Medieval and Renaissance Education

Pearson's Renaissance Shoppe is your source for Renaissance and Medieval info!

Have you ever considered exploring your interest in the Renaissance or Medieval era? Have you ever wanted to don some Medieval armor and participate in a Live Action Role Play or Society for Creative Anachronism event? Are you looking for specific types of costumes for a theatrical production? If you’ve answered “Yes” to any of these questions, then we can definitely help you.

We also wanted to take the time to let you know that we have a number of resource articles that can help provide you with more information about the various types of costumes you can find on our site. There are also some tidbits of advice that you can use in order to better your experience when it comes to your Medieval costume. Whether you want to be a wizard, or you want to wear a lady buccaneer costume, you can find information that can be helpful to you.

We are always here to help, but we wanted to let you know about this Renaissance Resources page so that you can browse through all of the information that we’ve assembled to see if you can find additional answers.

We hope you find the exact costume that you are looking for!

Imagine if it was 1582!

As with many of the holidays, a lot of our fans are curious as to how people treated these specific days during the Medieval and Renaissance time periods. Since the most relevant holiday is the start of the New Year, we thought we would give a brief history and overview of what things were like during the era we all know and love.

As with most of our traditions, the origin of the celebration of the first of the year came with the Romans. The Roman calender initially only included ten months, with the start of the year coming on March 1^st. This date was chosen due to its proximity to the vernal equinox.

In the year 700 B.C., the Roman King Numa Pontilius included January and February to the calendar. Eventually, in 153 B.C. January 1^st became the new start of the year. This change was made because it was regarded as the start of the civil terms of elected officials within the Roman political system. Each January 1^st would mark the election of the two new Consuls, which were the high public official the Roman Republic.

During the Middle Ages, many religious organizations abolished the 1^st of January as start of the year as it was considered to be pagan. Many religious officials that would wear Medieval Priest Robes called for Christian communities to observe the first of the year to be either the birth of Jesus, December 25^th, or the Feast of the Annunciation on March 25^th. The official repeal of January 1^st was in 567 due to the Council of Tours.

Finally, in 1582, the calendar year was reformed via the Gregorian calendar. This called for the first of the year to once again coincide with the beginning of January. This became the popular and widely accepted custom throughout the Catholic world. This change was more of a gradual process for Protestant communities, with a prime example being the British Empire. Up until the year 1752, England and all of their colonies, which included America, still recognized March as being the start of the New Year.

That is a brief overview of the history of the holiday. We hope this help answered some of the questions you may have had. We also hope that for this year, you are able to achieve your New Year’s Resolution.

Hear ye, Hear ye!

If you are planning on visiting a Renaissance Faire in the near future, wearing a costume can help add to the atmosphere.  Or maybe you are a seasoned veteran who loves to dress up, but you are looking for a different costume to change things up a bit.

Popular roles at a Faire are:

-Warriors

-Knights

-Clerics

-Tavern Keeps

-Pirates

But there is one role that people sometimes shy away from: The poet. Medieval poets were often great lyricists who penned some of the most beautiful poetry that we read today. If you are looking to meet a lovely lady while at the fair, why not consider wooing her with some vibrant verses? An appropriate costume to go along with this archetype would be this Renaissance cotton poet shirt.

We also wanted to bring up this idea this week because the 22^nd of December is National Haiku Day. We thought it might be fun to pair a pop-culture event with some of our Renaissance themes. Therefore, we have tried our hand at some of our own haiku.

“Cunning Rogue”

O’ Wondrous Maiden

Your vast beauty radiates.

Please bring me some ale.

“The Calm Before the Storm”

Rain, nor thunder could

draw the evil Duke from his lair

Churchmen prayed all night.

Can you come up with any? If you can feel free to post them in the comments section!

Create authentic food for medieval celebrations

From time to time we like to bring you recipes that have a Medieval flair to them so that you can include period food during your reenactments or  LARP event. And so we realized that when it comes to the Middle Ages,  there is something that takes precedence when it comes to food: Preservation.

Since there were no means of freezing or refrigeration, tavern owners needed to adopt other methods of making their food harvested during Autumn last through the Winter. Here are some of the more popular methods, other than salting, that were used:

-Smoking: Smoking via wood smoke was the common way to preserve fish or pork.

-Drying: Grains, cereals, meats, and fruit could be preserved through drying.

-Picking: Substances high in salt such as brine, or liquids like vinegar, were the usual methods of preserving fish and others meats. This was also a great way to keep vegetables longer into the colder months.

-Honey: When it came to certain drinks, such as mead, honey was sometimes used as a way to preserve the eventual mixture.

-Gelatin: Meat and fresh fish could be well kept by cooking them in a material that will eventually produce and solidify into a gel.

These are just some of the methods used during those times. If you ever wanted to give your customers/players a true sense of historical food, you can consider trying one of these preservation techniques. It can also be an educational process if you have your servers, who are dressed in beer wench costumes, work with your customers/players in assisting with some of these methods so that they can learn how people had to prepare for the winter months in the Middle Ages.

Learn about the history of this noble order

Have you ever seen this Hospitaller tunic on our website and wonder what exactly this group of knights was all about? We have all heard of other groups around the same time period such as the Templars, but this specific group operated under a different creed than that of its contemporary counterparts.

The Knights Hospitaller were a religious group of men dedicated to the maintenance and operation of a hospital in Jerusalem during the turbulent era of the Crusades. After arriving in the Holy City, the Hospitallers pledged to take offer medical aid to those pilgrims to the Holy Land who were injured, sick, or poor.

During the First Crusade, the Christian forces made significant pushes into Muslin lands and gained quite a hold. It was during this time that the Hospitallers founded their own charter and became an official religious and military organization whose chief concern was to protect and care for the Holy Land.

The order still is in existence today in a modern form as the Roman Catholic Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

One of the most appealing aspects of the Medieval times was the notion of Wizards and the magic that they could cast.  Of course finding real magic can be incredibly difficult, but if you wanted to play the role of a wizard at a Renaissance Faire or Medieval event you are going to need both a Medieval wizard’s cloak and some magic of your own to perform.

In order to complete this trick, you’ll need a carrot, a sheet or handkerchief, and some small pins.  You’ll want to cut the carrot so that it is roughly the same size and shape as your thumb.

When you perform this trick, you’ll want to have the carrot concealed in your hand or pocket.  Pull out the sheet and start to twirl it around to show that it is an ordinary piece of fabric.  Then make a first, stick up one of your thumbs, and put the sheet over your thumb.  As you do this, quickly slide the carrot  up so that it now makes the shape of your thumb.

Explain that you will be able to withstand the pain inserting the pins into your thumb and that with your magical power, you will remain unharmed.  Carefully slide the pin through the sheet and into the carrot, adding in a bit of acting if you so desire.  Show the crowd that you have the pins in your “thumb.”
Then remove the pins, again adding some acting if you’d like.  Once they are all removed, inform the crowd that when you remove the sheet, that your thumb will not contact a single mark.  When you reach for the sheet, make sure to also pull the carrot away with the sheet so that you don’t have to conceal it again.  Put the sheet, and carrot, into your pocket and reveal to the crowd that you are unscathed.  You might want to rehearse this trick a few times and remind children in the audience to not try this by themselves.
Do any of you have magic tricks that our Medieval wizards can try out for themselves?

When you think of Medieval Kings, what types of images trickle into your mind? Do you think of a King leading his troops into battle? Perhaps you envision a King who is adored by his people. Maybe you even think of an evil King who tries to rule through terror. Whatever the type of King you’ve thought about, they all have one thing in common: A Crown.

All Kings from the days of yore had a Medieval Crown to let others know of their position. In some cases the same crown had been handed down over many generations. In some instances, the crown was even considered an indication that God had personally chosen a specific individual to rule over a kingdom. A lot of historical emphasis has been placed on the Medieval crown.

Therefore if you are taking on the persona of a Medieval King, you most certainly are going to need your own crown. How will the commoners know to give way and bow in your presence if they do not know you are King? Don’t forget the most important aspect of your costume! Make sure to stop by PearsonsRenaissanceShoppe.com to find a crown that meets your royal approval.

Are you the kind of person who loves to go to Renaissance Faires or Medieval Reenactments?  Are you always impressed with the authenticity that those who run Faires bring to the table?  It is impressive to see someone portraying a King or Queen and to see them in period clothing and speaking as if they were from the historical era.  It’s almost as if they walked right out of a time machine.

Do you want to be able to interact with these characters as if you were from the same era?  If so, you are going to need two very important things:

1)  A Renaissance Costume:  Renaissance or Medieval costumes are extremely important in terms of creating an atmosphere that represents the time period you are trying to recreate.  Since humans rely mostly on their sight to portray atmosphere, being in authentic garb and costuming really helps to set the scene.  You can find authentic Renaissance clothing at PearsonsRenaissanceShoppe.com.

2)  Speaking Guide:  Being able to converse with someone who is portraying an actor from a different era is important also to help create atmosphere.  But in some cases, knowing what to say and who to say it to can almost be like learning another language.  We looked around and found that this site provided a good basic article for understanding how to speak in the Elizabethan era.

Now that you have the elements you need, try to put them together and go out and enjoy your Renaissance Faire!

If you are a LARPer or a Medieval/Renaissance reenactor, it is getting to the time of year where you must be conscious of your camp fires.

During the summer months, forests can get very dry.  Moisture continuously evaporates as the sun’s hot rays beat down upon the forests, fields, and brush in the camps that are typically used for these types of events.  The danger is increased if there has been a long period of no rain.

If your campground is extremely dry, then all it can take is one spark to set off a massive fire.  But you can do a few things to help keep the danger of a fire low.  The first is to pay attention to see if there are any fire advisories.  Most park offices will issue these when the forest is dry so that you know that  you need to take extra care.

Secondly, only use indoor fireplaces or well established fire pits that are surrounded by large stones.  Starting a small camp fire in a place that is not protected can easily spark a forest fire.

Lastly, once you are done, make sure to put out your fire.  By leaving your fire smolder all night, or all day while you go into the woods, a rogue ember can fly out and into an area of brush.  Likewise, all it takes is one gust of wind to blow hot ashes into a dry area of the forest.

So take extra care this summer as you build your camp fires so that you don’t accidentally start a brush fire that can present a danger to your favorite campgrounds.

We at PearsonsRenaissanceShoppe.com would like to take a few moments to introduce you to a good friend of ours, Joyce DiPastena.

Joyce is a Medieval and Renaissance enthusiast who is the author of Illuminations of the Heart, a historical romance novel that was a finalist for the 2009 Whitney Award.  She is also currently in the process of a second novel, also set in the Medieval era.

We met Joyce through her blog, Medieval Research with Joyce, where she offers a wealth of information about the Medieval era, based upon the research she conducts for her books.  This information covers a number of aspects concerning Medieval lifestyles, historical events, and historical figures.  You will be sure to find a lot of interesting and entertaining facts, stories, and fables throughout Joyce’s blog posts.

So if you have a few moments in between dressing for the ball, holding court for potential suitors, or attending the joust, make sure to visit Medieval Research with Joyce.