Making a Medieval Manuscript Interactive Presentation

Have you ever wondered how a medieval manuscript was made?  Well, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England has put together an interactive presentation that takes you through the entire process, from making the parchment from animal skin to binding the folios.  There are also video clips for some of the more interesting processes (like painting initials).  It's pretty cool.  It's found on the museum's Pharos website, which also has interactive presentations for making a bronze sculpture, a 15th century panel painting, a Japanese print and how to conserve art (specifically a manuscript and vase restoration), as well as images from the museum's collection.  Note, you need Flash to watch the presentations (they include the download link if you need to install it).

Book Review: Who Was Dracula?: Bram Stoker's Trail of Blood by Jim Steinmeyer

Pros: well researched, details Stoker's connection with numerous people despite the focus on Dracula

Cons: fairly repetitious

This non-fiction look at Bram Stoker and the men who influenced the character of Dracula is part biography, part fan letter.  It's obvious that the author is a huge fan of Stoker's life and work and has written this well researched book in order to share that love with others.

The book starts out by pointing out the fact that what most people think of when they picture Dracula isn't how the Count was written and that most of the movie features modern audiences are familiar with are not in the novel.  If you haven't read Dracula, there's a fairly thorough synopsis of the novel in chapter five so you can follow along.

The book is written in many ways like a novel, with dialogue and set scenes as though the reader was present during the important moments of Stoker's life.  This decision helps pull the reader into the story as well as make the book feel less scholastic than the twelve pages of notes at the back reveal it is.

While little is detailed about Stoker's childhood (including his illness when his mother told him fairy tales and about the influenza epidemic of her own youth), there is a lot of detail from his university time onward.  In fact, there's a lot of information included on several people, including Henry Irving, Oscar Wilde, the Jack the Ripper murders, other actors, playwrights, poets, etc.  But the focus is on Stoker's time as Irving's stage manager and the goings on in and around the Lyceum Theatre.

It's quite a fascinating story, and Steinmeyer mentions how scholars have changed their ideas about Dracula and where Stoker's inspiration came from, over the years.

My only real complaint - and I use that word loosely - is the amount of repetition in the book.  The author will mention something in a decent amount of depth in an early chapter and then revisit it later in the book, giving the matter even more depth.  On the one hand this means rereading the same information several times, on the other hand, the repetition makes it hard to forget the people/places/events mentioned in the book.  

I was a little surprised that the final chapter, which focuses on Dracula's success in the modern age neglected to mention the Francis Ford Coppola film, which greatly emphasized the erotic aspects and meaning of blood in the story to an extent that previous movies had not.  Especially since the author seemed so surprised by Stoker's apparent lack of awareness of the erotic overtones of his own story (I have to admit I'm more on Stoker's side on this issue than Steinmeyer's.  I probably have to read it again, but I don't remember Dracula being particularly erotic in any sense.  The Lucy scenes I'll give you could have been seduction, but Mina's attack was anything but.  And I found Dracula's brides more scary than sexy).  Similarly, the Stoker estate's acknowledged sequel to Dracula, Dracula: The Un-Dead by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt, wasn't mentioned.

Those are minor quibbles and on the whole I found this a highly enjoyable and very educational read.

Out April 9th.

History Book Review: Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age by Fiona Maddocks

Pros: clear, easy to read biography, warnings against drawing conclusions without sufficient information, examples from contemporaries to explain medieval thought and give context for Hildegard's actions and/or what may have happened to her when information is scarce

Cons: the introduction and conclusion gave a lot more information about the modern state of the cult of Hildegard than I was interested in

Fiona Maddocks takes historical sources to piece together Hildegard of Bingen's life.  Her prose is engaging and, though scholarly, easy to read.  She obviously knows modern interpretations of Hildegard's life and works, mentioning them in her book while at the same time cautioning modern readers against looking at Hildegard's actions with a feminist/lesbian slant.  Hildegard was very much a woman of her time and there isn't enough evidence to make such conclusions (while at the same time understanding that this doesn't mean such conclusions are wrong).  

For times when the information about Hildegard herself is scarce (her childhood for example), Maddocks mentions stories and writings of contemporaries who would have had similar experiences.  For example, there is some doubt that Hildegard joined the monestary at the age of 8 but there are other cases when boys and girls of similar ages in Medieval times felt called to serve their God behind walls, so it's not unheard of that she could have come to her vocation early, especially knowing her parents had promised her to the church.

I was unaware of just how much Hildegard had written and on how many subjects - the natural world (plants, animals, rocks), music lyrics and notation as well as her visions.  Makes me want to read some of her own works now, though Maddocks warns that most of the English translations are by a gentleman who translated them not from the original Latin but from a German translation (meaning you're getting interpretations of someone else's interpretations, compounding whatever translation errors/decisions the previous translator made).

If you want to read about this fascinating woman while maintaining proper historical distance, I highly recommend this book.