Resources and Support
The staff at Days of Knights have 5 decades of experience between them of being a part of the Living History movement and medieval education. In this time, they have accumulated a wealth of resources on a wide variety of topics relating to a myriad of aspects of life in the Middle Ages, and the history of those times. We're also continually adding to our resources, both online and in hard copy so as to ensure we remain at the forefront of medieval education.
To further assist teachers, and other interested folk, this page is being put together so that you can more easily undertake more intensive research into fields of endeavor that pique your interest, or develop class plans for students or simply find out more about the Middle Ages. Included are "how to" articles, essays, links to more resources and a plethora of snippets of relevance. So, get your clicking finger ready, and delve into the wealth of material available on the internet!
Topics Index:
- Clothing and Textiles
- Entertainment
- Food and Cooking
- Heraldry and Pageantry
- Housing
- Knights and Warfare
- Medieval Art Work
- Museums and Digital Online reproductions
- On line Quests and Projects
- Science and Technology
- Trades and Guilds
- Usefuel links from other History Enthusiasts
Clothing and Textiles
Accessories, belts, pouches, hats, shoes
- Hoods, Chaperons and Liripipes Patterns for making them the medieval way
- Footwear of the Middle Ages: An ongoing examination of the history and development of footwear and shoemaking techniques up to the end of the sixteenth century. By I. Marc Carlson
- Some related headresses of the 15th Century: theories on construction. Examples and re-creations from several sources by Cynthia du Pré Argent
Clothing
- A history of Dyes
- A comparative study of extant garments relevant to East Denmark in the mid-to-late 14th Century, by Maggie Forest
Embroidery
- The Bayeux Tapestry, This site shows all the panels
Entertainment
Holiday and Special days
- A Norwegian Folk Wedding Interesting reenactment based on historical documents
Songs and Music
- Selected Works of Martin Luther 1483 - 1546
Food and Cooking
Feast preparation (Recipes)
- Cooking from Primary Sources: Some General Comments (from Cariadoc's Miscellany)
- Le Viandier de Taillevent (French, 1375-1390) Based on the Vatican Library Manuscript. Translated into English by James Prescott
- Manual de mugeres (16th century Spanish)
- Delightes for Ladies, 1609 (Elizabethan)
- The English Housewife, 1683 (9th edition)
- A Book of Cookrye, 1591
- A Forme of Cury, the cookbook of the cooks of Richard II of England. The text was orginally written in the late 14th century. The Project Gutenburg version is based on an 18th century iteration of the original piece.
Types of foods available
- Medieval and Renaissance Gardens: Notes from a class presented at East Kingdom University and other events in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism), by Jadwiga Zajaczkowa (Jennifer Heise)
- The Flour of Chivalry: The Rise of Bakers' Guilds in the Middle Ages
- Growing and Harvesting Wheat by Hand Walton Feed company presents useful information on it Old Timers page
Tools/cooking implements
Heraldry and Pageantry
Coat of Arms
- James Wolf Heraldry ClipArt
- Heraldic Atlas Browse through the plates and find out its name, in 6 languages (French, English, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch).
- Latin Dictionary and Grammar Aid by the University of Notre Dame
Housing
Castles and Manors
- Caerphilly Castle, In the town centre, Caerphilly, South Wales
- The City and the Castle in Medieval Poland A summary of the paper delivered at the conference at Písek, Czech Republic, May 1998
- Medieval Castle Reconstructed in Sopot, in the north of Poland. Not many people would expect that in this extremely beautiful city, which has celebrated its 100 years of existence as a town in 2001, traces of existence go as far as the Stone Age
- The Medieval Manor An article written by Professor Gerhard Rempel, Western New England College.
Pavilions (home away from home)
- Tent of the Grand Vizier Suleimann, taken by Bavarian troops at Mohacs in 1687, from the Bavarian Army Museum in Ingolstadr, Germany
- Medieval Pavilion Resources by Mira Silverlock
- Pavilion Construction, Discussion over whether or not the "spoked-wheel" design is documentable. Here is some support for this design.
Peasant Housing
- Medieval thatched roof construction and archeological finds A write up about the discovery of excellently preserved thatched roofing from Buckinghamshire, and subsequent other discoveries. It covers the history, making and effectiveness of this old style of roofing intelligently and accessibly
Household items of use
- Simple look at lighting changes from daylight to wax candles
Knights and Warfare
Chivalry and Tournaments
Wars
- Bruce and Bannockburn Scottish wars, battles, feuds and heroes.
Medieval Art Work
- Art History Resources on the Web Maintained by Dr. Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe Professor, Department of Art History, Sweet Briar College
- Digital Librarian: A Librarian's Choice of the Best of the Web
- Hwæt! Old English in Context More resources for the study of Old English and Anglo-Saxon England, including electronic texts and translations, digitized images of manuscripts, photographs of Anglo-Saxon artifacts and art, fonts, software, CD-ROMs and audiotapes, courses, discussion groups and organizations, maps, etc
- Web Gallery of Art The Web Gallery of Art is a virtual museum and searchable database of European painting and sculpture from 12th to mid-19th centuries
- Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco: Legion of Honor
- UK National Gallery
- Schoenberg Centre for Electronic Text and Image
- British Library on line copy of the Magna Carta
- The National Archive - Learning Curve
On line Quests and Projects
- A Knight's Tale Web quest exploring important Fine Art developments in the Middle Ages
- Medieval Dream A fabulous quest where students set up a medieval merchant's booth and create their own heraldry
- History Learning Site
- The History Guide: revolutionizing education in the spirit of socratic wisdom
Science and Technology
Astronomy
- The Astrolabe The astrolabe was the most widely used astronomical instrument of the Islamic and Medieval periods.
- Starry Messenger The Universtity of Cambridge History of Astronomy site. A fantastic resource with excellent academic standards
- Medieval Scientific Instruments Great text explanations, and workshop activities to make your own medieval scientific instruments from a leading expert in the field based at Humboldt State University, California, USA
- The Aurora of 1192: Its causes and effects A study of an important geophysical event in history, and the scientific and social ramifications. A fascinating article examining the scientific phenomenon and how medieval society reacted to it.
- Medieval Astronomical and Timekeeping Instruments How to make 2 different types of medieval scientific instrument, a nocturnal and a quadrant.
- Astronomy and Astrology In the Middle Ages Astronomy (the science of studying the heavens) and Astrology (using the heavens to interpret current affairs and predict the future) were oft-times regarded as the same thing. This article explains their relationship in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
- The oldest scientific manuscript in the National Library of Wales An 11th century manuscript, in Latin, on astronomy.
- A catalogue of medieval scientific instruments compiled by Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany
- The Galileo Project A marvellous collection of information about Galileo, other significant scientists of his time, the tools and instruments they invented and used, and the social impact of their discoveries.
- Starmaps The history of charting the heavens.
Trades and Guilds
Amour and Maille
- Some Aspects of the Metallurgy and Production of European Armor By Craig Johnson, first published in the Armored Proceedings Symposium Notes, 1999.
- Amour Links Page
- ARMA The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts
- Construction of Chinese mountain pattern amour by Daniel Stone
- Higgins Armory Museum, Collections & Research, Virtual exhibitions.
- How to make Roman Amour by Mike Bishop of the Lorica Segmentata enactment group.
- The Arador Armour Library Since 1995 Arador has served as a hub for education, information and camaraderie to those in the Internet community with an interest in amour and amour-related subjects.
- The Armour Archive Complied by John Thompson
- Armour No. 1 from Korsbetningen. This is probably the most widely known of the 24 coat-of-plates from the mass graves of the Battle of Visby (1361).
- Armour making tutorials and essays. Age Of Armour; An Online Portfolio of Armour; Made by William Hurt
- Arms and Armour Glossary of Terms Produced by The Knighthood, Chivalry and Tournament Resouce Library
- The Ring Lord - Merchant of links for making maile
- Blankenshield Armoury The oldest supplier of combat ready historically based armour in the western hemisphere have a how to make armour and swords section.
Books and Printing
- The works of Grewe Biblioteca site with images of some of the first booked printed. Note that site is in Catalan and Spanish.
- The Online Medieval and Classical Library by Berkeley Digital Library Sun
- Gutenberg Digital Collection of books first printed with the Gutenberg press including the Gutenberg Bible
- The Gutenberg Bible held at the Ransom Center in Austin Texas
Calligraphy and Illumination
- Late Medieval Illustrated Manuscripts from the Bibliotheca Palatina - digitized Heidelberg University Library holds among others 27 late medieval illustrated manuscripts originating from three of the most popular 15th-century german workshops. Among these seven codices are ascribed to the so-called "Elsässische Werkstatt von 1418", the "workshop of Diebold Lauber" at Hagenau is represented by eleven, and the "workshop of Ludwig Henfflin", which probably worked at Stuttgart, by nine manuscripts.
- Corsair - Online Research Resource of The Pierpoint Morgan Library: The Pierpont Morgan Library, once the private domain of the financier-collector Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), is now a public research library, a museum, an architectural landmark, and a historic site.
- The Book of Deer Project The site covers two separate but complementary elements inspired by The Book of Deer. The first being The Book of Deer Manuscript which is made up of the 84 folios (pages) with illuminations and the developing academic archive. The second is The Book of Deer Project. This is a community based initiative and the catalyst for renewed academic interest, research and community development in the North East of Scotland. dragon The Book of Deer Project is a company limited by guarantee and is recognized as a local Scottish Charity
- St.Luke Artists Colourmen . This eclectic art shop in Melbourne offers the enthusiastic calligrapher and illuminator all one could want in terms of period (and safe non-period alternatives to those nasty chemicals where warranted) supplies. Materials for egg tempera (ground pigments, ceramic mixing plates, glass storage jars, brushes, waxes, oils and more) are available at very reasonable prices.
- The State Library of Victoria - Medieval Imagination Exhibit This spectacular free exhibition of medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts celebrates the art of the hand-written book or manuscript. Around half the works are from Cambridge University and its colleges, which together hold one of the greatest collections of medieval manuscripts in the western world. The remainder are from distinguished public collections in Australia and New Zealand, including works from the State Library of Victoria's own collection. Over 90 manuscripts are on display. Dating from the 8th to the 16th centuries, they include examples of deluxe book production from Byzantium, England, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. Works on display include sacred traditional texts as well as works of music, law, history, science and literature. These exquisite manuscripts offer a wealth of information on art and learning, and provide fascinating insights into the life and times of the medieval and Renaissance periods.
Cartography
- Bibliographic Essay: History of Cartography by Evelyn Edson, professor of history at Piedmont Virginia Community College
Guilds and Livery Companies
- Guilds Article written for the New Advent
- The City Livery Companies, put together by Heraldic Media
- London City livery companies Trade and craft associations have flourished all over Europe for many centuries, but the City of London companies, now collectively known as the Livery, are unique in their survival, number and diversity.
Latin
- Beginners Latin. Latin 1086 - 1733: a practical online tutorial for beginners. This tutorial is a beginners' guide to the Latin used in documents between 1086 and 1733. It is the first online tutorial to help you learn the Latin from this period. The tutorial covers the period between 1086 and 1733, when Latin was the official language of documents written in England. Knowing Latin will help you to read documents from this period. After 1733, official documents were written in English. (The National Archive Site)
Leatherworking
- Leatherworking in the Middle Ages, by Marc Carlson
Science
- "The Author And His Work" , Giambattista della Porta (JOHN BAPTIST PORTA )
Useful Links from other History Enthusiasts
- Compiled by Anna Troy. Costuming, Food and Drink, Making Armor and weapons, Calligraphy and Illumination, Music, Makeup and Special effects, and lots more. The purpose of this page is to be a gathering point for links of any kind, pertaining to "How To..." documents that could be of help for LARP, SCA people, Re-enactment and the like, from pavilion-making, to vampire-fang molding, to brewing, to costume-sewing, etc.
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook located at the Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies.
- Medieval Russia Knowledge Page A participant in the Slavic Knowledge / Slavianskoe Znan'stvo Project
- SIG Hungary Page participant in the Slavic Knowledge / Slavianskoe Znan'stvo Project
- The ORB: On-line reference book for medieval studies
Last updated on 13 May, 2008
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