Early Modern Notes

A couple of interesting things for you today. First up, from Renaissance Weblog, a link to this interesting article on the role played by glass in the ‘transformation’ of Europe between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries, written by Alan Macfarlane and Gerry Martin.

Often in history, we witness the generation of new knowledge through experimentation, which then leads to significant innovations and a richer appreciation of new or improved physical artifacts. These artifacts, if they are useful, in demand, and relatively easy to produce, are often disseminated in large quantities. These objects then change the conditions of everyday life and may fund further theoretical explorations. Such artifacts can do this in two ways: by generating wealth that funds increased efforts to acquire fresh knowledge and by providing better tools for scientific enquiry.

Secondly, sort of relevant to my post last week on Carnival and the carnivalesque, the vernacular body has a (very free, apparently) translation and some thoughts on the fifteenth-century Dutch poem, Het Luilekkerland.

Hot women! Virgins!
Wham and bam and thank you ma’am.

It’s not sinful or scandalous,
that’s just the way it’s done here.

What a spread: white linens,
with bread aplenty and wine galore.
Fish treats, meat snacks too:
Each man to his fancy.

Eating and drinking the whole day long,
and laughing is so important that
it’s practically the national hobby.

Nice place, uh?

And get this: it rains three times a day,
with custard tarts, smoked eels
and meat pies tumbling out of the sky!

elck comments that this imagery “is particularly poignant in the third quarter of the sixteenth-century in Flanders, a time of war, conflict and famine", but is none too keen on the “utopias, paradise, pie-in-the-sky, fountains-of-youth and cloud-cuckoo-lands” of literature such as this. “I detest all such places, in theory and in practice, for in their name, atrocities are committed and, just as bad, the many wonders of our flawed quotidian world fly by unlooked for and unnoticed.” Maybe. I’m not so sure that the topsy-turvy Land-of-Cockaigne world of Het Luilekkerland is really that much like the heavenly after-lives offered to us as rewards for religious faith (not all of which include inexhaustible supplies of virgins). A comment to the post says: “One aspect of the Land of Cockaigne that you failed to mention strikes me as more important than its cornucopia aspect, and that is its definition as impossible. Everything is upside-down and backwards.” It’s anarchic, beyond normal control. And we can’t spend all of our mental lives in this everyday world… as elck, creator of one of the most creative, poetic blogs I have the pleasure to read, surely knows?

Quick update before going to bed: Make that three things. Chapati Mystery has posted about the history (and future?) of cricket, including some links to early rules of the game, pre MCC, and its greatest future challenge: the USA.

They don’t seem to have the attention span of the rest of the known universe. So while everyone from Malaysia to Canada can play the ODI in the version that it stands, the Americans cannot be bothered. Hence, there is talk of a shorter version of test cricket. But the bigger lure for the Americans is an even shorter version of the ODI called Twenty20 [with cheerleaders and names like Tigers, Foxes and Dragons]. Greg Chappell wants to give cricket ” a face-lift, or at least a dash of botox, to give it some freshness.” Which means, shorter run-ups, funkier field placements and, maybe, more cheerleaders. W.G. Grace is spinning in his grave.