Status Updates From Storia di un giorno in una ...

"The two painters make Simone believe that they belong to a group that 'goes on expeditions' at night, meaning that through magic arts its members enjoy splendid banquets and the company of the most beautiful women, whose chambers, with their marvelous beds, Bruno describes as 'like Paradise, and they are as fragrant as the spice cars in your shop when you're pounding your cumin.'" LMAO! What a phrase!

I love that the concept of mice fighting cats from castles and both armed with weapons like swords, bows, and shields have been around since the 1100s.

Well, at least they got the wearing of gloves and long robes correct while being a doctor.

Deep analysis of the human body was not common knowledge among "doctors" or physicians in the Medieval Era. So, ailments and illnesses were diagnosed with the usage of old language that is more metaphorical and flowery than anything holding truth, or rather, what we know to be true. Ancient knowledge of how to prevent illnesses and create remedies was largely forgotten.

I'm seeing a lot of references to "serpent-tailed gowns" that women wear. Was this a new fashion trend or something?

We like to see that the paintings of Hell from the Medieval Era was just an over-active imagination, but the painters were actually depicting reality for the most part. It's absolutely insane how tormentous and violent this era was. Back then it was public viewing to watch torture happen on a criminal. Nowadays, we still do it, but it is kept out of the public eye. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Although, in this version of the smith's story, the devil came to the smith in disguise as a maiden to torment him. The smith eventually had enough and used burning hot tongs to clamp on her nose to drive the devil away. Eh, I prefer the Norwegian version. The smith uses cleverness to get the better of the devil.

Hey, I just read this story of a horseshoe smith removing a horse's leg, making the shoe on it, and setting it back on! That was in the Norwegian folktales book! It must've been a popular story to have spread so far. Here, the smith is given a name, Eligius, so I suppose that he is originally Italian.

The description of punishment for lawbreakers make Game of Thrones seem almost tame by comparison.

It's a pity that such uprisings from the starving poor were met not with social changes but in punishment and repression. They were cast out of the city. Little did the city leaders realize is that desperate people will find means to survive either through banditry and brigandry or hunting and thieving.

"'Those poor, who were numberless, made a desperate decision: they ran to the major palazzo,...such a noise arose that the whole city was galvanized, and with everyone seizing whatever arms were at hand to protect themselves. Armed troops emerged from the palazzo intending to confront the tumult, but they were ineffective; indeed the poor...striking hard with stones and clubs, they assaulted the palace."'

"'Why does God make so much diversity in the world, the rich, the poor, the strong, the weak? Because he has all in his care: for if all were kings, who would bake the bread? Who would work the soil? God has ordained that there shall be rich and poor so that the rich may be served by the poor, and the poor succored by the rich...To what end are the poor ordained? To enable the rich to gain eternal life thru them."LOL

"It easy to become or to be poor: a bad harvest was enough, or an illness, or the death of a husband or a father; peasants, wageworkers, single persons, ill persons, frequently became poor. All it took was failure to pay back a sum of money on time, an uprising, a house fire, a broken arm...and one found oneself enrolled in the category of the crippled, unable to work and begging for charity."

Comparing the disposal of the dead in cities with the preparation of lasagna is mind-boggling! WTAF!

I'm surprised that the sick, ailing master didn't die from the attempted slaughter of pigs in his very house! It was chaos in there with pig and person running around in pain and blood, including that of the city guard!

The earliest mechanical clocks that chimed the hour had automatons that came to life. That is so cool!

You can tell when the Medieval Period was ending by the artwork. There was a lot of religious-inspired artwork throughout the Medieval Era, but by the second half of the fifteenth century, they went to more contemporary artworks depicting everyday life and people.

Lancelot was famous even in Italy? That's a surprise.
And even regular people wore armor? I wonder what kind?

"Certainly no poet could any longer expect, as Dante Alighieri could, to hear his verses be sung...[he] came upon a smith who was beating iron on the anvil and singing Dante the way one sings a popular poem, and mixing his verses up, shortening some and lengthening others,... Without a word, Dante went into the man's workshop and threw his tongs, his hammer, his balances, and all his other implements." That's funny!

Now we get to the longest chapter of this book: "Inside the City."

"In the unattributed fresco from the end of the fourteenth or the beginning of the fifteenth century in the Palazzo Comunale of Lucignano, Agatha holds in one hand a cup containing her excised breasts, the characterizing attribute of her martyrdom..." I'm sorry, WHAT?!

These paintings of assassination, tyranny, and death were made in the 1400s. Gee, I wonder what was going on in that time that made people make such things? /s

I see more inspiration for Attack on Titan as just like how those walls were given names, the walls for cities in Italy were given names to their patron saints such as Saints George, Peter, Zeno, and Mary.

"To emphasize how Christ shared the lives of the marginalized and the defenseless right from his birth, the Dominican preacher Giordano da Pisa reminded his listeners that Christ was born 'in a small and lowly town, nor was he born inside it, but outside.'" There's no date to this sermon in the Notes section, but regardless it is a message that still needs to be said even today. Which is pity all the more.

Okay, that's supposed to be Siena in the painting. The domed church with multiple towers around it makes it look like the Hagia Sophia, which was built earlier.

Hmm, walls being an important aspect of Medieval city life and identity? Personified by three virtues: faith, hope, and charity? Reminds me of Attack on Titan with its three walls, each given a different name.

Students having enough with bad teachers that they burn the school down? Seems to me that student violence in schools has been happening for a long, long time.

The schools must've been in the cities especially Italian ones. Although I do recall that one of the oldest schools was in London. I would like to know just how frequent they were in Europe.