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Adam Pinkhurst
Adam Pinkhurst is best known as a fourteenth-century English scribe whom Linne Mooney identified as the 'personal scribe' of Geoffrey Chaucer, although much recent scholarship has cast doubt on this connection. Biography There are records of an 'Adam Pynkhurst' (as it is usually spelled) from 1355 to 1399–1401. The earliest is a property sale by Pinkhurst, his wife Joanna, and another married couple in Dorking and Betchworth, Surrey; this suggests that he was probably born sometime in the mid-1330s at the latest. In 1370 Pynkhurst was granted a handsome annuity by King Edward III; this record and subsequent ones identify him as a 'King's Archer', that is, a member of an elite group charged with protecting the king. The 1381 Poll Tax records for Bramley, Surrey, record amounts paid some three times what an average person would have been expected to contribute. Records of 1385 pertaining to the purchase and then sale (back to the previous owner) of a property adjoining the church ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific ''A Treatise on the Astrolabe'' for his 10-year-old son Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament. Among Chaucer's many other works are ''The Book of the Duchess'', ''The House of Fame'', ''The Legend of Good Women'', and ''Troilus and Criseyde''. He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin. Chaucer's contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed him as "the firste fyndere of our ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Letter-Books Of The City Of London
The Letter-Books of the City of London are a series of fifty folio volumes in vellum containing entries of the matters of in which the City of London was interested or concerned, beginning in 1275 and concluding in 1509. The volumes are part of the collection of the City of London Records Office, and are kept in the London Metropolitan Archives. The volumes derive their name from being lettered from ''A'' to ''Z'' (with two odd volumes marked respectively ''&c.'' and ''AB'') and again from ''AA'' to ''ZZ''. Besides being known by distinctive letters, the earlier Letter-Books originally bore other titles, derived from the comparative size of each volume and the original colour of its binding. Letter-Book A is referred to as the "Lesser Black Book" (''Parvus'' or ''Minor Liber Niger''); Letter-Book B as the "Black Book" (''Liber Niger''); Letter-Book C as the "Greater Black Book" (''Major'' or ''Maximus Liber Niger''); Letter-Book D as the "Red Book" (''Liber Rubeus''); and Letter-B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medieval European Scribes
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and transitioned into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages. Population decline, counterurbanisation, the collapse of centralized authority, invasions, and mass migrations of tribes, which had begun in late antiquity, continued into the Early Middle Ages. The large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the 7th century, North Africa and the Middle East—most recently part of the Eastern Roman ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Canterbury Tales
''The Canterbury Tales'' ( enm, Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. The tales (mostly written in verse (poetry), verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the The Tabard, Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return. It has been suggested that the greatest contribution of ''The Canterbury Tales'' to English literature was the popularisation of the English vernacular in mainstream literature, as opposed to French, Italian or Latin. English had, however, been used as a literary language centuries before Chaucer's time, and several of Chaucer's contemporaries—John Gower, W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher De Hamel
Christopher Francis Rivers de Hamel (born 20 November 1950) is a British academic librarian and expert on mediaeval manuscripts. He is a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and former Fellow Librarian of the Parker Library. His book '' Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts'' is the winner of the Duff Cooper Prize for 2016 and the Wolfson History Prize for 2017. Early life and education Christopher de Hamel was born on 20 November 1950 in London, England. At the age of four he moved with his parents to New Zealand, where he was educated at King's High School, Dunedin, and graduated with an honours degree in history from the University of Otago. He was subsequently awarded a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree by Oxford University for his research on 12th-century Bible commentaries. His thesis was titled "The production and circulation of glossed books of the Bible in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries". He has been awarded honorary Doctorates of Letters from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxford Dictionary Of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September 2004 in 60 volumes and online, with 50,113 biographical articles covering 54,922 lives. First series Hoping to emulate national biographical collections published elsewhere in Europe, such as the '' Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (1875), in 1882 the publisher George Smith (1824–1901), of Smith, Elder & Co., planned a universal dictionary that would include biographical entries on individuals from world history. He approached Leslie Stephen, then editor of the ''Cornhill Magazine'', owned by Smith, to become the editor. Stephen persuaded Smith that the work should focus only on subjects from the United Kingdom and its present and former colonies. An early working title was the ''Biographia Britannica'', the name of an earlier eightee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bruce Holsinger
Bruce W. Holsinger is an American author, novelist, and an academic and literary scholar. Currently, he is professor of English at the University of Virginia. Academic career He is considered an expert on the use of parchment in medieval English manuscript production, and organized, with bioarchaeology, bioarchaeologists from the University of York, the research project into uterine vellum which established the precise composition for the material used in for the creation of the earliest bible manuscripts. Novelist ''The New York Times'' described him as "gamekeeper turned poacher", due to the fact that Holsinger, a professor at the University of Virginia, specializing in medieval English literature, turned to writing fiction based around his academic interests. His first novel was ''A Burnable Book'' in 2014. This was set in fourteenth-century England during the reign of Richard II of England, King Richard II, and has Holsinger's protagonist John Gower—at the instigation of Ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Northampton
John Northampton (also known as John Comberton) (died 1398) was a reformist Lord Mayor of London in 1381 and 1382, during dissension in favour of reform of its Common Council in the early years of Richard II's reign. When the oligarchic leaders of London were able to engineer the overthrow of his faction, even the book of records of reform legislation was burned, known as the Jubilee book. The mob politics of such radical movements increased the uneasiness of the great about allowing popular participation in government. He had also served as Sheriff of London in 1376-77. Family Northampton was raised in London, son of Thomas and Mariota Northampton. He is known to have had two brothers, William and Robert, and two sisters, Petronilla and Agnes. He was twice married. His first wife, living in 1371, was named Johanna, his second, to whom he was married by 1375, Petronilla, daughter of John Preston and Margaret Constantine (also spelt Constantyn). By one of those marriages he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scribe D
The Trinity Gower D Scribe ( fl. 1390–1420), often referred to simply as Scribe D, was a professional scribe and copyist of literary manuscripts active during the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century in London, England. Although his real name long remained unknown, Scribe D has been described as "so well known to students of late Middle English manuscripts that he hardly needs any introduction".Thaisen, J. "The Trinity Gower D Scribe's Two ''Canterbury Tales'' Manuscripts Revisited", in Mooney & Connolly, ''Design and distribution of late medieval manuscripts in England'', Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2008, p.41 Identification and conjectured biography Scribe D was first identified in the 1970s by Ian Doyle and Malcolm Parkes, who noticed that the same scribal hand occurred in a range of prestige manuscripts of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century date.Doyle, A. I. and Parkes, M. B. "The Production of Copies of the Canterbury Tales and Confessio Amantis in the Early ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guildhall, London
Guildhall is a municipal building in the Moorgate area of the City of London, England. It is off Gresham and Basinghall streets, in the wards of Bassishaw and Cheap. The building has been used as a town hall for several hundred years, and is still the ceremonial and administrative centre of the City of London and its Corporation. It should not be confused with London's City Hall, the administrative centre for Greater London. The term "Guildhall" refers both to the whole building and to its main room, which is a medieval great hall. The nearest London Underground stations are Bank, St Paul's and Moorgate. It is a Grade I-listed building. History Roman, Saxon and Medieval During the Roman period, the Guildhall was the site of the London Roman Amphitheatre, rediscovered as recently as 1988. It was the largest in Britannia, partial remains of which are on public display in the basement of the Guildhall Art Gallery, and the outline of whose arena is marked with a black circle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Worshipful Company Of Leathersellers
The Worshipful Company of Leathersellers is one of the Livery company, livery companies of the City of London. The organisation originates from the latter part of the fourteenth century and received its Royal Charter in 1444, and is therefore the senior leather industry-related City Livery Company. The Leathersellers' Company ranks fifteenth in the order of precedence of livery companies. The company's motto is ''Soli Deo gloria, Soli Deo Honor et Gloria'', Latin for ''Honour and Glory to God Alone''. Activities The company, which originally regulated leather merchants, continues to act as an advocate for the UK leather trade, together with its leather-associated livery partners: Worshipful Company of Cordwainers, Cordwainers, Worshipful Company of Curriers, Curriers, Worshipful Company of Girdlers, Girdlers, Worshipful Company of Glovers, Glovers and Worshipful Company of Saddlers, Saddlers. Like these other companies, today it is primarily involved in philanthropic, charitabl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poll Tax
A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources. Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments from ancient times until the 19th century. In the United Kingdom, poll taxes were levied by the governments of John of Gaunt in the 14th century, Charles II in the 17th and Margaret Thatcher in the 20th century. In the United States, voting poll taxes (whose payment was a precondition to voting in an election) have been used to disenfranchise impoverished and minority voters (especially under Reconstruction). By their very nature, poll taxes are considered regressive. Many other economists brand them as highly harmful taxes for low incomes (100 monetary units of a fortune of 10,000 represent 1% of said wealth, while 100 monetary units of a fortune of 500 represents 20%). Its acceptance or "neutrality" (there is no truly neutral tax on the p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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