Mythological Deer - Snawfus

every day it gets harder to live. I get out of bed and don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t know who I am, I don’t know what I want or need. I simply do not exist.

Liquid dog

Hey tumblr we need to have a talk about something I noticed.

Specifically going by tags attached to images I’ve blogged or reblogged, there seems to be a misconception that marginalia means “any quirky medieval art”.

It’s not.

Marginalia is anything in the margins of a text.

The ones that will get posted on tumblr will more often than not be quirky drawings, but they also include notes, annotations, scribbles, and whatever else. The quirky drawings just happen to get a lot of press on here because, well. They’re quirky drawings.

For instance, see this image here of a platanista (river dolphin) chomping down on an elephant’s trunk?

This is not marginalia! This is a full-fledged illustration. It’s within the text (Liber natura rerum, Thomas de Cantimpré, Librairie de Valenciennes Ms 0320). It illustrates the entry on Platanista.

This is what it looks like in context.

But you know what are marginalia? Let me circle them for convenience.

Know the difference. It won’t save your life but it will make you more popular at a medievalist conference.

the eyes.

Index of Mini-Biographies  -Ordered by name

1.       Adela of Normandy letter (1109) 

2.       Adelaide del Vasto (c1075 – 1118) 

3.       Adeliza of Louvain (c1103 –1151)

4.       Æthelburg, Queen of Wessex (c.673 – 740)

5.       Agnes of Antioch (1154 – c.1184)

6.       Agnes “Black Agnes” Randolph (c1312 – 1369)

7.       Aliénor de Poitiers (c1445 – 1509) 

8.       Anna Porphyrogenita (963 – 1011)

9.       Anne of Kiev (c1030 – 1075)

10.     Beatriz “La Latina” Galindo (c1465 – 1534)

11.     Bertha of Holland (c1055 – 1093)

12.     Bertrade de Montfort (c1070 – 1117)

13.     Börte Üjin, Mongol Khatun (c1161 – 1230)

14.     Catherine of Siena, Saint (1347 – 1380)

15.     Christine de Pizan (c1364 – 1430) 

16.     Clare of Assisi, Saint (1194 – 1253)

17.     Clementia of Hungary (1293 – 1328)   

18.     Constance of Aragon (1179 – 1222) 

19.     Cymburgis of Masovia (1397 – 1429) 

20.     Dagmar of Bohemia (c1186 – 1212)

21.     Dervorgilla at war (1315 – 1316)

22.     Elizabeth Báthory (1560 – 1614)

23.     Elizabeth of Hungary, Saint (1207 – 1231) 

24.     Elizabeth of Poland (1305 – 1380) 

25.     Elizabeth Richeza of Poland (1286 – 1335)

26.     Emma of Normandy (c985 – 1052)

27.     Fredegund, Queen Consort of Neustria (?-597)

28.     Gisela of Swabia (c990 - 1043)

29.     Hedwig Jagiellon (1457 – 1502) 

30.     Helena of Serbia (c1109 – c1146)

31.     Inês de Castro (1325 – 1355) 

32.     Irene of Athens (c752 – 803)

33.     Isabella MacDuff (c1285 – c1313)  

34.     Isabella of France (1295 – 1358)   

35.     Isabella of Hainault (1170 – 1190)  

36.     Isabella of Valois, child bride (1396) 

37.     Isabella of Villehardouin (c1263 – 1312)

38.     Jeanne “the Hatchet” Laisné (1456 - Unknown)

39.     Jeanne de Montbaston, her smutty art (1300’s) 

40.     Jelena of Bulgaria (c1310 - c.1376)

41.     Joan of Acre (1272 - 1307)

42.     Joan of Kent (1328 – 1385)

43.     Joan, Lady of Wales (c1191 – 1237)

44.     Joanna “la Flamme” of Flanders (c1295 – 1374)

45.     Joanna I of Naples (1326 – 1382)

46.     Judith of Brittany exhumation (982 – 1017)

47.     Marfa Sobakina, Tzarina of Russia (1552 – 1571)

48.     Margaret of Scotland, Saint (c1045 – 1093)

49.     Margery Kempe (c1373 – 1438)   

50.     Marguerite Porete (Unknown – 1310)

51.     Maria Angelina Doukaina Palaiologina (c1350 - 1394)

52.     Marie de France (1100’s) 

53.     Matilda of England, Empress (1102 – 1167)

54.     Matilda of Tuscany ‘love’ letter (1089)

55.     Melisende of Jerusalem (1105 – 1161)

56.     Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba (c1583 – 1663)

57.     Olga of Kiev (c890 - 969)

58.     Rogneda of Polotsk (962 – 1002)

59.     Sanchia of Provence (c1228 – 1261)

60.     Shajar al-Durr, Sultana of Egypt (Unknown – 1257)

61.     Sorghaghtani Beki (late 1100’s – 1252)

62.     Tamar the Great of Georgia (1160 – 1213)

63.     Theophanu, Holy Roman Empress (c955 – 991)

64.     Trota of Salerno and women’s medicine (1100s) 

N.B. There is a great deal of other work on this page (both mine and reblogged) about the daily lives, activities and representations of women in the medieval and early modern periods. This list is just to index the mini-bios that I have personally written so far. I have many fascinating women I intend to write about going forward but if you have suggestions please feel free to inbox me.  

my anhedonia is eating me alive so i’m making these mental illness memes to cope