![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Random Book Post
Oct. 5th, 2008 06:45 pmNot a review post, more a "here's stuff I bought" post. There were a couple of books that never made it into the "stuff I bought at Kalamazoo" post because they were shipped much later. These are:
Roberts, Sara Elin. 2007. The Legal Triads of Medieval Wales. University of Wale Press, Cardiff. ISBN 987-0-7083-2107-2
The legal triads are additions to the more structured legal tracts that present related bits of information in sets of three. They aren't quite "case law", but they have something of an ad hoc feel to them. Also something of a mnemonic feel to them. Some individual triads are impenetrable without an existing familiarity with the structures of the law: "Three tongued-ones: a lord, and a justice, and a surety." While others are fairly transparent and give interesting insights into the assumptions and attitudes of everyday life: "Three things that every man is entitled to take without the permission of another: water that is not in a vessel, a stone that is not in use, and a fire from a hollow tree." I love reading through the various law texts because they give me these glimpses of everyday medieval Welsh life.
Santanach, Joan. (Trans. Robin Vogelzang) 2008. The Book of Sent Soví: Medieval Recipes from Catalonia. Barcino-Tamesis, Barcelona/Woodbridge. ISBN 978-1-85566-164-6
While I don't have a specific interest in Iberian cookery, I do tend to collect editions of medieval cookbooks just out of habit. This one, I think I'm going to explore a bit (after I finish my current detailed exploration of Two Fifteenth Century Cookbooks). It has a nice balance of meat, vegetable, and grain dishes and while the taste combinations follow familiar medieval templates, there is both a simplicity yet variety among the recipes that promises some fun explorations. While browsing through the section of "sauces" (salsa in the original) it struck me that the category isn't so much "a flavored topping for another dish" but something that ranges a bit further into "side dish" territory. There's a recipe for an eggplant casserole that looks absolutely scrumptious. So many cookbooks; so little time.
So I was browsing on the Oxbow Books website to look up some publication information for the book review I was doing a few weeks ago and made the mistake of browsing the sale listings. I ended up ordering three books on Egyptian textiles: one seriously yummy, one boring, and one quirky but tangential.
Lewis, Suzanne. 1969. Early Coptic Textiles. Stanford Art Gallery, Stanford. (No ISBN)
This looked interesting but turned out to be the boring one. A exhibition catalog for an event at the Stanford Art Gallery back in 1969, it's basically a collection of decorative parts of Coptic textiles that have been snipped out of their context (literally). The pictures are all black and white. No complete garments. All fairly standard designs. Oh well.
Thomas, Thelma K. 2001. Textiles from Karanis, Egypt in the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology: Artifacts of Everyday Life. Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, Ann Arbor. (No ISBN)
Another exhibition catalog, but of material straight from the digs, rather than being mediated through the amateur art collection market. Mostly fragments, but some with rather interesting designs and weaves. A large collection of textile tools, although without much supporting discussion. Not a lot of data, but a cross-section rather than a selection.
Pritchard, Frances. 2006. Clothing Culture: Dress in Egypt in the First Millennium AD. The Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester. (No ISBN)
Another exhibition catalog but this is the yummy one. Lots of color plates. Whole garments, fragments, and close-ups. Lots of focus on construction details. Embroidered and appliqued ornaments as well as woven-in ones. Sprang caps up the wazoo. Detailed and extensive background discussion by one of the big names in the field. I'd going to have a lot of fun going through this one in detail.
Roberts, Sara Elin. 2007. The Legal Triads of Medieval Wales. University of Wale Press, Cardiff. ISBN 987-0-7083-2107-2
The legal triads are additions to the more structured legal tracts that present related bits of information in sets of three. They aren't quite "case law", but they have something of an ad hoc feel to them. Also something of a mnemonic feel to them. Some individual triads are impenetrable without an existing familiarity with the structures of the law: "Three tongued-ones: a lord, and a justice, and a surety." While others are fairly transparent and give interesting insights into the assumptions and attitudes of everyday life: "Three things that every man is entitled to take without the permission of another: water that is not in a vessel, a stone that is not in use, and a fire from a hollow tree." I love reading through the various law texts because they give me these glimpses of everyday medieval Welsh life.
Santanach, Joan. (Trans. Robin Vogelzang) 2008. The Book of Sent Soví: Medieval Recipes from Catalonia. Barcino-Tamesis, Barcelona/Woodbridge. ISBN 978-1-85566-164-6
While I don't have a specific interest in Iberian cookery, I do tend to collect editions of medieval cookbooks just out of habit. This one, I think I'm going to explore a bit (after I finish my current detailed exploration of Two Fifteenth Century Cookbooks). It has a nice balance of meat, vegetable, and grain dishes and while the taste combinations follow familiar medieval templates, there is both a simplicity yet variety among the recipes that promises some fun explorations. While browsing through the section of "sauces" (salsa in the original) it struck me that the category isn't so much "a flavored topping for another dish" but something that ranges a bit further into "side dish" territory. There's a recipe for an eggplant casserole that looks absolutely scrumptious. So many cookbooks; so little time.
So I was browsing on the Oxbow Books website to look up some publication information for the book review I was doing a few weeks ago and made the mistake of browsing the sale listings. I ended up ordering three books on Egyptian textiles: one seriously yummy, one boring, and one quirky but tangential.
Lewis, Suzanne. 1969. Early Coptic Textiles. Stanford Art Gallery, Stanford. (No ISBN)
This looked interesting but turned out to be the boring one. A exhibition catalog for an event at the Stanford Art Gallery back in 1969, it's basically a collection of decorative parts of Coptic textiles that have been snipped out of their context (literally). The pictures are all black and white. No complete garments. All fairly standard designs. Oh well.
Thomas, Thelma K. 2001. Textiles from Karanis, Egypt in the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology: Artifacts of Everyday Life. Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, Ann Arbor. (No ISBN)
Another exhibition catalog, but of material straight from the digs, rather than being mediated through the amateur art collection market. Mostly fragments, but some with rather interesting designs and weaves. A large collection of textile tools, although without much supporting discussion. Not a lot of data, but a cross-section rather than a selection.
Pritchard, Frances. 2006. Clothing Culture: Dress in Egypt in the First Millennium AD. The Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester. (No ISBN)
Another exhibition catalog but this is the yummy one. Lots of color plates. Whole garments, fragments, and close-ups. Lots of focus on construction details. Embroidered and appliqued ornaments as well as woven-in ones. Sprang caps up the wazoo. Detailed and extensive background discussion by one of the big names in the field. I'd going to have a lot of fun going through this one in detail.
