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I could not resist executing another reconstruction from a great written source for my #pluckingroses Challenge.

My reconstruction is based on a court file from the end of the 13th century. The case was revolving around a Ms Bertolina, nicknamed “Guercia” from Bologna who was charged with sodomic practices (meaning sexual practices that were considered to be abnormal). I can’t tell her story any better than this amazing Podcast here (transcript can be found in this article here). I can really recommend this read, because Guercia seems to have been a very unusual woman and in my opinion a great example of women’s emancipation in the middle ages.

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This is my entry for the #pluckingroses challenge. If you would like to read up the rules of the challenge, please follow the link to the article and see more entries and content on Instagram and Facebook.

For my entry I chose a contraceptive amulet, a fairly unspectacular piece but it has a very interesting history… (more…)

There have been different ways for everybody in the hobby to cope with our 2020 situation, I personally really liked the many challenges and community activities that this pandemic brought. It kind of felt like the Living History grew closer over borders and countries although most were unable to meet others.
I especially liked challenges for craft projects (please also see my projects on our IG14 Ensemble Facebookpage) in which you had to research a specific given topic which you might not have thought about too deeply before and make it your project to recreate an item for your living history work.
And if there is several other participants involved as well, it gets even better because you see so many different ideas and talents from your fellow living historians and learn something new from them!

So we thought well, it needs more challenges like it to give us motivation to start something new and when Rosalie Gilbert released her new book about womens sexuality in the middle ages, I thought this was the perfect challenge. There is so much to learn and know in theory about Sex in the middle ages, but when it comes to the living historians core competence, which is really the recreation and presentation of material culture, you don’t really see a lot of reconstructions in that area. 

The Challenge: I would like to see practical reconstructions fit for a living history presentation or event that are falling into the broad spectrum of sexuality in history.

It could f.e. be an identifying piece of clothing for prostitutes after your local sumptuary laws, it could be an amulett against conception, it could be a medical application against sexually transmittable deseases, it could be a sexy underdress, it could be a written letter with saucy poems a la Gwerful Mechain, it could be a fish hide condom, it could be a tin badge of a flying penis, it could be a dildo, it could be an allegorical or explicit sculpture or painting, it could be a pair of tweezers for body hair removal, it could be cooking a dish with an aphrodisiac effect, etc etc etc…. whatever you choose to be your project, it is worthy of the challenge. This is mainly supposed to be fun!

The only criteria that needs to be applied: You need to do it like a living historian. That means using sources, either archeological or written or pictoral to base your reconstruction on them.

How explicit or non explicit you present your works is up to you, I would guess however that social media plattforms will give a certain frame to that. Please dont forget to tagg your entry with #pluckingroses !

Obviously living historians from all eras, impressions and regions can enter!

The winter is long and your list of unfinished work is as well. You need more audio and video material for your sewing projects? How about the Lunch hour Lectures of the UCL in London from their history playlist?

They also have a couple of other categories of nice lectures to listen to.