Ralph Drayton
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rddrayton.bsky.social
Ralph Drayton
@rddrayton.bsky.social
520 followers 180 following 460 posts
Historian of science and medicine, esp. c.1250-1700, esp. France, esp. medical authority, astrology, religion, and magic

Portland, Oregon, the biofilm
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rddrayton.bsky.social
From this time last year
photo looking up at domed ceiling painted with clouds and a balcony seeming to ring the domed area, with 3 human skeletal people and a skeletal dog peering down upon the observer. There is a chandelier of stylized cactus handing from the middle. Villadolid, Yucatán. a statue of a skeleton, perhaps a foot and a half tall, playing maracas, wearing a blue skirt. Valladolid, Yucatán. sculpture of a stylized skull with grinning painted white teeth rests o a table. All around the skull are painted long green leafy stalks. Around each oversized eye socket are painted thin patterned rings in bluds and reds and greens. The left socket has a strawberry hanging from within it; the right hole has a yellow and red flower emerging from it. Many small sculpted greeen frogs with tiny pink spots crawl all over the skull. On the crown and sides of the skull, there are sculpted flowers and leaves, as if emerging from it. There is another smaller hole above and left of the left socket that has painted patterned rings of brown and yellow and red. Valladolid, Yucatán.
November 1, 2025 at 6:38 PM
rddrayton.bsky.social
No way she’s talking
October 9, 2025 at 1:42 AM
rddrayton.bsky.social
Trying to get the text on the rim…
October 5, 2025 at 3:03 AM
rddrayton.bsky.social
She also made this lovely cake stand type thing that we got. (I swear we don’t get a commission lol)
October 5, 2025 at 3:02 AM
rddrayton.bsky.social
Local person made this mug
October 5, 2025 at 2:36 AM
rddrayton.bsky.social
Apropos some recent commentary: here’s an interesting book
Tariq D. Khan, The Republic Shall Be Kept Clean: How Settler Colonial Violence Shaped Antileft Repression (University of Illinois Press, 2023)
September 23, 2025 at 4:24 PM
rddrayton.bsky.social
I made pork and beans Yucatán style (chilmole de frijol con puerco) bc I found, much to my delight, that a market here carries little bricks of recado negro from the Yucatán, a mix of spices etc that have been charred to ashes. Strongly recommended.
A wide brimmed bowl of white rice and black beans and pork, garnished with diced white onion and cilantro, sitting on a cutting board. Above is a jar of homemade roasted habanero and garlic salsa, and to the right a little cup of mezcal.
August 28, 2025 at 4:15 AM
rddrayton.bsky.social
mitochondrial, I am smart 🤗
August 28, 2025 at 4:00 AM
rddrayton.bsky.social
91% acetate but the other 9% is bullshit
August 18, 2025 at 2:14 AM
rddrayton.bsky.social
Was thinking this would be a counterpoint, but maybe not lol?
August 4, 2025 at 12:25 AM
rddrayton.bsky.social
Casa de los Venados, Valladolid, Yucatán, Oct. 30, 2024
A sculpture of a stylized skull with grinning painted white teeth rests on a table. All around the skull are painted long green leafy stalks. Around each oversized eye socket are painted thin patterned rings in blues and reds and greens. The left socket has a strawberry hanging within it; the right hole has a yellow and red flower emerging from it. Many small sculpted green frogs with tiny pink spots crawl all over the skull. On the crown and sides of the skull, there are sculpted flowers and leaves, as if emerging from it. There is another smaller hole above and left of the left eye socket, that has painted patterned rings of brown and yellow and reds.
July 29, 2025 at 2:23 AM
rddrayton.bsky.social
Another page from the 17th-c. manuscript of Shahnameh that I saw at the Chester Beatty during RSA 2022, this one depicting the episode in which King Kay Kavus has been captured by the White Div.
A photo of a manuscript illustration, similar to the one in the previous post, with a wide border in gold tones depicting birds, flowers, and leafy branches, and small boxes with Persian text in the lower left and upper right of the inset scene. The colorful scene depicts three men seated before the mouth of a cave (evidently) with their arms bound behind them, their eyes closed. They have collars around their necks, with chains connecting them. To the right stands the burly demon White Div, with fearsome fangs (and horns ?) -- his eyebrows are flames. Visible at the top of the rocks above the cave opening are the faces of 3 other demonic figures: on the left in profile looking to our right is one very like the White Div, with a flame for an eyebrow; facing it in profile looking to our left, the face and shoulders are dark; far to the right is another demonic figure looking down on the three men, grinning (but without flames for eyebrows). A closer look at the 3 bound men and the White Div. A closer look at the grinning demonic figure. The Chester Library label reads as follows: The White Div captures and blinds Kay Kavus, by Muhammad Zaman Page from the Book of Kings (Shahnama) by Firdausi (died 1020) Isfahan, 1675-1676 (1086H) In this episode from Firdausi's Book of Kings, we see the hapless fate of king Kay Kavus. Against all advice, the king decided to invade Mazandaran, where he and his army were magically blinded by the spells of the White Div (or demon), and are now being kept captive. They will have to be rescued by the hero Rustam. Comically unrefined, the White Div nonetheless has a resigned air as he addresses his foolish prisoner. CBL Per 277.9
July 23, 2025 at 7:45 PM
rddrayton.bsky.social
July 22, 2025 at 3:40 AM
rddrayton.bsky.social
Picture of the label for the manuscript illumination above, which reads as follows: The simurgh arrives to assist Rudaba with the birth of Rustam, signed by Muhammad Zaman Page from the Book of Kings (Shahnama) by Firdausi (died 1020) Isfahan, 1675-1676 (1086H) In this scene mixing tension and relief, the princess Rudaba is enduring a long and dangerous labour. Her husband Zal has summoned the noble simurgh, a giant magical bird who once fostered him. She flies down into the picture-frame, and with anaesthetic herbs and a Caesarean section, Rudaba and her baby son will be saved. The baby is Rustam, who will grow up to become the greatest hero of Firdausi's Book of Kings. CBL Per 277.3
July 19, 2025 at 4:02 PM
rddrayton.bsky.social
I'm reading a new translation of Shahnameh (Book of Kings) of Ferdowsi, and I just got to the birth of Rostam, which reminded me of this beautiful illumination from a 17th-c. ms I saw at the Chester Beatty Library's exhibit Meeting in Isfahan while in Dublin for the RSA 2022 meeting.
Photo of a large manuscript illumination depicting the arrival of the Simorgh, a magical bird, at the bedside of Rudabeh, with three other people in attendance. The scene is framed by a wide border in which animals and plants are depicted with gold and brownish tones. The very colorful Simorgh is shown descending from the upper right, crossing the boundary into the (also colorful) scene; the area with the Rudabeh in her bed and the others seated around her takes up the lower half; behind/above them is what appears to be a low wooden railing; the upper half depicts a mountainous scene beyond, with flowers and trees, and a glimpse of the sky with large clouds. (Seemingly at a long distance away, there are two stone (?) structures near one of the peaks.) In the upper right partially blocking our view of the trees, and at at the lower left, there are two small boxes with Persian text. (My followup post will be of the Chester Beatty's museum label.)
July 19, 2025 at 3:59 PM
rddrayton.bsky.social
A few years ago, I was here and for the first time I heard coyotes howling off in the distance. No one else around but me and my partner— eerie and beautiful
Devil’s Tower at dusk.
July 6, 2025 at 3:01 AM
rddrayton.bsky.social
Lmao
July 4, 2025 at 3:36 AM
rddrayton.bsky.social
wait I’m sorry what
NYTimes post remarking that Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries “congratulated Zohran Mamdani but stopped short of endorsing him.”
June 26, 2025 at 2:31 AM
rddrayton.bsky.social
June 13, 2025 at 2:59 AM
rddrayton.bsky.social
A modern early modern “plague doctor”
On a bookshelf sits a beer can from Ruse Brewery. It is illustrated with a depiction of a plague doctor (beak mask, black robe jacket thing, black hat, and black pointed shoes). He’s holding a selfie stick, and his masked face can be seen on the tiny camera phone screen. The figure stands on a band of green, the horizon at about knee level. The sky is depicted as 3 bands of color running from a sort of violet to a kind of purplish red to a darkening but clear blue. Pinpoints of blue, yellow, and white indicate stars. There are clouds behind the figure, and a gold crescent moon over his shoulder on the right. There are yellowish thin rays that emerge from directly behind the figure from a point about waist high, perhaps depicting the rays of a setting (or rising?) sun. At the bottom is the name of the beer, Similar Science Hazy India Pale Ale.
May 17, 2025 at 6:52 PM
rddrayton.bsky.social
Hey, it's Conrad Gessner's and my birthday today!
An engraving of Conrad Gessner from the Wellcome Collection. Above his portrait: CONRADUS GESNERUS PHILOS. & Medicus. Below: Plinius alter eram: per me vis iam liquet omnis/Naturae, ingenii vi super at a mei./M.D.LXV
March 26, 2025 at 5:06 PM
rddrayton.bsky.social
As a couple of portraits of Descartes are in the thread and comments, I thought I’d share my favorite of him, c. 1628, looking very much the dashing young courtier (taken from HJ Cook, The Young Descartes (Chicago, 2018); as identified by A. Marr)
A B&W photo of a pastel sketch of René Descartes, by Simon Vouet, c. 1628. The photo is of a page from the book The Young Descartes: Nobility, Rumor, and War (Chicago, 2018) p. 163. RD is looking very much the dashing young courtier, with his high collar, mustache and goatee, flowing black locks cut just short of his shoulders, slightly bemused smile, and gentle but attentive eyes.
February 22, 2025 at 12:01 AM
rddrayton.bsky.social
Thinking back over the great History of Science Society meeting in Mérida in November. Here's a pic from a side trip to Uxmal.
Pyramid at Uxmal, Yucatán, seen at a distance from a rise. There are dense trees in the near foreground, with enough break in the foliage at the center of the frame to see most of the building. The sky is blue, but there are large clouds stretching to the horizon.
January 28, 2025 at 11:37 PM
rddrayton.bsky.social
Always read the footnotes, fellow kids.
A footnote from the introduction to Jill Mann’s recent edition and translation of Nigel of Longchamp’s Speculum Stultorum, the highlighted portion of which reads: “William [of Longchamp] also supported the [Canterbury] monks’ claim to a whale that had been washed up on their land in Kent, in gratitude for which they sent him the tongue and part of the head (Gervase, Chronicle, i. 489).”
January 24, 2025 at 4:48 PM
rddrayton.bsky.social
“The logician does not care for anything except whether the argument is food for proving the conclusion — regardless of whether it is in the service of justice, or used to perpetuate an injustice against and destroy a good man, or to separate his goods from him, in the way that lawyers and advisors of rich men often argue against the good and the poor.” — Jean Buridan, d.c. 1356, in his Quaestiones in Praedicamenta, clarifying the place of logic among the sciences.
January 22, 2025 at 1:07 AM