Vatican Secret Archives

From the Telegraph:

A 13th-century letter from Genghis Khan’s grandson demanding homage from the pope is among a collection of documents from the Vatican’s Secret Archives that has been published for the first time.

The Holy See’s archives contain scrolls, parchments and leather-bound volumes with correspondence dating back more than 1,000 years.

High-quality reproductions of 105 documents, 19 of which have never been seen before in public, have now been published in a book. The Vatican Secret Archives features a papal letter to Hitler, an entreaty to Rome written on birch bark by a tribe of North American Indians, and a plea from Mary Queen of Scots.

Noah's Ark Was Round

From the Guardian:

According to newly translated instructions inscribed in ancient Babylonian on a clay tablet telling the story of the ark, the vessel that saved one virtuous man, his family and the animals from god's watery wrath was not the pointy-prowed craft of popular imagination but rather a giant circular reed raft.

The now battered tablet, aged about 3,700 years, was found somewhere in the Middle East by Leonard Simmons, a largely self-educated Londoner who indulged his passion for history while serving in the RAF from 1945 to 1948.

There are dozens of ancient tablets that have been found which describe the flood story but Finkel says this one is the first to describe the vessel's shape.

Helen Lewis

From BBC News:

A Belfast-based choreographer who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp has died aged 93.

Helen Lewis, who had a long association with the Lyric Theatre, settled in Northern Ireland after WWII.

Born in Czechoslovakia, she trained as a dancer and having made a new life in Belfast became involved in dance teaching and choreography.

In 1992 she published a widely acclaimed autobiography A Time To Speak which recounted her time in the camp.

2010

Well, another year has begun. And I would like to thank all those who have dropped by over the last couple of years. I hope that you have found something of interest.

As always, I will try and find some news articles of interest - pertaining, of course, mainly to women - and from a variety of sources worldwide. There will also a few articles from archaeology and history. I will add a list of books that I find interesting - and feel free to add your own or add a link to a review (good or bad!).

And to anyone on Facebook or Myspace - feel free to click the "add as friend" button - and I'll return the add.

Well, off to source some news stories .... take care loyal readers!

Byzantium & Werewolves

From Medieval News:

A new article explores how Byzantine doctors treated people those suffering from lycanthropy, a mental disorder where a patient believes he or she is, or has transformed into, a wolf and behaves like one. This disease is the basis for the legendary werewolves.

In "Lycanthropy in Byzantine times (AD 330–1453)," four scholars from the University of Athens examine the writings of six Byzantine physicians to see what they believed lycanthropy was and how it should be treated.

Debunking the Myth of Lady Jane Grey

Excerpt from the article "Debunking the Myth of Lady Jane Grey" by Leanda de Lisle in Intelligent Life:

Lady Jane Grey is mythologised, even festishised, as an innocent girl sacrificed on the altar of her mother's ambition. But behind the popular biographies of the Tudor Queen lies a different story of misogyny and masochism. It seems the much-maligned mother is in fact the victim.

When I began researching for "The Sisters Who Would be Queen", my triple biography of Lady Jane and her sisters, Katherine and Mary Grey, I hoped the well-known life of the iconic teenage Queen, would lend some insight to the younger sisters, the forgotten heirs to Elizabeth Tudor. I assumed there would be little new to day about Jane herself. But as I began my research it became clear that nothing written about Jane could be trusted. The first woman to wield the power of a Tudor monarch had been reduced, over time, to an eroticised image of female helplessness. Meanwhile, her conventional mother became the embodiment of the belief that powerful women are monstrous and mannish.

D'Artagnan's Grave

From the Ottawa Citizen (November 2008):

"A five-year quest to locate the tomb of d'Artagnan -- the inspiration for Alexandre Dumas's novel The Three Musketeers -- has led to a small Dutch church where new research suggests the swashbuckling hero is buried.

Charles de Batz de Castelmore d'Artagnan died during the Siege of Maastricht on June 25, 1673, and, according to a leading French historian, was laid to rest only few kilometres away at Saint Peter and Paul Church in Wolder."

I recently read "The Man in the Iron Mask" by John MacDonald. It is an indepth research into 17thC France and the secrecy surrounding the identity of the Mask. Apparently all four Musketeers were real - and the MitIM was not Fouquet as is popularly believed. There were three other important "political prisoners" jailed with Fouquet one of which was the Mask. Whilst 17thC France is not my forte, this makes for very interesting reading.

Lancaster Against York

This has been out for about a year and a half now - has anyone seen any reviews yet for "Lancaster Against York: The Wars of the Roses and the Foundation of Modern Britain" by Trevor Royle ???

St Bernard of Clairvaux

Ok - this has been nagging away inside my head for some time.

Why did Bernard of Clairvaux NOT go on Crusade.

Yes, he was busy whipping up support and shaming all and sundry into taking the Cross; he was closely associated with those who founded the Templars. And yet, to my limited knowledge, this man never stepped foot in the Holy Land - either as a pilgrim or crusader. Why?

Other notable Churchmen took up the pilgrim's staff - Adhemar of Puy is the most notable - and the entourages of the nobles of the First Crusade were chock full of ecclesiastics.

For a man who threw himself whole-heartedly behind the Crusading ideal - he is rather conspicuous in his absence.

He was 63 when he died in 1153 - however his age offered no hinderance to his constant travels throughout (modern-day) Europe drumming up support for the Crusades.

My question is: for one so fervant in his support - why did he not actively take the Cross??