tried to create typologies, just studied groups of similar swords like British backswords or the swords of the Munich town guard. Its necessary to combine typologies of the medieval sword such as Ewart Oakeshott’s with Norman’s typology of complex hilts.

The following comments are based on a photo gallery, the museum catalogue page, and the Swedish Wikipedia page for the sword. I don’t have a paper copy of Norman’s book and the nearest copy is in Calgary but it can be borrowed from the Internet Archive. There are measurements of the sword in an academic article from 2009.

General Remarks

Functionally a sword like this is good for chopping up people at close quarters, but not stabbing at armour or pushing someone out of the saddle. The rounded point won’t stick in the rings of mail and the broad flat blade will bend like a spring.

A date around the 16th century seems reasonable.  This sword would have been the latest thing in the late 15th century, by the late 16th century broad cutting blades were falling out of fashion and narrow stiff blades were becoming admired.  By the early 17th century it would have been definitely old-fashioned.

Up to about 1540, broad swords with complex hilts were often worn by lightly-armoured infantry and men in civil dress. There was an old tradition that an honest man should not wear stabbing weapons in peacetime because they killed too easily.1 Around 1540 the first cutler mounted a complex hilt on a narrow stiff blade, creating what we now think of as a rapier. Two of the oldest surviving examples are the sword of Gustav Vasa (Statens Historiska Museer, Stockholm, object 13502_LRK) and Francesco Negroli’s sword for Emperor Charles V (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, object 04.3.21). After 1540, broad swords with relatively simple hilts are increasingly worn to war by men who want to look like the knights of old, while people at court or in town preferred narrower swords with better hand protection. A good example of a modest military hilt is the Saxon Military Sword by Arms & Armour of Minnesota, but many hand-and-a-half swords with blades like the Djurhamn Sword and complex hilts survive in the Rüstkammer in Dresden.

Three of the four nicks in the edge are all in the half of the blade towards the tip, and the fourth is approximately in the middle. This suggests that it was damaged while striking, since fencers usually strike with the half of the blade towards the top (the weak or debole) and parry with the half of the blade towards the guard (the strong or forte).

Blade

Swords with broad flat parallel-sided blades appear in most societies with metalworking. In 15th-17th century western Europe they tend to have short fullers and be hexagonal in section, wheres swords of the high middle ages tend to have fullers that extend past the midpoint of the blade and often have a lenticular cross-section2. This sword appears to have a shallow fuller near the base of the blade which is about 1/3 or 1/4 as wide as the blade. Martin Rundkvist did not notice one when he examined the sword in 2007 and 2008, but a shallow fuller appears in the photographs above. The ricasso (blunt area at the base of the blade) is also characteristic of swords after the year 1300 with finger rings. Overall the blade fits into Oakeshott’s type XIX which was used from the 14th century onwards. The sword from the Alexandria Arsenal below is a good example, as are Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, object 930.26.43 and Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, object 2014.95.

The blade is 77.1 cm long and 4 cm wide. These are typical measurements for a single-handed sword of the period. Type XIX tends to be somewhat narrower than earlier types. The maximum thickness of the blade is relatively high at 5 mm (stiff thrusting swords are often twice as thick at the base).3 Knowing the length of the fuller would be useful.

Hilt

Hilts with down-turned crossguards and two finger rings first became popular in fifteenth-century Iberia and can be seen in the Pastrana Tapestries from 1471. They had reached the southern fringe of Germany by around 1500. An early depiction is a crucifixion from Cologne (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, object 12.169a-e). A finger ring both protects the pointer finger when it is bent over the crossguard, and stops weapons which are sliding down the blade before they endanger the top of the hand. The earliest art with finger rings shows them just on one side of the blade, the side towards the knuckles (like one of the swords from the Mamluke arsenal at Alexandria, Royal Armouries, Leeds, object IX.950). While in theory a sword can be turned in the hand so that either edge is towards the knuckles, in practice the second finger ring is probably for symmetry and visual balance.

Oakeshott does not cover hilts with more than a simple crossguard in his typology, but this would be a Norman hilt 15 like the sword of Admiral Jacob van Heemskerck (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, object NG-KOG-987-2-1). This type seems to have been most common from 1465 to 1520, but came back into fashion around the year 1600. Several swords of this type from the early 17th century are said to be in the War Museum in Copenhagen. That collection is not online, but the example in the Wallace Collection is, and that sword has a stiff four-sided blade (object A539). The shape of the broad flat hilt feels early to me, but the pommel is typical of later swords, so it could be from the heyday of the harbour c. 1500 or the declining days in the early 17th century.

A common variant added a U-shaped ‘staple’ or ‘post’ joining the two rings perpendicular to the sword blade. This provided additional protection to the top of the hand as weapons slid down the blade, and reinforced the rings. Norman called this hilt 16.

Pommel

Whereas the pommels of knightly swords are usually broad and flat, the pommels of sixteenth-century swords tend to be long, narrow, and equally thick in all directions like a cherry or a pear. This shape would probably belong somewhere in Oakeshott’s Type T if he had continued into the 16th century. While the long rounded pommels give more freedom to the wrist, and the wide pommels help keep the sword from being dragged out of the hand as it cuts something, the change was probably driven by changing taste more than any practical concerns. All types of blades tend to receive the new pommels.

The single incised line at the base and decorative nut are modest ornaments. Arms and armour of the 16th century often have lines cut into them, perhaps with a spinning wheel.

A.V.B. Norman would have called this pommel 16 or pommel 18 (he does not define his types clearly). He cites parallels like a Saints Peter and Paul in Palermo and a Madonna and saints in the Berliner Gemäldegalerie). The saints’ swords don’t have buttons on the ends of the pommels. Pommel 16 appears as early as 1470, but the nut or button is more typical of the sixteenth century. As the team at Arms & Armor explain, the nut makes it easier to file off the peened end of the tang to remove the hilt without scratching the pommel, so it became more useful as hilts became more ornate. Hilts were often swapped onto a new blade, favourite blades were often remounted with the latest hilt, and heavily used swords often start to rattle and will look and sound tidier if they are taken apart and rebuilt. Some medieval swords have pommel nuts (eg. Wallace Collection, London, object A460), but they become more popular in the sixteenth century.

Chronology

Stylistically this sword best fits the periods 1470-1520 and 1600-1650. The earlier date is most consistent with the archaeological context although a sword could be buried in a pit near the seventeenth-century shore as well as dropped or thrown off a fifteenth-century dock. The earlier date would make it roughly contemporary with the Gribshunden, a caravel-built ship armed with breechloading guns for King Hans of Denmark. Princes in the Baltic brought the latest style of ship from warmer parts of Europe, and humbler men could have brought the latest type of sword.

It would be useful to know if Swedes imported broad straight two-edged swords with single-handed grips like they imported single-edged curved dussacks in the sixteenth century. The relatively simple hilt and flat blade was a very common combination around the year 1500, and less common by the seventeenth century. At that time, the flexible cutting blades tend to be mounted on hilts with as much hand protection as possible. Admiral van van Heemskerck wore a very similar sword in the seventeenth century, but he probably did not expect to use it as often as the musketeers on his flagship drew their swords.

You can relive the excitement of the original blogging boom (without the original pictures) at https://aardvarchaeology.wordpress.com/?s=sword

Help me build and repair my own equipment by supporting this site on Patreon or elsewhere. I need all my fingers to type with!

Further Reading

Martin Rundkvist, “Landarkeologi vid Djurhamn 2007–2008,” in K. Schoerner (ed.), Skärgård och örlog. Nedslag i Stockholms skärgårds tidiga historia. Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, Conferences 71 (Stockholm 2009) pp. 139-148

Appendix: Dimensions of the Djurhamn Sword (after Rundkvist 2009: 148)

Measurements taken September 5, 2008 after the sword was conserved.

Total length: 926 mm
Greatest width over the guard: 184 mm
Greatest width of the blade: 40 mm
Width of the ricasso: 30 mm
Greatest width of the tang: 13 mm
Minimum width of the tang: 10 mm
Length of the tang: 82 mm
Hilt length: 155 mm
Blade length: 771 mm
Length of the pommel: 63 mm
Diameter of the pommel: 36 mm
Weight: 829 g
Thickness of the guard at the center: 22 mm
Thickness of the guard at the end: 6 mm
Thickness of the blade near the base: 5 mm
Location of the nicks in the edge, measured from the tip: 64, 163, 285, 390 mm

(scheduled 5 November, based on an email sent 3 November)

1. This can be seen in medieval laws and in the sixteenth-century Central European sources collected by B. Ann Tlusty ↩︎
2. A good example of the difference is the sword-blade of Ottokar II of Bohemia, captured at the Battle on the Marchfeld in 1278. It has a very similar blade to the Djurhamn sword, but a long fuller (and is generally larger and heavier). ↩︎
3. The thickness of medieval swords is rarely published, because the people who measure them are usually swordmakers who can’t afford to share research with their competitors. In addition, many swords have expanded from rusting, or lost metal from being aggressively polished and chemically cleaned. Trusting the measurements of modern swords is dangerous because modern swords are built around standard thicknesses of sheet steel and an economy where grinding steel away is cheap and forging it thicker is expensive. A rare collection of measurements is Nathan Clough’s video How Thick Were Medieval Swords? ↩︎

#artefact #bonusPost #medieval #modern #sixteenthCentury #sword #swords

Climate Chronicles: Transylvania’s Delayed Response to the Little Ice Age https://www.medievalists.net/2025/02/transylvania-little-ice-age/ #ClimateChange #LittleIceAge #SixteenthCentury

Climate Chronicles: Transylvania’s Delayed Response to the Little Ice Age https://www.medievalists.net/2025/02/transylvania-little-ice-age/ #ClimateChange #LittleIceAge #SixteenthCentury

Today’s arrival. Time for a reread. I last read this in 1998, as part of my first Open University course, about culture in Renaissance Europe 1450-1600. #Scotland #ScottishHistory #History #Plays #Theatre #16thCentury #SixteenthCentury #Culture #Scots #ScotsLeid #ScotsScrievin #Renaissance #Europe #OpenUniversity #OU

Today’s arrival. Time for a reread. I last read this in 1998, as part of my first Open University course, about culture in Renaissance Europe 1450-1600. #Scotland #ScottishHistory #History #Plays #Theatre #16thCentury #SixteenthCentury #Culture #Scots #ScotsLeid #ScotsScrievin #Renaissance #Europe #OpenUniversity #OU

Wish my brain would stop thinking "I'll just look up another 16th/17th century testament (will and/or inventory) to study in ScotlandsPeople" when the website is still down! Hope it comes back ok after latest upgrade / revamp. And hope it's not as disastrous as some other website revamps inc SP. #HistoricalResearch #ScottishHistory #Scotland #History #Genealogy #FamilyHistory #ScotlandsPeople #website #websites #16thCentury #17thCentury #SixteenthCentury #SeventeenthCentury #Wills #Inventories

Wish my brain would stop thinking "I'll just look up another 16th/17th century testament (will and/or inventory) to study in ScotlandsPeople" when the website is still down! Hope it comes back ok after latest upgrade / revamp. And hope it's not as disastrous as some other website revamps inc SP. #HistoricalResearch #ScottishHistory #Scotland #History #Genealogy #FamilyHistory #ScotlandsPeople #website #websites #16thCentury #17thCentury #SixteenthCentury #SeventeenthCentury #Wills #Inventories

#Musicians (singing and playing #lute, #harp and #viol) in the Garden of False Learning.

Needlepoint hanging (French 1550-1580) based on a woodcut by David Kandel, 1547.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/226956

#earlymusic #earlymodern #lutenist #16thCentury #sixteenthcentury @earlymusic @earlymodern @histodon #histodon #histodons @histodons

A few verses from an anonymous 17th Century ballad about the fate of Lady Jane Grey.
From the Golden Garland of Princely Pleasures, 1620
Eleanor Cramer: soprano
Richard De Winter: tenor
Tamsin Lewis: alto
A lamentable Ditty on the death of the Lord Guilford Dudley, and the Lady Iane Gray, that for their parents ambition, in seeking to make these two yong Princes King and Queene of England, were both beheaded in the Tower of London.
To the tune of, Peter and Parnell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4K-40XRhGY

#earlymusic @earlymusic #earlymodern @earlymodern #histodon #histodons @histodon @histodons #tudor #tudors #ladyjanegrey #16thCentury #ballad #song #sixteenthcentury #history #royalhistory

The Sick Tune: an anonymous #sixteenthcentury ballad melody from MS Dd.9.33

Played by Sam Brown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-HFTLUoxl8&ab_channel=Passamezzo

#earlymusic #earlymodern #tudors #16thCentury #lutenist #lute #shakespeare #nashe #tudor #elizabethan #elizabethanmusic #tudormusic #histodon #histodons @earlymusic @earlymodern @histodons @histodon

The Sick Tune: an anonymous #sixteenthcentury ballad melody from MS Dd.9.33

Played by Sam Brown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-HFTLUoxl8&ab_channel=Passamezzo

#earlymusic #earlymodern #tudors #16thCentury #lutenist #lute #shakespeare #nashe #tudor #elizabethan #elizabethanmusic #tudormusic #histodon #histodons @earlymusic @earlymodern @histodons @histodon

Scholars discover rare 16th-century tome with handwritten notes by John Milton https://arstechnica.com/culture/2024/05/john-miltons-handwritten-notes-make-this-16th-century-history-book-a-rare-find/ #Milton #JohnMilton #BookHistory #SixteenthCentury #16thCentury

Scholars discover rare 16th-century tome with handwritten notes by John Milton https://arstechnica.com/culture/2024/05/john-miltons-handwritten-notes-make-this-16th-century-history-book-a-rare-find/ #Milton #JohnMilton #BookHistory #SixteenthCentury #16thCentury

Greensleeves update!
We have silk satin for the "gown..of the grossie green...sleeues of Satten hanging by" described in the song.
Ninya Mikhaila will make the gown, when we've worked out what it looks like...
passamezzo.uk/greenproj.html
#Greensleeves #earlymusic @earlymusic #earlymodern #tudors @earlymodern #tudor #elizabethan #sixteenthcentury #16thCentury #historicalcostume #historyoffashion #histodon #histodons #reconstruction #materialculture @histodons @histodon

I’ve been given the Janet Arnold Award by the Society of Antiquaries to recreate clothing described in the Tudor song, Greensleeves.
Really excited to be working on this project with a team of superb costume historians.
Among other things, there will be a video to come in the future, and a book about Greensleeves & early modern clothing in music and song, but in the meantime, here is our recording of the words and music…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pej-PqWDJ4U&ab_channel=Passamezzo

#earlymusic @earlymusic #earlymodern @earlymodern #histodon #histodons @histodons @histodon #tudor #tudors #elizabethan #16thCentury #sixteenthcentury #materialculture #HistoryofFashion

I’ve been given the Janet Arnold Award by the Society of Antiquaries to recreate clothing described in the Tudor song, Greensleeves.
Really excited to be working on this project with a team of superb costume historians.
Among other things, there will be a video to come in the future, and a book about Greensleeves & early modern clothing in music and song, but in the meantime, here is our recording of the words and music…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pej-PqWDJ4U&ab_channel=Passamezzo

#earlymusic @earlymusic #earlymodern @earlymodern #histodon #histodons @histodons @histodon #tudor #tudors #elizabethan #16thCentury #sixteenthcentury #materialculture #HistoryofFashion

Continuing to read the horrifying but page turning recent art theft book, and despairing knowing that many of the stolen artworks were eventually destroyed. Here are a couple that were stolen. I think I know already what happened ultimately to one but not sure yet re the other. Dreading to find out! #Art #ArtHistory #ArtTheft #Crime #Renaissance #RenaissanceArt #Paintings #FrenchHistory #GermanHistory #ScottishHistory #SixteenthCentury

Continuing to read the horrifying but page turning recent art theft book, and despairing knowing that many of the stolen artworks were eventually destroyed. Here are a couple that were stolen. I think I know already what happened ultimately to one but not sure yet re the other. Dreading to find out! #Art #ArtHistory #ArtTheft #Crime #Renaissance #RenaissanceArt #Paintings #FrenchHistory #GermanHistory #ScottishHistory #SixteenthCentury

Browsing recent articles in the academic journal #UrbanHistory. This #openAccess one by Kate Osborne looks fun: "Bells and whistles: listening between the lines in sixteenth-century #Exeter". https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/urban-history/article/bells-and-whistles-listening-between-the-lines-in-sixteenthcentury-exeter/07C5E8200F7B4FDE539C3589E4828CB0 #Soundscape #Devon #BellRinging #Bells #16thCentury #SixteenthCentury #EnglishHistory

Browsing recent articles in the academic journal #UrbanHistory. This #openAccess one by Kate Osborne looks fun: "Bells and whistles: listening between the lines in sixteenth-century #Exeter". https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/urban-history/article/bells-and-whistles-listening-between-the-lines-in-sixteenthcentury-exeter/07C5E8200F7B4FDE539C3589E4828CB0 #Soundscape #Devon #BellRinging #Bells #16thCentury #SixteenthCentury #EnglishHistory

Crikey, there's a Border Reivers board game newly out! https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/309913/border-reivers-anglo-scottish-border-raids-1513-16 #ScottishBorders #ScottishHistory #Cumbria #CumbrianHistory #Northumberland #NorthumberlandHistory #EnglishHistory #BorderReivers #16thCentury #SixteenthCentury #TabletopGames #BoardGames

Crikey, there's a Border Reivers board game newly out! https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/309913/border-reivers-anglo-scottish-border-raids-1513-16 #ScottishBorders #ScottishHistory #Cumbria #CumbrianHistory #Northumberland #NorthumberlandHistory #EnglishHistory #BorderReivers #16thCentury #SixteenthCentury #TabletopGames #BoardGames

Surprised to find I had a Wiley Books order due to be delivered by DPD tonight. Only found out this evening. Then realised it was probably the latest #ScottishHistorySociety annual volume. I get surprised by this every year. And right enough, look what turned up. #ScottishHistory #Books #Bookstodon #16thCentury #SixteenthCentury #Letters #Orkney #Shetland

Surprised to find I had a Wiley Books order due to be delivered by DPD tonight. Only found out this evening. Then realised it was probably the latest #ScottishHistorySociety annual volume. I get surprised by this every year. And right enough, look what turned up. #ScottishHistory #Books #Bookstodon #16thCentury #SixteenthCentury #Letters #Orkney #Shetland

Another day, and some more palaeographical puzzling. This time trying some very quick image manipulation ("auto color" option in GraphicConverter on my Mac) to make things easier. Could improve the colour/contrast balance even better, but this is a starting help. This image is from a 1594 Scottish testament. #ImageManipulation #Palaeography #Handwriting #ScottishHistory #16thCentury #SixteenthCentury #Histodon #Histodons #Transcription

Another day, and some more palaeographical puzzling. This time trying some very quick image manipulation ("auto color" option in GraphicConverter on my Mac) to make things easier. Could improve the colour/contrast balance even better, but this is a starting help. This image is from a 1594 Scottish testament. #ImageManipulation #Palaeography #Handwriting #ScottishHistory #16thCentury #SixteenthCentury #Histodon #Histodons #Transcription

Checking the National Records of Scotland catalogue, and found this gem from 1548/9, the theft from convent of North Berwick of "the common seal of monastery and chapter as well as sone writings and discharges, to the great loss of the monastery." Not what I was seeking, but I'm intrigued to know if there was any followup. #ScottishHistory #NorthBerwick #Nuns #Crime #Theft #Monastery #Convent #16thCentury #SixteenthCentury #EastLothian #HistoricalResearch

Checking the National Records of Scotland catalogue, and found this gem from 1548/9, the theft from convent of North Berwick of "the common seal of monastery and chapter as well as sone writings and discharges, to the great loss of the monastery." Not what I was seeking, but I'm intrigued to know if there was any followup. #ScottishHistory #NorthBerwick #Nuns #Crime #Theft #Monastery #Convent #16thCentury #SixteenthCentury #EastLothian #HistoricalResearch

John Dowland: Sleep, wayward thoughts
from The First Booke of Songs or Ayres, 1597.

Richard de Winter: tenor
Robin Jeffrey: lute
Alison Kinder: bass viol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1-HkJGG0Vo&ab_channel=Passamezzo

#earlymusic #earlymusicensemble
@earlymusic
#histodon #histodons @histodons @histodon
#earlymodern @earlymodern
#tudor #tudors #16thCentury #sixteenthcentury #lute #dowland

Archaeologists find 500-year-old board game carved in ruins of Polish castle - #ArsTechnica https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/09/archaeologists-find-500-year-old-board-game-carved-in-ruins-of-polish-castle/ #BoardGames #TabletopGames #Games #Gaming #Poland #Castles #SixteenthCentury

Archaeologists find 500-year-old board game carved in ruins of Polish castle - #ArsTechnica https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/09/archaeologists-find-500-year-old-board-game-carved-in-ruins-of-polish-castle/ #BoardGames #TabletopGames #Games #Gaming #Poland #Castles #SixteenthCentury

Today's video was one of the last things that we did before lockdown in March 2020... It was filmed in the Great Watching Chamber at Hampton Court Palace, while preparing a section on Elizabethan music for Historic Royal Palace's Futurelearn course on Tudor entertainment.

Augustine Bassano: Pavan
From Egerton MS 3665

Robin Jeffrey: lute
Tamsin Lewis: renaissance violin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0rC0gVr2ig&ab_channel=Passamezzo

#earlymusic #earlymusicensemble #earlymodern #histodon #histodons #tudor #tudors #16thCentury #sixteenthcentury #hamptoncourt #hamptoncourtpalace #futurelearn #elizabethan #violin #lute #violinist #lutenist #tapestry #elizabethan
@earlymusic @earlymodern @histodons @histodon

Nearing the end of one novel (Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia) and looking ahead to my next one (The Ghost Theatre by Mat Osman). Mexican Gothic is very atmospheric, and I'm enjoying it a lot. Though I will no longer read it shortly before bed at night! The other one looks like an Elizabethan delight. #books #reading #GothicHorror #Horror #HistoricalFiction #Mexico #England #SixteenthCentury #Theatre #1950s #Bookstodon #novels #Elizabethan

Nearing the end of one novel (Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia) and looking ahead to my next one (The Ghost Theatre by Mat Osman). Mexican Gothic is very atmospheric, and I'm enjoying it a lot. Though I will no longer read it shortly before bed at night! The other one looks like an Elizabethan delight. #books #reading #GothicHorror #Horror #HistoricalFiction #Mexico #England #SixteenthCentury #Theatre #1950s #Bookstodon #novels #Elizabethan

Found time between meetings to check in on the kitchens and see how the sugar vessels are coming along.
Another larger charger in progress plus a couple of test pieces...a pigment test and a test to see how well you can write with a quill and oak gall ink onto sugar plate ..pretty well it seems!
#history
#histodons
#tudor
#sixteenthcentury
#foodhistory

No sugar work to report on today as the team (Robin) is distracted by the task I asked of them yesterday...make more pencils, as brushes were called in the sixteenth century!
Starting with reclaimed badger hair from shaving brushes, they'll also repurpose old squirrel hair brushes too

Currently awaiting a delivery of smaller feathers that allow for finer brushes to be constructed...should arrive in time for the weekend I hope

#arthistory
#history
#histodons
#sixteenthcentury

As I was on site today, I had the opportunity to take some more images of the sugar plate plates. Though I did derail the team by asking them to start work on making some replacement brushes, so that'll stop progress for a day or so.

#histodons
#foodhistory
#sixteenthcentury
#tudor
#food

Some progress, courtesy of team member David, of the sugar dinner service that's being made this summer in the Henry VIII kitchens at Hampton Court Palace. The recipe for the paste is from the Second Book of the Good Huswifes Jewell by Thomas Dawson, 1597.
They've made real progress in the last week or so...can't wait to see more items finished.
#histodons
#foodhistory
#sixteenthcentury
#tudor
#food

Today is (apparently) Uncommon Instrument Awareness Day, so here are 4 images showing 16th Century Western perceptions of musicians and their instruments (some more uncommon than others) from the continents of America, Africa, Asia and Europe.
From a book showing the 8 pageants held for the Christening of Princess Elisabeth of Hesse in 1596.
Bavarian State Library: Cod.icon. 340.

#uncommoninstrumentawarenessday #otd #onthisday #iconography #earlymusic #historyofart #history #historical #histodons #sixteenthcentury #16thCentury #pageantry #musicalinstruments #musicians #histodon
@earlymodern @earlymusic @histodons @histodon #worldmusic #ethnomusicology

Costume design for the allegorical figure of music, one of many figures from the 1585 Winter tournaments for the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II.
(Pen, blue wash on white paper, Galleria degli Uffizi)
By Giuseppe Arcimboldo who died #onthisday in 1593.

#otd #onthisdayinhistory #onthisdayinarthistory #arcimboldo #allegory #music #musica #tournament #rudolfii #renaissance #mannerist #costume #16thcentury #16thcenturycostume #16thcenturyfashion #allegorical #violadabraccio #violin #fiddle #earlymusic #renaissancemusic #sixteenthcentury #histodon #histodons #earlymodern @earlymodern @earlymusic @histodons @histodon

A #seasonal #woodcut depicting Queen Elizabeth I, surrounded by court ladies playing #musical #instruments (#viol, #harp, #lute, #flute. Also piping shepherds)

From the Eclogue for #April in Edmund Spenser's Shepheardes Calender, 1579.

#ElizabethI
#Elizabethan
#EdmundSpenser
#History
#Histodon
@histodons
#histodons
#earlymusic
@earlymusic
#earlymodern
@earlymodern
#Tudor
#Tudors
#Calendar
#sixteenthcentury
#16thCentury
#16thCenturymusic
#pastoral

Rare, pristine first edition of Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus up for sale https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/03/rare-pristine-first-edition-of-copernicus-de-revolutionibus-up-for-sale/ #BookHistory #RareBooks #Astronomy #Copernicus #Renaissance #SixteenthCentury #16thCentury #Books

Rare, pristine first edition of Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus up for sale https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/03/rare-pristine-first-edition-of-copernicus-de-revolutionibus-up-for-sale/ #BookHistory #RareBooks #Astronomy #Copernicus #Renaissance #SixteenthCentury #16thCentury #Books

Just been trying a couple more of the #ScottishHistory #quizzes by Allan Kennedy linked from the Centre for #ScottishCulture at the #University of #Dundee website. Relieved to get 47% and 53% on the “super hard” 16th and 17thC ones! https://dundeescottishculture.org/scottish-history-quizzes/ #Scotland #History #DundeeUniversity #SixteenthCentury #SeventeenthCentury #16thCentury #17thCentury

Just been trying a couple more of the #ScottishHistory #quizzes by Allan Kennedy linked from the Centre for #ScottishCulture at the #University of #Dundee website. Relieved to get 47% and 53% on the “super hard” 16th and 17thC ones! https://dundeescottishculture.org/scottish-history-quizzes/ #Scotland #History #DundeeUniversity #SixteenthCentury #SeventeenthCentury #16thCentury #17thCentury

For anyone who wants to know more details about the newly deciphered Mary Queen of Scots letters here is the full peer reviewed journal paper. Freely online, open access, for all to read. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01611194.2022.2160677 #MaryQueenOfScots #MaryQoS #ScottishHistory #16thCentury #SixteenthCentury #EuropeanHistory #History #Scotland #Ciphers #LetterWriting

For anyone who wants to know more details about the newly deciphered Mary Queen of Scots letters here is the full peer reviewed journal paper. Freely online, open access, for all to read. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01611194.2022.2160677 #MaryQueenOfScots #MaryQoS #ScottishHistory #16thCentury #SixteenthCentury #EuropeanHistory #History #Scotland #Ciphers #LetterWriting

A #miniature, probably taken from a #bookofhours, showing the Feast of #Candlemas (2 February), with villagers taking candles to the #church to be blessed.
Simon Bening, c1550

#otd #onthisday #onthisdayinhistory #16thCentury #sixteenthcentury #Tudor #Tudors #calendarcustoms #Candlemass #EndofChristmas #endofchristmasseason #history #socialhistory #laboursofthemonths #SimonBening #illuminatedmanuscript #February #histodon #histodons #historythroughart #earlymodern @histodons

To Shorten Winter's Sadness.
A #16thCentury English #madrigal from Thomas Weelkes' Ballets & #Madrigals, 1598.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2z4Mafl_PU&ab_channel=Passamezzo

#earlymusic @earlymusic #earlymodern #Elizabethan #ElizabethI #Elizabethanmusic #madrigals #Tudor #Tudors #TudorMusic #Weelkes400 #ThomasWeelkes #Weelkes #Winter #WinterPasttimes #wassail #mumming #sixteenthCentury #history #historicalmusic #histodon @histodon #histodons @histodons #acapella #soprano #alto #tenor #bass #partsong

Today is the #4thDayofChristmas, and #InnocentsDay or #Childermas, so here's an #anonymous #16thCentury #song for the day.
The 'Coventry' #carol is probably the best known of #Tudor #carols, would have been sung originally by the women in The #Pageant of the Shearmen & Taylors, one of the #Coventry #MysteryPlays.

Eleanor Cramer: #soprano
Christopher Goodwin: #lute
Alison Kinder: bass #viol
Tamsin Lewis: #alto
Jack Merivale:# bass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dglylGJ6aic&ab_channel=Passamezzo

#earlymusic #holyinnocents #tudors #sixteenthcentury #youtube #otd #OnThisDay #earlymodern
#histodon #histodons @histodons
@earlymusic

Prompted by @dr_allan_kennedy latest Scottish history quiz I'm reading about an Italian courtier at the early 16th century court of Scottish King James IV. Who dabbled in alchemy, flying machines and so much more. Why hadn't I heard of him before! Even reading the Wikipedia page my mind is fizzing with ideas for an #InteractiveFiction #TextAdventure parser game based on his time in Scotland. #ScottishHistory #Scotland #Italy #Alchemy #Flying #16thCentury #SixteenthCentury