Marie Jaros
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mariejaros.bsky.social
Marie Jaros
@mariejaros.bsky.social
Medievalist, PostDoc, curiously looking towards the early modern period, currently working on historical whales, but also Kingdom of Sicily, Italy and charters
@humboldtuni.bsky.social
Pinned
A whale of good news! 🐳
Today I signed a contract with the @uniwalespress.bsky.social to write the book "Introduction to the Medieval Whale"!
I am very grateful for the opportunity.
Excited to dive into the depths of medieval whale history. Join the voyage!
🖼️Bodleian Library MS. Ashmole 1511, f. 86v
Reposted by Marie Jaros
The best drawing of an orca I have ever seen!
In 1817 Bernard O'Reilly travelled to Greenland and through the North West Passage. His travelogue (whose authenticity has been questioned) contains this great picture
wiki.app.uib.no/marinelexicon/…)
January 12, 2024 at 7:37 PM
Dear #MedievalSky & #SkyStorians, could you help, please? I am looking for depictions of orcas from before 1700
I already know:
Olaus Magnus, Sebastian Münster, Pierre Belon, Guillaume Rondelet, Conrad Gessner, as well as the ones on bestiary.ca (s. pic) & the mural in Greifswald
Thanks in advance!
September 9, 2025 at 6:18 AM
Who could fail to recognise the #whale ( #cetus ) with its characteristic shape and scales?
#melvillemonday #historicalwhale

Jacob van Maerlant, Der naturen bloeme (1300); Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Ms. germ. f. 52 digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht?...
September 8, 2025 at 11:20 AM
I finally made it to Olaus Magnus's Carta Marina. The map was printed in Rome in 1539 while Olaus Magnus, the Archbishop of Uppsala, was in his exile there. 1/10
August 18, 2025 at 7:07 PM
🚨🐳We’re putting together a panel on #whales in medieval #literature for #IMC2026! Two papers are already confirmed: Icelandic sagas and English poetry. We’re looking for one more speaker to join us. If your research touches literary traditions too, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please DM.
August 17, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Currently travelling on the night train via Stockholm to the #ESEH2025 conference in Uppsala. I am very grateful for the opportunity to discuss initial ideas on how stranded #whales were used by pamphlet authors of different denominations in their arguments.
#envhist
www.conftool.pro/eseh2025/ind...
August 17, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Drawings of right and sperm whales, accompanied by the coordinates at which they were sighted.
#Log of the ship Indian Chief by Thomas R. Bloomfield (1842–1844).
#whale #historicalwhale #oceanspast
🌐https://archive.org/details/ms220log119/page/n3/mode/2up
July 26, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Reposted by Marie Jaros
Great excitement in 1617: whale beached near Scheveningen, and all the best people are out to have a look. Immortalized in paint by Esaias van de Velde, who was born OTD in 1587.
May 17, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Warning: Probably the grumpiest #dolphin in the world.

Adriaen Coenen, Walvisboek (1584-1585); dams.antwerpen.be/asset/jUZJkH...
June 5, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Reposted by Marie Jaros
A very handy looking fish....

BL Add MS 11390, f.50v
May 3, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Reposted by Marie Jaros
The fish are alive with the sound of music!

BL Sloane 3544; Bestiary; 13th century; England; f.42v
May 3, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Reposted by Marie Jaros
Initial 'S'(alvum me fac) at the beginning of Psalm 68, depicting Jonah being hurled into the sea and then sitting on a purple fish.

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 075; Glossed Psalter (Glossa ordinaria); 13th c; England; f.122r
@parkerlibcccc.bsky.social @corpuscambridge.bsky.social
May 3, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Actually, I was looking for a picture of a whale in Ulisse Aldrovandi's De piscibus (1613), but then I came across this one: a harbour #seal ('vitulus marinus').
📖 historica.unibo.it/entities/pub...
April 28, 2025 at 2:18 PM
A whale of good news! 🐳
Today I signed a contract with the @uniwalespress.bsky.social to write the book "Introduction to the Medieval Whale"!
I am very grateful for the opportunity.
Excited to dive into the depths of medieval whale history. Join the voyage!
🖼️Bodleian Library MS. Ashmole 1511, f. 86v
April 8, 2025 at 1:48 PM
The uterus of a #dolphin, even with fetus 🐬 Illustration from 1558!
📖 Gessner, Historiae animalium, lib. 4, p. 381
April 1, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Today my research project on the "History of the Whale in Flanders, the Netherlands and Northern Germany (c.1300-1600)" starts. I will be looking at the management and use of (mostly stranded) whales in non-whaling societies

🖼️A. Coenen, Walvisboek (1584-85); Antwerp, Erfgoedbibl. Hendrik Conscience
March 1, 2025 at 1:56 PM
A 1794 Japanese artist gave the beauty of this #humpback #whale three pages.
Let’s give them more than just pages—let’s protect their oceans

#WorldWhaleDay #SaveTheWhales
🌐https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht?PPN=PPN3303600015&view=overview-tiles&PHYSID=PHYS_0068&DMDID=DMDLOG_0021
February 17, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Reposted by Marie Jaros
For #WorldWhaleDay, the medieval bestiary version of a #whale. 🐳
Bodleian Library, MS. Ashmole 1511 (The Ashmole Bestiary), folio 86v. England, first quarter 13th century. digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/faef...
See ALT for more info!
February 16, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Reposted by Marie Jaros
Good morning to everyone, but especially to all the whales, for today is their special day!

This engraving of a 'Common Whale' [bowhead whale] and narwhal can be found in 'Animated Nature Vol. 2' (1821) by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon.

📷 Reserve 590 BUF

#WorldWhaleDay #RareBooks
February 16, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Reposted by Marie Jaros
Whales and dolphins from "Johnson's Household Book of Nature, Containing Full and Interesting Descriptions of the Animal Kingdom," edited by Hugh Craig, New York, 1880.

#WorldWhaleDay #whales #naturalhistory
February 16, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by Marie Jaros
Whales from ‘Naturhistorischer Bildersaal des Thierreiches: nach William Jardine, nebst einem Vorworte von Karl Vogel' by Friedrich Treitschke, Pesth: C. A. Hartleben, 1840-43.

These illustrations are also found in ‘The Naturalist’s Library.’

#WorldWhaleDay #whales #historyofnaturalhistory
February 16, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Reposted by Marie Jaros
Who’s an adorable little whale? You are!

[From a ca. 1830 chapbook: A Short History of Birds and Beasts]
December 20, 2024 at 4:35 PM
"Fishes [are] reptiles which swim [...]. Although they can dive into the depths, they can still move in a creeping motion as they swim."
Now you know.

🖼️📖Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. 764, f. 106r-v (Bestiary, ca. 1226-1250); digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/e6ad...
February 14, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Drawing of a #shark.
This was made at the behest of the encyclopaedist Conrad #Gessner in the mid-16th century on the basis of a skeleton.
#oceanspast

📖Gessner, Historia animalium, lib. 4 (1558), p. 207; daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/0008/bsb...
February 10, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Reposted by Marie Jaros
Having a whale of a time!

Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. 764; Bestiary; 13th century; England; f.107r @bodleianlibraries.bsky.social
February 2, 2025 at 10:05 PM