Ennius

Thank you as ever for this weekly update.

Covid-19 Risk Assessment: Week Ending 5 October 2025 Covid-19 Risk Assessment: Week Ending 5 October 2025

The Covid wave in England continues to grow, with infection levels up 11% in the last week. The risk level is hovering just below Very High. If you do not wish to catch Covid, please take precautions including getting boosted now.
buds.org.uk/covid-19-ris...

A gold ring with a flat pyramidical top in which is inlaid a violet sapphire.

Another gem - literally speaking this time - from today's trip to Sorø. The ring found in the grave of Archbishop Absalon of Lund (r.1177-92). The stone is a Sri Lanka sapphire, testifying to the wide reach of Afro-Eurasian trade networks in the Middle Ages.

This fragment from book 3 of Aristotle's Metaphysica in the Latin translation by Michael Scot is one of the new items in version 6.7 of my Supplementa tertia to Aristoteles Latinus Codices that was released today! (Copenhagen, KB, Fragm. 1258)
www5.kb.dk/manus/vmanus...

The Leo Baeck Institute London is recruiting a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to explore intersections between German-Jewish and British history, including the history of the British Empire.

www.lbilondon.ac.uk/vacancies

Basilisk and weasel

Sukkot begins at sunset on 6 October. Here is a depiction of a Sukkah from 14th century Italy, at the end of the Sukkot liturgy.
#Sukkot
BL Add 26968; Forli Siddur; 1383 CE; Italy, Central (Romagna, Forli); f.316v

Full folio:

Sukkot begins at sunset on 6 October: here's depicted a sukkah and a man holding a lulav branch and an etrog. #Sukkot
BL Or 5024; Pisḳe R. Yeshayah Aḥaron (Halakhic decisions of Isaiah of Trani, the younger); 1374 CE; Italy N; f.70v

Sukkot begins at sunset on 6 October. Initial-word panel with a hybrid at the beginning of a liturgical poem for the 2nd day of Sukkot
#Sukkot
BL Add 22413; 'Tripartite Mahzor', prayer book for Shavuot & Sukkot; c.1322 CE; Germany, S.; f.98r

Sukkot begins at sunset on 6 October. Here's an image in the margin of a man holding a branch of lulav and an etrog, at Sukkot.
#Sukkot
BL Add 26968; Forli Siddur; 1383 CE; Italy, Central (Romagna, Forli); f.298v

Initial-word panel inhabited by a man with an animal head, holding a lulav and an etrog
#Sukkot
BL Add 22413; 'Tripartite Mahzor', prayer book for Shavuot & Sukkot; ca.1322; Germany, S. (area of Lake Constance); f.85r

Sukkot begins at sunset on 6 October. Here a panel includes a depiction of a sukkah.
#Sukkot
BL Add 26968; Forli Siddur; 1383 CE; Italy, Central (Romagna, Forli); f.295r

Sukkot begins at sunset on 6 October. During Sukkot Koheleth is read:

"Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."
#Sukkot
BL Add 22413; 'Tripartite Mahzor', prayer book for Shavuot & Sukkot; ca.1322; Germany, S. (area of Lake Constance); f.106r

The Basilisk: don't look into its eyes! 😳😱

"'Basilisk'...is the king of the snakes...it also kills a human if it looks at one...However, the basilisk may be overcome by weasels."
'Etymologies' Bk XII.iv.6 by Isidore of Seville

BL Royal MS 12 C XIX; Bestiary; c 1200-c 1210 CE; England; f.63r

Initial 'P' depicting Cassiodorus pointing to a book

BL Royal 13 A XXI; Various including Liber primus Cassiodori Senatoris de institutionibus diuinarum litterarum; 12th century; England; f.174v

Soon be Monday......😳

BL Harley 2637; Cassiodorus, Institutiones; 9th century; Germany, W. or France, E.; f.12r

Today we're looking at a late 15th-century collection of Latin astronomical treatises and tables of the 12th through 14th centuries, illustrated with six volvelles and numerous diagrams. Written in Germany, with a colophon dated 30 December 1481. (UPenn Ms. Codex 1881)

🔗: https://bit.ly/471ams3

The Threat That Shakes My Faith The Rise of Christian Nationalism

The rise of Christian nationalism. It’s real, it’s antithetical to America, and it must be confronted.👇 open.substack.com/pub/socialco...

I wish their much awaited 'rapture' would come quickly and take them all away.

I hope that the autocrat Trump is excluded from the list.

UK electric car sales hit record high as taxpayer subsidies help attract buyers EVs rise nearly a third in September compared with a year earlier, as plug-in hybrids jump by 56%

Waooh - British electric car sales hit a record high in September as new taxpayer subsidies helped to attract buyers in the most important month for the market. Half of new cars are now electric! www.theguardian.com/business/202... #ElectricVehicles #EVs #DonaldTrump #AfD #ActOnClimate #FarRight

That is amazing!

Going Places: Travel in the Middle Ages | Getty Exhibitions Explore how manuscript illuminators documented and reimagined medieval travel in a variety of modes.

Gugliermo’s advice got you hungry for more information on #Medieval Travel?

Going Places: Travel in the Middle Ages is on view at the Getty Center through Nov 30, 2025!

🗺️ www.getty.edu/exhibitions/...

Medieval Road Food: Eating and Drinking on the Go | Getty Events Sample medieval “health foods” and other more decadent tastes popular on Middle Ages road trips with this food and wine experience.

And, join historian Ken Albala at the Getty Center on 10/12 for a glimpse into historical road food!

Sample “health foods” recommended by Grataroli alongside more decadent sweets, savories, & wines. 🍷🧀🍊

🎫 Purchase tickets: gty.art/3KN6MZW!

Excellent intervention by #PopeLeoXIV

4 October is the feast of St Francis of Assisi who is depicted here receiving a vision of the city of Assisi threatened by a dragon.

BL Add 15710; St Bonaventure, Legenda Sancti Francisci, illuminated by Sister Sibilla von Bondorf; Germany, S.W.; 15th century; f.30v

4 October is the feast day of St Francis of Assisi: here he is with lambs and preaching to birds.

BL Add 15710; St Bonaventure, Legenda Sancti Francisci, illuminated & transl. by the nun Sister Sibilla von Bondorf; Germany; 15th c; ff.103r, 107v

Pope Leo hits out at critics of global warming In his first major statement on climate change, the pontiff criticises those who minimise climate change.

#PopeLeoXIV has hit out at those who minimise the "increasingly evident" impact of rising temperatures. He lambasted critics who "ridicule those who speak of global warming". His remarks can be seen as an implied criticism of #DonaldTrump, who called climate change a "con" bbc.com/news/article...

Sukkot begins at sunset on 6 October. During Sukkot Koheleth is read:

"Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."
#Sukkot
BL Add 22413; 'Tripartite Mahzor', prayer book for Shavuot & Sukkot; ca.1322; Germany, S. (area of Lake Constance); f.106r