DO YOU SLEEP LIKE A MEDIEVAL PERSON?

This may be a bit to the left or right of our subject but since so many of us have some form of sleep insomnia and there are so very may treatments for it, well, I've wondered if our notion that to keep our healthy we need 8 or more hours of uninterrupted sleep a night is just wrong!  Our ancestors may not have had the lifestyle or expectation that they would sleep the whole night through.  Perhaps it's not in our genetics to sleep all those hours.  Maybe some food or conversation or changing watch was the ideal. The term Biphasic Sleep means that a person sleeps, wakes up, and goes back to sleep. 

BBC FUTURE : MEDIEVAL SLEEP by Zaria Gorvett

Fascinating article from the BBC Future citing the work of Roger Ekrirch, a professor-researcher at Virginia Tech.

EXCERPTS:  For a start, first sleeps are mentioned in one of the most famous works of medieval literature, Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (written between 1387 and 1400), which is presented as a storytelling contest between a group of pilgrims.  They're also included in the poet William Baldwin's Beware The Cat (1561) - a satirical book considered by some to be the first ever novel, which centers around a man who learns to understand the language of a group of terrifying supernatural cats, one of whom, Moue-slayer, is on trial for promiscuity.

But that's just the beginning.  Ekirch found casual references to the system of twice-sleeping in every conceivable form, with hundreds of letters, diaries, medical textbooks, philosophical writings, newspaper articles and plays.

The practice even made it into ballads...

... Ekrirch wonders if today people might remember fewer dreams than our ancestors did, because it's less common to wake up in the middle of the night...

PRINCESS WITH SHIELD - ARMORY

 

TEXTUS ROFFENSIS - PRE MAGNA CARTA ENGLISH LAW MANUSCRIPT - UNESCO's UK Memory of the World Register

I was going to link to the article in DailyMail Online about this, but for whatever reason it's not working.  

So, to reiterate, Rochester Cathedral is the second oldest in England (first called Saint Andrews and built about 604) and that is where the manuscript is kept. It is in old English. Called Textus Roffensis, it predates the 1215 Magna Carta and was a compilation of laws that go back before the Norman Conquest. Monks at the Saint Andrew's Priory at Rochester Cathedral likely created this illuminated manuscript. One of the reasons the monks may have created it is that at the time England was not unified and, for instance, there was a King who ruled Kent.  So, I see that if one were traveling from one Kingdom to another, one might want to know the various rules and regulations for each before hand.)

A little research on this cathedral and it is and has all along been a parish in which services are conducted. Because of its historical nature, there are also exhibits...

https://www.rochestercathedral.org/exhibitions

1400 years of prayer!

SCIENCE BRINGS YOU DATA ON MEDIEVAL WANDERERS ; PEOPLE FROM A 6th CENTURY SCOTLAND BURIAL

I love this!  UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN - THE MEDIEVAL WANDERER

From the 6th century, the mystery of skeletal remains of nine adults and five infants found in what would have once been the latrine of a Roman bath, has been a scientific challenge and marvel!  Using biochemical analysis of bone, scientists have learned that the early diets of some of them indicate they were living far from where they grew up when they died.  A woman and infant were murdered for sure.  This article also has the image of what he would have looked like, based on scientific methods of facial reconstruction.

BOOK REVIEW of NANCY GOLDSTONE'S THE FOUR QUEENS

Browsing through the Getty Museum's Book Store, I spotted a book of interest to those of you who like the Medieval period of Europe when the Knights and Fair Damsels were - well - ruling countries.

Most of us can't trace our family history past the 1600's unless there is some provable documents of royal background, for genealogy was probably then more of an obsession of the rich. Knowing who was who was important too when you were arranging marriages.

NANCY GOLDSTONE'S THE FOUR QUEENS "The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe" is about the four daughters of the count of Provence, who made brilliant (arranged) marriages that made them the Queens of France, England, Germany, and Sisicly. Married young - and we mean consummated sex here - twelve and thirteen - these women were history making in their influence in a male dominated and battle dominated world of the 1200's in Europe, well before Countries as we know them were formed.
"Marguerite, Eleanor, Sanchia, and Beatrice...were as educated and world wise as young women could be ... They were married because their fathers (and mothers) saw material advantage and power as an exchange for uniting families... Death claims children and husbands... And so does God, Crusades, and Batttles."

Of great interest in this book is the story of the first coinage of England and how persons using it snipped bits of metal, hoping to slowly collect a fortune...
LINKING HERE TO A French Royal site that shows some of the key players in this work of history, which will also get you THE ANCESTRY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON

TALES OF MEDIEVAL TIMES

 

Treacherous territory and valiant warriors live in the heroic tales of Old Europe.This image is from Dover Publications and is free with a subscription for use on non profit sites only.

KNIGHTS at the TIME OF THE NORMANS in ENGLAND

Family Crests or Shields are fun for Americans to use, as are clan symbols, tartans, and so on. But usually the actual use of these is strictly regulated and usually passes from oldest son to oldest son, meaning that even the second and third and fourth son cannot use them and the daughters are out of the picture altogether.