- I started with Yahoo. The first link was about the church in the town of Worstead. This pages mentions Uncumber in passing since she was painted on a screen which "which some Victorian blunderer repainted." That was worth a chuckle.
- The second link in Yahoo was one of Catholic Online’s saint’s pages. Catholic Online is a commercial site which does web site design, hosting, etc., only with a Catholic spin to it. The site seems fairly thorough, and I would trust it as being accurate in order to attract a specific, and likely knowledgeable, clientele. They are also members of the well-established Catholic Press Association, which supports their legitimacy. The most annoying thing about this site is the little icon of Jesus peering out from the top of every main page in the site. I’m starting to feel guilty!
- Uncumber’s feast day is July 20. Also known as Wilgeortis and Liberata, she was one of nine daughters of the pagan Portuguese King. When her father betrothed her to the King of Sicily, she prayed to God to save her from breaking her vow of virginity. God kindly supplied her with a beard which rather disturbed her future husband and the suit was withdrawn. Unfortunately her father was quite miffed and he had her crucified for her impertinence.
- Internal links to the Saint’s list takes me to July saints. St. Bridget of Sweden’s day is July 23. It sounds like she got to be a saint just by being pious and Swedish. She died in 1373 and was the patroness of Sweden. St. Lawrence of Brindisi’s day is July 21. Lawrence seems to have been sainted for being a good general and politician.
- The third link in Yahoo, and one I’ve found very useful in the past, is the Catholic Encyclopedia Online. This is the online version of a reliable print encyclopedia. Its records are much more detailed and useful. Tracking backward, I find this site is part of a site called New Advent. What a find! They have the Summa Theologicae and writings of the church fathers online as well. They also need volunteers to help transfer more records online. There’s a link to the Vatican from New Advent. Unfortunately, the English section is not very well developed. Many of the links are dead, maps are missing, etc.
- The page on Uncumber confirms the Catholic Online reference. It adds that Uncumber is known by many names, and discusses the evolution of the Uncumber myth from the image of Christ at Lucca. There is also an account of a miracle, wherein a statue of Uncumber gives a fiddler her golden shoe in payment for the music he plays her, and then kicks off the other one for him in front of those who accuse him of theft. Besides being the saint of women in or approaching bad marriages, she is also invoked at the hour of death.
- Before moving on, I wanted to see if I could find a picture of Uncumber. I tried the Altavista Photofinder and the Corbis graphics site, but nothing came up under the saint’s more common names. A plain Altavista search brought up two modern representations:
- The cartoon image is from Saints Alive, a hilarious site. By flipping through random links in Altavista, I also discovered that dear old Uncumber has become the underground saint of lesbians!
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- I went through the Shuttle for this one. After a few false starts, I found a link under Art and Archaeology for the Ancient World Web. A section on daily life in this meta-site lead me to The Costume Site, and then to a site with information on Greek costume. This appears to be a site designed by enthusiasts. Its legitimacy is supported by a bibliography and several awards, including awards from Greek culture societies.
- There are two types of chitons, Ionic and Doric, and it was "the basic garment worn by Greek women up to the beginning of the sixth century B.C." A chiton is a long robe, secured at the shoulders with pins or clasps. The Ionic chiton used a wider piece of cloth than the Doric. A shorter version of the chiton was also used by men. (The Ionic chiton is on the left, and the Doric is on the right.)
- I had more difficulty finding Altis. Looking through the Shuttle, I found Classical Backpacking in Greece, which can be useful if I know what I’m looking for. After a few dead-ends in the Shuttle, I used the Yahoo subject categories to find searchable historical maps. The most interesting was HyperHistory Online, a synchronoptic history site with many prestigious awards and recommendations – but no Altis. After a few more dead-ends, I gave up and used Altavista. Skipping the first few pages of hotels, management groups, and software, I found a link to the Perseus Project. This site is an academic collaboration, based in a university, and so is likely quite reliable. The Perseus site gives you the passages in Pausanias that describe the Altis, as well as pictures of the grove in its current condition. Go here for a picture of the altis, and here to see part of what's left of the temple of Zeus.
- Altis is a sacred grove of Zeus at Olympia. It’s a Doric temple, so I’m probably wearing a Doric chiton. In fact, here I am!
- Now knowing what I was looking for, I went back to the backpacking site. It has a video of the climb up Mount Olympus, but not much else. It does, however, link to the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. The Ministry tells me:
- The temple of Zeus, built 470-456 B.C, sits on the southern part of the Altis. This temple housed one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, a 12 metre statue of Zeus holding his sceptre in his left hand and a winged Nike in his right. An olive tree also grew near this temple, and the wreaths for the winners of the Olympic games were made from its branches.
Here are two pictures of the Altis from the Ministry's site:
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- The Shuttle was well suited to this search. Under Religious Studies, Christianity and Bible Studies, I found the Bible Browser. This searchable, multi-version bible resource is designed by the scholarly technology group, which is part of Brown University. I was able to request the three versions I wanted all at once. My request appeared in convenient table format.
|
RSV |
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. |
|
KJV |
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. |
|
Vulgate |
in principio creavit Deus caelum et terram |
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- I started in the Shuttle again, but the Shuttle’s link to the Tyndale was incorrect. Resolving the address backwards, I found myself in the British Library. The problem occurs because the library has switched to a frames-based site which no longer provides different addresses for different pages. I poked around randomly for a while, looking at the exhibitions, but couldn’t find the Tyndale Bible this way, although I did find a very interesting exhibition called The Mythical Quest, and another on maps. Next I used the site search engine to find "tyndale," and found the Bible on the first hit, under the Digital Library. The digital library project seems fascinating. They are slowly scanning in their treasures so that one can look at whole works online, rather than being restricted to the single page on display in the library. Right now there is only one page of the Tyndale online. To get there, use the navigation bar to get to the Digital Library, and then click on Tyndale.
- The Tyndale is in the John Ritblat Gallery, which houses the treasures of the British Library. This Gallery is at St Pancras, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB, and contains books in English and Western European languages printed before 1851.
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- I started with a quick search of the Internet Movie Database. My results told me that the IMDB only does title searches – a good limitation to note. I did get several films, though:
- King Arthur, the Young Warlord (1975)
- King Arthur Was a Gentleman (1942)
- Unidentified Flying Oddball (1979) – aka Spaceman and King Arthur, The (1979) (A NASA spacecraft proves Einstein right when, travelling faster than light, it ends up near King Arthur's Camelot. On board are big-hearted Tom Trimble and Hermes, the look-alike robot he built. Tom immediately makes friends with pretty Alisande and enemies with the awful knight Sir Nordred. It seems Nordred is out to oust Arthur, while Alisande's father is not the goose she believes him to be but is also a victim of Nordred's schemes. It's as well the Americans have arrived.)
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949) (or A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1921), A Connecticut Yankee (1931), or even A Kid in King Arthur's Court (1995))
- Arthur and the Square Knights of the Round Table (1990)
- Arthur's Quest (1999) (To escape the clutches of the evil warrior and sorceress Morgana, Merlin transports young King Arthur into modern day America. When Merlin comes back ten years later to retrieve him, he finds a hip 15 year-old Arthur who does not believe Merlin, nor does he want to return to the past. Merlin must convince Arthur of his true identity, before Morgana can retrieve Excalibur and allow the Dark Forces to take over the world.)
- That done, I searched through Yahoo categories for pages on Arthur (Arts/Humanities/Literature/Periods_and_Movements/Medieval/Arthurian_Studies). I found two sites built by SCA members (Arthur: The Matter of Britain and the Mystic Realm of King Arthur) and one by a club in Oxford (Oxford Arthurian Society). None of these claim to be authoritative, although the first SCA site is nicely organized into categories. I finally came to the Camelot Project, from the University of Rochester. This site "is designed to make available in electronic format a database of Arthurian texts, images, bibliographies, and basic information. The project is sponsored by the University of Rochester and prepared in The Robbins Library, a branch of Rush Rhees Library." That sounds reliable to me! The scope of the site is daunting. There are encyclopedia style entries for much of Arthurian Studies which include an immense number of full text references and online images, as well as a bibliography of further resources. There is also a large, extended interview (transcription of a book) with authors who have Arthur as their subject or inspiration.
- The Avalon link in the main menu is not yet active. Allusions on the Arthur page tell me that Avalon was where Arthur died. This page also gives me Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s 1857 illustration of "King Arthur in Avalon." A search of the site does not provide further information.
- For a change of pace, I checked my hardcopy of The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Arthurian Legends, by Ronan Coghlan (Great Britain: Element Books, 1993).
- Avalon is the island where Arthur was taken after his last battle, though versions differ as to whether he was taken there to die or to be healed of a mortal wound. The encyclopedia reminds me of a favorite painting of this scene, The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon, done by Edward Burn-Jones. I found a piece of this painting at The Pre-Raphaelite Collection.
- The links page of the Camelot project takes me (among other places) to Arthuriana, an Arthurian journal published in print and online. This site has a category for Arthurian places, which adds to my search:
- The Isle of Avalon was probably a high hill in Glastonbury which was once surrounded by marsh, making it look like an island.
A picture of Glastonbury hill taken from the Arthuriana website.
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- I decided to use Metacrawler. I wasn’t certain if I should use append theatre, stage, or playhouse to globe, so I started by just searching globe. I got some hits for newspapers and maps, but Globe Playhouse was on the first page. This turned out to be a personal site of a couple with a passion for theatre and programming. It includes a lot of introductory information, including a rough plans of the original globe, and some pictures of the new globe (such as the one on the right).
- Back at Metacrawler, I searched for the Globe Theatre. The first link was for the American globe in Odessa Texas. Summer camp, anyone? The next hit brought me to the official new globe site at Reading University. This site provides a virtual tour of the new globe, and lots of information about the globe, new and old. There are also panoramic pictures of the globe in construction (requires QuickTime but definately worth it!).
- Searching for Renaissance music through Metacrawler takes me to an extensive page of Renaissance Music Links, created by a music studio in South Carolina. There are several links for midi sites, which play samples of online music. Unfortunately midi files always have a synthesized quality to them.
- The Classical Midi site, Byrd. A very cluttered site; lots of files.
- MidiWorld’s early music section. Clearly organized, good files.
- Early Music on Midi.
- Electronic Early Music. I don’t think these are midi files. They are quite nice.
- I browsed through the realaudio site, and came across a link that I’d seen but not followed in the Renaissance Music Links site, called Music History 102. This is part of the Internet Public Library venture, an American project which aims to put the resources of a public library online. You can hear some very nice samples here.
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- Recalling the map exhibit in the British Library, I browsed through that first. Not seeing anything that calls itself the "most famous," I searched Metacrawler for mappa mundi. The first couple of hits were for online magazines (one at http://mappa.mundi.net provides an interesting perspective on cyberspace). The third link took me to a page on the Hereford Mappa Mundi, which seems to be the right site. There are links to other mappa mundi, but this seems to be the "most famous." This page is part of the official Hereford site, and is likely reliable, albeit aimed at attracting visitors to the city.
- Following another Metacrawler link, I found myself in a medieval resource I had not seen before, the Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies. The site is a scholarly collaboration to create an "online textbook" of medieval information. It seems to be just that: a series of chapters that survey the middle ages and key elements thereof. However, it doesn’t add much to my knowledge of the Mappa Mundi.
- Back at Metacrawler, I searched for "Isidore." The hit summaries told me that most of the links were about Isidore as a saint, and as such wouldn’t be much help to me. Altering my search terms retrieved a link to a slide of the first printed map.
This is a site of cartographic images, designed as an educational resource by Jim Siebold, who has a passion, but not the budget, for collecting maps. Unfortunately, there isn’t any commentary for the images, so I’m not sure of the context of the image I’ve found. I know Isidore is from the early middle ages, but the map I’ve found is billed as the first printed map and dated 1472. I’m speculating that this is the map I want, and that it was popular enough to be printed. Jim’s site has an extensive list of links to other historical map sites, so I tried to find some collaboration. I went through the Internet Medieval Sourcebook to Odden's Cartographic Bookmarks and the PCL Map Collection (University of Texas) but found these were more for modern representations of historical countries, etc. I hopped around to some other map sites, but couldn’t find any further information. - In Isidore’s tripartite world map (printed 1472), Asia is on top.
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- I was certain I’d be able to get what I needed from ESTC, but I decided to see if I could find this information in one of the dedicated Chaucer sites. I began in NetSERF, and found an audio clip of the prologue as part of one professor’s resources for students. Among these resources I found a Chaucer meta-site, appropriately called the Chaucer MetaPage. This is another academic collaboration of resources and information. Their bibliography sent me to the SAC (Studies in the Age of Chaucer) Online Bibliography (a standard resource presented to me in my Chaucer seminar) and Stephen Reimer’s extensive and well-known bibliography at the University of Alberta. SAC doesn’t let you limit searches by date, and Stephen’s list is not searchable. Both seem to be lists of modern criticism, and do not provide Chaucer publication history. I finally went back to the ESTC online and, using the advanced search, looked for "chaucer," limited by date.
- Some printers of Chaucer before 1550:
- William Caxton
- Thomas Godfray
- Richard Pynson
- Wynkin de Word
- Some Chaucer titles printed in the 18th century:
- From 1790, The good and bad priests. The good priest. From Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The bad priest. A modern character.
- From 1785, The wife of Beith by Chaucer. Much better reformed, enlarged and corrected, than it was formerly.
- From 1741, The Canterbury tales of Chaucer, modernis'd by several hands.
- From 1740 (second edition), The Canterbury tales of Chaucer, in the original, from the most authentic manuscripts; and as they are turn'd into modern language by several eminent hands.
- From 1701, Canterbury tales, rendred into familiar verse, ... Written by no body.
- From 1701, Chaucer's whims: being some select fables and tales in verse, very applicable to the present times; .
The Wife of Bath, from the Ellesmere Manuscript
(and
lifted from the
Harvard Chaucer
site).
