Are Finger Guns Period?

At our Baronial Investiture, I had convinced my peeps that our Barony's new "gang sign" should be finger guns. Someone told me that finger guns aren't period because pistols aren't period. "Really? You think," I responded, "finger guns weren't used until someone invented the pistol? I say to you that pistols were invented because of the existence of finger guns."

So, is there any evidence of finger guns pre-dating pistols?

Take a gander at this image of Marpesia and Lampedo (BNF Fr. 599, fol. 12). A clearly defined finger gun from the end of the 15th century.

Here we see another finger gun from 1440, from Le Champion des Dames, » par « MARTIN LE FRANC, prevost de l'église de Lausane.

Here we see Roberte from the 1564 "Roberte the Deuyll: A Metrical Romance" with a rare double-barreled finger gun.

Here is another 15th century image, although I was not able to track down the source.

Here is Christine de Pisan (1363?) with an over-the-breast finger gun.

Here is a silver arm reliquary of Saint George, the rootinest tootinest saint who ever lived. This is dated to the 13th century and can be found at Conques, at the Trésor De L'Eglise Sainte-Foy

Here is a 14th century Irish reliquary of St. Patrick held at Ulster Museum. 

And, finally, a 14th century Swiss Reliquary Arm of St. Valentine in the now familiar pose. You can visit this item at the New York Met.

So, it would appear that finger guns were relatively common in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. The word pistol didn't appear in the French language until around 1550 and in English around 1570. The first firearm small enough for us to call a pistol didn't appear until 1605. So, I am confident in saying that the pistol was invented due to the common practice of finger guns.

Wearing white after Labor Day used to be severely punished.

 

Strange Things Found in Medieval Manuscripts

 Who? Me?

This is a manuscript image of  St. Matthew writing his Gospel. From a 9th or 10th century bible: Bodleian Library, MS. Auct. D. 2. 16, fol. 28v. It's clear that not every scribe, in the middle ages, was an artistic genius. While my free-hand skills aren't anything to write home about, I think I could do a better job than this.  It's clear proof that medieval scribes, and manuscripts, came in different skill levels.

Or, is it something more sinister?

Strange Things Found in Medieval Manuscripts

 Begone, Fowl Creature.

This is a manuscript image of Hercules saving Hesione, from the 15th century Histoires de Troyes. Legend has it that Poseidon sent the sea monster because he, and his nephew Apollo, were not paid for their work they did building Troy. Hercules, apparently, saw Hesione's naked body chained to some rocks and fought the monster (but only after getter her father to agree to hand over four immortal horses in payment). The monster was covered in impenetrable scales, so Hercules killed the monster by getting himself swallowed whole, and then hacking his way out from the gullet. That's what this image is depicting.

Or, is it something more sinister?

Unexpected Finds

Dance, like you've torn the bandage off.

I went looking for inspiration and found this: Egerton 2781 f. 36  The description is just, "Miniature of a man between a devil and a cross."

Obviously, it's a dance battle and the inspiration for The Guardians of the Galaxy.

Strange Things Found On Medieval Manuscripts

Making new friends on Facebook

This is from BL Royal MS 20 B xx, f. 80r and depicts Alexander the Great encountering the Blemmyae. The Blemmyae were a tribe of African men with their faces set upon their chests, according to ancient Greeks. They were commonly depicted in medieval bestiaries, and in the Terra Incognita illustrations of atlases, as well as on mappa mundi.

Pliny the Elder tells us:

"Ctesias writes that . . . westward from {the Red Sea coast of Africa} there are some people without necks, having eyes in their shoulders." - Natural History 7

Herodotus wrote:

"For the eastern region of Libya [i.e. North Africa], which the nomads inhabit, is low-lying and sandy as far as the Triton river; but the land west of this, where the farmers live, is exceedingly mountainous and wooded and full of wild beasts. In that country are the huge snakes and the lions, and the elephants and bears and asps, the horned asses, the Dog-Headed (Kynokephaloi) and the Headless (Akephaloi) men that have their eyes in their chests, as the Libyans say, and the wild men and women, besides many other creatures not fabulous." - Histories 4. 191. 3

Tales of headless people persisted well into the Renaissance. The Travels of Sir John Mandeville speaks of a headless tribe of people near India. Sir Walter Raleigh wrote of headless people living on the banks of the Caura River in the 16th century.

Now, the actual Blemmyae people were a nomadic tribe living in northern Nubia from 600 BCE to 300 AD, when they were wiped out by the Roman Empire. They might have acquired the myth of being headless due to the armor and tactics used in warfare: squatting with one knee on the ground, with their chins tucked close to their chest, hiding their faces under their helms to combat enemy archers. A position that would give the impression of an army of headless warriors. Another explanation is that the actual Blemmyae painted faces on their shields or on their breastplates, however, depictions of the headless Blemmyae all speak of how naked they were.  

Or, it could have just been a ministration that people just ran with. Samuel Bochart expounded that the Greek word Blemmye was derived from the Hebrew bly (without) and moach (brain). Since the brain resides in the head; if there is no brain there is no head, therefore headless. The early Hebrews could have had contact with the Blemmyae, and calling them "brainless" might have been an insult. On the face, this doesn't sound plausible; the Greeks using a derivation of a Hebrew insult to create a myth about a nomadic kingdom. But, some people, living today, firmly believe that Jews have horns because someone mistranslated a passage of Exodus (34:29) into Latin and turned "did not know his {Moses} face had become radiant" into "did not know his face had become horned." So, anything is possible. 

It could have been an insult that was taken at face value, It could have been armor or battle tactics. It could even have been a genetic thing: the Blemmyae might have been a stocky people with thick necks and hunched shoulders that were depicted in art as having no necks at all. Somehow this morphed into having no heads. 

Or, it could have been something more sinister. 

Strange Things Found On Medieval Manuscripts

Have At You! - Gesundheit!

This is from Verdun, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 107, f. 99v, and it depicts two headless sword fighters. WTF? Did they cut their own heads off before they started the fight? I need some context here. What is going on. Is it some kind of social commentary from when the manuscript was created? Is it some sort of allegory about how there are no real winners in a battle? Are they aliens?

By the way, this would make a good SCA, tourney scroll. 

Early cosplay

I Love Your Costume, Deer

Here is a dude in a deer costume. This is from Bodleian Library, MS. Bodl. 264, fol. 70r. Since the other figure in this half of the marginalia is of a minstrel with a drum, I believe that might be a depiction of a play or a pageant. 

Weird Things Found In Period Manuscripts.

Hey, Babe!

“Are you a beaver? Cuz dam.”

This is from J. Paul Getty Museum, MS. Ludwig XV 3, Folio 78r and it's a centaur gazing at a siren. I found this while looking for diapering patterns. I don't know what the artist's intentions were, but I can only think that the centaur is trying to get his mack on with the douchiest pickup lines imaginable, but she's not interested. 

"Baby, I put the STD is ‘stud’. All I need is ‘U.’"

"I love you five ever, because forever just isn’t enough."

"Are you wearing space pants? Because your ass is out of this world."

"You have nice child-bearing hips."

"If I told you you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?"

"Your daddy must have been a baker, ’cause you’ve got a nice set of buns."

"My shirt would look great on your bedroom floor. Oh, that's right I don't wear shirts, 'cause they cover up my guns."

"Wanna ride bareback?"

"If I would have known I was going to meet a beautiful lady like you, I would have gone home and taken a shower first!"

"I wish I was your derivative so I could lie tangent to your curves."

Okay, perhaps not that last one. FYI: I have used that one... And it worked. Nerdy girls rule.

Weird things you find in medieval manuscripts

Weird things you find in medieval manuscripts.

I was looking through the Luttrell Psalter and found this sexy lady. This is British Library Add MS 42130 f81r and it is not the most unusual grotesque from the manuscript. 

f153r

f58v

Most of the manuscript contains similar figures They look like LSD induced hallucinations. Was the illuminator just told to go hog-wild and make whatever strange creatures he thought of? Was he smoking hemp and saying, "Dude, dude dude." Only, it was probably a monk, so it would have been in Latin: "Dudus, dudus, dudus. Quid facies puella equo? Et ad aures alas."

Or, perhaps it was something more outlandish?

I Have an Idea

Not a good one, I will admit.

This is from the 14th century, Dutch manuscript Der naturen bloeme. I have no clue what is being depicted. It would make a nice scroll for Heronter, though.

I totally want to replace the birds with Big Bird.

Weird things you find in medieval manuscripts.

Grrrr!

This is supposed to be a snail, from Den Haag, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KA 16, fol. 109vb.

A vicious snail.

That looks like an aardvark had crawled into a nautilus shell.

What the hell? I need context. I can't find the text that went along with this image. Was someone describing some kind of dangerous snail, like a cone snail or a murex snail. "Dude. There are these snails that live in the water that, like, can bite you. They have, like, sharp teeth. Can you draw me one of those?"

Or, perhaps, it was something more sinister.....

Weird things you find in medieval manuscripts.

Under the Sea.

This is supposed to be Jonah in the whale, from Rouen, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 185, fol. 130r (1280).

Supposed to be. What we have appears to be some dude in a diving helmet riding a fish like a kayak. Now, while what is supposed to be a halo for some reason wasn't painted gold, which was the usual standard for holy figures. And while Jonah was supposed to be inside the whale, here he is poking up through a blow-hole holding an empty scroll banderole. I'm sure that all of this is simple case of artistic license. 

Or, perhaps, it was something more sinister.....

Weird things you find in medieval manuscripts.

Raaw?

This is supposed to be a sea turtle, from Den Haag, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KA 16, fol. 110v.

Supposed to be. My guess is this was the end result of a game of telephone..... Or, carrier pigeon, since there were no telephones in the 14th century. "It lives in the water, and has a shell, and feet, and a tail. Just draw something with those things; no one will know the truth."

Or, perhaps, it was something more sinister.....

Every Bunny was Kung-fu Fighting!

Every Bunny was Kung-fu Fighting!

A strange image from BL, Harley 5102, fol. 65r.

Weird things you find in medieval manuscripts.

Easy Rider?

This image is fromAix-en-Provence, Bibliothèque municipale, MS. 110, p. 171 It shows.... Something. Um.

Yeah.

I don't have a clue.

I can relate

I found this image online.

I completely relate to these long-gone scribes. I am not a professional scribe/illuminator: I can stop any time I want.... 

That's not a cry for help or an intervention, I mean that literally: I can stop working on scrolls anytime I want and do anything else. Play a video game; go eat food; run an errand; hang our with friends. I can only imagine working day after day, from sun up to sun down, hunched over parchment drawing and painting page after page.

So, my fellow scribes, raise a glass for our scribal ancestors and rejoice in the fact that we do it for fun.

That's not how you make a baby

I don't think that this was covered in my high school health class.

Talk about getting hammered and ending up with a baby. 

This is from British Library, Harley 4425, f. 140. It is supposed to be Nature (Mother Nature, herself) forging new life from lifeless matter. However, taken out of context, this could be the worse "time out" ever.

Medieval Darwin Fish

Nothing is as new as you think

This image is from Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 56, fol. 250r and shows a fish with legs. The image dates to the 13th century and pre-dates cars by centuries. This is obviously a transition species  between a fish and a modern Darwin fish: this creature only has two legs and evolution has yet to select individual species with the more, recognizable patterned scales.

Weird things you find in medieval manuscripts.

Dude! Wanna get stoned?

This image is from Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 69, p. 269. It shows a demon, I guess, giving rocks to someone: a saint or Jesus. Yet another example of "I don't know what the artist was thinking". Taken out of context, it could mean anything. "Dude, I got your burger." or, "Shut up and put it in your mouth." or "The schnozberries taste like schnozberries."

Or, perhaps, the artist was trying to convey something more sinister.