Hungarian serial killer Elizabeth Bathory was from a prominent family. Her uncle, Stephen Bathory, was the King of Poland. Between 1590 and 1610, Elizabeth turned to vampirism and abducted, tortured and murdered hundreds of girls without a flicker of remorse. Why? To maintain her youth and beauty.

A lot of newbie and even some long time Grail researchers get stuck in the esoteric. Of symbols having magical powers or commun...

Made in 2009 This gown didn't get so many wearings as I would have liked, but I soon got too fat for it. I did wear it a lot during Visby medieval week 2009 though. It's really the perfect camping dress: thin wool that makes it cool and it's soft enough to lie down in the grass while still being a very pretty dress. It is based on several drawings and paintings from 15th century Central Europe, such as these. All of these images, except by the first, are made by an artist refered to as "The Master of the House Book" and this type of dress has therefore become known was a ”House book dress” in costuming circles. Myra's Costume Page has the best collection of images from this time and region - go there for more late 15th century German. goodness The material in the dress is, as said, thin wool tabby. To keep the v-opening straight there is a very narrow strip of red inserted between the front seam and the lacing holes. These photos were taken before I had finished the smocked shift I'm wearing in the top photos and I am obviously not properly dressed on other ways either, with glasses and a pony tail. But you can see the dress from the back and sides. As you can see, the images show sleeves open in the back to show off the shift. This was an Italian fashion, which spread rapidly all over the German lands - not surprising, since parts of modern Italy were a part of the Holy Roman Empire. Other images on open sleeves in Central European dress from the end of the 15th century can be seen below: Under the gown I wore this smock, which is a type that can be seen in many German portraits from the late 15th-early 16th century. It is made from linen of course, and hand sewn - I make all my period underwear by hand, since I want strong seams that can take many washings. The pattern used was taken from an early 17th century italian smock which can be found in Dorothy Burham's Cut my Cote. I've used modified versions of that pattern before, but this time I decided to use the same measurements and seam placement as the original (except body- and sleeve length, I wanted it to fit me. I still think it's a bit strange to not have a seam where the underarm gussets are sewn to the body of the garment, but it worked out nice. I also decided that I wanted some kind of decoration around the top. Smock was the obvious answer to that, since you can see quite few smocked shirts and smocks in German art from the period. Since I haven't done that much smocking previously, just a few gores, I decided to go for the easiest type of smocking, which creates a pattern of lozenges. It looked really nice when finished, but somehow it wasn't enough - I mean, every modern bumlerin/landsknecht woman (the term "kampfrau" is not period, the words used seem mostly to have been "bumlerin" or "slachterin") has that kind of smocking around the neck. So something more was needed. Ideally, I would have made the embroidery over the gathers from the beginning, but as I said I was a little insecure about my smocking technique. So what I did was to embroider little heart shapes on top of the smocking, limited in shape by the original smocking of course, so they're not really hearts, just heart-shaped. I used silk dyed with onion peels to get that golden yellow colour which is so popular in embroidery and other decorations on German smocks from the period. The cap is just one of many options when it comes to late 15th century German, but I fell for it when I saw it in drawings like these. I used scraps of my favourite red wool. They were roughly trapeziod so I ended up with this layout for the cap: It is sewn together with silk buttonhole twist. I have a suspicion that this really isn't the headdress of a truly respectable woman – it is a man's cap from the beginning and wearing the dress of the other gender was frowned upon and heavily chritized by the moralists. A married matron of my age would probably never have worn it, but I like it a lot.

Elizabeth Tudor, Queen Elizabeth I of England is by far one of the most recognizable monarchs in history. From birth she was the apple of her father's eye and

On Thursday, June 2, I went to Kloster Marienberg in a nearby town called Helmstedt. I had already been to the monastery once back in April to meet the Domina Mechtild von Veltheim (similar to an abbess or prioress, she is the head of the monastery now) and Ursula Roeper, a curator planning an exhibition at the monastery. So on this return visit, I was going to take photos in the textile treasury! Kloster Marienberg Kloster Marienberg in bloom Kloster Marienberg is no longer a monastery, but houses a small textile treasury and the attached church is now Lutheran. Marienberg was an Augustinian convent, founded in the 12th century. Though I don’t know of any textiles actually made in Marienberg, they have acquired a super little collection since the creation of the Veltheim-Stiftung (a foundation set up by Domina Charlotte von Veltheim to collect and conserve medieval textiles) in the 19th century. I arrived around 10:00am, met Domina von Veltheim and a couple of the women from the restoration department for a quick coffee, and then spent the entire day in the treasury, photographing to my little heart’s content! They have a couple 13th-14th century embroideries showing scenes from the life of Saint Margaret. Life of St. Margaret, 13th Century Life of St. Margaret, 14th Century Life of St. Margaret, 14th Century I just LOVE these colorful patterns! Life of St. Margaret, 13th Century More super patterns! Life of St. Margaret, 14th Century The textile that depicts scenes from the Passion of Christ (ca. 1450) is especially cool because it sports two sets of initials, assumed to be from the embroiderers themselves. Originally, the initials weren’t visible because they were sewn underneath the border, but later restorations revealed the hidden letters. Passion of Christ, ca. 1450 Crucifixion, Passion of Christ, ca. 1450 Little upside-down "GB" initials. Passion of Christ, ca. 1450 Sideways "MK" initials. Passion of Christ, ca. 1450 One of the nicest textiles they have is a Lenten cloth or antependium made in Kloster Heiningen around 1260. Another fabulous example of white work embroidery, the quality of the silk, stitches, and its current state are all totally impressive! Lenten cloth or antependium, ca. 1260, Kloster Heiningen Christ in Majesty. Lenten cloth or antependium, ca. 1260, Kloster Heiningen Virgin Mary. Lenten cloth or antependium, ca. 1260, Kloster Heiningen Some super-detailed patterns! Lenten cloth or antependium, ca. 1260, Kloster Heiningen They also have a couple interesting examples of embroideries produced on black cloth, instead of the more common white/natural background. "Anna Selbdritt" (Saint Anne, with Mary and Christ child in her lap) And last, but certainly not least, they are the proud owners of a couple large-scale klosterstich embroideries in wool. These are very similar to the textiles made and kept in Kloster Wienhausen (here) and Kloster Luene (here and here). Because these are not behind glass, I was able to use my microscope attachment to get a closer look at the fibers of one of these!! Large klosterstich embroidery, Scenes from the Life of St. Elizabeth These little yellow boxes indicate the location of the following micro details. Microscope lens on bellows. Detail of red and green wool stitching. Microscope lens on bellows. Detail of gray wool-- I love how you can see so many different colors up close! Kloster Marienberg in Helmstedt is a really super institution. It is small enough that you can speak to real people who are interested in helping you, while it also has the resources to undertake impressive restoration and conservation endeavors, while also maintaining, displaying, and even loaning out a nice collection of medieval textiles!

Cheguei a Agnolo Bronzino (1503-1572) pela mão de São Bartolomeu, mas essa é uma história para contar noutro artigo. Italiano, Bronzino é um dos expoentes da pintura maneirista. É exímio na arte de…

via "Since she had exchanged one of the most luxurious Courts of the Middle Ages for that of Aragon, chiefly concerned with the ceaseless tumult and turmoil of war. In the fortress-palaces of her husband's kingdom how often she must have pined for the garden-isle of her birth, for its groves of orange, pomegranate, citron, mulberry, acacia, olive, and palm, for the vision of the happy valley of Makaria, across whose far-famed loveliness she was to gaze no more from the casements of her brother's palace at Nicosia! How she would pine to hear once more the merry laughter and the jingling bells of the huntingtrain " sport made ideal in that land of " the richest and most generous lords in Christendom " of their day, one of whom, the Count of Jaffa, alone, kept no less than five hundred hunting dogs. Memories of scented waters " rose, jasmine, and many another of which the secret has long been lost to the distiller " would be wafted to her with the lifting of every lid of her cypress-wood coffers, with their metal inlaying, with every breath of her perfumed " oiselets de Chypre " " that favourite toy of the mediaeval boudoir which she was probably the first to introduce into Aragon. These pomanders of scented paste, generally moulded into the shape of a bird " hence their name " were hung in the apartments of great ladies, in cages or similar receptacles, to serve the double purpose of purifying as well as of perfuming the room. A heavy and disappointed heart beat, we may be sure, beneath the royal robes, thick with " ors de Chypre, o Ma o Aragon ; heavy, because of its homesickness, disappointed, because of her childlessness. Her sumptuous wardrobe itself would grow to be a weariness, since she might not wear it in that Cypriote setting which alone might have fitly framed it." [source, Miron E.L The Queens of Aragon: Their Lives and Times. Reprint. London: Forgotten Books, 2013. 152-3. Print.] I wrote a concrete piece on Oiselets de Chypre, the Cyprus scented birdies of the Middle Ages on Fragrantica. Please check it out on this link.

Whether you’re having your medieval clothes made, or buying fabric to make them yourself, the first question new re-enactors ask is “What colour should my clothes be?” The correct, but unhelpful, answer is “It depends”. It depends on the precise period of history, the place, the socio-economic status, the profession etc of the person you’re portraying.

Beneath their corsets and embroidered capes, some women during the Victorian Era were keeping a cheeky secret: pierced bosoms. Yes, believe it or not,

The religious zealots of the Faith Militant haven't been seen in Westeros for quite some time prior to Cersei's actions in the fifth season of 'Game of Thrones.' Here is everything you need to know about this new, and dangerous, organization.

Hans Holbein the Elder - The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine. Detail. 1519