Journal of Witchfinder General Nehemiah Wallington

From the Telegraph:

Now the journal by 17th century Puritan writer Nehemiah Wallington has been opened up by a team from The University of Manchester's John Rylands Library who are using cutting edge camera technology to photograph and ''digitise'' the diary which is being kept at Tatton Hall in Knutsford, Cheshire.

Wallington was an eloquent and well-read writer who filled 50 notebooks in which he documented his own philosophies on life to keep himself sane. When he died in 1958 he left over 2,500 pages written on himself, religion and politics.

The witchcraft trials occurred at Essex after Hopkins exploited much folklore and storytelling about evil witches that were causing catastrophe and death. Local gossip would be directed against those who were a bit "odd" or perhaps were suspected of having "cunning" powers.

The handwritten notebook is the only copy known in existence. Mansion and Collections Manager Caroline Schofield from Tatton Park said: "Nehemiah Wallington was an intelligent working man who achieved much in the face of such difficulty and exhaustion in daily life."

An Evening With A Medieval Queen

From Westport News:

A tale, part fable, part history, of a Sicilian queen in medieval times will be unfolded by composer John Marino at the Temenos Institute on Nov. 5, as he conducts a lecture on the story of "Costanza," the basis of an opera he created the music for.

The story is about Costanza, the heiress of the Norman kings of Sicily. Her father was Roger II who reigned over what is considered the "Golden Age" of Sicily. Palermo was considered the "jewel" of the Mediterranean.

Abergwyngregyn: Site of Welsh Princes Returns To History

From BBC News:

Excavations at Abergwyngregyn, near Bangor, unearthed the remains of a medieval hall dating back to the 14th century, the period when Llywelyn the Great and Llywelyn the Last were fighting for Welsh independence.

Experts will be on hand on Saturday to give guided tours of the site and there will be activities for children inspired by medieval games and puzzles.

Next month, the site, which is privately owned, will be returned to pasture.

The site will be open to visitors on Saturday, 30 October, between 10am and 4pm, with children's activities from noon.

Sacred Swords of Empress Komyo

From Japan Today:

Two swords found under the Great Buddha of Todaiji temple in the Meiji era have been identified as sacred swords that had been missing for some 1,250 years since around 760 after Empress Komyo, the wife of Emperor Shomu who built the Buddha, dedicated them along with other items to the temple, the temple said Monday.

The swords, decorated with gold, silver and lacquer, appear on the top of about 100 swords in the weapon list of the Kokka Chimpo Cho (the book of national treasures to Todaiji) kept at the Shosoin repository at the temple in the ancient capital of Nara, and can be considered important historical materials in the related research.

The swords were discovered at the end of the Meiji Period (1868-1912) along with other items such as a silver pot near the pedestal on which the Great Buddha sits when three holes were created nearby for research purposes, and were designated together as national treasures in 1930.

Jane Austin - Did She or Didn't She

Two interesting posts regarding whether or not Jane Austin or her Editor actually wrote her works.

From BBC News:

The elegant writing style of novelist Jane Austen may have been the work of her editor, an academic has claimed.

Professor Kathryn Sutherland of Oxford University reached her conclusion while studying 1,100 original handwritten pages of Austen's unpublished writings.

The manuscripts, she states, feature blots, crossing outs and "a powerful counter-grammatical way of writing".

She adds: "The polished punctuation and epigrammatic style we see in Emma and Persuasion is simply not there."

And from the Telegraph:

She is the great English novelist renowned for her polished prose, of whom it was once remarked: "Everything came finished from her pen."

Yet Jane Austen couldn't spell, had no grasp of punctuation and her writing betrayed an accent straight out of The Archers, according to an Oxford University academic.

Prof Kathryn Sutherland said analysis of Austen's handwritten letters and manuscripts reveal that her finished novels owed as much to the intervention of her editor as to the genius of the author.

State of Women - Two Views

The Women - amazing blog about women in India - past and present.

At the time when the West voting laws in favor of gender equality, the position of the Hindu woman in India today remains precarious.

Afghan Women: A History of Struggle - blog from Times Union.

The film is first and foremost a summary of Afghanistan’s struggle and how that struggle was perpetuated by outside influences, notably the United States and the Soviet Union. It is a powerful documentary that I would encourage anyone to watch.

Canada Remembers: Women Who Served

From Channel Canada:

The new documentary, Canada Remembers: Women Who Have Served and Sacrificed will air on VisionTV November 11 at 10pm ET. It will be followed at 11pm ET by Canada Remembers: Their Achievements and Sacrifices.

During the Second World War, women served in non-combat support roles in the Royal Navy as WRENS, the air force women’s division and in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps. Many women also took over important jobs and others supported the military to help keep supplies moving. War Brides, who married during World War II, were deeply affected by the conflict and had their lives completely changed. Many women have also served near the frontlines as medical support. The modern Canadian military has seen a relatively new development: women serving in combat as frontline soldiers. For the first time in Canadian history women have died in combat for their countries. And what of the women who have watched and waited as their loved ones go off to serve in combat conditions? The very real truth is that they may be sacrificing a husband, son or brother to a conflict half a world away. These women will share their stories, their memories and sacrifices while touching on the role their faith played to carry them through difficult times.

Dona Gracia - Ahead of Her Time

From the Jerusalem Post:

Once the wealthiest woman in the world, Dona Gracia planned to establish an autonomous Jewish community in Tiberias.

The museum conducts weekend seminars about the life and times of Dona Gracia whose story fired Cohen's imagination to the extent that she pushed for the Education Ministry to include the study of Dona Gracia in school curricula. Tzvi Tzameret, the Chairman of the Education Ministry's Pedagogic Secretariat, agreed that it was high time for Dona Gracia to come out of the mothballs of the distant past. The upshot is that Israeli high school students as well as soldiers in the IDF will now learn of her plans to establish an autonomous Jewish community in Tiberias, which from the second to the tenth centuries was the largest Jewish city in the Galilee, and a great seat of Jewish learning.

The 500th anniversary of Dona Gracia's birth was celebrated on Sunday at Beit Hanassi in the presence of President Shimon Peres, Israel's fifth President Yitzhak Navon, who heads the National Authority for Ladino, is a former Education Minister and is descended on both sides from long lines of Sephardi rabbis, Education Minister Gideon Saar, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch among a host of dignitaries.

The Folly of Charlemagne