Das gemeine Wip

#medievalsky

Not even the boldest one on that building 😅😅😅

Female masturbation as a grotesque on the townhall of Saint Quentin, France, likely 15th century

#medievalsexuality #medievalart #medieval #middleages #15thcentury #14thcentury #mittelalter #livinghistory #reenactment #medievalsky

4/4 He describes a toxic relationship and a very common form of sex work in the middle ages. I consulted different translations of the poem in old french and primarily tried to get the meaning across, which made the poem form suffer a bit. Hope you enjoy it nevertheless.

When all’s made up she drops a fart, Bloated like a beetle venomous: Grins, thumps my pate, and calls me dickey-bird, And cuffs me with a fist that’s ponderous. We sleep like logs, being drunken both of us; Then when we wake her womb begins to stir; To save her seed she gets on top of me i am moaning, while flattened like planks outlaied: her fucking may my end once be. Inside this brothel where we drive our trade.

Blow, hail or freeze, my bread is baked! Whoring’s my trade, my whore follows me; Bad cat, bad rat; we’re just the same if weighed. We love the filth, filth follows us, you see; Honour flies from us, as from her we flee Inside this brothel where we drive our trade. I write to fat Madge This song to study; By god’s head she’s a sweet fat fadge, Devout and soft of flesh and ruddy; I love her with my soul and body, So doth she me, sweet dainty thing.

3/4 His work allows for glimpses into the lifes at the fringes of society in the middle ages that are truly unique. In this poem about his girlfriend, the fat Madge/Margot (a nickname chosen after a talkative kind of bird) speaks to several of the readers emotions.

the beauty I love and serve is cheap, are you to take me for wicked or dumb? All things i wish for are in her keep; i’d fend her from all the harm to come. When clients come in, I fetch wine and a stool And go to drinking with no more ado. I fetch them bread, fruit, cheese, and water, too; I say all’s right so long as I’m paid; return when your flesh troubles you, In this brothel where we drive our trade.

soon the devil’s among us flesh and fell, When penniless to bed comes Madge my whore; I loathe the sight of her like hell. I snatch gown, girdle, surcoat, all she wore, And tell her, these shall pay her score. She grips her hips while cursing God, Swearing by Jesus’ body, bones, and blood, That they shall not. Then I, no whit dismayed, Cross her cracked nose with some shiver of wood Inside this brothel where we drive our trade.

2/4 He was highly educated but involved with organised crime, sex work and a life of sin and drinking. He spent time in prison and escaped the death penalty at least twice.
And btw., he was also a poet :-D

#livinghistory #reenactment

1/4 I just had to show you this incredible poem/ballad in full length.

Now, if you have not heard of Francois Villon yet, you have been missing out. At least take some time for his Wikipedia Entry. The guy has an insane vita.

#medievalsky

The answer is: A butterchurn!

A Riddle “A youth came along to where she stood in a corner. Forth he strode, a vigorous young man, lifted up her dress with his hands, thrust under her girdle something stiff ; worked his will; both of them shook. A thane hurried up, useful at times,a capable servant; nonetheless he grew tired from time to time, though strong at first, weary with work. Beneath the girdle there began to grow what often good men love heartily and buy with money.”

Do you know what the riddle is talking about?
Answer in the first comment 😉

The exeter book of riddles offers a variety of spicy and fun riddles, we solved two of them in earlier posts. Wikisource offers a translation where you find all of them for your next party-conversations 😀

#medievalsky

5/ But in particular the old woman's story in the Roman de la Rose is a very worthwhile lecture about women's lives, (unusual) approaches to sexuality, relationships and gender identity in the middle ages.

4/ I encourage you to read the whole thing chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/pages/romanc... , the Romance of the Rose is some very important reading for women's history and about sexuality and relationships (beware of the heavy misogyny).

3/ And while these texts are made up by usually male writers from higher classes, they give a unique glimpse into a marginalised life without social security. The descriptions of toxic relationships, domestic violence and poverty in these stories hit really close to home for many women today.

2/ Often, the old women in these poems and stories are former sex workers, unmarried or otherwise outcasts of society and tell the stories of their life and how they feel about their bodies ageing and their access to income dwindling with it, their human value based on the youth of their bodies.

🧵 1/ CW: domestic violence
The old woman's lament/old woman's confession is a very common trope in late medieval poetry and tells us about marginalised women's experiences.

#medievalsky #medievalsexuality #womenshistory #livinghistory #reenactment

3/ And while these texts are made up by usually male writers from higher classes, they give a unique glimpse into a marginalised life without social security. The descriptions of toxic relationships, domestic violence and poverty in these stories hit really close to home for many women today.

2/ Often, the old women in these poems and stories are former sex workers, unmarried or otherwise outcasts of society and tell the stories of their life and how they feel about their bodies ageing and their access to income dwindling with it, their human value based on the youth of their bodies.

@skepticannika.bsky.social @berndharder.bsky.social @hummler.bsky.social und ich sprachen mit @das-gemeine-wip.bsky.social und @geschichtsfenster.bsky.social

www.wtf-leipzig.de/wtf-talk/

...And nowadays, they will send you a "wyd, 🍆💦🍑"...

#medievalsky #livinghistory #13thcentury #medievalsexuality

5/5 In her hands, she is holding two little dwarfs with a pope crown and a kings crown on their heads, symbolising the secret power of women over world history and the double morals of the ruling classes.

4/5 The chronicler of the council, Ulrich von Richental counted them and his chronicle is a widely known medieval source today. These women are remembered by a huge modern statue of the courtisan 'Imperia', dominating the view of Constance harbour next to the original council house.

3/5 To organise the food and shelter for all these people was an immense task and a great chance for all kinds of service providers, including hundreds of sex workers of all kinds, who flocked to the city, both as officially registered workers and free employed ones.

2/5 Basically, a lot of secular and church authorities met in this german town to decide who should be pope which increased the population of the city from 5000 to about 30 000 people in a very short period. As a comparison, Vienna had about 20 000 inhabitants in that time.

1/5 An impressive example of the request for sex work services among the population was the Council of Constance from 1414-1418.
The council is a terribly interesting story, which you should read up on, but it is too long to tell here.

#medievalsky #livinghistory #mittelalter #medievalwomen

Grafische Ankündigung des WildMics Specials: Der Hintergrund zeigt eine dunkle, nächtliche Waldszene mit einem hell leuchtenden Lagerfeuer in der Mitte. Über dem Lagerfeuer steht in großer, heller Schrift das Wort „Laberfeuer“. Links und rechts vom Feuer befinden sich zwei Porträtfotos, jeweils mit einem goldumrandeten, verbrannten Papiereffekt: Links ist ein Mann mittleren Alters zu sehen. Unter seinem Bild steht: „Andrej Pfeiffer-Perkuhn“ Rechts ist eine Frau abgebildet. Sie trägt ein mittelalterlich wirkendes weißes Tuch, das ihren Kopf und Hals bedeckt. Unter ihrem Bild steht: „Agnes Zankl“ Unter dem Feuer ist in weißer, großer Schrift das Thema der Sendung zu lesen: „Thema: KRIEGERINNEN“ Zusätzlich steigen aus dem Feuer stilisierte Wörter empor, wie „RESEARCH“, „EDUCATION“, „HISTORY“, „VIRTUE“, „STUDY“ – als würden sie mit dem Rauch aufsteigen. Das gesamte Bild vermittelt eine Mischung aus Lagerfeuer-Romantik und wissenschaftlicher Diskussion. Links unten befindet sich ein schwarz-weißes Logo von Hoaxilla, das zwei stilisierte Gesichter mit Sonnenbrillen zeigt. Daneben ein schwarzer Hintergrund mit weißem Text: "WildMics – Special 223". Rechts unten ist ein farbenfrohes WildMics-Logo mit einem Mikrofon und Regenbogenfarben.

👩‍⚔️Im 223. WildMics-Special ging es um die Legende der antiken Kriegerinnen.
Gab es Frauen in Rüstung mit Schwert, die in vorderster Front kämpften, oder nicht?
Mit @das-gemeine-wip.bsky.social , @geschichtsfenster.bsky.social & @tommykrappweis.de
hoaxilla.com/wildmics-spe...

Woman, this truly amazing creation, this wonder of nature, blossoms before us all as she leads chaste clerics astray with her skill, as she grasps unlucky men, binds them in her girdle, tangles them in her mantle, and feeds them Venus' hooked bait, pouring Lethean drinks, and makes them into oxen that do not remember Lethe's stream, that lack senses and reason, all for a poor reward. Book of the civilised man, 13th century

#medievalsky #medievalwomen #womeninhistory #medievalsexuality

4/4 The guards arrested him as a part of the group disturbing the nightly peace of the city.
While he clearly was a sinner, church authorities did not care too much, since he later became bishop.

3/4 This chronical text from 1345 Lübeck (Germany) tells us about the priest Johannes Mul, partying with a bunch of drunk people in the streets, dressed as a layman and in company of a sex worker.

2/4 These are humourous tales, meant to challenge the moral standards and hierarchies in society, but we also have quite a number of real world sources telling us of monks, nuns and priests in compromising situations. Prime example are early medieval penitanitiaries, which we already talked about.

Naughty priests in medieval history

"...crimes in the city at night, especially at night. Having committed them, specially appointed by their mandate, Johannes Mul, a canon of Lublin, was found in secular and lay attire with a certain dishonorable woman, committing quarrels and insolence at night, and they took him as a layman and brought him into the custom of the city and brought the said woman into the fetters of the preacher, and they justly placed him in the aforesaid position."

1/4 In medieval stories like the Decameron, we often hear about priests and monks who had a hard time sticking to their vow of celibacy.
#medievalsky
#medievalsexuality
#livinghistory
#reenactment

But seriously, if you have interest in any kind of social history of this time, make sure to get this one, it was so worth it!

#medievalsexuality #medieval #middleages #mittelalter