Becoming an Adultier Adult – a Pelican

This weekend at Twelfth Night 2020 I was surprised with an elevation to peer of the realm for service to the Society for Creative Anachronism, the medieval re-enactment hobby that I love. I was admitted to the Order of the Pelican, which is an honor analogous to being made a knight. I am grateful beyondContinue reading "Becoming an Adultier Adult – a Pelican"

Pretty Underwear: the German Hemd

The smock or shift worn under renaissance German clothing, whether Landsknecht or court, male or female, was called the hemd. There were three types of hemde worn with German garments, with slightly differing construction: high neck, round neck, and square neck. German women, in particular, rarely wore plain hemde. Instead, they preferred pretty underwear, linenContinue reading "Pretty Underwear: the German Hemd"

The Printing Press and the Protestant Reformation

“[The printing press] is God’s highest and extremest form of grace, whereby the business of the gospel is driven forward.”  ~Martin Luther In 1448, Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press, accelerating change and growth throughout Europe. Literacy and knowledge had been formerly the province of the church and priesthood, but the advent ofContinue reading "The Printing Press and the Protestant Reformation"