(no subject)
So, there are many things to do this morning, starting with AAAAH PACK ALL THE THINGS! and ending with RUN OFF SOME OF THE NERVES! but I also must update.
I have internet in my room once again, by the way, just in time to leave it. Looming massively on my to-do list is the room inventory I have to do in the presence of the director of the residence, which I only found out about yesterday. I'm hoping I can do that and then go running and shower before I leave, but I fear she may be prying the keys out of my cold, unshowered fingers once she's done.
As I've mentioned and should be obvious so far, I'm leaving Angers this afternoon for Nantes, and eight days in Brittany before I fly back to Boston. I'm pretty excited, although I'm also pretty nervous, not least about both Marek and I making it to Nantes. And there's going to be a lot of suitcase-hauling involved. I sent 4.55 kg (10 lbs!) of stuff home yesterday, mostly paper and books, plus my cute blue shoes which have, alas, begun to self-destruct already, but I still have two bags and my backpack. Note to self: next year, whole-year trip notwithstanding, only bring one suitcase. But I digress. I'm finally going to see what I've spent the past four years (and probably many more to come) studying!
Here's hoping it still looks interesting in the cold, hard light of the twenty-first century.
Anyway, I have many thoughts on what I've learned this month working in the archives, but I might have to write those up later. But for one thing, now I know why historians lament how badly-documented eleventh-century Brittany is!! I will have enough material for my project, I think, but I'll be jealous of the people working on Anjou, Maine, and Vendôme! More to come later. I finished out my time in the archives with the very shiny eleventh-century charters of Saint-Florent's priories in England, some of which were founded by prominent Bretons involved in the Norman Conquest. They were very shiny - why couldn't more of the charters for Saint-Florent's Breton priories have been like that? And as my final document, I looked at an early modern copy of some charters of Saint-Florent-sous-Dol, at least one of which, from the late twelfth-century, has survived in no other form.
So now, Brittany! I am totally including Nantes in Brittany, administrative rejiggering of the past two hundred years notwithstanding. It was part of Brittany in the eleventh century, dammit! Or okay, that last bit is debatable for parts of the eleventh century, but there were Bretons there, no matter how much it might have been under Angevin control!
I have internet in my room once again, by the way, just in time to leave it. Looming massively on my to-do list is the room inventory I have to do in the presence of the director of the residence, which I only found out about yesterday. I'm hoping I can do that and then go running and shower before I leave, but I fear she may be prying the keys out of my cold, unshowered fingers once she's done.
As I've mentioned and should be obvious so far, I'm leaving Angers this afternoon for Nantes, and eight days in Brittany before I fly back to Boston. I'm pretty excited, although I'm also pretty nervous, not least about both Marek and I making it to Nantes. And there's going to be a lot of suitcase-hauling involved. I sent 4.55 kg (10 lbs!) of stuff home yesterday, mostly paper and books, plus my cute blue shoes which have, alas, begun to self-destruct already, but I still have two bags and my backpack. Note to self: next year, whole-year trip notwithstanding, only bring one suitcase. But I digress. I'm finally going to see what I've spent the past four years (and probably many more to come) studying!
Here's hoping it still looks interesting in the cold, hard light of the twenty-first century.
Anyway, I have many thoughts on what I've learned this month working in the archives, but I might have to write those up later. But for one thing, now I know why historians lament how badly-documented eleventh-century Brittany is!! I will have enough material for my project, I think, but I'll be jealous of the people working on Anjou, Maine, and Vendôme! More to come later. I finished out my time in the archives with the very shiny eleventh-century charters of Saint-Florent's priories in England, some of which were founded by prominent Bretons involved in the Norman Conquest. They were very shiny - why couldn't more of the charters for Saint-Florent's Breton priories have been like that? And as my final document, I looked at an early modern copy of some charters of Saint-Florent-sous-Dol, at least one of which, from the late twelfth-century, has survived in no other form.
So now, Brittany! I am totally including Nantes in Brittany, administrative rejiggering of the past two hundred years notwithstanding. It was part of Brittany in the eleventh century, dammit! Or okay, that last bit is debatable for parts of the eleventh century, but there were Bretons there, no matter how much it might have been under Angevin control!