I am always down for illuminated bestiaries

[rynling]

34,000 new digital images of medieval items go online
https://www.medievalists.net/2022/11/34000-digital-images-medieval/

The project ‘The Art of Reading in the Middle Ages’ was completed earlier this year. Led by the National and University Library of Slovenia, it includes the Brugge Public Library, the Hunt Museum, the Berlin State Library, Leiden University Libraries, Bibliotheque National de France and the National Library of the Czech Republic. They all collaborated together to add 34,000 new digitized items to the Europeana web portal, and improve the image quality of another 30,000 items. Available in English, Dutch, French, German, Czech and Slovenian, the partners were able to create blog posts, educational materials, and videos.

It’s a bit embarrassing to admit that I know fuckall about medieval European history and culture. My feeling is that, if we separate European culture from “a common culture that everyone should already know about by default,” the world can be a much more interesting place.

Speaking of which, I just realized that the medieval monastery mystery visual novel Pentiment is available for Switch, and I can finally play it. And on that note:

Palimpsest: A Pentiment Fanzine
https://palimpsestzine.itch.io/zine

PALIMPSEST is a collaborative project and labor of love dedicated to the historical narrative game Pentiment, featuring 60+ pages of art and writing inspired by illuminated manuscripts and tales from the town of Tassing. This zine is pay-what-you-want, with all donations going to Librarians and Archivists with Palestine.

Comments

[lassarina]

*slams into that medieval link* Thank you for sharing this!

I have Pentiment on my steam deck, I just haven't started playing it.

[rynling]

I started playing Pentiment, but I had to put it down. Not because it's bad. Rather, it's so fucking good that I'm going to save it for later, when I can give it my full attention. How glorious that a work of art like this not only exists but is readily available for $12 on a handheld console. When medieval monks were sitting at their desks and illuminating manuscripts in the fifteenth century, something like this is probably very close to what they dreamed of creating. It's the sort of thing that makes me proud to be a member of the human race.

I hope that, when you start playing, you enjoy it! I hope I enjoy it too! What a lovely thing to be able to look forward to, right?

[lassarina]

It is! And soon it will be warm enough for me to take my Steam Deck out to sit in my backyard and enjoy it there.