In this episode, we explore the tradition of contemptus mundi with a text all about how horrible it is to be a human being, On the Misery of the Human Condition, written by Pope Innocent III (when he was but Cardinal Lotario di Segni).
Lothario Dei Segni [Pope Innocent III]. On the Misery of the Human Condition. Edited by Donald R. Howard, translated by Margaret Mary Dietz. Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1969. Archive.org.
Moore, John C. “Innocent III’s De Miseria Humanae Conditionis: A Speculum Curiae?” The Catholic Historical Review, vol. 67, no. 4, Oct. 1981, pp. 553-564. JSTOR.
We continue from our last episode into the years 1212-1214 in the Melrose Chronicle, where we come to the end of the interdict, and perhaps the prophesized end of King John’s true sovereignty. Along the way, we also cover some of the more common ecclesiastical offices and check the accuracy of the chronicle’s battlefield accounting.
Today’s Texts:
The Chronicle of Melrose. Edited and translated by Joseph Stevenson, The Church Historians of England, vol. 4, part 1, Seeley’s, 1856, pp. 79-242. Google Books.
Ranulf Higden. Polychronicon. Vol. 8. Edited by Joseph Rawson Lumby, translated by John Trevisa, Longman and Co., 1882. Google Books.
Roger of Wendover. Flowers of History. Vol. 2. Translated by J.A. Giles, Henry G. Bohn, 1849. Google Books.
References:
Chronica de Mailros. Edited by Joseph Stevenson, Typis Societatis Edinburgensis, 1835. Google Books.
We return to the Melrose Chronicle with a notably nasty run of years from 1205 to 1211. We also consider why people — medieval and modern — are so captivated by bad news.
Today’s Texts:
The Chronicle of Melrose. Edited and translated by Joseph Stevenson, The Church Historians of England, vol. 4, part 1, Seeley’s, 1856, pp. 79-242. Google Books.
References:
Baumeister, Roy F., Ellen Bratslavsky, Catrin Finkenauer, and Kathleen D. Vohs. “Bad is Stronger than Good.” Review of General Psychology, vol. 5, no. 4, Dec. 2001, pp. 323-370, doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.5.4.323
Robertson, Claire E., Nicolas Pröllochs, Karou Schwarzenegger, et al. “Negativity Drives Online News Consumption.” Nature Human Behavior, vol. 7, 16 March 2023, pp. 812–822, doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01538-4
Rozin, Paul, and Edward B. Royzman. “Negativity Bias, Negativity Dominance, and Contagion.” Personality and Social Psychology Review, vol. 5, no. 4, 2001, pp. 296-320, doi.org/10.1207/S15327957PSPR0504_2
Trussler, Marc, and Stuart Soroka. “Consumer Demand for Cynical and Negative News Frames.” The International Journal of Press/Politics, vol. 19, no. 3, 2013, pp. 360-379, doi.org/10.1177/1940161214524832
For Mother’s Day, we look at a 15th-century tale of a plowman who thinks that — in terms of daily labor — his wife has it too easy, and how he learns otherwise.
Today’s Texts
“Ballad of a Tyrannical Husband.” Reliquiae Antiquae: Scraps From Ancient Manuscripts, Illustrating Chiefly Early English Literature and the English Language, edited by Thomas Wright and James Orchard Halliwell, vol. 2, John Russell Smith, 1845, pp. 196-99. Google Books. Accessed 8 Oct. 2018.
“The Old Man Who Lived in the Woods.” Traditional, transcribed by Sandy Paton, “Origins: More Work in a Day / Father Grumble,” The Mudcat Cafe, 7 Dec. 2001, 9:41 p.m., mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=41847
Image: Manuscript detail of flax breaking and striking with a swingle. (via Trame di Storia Handmade)
Audio Credit: Fiddle tune, “Frosty Morning” performed by Henry Reed (1966), from the Library of Congress.
This episode was recorded on site at the 2024 International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University. Behold, my humble recording booth:
We kick of 2024 with a look at humanity’s attempts to recreate itself, first with a dip into the legends of the Golem of Prague, and then an extended discussion of the role of AI in the future of medieval studies and particularly this show.
Today’s Texts:
Eleazar of Worms, Commentary on Sefer Yezirah, fol. 15d. In Moshe Idel. Golem: Jewish Magical and Mystical Traditions on the Artificial Anthropoid. State University of New York Press, 1990.
Letter from Christoph Arnold to Johann Christoph Wagenseil, printed in Wagenseil’s Sota, Hoc est: Liber Mischnicus De Uxore Adulterii Suspecta, Altdorf,1674, pp. 1152-1234. Munich Digitization Center, digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb11215591
[Anonymous golem-making text from MS Cambridge, Add. 647, fol. 18a.] In Moshe Idel. Golem: Jewish Magical and Mystical Traditions on the Artificial Anthropoid. State University of New York Press, 1990.
Phillippson, Gustav. “Der Golem.” Schoschanim: Ein Blick indie Vergangenheit. M. Poppelauer’s Buchhandlung, 1871, pp. 77-81. Google Books.
Tendlau, Abraham M. “Der Golem des Hogh-Rabbi-Löb.” Das Buch der Sagen und Legenden jüdischer Vorzeit, J. F. Cast’schen, 1842, pp. 16-18. Google Books.
Tendlau, Adam. “Der Golem des Hoch-Rabbi-Löb.” 1842. In Hans Ludwig Held, Das Gespenst Des Golem, Allgemeine Verlagsanstalt München, 1927, pp 41-44. Google Books.
William of Malmesbury. Chronicle of the Kings of England. Edited by J.A. Giles, translated by John Sharpe and J.A. Giles, George Bell & Sons, 1895. Google Books.
References:
Bassett, Caroline. “The Construct Editor: Tweaking with Jane, Writing with Ted, Editing with an AI?” Textual Cultures, vol. 15, no. 1, 2022, pp. 155-60. JSTOR, jstor.org/stable/48687521
Krause, Maureen T. “Introduction: ‘Bereshit bara Elohim’: A Survey of the Genesis and Evolution of the Golem.” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, vol. 7, no. 2/3, Special Issue on The Golem — Rabbi Loew and His Legacy: The Golem in Literature and Film, 1995, pp. 113-136.
Shadbolt, Nigel. “‘From So Simple a Beginning’: Species of Artificial Intelligence.” Daedalus, vol. 151, no. 2, Spring 2022, pp. 28-42. JSTOR, jstor.org/stable/48662024
Thompson, Brian, et al. “A Shocking Amount of the Web is Machine Translated: Insights from Multi-Way Parallelism.” Amazon Web Services AI Lab, 11 Jan. 2024, arxiv.org/pdf/2401.05749.pdf
The playlist features both authentic medieval tunes as well as pieces that feel medieval in spirit.
Note: I have actually curated and organized the playlist as a sequence, which helps avoid repeats. Shuffle it at your own risk (of hearing “Coventry Carol” five times in a row).
Image: detail of two hurdy-gurdy players from El Escorial Ms. T.j.I, f.160.
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