When you are DMing your setting

[Col_Pladoh]

Note to self:

Print out or otherwise display pictures of these castles as visual aids for next gaming session.

Because, wow, I could save myself at least a thousand words.

Haven

Absolutely, and why I don't do more of that is a poser now that you mention it!


Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

I think I got that same spam mail she's replying to.

joe b.

That piece of misinformation hit my inbox about a year ago, but I just ignored it

For those who lose the valuable historical information in the context of refutation, pity that!

Cheers,
Gary

 

[billd91]

Human ingenuity can be found in all eras of history and I like to add little tidbits of it in my campaigns. For similar references to other devices and social institutions, I grab my copy of Ancient Inventions by Peter James and Nick Thorpe. It can be quite a source of inspiration.

 

[fusangite]

It's a pretty good site but it, of course, rather partisan and inaccurate in its own way. In particular, the Galileo case, while more accurate than the popular Galileo myth, constructs a myth of its own. Galileo was keenly interested in the fact that with the advent of the heliocentric system, the "saving the appearances" model of science was breaking down. The church glosses the fact that maintaining a wider and wider disjunction between science that was "true" and science that was predictive was ultimately not on.

Mathematical astronomy and physical astronomy could exist as separate disciplines in the medeival and antique worlds but that does not mean that they could exist as wholly unrelated disciplines.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Do not lose the information because of the religious affiliation of the one supplying it.

Gary

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Nice link and thank you Colonel! The article is certainly an excellent starting point for doing one's own research. The author included a number of excellent shots. I like seeing medieval architecture outside the familiar England/France/Italy continuum.

For a really good book on medieval cathedrals, check out Brunelleschi's Dome, by Ross King. That inspired many ideas for my game once upon a read.

 

[Sarellion]

Already read the other articles like "Understanding the Crusades?"

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Already read the other articles like "Understanding the Crusades?"

I am remiss, need to do that soon myself, but I have company, and a ms. to edit...

Chrers,
Gary

 

[ForceUser]

Already read the other articles like "Understanding the Crusades?"

Heh. Yeah. No further comment is necessary or prudent, since Grandma is watching. Those who've read it know what I mean.

Thanks for the link all the same, Gary. Very interesting.

 

[Turjan]

Nice article, although I think the inclusion of the original e-mail was unnecessary. Many of the myths that are "common knowledge" about the Middle Ages nowadays actually describe the early modern era. Witch hunts culminated in the 16th and 17th centuries and are generally seen as the predecessor of modern trials, because they tried to apply a systematic procedure, meant to prove the guilt of the accused, even if in a faulted way.

Similar facts are true for personal hygiene; journeymen often got the money for a weekly visit of the public bath house with their salary. Washing stopped later in baroque times, funny enough also for "scientific" reasons. Some people noticed that public bath houses were a place to contract diseases, and the conclusion was that agents that caused diseases were entering the body with water through the skin.

It's funny which way the path to modern science went in some areas .