I love it when other people post for me

[kareina]

I still haven't made time to type up my Stockholm adventures, but clovis_t has typed up a little, describing one of the two museums we actually made it to. Granted, he neglected to mention the single most noteworthy item in that museum--a wool mitten liner, made by nålbinding. It was displayed along with its leather shell. There were quite a number of textiles which survived in the wreck, thanks to the brackish water of the Stockholm harbour area. While I wasn't terribly interested in the cuts of the clothing, preferring a much earlier style, the mitten was gorgeous, and didn't look much different from far earlier mittens.

He promises to talk about the gold room at the Historiska museet, so I won't bother describing that either (other than to note that to my eye the silver display was *far* prettier than the gold). However, I will mention the Textile room, which, oddly enough, I found a bit disappointing. Its emphasis is on flashy and colour, and it pretty much exclusively displayed beautifully preserved highly decorated textiles which have served in churches as alter cloths and the like (though not all of them were originally made for that purpose). Don't get me wrong, I love embroidery, and these were some lovely displays of needlework (some of which I've seen in books and photos on line hitherto). But I would have also loved to have seen some utilitarian textiles. Show me the surviving tiny fragments of real clothing from the early Middle Ages and the Migration period! Let me see the various seam treatments! Pretty stuff. Bah, Humbug. Anyone can do pretty. I want to see practical!

(I won't even mention the costume reconstructions on display in the Viking room--the Man's tunic had visible machine-stitched over-stitching around the neckline, doing a very poor job of keeping the neck facing inside. It wasn't pretty, and I don't really think that the technique was used in period, even if one simply replaced the machine stitches with hand-stitching.)

Perhaps I'll describe the event in another post--it was such fun that it deserves a more detailed mention than it has received thus far.

I've had a weekend with which to recover from my long weekend of travel, though I didn't expect to have. The uni was locked up yesterday and today. Apparently the 7th is a Milan-only holiday, St. Ambrogio's day (or so one of my Italian friends tells me), and the 8th is a holiday for an immaculate conception (according to a web page of Italian public holidays). The web page didn't say whose conception, but since the local god is said to have had such a beginning for the human phase of its existence, I'm guessing that it would be his. Why celebrate the conception so close to the time they celebrate his birth I'm not really clear on, but there is probably no understanding a religion in which one isn't raised. So I've enjoyed the peace and quiet of an empty building (well, other than my office), and manged to make some progress on my poster, and have even caught up on reading LJ, though I'm still a bit behind in actually replying to emails.

I also took advantage of the large table in the library across the hall from my office--it makes a brilliant fabric cutting table, and I now have some pieces cut to add to my winter coat in progress.

Two more days to accomplish everything that must be done before flying to California!

Comments

[katerit.livejournal.com]

The immaculate conception is Mary's, not Christ's, although it gets confused. It is the product of certain medieval thinking about original sin. I think it much more interesting if Mary was normal, but this line of thinking is very very medieval.

learn something new every day

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Did this version of the story get incorporated into the Lutheran branch of the religion? I have never heard this part of the tale before, and I'm wondering if I just failed to notice, but the story has been in front of me, or if it wouldn't have been mentioned in the rare Sunday school class I attended when I was young because that church doesn't buy into that part.

I am curious as to what process (or lack therof) makes a conception immaculate. Isn't this a religion which thinks of sex as a sin? Is there another way to get the sperm and egg to merge?

Re: learn something new every day

[katerit.livejournal.com]

Nah - Mary's parents did things naturally. The concept is that Mary was somehow protected from the whole stain of original sin. I don't really cotton to the notion; I know where it comes from in terms of medieval and medievally-influenced thinking, but I think it is a problematic paradigm.

The immaculate conception is most likely the same thing in the Lutheran church - with Christ it is the whole virgin birth idea.

By the way - the concept of sex as a sin is also a medieval warping of thinking and has largely gone out of the church - as long as we're talking marriage here. Within marriage, sex is seen as sacramental (a sign of God's presence on earth), and we've gone back to our Jewish roots of thinking of it as an important part of that relationship. My comfort with my sexuality really stems from hanging out with very active and devout Catholics when growing up.

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, I mentioned at dance practice last night about having learned something new, and one of our members, who was a history teacher at a university before going to work for the US consulate, said that it is a very late period concept, and didn't get adopted as "law" till the 18th century (or was that 1800's?)

[katerit.livejournal.com]

The concept and the feast day is 15th century, as is the thinking. The creation of the concept as dogma is 19th century. It's an interesting progression. By the way - I hope to see you while you're in the area - perhaps at 12th Night, though I know how fleeting such visits are at 12th Night.

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Indeed, it would be wonderful if I could actually spend a bit of time with you, I've rather missed you. Don't know if I'll be able to work it out or not--any chance of your popping up to the city next week? (I don't really expect that to be an option)

[corvideye.livejournal.com]

I understand what you're saying about the less glamorous textile items. Still, I quite enjoyed the pretty items at that link! SCA people don't tend to think about later medieval textiles from that area.

[kareina.livejournal.com]

The first time I saw pictures of a couple of those items was a handout I acquired in Lochac from an SCA lady in New Zealand, who is originally from somewhere in Scandinavia; she had translated an article which is only available in the original language and made it available to SCA folk. At the time it amused me that in a Kingdom with such a late-period emphasis (overall) that the Scandinavian stuff they were distributing was also fairly late...