Delivery Medieval
Toledo, 1272-1280. Alfonso X of Castile gathered 427 monomedical songs dedicated to the Virgin. The Cantigas de Santa Maria constitute one of the most important musical and literary collections of the Middle Ages, but being decorated with the miniature cantiga, these illustrations have also contributed to other fields. For example, they offer information about motherhood, since some of these miniatures had represented different positions of childbirth.
Despite little information about motherhood in the Middle Ages, we have also received some direct testimonies from mothers: for example, we know that a 12th century peasant said that her children were “the light of my eyes”. And that is the phrase that historian María Jesús Fuente used as the title of the book on maternity in the Middle Ages: The light of my eyes. Being a Mother in the Middle Ages (My Eye Light) Being a mother in the Middle Ages. Taurus, 2023).
As in the Kantigas, the Virgin was the model of mother in Christian Europe. Through the Virgin, Christianity established control of the female body and condemnation of sexual sins.
Even abortion and contraception were strongly condemned by the church, but that doesn't mean they didn't. In the medical treatises of the time various forms of abortion were collected: taking herbs, drinkers and toxic fungi, blood extractions, extreme physical exercise, high loads… And in the book Fuente contains even more violent methods, such as “assault abortion, that is, the beating of the woman until the death of the fetus”.
The historian also talks about the feelings of love and attachment of his mother. The testimonies of these sensations are until recently scarce and the lack of attachment to children has been attributed to the high infant mortality rate. But Maria Jesús Fuente has highlighted other reasons. The mothers of nobility and real families did not breastfeed the children, but used the nodes and caregivers as soon as they were born, “because mothers had to give more heirs as soon as possible”. In the case of poor women, children were also frequently abandoned because they lacked sufficient time and resources. “This also happens today,” explains Fuentes, “many women cannot care for children because of their context.”
In general, the book highlights that many of the concepts we have about motherhood, childbirth, abortion or childcare are based on the Middle Ages and that we cannot yet shake above.
Copenhagen, 18 December 1974 At 12 noon a ferry arrived at the port, from where a group of about 100 Santa Claus landed. They brought a gigantic geese with them. The idea was to make a kind of “Trojan Goose” and, upon reaching the city, to pull the white beard costumes... [+]
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New York, 1960. At a UN meeting, Nigeria’s Foreign Minister and UN ambassador Jaja Wachucu slept. Nigeria had just achieved independence on 1 October. Therefore, Wachuku became the first UN representative in Nigeria and had just taken office.
In contradiction to the... [+]
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have discovered several cylinders with inscriptions at the present Syrian Reservoir, the Tell Umm-el Marra. Experts believe that the signs written in these pieces of clay can be alphabetical.
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London 1928. At the Victoria and Albert Museum there was a very special painting: in the painting there is a black man, with wig and Levite, surrounded by books and scientific instruments. Thus it was catalogued in the Museum: “Unique satirical portrait representing a failed... [+]
Ethiopia, 24 November 1974. Lucy's skeleton was found in Hadar, one of the oldest traces of human ancestors. The Australian hominid of Australopithecus afarensis is between 3.2 and 3.5 million years old.
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Zamora, late 10th century. On the banks of the Douro River and outside the city walls the church of Santiago de los Caballeros was built. The inside capitals of the church depict varied scenes with sexual content: an orgy, a naked woman holding the penis of a man… in the... [+]
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A group of interdisciplinary researchers from the Free University of Berlin and the Zuse Institute have developed a complex mathematical model to better understand how Romanization spread in North Africa.
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Washington (EE.UU. ), 1807. The US Constitution banned transatlantic slave trade. This does not mean that slavery has been abolished, but that the main source of the slaves has been interrupted. Thus, slave women became the only way to “produce” new slaves.
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While working at a site in the Roman era of Normandy, several archaeology students have recently made a curious discovery: inside a clay pot they found a small glass jar, of which women used to bring perfume in the 19th century.
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Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States launched an atomic bomb causing tens of thousands of deaths in Hiroshima and Nagasaki; although there are no precise figures, the most cautious estimates indicate that at least 210,000 people died at the end of that year. But in... [+]
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