1 Similar to Lent, Advent included the four preceding Sundays ending in the festival of Nativity, which was then a religious festival. The custom of giving presents only appeared later on.
2 Unfounded rumours were rife at the time, accusing Boniface of dabbling in witchcraft and occult practices in order to strengthen his power.
3 Known as a daguette in French, these were often fluted and ornamented. Ladies would sometimes carry them as protection when they travelled.
4 Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
5 Known as oblatus: ‘offering’. Anyone (often children) who offered themselves or were offered to God and to a monastery or nunnery.
6 A good physician.
7 In what is now the Aisne.
8 Nun whose task it was to look after the chevet or round point in the church, the treasure house and the candles. She was also in charge of surveying and paying the blacksmiths, singers, veterinary surgeons and so on …
9 Administrator and bursar.
10 Castor oil.
11 An arbitrary tax levied upon feudal dependants by their superiors.
12 Girls came of age then at twelve and boys at fourteen.
13 Secular society.
14 It is thought that towards the end of the seventh century, the counts of Perche imported Arab horses in order to cross them with the local percherons to improve the breed. This explanation dates back to the nineteenth century, though the idea is not uncontested. It is generally accepted that Perche mares were crossed early on with stallions from Boulogne or Belgium in order to produce a heavier and more hardy breed.
15 The origin of the Anglo-Saxon name for magnet, meaning ‘attraction’.
16 The stone was supposed to ward off evil spirits and cure illnesses.
17 It is thought that he drafted the letter in 1269 while mounting the guard during the siege of Lucera.
18 It was not until William Gilbert’s experiments in 1600 that the properties of magnetism began to be understood.
19 The iron blade fixed in front of a plough.
20 Landless peasants who hired their labour.
21 This law was almost the norm in France at the time.
22 Collections of copies of charters in the general sense of the term. These appeared in France from the ninth century onwards. These could be files containing rights and titles pertaining to lords or to an abbey, bills of sale, exchange and contract, or of administration of an estate, and inventories. There were also registers of chronicles made up of a mixture of charters and historical accounts, etc.
23 Marrow, pumpkin and squash originating from the Americas were still unknown in Europe.
24 Used as a plate in relatively well-to-do society, this slice of stale bread was afterwards given to the needy or to the dogs.
25 These were seats with a raised pommel and just one stirrup, which meant the rider could use only her left leg to command her mount. The horn, which later made it easier for the horsewoman to keep her balance, was not invented until the sixteenth century and is attributed to Catherine de Medici, herself an outstanding horsewoman.
26 A smaller horse with a smooth ambling gait that was considered a suitable mount for women.
27 Gougère. Ring-shaped loaf made of choux pastry with cheese.
28 ?–1226.
29 An alexandrine comprising twenty-nine quatrains.
30 A woman speaks an average of twenty thousand words a day, compared to a man who averages seven thousand.
31 The universe of angels was divided into three orders.
32 ?–c.1313.
33 In the Middle Ages the concept of time was not universal, but varied according to the divine, angelic or human ‘substances’ to which it related.
34 Used as a remedy for respiratory infections.
35 Used to cure horse flu.
36 Nominated by the regional or national chapters, the abbots and abbesses were appointed by the Pope.
37 An early forerunner of football, rugby and hockey.
38 A type of lantern made of wood or metal designed so that they could be carried without the flame blowing out.
39 The seeds of the nux vomica tree are rich in strychnine and brucine. They also contain vomicine and novacine, etc. Nux vomica was commonly used from the fifteenth to the sixteenth century onwards as a rodenticide and in very small doses as a stimulant. The symptoms of poisoning in humans are similar to those of tetanus and include a hypersensitivity to noise and light, which can cause convulsions. Death results from paralysis of the diaphragm. The victim is conscious throughout. The lethal dose in human beings varies between thirty to a hundred and twenty milligrams, though some people have resisted up to one gram.
40 One grain = 0.053 grams
41 It was the custom in those days to name a landlord after his tavern.
42 ‘Whomsoever bathes in the divine blood cleanses his sins and acquires the beauty of the angels.’
43 The first gargoyles appeared in the eleventh to twelfth century. Gutters date back to ancient times.
44 Dawn Mass had been held since the second century.
45 ‘Not for our sakes, oh Lord, not for our sakes but for the glory of Your name.’
46 Lemon tree.
47 300–390, an Egyptian monk of the desert who is thought to have some points in common with Francis of Assisi.
48 Depression.
49 Uranus, Neptune and Pluto were discovered later.
50 A combined hoe and fork.
51 950–1012 (?).
52 According to Pliny, this tree, native to Syria, was brought to Italy by Sextus Papirus.
53 Also known as sauve-chrétien, this is a brandy-based liqueur made with sweet white wine, raisins, honey, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, thickened with egg yolk.
54 A window divided into two parts.
55 Church with semicircular apse opening onto the transept.
56 This fashion, possibly originating in Italy, allowed the sleeves of a dress to be changed to vary in style and colour.
57 Turret hats became fashionable in France towards the middle of the thirteenth century.
58 Latex is a powerful cardiotoxic not dissimilar to digitalis, taken from the ako or iroko (African teak) tree (or in Asia the upas or ipho tree – Antiaris toxicaria). The wood is commonly used as a veneer.
59 ?–1272.
60 ‘We adore You, Christ.’
61 The only wood that could be collected without the permission of the local landowning lord.
62 On barges the backs of which opened to allow the animals to be loaded into stalls, where they were secured to avoid falls.
63 ‘Preceptor’ was the name given in Latin for the commander.
64 A tenth of the harvest, given in taxes to the landlords, was kept in such barns.
65 Eight yards in diameter, it was later converted into a dovecote by the Hospitallers.
66 ‘Robert d’Avelin, Templar commander at Arville, 1208.’
67 It was not until the thirteenth century that recumbent effigies became true likenesses of the deceased people they represented. Up until then they were made to look young, beautiful and strong.
68 The names of the commanders and the dates when they held office are taken from the journal Templarium, special edition no.1, which, among other things, is devoted to the Templar commandery at Arville.
69 A noble and delicate instrument which up until the middle of the fourteenth century, when it became definitively five-stringed, could possess between three and five strings.
70 The skin of a still-born calf.
71 Latinisation of the Greek word bibliothêkê, literally meaning ‘box of books’.
72 546 BC.
73 The equivalent of today’s brioche.
74 14:62. The Gospel according to Saint Mark contains many such evocations that combined to convince Christians in past centuries of the return ‘in person’ of Christ on earth in some unspecified future. Ancient calculations fixed the date in 1666, encouraging Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) to authorise the return of the Jews to England.
75 Inspired by the indecipherable manuscript known as ‘Voynich’, which is kept at the Benicke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University in the United States. It is thought that the manuscript dates from the fourteenth century and it is written in an unknown language.
76 Known as the ferrons de Normandie, they organised the production and sale of iron and dictated the conditions of work and even the recourse to middlemen.