Episode 92: Emergency Popecast

Synopsis

Pope Francis, beloved of medievalists, died on April 21, 2025, so we’re here with all you might care to know about the forthcoming conclave (now a film starring Ralph Finnes), the history of conclaves, and why medievalists loved Francis so much, anyway.

Notes

1/ Benedict went to Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, I think. It’s in the neighborhood.

2/ Jesse and I decided to try and do any extra notes attached to NEXT episode, so y’all are stuck with only my ramblings down here this time.

3/ Sorry about the sound quality. I messed something up during the recording process. Also I’ve never sat still in my life, apparently. What a way to find out.

4/ Books and films in this episode:

Conclave (2024)
The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco (1980)
The Key to the Name of the Rose: including translations of all non-English passages, by Adele J. Haft, Jane G. White, and Robert H. White (1987)
The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968)

5/ I asked Jesse for clarification about what is meant by someone getting to be pope with a minority of votes. Basically the minority vote-getter (Innocent II) went off and set up as pope anyway, and eventually everyone came around to his way of thinking and made the majority vote-getter (Anacletus II) an antipope. We’ll have a whole episode on antipopes in a couple of weeks when we discuss this in more detail, so keep an eye out.

6/ Hey, Chuck! Sorry. Be less of a fuddy-duddy.

7/ The official job description as posted to LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/vaticano_after-receiving-several-messages-of-interest-activity-7322589152439418880-dmNA

Episode 91: The Field Where I Grow My Ducks

Summary

Em and Jesse are back with more medieval meme review. Join us as we discuss martyrdom, marginalia, The Seventh Seal, and the Bayeux Tapestry.

Notes

1/ martyrdom of Isaiah:People today: People are so violent and depraved these days, things were better in the old days. Medieval people: lmao let's just saw this guy in half. A marginalia drawing of a guy in red robes being sawed in half by two other men.

Martyrdom sword through throat:Being stabbed or chopped in the dark ages. A minor inconvenience or downright enjoyable? There are four images, one is a painting of a woman with a sword through her throat, the other three are marginalia of people being stabbed with swords or an ax.

2/ St. Sebastian. Artists love him!

Just to be clear, “It’s difficult to assert that there were any gay men before Walt Whitman” is a joke about how historians tend to act. Generally, if you look at the comments on Wikipedia, it can be difficult to assert that people are gay after Whitman too—there was one actor who lived with his partner very openly for thirty years, and on the talk page people were still debating if he should be categorized as gay. This about someone who died in 1993.

The Last Judgement: https://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/cappella-sistina/giudizio-universale.html

Rubens’s St. Sebastian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Sebastian_(Rubens)

3/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seventh_Seal

A shot of Death from The Seventh Seal. The caption says, "I am Death. I have long walked by your side. Are you ready?"Death was played by a guy named Bengt Ekerot. No one seems to know how tall he was, but Max Von Sydow was apparently about 6’4″.

4/ “Give a shoutout to Sandman…” We recorded this in 2022, long before the allegations against Neil Gaiman became public. 🙁 We condemn his behavior in the strongest possible terms. [Terrible people can make amazing art that contradicts their own actions in their personal lives. It’s really unsatisfying, but an important (and unfortunate) fact about human nature.–Jesse]

5/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albertus_Pictor

6/ I'm a bitch, I'm a lover, I'm a cat churning butter. A marginalia drawing of a cat standing on its back legs, apparently churning butter at a butter churn.David Jenkins was the creator of Our Flag Means Death.

Meredith Brooks, “Bitch.” https://genius.com/Meredith-brooks-bitch-lyrics

7/ The Rothschild Canticles: https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/2002755 [scroll down to page 148r]. The book takes its name from Edmond de Rothschild, rather than whoever commissioned it. E. de R. (aka Baron Abraham Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild, 1845–1935) was indeed a member of the powerful banking family and subject of many anti-Semitic conspiracy theories you are thinking of. Where it came from before that is unclear, at least according to the provenance information provided by Yale.

Citation: MS 404, folio 148 recto.

John Boswell was a Yale scholar who wrote a book called Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe where he argued that the early Church had a ritual called “adelphopoiesis” (brother-making) that was essentially a marriage ceremony for same-sex couples. (This being the thing back before the Church felt like it cared much about who married whom, which is a rather newer thing than they would like to admit.) The rite still happens today—here (https://www.npr.org/2024/04/09/1243606135/a-look-at-the-ancient-practice-that-turned-friends-into-family) is an NPR article about two women who underwent the ritual in 1985. (And history will say they were roommates.) (Except in this case it seems as though they were. Sorry.) (The point being that the rite is perceived somewhat differently today. Or at least by NPR.)

Boswell died in 1994, about a decade after Foucault.

8/ In the style of the Bayeux Tapestry, a man pointing. The words read: Behold! The field in which I grow my fucks Lay theine eyes upon it and thou shall seee that it is barren.

Episode 90: Ask a Memevalist

Synopsis

Memes. Love or hate them, they’re hard to escape. Let’s do a medieval meme review.

Notes

1/ Sorry for the weird sound at the beginning. File errors.

2/ There are whole Bsky accounts like “weird medieval guys“.

3/ Cave Canum

Know thyself

4/ The Book of Dog Names:

Tweet from Weird Medieval Guys account: in the early fifteenth century, Edward, 2nd duke of york, wrote a list of 1,126 names he considered to be suitable for dogs. Highlights from the list: -nosewise -garlik -pretyman -garlarde -norman -filthe (here is a marginalia picture of a dog with a red and blue cape)some more good ones: -salmon -synfull -havegoodday -"nise" as well as "noty" -grimbolde -childe -coke -baby -stykkefaste -snacke -wellyfownde -tullymully -honyball -alberte -strawnge -crampette -argument -best-of-all -bonyfaunte

Superdog’s name is Krypto 🙂

Livre du Chasse (see Episode 29 note 5 for more!)

Here is the Christie’s description for this specific manuscript.

Edward, Duke of York (1373-1415–he died at Agincourt!!!)

“Gentlemen of England now abed”: An (incredibly famous) line from Henry V

“Gallant, springing, brave Plantagenet”: From the scene in Richard III where the two murderers go to kill Clarence, Duke of Gloucester (on RIII’s orders, of course).

Interpolated: to insert between two parts.

A yellow lab doggy siting on a sofa. (Wrigley) A black lab puppy sitting on a gray sofa. He is sitting up and chomping on someone's hand. (Addison)

RIP Wrigley, bestest girl (2009-2024). Now we have Addison, the best boy.

5/ Here’s a name–age calculator: https://randalolson.com/name-age-calculator/

Interestingly, Jessica has almost the same arc as Tiffany, but Tiffany is definitely a very 1980s neon name and Jessica is not. Is it because of the prominence of a Jessica in Shakespeare’s A Merchant of Venice that makes it clear to us that the name is not a modern invention?

The Tiffany video

6/ If you’re wondering why we mention Carl Gustav and not Charles III, it’s because we recorded this in 2022 when Elizabeth II was still alive. Also, if you’re wondering why Em says “Carl VI Gustav” rather than “Carl XVI Gustav,” the answer is…I have no idea. Sorry.

7/ Screenshot from Tumblr. Account: hxasinthus i wish it was 1600 so i cood spellee words howee everr my harte desyred Account: HolisticFansStuff Source: hxasinthus #thou canst spelle wyrds howevere thou liekest alraedye if thou isntst a couweurde Tags via @aziraphalesbian Account: FlourescentJellyfish Please no this is how French happened

I don’t know, Jesse. NYT has gone downhill lo these last two years. [ARGH, yes. –Jesse]

8/ Melvil Dui. For some reason we (the world) kept the spelling of his first name but not his last. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvil_Dewey I’m not a Dewey Decimal superfan, but I’ll admit it’s very useful.

9/ I have heard the “don’t use first person pronouns in your essay” rule explained as: it’s your essay, we know it’s your opinion. So just say what it is. [Yes, but you might be quoting other people’s opinions, some of which you like and some of which you don’t! And you have to be able to say “THAT person says X, but I think Y.”–Jesse]

10/ The Oxford Dictionary of African American English: https://www.oed.com/discover/odaae

The Dictionary of American Regional English: https://www.daredictionary.com/

Passing Slang of the Victorian Era: https://archive.org/details/passingenglishof00wareuoft/page/n5/mode/2up

11/ “I will never be detail-oriented enough” J/K guys, in the last two three years since we did this, I’ve become EVEN MORE detail-oriented. I will NEVER STOP.