Medievalist roots

A  historian of my acquaintance posted the following picture to Facebook to illustrate why he became a medievalist:

Quite a laudable reason!

Then I realized that I too could illustrate my medievalist roots.  And no, it has nothing to do with deeds of arms:

Yes, Richard III's signature! 

I attribute my medievalism not to being something of a Ricardian as a teenager -- though I was -- but  to the script which he  used to sign his name (in a better exemplar than any I found on the web).


I wanted to read and write that script.

Little did I know I would someday be sitting in the Bodleian with a manuscript from the 5th century -- but  I have.

Benefactors of humanity

More than once in the past I have said that Roger Pearse is a benefactor of humanity. It still seems to be true. Why is he our benefactor? He has taken it upon himself translate or commission translations of a great many early Christian works which have until now been available only to people who could read the original languages. Some people think that's fine -- if you don't know ancient Greek you would not understand these sources anyway -- but that's not my attitude, nor is it Roger's. As someone who has studied late antiquity and read a lot of obscure Christian literature from that era, I am in awe of Roger's generosity. The translations that he posts and otherwise gives away are not a complete substitute for the originals, but they make available part of the cultural and religious legacy of early Christianity to many new people.

I was inspired to say something about Roger by a blog post he published today, just one of the interesting posts of his that I've read since I discovered he had a blog. the Post announces a new translation of Hippolytus's Chronicon, one of the very first world chronicles written by Christian, in this case a third century Roman clergyman who eventually was martyred. (He is sometimes considered the first antipope.) In an earlier incarnation I had to know something about Hippolytus; it would have been nice to have this translation then.

But one of the interesting things about this new translation is that it is not, as far as I can tell, one of Roger's projects! There is another benefactor of humanity out there and this person is named T. C. Schmidt. Thank you very much, T.C.!

Image: Hippolytus being martyred, dragged behind a horse, from the Wikipedia entry on him.