Least Favorite Job From The Middle Ages

      The job that I would like to have the least would probably be the barber surgeon. I can not stand the sight of blood of the sound of tearing skin as it is, so it is so horrible that people have to do that. In those times, they probably has no sedatives or advanced medications, so the people were probably screaming in pain. Can you imagine after the surgery? People were probably in so much pain and their wounds were most likely going to be infected. Some of the tools that people had to use were old- looking and unsanitary. I would not like to be the one to blame for a death or serious illness because of the surgery that I preformed. I also can not stand the sight of a needle. I don’t think that the needles back then were small and advanced like they are today so it would be so gross to inject a large needle into a screaming kid or adult. Another thing that is gross about anywhere that medical surgeries are preformed is the smell. The smell of blood and metal. Back then there was not air conditioning and the smell could sit around for days or weeks at a time… EW! The surgeons probably at some point used leeches to take blood or puncture the skin, and the way that leeches were collated was another thing that no one would want to do. They were collected using women with bare legs who when out into the river and had them stuck to her. This had to be very unsanitary. For example, one leech could have been used for multiple people. This brings me to wonder what would happen if some infected blood from another person was put into a different leech user. All together, both of these jobs seemed unsanitary and very unappealing, and hopefully I will never have to preform them in my lifetime.   

Emily Patrick's Freshman Year

This year was pretty fun and exciting for Emily Patrick, the incoming freshman at John Carroll High School. She learned a lot about herself and her new ways by coming to this school. Emily remembers here first week of school, she was confused and had no idea about anything. She ran through the halls hoping that there would be time for her to remember her locker combination when she would finally find it. She did not realize though that the lockers and classrooms were organized in a certain way. All of the one hundred lockers were on the first floor, the second hundreds on the second floor and the three hundred on the third floors. Once she found this, it was much easier for her to navigate her way around school. She also made many new friends this year. Because it was hard for Emily to try and make new friends, she pushed herself to reach out to others and try to learn about them. This was a very new kind of experience for her. She also was able to join the volleyball team. Emily was very skeptical and thought that she would not be able to make the team. She had never played before, and focused on practicing for a few hours a week. When she found that she has made the team, she was ecstatic. Emily has been swimming for ten years. She made the John Carroll swim team with ease and was able to participate in the championship meet. She was very lucky because there was only one other freshman picked to go.

Emily has always loved art. She likes to doodle during class or go home and sketch out a small picture just for fun, but when it came to drawing something for am application, that was something else. She sat and thought for a while to think of the two pieces that she would draw for her art class application. She decided to draw an underwater scene and a vase. Once she had finally finished, she sent in her work and hoped for the best. When she saw the letter sitting on the table, she ran to it with excitement and nervousness that forced her to rip open the perfectly sealed envelope. She had mad it! Emily would now be part of the art class at her high school, and later would find that she would make the Art Honors Society. Today when she looks at her work, you can see the satisfaction in her face of what she has become.

Emily knows how far she has come. She knows that she tried her hardest this year to receive first and second honors, and that she hopes for the same if not better next year. In years to come, more friends, fun, and learning is hopefully in her future. She has had a great first year and shows it in here day to day activities. Emily is more confident and enthusiastic about life and understands that the harder you work for something, the larger possibility you will be able to achieve it. She expresses to never let people tell you that you can’t reach your goals because if you really look forward and work towards them, you are able to achieve more goals then you ever could have imagined. Emily Patrick can hardly wait until next year as she watches her wonderful freshman year come to an end. 

Final Draft: Weekly #9

Question: Why is it so important to understand [i.e. the topic of your expert group] if one is to really understand the culture of the Middle Ages?

The codex manuscripts were very crucial to understand the culture of the Middle Ages. They show us the earliest forms of religion, and the way that these people understood it. The manuscripts were not only written in a way so that they were well- detailed and very legible, they were meant to teach people. There are many pictures in the manuscripts, and they described all of the stories. Codex manuscripts are very important because they are our earliest forms of the Bible.  Codex manuscripts gave us an understanding of the culture of the Middle Ages; on how to make books, how religion was viewed at this time, and the way that religion was portrayed in the time of the Middle Ages.

Making manuscripts helped to teach the people of the Middle Ages how to use their technics to create books and used writing. “The Making of a Medieval Book explores the materials and techniques used to create the lavishly illuminated manuscripts produced in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance” (Getty). In order to make and write on pages, there are four steps. The first is to prepare the parchment. The fur was removed and the animal skin was pulled taught. This takes a few days and once the skin is thin enough, it is removed. The parchment is cut and ruled. Ruling is when lines are drawn to keep the writing straight. Next, is illumination; this makes the colors glow and the help the book to look good. Binding is the final step which involves a complicated process of putting the pages together and securing them so that the book will not fall apart. This is a very important process, and it was necessary so that our early religion history could be accurately recorded.

Four hundred year after Jesus’ crucifixion, one of the possibly oldest Bibles ever made, the Codex Sinaiticus was finished and bound. It is made of one thousand- four hundred pages.  “The British Library, which begins an exhibition of the Codex Sinaiticus today, said the book gave first-hand evidence of how the text of the Bible had been transmitted from generation to generation” (Pigott). This gave us our first idea of the religious history. This is a huge accomplishment in the eyes of the church. It goes all the way back to less than five centuries after Jesus’ death. For all that is known, this could be one of the most accurate and important discoveries in our religion. This book was written in Greek and passed down for generations. This just shows how important it is to keep track of old documents because, this one especially, proved to be an important find for the Church and for all history.

Religion was written in the manuscripts, but most of the pages were pictures. Before things were written by using words, pictures were used. Even though at this time there were languages, people still often used pictures to tell a story or share a piece of information. One example of this that is known about from our religion, and one that is talked about in the Bible is that the people who knew Jesus drew a fish in the ground. At this time, people were also not very well educated. This is another good reason for the use of pictures. Even people who were not able to read the words on the page could look at the pictures and understand some of what was being told in the stories (see figure 1). In this picture that is located in one of the Gospels, it shows what is going on in the writing. The artwork in these books was phenomenal, and so was the writing. The illumination of the first letter starting a chapter and the neatness of the words is breathtaking. It is easy to see that time was taken to ensure that the book would look its best. Even though all of the writing was very important to these books, pictures were also a large part of them.

In conclusion, these manuscripts were important for setting examples for years to come, and making history that is part of our society today. The church is very lucky to be able to have these as a symbol of the religious history. Hopefully more manuscripts will be found, and more will be discovered. People need to realize that these are something that should be studied in order to learn more about not only religion, but also history. This topic gave a good understanding of the Middle Ages and its culture, and maybe even for more years to come.

figure 1

Works Cited

The Making of a Medieval Book (Getty Exhibitions). (n.d.). The Getty. Retrieved May 3, 2011, from http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibiti

Pigott, R. (n.d.). Learning English - Words in the News - World's oldest Bible put online.BBC - Homepage. Retrieved May 3, 2011, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/l

Manuscript and Rare Books at The Walters Art Museum . (n.d.). Art Collection of the Walters Art Museum . Retrieved May 3, 2011, from http://art.thewalters.org/viewgallery.aspx?id=1255

ROUGH DRAFT: Weekly #9

Question: Why is it so important to understand [i.e. the topic of your expert group] if one is to really understand the culture of the Middle Ages?

The codex manuscripts were very crucial to understand the culture of the Middle Ages. They show us the earliest forms of religion, and the way that these people understood it. The manuscripts were not only written in a way so that they were well- detailed and very legible, they were meant to teach people. There are many pictures in the manuscripts, and they described all of the stories. Codex manuscripts are very important because they are our earliest forms of the Bible.  These manuscripts gave us an understanding the culture of the middle ages and on how to make books and use certain materials in order to do so, how religion was viewed at this time, and the way that religion was portrayed in the time of the Middle Ages. These manuscripts gave us no understanding of any culture and the religion, the way it was portrayed, and how it was viewed.

Making manuscripts helped to teach the people of the Middle Ages how to use their technics to create books and used writing. “The Making of a Medieval Book explores the materials and techniques used to create the lavishly illuminated manuscripts produced in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance” (Getty). In order to make and write on pages, there are four steps. The first is to prepare the parchment. The fur was removed and the animal skin was pulled taught. This takes a few days and once the skin is thin enough, it is removed. The parchment is cut and ruled. Ruling is when lines are drawn to keep the writing straight. Next, is illumination; this makes the colors glow and the help the book to look good. Binding is the final step which involves a complicated process of putting the pages together and securing them so that the book will not fall apart. This is a very important process, and it was necessary so that our early religion history could be accurately recorded.

Four hundred year after Jesus’ crucifixion, one of the possibly oldest Bibles ever made, the Codex Sinaiticus was finished and bound. It is made of one thousand- four hundred pages.  “The British Library, which begins an exhibition of the Codex Sinaiticus today, said the book gave first-hand evidence of how the text of the Bible had been transmitted from generation to generation” (Pigott). This gave us our first idea of the religious history. This is a huge accomplishment in the eyes of the church. It goes all the way back to less than five centuries after Jesus’ death. For all that we know, this could be one of the most accurate and important discoveries in our religion. This book was written in Greek and passed down for generations. This just shows how important it is to keep track of old documents because, this one especially, proved to be an important find for the Church and for all history.

Religion was written in the manuscripts, but most of the pages were pictures. Before things were written by using words, pictures were used. Even though at this time there were languages, people still often used pictures to tell a story or share a piece of information. One example of this that we know about from our religion, and one that is talked about in the Bible is that the people who knew Jesus drew a fish in the ground. At this time, people were also not very well educated. This is another good reason for the use of pictures. Even people who were not able to read the words o the page could look at the pictures and understand some of what was being told in the stories (see figure 1). In this picture that is located in one of the Gospels, it shows what is going on and being written about. The artwork in these books was phenomenal, and so was the writing. The illumination of the first letter starting a chapter and the neatness of the words is breathtaking. It is easy to see that time was taken to ensure that the book would look its best. Even though all of the writing was very important to these books, pictures were also a large part of them.

In conclusion, these manuscripts were important for setting examples for years to come, and making history that is part of our society today. The church is very lucky to be able to have these as a symbol of the religious history. Hopefully more manuscripts will be found, and more will be discovered. People need to realize that these are something that should be studied in order to learn more about not only religion, but also history. This topic gave a good understanding of the Middle Ages and its culture, and maybe even for more years to come. 

Appendix

figure 1

Works Cited

The Making of a Medieval Book (Getty Exhibitions). (n.d.). The Getty. Retrieved May 3, 2011, from http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibiti

Pigott, R. (n.d.). Learning English - Words in the News - World's oldest Bible put online.BBC - Homepage. Retrieved May 3, 2011, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/l

Manuscript and Rare Books at The Walters Art Museum . (n.d.). Art Collection of the Walters Art Museum . Retrieved May 3, 2011, from http://art.thewalters.org/viewgallery.aspx?id=1255