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1 " Sometimes the pagan spirit of Roman poetry arouses qualms. Guibert of Nogent confesses in his autobiography that early in his monastic life he took up verse making and even fell into "certain obscene words and composed brief writings, worthless and immodest, in fact bereft of all decency," before abandoning this shocking practice in favor of commentaries on the Scriptures. "
― Joseph Gies , Life in a Medieval City
2 " Across the bottom of the last page of many a book is written 'Explicit, Deo Gratias ('Finished, thank god')...Books are kept not on open shelves, but in locked chests. "
3 " At mealtime a very broad cloth is laid on the trestle table in the solar. to facilitate service, places are set along one side only. On that side the cloth falls to the floor, doubling as a communal napkin...there are several kinds of knives...but no forks. "
4 " ...beggars were permitted to enter great houses and solicit directly from the table, but now they are restricted to the doorstep. "
5 " As the baby grows bigger, she [wet nurse] will chew his meat for him. "
6 " Instrumental keys [on organs], introduced in the twelfth century, are so heavy and stiff that they must be played with clenched fists. "
7 " For outdoors, he wears a mantle fastened at the shoulder with a clasp or chain; although buttons are sometimes used for decoration, the buttonhole has not been invented. "
8 " Between two each places stands a two-handed bowl, or ecuelle, which is filled with soup or stew. Two neighbors share the ecuelle, as well as a winecup and spoon. "
9 " Even for a well-to-do city family, making life comfortable is a problem. But arriving at a point where comfort becomes a problem for a fair number of people is a sign of advancing civilization. "
10 " A Jewish ethical treatise warns that a man must not express his anger by pounding on a book or by hitting people with it. The angry teacher must not hit the bad student with a book, nor should the student use a book to ward off blows. "
11 " He may leave a prescription of herbs and drugs, and recommend diet—perhaps chicken broth, the milk of pulverized almonds, or barley water mixed with figs, honey, and licorice. "
12 " I am a good lawyer,” said Renard. “Often I’ve made right out of wrong and wrong out of right, as it suited me.” —ROMAN DE RENARD "
13 " If you have a good voice, sing boldly. In the company of people who ask you, and by yourself for your own pleasure, sing; but do not abuse their patience, so that people will say, as they sometimes do, “Good singers are often a bore. "
14 " Theoretically, the curriculum consists of the “seven liberal arts.”2 But schools rarely teach all seven of the arts, and the emphasis is very unequal. These “arts” are “liberal” because their purpose is not moneymaking and because they are worthy of a free man. There are seven mainly because people are fond of the number seven, one of the keys to a numerologically ordered universe. "
15 " The numerals (actually Indian in origin) are spreading through the Italian business community. The key to the Hindu-Arabic system is the zero, which permits the position of the digit to indicate its value as unit, ten, hundred, or thousand. Rapid and accurate computation can be done, something difficult with clumsy Roman numbers. The "
16 " With the growth of proletarian discontent many towns are taking care to restrict the privilege of arms to the wealthy. In Troyes only those citizens possessing vingt livres vaillant (“twenty pounds’ worth of property”) are authorized to own a crossbow and fifty bolts. "
17 " Popular spite attributes a proverb to the medical profession: “Take while the patient is in pain. "
18 " If you unfortunately visit a patient and find him dead, and they ask you why you came, say you knew he would die that night, but want to know at what hour he died. "
