It's been pretty busy lately, what with midterms and working 3 jobs and all sorts of other road blocks. Now I'm finally on downhill track for spring break, which is always a good feeling. I know I write a lot about the rare materials and manuscripts I work with up here, and I do that because I think it's the coolest thing about studying something like history up here. It's no wonder we have the #1 history department in the nation/world... It's due to the strength of our faculty, but also heavily due to our collections that allow for extensive primary document research on campus.

Today I had access to some of our restricted collections, including among other things an original Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, written in Middle English longhand around the year 1400. Think you can read Middle English? It's a bit more difficult than one would think.
I also used a document that I am writing my term paper for my Vikings class on - a scroll from 1275 CE on the Chronicles of the Kings of England...essentially the English monarchy's early family tree. In the early 1400s it was added to and updated, that time in Middle English. The original script from 1275 is in vulgar Latin. Just below is all Middle English. Not quite as foreign as Old English, but the difficult script may make it seem like a foreign language to most modern English speakers. It takes a lot of patience to read Middle English script.

You can see below where someone saw the text was fading, and (in what appears to be a 1500s-1600s script) decided to write over the original work. Not the best idea.

And below is the Kings of England Chronicles:

The very top circle in the picture below doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is. It's Cnut the Great...son of Sveyn the Forkbeard...the Danish viking kings who conquered and ruled over England for about a hundred years. That's why the bottom circle isn't connected to any more circles below. After a few rulers, the English House of Wessex took the throne back from the House of Denmark (the Danish vikings). Interestingly enough, Sveyn the Forkbeard is not listed on this scroll. There is another discrepancy on this scroll... the lack of a certain ruler. Perhaps one of the most famous rulers of all time, William the Conqueror, victor of the Battle of Hastings, was a Norman noble who crossed the English Channel and conquered England in 1066. Why so important? It's the last time England was successfully invaded. And William the Conqueror is conveniently missing from his rightful place, yet his son appears on the scroll. Apparently the scribe of this scroll either hated William the Conqueror, or decided he wasn't actually a monarch of England and decided to leave him off the scroll. Fascinating historical document, but even more fascinating are the historical implications of the discrepancies. 

Harold the Harefoot is below:

Below is King Richard, but also "Johannes Rex," or King John...the English king who was forced to sign the Magna Carta. Pretty neat stuff to quite literally see history unfold before your eyes on these old scrolls. This is what it's all about when you study History.

Below you see "Ricardus Rex"... Latin for King Richard...that is, Richard the Lionhearted, who fought Saladin and lead the Crusades against the Islamic Caliphate during his reign.

Probably one of the funniest things I saw is below: obviously the scribe hated King Edward...look how he depicted Edward...and he made that depiction to be the "E" in Edward's name!

"Henry Quartus," or Henry IV

This is all some pretty insane stuff if you know much about medieval history. I know, I probably find it much more cool than the average joe, though.

Today I took some time in between my classes to do some fun research at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, where I work. I had the privilege of viewing and doing personal research on a very famous bible in European history: The King Christian III Bible. It was the first bible ever translated into the Danish language, and this bible was not just for the people of Denmark, but also for the people of Norway, Iceland and the Faeroe Islands. Whether you're interested in Northern European history or not, it's a fascinating (and famous) specimen of Medieval religious literature. I very much enjoy reading the medieval fraktur style of print. So the first picture is the beginning of Genesis.

Of course the pic below is Noah's Ark. 

I always find it fascinating how they depicted biblical scenes in the Middle Ages...they depicted them as knights in Western Europe.

Here is where it gets interesting. Up until the late Middle Ages, the Bible was believed to say (through the Vulgar Latin that Europeans originally read it in) in Exodus 34 verse 35 that 'Moses had horns on his forehead.' This was an inaccurate translation, and later it was corrected to the actual meaning that 'Moses' face shone while he talked with God.'

In Bibles this old (1550), the pictures in the Bible still depict Moses with horns. The picture below actually depicts Moses with horns. Moses is in the top right corner, receiving the tablets from God. Check it out. 

So the crisis with ISIS in the Middle East has been getting a lot of publicity over the past year or so, and the wounds were opened up this week as they brutally burned a young Jordanian pilot to death. These people are, quite frankly, unimaginably brutal. I know I'm not alone when I say those sorts of things make me physically sick to read about.
The medievalist within me has recently had me comparing the acts of terror in the Middle East to a different kind "Middle"... the Middle Ages.
Groups of people have been committing murder as far back as Cain and Able go, but for some reason there's a romantic association with violence in the Middle Ages.

From a historical perspective, the brutal events occurring in the Middle East give people today an absolutely exceptional window into the past. It may be an unwelcome and unsettling window to the past, but for historical purposes it is exceptional. And mind you, I don't mean to belittle any of the modern events in the Middle East or elsewhere by making comparisons out of them.

I think it's safe to say any red-blooded American (or normal human, for that matter) abhors the acts of ISIS in the Middle East. I sure do. We often think to ourselves "What kind of person would do such a thing? They must be monsters!" Yeah, well, they are.

But don't speak too soon. Who would do things like that? Your ancestors. Your great great (x20) grandfather would do such a thing. In fact, I'll argue that things were more brutal in the Middle Ages. Nowadays we're just so detached from those times that it is discussed without any care.

In October of 782 AD, the Charles the Great, or Charlemagne, brutally murdered (most contemporaries agree it was by beheading) over 4,500 Saxon prisoners in one day. 4,500 men beheaded in one day. And you thought ISIS was the most brutal group in history.

The massacre in October of 782 is just one of countless examples of extreme brutality in history. It has existed since the dawn of humanity. But, if you're willing to use your imagination for a minute or two, and think about the feelings of dread, sorrow and sickness that befell you when you read the ISIS beheading or burning headlines and when you saw the pictures, you can have a raw glimpse into how some events unfolded in the Middle Ages in Europe and across the world. You can not just read about, but also feel how the people of the world felt when swift brutality came to town...whether it was at the heels of Charlemagne, Genghis Khan, or the Emperor of Japan.
When we think about the context of historical events, I think it's incredibly important to analyze your sources and take every detail from the primary sources. Most of the time it involves putting yourself in the shoes of the subjects, and the widely publicized brutal events in the Middle East give us the opportunity to potentially feel what it was like to be a Muslim in Spain during the Spanish Inquisition, or to be a Saxon in the days of Charlemagne.

When you get the chance, take a couple to minutes to put today's events into the context of history, and then do the reverse - think of historical events as if they happened today, complete with widespread global media, social networks and the internet. It's pretty fascinating to think about.



_________________________________________________________________________________


It has been pretty snowy recently, so here's some pictures of the (not-so-fun) snow. There's also a picture of a pretty cool/weird snow sculpture my roommate and I saw in the town square (the New Haven Green).

Also, at work this week I came across a couple neat things. First, this is telegraph to one of our professors in the 1800s from the Prince of Wales in the UK. I had never seen what a telegraph message looked like (obviously someone transcribed the message onto paper), so I thought it was cool. Also, this is an acceptance letter from that same guy that would become a professor at Yale someday. It's his acceptance letter to Yale in the 1800s. The funny thing is, room and board is only $3.50 per term. 

Yesterday evening, after most of us spent a day off from classes doing nothing, our entire community was filled with terrible news: one of our dear classmates and fellow Yalies had taken her own life due to depression. I never personally knew her, but it undoubtedly affected everyone on this campus, from medical and divinity students to the university president to freshman living on Old Campus.

Yesterday afternoon my roommate got a text from the guy who used to be her Freshman Counselor (Yale's version of an R.A.) last year saying that the girl, Luchang Wang, had posted a goodbye note on social media and she was nowhere to be found. Everyone from friends, random students to policemen searched all of campus and the entire area to try and find her before it was too late, only for the California highway patrol to get in contact with Yale Police and let them know she had taken a flight to California and had already ended her life.

Honestly, the entire community is pretty rattled. Here at Yale, all of us pretend stress isn't an issue, much like students do all across the nation. It becomes an incredibly dangerous environment to keep up with incredibly rigorous academics, extra-curricular activities, jobs, and everything else in between, along with the immeasurable stress of simply being away from home while pretending everything is perfect. People who are no longer in college (like parents) often make the arrogant, asinine, and incorrect statement that young people don't have stress. Most times, the conversation goes like this:

"Yeah, I'm really stressed about everything right now with work, classes, and just life."
"Oh, you college students think you know stress. Just wait until you've got a job and a family and bills to pay...you'll realize this was great. If you think this is stressful, wait until your job is on the line."

I truly believe that responses like that are what drive people, especially young people like students, to feel inferior and it forces them to turn inwards with their stress and depression. And depression gets worse when you feel you have nobody to turn to. People, but more specifically parents, need to realize that the majority of children/teens aren't going to just come right out and say "I'm depressed and I need help." Most young people will try and test the waters to see if they can open up and talk to parents, friends, etc. So when a kid calls and says he/she is stressed, it could mean much more potentially.

Who knows how many times Luchang or other students who took their own lives made that phone call back home, only to get told "That stress is nothing compared to the real world."

Isn't that sad to think about?

And the deeply saddening death of Luchang isn't the first suicidal event here at Yale or in the Ivy League. A simply search online will show the depth and breadth of this issue. Just last week, another freshman here on campus attempted ( but failed) to take his own life by jumping out of an upper-story window on Old Campus.

Make no mistake, college is incredibly stressful. Some students cope by exercising, some cope by drinking, some cope by studying, and some can't cope.

As I heard the news that Luchang was missing Tuesday afternoon, I at first was saddened but didn't feel much. A few minutes later, I put myself in the position of one of her suitemates - I imagined what it would be like if one of my roommates posted a goodbye note and disappeared. It was a terribly gut-wrenching feeling.

I would argue that most people experience depression sometime in their life. I have, and I'll be honest - it is a sickness. It's terrible to feel so deeply sad to the point that you want to do nothing with other people. Luckily, I found a coping mechanism pretty quickly, and took my mind off of the depression by studying for hours on end. This was in high school, and it just so happened to be an incredibly beneficial and productive coping mechanism since I taught myself how to study and subsequently got into Yale. However, I can't imagine being depressed and not being able to find something to take your mind off of it.

I suppose I'm writing all of this just to make a point that depression is real, and to remember a girl who I undoubtedly was in the same lectures with, ate the same meals with, yet never was afforded the chance to befriend.

This past weekend my fiancèe and a friend visited me up here at Yale, and we ended up going around for the weekend. We had a great time going around New York City and some small New England towns in Connecticut. 

This one is of us all on the end of the Brooklyn Bridge. It was raining miserably.

Typical tired, yawning me on a subway with Tiff.

And I can't leave out the old-timey green post boxes in NYC.

I finally got to see the Flatiron Building.

We went into the Lego Store, and they had a huge, lego Gandalf from Lord of the Rings, so I decided to take a "cool" selfie with the lego Gandalf,

Inside the original Macy's they have old wooden escalators, complete with the wooden stairs.

And this may be my favorite picture of the weekend. This is us four on the top of East Rock Park, a cliff that overlooks the City of New Haven. If you know what you're looking at, you can easily spot most of Yale's campus, along with the port of New Haven and the rest of the City. It really is a wonderful view from the top of East Rock. 

I also had my first day working at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library today, and it was really amazing. As someone who loves history, this is pretty much a dream job. There isn't a more thorough rare materials library in the nation, and many even argue that this is the most thorough and expansive rare book and manuscript library in the world. Here's just a few of the things I worked with today:

This is a 16th century genealogy of a French nobility family.

 These are tickets and invitations to meet Mussolini in 1937 in Tripoli, Libya at his inauguration when he was inaugurated as Governor General of Libya.

Any student of U.S. History or Government will know who this person is: Alexis de Toqueville...possibly the most famous writer on early American democracy. I worked with much of his handwritten letter collection today.

 This is an indentured apprenticeship contract from the mid-1500s in England.

This is an indentured servant contract for a girl named Ann Smith in the 1700s.

This is a vellum-bound book on religious topics.

This is probably the coolest thing I've seen at the Beinecke because of its modern day validity. This is a bond for a Dutch dike-maintenance company in the 1700s. It just so happens that this is still a live bond, so it has to travel back to the Netherlands every 10 years for interest to be collected. Can you believe this old document still collects Euros to this day!?

 This is also really cool... it's a royal decree from Queen Mary and King Phillip of England in the 1500s.

And it was only my first day. Among other things, I also handled part of our expansive ancient papyrus collection, which is thousands of 3rd century BC documents written in languages like Aramaic on papyrus.