A few days have passed since Corpus Christi and I spent much of the time at slash07 until we took the exhibition down on Saturday evening. Stewarding provided a great opportunity for rubber-stamping the Rogationtide dates and website address onto 180 copies of Kalender, and also stapling a cellophane packet containing a pressed wild rose petal to the front of each. Doesn't sound THAT time-consuming, does it??! I've sent some individual copies to press and gallery contacts, and the rest are being quietly deposited in small heaps in various locations for people to pick up and take away if they'd like to.
Kalender is also downloadable from the website – but minus the free gift! www.world-tree.co.uk/festial
A bit more about the 'Kalender of Shepherdes' from which Kalender takes its name:
Published in French in 1493, it was first translated into English in 1503 'apparently by a Frenchman who knew only Scots English' according to Eamon Duffy in The Stripping of the Altars. The mind boggles …! The Kalender of Shepherdes was one third religious instruction and two thirds astrological almanac, filled with calendrical, astrological and medical lore. A major attraction of the book was the fine woodcuts, illustrating both the religious and secular parts.
I'm interested in the way that magic, medicine, astrology, divination, seasonal practices and the Christianity of the day were mixed up into one heady potion. It was an immensely popular book, running to several different translations and editions, and the Church doesn't seem to have had any problem with the seemingly incongruous blend.
