We interrupt our regularly scheduled Gerbert d’Aurillac series with a special Halloween anniversary detour into a Victorian version of his Dark Legend: the 1888 short story, “The Demon Pope,” by Richard Garnett.
Today’s Text
Garnett, Richard. “The Demon Pope.” The Twilight of the Gods and Other Tales. John Lane, 1903, pp. 86-98. Google Books.
Image Credit: Illustration of Richard Garnett, from The Illustrated London News, 14 May 1892 (via Wikipedia).
Music Credit: “Mephisto Polka,” by Franz Liszt (1882-3), performed by Sofja Gülbadamova used under a CC-BY 3.0 license (MusOpen).
We pick up our unfinished thread from the Melrose Chronicle by exploring the “Dark Legend” of Gerbert d’Aurillac, who became Pope Sylvester II allegedly through the assistance of the devil. We’ll hear one version of this legend as told by William of Malmesbury, and then examine what we know about the historical Gerbert.
Today’s Texts:
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.
Gerbert d’Aurillac. “Letter 51.” The Letters of Gerbert with His Papal Privileges as Sylvester II, translated and edited by Harriet Pratt Lattin, Columbia UP, 1961, pp. 91-92.
References:
Allen, Roland. “Gerbert, Pope Sylvester II.” The English Historical Review, vol. 7, no. 28, Oct. 1892, pp. 625-668. Google Books.
Brown, Nancy Marie. The Abacus and the Cross: The Story of the Pope Who Brought the Light of Science to the Dark Ages. Basic Books, 2010.
Image: Illustration of Pope Sylvester II with a devil from a 15th-century manuscript of Martin of Opava’s Chronicon pontificum et imperatorum (from Wikimedia Commons).
It’s back to basics in Ep. 101 as we return to the Chronicle of Melrose to hear about the years surrounding the turnover of the English kingdom from Anglo-Saxon monarchs to Danish ones, including the mystery of the death of King Edmund Ironside and whether or not he was assassinated by a fellow English noble.
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.
John of Worcester [erroneously identified as Florence of Worcester]. The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester. Edited and translated by Joseph Stevenson, The Church Historians of England, vol. 2, part 1, Seeley’s, 1857, pp. 167-372. Google Books.
Gaimar. Gaimar [Metrical Chronicle]. Edited and translated by Joseph Stevenson, The Church Historians of England, vol. 2, part 2, Seeleys, 1854, pp. 729-810. Google Books.
References:
Mack, Katharin. “Changing Thegns: Cnut’s Conquest and the English Aristocracy.” Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, vol. 16, no. 4, 1984, pp. 375–87. JSTOR.
Broun, Dauvit, and Julian Harrison. “Introduction.” The Chronicle of Melrose Abbey: A Stratigraphic Edition, vol. 1, Boydell Press, 2007, pp. 1-269.
Image: Detail of King Cnut with an axe from the British Library, Royal MS 14 B vi.
For our 100th episode, we look at one of the technologies that marks an endpoint for the middle ages, the printing press, and consider how Johann Gutenberg may be a prototype for today’s paranoid tech tycoons and the lawsuits that so often dog them.
Today’s Texts
Van der Linde’s, A. The Haarlem Legend of the Invention of Printing. Translated by J.H. Hessels, Blades, East, & Blades, 1871. Google Books.
Schröder, Edward. Das Mainzer Fragment vom Weltgericht. Gutenberg-Gesellschaft, 1908. Archive.org.
Trithemius, Johannes. “From In Praise of Scribes.” In Writing Material: Readings from Plato to the Digital Age. Edited by Evelyn B. Tribble and Anne Trubek, Longman, 2003, pp. 469-475.
References
Green, Jonathan. “The Sibyl’s Book.” Printing and Prophecy, edited by
Lienhard, John H. “Johann Gutenberg.” Engines of Our Ingenuity, no. 753, University of Houston, 1993, www.uh.edu/engines/epi753.htm
Needham, Paul. “Early Print and Paleography.” The Oxford Handbook of Latin Palaeography, edited by Frank Coulson and Robert Babcock, Oxford UP, 2020.
White, Eric Marshall. “Printed for Performance: Ceremonial and Interactive Aspects of Books from Europe’s First Presses.” RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage, 2014, pp. 15-30, rbm.acrl.org/index.php/rbm/article/download/412/412
Music Credit: Edvard Grieg, Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, II. Adagio, performed by Skidmore College Orchestra and made available under the CC-PD license on MusOpen.org.
On Valentine’s Day 796 years ago, brother fought brother for the throne of the Isle of Man, as their fathers and uncles had done before them, another entry in the blood and betrayal-filled saga of the house of Crovan. Today, we hear the family conflict that led to that battle and see yet another king installed. In doing so, we’ll meet more Godreds, Reginalds, and Olaves than you can shake a stick at as we take a third dive into the 13th-century Chronicle of Man and the Sudreys.
Today’s Texts
The Chronicle of Man and the Sudreys. Edited by P.A. Munch, translated by Alexander Goss, vol. 1, The Manx Society, 1874. Google Books.
On this episode, we get cozy for the holidays with a visit to the humble abode of Elgar, Hermit of Bardsey Island. Just don’t mind the visiting spirits or food-delivering eagles.
Today’s Texts
“Account of Elgar, The Hermit.” The Liber Landavensis, Llyfr Teilo, or the Ancient Register of the Cathedral Church of Llandaff. Edited by W.J. Rees, William Rees, 1840, pp. 281-287. Google Books.
Gerald of Wales. The Itinerary and Description of Wales. Translated by Richard Colt Hoare, introduction by W. Llewelyn Williams, Everyman’s Library, J.M. Dent and Co., 1908. Archive.org, archive.org/details/itinerarythroug00girauoft
References
Tatlock, J.S.P. “Caradoc of Llancarfan.” Speculum, vol. 13, no. 2, April 1938, pp. 139-152. JSTOR, jstor.org/stable/2848396
Stokes, [George Thomas]. “The Island Monasteries of Wales and Ireland.” The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 5th series, vol. 1, no. 8, 1891, pp. 658-664. JSTOR, jstor.org/stable/25507837
Additional Audio Credits
Dialogue from Hellraiser, written and directed by Clive Barker, Entertainment Film Distributors, 1987.
Chopin, Frédéric. “Nocturne no. 1 in G minor,” performed by Luis Sarro. Musopen.org (CC-PD).
Image: Photo of the current binding of the Book of Llandaff (Wikimedia Commons).
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