My Research Hero!

Free "Fast Runner"!  Thanks, Internets!

Atanarjuat; the Fast Runner - the first feature film ever to be written, directed and acted entirely in Inuktitut.

Available streaming or download here (along with the other two of the Fast Runner trilogy).

Elderly man knitting garments during drive to provide goods to servicemen during the war.

Baby Jesus had 3 fairy godmothers.

Anonymous Follower of Giotto (Neapolitan School)

The Adoration of the Magi

Italy (1343)

Tempera and Ground Gold on Wood

Overall, with engaged frame, 26 1/8 x 18 3/8 in. (66.4 x 46.7 cm); painted surface, including tooled border, 21 3/8 x 15 in. (54.3 x 38.1 cm).

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman Collection

I have no idea why three very tiny Black women are there, but I like it. Notice the absence of the Black King; Italian adoration paintings seem less likely to feature a Black King than those from the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium.

Also, this is one of the paintings I come across when doing random searches and slogging through huge piles of information-the fact that these three Black women are there is not tagged or marked in any way in the database. I can’t find any more information or writing about this painting. It is attributed to an anonymous painter of the Neapolitan school, and I suppose it will remain a mystery.

Men and women looking through the card catalogues at the Library of Congress, 1941.

Yee Peng Festival, Chiang Mai 

SAINT NICHOLAS WAS BLACK.

Various Artists

Saint Nicholas (Nikolaus, Bishop of Myra)

Nicholas, was probably born during the third century in the village of Patara, in what is now the southern coast of Turkey. He was born of very wealthy ethnic black Anatolians of the ancient Roman Empire.

Nicholas’ wealthy parents died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young. Being a devout Christian, he followed the words of Jesus to “sell what you own and give the money to the poor.”

Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He was made the Bishop of Myra while still a young man. The high office of Nicholas at such a young age speaks to dominant role played by  black Anatolians and Africans in creating the church as we know it today. Bishop Nicholas was known throughout the land for his generosity to the those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships.

Under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, Bishop Nicholas suffered for his faith, was exiled and imprisoned.

After his release, Nicholas attended the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, where he worked with other early fathers of the church to establish the standardized christian doctrine of today. He died December 6, AD 343 in Myra and was buried in his cathedral church, where a unique relic, called manna, formed in his grave.

The remains of Saint Nicholas are interred in the crypt of the Basilica di San Nicola in Bari, Italy. These bones were temporarily removed when the crypt was repaired during the 1950s. At the Vatican’s request, anatomy professor Luigi Martino from the University of Bari, took thousands of minutely-detailed measurements and x-ray photographs (roentgenography) of the skull and other bones.

The current professor of forensic pathology at the University of Bari, Francesco Introna, knew advancements in diagnostic technique could yield much more from the data gathered in the 1950s. So he engaged an expert facial anthropologist, Caroline Wilkinson, at the University of Manchester in England, to construct a model of the saint’s head from the earlier measurements.

Using this data, the medical artist used state-of-the-art computer software to develop this model of St. Nicholas.

1. Saint Nicholas, c. 1760. Egg tempera on wood with metal riza (possibly silver), 10½” x 12½”. Museum of Russian Icons, Clinton, MA. [x]

2. Sassetta, The Virgin with Four Saints (Saint Nicholas detail). c. 1435, Tempera on wood. Museo Diocesano, Cortona. [x]

3. Velikiy Novgorod, The Funeral of Saint Nicholas. c. 1200s. School of Novgorod. [x] [x]

4. Niklaus of Myra, Unknown Russian Icon painter, pre-1000s.

Reconstruction of Saint Nicholas [x]

[x] [x]

Smart bookbindings - a lot of them

This morning I visited the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, and it was an overwhelming experience. The library was founded in 1572 by Duke Julius of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and it is a rare example of a 16th-century library that survived fully intact. Walking through the library I encountered a big bronze door. When I opened it I suddenly stood eye to eye with something unexpected: vast bookcases stretching from floor to ceiling filled with thousands of bookbindings from the 15th to 17th centuries.

As you would expect, many have fragments of medieval manuscripts and early printed books pasted in and on them, to provide support (last pic). However, this collection is special for another reason. The duke himself wrote on each book what it contained. To find writing on the back of an early-modern book is not unusual, but the duke was a thorough man and went a little overboard, as you can see. The backs not only contain very long title descriptions, but also numbers. In fact, duke August is rumored to have invented the system where book numbers have a decimal point. If book nr. 23 contains physics, the next book he purchased with the same topic would receive nr. 23.1 - think Library of Congress. These are not just old, but also smart bookbindings, which carry history on their backs.

His Majesty’s Bark Endeavour - Replica by Craig Jewell Photography on Flickr.