A digital form of the sadly lost fashion for copying out memorable passages from texts. I kept losing my actual book.
Saturday, 25 February 2023
Louis II ‘the German’ hanged so many criminals that the archbishop of Mainz was forced to institute special measures to stop the corpses becoming a health hazard
Friday, 24 February 2023
Codification and other efforts at standardization proceeded quite slowly
P.H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire (2016), 540
Thursday, 23 February 2023
All other German towns [controlled] only 100 square kilometres or less
P.H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire (2016), 518
The Empire is a multicoloured patchwork of dynastic territories compared to the solid blocks of colour used for other, supposedly, more centralised states
P.H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire (2016), 253-4
Monday, 20 February 2023
Soybeans have higher nutrient values than millet, but a lower rate of digestion
The Zhou people's tendency to boil everything would not be all that helpful with soybeans, and would lead to tasteless sludge. Soybeans have higher nutrient values than millet, but a lower rate of digestion, at 22 per cent if they are merely boiled, but rising to 65 per cent with fermentation. In other words, they can only come into their own with the introduction of more advanced technology for cooking and preparation. When they do, they offer the best yield per acre of protein, compared to the same land used for rearing milk, eggs, or meat.
J. Clements, The Emperor's feast (2021), 28
Monday, 6 February 2023
She had no hesitation in reporting them to her father
[Isabella] was a woman of conscience; when she found that two of her sisters-in-law were guilty of adultery with two French knights, she had no hesitation in reporting them to her father. It is not difficult to find instances of her clemency: ....
I. Mortimer, The perfect king: the life of Edward III (2006), 25
This feels like weak evidence for her conscious and especially her clemency. The knights in question were executed and Isabella's motives are ambiguous.