Thirteenth Century Quotes

“Nobody can understand the greatness of the thirteenth century, who does not realize that it was a great growth of new things produced by a living thing. In that sense it was really bolder and freer than what we call the renaissance, which was a resurrection of old things discovered in a dead thing... and the Gospel according to St. Thomas... was a new thrust like the titanic thrust of Gothic engineering; and its strength was in a God that makes all things new.”
― G.K. Chesterton, Saint Thomas Aquinas

“The chaos, the organized, instrumental fear and pestilence was everywhere, and still he was in love with his existence. In. Love. With the whole mad mess, the goldenness, the ripening young psyche of the world.”
― Laurie Perez, The Look of Amie Martine

“There was roast hog, of course, braised mutton, and casserole of the tenderest beef. Platters of trout and salmon gleamed like treasure, dressed with mint and parsley sauces. Dishes of glossy prunes and dates shipped from an unknowable country sat amid roasted apples, delicate custards, and jewel-colored jellies.”
― Paula Brackston, Lamp Black, Wolf Grey

“Having set aside the red herring of 'forest', however, we are still left with clear evidence for the survival of woods in many parts of the Highlands that are likely to have been at least as extensive as the semi-natural woods that survive today. This was richly diverse woodland. It constituted habitat for a broad range of wildlife, mammals, birds and insects, and supported a diversity of plant and fungal life that was unique to different types of higher order trees. While the foregoing discussion has concentrated on a series of heavy demand uses for that woodland - as wood pasture, as a source of pannage and for timber and fuel needs - we must also remember its far broader role as a place for forage. Here was a source of forage foods, from nuts and berries to wild bee honey, of edible fungi and of inedible varieties and lichens for dyes and medicinal uses. The loss of woodland impoverished everyone through the loss of these multiple functions, services and resources that it contained and sustained.”
― Richard Oram, A Land Won from Waste: Scotland AD 400 - 1400