Art

Period, Time. "Animals in Medieval Art | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: metmuseum.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 May 2011. <http://www.metmuseum.org/toa

Least Favorite Job

The job that I found the worst in medieval has to be the barber surgeon. I can't stand blood and guts, so that job was definitely the worst.  The smell of the room after a surgery; I can't even begin to imagine it.  I guess that doctors today would probably be fine with this job, but back then they had no idea what they were doing.  Their materials weren't very clean, and the people who had surgeries had to be in a ton of pain through the whole thing.  Even if they weren't in pain, the sound that the materials made was disgusting.  They did many amputations which is nasty because they didn't have a lot of good bandages, and some people probably bled to death.

The other disgusting part of their job is they had to shove a tube up someone's butt.  They thought that to get medicine into the stomach, it was easier to put it up through the butt.  That is totally nasty.  What I want to know is where people come up with these ideas.  "Well Bob, I bet if you stick a tube up someone's butt, the medicine will get to them faster."  Do we eat from our butt, no I don't think so, so why should they try and put medicine up someone's butt.

The way they got their supplies was pretty gross too.  One of the supplies that was used to cure diseases was leeches.  The leeches were said to remove the "bad blood" from the body.  Women had to walk bare-legged into swamps and marshes, and when the leeches bit them, they took the leeches off and gave them to the doctors.

All in all, the whole medicine field was disgusting.  The way they got the medicine, the way they put the medicine in, and the way they cut into people was just nasty.  I would probably kill myself rather than do that job.  After all, it would be good practice.

Amanda's freshman year

Well, Amanda's year went really well.  She only tripped up the stairs once!  She was in Peter Pan and her shoe fell off during one of the dance numbers.  Amanda was also on the equestrian team and showed for the first time.  She had a lot of fun doing it and even got a 1st!  Amanda was also in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.  Even though she was an extra in both of the shows, she had a lot of fun with her friends.  She had a little too much fun in her West Civ class and wrote many humorous blogs for her homework.  Most of the school read at least one of them, and many of her friends read them daily during class.

She is really good friends with everyone in her advisory, and she got very competitive during pictionary. Amanda also made a ton of new friends from other schools, even though she already knew most of the students.  She had a lot of laughs with them at Italian Sensations and the rest of the Safeway plaza.  Her brother got his license, and Amanda was highly entertained watching him try to back into parking places.

Amanda went on lots of field trips during the year.  She went to New York to see How to Succeed starring DANIEL RADCLIFFE!  When he spoke for the first time everyone in the audience gasped because he was talking right in front of them without a TV screen in between.  She also just went to the Folger Shakespeare theater in DC to see a Shakespeare performance, but nothing could top the New York trip.

Did she also mention her dog was the star of the Wizard of Oz?!?  Her dog Ruby was Toto in Conor Devoe's Wizard of Oz at school.  Amanda got to go to all the practices, and she became friends with a lot of the cast.  It was a student production directed, choreographed, and everything by Conor.  It was truly amazing to see the whole thing come together.

The highlight of her year was when she found out her uncle got married without even telling his parents!  Just kidding about the whole highlight of the year thing, she thought it sucked majorly.  She will be going to his fake wedding in the beginning of the next school year.

She spent a lot of her time at home doing homework, but when she wasn't doing homework she was out with her neighbors.  Amanda has a very close bond with all of her neighbors.  The youngest one is around 3 years old and the oldest kid who she hangs out with is her brother who is 16.  It is a pretty amazing thing to see the 14, 15, and 16 year olds running around with the 3,4, and 5 year olds.  The older kids look out for the younger ones and coach them in all different kinds of neighborhood sports.

The most influential part of Amanda's year was when she started working at a therapeutic riding farm.  She met a 23 year old named Danny, and as she got to know him, the happier she was.  Danny's has probably seen every movie you can think of off the top of your head, and he knows it so well he can quote it all back to you.  Helping Danny and the other kids gave Amanda a new perspective on how to treat kids with special needs.

Amanda had an amazing school year this year, and without all the homework, it would have been perfect.  She learned a lot in all her classes, and even managed to make it through with a passing grade.  She is so happy the year is over, but she will miss all her new friends.  Amanda is thankful for a great year, and thankful to everyone who was a part of it.

Weekly #8

Having an understanding of a topic itself is very important when trying to learn about a culture.  Just memorizing information for one test is not enough understanding to truly get the different cultures and time periods.  When trying to understand a topic, memorizing the textbook will not help anyone learn anything.  While learning about the manuscripts and the art in the manuscripts, people learn about the culture of that time period.

One way learning about manuscripts teaches about the culture was in the language it was written in.  "Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts are divided into a number of shelf classifications, including language and subject classifications MSS Dutch, Eng(lish), Fr(ench), Ger(man), Gr(eek), Ital(ian), Judaica, Lat(in), Port(uguese), Span(ish) and Syriac" (Digital Medieval Manuscripts at Houghton Library).  The codex manuscript was used all over the world in more than ten different languages.  Each culture had its own interpretation of the writings.  The manuscripts were known worldwide from all different languages, races, and cultures.   The cultures that used the manuscript were very diverse, and that is seen in the writing style as well.

One of the ways learning about codex manuscripts teaches about the culture was in the writing style.  "We ordain that slaves, or tributaries, or inquilini shall remain with their lords. For, when, dismayed by a fear of Ioss, each landowner begins to drive away those who are unknown to him, the will to flight will not be with the slaves; for no one deserts his lord knowing that there is nowhere a refuge for him as a fugitive” (Codex Justinianus).  Compared to language today, codex sounds much more sophisticated.  The people must have been intelligent if they were going to write the manuscripts, and reading the language used they were.  The writing of the books was very beautiful and neat.  The writers must have been very literate to write in such amazing handwriting.  The culture at the time was intelligent, and many people must have been well educated to be writing such incredible manuscripts.

The most obvious cultural connection is in the paintings and illumination in the book.  When each culture created the manuscript, they depicted their own opinions of the writings (figure 1 &2).  The differences in these depictions are based on the culture.  The painters focused on what their people looked like and based the characters they painted on their own people.  The people, the horses, and the decoration on the page looked different.  Each culture depicted their own culture in the most creative ways.

Learning about the topic of codex manuscript communicates an understanding of the culture as well.  The writing, language, and the pictures show how different each culture was.  Each manuscript may have had the same writing, but their interpretations of them were very different.  Without these manuscripts, we would have no way of knowing a large part of our history, the Gospels were even written in codex manuscript.  Learning about the codex manuscript not only teaches about the manuscript, but it also has a much deeper meaning by teaching about the culture.

Appendix

Figure 1: Alwan Codex 2 Ethiopian Biblical Manuscript. (n.d.).Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved May 3, 2011, from commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A

Figure 2: Miniatura dei Carmina. (n.d.).Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved May 3, 2011, from commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File

Works Cited

Houghton Library MSS Widener - Digital Medieval Manuscripts at Houghton Library - Harvard College Library. (n.d.).Harvard College Library. Retrieved May 3, 2011, from http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/collections/early_manuscripts/about.cfm#collection

Medieval Sourcebook: Codex Justinianus: Return of Fugitive Slaves & Coloni, c. 530 [Xl.48.xii.]. (n.d.).FORDHAM.EDU. Retrieved May 3, 2011, from http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/codexXl-48-xii.html

#9 draft

Having an understanding of a topic itself is very important when you are trying to learn about a culture.  Just memorizing information for one test is not enough understanding to truly get the different cultures and time periods.  When trying to understand a topic, memorizing the textbook will not help you learn anything.  Understanding a topic, such as codex manuscripts, helps a person understand the culture too because while learning about the manuscripts and the art in the manuscripts, you learn about the culture of that time period.  Being able to understand a topic has nothing to do with understanding the culture.

Another way learning about manuscripts teaches about the culture was in the language it was written in.  "Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts is divided into a number of shelf classifications, including language and subject classifications MSS Dutch, Eng(lish), Fr(ench), Ger(man), Gr(eek), Ital(ian), Judaica, Lat(in), Port(uguese), Span(ish) and Syriac" (hcl.harvard.edu).  The codex manuscript was used all over the world in more than ten different languages.  Each culture had their own interpretation of the writings.  The manuscripts were known worldwide from all different languages, races, and cultures.   The cultures that used the manuscript were very diverse, and you can see that in the writing style as well.

One of the ways learning about codex manuscripts teaches about the culture was in the writing style.  " We ordain that slaves, or tributaries, or inquilini shall remain with their lords. For, when, dismayed by a fear of Ioss, each landowner begins to drive away those who are unknown to him, the will to flight will not be with the slaves; for no one deserts his lord knowing that there is nowhere a refuge for him as a fugitive "  (Codex Justinianus).  Compared to language today, codex sounds much more sophisticated.  The people must have been intelligent if they were going to write the manuscripts.  Reading the language used, these people were definitely smart.  The culture at the time was intelligent, and many people must have been well educated to be writing such incredible manuscripts.

The most obvious cultural connection is in the paintings and illumination in the book.  When each culture created the manuscript, they depicted their own opinions of the writings (figure 1 &2).  The differences in these depictions are based on the culture.  The painters focused on what their people looked like and based the characters they painted on their own people.  The people looked different, the horses looked different, and the decoration looked different.  Each culture depicted their own culture in the most creative ways.

Learning about the topic of codex manuscript communicates an understanding of the culture as well.  The writing, language, and the pictures, just show how different each culture was.  Each manuscript may have had some of the same writing, but their interpretations of them were very different.  Without these manuscripts, we would have no way of knowing a large part of our history, the Gospels were even written in codex manuscript.  Learning about the codex manuscript not only teaches about the manuscript, but it also has a much deeper meaning by teaching about the culture .

Appendix

Figure 1: Alwan Codex 2 Ethiopian Biblical Manuscript. (n.d.).Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved May 3, 2011, from commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A

Figure 2: Miniatura dei Carmina. (n.d.).Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved May 3, 2011, from commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File

Works Cited

Houghton Library MSS Widener - Digital Medieval Manuscripts at Houghton Library - Harvard College Library. (n.d.).Harvard College Library. Retrieved May 3, 2011, from http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/collections/early_manuscripts/about.cfm#collection

Medieval Sourcebook: Codex Justinianus: Return of Fugitive Slaves & Coloni, c. 530 [Xl.48.xii.]. (n.d.).FORDHAM.EDU. Retrieved May 3, 2011, from http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/codexXl-48-xii.html