Dr. Valerie

Freytag, Arabum proverbia, vol. 2
no. 582 p. 576, 1839.

#WednesdayWisdom

Wishing you a season full of delights!

Fragments of decorative wall plaster from Roman Lincoln (Lindum). The fragments came from the Greetwell villa site in Lincoln (sadly destroyed by quarrying during the C19th), and are now part of the collections at Lincoln Museum. 📷 My own. #FrescoFriday #RomanBritain

Freytag, Arabum proverbia, vol. 2
no. 581 p. 576, 1839.

#WednesdayWisdom

Not pictured: the home made chicken soup I had today that reminded me of how true this is.

Egyptian Arabic idiom of the day:

daʿawātkum

"Pray for me", lit. "your supplications."

E.g. قدامي امتحان صعب، دعواتكم

uddāmī imtiḥān ṣaʿb, daʿawātkum

"I have a hard exam, pray for me."

Detail from a photostat picture of a page from a twelfth-century manuscript. The manuscript contains liturgical texts, and in the picture we see musical notation above a line of text, then a section of prose with the header "Lectio VII", which means that this is the seventh lesson out of twelve to be read aloud. In the margin on the right-hand side of the text is a drawing of a head that seems more like an animal than a human being, but it is difficult to see exactly what kind of animal.

For the feast of Saint Edmund Martyr, here is one of my favourite depictions of the wolf that guarded Edmund's head - a marginal drawing appearing by the lesson before the one in which the wolf is mentioned. Or so I interpret this figure.

[MS Pierpont Morgan 736, f.187]

Freytag, Arabum proverbia, vol. 2
no. 571 p. 574-5, 1839.

#WednesdayWisdom

TFW you try to say what people expect you to say instead of what you really think and you end up tripping all over your words.

Remember: they used thousands of academic books too! If you’re a scholar, check for your books too. This isn’t just novelists and pop writers, it’s academic books too!

Freytag, Arabum proverbia, vol. 2
no. 562 p. 573, 1839.

#WednesdayWisdom

PS: The note here should refer to proverb 264, which I translated in early November last year, not 263, which is unrelated.

TFW you realize people will show you who they are if you pay attention.

Beware of the Salamander!

BL Royal 12 C XIX; Bestiary; 13th century; England; f.68v

Freytag, Arabum proverbia, vol. 2
no. 534 p. 569, 1839

#WednesdayWisdom

TFW: you see the cracks starting to spread and then you remember…

The Supermoon is rising…

Happy Halloween!

Wishing you a safe and happy e’en, despite everything…

Freytag, Arabum proverbia, vol. 2
no. 536 p. 569, 1839.

#WednesdayWisdom

This week’s proverb gets straight to the point:

🎃Time for the Halloween Bash #Raffle!

🗓The raffle runs from October 1-31 @ 11:59 PM. 1 lucky winner will be randomly selected on November 1

👻#Donate and Enter for a Chance to a SASA Halloween Gift Basket!!!

➡️Click here to purchase a raffle ticket now! saveancientstudies.org/halloweenbash

"Öd Teŋri yaşar; kişi oglı kop ölgeli törümiş."

Freytag, Arabum proverbia, vol. 2
no. 537 p. 569, 1839.

#WednesdayWisdom

TFW it’s autumn, it’s getting cold, the wildflowers are gone, and the trees are bare.

The Snorri Sturluson Icelandic Fellowships invite writers, translators, and scholars in the humanities from around the world to spend at least three months in Iceland. Fellows receive support for travel and living expenses during their stay. Apply by 1 December.

arnastofnun.is/en/snorri-st...

Detail from a fragment of a manuscript fragment, showing the bottom of the front page of the book which is bound in the fragment. The edge of the page cuts through an initial O with floreate decorations in red ink around and within the O itself, which is in blue ink. Above the initial is the word 'Ymnus' (Hymn) in red, with the first word being 'Urbs', 'City'. Above this rubric are two lines of a praise of the Trinity with German muscial notation - looking a bit like brackets or pegs - in-between the text.

I got distracted by some fragment work this evening, & I was happy to revisit this little detail from a fourteenth-century German breviary, containing the feast of the dedication of a church.

[Syddansk Universitetsbibliotek, RARA Musik M 4]

Current mood:

Hi — thanks for the tag! We offer tutorials in Biblical Hebrew. They’re designed for people who are beginners +.have some knowledge of Arabic. If that sounds interesting, feel free to DM!

Freytag, Arabum proverbia, vol. 2
no. 528 p. 568, 1839.

#WednesdayWisdom

… it doesn’t sit back and weigh its options, it doesn’t hedge its bets. Love is always all in.