Julianna Bratt

to the basketball team mascot. So yes, medieval art actually does have some relevance to a basketball loving finance bro. And my random romp through the etymology of "pelican" has somehow brought us to a shared interest. What a world.

With legally mandated blood drops! I have been walking around in the world unaware of the pelicans around me. And you really can draw a straight line from medieval pelican art, to the early Catholics who settled in Louisiana, saw the pelicans, and put their religious iconography on the state flag..

Louisiana state flag - vulning pelican with 3 chicks in a nest on a blue background and the words "union justice confidence" on a banner below.

PELICAN LORE UPDATE: I was recounting the story in my previous thread to a childhood friend who I share basically zero interests with and he mentioned that the New Orleans basketball team mascot is a pelican. And it turns out that the state flag of Louisiana is a vulning pelican! 🧵

Unknown artist/maker (Franco-Flemish), illuminator A Pelican Feeding her Young, about 1270 Tempera colors, gold leaf, and ink Leaf: 19.1 × 14.3 cm (7 1/2 × 5 5/8 in.) The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Ms. Ludwig XV 3, fol. 17, 83.MR.173.17

were purported to stab themselves & feed their blood to their young? This became an allegory for Christ & appears in a variety of art. The worst part of this job is having to go out in the world and act as if I have something normal to say and this isn't how I spend my mornings.

secretary hand ink on paper, "ffawcan al[ias] the Pellycane" [TNA E133/1/153]

Why am I reading about pelicans? Well, I didn't manage to answer my actual questions (why would a ship have had an alias, and did the words "falcon" and "pelican" mean the same thing in the 1500s as they do today?) because I got distracted by disturbing pelican art. Did you know that mother pelicans

Chartres Cathedral stained glass window, featuring a pelican wounding her chest to feed her blood to her young

My face this morning while learning about medieval Pelican lore #skystorians

I feel compelled to say that all signatures by mark are interesting in their own way, and they are. But a lot are really variations on the same theme.

Ink on paper, signature by mark, 2 circles side by side, with crosses in the center, rather like a 2 seated bicycle. [TNA E 133/1/138]

In a world of boring signatures by mark, be a precognizant bicycle. John Ynge of Sandwich, Kent in February 1571. #earlymodern #skystorians

Secretary hand ink on paper, "Juliane". TNA E 133/1/110, May 1570

I still remember getting excited about my first "she" while transcribing 16th century English court docs only to discover the "she" in question was, in fact, a boat. I have a theory that there are more named boats in these records than named women. Came across my name (almost) today...also a boat.

Secretary hand ink on paper, "to bewray his wyckid delynges" (TNA REQ 2/27/157)

I love the rare occasion that obsolete vocab I have accumulated proves useful! Here is someone allegedly threatened a defendant "to bewray his wyckid delynges." The second OED definition might be a better fit for both examples - "To reveal, divulge, disclose, declare, make known"

My guess is that it is actually a variant of “bewray” - OED says “to accuse, malign, speak evil of.” They have “bewrye” as a Middle English variant. I’m sure I’ve seen similar variants in records I’ve worked on.

This is great, thank you for sharing!

I told my husband, "I thought we'd have more time." Which is an objectively ridiculous thing to say about someone who died 460 years ago and doesn't know that I exist. Maybe it is just the same as always - we always think there will be more. Pour one out for Thomas Pymme.

I have been transcribing the same court baron's depositions for the last little while, and I was sad to see a note about his death in the margins. In 1566. I often don't pay that much attention to the Barons, but I think this one wrote depositions in his own hand, and it felt like I got to know him.

Ink on paper, signature of Thomas Pymme

What do historians call the feeling when they read about the death of someone who in fact has been dead this whole time? #earlymodern #paleography🧵

It is such an interesting one. I haven't seen a mark that resembles a human figure before or since!

Inky finger prints on paper

A particularly malicious looking ink splatter

Signature by mark, an inverted triangle with a cross on top

Signature by mark of Kateryn Chalke, notable as one of the few direct physical evidences of women in these records [TNA E1331/1/44/3]

Cat! Inky paw prints on paper

Signature by mark, uniquely anthropomorphic

A parchment hole with text from the next page visible

Old school erasing - scraped and struck through section in an interrogatory

As penance for missing #NationalHandwritingDay, I present some of my favorite not-handwriting details in 16th century English court manuscripts. #skystorians #earlymodern

Secretary handwriting, ink on paper. "the sayd Cornne was strancesported nor..." and the line below "Barle ther was so stransesported" TNA E/133/1/58

Odd spellings often have interesting etymological reasons behind them. But sometimes, what I assume is just one weirdo's odd conception of a word gets immortalized & I like it so much. Like this spelling of 'transporting': "was strancesported" and then "so stransesported" in the line below.

Very cool! It is spelled with an -o- in the image. I just used the main OED spelling, but they also list “sonderly” as a common 16th century form.

ink on paper, secretary hand "sonderly" (TNA E/133/1/36)

Obsolete word of the day: sunderly. Used in a 1565 deposition discussing whether wool was processed separately or mixed with other merchant's wool. If you have heard the phrase "to put asunder" you have some sense of the word already (I think that counts as a fossil word) #earlymodern

ink on paper handwritten secretary hand, "marchantes of the staple"

One nice thing about freelance paleography is getting to read random phrases like "marchantes of the staple," and then double checking to see if I've gotten it right, and then falling down a lovely little rabbit hole about the etymology of "staple." I recommend it. www.jstor.org/stable/551016

handwriting, ink on paper, " good wyff P[ar]kar" TNA E133/2/325, interrogatory dated 1575

A bright spot in my day: I looked up an archaic term for woman and OED didn't list, "also, whore" in the definition. Congrats, goodwife Parker - the patriarchy hasn't eaten your title yet. My condolences to all the mistresses, single-women, wenches, common women, hussies... #earlymodern #skystorians

Is it just me or is this 500 year old ink blot yelling at us?

No crowdsourcing for this one - a small group of researchers/paleographers at Northwestern. We started with our own transcriptions, and eventually used model generated transcriptions that we then corrected & fed back in.

Egerton: English Secretary Hand This model transcribes English secretary hand, which was in use during the 16th and 17th centuries. The model was primarily, but not exclusively, trained on equity court material from the National Arc...

Happy to announce that the #Transkribus model I've had the pleasure of working on for the last few years is live! It is built on a variety of hands used in English courts around 1530-1650 (just hit over 1 mil words in the training set!) Take a look: #earlymodern app.transkribus.org/models/publi...

handwritten document, ink on paper, in secretary hand with the transcription typed below. "the names of Spaynishe silke and ferrett silke vnto one mistress Buckfolde dwelling by the greate Condit in Chepeside / And this deponent whent home..."

It appears as a landmark in this deposition from 1574, as Mistress Buckfolde purchased about 30£ of silk and returned to her dwelling "by the great Condit in Chepeside" [TNA E133/2/230]

According to fleetstreetheritage.co.uk, "When Anne Boleyn processed from the tower to her coronation...the Conduit was reported to be flowing with wine...and another pageant was held there for Queen Elizabeth’s coronation...[it] was also a favoured place for the posting of proclamations."

Drawing of the Great Conduit, next to The Cheapside Cross. Guildhall Library & Art Gallery/Heritage Images/Getty

Photograph of current day Tesco in London. Square on sidewalk marks the spot where the Conduit once stood.

Today in random London history landmarks: The Great Conduit. Construction began in 1245, and it stood until it was damaged in the Great Fire and then removed. Now it is marked by a plaque in front of a Tesco #earlymodern #skystorians [photo from www.londonremembers.com/memorials/gr... ]

secretary hand ink on paper, "and in the hurly burly master munces man went a waye with the Truse vnder his Cloke" [TNA E 133/1/160]

I have been casually using #earlymodern expressions in front of my elementary aged kids in the hopes of someday hearing something about "the hurly burly" instead of "six SEVEN" ad nauseam. This is a long term project but I have high hopes for it. Any other good expressions I should use? #skystorians