Yvonne Seale
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yvonneseale.bsky.social
Yvonne Seale
@yvonneseale.bsky.social
1.3K followers 270 following 450 posts
Historian of medieval women, especially the nuntastic kind; lover of tea; associate professor of history at SUNY Geneseo. yvonneseale.org
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yvonneseale.bsky.social
In class today, a student asked me how many Holy Prepuces (the supposed circumcised foreskin of the infant Jesus, venerated as a relic) were floating around in medieval Europe. I didn't know the exact number, looked it up, and stumbled across this fun fact.

Surely one of history's weirder jobs?
Screenshot containing the text "This was not the only test of the relic's legitimacy: as anthropologist Eric Silverman writes, "A common test for foreskinned authenticity [in medieval times] was taste. A physician, supervised by a priest, sampled the skin for the flavor of genuine holiness. The taster was called a croque-prépuce, or 'foreskin cruncher.'""
November 20, 2025 at 7:48 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
My current (Catherine Connolly, second from left) and former presidents (Mary McAleese, Michael D. Higgins, Mary Robinson) displayed a real commitment to colour coordination at today's presidential inauguration.
Four people standing side by side. From left to right: Mary McAleese, a woman with blonde hair in a purple dress; Catherine Connolly, a woman with grey hair in a purple pant suit; Michael D. Higgins, a man with white hair in a dark suit and purple tie; Mary Robinson, a woman in a deep red blazer over a black turtleneck and trousers.
November 11, 2025 at 11:17 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
Thrilled to have written something for "Childhood and the Irish" (ed. @salvadorryan.bsky.social), a collection which explores so many aspects of growing up in Ireland over the centuries. My contribution is about piecing together the life of a foundling ancestor.

wordwellbooks.com/index.php?ro...
Front cover of a book, with "Childhood and the Irish: A Miscellany" in dark font against a cream background. There is a black and white cover photo of a young boy on roller skates.
November 10, 2025 at 6:12 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
Und wann war Heidelberg eine Hansestadt?

Ich teile nur den Link. Wenn Sie Kommentare machen möchten, können Sie Viabundus kontaktieren: www.landesgeschichte.uni-goettingen.de/handelsstras...
October 25, 2025 at 11:36 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
A neat tool I just came across: Viabundus, a digital road map of northern Europe 1350-1650, that lets you calculate contemporary travel routes/times. In 1500, going Amiens → Köln by horse took almost 7 days and 13 toll payments.

#medievalsky

www.landesgeschichte.uni-goettingen.de/handelsstras...
Screenshot of the Viabundus website.
October 24, 2025 at 10:58 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
Sometimes a translator's name will make you pause and blink at the title page.
Part of a title page of a book, showing the text "Saint Augustine Confessions, Translated with an Introduction by R.S. Pine-Coffin."
October 17, 2025 at 9:19 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
Oh my god, there is an extended scene in which we see and hear Cardinal and future Pope BRIAN BLESSED pooping in front of the other cardinals of the conclave. 🫣 What is this movie. Cardinal Lawrence would never.
Brian Blessed as Piccolomini in profile, seated on the toilet while other cardinals react with embarrassment and disgust. This scene went on for such an ungodly length of time. Why are there so many lit candles in the toilet?
May 9, 2025 at 3:17 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
And since it is BRIAN BLESSED, a man who's always playing to the back of the house, you get scenes like this one in which Piccolomini openly throws his hat into the ring. I am agog.
May 9, 2025 at 2:57 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
I cannot objectively recommend this movie, but what I can say about it is that it features BRIAN BLESSED as Enea Silvio Piccolomini, i.e. the future Pope Pius II. (Does it count as a spoiler if it's for a medieval conclave?)
Brian Blessed in a truly distressing bowl cut wig which, though not visible here, is also tonsured. Pinturicchio's fresco portrait of Enea Silvio Piccolomini (Pope Pius II), 1502-07. It shows an older man wearing the papal tiara and a blue coak trimmed with gold, seated on a wooden chair draped in red fabric.
May 9, 2025 at 2:55 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
Going down a series of rabbit holes following yesterday's events led me to the discovery that as well as the more well known "Conclave" (2024) there is also "The Conclave" (2006), an intensely early 2000s made-for-TV-on-a-shoestring-budget movie about the papal conclave of 1458.
Movie poster for "The Conclave" (2006)
May 9, 2025 at 2:53 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
I've updated my " #Premonstratensian Order in the Middle Ages" bibliography site. It now contains 6,250 entries & covers:

— Secondary lit on the order, 1480s-2025
— 22 languages from Basque to Swedish
— Array of digital & print sources
— Themes, houses & individuals

www.geneseo.edu/researchweb/...
Screenshot of the Premonstratensian Order in the Middle Ages Bibliography website, showing a searchable bibliographic database.
May 7, 2025 at 1:59 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
Today at Geneseo, a community rally in support of science and higher ed in general—3:30-6pm in Bailey Hall! History Department faculty will be there.
April 22, 2025 at 3:55 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
The May 2025 issue of BBC History Magazine @historyextra.bsky.social is out, and includes a piece by me on the famed relationship of Abelard and Heloise, and why it can't just be simply summed up as a love affair.

www.historyextra.com/magazine/cur...
The cover of the May 2025 issue of BBC History Magazine, showing a black and white photo of a cheerful woman on VE Day.
April 18, 2025 at 1:43 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
While working on slides for my classes this week, I came across this portrait of the 13th-c. pope John XXI, and I am both agog at and charmed by the luxuriant mustachios that the artist bestowed on him. Poirot is envious!

(Portrait: Unknown artist, 16th c., now Gallery of the Archbishops of Braga.)
A half-length portrait of a man in profile. He's wearing a white zucchetto and an embroidered brown robe studded with pearls that is held together with a gold brooch. He is rocking a very luxuriant dark brown moustache. Behind him is the papal tiara and over his head is text in Portuguese/Latin that reads in translation "Pope John 21. Dom Pedro Juliano. In the year 1272."
April 6, 2025 at 4:12 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
For our windy walks, @cjdenial.bsky.social and I were fortified by a good, stick-to-the-ribs breakfast from Highland Park diner, and by some good vibes browsing at fab new(-ish) bookshop Bleak House Books in Honeyoye Falls. Did I technically need to buy more books? No. But that’s not the point.
The green, cream and chrome exterior of the Highland Park Diner, the name of which is illuminated in neon on the roof. A waterfall flanked by wood and brick buildings. No prizes for guessing how Honeyoye Falls came by its name. A print in a black frame hanging on a bookshop wall. The print’s text says “Having opposing views is better than 100% agreement.” A chalk sign seen outside the book shop, showing a drawing of Batman slapping Robin. Robin is saying “Amaz—“ and Batman is saying “Buy books from bookshops not billionaires.”
March 19, 2025 at 10:10 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
Spring has been dragging its feet getting here, but in the current (political) climate, the clouds and wind—& occasional fleeting glimpses of bluer skies ahead—felt appropriate for a trip to Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, to see the final resting places of Frederick Douglass & Susan B. Anthony.
A large white stone slab marking the grave of Frederick Douglass, flanked on either side by the smaller graves of family members. A view of part of the cemetery. It is hilly with a number of bare trees. There are several older stone headstones and lots of dead leaves on the ground. A white stone headstone marking the grave of Susan B. Anthony. The base of the headstone is circled by a yellow ribbon and a small U.S. flag is planted in front of it. An elaborate 19th tombstone topped with the statue of a kneeling woman.
March 19, 2025 at 9:59 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
I've just been reminded, thanks to @cjdenial.bsky.social that Brigit appears in the 2024 cinematic, uh, experience that is Netflix's "Irish Wish" starring Lindsay Lohan. A movie in which Brigit is an impish granter of love wishes lurking around Westport in a kurta and coordinating headscarf.
There's herself now, lurking behind the base of the statue to St Patrick in the centre of Westport—a sly reference to the relative historiographical treatments of Patrick and Brigit? Probably not. Brigit is a white woman with dark hair, wearing a brightly patterned kurta-style outfit and a matching headscarf. A screenshot of Brigit and Lindsay Lohan's character standing in a rural landscape. Brigit, on the left, is wearing a green and maroon kurta-style outfit with a matching maroon headscarf of the kind that neither of my grandmothers wore after about 1988. Lohan, on the right, is seen from behind. Her red hair is loose and she is wearing a yellow sweater. There appear to be sunflowers growing in the background; not a flower you generally see growing wild in Ireland. Brigit's expression in this screenshot is basically the look on my face throughout watching this movie.
February 1, 2025 at 2:07 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
Brigit's was widely venerated across medieval Europe—there was apparently an altar dedicated to her as far east as Kyiv. She was especially respected as a worker of dairy- and livestock-related miracles. This 13th-c. gilded reliquary from Plappeville in e. France is said to hold a relic of hers.
A gilded reliquary (relic holder) in the shape of an arm with its index and middle fingers outstretched in a gesture of blessing.
February 1, 2025 at 1:48 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
Lá Fhéile Bríde sona daoibh! Happy St Brigit's Day, feast day of one of Ireland's patron saints & the country's traditional 1st day of spring. I've a grá (affection) for Brigit as a historical figure & because as a child I was taught by Brigidine Sisters.

Bibl. mun. de Valenciennes, MS 838, f.63v
Detail of a medieval manuscript page showing a marginal illustration of St Brigit and her cow. Brigit is shown as a woman in a blue gown and white veil and with a halo. She is turning and gesturing towards the small black cow behind her.
February 1, 2025 at 1:44 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
Have a Guanyin-themed bedroom & a frog-themed bathroom but also a bunch of eclectic #medievalism in rooms filled to the brim with Stuff!

I continue to think someone could write a dissertation on US McMansion Medievalism.

(... am I wrong in thinking the Viking longship table kind of slaps though?)
Per the listing, this is "the Fire dining room decked with a dragon chandelier and fire sconces and lights, and a long dragon Italian carved table." The walls are painted red and orange, the ceiling is covered with a dragon-themed mural, and the floor is covered with floral-themed mosaic tiles. According to the property listing, "the kitchen is dedicated to the Elements of Air and a story of its power is depicted on its ceiling." The vaguely baroque ceiling mural is paired with a bright blue country-style kitchen, and a dining table large enough to seat 20 that's carved to look like the prow of a Viking longship. I cannot begin to express how much the walls are plastered in random vaguely nautically themed things. Who wouldn't want to sleep in a German-themed bedroom? Dream of dancing lederhosen-clad men beneath a duvet that appears to have a photo of a medieval street in Rothenburg ob der Tauber on it, with a headboard shaped like a castle behind you. Cosy. Also do these people have an RV lifestyle fetish of some kind? In this and basically every other room and hallway in this house, there are built in cupboards and cabinets everywhere: underneath beds and seating and lining walls. I appreciate smart storage but how many things can one family own? Spot! That! Templar cross! Any visual respite which may have been offered by this room's cream walls is immediately negated by the fact that all the walls are covered with pseudo-medieval and/or religious carvings, and that the ceiling is painted with a purple mural of folded angels' wings. The furniture is all ornately carved, pseudo-late medieval and looks deeply uncomfortable to sit at or use.
January 25, 2025 at 6:18 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
The 2 in particular that have stayed with me are "Wounds" & "Ceasefire", with their focus on the victims of violence & the demands—& costs—of peace. (The latter poem I think does something more emotionally imaginative with Greek myth in 4 stanzas than recent movie "The Return" managed in 2+ hours)
Here are two pictures from my father’s head — I have kept them like secrets until now: First, the Ulster Division at the Somme Going over the top with ‘Fuck the Pope!’ ‘No Surrender!’: a boy about to die, Screaming ‘Give ’em one for the Shankill!’ ‘Wilder than Gurkhas’ were my father’s words Of admiration and bewilderment. Next comes the London-Scottish padre Resettling kilts with his swagger-stick, With a stylish backhand and a prayer. Over a landscape of dead buttocks My father followed him for fifty years. At last, a belated casualty, He said — lead traces flaring till they hurt — ‘I am dying for King and Country, slowly.’ I touched his hand, his thin head I touched. Now, with military honours of a kind, With his badges, his medals like rainbows, His spinning compass, I bury beside him Three teenage soldiers, bellies full of Bullets and Irish beer, their flies undone. A packet of Woodbines I throw in, A lucifer, the Sacred Heart of Jesus Paralysed as heavy guns put out The night-light in a nursery for ever; Also a bus-conductor’s uniform — He collapsed beside his carpet-slippers Without a murmur, shot through the head By a shivering boy who wandered in Before they could turn the television down Or tidy away the supper dishes. To the children, to a bewildered wife, I think ‘Sorry Missus’ was what he said. Poem © Michael Longley 1973. Source: An Exploded View by Michael Longley. Ceasefire 1 Put in mind of his own father and moved to tears Achilles took him by the hand and pushed the old king Gently away, but Priam curled up at his feet and Wept with him until their sadness filled the building. 2 Taking Hector’s corpse into his own hands Achilles Made sure it was washed and, for the old king’s sake, Laid out in uniform, ready for Priam to carry Wrapped like a present home to Troy at daybreak. 3 When they had eaten together, it pleased them both To stare at each other’s beauty as lovers might, Achilles built like a god, Priam good-looking still And full of conversation, who earlier had sighed: 4 I get down on my knees and do what must be done And kiss Achilles’ hand, the killer of my son. Poem © Michael Longley 1994.
January 23, 2025 at 3:44 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
Always relieved when I vanquish the department printer at syllabus-printing time. This semester’s courses: Vikings, second half of the medieval survey, and medieval women’s history. Technically ready though I still have the “what have I forgotten?” feeling.
Three paper copies of syllabi for history courses sitting on a desk.
January 17, 2025 at 9:51 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
My home county of Laois was one of the parts of Ireland most affected by the weekend's uncommonly hefty fall of #sneachta. You'd want to be a hardy person to be up on the Rock of Dunamase today, where the wind is brisk at the best of times! The Rock is topped by the ruins of a 12th-c. castle.

📷 RTÉ
Aerial view of a hill-top ruined castle blanketed in snow. Beyond it are snow covered hills and a small stand of trees. Squint at the top left corner of the picture and you can just about make out the outskirts of Portlaoise.
January 6, 2025 at 7:39 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
I love the still vivid colours of this wall hanging made by the nuns of the Augustinian community of Heiningen in 1516—the sisters' names appear around the edges. It weighs some 50kg, and its embroidered imagery is dense with theological and classical references.

Victoria & Albert Museum, 289-1876.
The central figure of Philosophy, shown as an enthroned and crowned blonde woman, surrounded by other smaller anthropomorphized forms of learning. A view of the full tapestry, with two central roundels surrounded by a square frame. The whole measures roughly 4.7m x 5.3m. A corner of the tapestry. The names of the sisters who worked on the hanging run around the outer edge. On the top you can see the name of "D[omi]na Elisabet", Lady Elizabeth, the community's leader. Detail of the hanging showing personifications of Grammar (left) as a blond man in a patterned robe holding a book and Wisdom (right) as a crowned blond man in a patterned robe holding an orb and sceptre, who is also identified as the biblical king Solomon.
January 2, 2025 at 4:56 PM
yvonneseale.bsky.social
But in her book, Hanawalt is making the kind of nuanced argument that you don't seem to allow for historians of medieval women to be making—that women in medieval London were key conduits for the (re)circulation of material/social capital *but* that this doesn't imply a Lost Girlboss Age.
A screenshot of page 11 of Hanawalt's "Wealth of Wives". The key sentence is "If one were looking for a "golden age" for women, [London] could not be a more depressing place to look." Screenshot of page 183 of "Wealth of Wives", stating "The evidence in this chapter does not point to a "golden age." It suggests that a few more women were in business in the first quarter of the fifteenth century, but these were not high-status positions, and they did not translate into official power. Only a tiny minority of women had the training or the capital to move into entrepreneurial positions. Studies of women on the Continent and in England suggest that women were increasingly squeezed out of the few business opportunities that they had in the sixteenth century. The same change seems to be occurring in the late fifteenth century in the real estate market in London as well. The business world was becoming increasingly male. Guild prohibitions on women's participation occurred not only on the Continent but also in London."
December 23, 2024 at 2:51 PM