Here’s a book that I missed last month, but I had to include it because I’m so happy to see more work on Thomas Harriot, an overlooked scientist from the early era of modern astronomy. As some of you might recall, I have a degree in astronomy and I’m also very interested in the history of science and Thomas Harriot has been a pet interest of mine for a while after I came across his early sunspot drawings (in fact, he was probably the first person to observe them with a telescope). Early astronomers did a variety of things to observe the sun without burning their retinas and one method Harriot employed was observing the sun at sunrise through the mist over the Thames. So romantic! (This is where I put on my solar astronomer hat and say “don’t look directly at the sun without specialty equipment that is certified as safe for looking at the sun!”)
Thomas Harriot: A Life in Science by Robyn Arianrhod was released in early May in the US and at the end of May in the UK.
Continuing Exhibition
The Many Faces of Tudor England opened at The Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth (England) on March 18 and will run through the of the year. Admission to the exhibit is including with the admission to the museum.
Hey, look – a Sunday Short Takes! It’s not like there has been a lack of Tudor news lately, but I have been lacking in time to sit down a write up a post about them.
A lot of the big news of late has been archaeology related and this first story managed to run it’s whole course before I had a chance to write about it.
Long overdue! Some of these date back over a month, but in my defense, most of February was a blur so it feels like we just went from January straight to March.
* Miranda Kaufmann has a website related to her new book Black Tudors, including brief bios of Ten Black Tudors who are featured in the book, and details on her book tour throughout England.
* And finally, I received an email that the score to the movie Lady Jane has been released. I haven’t seen the movie in a while, but I remember that it a lovely score. One thing that a lot of people might not know about me is that I’m a life-long film score buff and it’s always great to see old scores released even many, many years after the movie came out. You can learn more about this release and listen to sample tracks here. Links to purchase through my Amazon affiliates below:
* Inside the Tudor court – A great post from the British Library’s Medieval Manuscripts blog featuring images from four recently digitized account books of Henry VII and Henry VIII (links to the manuscripts are at the bottom of the post)
Feels weird doing this while part of my state drowns but other than some small donations there isn’t a whole lot I can do at this point until the rain stops here and elsewhere (and it looks like that won’t happen until the end of the week). So, while I continue to try to distract myself, here’s a news round-up!
The big announcement of the last couple of weeks was the discovery of more parts of the old Palace at Greenwich. Here’s a sample of the news coverage:
* And speaking of Harry Potter: Merlin’s beard! Harry Potter’s childhood home in Godric’s Hollow is on the market – This is one of the most historically significant houses in the area, owned from the 14th to the 17th centuries by the de Veres, the richest family in the country after the monarch. – I really wanted to make it to Lavenham when I was in England in 2015 but I just couldn’t fit it in. Another for the “reasons to go again” list!
* Next up – more digging in Leicester!: Archaeologists are set to carry out a dig at Leicester’s Abbey Park – here’s why – The dig is concentrating on discovering more about medieval life at the abbey, but I’m secretly hoping they find the burial of Cardinal Wolsey, who died there while traveling to London. Abbey Park was another place that I had originally hoped to visit when I was in England two years ago but I ended up spending more time at the cathedral and Richard III visitor center than I originally planned so I skipped the Abbey Park to give more time for my visit that afternoon to the Bosworth Battlefield.
* Big announcement – The Tudor Summit 2017 is coming in just a few weeks! I wish I could participate this year but the timing didn’t work out. Hopefully my schedule will actually allow me to join in on in the future!
Join 16th century historians and bloggers at The Tudor Summit 2017 happening online on September 3 and 4!
The Tudor Summit is a two day online event bringing together Tudor history enthusiasts from all over the world to connect with each other, and listen to interviews and lectures from some of the leading Tudor History historians, bloggers, and podcasters. With lecture topics ranging from Tudor portraiture, fashion, and music; to Henry VIII’s wives, and the Princess Mary’s relationships with them, it will be a jam packed and engaging agenda!
The event will be broadcast live on September 3 and 4, starting at 4pm UK time, and registration is free to attend live!
I wanted to get this final round-up of 2016 actually *in* 2016, hence the Saturday post. A lot of stories piled up in the final weeks of 2016 that I never got around to posting, so this is going to be a long one!
How about a round-up of some now-very-outdated-news? 🙂
I’ve skipped the “Marlowe as Shakespeare Co-author” news stories since you couldn’t swing a dead poet without hitting those, so here are a few other things from the past month and a half (UGH) that might have slipped past people that I thought were interesting.
* Human bones mystery uncovered at Anglesey church – The bones were discovered during a project to clean and restore a rare alabaster stone tomb at St Gredifael’s Church near Menai Bridge. The tomb at Penmynydd is of Goronwy Tudur and his wife Myfanwy – part of Tudor family dynasty. – I visited the tomb myself back in 2000 so I was pleased to see that the it continues to be cared for. This was also the church where the stained glass window honoring the Tudor dynasty was smashed by vandals and then later restored.
Good grief, I didn’t expect a month to go by before I got a chance to do one of these again… To say that things have been busy lately would be a wild understatement. The good news is that I’ve earned a fair amount of comp time but the bad news is that I have no idea when I will ever be able to use it!
But enough whinging from me – on to the news round-up!
* The Tudor London Tube Map – This one has already been going around social media for a while now, but it was so clever (and useful for planning a Tudor-themed trip to London) that I had to post it.
* Bosworth: the dawn of the Tudors – From childhood imprisonment in Brittany to the violent execution of Richard III in a Leicestershire field, Henry Tudor
The big story of the week was the re-opening of The Mary Rose Museum, which now gives visitors a full view of the dried remains of the ship. Here is a selection of stories about the event:
A number of big stories lit up my news alerts this week so I guess I couldn’t procrastinate my way though another Sunday without doing a wrap-up! And I’m actually healthy again, which helps a lot. 🙂
This was probably the biggest story that came through:
