![]() ![]() Apparently, even when you are sick, naked, and in bed, if you’re a queen, you better wear your crown. And, why in many of the illustrations, the snails are winning. It was so common, in fact, that the British Library started looking into just why snails were such a common opponent for the knights. Olympias’ depiction as a medieval queen is present even when she is ill (Fol. One thing that shows up with bizarre frequency are illustrations of medieval knights jousting with or fighting snails. ![]() Olympias herself is clearly identifiable as a queen due to her throne, crown, and ermine cloak, a covering that only nobility are allowed to wear. Veils could be a variety of shapes, even “held up by pins and have a winged effect…headveils could even be worn by queens underneath crowns” (18). Ladies also generally wore veils, often white, over their hair. The bright colors and contrasting sleeves are typical of images of the nobility (65). Both close-fitting long sleeves, like those worn by the queen, and wide, elaborately-lined sleeves were common in French manuscripts of this time period (Gathercole 46-8). The ladies all wear fifteenth century attire. Here on fol 7v, Olympias is recognizable as a queen without even needing to understand the surrounding text: Olympias is seated in the center of her attending ladies. For those of us without ready means of travelling to see the real thing, this is a handy substitute. The facsimile reproduces not only the interior of the manuscript but attempts to recreate the overall experience of reading the manuscript by reproducing the binding as well. xx, a manuscript of the French prose Alexander Romance that was created in Paris in the 1420s. In thinking about these sort of cultural uses of real historical figures, I was reminded of an especially beautiful facsimile the Robbins Library possesses of Royal MS 20 B. Alexander seems to be this weird, mutable figure that people can adopt for their own cultural purposes. I also started reading the Budge translation of the Ethiopian Alexander Romance, in which the titular hero is Christianized (not unusual for Alexander Romances of the medieval period) but his form of praying is distinctly Muslim, which speaks to the Arabic source material of this version of the wildly widespread medieval romance. I’ve watched him streaming on Netflix as the enormous, red-haired, oxen-driving hero Iskandar, resurrected to fight for the Holy Grail in the Fate/Zero anime. ![]() In the past year I’ve encountered Alexander in unexpected places. Or should I say, adaptations and appropriations of Alexander, which are still on-going. Lately I’ve been fascinated by Alexander the Great. ![]()
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