- Cross-staff
The art of navigation, though still crude, had by the 15th century so advanced that the sailor was no longer compelled to skirt the shore, with only rare ventures across open stretches of sea. The use of the compass, originating in China, had been learned from the Arabs by the crusaders, and is first mentioned in Europe towards the close of the 12th century. An Italian in England, describing a visit to the philosopher Roger Bacon in 1258, writes as follows: "Among other things he showed me an ugly black stone called a magnet ... upon which, if a needle be rubbed and afterward fastened to a straw so that it shall float upon the water, the needle will instantly turn toward the pole-star; though the night be never so dark, yet shall the mariner be able by the help of this needle to steer his course aright. But no master-mariner," he adds, "dares to use it lest he should fall under the imputation of being a magician." By the end of the 13th century, the compass was coming into general use; and when Columbus sailed he had an instrument divided as in later times into 360 degrees and 32 points, as well as a quadrant, sea-astrolabe, and other nautical devices. The astrolabe, an instrument for determining latitude by measuring the altitude of the sun or other heavenly body, was suspended from the finger by a ring and held upright at noon till the shadow of the sun passed the sights. The cross-staff, more frequently used for the same purpose by sailors of the time, was a simpler affair less affected by the ship's roll; it was held with the lower end of the cross-piece level with the horizon and the upper adjusted to a point on a line between the eye of the observer and the sun at the zenith. By these various means, the sailor could steer a fixed course and determine latitude. - ‘Diabolus ligatus’
- ‘St. Piran’
- ... caused to sytte down and in large wyse to gape
- ‘Henry’s badge’
- ‘latten “Agnus Dei”’
- ‘A wonderful sight’
- ‘He incontinently fled’
- ‘... with drawn swords stood in the doorway’
- A young novice of the priory
- ‘... got his arms round a branch’
- ‘An impromptu entertainment by three minstrels’
- A ‘herauld’
- ‘... compellyd them for to devour the same writte’
- ‘... cast her into a cauldron’
- ‘... playing innumerable pranks’
- ‘The tiger and the mirror’
- ‘... led through the middle of the city’
- sat for its portrait to Matthew Paris
- ‘... called secretly at the chamber dore’
- Byzantine enamels from the Limburg reliquary
- ‘... gyrd abowte his bodye in iij places with towells and gyrdylls’
- ‘The young Edward III.’
- Female Pilgrim
We have hitherto spoken of male pilgrims; but it must be borne in mind that women of all ranks were frequently to be found on pilgrimage; and all that has been said of the costume and habits of the one sex applies equally to the other. Here is a cut of a female pilgrim with scrip, staff, and hat. - '... crossed to England’'
- ‘When a lion looks at you it becomes a leopard’
- ‘... failed to identify the geese’
- ... sware ‘gret othes’ and took himself by the hair
- Pilgrims
- ‘The broken bough fell on the head of a man standing down below’
- Gautier Bardins, bailiff and adviser to the king in the 13th century, according to his tombstone
- ‘... constructed a pantomime dragon on the pattern of the real article’
- ‘... ducking him in a horse-pond’
- ‘... fully armed with swords and bucklers’
- ‘... showed him his injuries’
- Former Constantinian Basilica of Saint Peter. Restitution
- Enamelled copper vase by G. Alpaïs de Limoges
- Robert Berewold in the pillory
- An attempt to restore the Krak, according to M. Rey
- Enamelled copper stock. The Annunciation. Limoges, 13th century
- Health-Drinking
- Ancient Wrestling
The manner in which this pastime was exhibited in the western parts of England, at the distance of two centuries, is thus described by Carew, an author then living. "The beholders then cast, or form themselves into a ring, in the empty space whereof the two champions step forth, stripped into their dublets and hosen, and untrussed, that they may so the better command the use of their lymmes; and first shaking hands, in token of friendship, they fall presently to the effect of anger; for each striveth how to take hold of the other with his best advantage, and to bear his adverse party downe; wherein, whosoever overthroweth his mate, in such sort, as that either his backe, or the one shoulder, and contrary heele do touch the ground, is accounted to give the fall. If he be only endangered, and makes a narrow escape, it is called a foyle." - The unfortunate “fowle” was “hurten so sore”’
- Germanic costume (5th-8th century)
- A Market Scene
Our illustration represents a market scene, the women sitting on their low stools, with their baskets of goods displayed on the ground before them. The female on the left seems to be filling up her time by knitting; the woman on the right is paying her market dues to the collector, who is habited as a clerk. The background appears to represent a warehouse, where transactions of a larger kind are going on. - La Ziza, palace of the Norman and Swabian kings of Sicily, near Palermo
- Emperor Lothaire
- Knight of around 1220, from the Villard de Honnecour album
- Emperor Anastasius in consular costume
- Empress Theodora
- Unknown sport
The contest between the two figures, seems to depend upon the breaking of the stick which both of them hold, or is a struggle to overthrow each other. - Geoffroy Plantagenet
- An Inn
In the picture in the French National Library, the beds are arranged at the side of the apartment in separate berths, like those of a ship’s cabin, or like the box beds of the Highlands of Scotland. It is necessary, perhaps, to explain that the artist has imagined one side of the room removed, so as to introduce into his illustration both the mounted traveller outside and the interior of the inn. - The Source of Life
- San Bartolommeo in Isola, in Rome
- Emperor Justinian and his court - Mosaic of San Vitale, in Ravenna
- Street and apse of Saints John and Paul, in Rome
- Philippe le Bold, son of Saint Louis, after his tombstone
- Rome dominating the world.