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Originally, all documents and books were written by hand.  This type of manuscripts lasted until the invention of printing in China in the 7th century and later in Europe in about 1450.  The material used for hand-written ancient manuscripts differed depending on the geographical location.  The ones that were preserved till our days included papyrus, various parchments, and even palm leaves and birch bark documents.

First ancient manuscripts were discovered in Egyptian tombs and mausoleums. They were either located inside the sarcophagi or even reused as  mummy wrappings.  Archeologists and adventurers were discovering scrolls of manuscripts in bizarre places like dry caves, desert burials, or within the secretly buried jars.

The world of antiquity was famous for its large libraries, the most famous and largest of which was the  Library of Alexandria.  There is a certain irony that most of the scrolls that were kept in these huge storage all over the ancient world were lost forever. They were either burnt in fire or destroyed during wars and turmoil.

Yet, there was another reason for the loss of all those invaluable scrolls. Generally, papyrus scrolls don’t last more than a couple of centuries. Those scrolls that were chosen not to be copied on parchment  during the times of Christianity did not survive.

Even with the invention of printing European hand-written manuscript writing kept on going for another century. Printing was expensive and not accessible for everybody at those times.  Each time when a copy of a document was created more and more errors were introduced with each copy. That is why, specialists have to compare different versions of the same document to figure out the most authentic parts of a document.  As for private and governmental documents, they remained handwritten until the invention of the typewriter in the 19th century.

In the end of the 14th century a new musical style emerged. Specialists call it ars subtilior. It is of extremely complex and experimental nature, hard to sing and produce and with super refined musical notation. Obviously, only a small circle of true composers and music lovers could enjoy this musical style. Overall, it was the avant-garde music of the late medieval period. However, as a specialist and web analyst I find some controversy in this issue. Even though the ars subtilior music is highly refined, it was not merely a dead-end artistic movement.  Even more, it seems that some of ars subtilior music was widely known and distributed because many of the devices first used by its composers became standard compositional techniques in the Renaissance.

The center of ars subtilior was Avignon when it was a residence of a Pope who was fighting the opposing fraction in Rome headed by another Pope. From Avignon this musical style spread to Southern France, Paris and Northern Spain.  In the beginning of the 15th century it reached England and established itself there too. Ars subtilior music was exclusively secular. Its songs were telling of courtly love, war, chivalry and even praise of public figures.

The majority of what we know about ars subtilior French composers comes from a single invaluable and extremely rare medieval manuscript the Chantilly Codex.  It is the most important source of information, because we don’t know anything else about many of these music creators, including their biographies, dates of life and death. Brief texts that accompany the music and some of its lyrics allowed us to discover great composers of that time like Solage, Borlet, Grimace, Trebor, Senleches and others. The Chantilly Codex contains 112 polyphonic pieces, mostly ballads, motets, and rondeaus, that represent the most popular courtly dance styles of its time.

In 1486 an ambitious Dominican monk and an inquisitor Heinrich Kramer decided to write an extraordinary manuscript. He wanted to prove in his work the existence oft witchcraft and that the majority of those who were practicing witchcraft were women. Kramer’s document was supposed to serve as some kind of manual for authorities who would hunt witches, find them in local population and “deal” with them accordingly.

As a web analyst I tried to review Kramer’s advertising and marketing “campaign”. The guy was a master crook of his times. Here is what he did.

He spent over a year to complete his project and as a result produced an infamous, opportunistic treatise named “The Hammer of Witches” (in Latin, Malleus Maleficarum). Kramer understood that he was too insignificant for Catholic church, so he decided to add the illustrious name that would give his manuscript credibility. So he added as a co-author the Inquisitor of Germany Jacob Sprenger without the permission of the latter.

After theory comes practice. Thus, equipped with this diabolical manual Kramer tried to unleash a huge anti-witchcraft campaign in his local area but was blocked by authorities. The ambitious Dominican monk added the papal bull on witchcraft as the preface for his book to make it look as the sign of approval from the Pope of Rome. But this did not help him much either.

In search of powerful endorsement Kramer submitted his book to the review of the University of Cologne but failed again. The theologists of the University condemned The Hammer of Witches as unethical and illegal work. This did not prevent Kramer to insert a fake endorsement from the University in his creation.

Undoubted forgeries in the book made Catholic church to ban it completely in the 1490. However, even the Church could not prevent it to become the bestseller of the ignorant masses of the Medieval Europe.

Witch hunters and inquisitors loved The Hammer of Witches and used it as guidance extensively. Up until 1669 it was published almost forty times in multiple editions and was translated in all major European languages.

One of the most interesting forgeries in the medieval times is the so called manuscript Canon Episcopi. This infamous document played a sad role in the birth of inquisition and witch hunts that took place all over Europe. I found about it in the archives of my web analytics company.  Canon Episcopi was first mentioned in the beginning of the 10th century by religious scholars who assumed that it was written during the some religious council of Anquira in 314.  Needless to say, that such a council never happened. In fact, the manuscript was some kind of Frankish composition. It did not prevent Catholic church from treating Canon Episcopi  as a canon law for centuries until the views on European witchcraft began to change dramatically.

So why this manuscript added fire to the later witch craze of medieval Europe? The Frankish author described in it Pagan worship of the Roman goddess Diana. In several paragraphs he was telling the audience that some women became the “instruments of Satan” by fooling other people about their participation in goddess Diana’s wild hunt. In their stories during certain specified nights they would travel on the backs of the animals great distances, serving goddess Diana and obeying her orders.  The author concluded, that thanks to these “wicked” women stories, people leave Christian faith and fall into pagan error.

Anonymous author called this worship as superstition and phantasm, but, medieval theologians used it as a link to non-existent witchcraft beliefs of their own times. This allowed Catholic church to create a theological position of witchcraft based on this pre Christian descriptions of pagan beliefs. Religious scholars did have very vivid imagination, so they did their best to reconcile Canon Episcopi with their own views on witchcraft that they considered both real and effective.

In the middle of the 15th century through the ways unknown to us, famous organist Antonio Squarcialupi got hold of truly invaluable manuscript. On his death bed Antonio passed this manuscript to his nephew, then the latter passed it to his inheritors. So the document was still in the family until it found its way into the estate of Giuliano de’ Medici, who gave it to the Biblioteca Palatina in the early 16th century. And at the end of the 18th century the manuscript passed into the ownership of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana.

Although the manuscript still says in gold letters that its owner is Antonio Squarcialupi and even bears currently his name as the Squarcialupi Codex, originally, it had nothing to do with him. The manuscript was compiled in the Florentine monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli, probably in the beginning of the fifteenth century. At least this is what the archives of my local web analytics company claim.

What’s so special about this document, you may ask? Well, first of all, it is the single largest primary source of music of the early Italian Renaissance that took place in the 14th century, known to the experts and specialists as Trecento. This treasure contains of 216 parchment folios, richly illuminated and in good condition. All complete pieces of music are preserved. 353 compositions in the Codex are all secular and belongs to the famous composers of the Trecento such as Francesco Landini, Bartolino da Padova, Niccolò da Perugia, Andrea da Firenze, Jacopo da Bologna, Lorenzo da Firenze, Gherardello da Firenze, Donato da Cascia and others.

The document is priceless. Imagine, that somewhere in the 27th century new generations of people would discover something similar, like all-star catalog of all truly famous composers of the 20th century. And that would be the only book around at this distant future!

In the next blog entry I will tell you about the other part of the heritage that is called Rossi Codex and some mysteries related to both manuscripts.

One of the most famous forgeries of the Dark Ages was the manuscript called the Donation of Constantine. I found this story while going through some internet research for my local web analytics company. This fake Roman imperial edict was evidently devised in the second part of the 8th century for the Pope of Rome Stephen II.

The Donation of Constantine t was used by Catholic church for centuries as the support for its territorial claims.  It believed blindly in the authenticity of the famous manuscript. Only in the second part of the fifteenth century, with the revival of Classical scholarship and textual critique, the Church had begun to realize that the document could not possibly be genuine.

In the forgery Roman emperor Constantine allegedly grants to the Popes of Rome dominion over lands in Judea, Greece, Asia, Thrace, Africa, the city of Rome and the entire Western Roman Empire. The manuscript tells that all these territories are presented a gift of the first Christian emperor to the pope Sylvester.  All these named lands were a one gigantic “present” from the grateful emperor to the pope  for instructing him in the Christian faith, baptizing him, and even miraculously curing Constantine of leprosy.

Pope Stephen II was a shrewd diplomat. He successfully used the forgery to create the foundation of the Papal States. He crossed into Gaul with this manuscript and presented a copy to the new king of Franks Pepin the Short. Pope managed to gain king’s support against Lombards who occupied former Byzantine territories in Italy and threatened to push the Pope out of Rome. In 756 Pepin and his Frankish army forced the Lombards to surrender their conquests to the pope of Rome. These lands would become the Papal States and would be the basis of the Papacy’s secular power for the next eleven centuries.

Travels of famous Marco Polo come to our mind whenever we think of first Europeans who visited Mongol rulers of the East. But, in fact, there were other Western travelers who visited Great Khan long before Marco Polo.

According to historical accounts that we know of, the first European who went with the mission to the East was Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, one of the companions and disciples of his countryman Saint Francis. Marco Polo was not even born when Pope of Rome sent Giovanni or, as he was called Friar Joannes, with the first formal Catholic mission to the Mongols in 1245.

Friar Joannes was probably an extremely brave and courageous man - he was not a young man at the time, reaching the age of sixty five. He was provided with a letter from the Pope to the Great Khan, and a couple of monks who accompanied him.

At the time Mongols were at the hight of their power. Friar completed the first part of his journey, passing city of Kiev, rivers Don and Volga and at last arrived to the Ordu which was the camp of Batu, the famous conqueror of Eastern Europe. Batu permitted Friar Joannes to proceed onward to the court of the supreme Khan in Mongolia.

During the second part of the journey Friar and his companions experienced great hardships. excessive fatigue and even hunger. They were constantly ill and had to tightly bandage their bodies to survive the enormous ride. Monks passed Ural and Syr Darya rivers and reached the imperial camp in Karakorum on the Mongol river Orhon after covering some three thousand miles in hundred days!

Naturally, the Great Khan did not convert to Christianity but demanded for all Christian kings and the Pope to swear allegiance to him. He sent them back with a letter to the Pope written in Mongol, Arabic and Latin with the same context.

Miraculously, Friar Joannes and his companions survived the journey back and reached Kiev in 1247. Those who knew them thought that they were risen from the dead. Soon after, stoic monks got to Pope and delivered him the Great Khan’s letter. Friar Joannes was made an archbishop and sent as papal legate to French king Louis IX. At those barbaric times, after all hardships of his journey, Joannes managed to live five years more and died in the age of seventy two.

He left Europeans a great book describing Mongols and Tartars, their rulers, countries, climate, manners and traditions, religion, policy and even military tactics. His works proved invaluable to many other travelers who followed his steps. The contemporary sources state that Friar Joannes was a fat and heavy man, but one won’t find a single word of complaint in his works or in any related manuscripts.

Over the years the popularity of Varangian Guard in Byzantium grew so much, that these mercenaries and former pirates received a very prestigious title in the empire that can be translated from Greek as Great Companions. The Varangian guard was stationed primarily around Constantinople. Most of the guardsmen relied on their long axes as their main weapon, although they were also skilled swordsmen and archers as well. They were also famous for their penchant for drinking.

In 989 general Bardas Phocas rebelled against emperor Basil II. According to the true historic facts, Basil with his fierce Varangian guard landed at Chrysopolis to meet the  rebels face to face. Sources say, that as soon as the rebellious general saw what he would have to deal with, he turned blue in the face and died of a stroke in full view of his opponent. Seeing that Bardas was lying dead on the field, his troops turned and fled,  while being pursued by Vikings who were cheerfully hacking adversaries to pieces.

After the successful invasion of England by the Normans the guard began to see increased inclusion of Anglo-Saxons and Danes.  Thousands of them started arriving to the Byzantine empire and enrolling into service.

Overall, Varangian guard was quite a peculiar and and unusual bunch of people, whose loyalties  lay with the position of Emperor, not the man that sat on the throne. In 969 an  Emperor Nicephorus II was assassinated in his palace. A servant had managed to call for the Varangian guard while the Emperor was being attacked, but when Vikings arrived he was already dead. Without any hesitation they instantly knelt before the emperor’s murderer John Tzimisces and hailed him as Emperor.  Their logic was the following: they would defend the late emperor if he was alive, but now that he was dead there was no point avenging him. Besides, they had a new master in the house.

Varangian Guard ended its existence in 1204. It happened  during Fourth Crusade, when the army of knights attacked Constantinople. In fact, Vikings turned out to be the only part of the Byzantium army that successfully defended part of the city. Contemporary sources say that the fighting was very violent and there was hand to hand fight with axes and swords.  After the capture the Varangian Guard was disbanded.

Since the times of the Roman Empire, praetorian guard very often played an infamous role of replacing one ruler with the other. Especially, if the new guy promised to pay the praetorians more. This practice survived even after Roman Empire split in two and new Byzantine Empire was created.

In 976 Bazil II became the ruler of the empire. He had the utmost distrust for his native guardsmen, whose loyalties shifted all the time, so he was seeking the solution to protect himself and avoid fatal consequences. And he found it: he hired Vikings, mostly of Swedish origin, to become his personal bodyguards. This new force became known as the Varangian Guard. As the years went by, new recruits from Sweden, Denmark, and Norway kept a predominantly Scandinavian cast to Varangian Guard up until the late 11th century. That kind of “employment” became so popular in Scandinavia, that special medieval law was created there stating that no one could inherit the estate of a recruit who was staying in Byzantium.

Over the years, Varangian Guard proved itself to be an irreplaceable special force of Byzantine emperors. And they had one of the greatest and unique perks for their service. When the Byzantine Emperor died, the Varangians had the unique right of running to the imperial treasury and taking as much gold and as many gems as they could carry. This privilege known in Old Norse as “palace pillaging” enabled many Varangians to return home as wealthy men. And, in return, it encouraged even more Vikings to enlist in the Varangian Guard.

Everybody knows a novel by Daniel Dafoe that is known as Robinson Crusoe. This book had been all-time bestseller at the times when there was no such word as “bestseller” itself. In fact, by the end of the 19th century, no book in the history of Western literature had spawned more editions, spin-offs, and translations than Robinson Crusoe. There had been more than seven hundred such alternative versions, including children’s versions with mainly pictures and no text. Hundreds of adaptations in dozens of languages, had been published - from The Swiss Family Robinson to Luis Buñuel’s film adaptation.

But there are several historical facts unknown to general public. First of all the full title of the book was not Robinson Crusoe. When the novel was published in April 25, 1719 it had the following title: The Life and strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver’d by Pyrates. Written by Himself.

In Hollywood movie adaptations of the novel somehow Robinson Crusoe is a cast away somewhere new African continent, this Friday is of African origin. But in the book Robinson Crusoe was most certainly based in the Caribbean. Since author mentions that the Crusoe’s island was almost in the mouth of the river Orinoco, it was probably the island of Tobago, since that island is near the mouth of the river Orinoco, and in sight of the island of Trinidad.

And this is what modern public most definitely don’t know. Daniel Defoe wrote a sequel to the first book which had another long title: THE FARTHER ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE; Being the Second and Last Part OF HIS LIFE, And of the Strange Surprizing Accounts of his Travels Round three Parts of the Globe. Written by Himself.

But wait! Here is more… There is even the third book written by Daniel Defoe with the title Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe. That book had really nothing with the adventures of Robinson as the first two books. It represents a series of moral essays. What has that got to do with Robinson, you may ask? Well Daniel Defoe just attached the name Crusoe to increase sales of this book and to attract the attention of the readers. .