Shared JDT Resources

Elizabethan and Jacobean eras

From your classmate Josie Owens, some information on the differences between Elizabethan (Tudor) and Jacobean eras:

Summarized from Winston Churchill’s The Island Race:
Tudor Era started with Henry VII, who united the Houses of York and Lancaster with his marriage to Elizabeth of York. This is what occurs at the end of Richard III. The last Tudor was Queen Elizabeth I who died in 1603. As she had no direct heir, the crown went to James VI of Scotland who became James I of England. He was related to Elizabeth because his great grandmother was the older sister of Henry VIII, Elizabeth’s father.
James in Latin is Jacob. Jacobean refers to the reign of James I (1603-1625).
Note that in 1620 the Puritans landed on Plymouth Rock. The Puritan issue came to boiling point under Oliver Cromwell (not Thomas Cromwell of Wolf Hall) who then took the crown from Charles II, James’s grandson. The Puritans had control for a decade when they closed all the theaters! We could have lost Shakespeare if the power exchange had happened a bit earlier or his plays had been destroyed.
Wikipedia says this about Jacobean decorative arts:
The decorative arts — furniture, for example — became increasingly rich in color, detail, and design. Materials from other parts of the world, like mother-of-pearl, were now available by world-wide trade and were used as decoration.[10] Even familiar materials, such as wood and silver, were worked more deeply in intricate and intensely three-dimensional designs.[10]
Architecture in the Jacobean era was a continuation of the Elizabethan style with increasing emphasis on classical elements like columns. European influences include France, Flanders, and Italy.[11] Inigo Jones may be the most famous English architect of this period, with lasting contributions to classical public building style; some of his works include the Banqueting House in the Palace of Whitehall. St Paul’s Cathedral designed by Sir Christopher Wren in London.

Image database links

As mentioned by our librarian, Janice Lurie, here are two good free resources to tap for visuals in research and tour development:

Minnesota Reflections:

http://reflections.mndigital.org/

The information from Minnesota also feeds into the national library, Digital Public Library of America (DPLA):

http://dp.la/

 

Literacy rates in Medieval Europe

Our friend Sandra Pietron has a neighbor who is a professor of medieval studies at the U of M. Sandra asked her for the literacy rates in Europe at that time, and here is her response:

“…I don’t have figures for literacy in Europe as a whole.  I do know that the highest literacy rate is thought to have been in Iceland.  This is usually explained in part by the easy access to writing material, i.e., parchment (from sheepskins).  But it is easy to think of collateral explanations, too: the richness and importance to society of the saga tradition, the need to spend much time indoors during certain seasons, and the importance of written law to the civilization.

The next highest rate is thought to have been in Florence, where the 14th-century chronicler Giovanni Villani reports 40%.  He may be writing as a civic “booster,” but the merchant class did need to read and established schools for merchant’s sons
early.  Merchant memoirs prove that some merchants even encouraged their grown sons to spend part of each day reading the Latin classics, in order to develop good judgment and prudence.
A fun book to read to become familiar with the practical uses of literacy for a merchant in 14th-century Tuscany is “The Merchant of Prato” by Iris Origo.”

Norton Simon Museum, resource for Indian/SE Asian art

From docent Josie Owens:

I had the good fortune to visit the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena two years ago and was amazed by its Indian/SE Asian art collection. It is housed in a Frank Gehry building and is serene. The vast collection has so many examples of what we specifically discussed in docent class. Please see the links below:

https://www.nortonsimon.org/collections/gallery.php?collection=SAH

and

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/18/entertainment/la-et-jones-appreciation18-2009dec18