Perseus in the Renaissance

For those who enjoyed my series of posts on Perseus, H. Niyazi has a recent post on The Three Pipe Problem discussing the portrayal of Perseus in Renaissance Art.

Welcome

Welcome to follower Nam Hoai, a Vietnamese architect with two blogs: nhomthangmuoimot, about 19th and 20th century art from different parts of the world, and nguyenhoainamkts, which covers a miscellany of subjects, including architecture, photography, and music.

Another Welcome

Welcome to H. Niyazi from Three Pipe Problem, the three pipes being art, history, and mysteries.

Belated Welcomes

A belated welcome to new followers:

Amalia T. of Good to Begin Well, Better to End Well, who writes on mythology and history

Mufti G M of Lout de Chevalier, who writes in Indonesian about the oil industry, and has a great soundtrack

William Wolfe

Nachtigalle of Playground Canvas, who writes in German

Fazleybayim

Zsuzsi

Just Another Sarah

Georgia Memon

My New Blog

I'm starting a new blog called Elegant Extracts. It's basically just excerpts from books I'd like to share for various reasons. Do drop by. Matters Arising will continue. I'm currently gathering material for a post on Alcuin but work commitments are slowing things down.

More Welcomes

Welcome to new followers Chris Ann Matteo, who runs a number of blogs related to teaching Latin in the United States, and David Powell, who blogs at studenda mira.

Congratulations

to one of my followers, Julie Delvaux, whose blog Los Cuadernos de Julia, has been named a Blog of Note.

A Belated Welcome

to another follower, Gary Corby, author of an eagerly awaited series of detective stories set in Periclean Athens, with Socrates's big brother Nicolaos as the detective. Gary's blog is called A Dead Man Fell From the Sky

Welcome

to two new followers: Julie Delvaux of Notebooks - Los Cuadernos de Julia and Mariana Pinheiro of Gatochy's Blog.

John William Waterhouse

Caroline Lawrence of the Roman Mysteries blog and associated novels draws our attention to the Royal Academy's J. W. Waterhouse exhibition, running until 13th September (so no chance of my seeing it, alas). In honour of the occasion she is blogging a series of posts on Waterhouse's work.



Others who won't be in London over the summer can see his paintings on two online galleries devoted to his works, here and here. The Victorian Web also has a section on Waterhouse (although they don't look like it, the list is actually a list of links to the paintings and discussions of his work). (public domain image of John William Waterhouse's Ophelia is from museumsyndicate)

Happy Bede's Day

25 May is the day the Anglican Church commemorates the Venerable Bede, patron saint of English historians. Here is the collect for the day:

God our maker,
whose Son Jesus Christ gave to your servant Bede
grace to drink in with joy
the word that leads us to know you and to love you:
in your goodness
grant that we also may come at length to you,
the source of all wisdom,
and stand before your face;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Celebrating Bede's Day last year, Michelle of Heavenfield, posted an alternative collect and some of Bede's prayers in her blog, Selah.

Earlier this year, Pope Benedict XVI dedicated one of his audiences to Bede. The Vatican has posted an official text of what he said.

The Orthodox Church celebrates Bede on 27 May. Donna Farley, who is a member of that communion, is also promoting Bede on his day this year on Haliwerfolc, one of her many blogs.

Youtube has a brief clip discussing Bede from Channel 4's Christianity: A History. You'll have to watch it on Youtube's site because embedding is disabled.(public domain picture from the Nuremberg Chronicle via wikicommons).

Cuthbert and Aidan To Be Amalgamated

Donna Farley of Haliwerfolc draws our attention to a post by Michelle of Heavenfield on her other blog, Selah.

The USA's Episcopal Church is considering amalgamating its celebration of the two Lindisfarne saints, Cuthbert (currently on 20 March) and Aidan (currently on 31 August) with a joint celebration on 31 August.

Lindisfarne

The island of Lindisfarne, or Holy Island as it is also known, is a tidal island on the East coast of England near the Scottish-English border.


View Larger Map


A Youtube slideshow of photos from Lindisfarne, with Era's Avemano as soundtrack:



At the invitation of King Oswald of Northumbria, St. Aidan came from Iona to build a monastery at Lindisfarne to serve as a basis for the evangelisation of Oswald's pagan subjects. Bede's account of Aidan's work in Lindisfarne and Northumbria can be seen in Book III of his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Chapter III describes Lindisfarne and tells how Aidan came there, Chapters V and VI tell us about Aidan's way of life and his relationship with King Oswald. Chapters XIV - XVII give some more anecdotes about Aidan and tell us about his death on 31 August 651.

You can read the Catholic Encyclopedia's article on St. Aidan, an Anglican account, and how he is remembered on Lindisfarne itself.



Another saint closely linked to Lindisfarne is St. Cuthbert. As a young man at the time of Aidan's death, Cuthbert is said to have seen a vision of Aidan's soul being taken up to heaven by angels and decided to enter a monastery, first at Melrose Abbey, and then at Lindisfarne. Cuthbert died in 687. Eleven years after his death his grave was opened and his body was found to be still undecayed. This led Bede to write a Life of Cuthbert.

The Catholic Encyclopedia has an article on Cuthbert, an Anglican view can be read here, and the view from Lindisfarne here. A triptych by Ernest Duez showing episodes from Cuthbert's life is now in the Musee d'Orsay. Haliwerfolc is a blog devoted to St. Cuthbert.


Bede's "Life of Cuthbert" is dedicated to Eadfrith, bishop of Lindisfarne, who was the scribe and illustrator for Lindisfarne's most famous product, the Lindisfarne Gospels -- or so a note at the end of the gospels says, though not everyone believes it. The Lindisfarne gospels are now in the British Library, which has information on them online with links to more detailed information and highlights from the book. For more information see this course on the Lindisfarne Gospels. Much later, in 970, Aldred wrote an interlinear translation of the Gospels into Old English. This article discusses Aldred's translation.

The Lindisfarne Gospels' current location in the British Library in London has been a source of some controversy, and a deal has now been worked out whereby the Gospels will now spend some time in their homeland of Northumbria. Here are reports on this issue from the BBC and The Independent.

It was in 793 that the Lindisfarne suffered the first in a series of Viking raids. Eventually, the monks decided their situation on Lindisfarne was untenable and they moved to the mainland, taking the body of St. Cuthbert with them. Eventually his body ended up in Durham cathedral, where it it still is today. (all illustrations in the public domain from wiki commons, unless otherwise noted)