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Stained Glass Roundel: Crusaders Advance on Jerusalem
France (c. 1158)
This roundel, alongside another, stood side by side in the Crusader window at the royal Abbey Church of Saint Denis. In it, the Crusader army, with a king on a white horse at its head, rides steadfastly toward Jerusalem.
Paleolithic art from the Magdalenian Period (12,000-17,000 years ago), seen at Musée national de Préhistoire.
@Neoprusiano French carabinier’s cuirass and helmet (1833)
Archaeological and genetic analysis may indicate that three skeletons buried in medieval graves in France may have been Muslim, according to a study published February 24, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Yves Gleize from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) and University of Bordeaux, France, Fanny Mendisco from University of Bordeaux, France, and colleagues.
The rapid Arab-Islamic conquest during the early Middle Ages led to major political and cultural changes in the Mediterranean. Although the early medieval Muslim presence in the Iberian Peninsula is well documented, scientists have less evidence of the Muslim expansion north of the Pyrenees.
The authors of this study aimed to determine if the skeletons in three graves from a medieval site at Nimes, France are related to the Muslim presence in France in the 8th century. Read more.
[Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Print after Mather Brown, France, c. 1790s]
Watercolor of Henry Angelo’s Fencing Academy, by Thomas Rowlandson, 1787. The Chevalier St. George’s portrait, foils, and fencing shoes are displayed on the right wall.
Byzantine, 6th century, made in Northern France (2.5 x 1.5 cm)
Opus interrasile was a technique used by goldsmiths to make elegant jewelry from the 200s through the 600s. Designs were traced onto sheets of gold; the background was punched with holes of various sizes to highlight the pattern; and fine details were then worked on the surface. The patterns formed by piercing the metal ground encouraged the play of light and shadow across an object’s surface.
One of our French incunables, a few months too late for Halloween:
The cover has a grisly parchment mend that foreshadows the gory frontispiece, where St. Denis has gone and lost his head (complete with spurting blood). Meanwhile, St. Remy is throwing some mean side eye.
-John
Gaguin, Robert (1433-1501)
Compendium de origine et gestis Francorum. Paris: Thielman Kerver, for Durand Gerlier and Jean Petit, 13 January, 1500.
An ancient pit filled with severed human arms, hands and fingers has been unearthed in France.
The nearly 6,000-year-old pit was found near the village of Bergheim, which sits near the border with Germany.
“The discovery of Bergheim is the witness of a very violent event, which took place at a specific time,” said study co-author Fanny Chenal, an archaeologist at the University of Strasbourg in France. “Its unique and extraordinary nature does not allow or help us to better understand the daily life of these people.”
And though Chenal and her colleagues don’t know exactly what spurred people to such gory acts, the likeliest explanation is a violent skirmish or war, the researchers speculate in the December 2015 issue of the journal Antiquity. Read more.
La Fleur des Histoires de la Terre d'Orient
France (c. 1430s)
187mm x 254mm.
Cavaliers under the command of Byzantine Emperor Heraclius are put to flight by Saracens during a battle near Antioch in 632.
The telling of the bees is a traditional European custom, in which bees would be told of important events in their keeper’s lives, such as births, marriages, or departures and returns in the household. If the custom was omitted or forgotten and the bees were not “put into mourning” then it was believed a penalty would be paid, such as the bees might leave their hive, stop producing honey, or die. The custom has been most widely noted in England but also recorded in Ireland, Wales, Germany, France, Switzerland, and the United States
Researchers using modern imaging techniques on hearts more than 400 years old found at an archaeological site were able to learn about the health conditions of the people buried there, according to a new study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
Archaeologists with the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research excavating the basement of the Convent of the Jacobins in Rennes, France, unearthed several grave sites dating back to the late 16th or early 17th century.
Among the items unearthed in the burial vaults of elite-class families were five heart-shaped lead urns. Inside each urn was a preserved human heart. A team of radiologists, including one with a background in forensics, was called in to examine the hearts. Read more.
Partisan of the Gardes ‘De La Manche’
The marriage by proxy of Charles II of Spain and Mademoiselle d’Orléans, niece of Louis XIV, was celebrated on 31 August 1679 in Fontainebleau. This was a chance for the King of France to welcome representatives from Europe’s leading figures and sign treaties with Sweden and Denmark, following the Dutch War. On this occasion, the Gardes de la Manche (King’s guards) were given new partisans, whose decoration expressed the royal ideology and world view of the King of France.
The Gardes de la Manche (literally “guards of the sleeve”) were the closest guards to the King, so close they touched his sleeve. In 1679, they were given new tabards and weapons. The Herculean symbolism, inherited from Henry IV, was replaced in their decorations by the solar symbolism adopted by Louis XIV circa 1662.
Indeed, the iron of the partisans represents the world (a globe) above which flies a chariot driven by Mars, the god of war (the King). This chariot, drawn by four horses, crushes the eagle (the Holy Empire) and the lion (often associated with England but representing Spain in this context). The King is crowned with the victor’s laurels by an allegory of Renown, under the radiant sun surrounded by the motto NEC PLURIBUS IMPAR.
Jean Bérain (1640-1711) was entrusted with making these weapons. In 1675, he began designing the costumes and decorations for the events - carrousels, funerals as well as parties and operas - held at the Court of France.
Source: Copyright © 2015 Musée de l'Armée, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais/Photo: Pascal Segrette
Il est évident que, pour divergentes qu’elles soient, de telles déclarations renvoient à une même réalité : celle d’un texte instaurant un régime d’exception. L’état d’urgence permet au représentant de l’État – préfets dans les départements et, en 1955, gouverneur général en Algérie – d’instaurer un couvre-feu, de réglementer la circulation et le séjour dans certaines zones géographiques, de prononcer des interdictions de séjour et des assignations à résidence contre des individus. Il autorise aussi la fermeture de lieux publics, tels que des salles de spectacle, des cafés ou des salles de réunion, l’interdiction de réunions ou rassemblements, la confiscation des armes détenues par des particuliers, le contrôle de la presse, des publications, des émissions de radio ou encore des projections de cinéma et des représentations théâtrales. Enfin, il dessaisit la justice de prérogatives essentielles : les autorités administratives obtiennent le droit de pratiquer des perquisitions, de jour comme de nuit, et la justice militaire peut être déclarée compétente.
En 1955, de telles mesures répondaient spécifiquement aux besoins des autorités confrontées au développement d’une insurrection en Algérie. Comment, alors, cette loi, votée comme une loi de circonstance, peut-elle être remise en vigueur, un demi-siècle plus tard, dans une conjoncture totalement différente ? Le recours à l’état d’urgence serait-il l’indice d’un héritage colonial non assumé mais resurgissant à la faveur de l’actualité ? Ce serait négliger les usages et transformations du texte entre 1955 et 2005, qui l’inscrivent dans l’histoire de la répression en régime républicain.
An intact Eiffel Tower flies the French Tricolour in this rare color footage from the Liberation of Paris, August 25, 1944.
Excerpted from: D-Day to Germany, 1944
From the series: Motion Picture Films Relating to the Invasion of Normandy (D-Day) and Commemorative Visits After the War, compiled 1944 - 1969. Collection LIEB: Jack Lieb Collection, 1944 - 1969
