Book Review:  The Manuscripts Club--the people behind a thousand years of medieval manuscripts by Christopher de Hamel      

Manuscript devotees get the star treatment in this fascinating and multilayered art history, a natural follow-up to de Hamel’s award-winning previous book, Meetings With Remarkable Manuscripts.  The "club" includes 12 historical figures featured in short biographical chapters.  The author begins with Saint Anselm, the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109.  In the 15th century, Vespasiano da Bisticci, "the most successful bookseller in Europe," turned Renaissance Italy’s rediscovery of ancient classics into a business.  Simon Bening, active in 16th-century Bruges, is one of the few manuscript illuminators whose name we know.  Sir Robert Cotton, an early modern antiquary, owned hundreds of manuscripts, and his classification numbers are still used by the British Library.  

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/christopher-de-hamel/the-manuscripts-club/    

Achillea millefolium, commonly known as yarrow or common yarrow, is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae.  Other common names include old man's pepper, devil's nettle, sanguinary, milfoil, soldier's woundwort, and thousand seal.  The plant is native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Asia, Europe, and North America.  It has been introduced as a feed for livestock in New Zealand and Australia.  The genus name Achillea is derived from mythical Greek character Achilles, who reportedly carried it with his army to treat battle wounds.  The specific epithet millefolium as well as the common names milfoil and thousand leaf come from the featherlike leaves which are minutely divided.   The English name yarrow comes from its Saxon (Old English) name gearwe, which is related to both the Dutch word gerw (alternately yerw) and the Old High German word garawa.   In the eastern counties it may be called yarroway.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achillea_millefolium

Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar is published under the name Victoria Lucas (January 14, 1963) • Victor Hugo finishes writing The Hunchback of Notre Dame (January 15, 1831) • The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes—a ”sloppy, inconsistent, baffling, perfect” novel—is published in Madrid (January 16, 1605) • Anton Chekhov’s last play, The Cherry Orchard, premieres at the Moscow Art Theatre under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski (January 17, 1904) • Virginia Woolf stages her only play (January 19, 1935) • Isaac Asimov’s first full-length novel, Pebble in the Sky, is published by Doubleday (January 19, 1950) • Robert Frost recites his poem “The Greatest Gift” from memory at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy; it was the first time a poet had ever read at an inauguration (January 20, 1961) .  Literary Hub January 14, 2024 

Queen of Persian Dishes   Persian cuisine is famous for its slow-cooked meat braises.  For centuries, braises have been an integral and expansive class of dishes within the Persian culinary landscape.  The Persian word for a meat braise is khoresh (also called khoresht). There is a wide range of Persian khoreshes incorporating different types of meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts, grains, beans, and legumes, in addition to regional specialties and those requiring fresh short-lived seasonal ingredients.  One of the most famous khoreshes is fesenjān (a.k.a. fesenjoon or khoresh-e-fesanjān), a uniquely Persian sweet-and-sour meat braise that incorporates ground walnuts and pomegranate molasses.  The contrasting textures and flavors of the pomegranate molasses and the ground walnuts come together to create a thick and rich braise with an eye-catching dark brown color and subtle sweet-and-sour flavor.  This type of gentle sweet-and-sour flavor is characteristic of several Persian dishes.  In fact, there is a single word for it in Persian:  malass.  There are two popular vegetarian versions where the meat is replaced with eggplant or butternut squash.  The dish’s fame comes in part from the fact that prior to the 20th century, fesenjān was known as the “food of royals” because its ingredients were considered luxurious and therefore beyond the reach of most people.  Despite its royal reputation, fesanjān can be a simple dish to make.  There are only three key ingredients: pomegranate molasses, walnuts, and meat, which collectively create a uniquely sumptuous dish.  Although the most famous (and ancient) version is made with duck, it is equally delicious with lamb, beef, chicken, turkey, other fowl, fish, and even with tiny meatballs.  Don’t be discouraged about the amount of time it takes to make this dish.  Once everything is cooking in the pot, all you have to do is let it simmer gently on the stovetop.  Read history and find recipe at:  https://www.seriouseats.com/fesenjan-persian-pomegranate-and-walnut-meat-braise-recipe-8425670  Thank you, Muse reader!    

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2770  January 15, 2024