Vacation notice

[Lord Ernie]

Lucky you... some of have exams coming up, you're going out on holiday .

 

Seriously, hope you have fun. Don't forget to make those nice pictures .

[Darios]

Lucky you... some of have exams coming up, you're going out on holiday .

 

Seriously, hope you have fun. Don't forget to make those nice pictures .

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Actually it's a holiday trip only for Meira; I'll be sitting in Durham University Library hunched over a 15th c. manuscript, proofreading my transcription of it for 7 hours a day. :/ Not that it wouldn't be a great experience, but I doubt that I'll feel very refreshed afterwards. And yeah, we have also included a few days for sightseeing around London, Durham and York.

 

But as regards Amber, I'll try to finish the preliminary version of her music not very long after we get back. Don't expect miracles, though. And then there's still the voicing we'll have to sort out...

 

-Darios

[Pekka]

Actually it's a holiday trip only for Meira; I'll be sitting in Durham University Library hunched over a 15th c. manuscript, proofreading my transcription of it for 7 hours a day. :/ Not that it wouldn't be a great experience, but I doubt that I'll feel very refreshed afterwards. And yeah, we have also included a few days for sightseeing around London, Durham and York.

 

But as regards Amber, I'll try to finish the preliminary version of her music not very long after we get back. Don't expect miracles, though. And then there's still the voicing we'll have to sort out...

 

-Darios

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Yikes, that doesn't sound overly exciting...

 

A friend of mine once spent several months in various American archives doing research for her dissertation about the Continental Congress. Afterwards she said she never wants to see another hand written political document again, especially by Thomas Jefferson.

 

In any case, I hope you have fun in Britain. It's a jolly good place to visit.

 

And hopefully Amber will be ready before the next Christmas. Plenty of Tuesdays left in this year to release her...

[Yovaneth]

Actually it's a holiday trip only for Meira; I'll be sitting in Durham University Library hunched over a 15th c. manuscript, proofreading my transcription of it for 7 hours a day. :/ Not that it wouldn't be a great experience, but I doubt that I'll feel very refreshed afterwards.

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Hehe - if it drives you nuts, keep away from the back wall of the university. It's a looong way down to the river.

 

I can read late-16th and 17th century documents fluently enough, but 15th cent? And when English isn't even your native language? You are going to have fun (not!!)

 

-Y-

[BigRob]

Assuming you can makes heads or tails of it, you'll get some nice authentic dialogue pointers though.

[Meira]

Heh... I don't think that understanding the language is the most challenging feat here. All those years in University should've taken care of that. 15th century English insin't anybody's native tongue these days anyway. And apparently there is much more to transcripting than "merely" being able to understand what it says. Or at least our apartment is currently filled with books such as 'English Cursive Book Hands 1250-1500', 'Textual Scholarship - An Introduction' and other titles like that.

 

Anyway, the transcription is part of Darios' Masters Thesis paper, so lets hope that everything goes well as it will affect his prospects on proceeding to post graduate studies.

[Darios]

Assuming you can makes heads or tails of it, you'll get some nice authentic dialogue pointers though.

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The text I'm transcribing is actually a collection of culinary recipes, and there were even no turnip recipes in this particular collection. If there were, you could be assured of Jan finding an ooold family recipe of his great-great-great-grandfather written down somewhere...

 

But yeah, it's not the language that worries me (since I've already transcribed the text from a microfilm copy and have read quite a lot of other Middle English culinary texts) but my inexperience with the technicalities of textual scholarship; since I can't really go back to the manuscript later, I cannot afford to forget to note down any details about it that could be of any significance. :/ So my week will mostly consist of peering through a magnifying glass at passages which could not be figured out from the black and white microfilm copy, and noting down details such as hairline strokes that could mean something (but probably don't) or the different shades of ink that could indicate later additions (which eg. many recipe titles are).

 

But yeah, it's fascinating. I just hope that one day some University will actually pay me for it... Traveling is expensive.

 

-Darios

[Lord Ernie]

It sounds interesting, actually. I've always been fascinated by history... old cooking recipies have to rock . Anything spectacular/interesting among them?

[Meira]

It sounds interesting, actually. I've always been fascinated by history... old cooking recipies have to rock . Anything spectacular/interesting among them?

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One thing that *I* found really funny was a recipe that was very, very close to Finnish (and Swedish) crunchy Mayday delicacy called tippaleipä (struva in Swedish). The ingredients were only slightly different (The medieval used egg yolks instead of whole eggs and some modern recipes have yeast) and the instructions for making it are basically the same.

 

I think it's fascinating how some traditional foods have been first spread and then preserved in some remote place while they've vanished elsewhere.

[Darios]

One thing that *I* found really funny was a recipe that was very, very close to Finnish (and Swedish) crunchy Mayday delicacy called tippaleipä (struva in Swedish). The ingredients were only slightly different (The medieval used egg yolks instead of whole eggs and some modern recipes have yeast) and the instructions for making it are basically the same.

 

I think it's fascinating how some traditional foods have been first spread and then preserved in some remote place while they've vanished elsewhere.

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The Finnish tippaleipä (as well as the medieval version) is basically a funnel cake made up of more delicate streams of dough (less than a quarter of an inch thick). The medieval recipe instructs to dip your hand in the batter and to let it flow from your fingertips into the boiling oil.

 

-Darios

 

P.S. And as to spectacle foods (or entremets as they were called), I guess the kokendryse is a medieval classic. It consists of a chicken and a suckling pig cut in half in the middle, sewn together into a whole new type of animal, stuffed and roasted on a spit.

[Andyr]

If you find yourself with a spare day and want to pop to Oxford, send me a PM and we can go for a cup of tea or something. I can show you guys round too, but since I'm fairly new here myself it won't be the most in-depth of tours...

[BigRob]

The Finnish tippaleipä (as well as the medieval version) is basically a funnel cake made up of more delicate streams of dough (less than a quarter of an inch thick). The medieval recipe instructs to dip your hand in the batter and to let it flow from your fingertips into the boiling oil.

 

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Gotta love food hygiene in the middle ages. It still sounds like a pretty good recipie.

 

Enjoy your trip guys.

[Darios]

Gotta love food hygiene in the middle ages.   It still sounds like a pretty good recipie.

 

Enjoy your trip guys.

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Well, people tend to knead their dough with their bare hands even nowadays, which is pretty much the same thing in terms of hygiene. And I guess that deep-frying would act as a pretty good disinfectant. (Most bacteria are killed well below 180 degrees Celsius.) And unlike bread, the batter is not even allowed to stand in room temperature before cooking. It's mostly cold and already cooked foods that you need to be careful with (especially anything you plan to keep over a longer period of time).

 

And believe it nor not, cleanliness both in the kitchen and in the dinner table was a very important virtue also in the Middle Ages. It was the job of scullions (and scullery maids) to make sure that all kitchen utensils and working surfaces, as well as the floors of the kitchen, were kept meticulously clean. Apparently this took a lot of elbow grease, a hefty array of brushes, rasps and other implements, and copious amounts of water.

 

OK, enough of the lecturing now...

 

-Darios

[Darios]

If you find yourself with a spare day and want to pop to Oxford, send me a PM and we can go for a cup of tea or something. I can show you guys round too, but since I'm fairly new here myself it won't be the most in-depth of tours...

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Unfortunately Oxford is a bit out of our way this time, since we'll be traveling only on the east coast (London-Durham-York), and won't have that many extra days. Traveling and accommodation in England are just so damn expensive... (At least on the shoestring budget that we poor students have to get along on.)

 

Thanks for the offer, though. Had we traveled on the London-Birmingham track, we would certainly have made a stop at Oxford. If for nothing else but the bookshops.

 

-Darios

[Andyr]

Yeah, the one next to me claims to have 3 square miles of books... still can't find the ones I want, though!