Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #LockdownBestiary
Most recents (4)
T is for poor old Toad in today’s #LockdownBestiary (aka ‘Paddock’, ‘Crapaud’). Warty, crawling, despised beast, spitting and pissing venom. Classified by Linnaeus with amphibians, ‘foul and loathsome’ animals. The early modern toad had some friends, but mainly enemies ... 
Toads barely feature in medieval bestiaries. This 13th-century example, though, has a rubbish toad. But for full medieval horror, Gerald of Wales (c1146–c1223) tells how a plague of toads stalked and killed a sick man, pursuing him up a tree, where they ate up his body.
Edward Topsell has more toad terror (‘History of Serpents’, 1608). A monk woke from an after-dinner nap to find a toad squatting on his lips. His friends, terrified of touching the venomous beast, carried the man to a spider’s web. The spider duly descended and killed the toad.
Morning early risers, today in the #LockdownBestiary R is for Raven (Corvus Corax), that blackest of beasts; shiny feathers, twinkling eyes, shiny beaks that speak doom and bad luck. (Engraving by Whimper)
But ravens were once white. Here one of Apollo’s white ravens, spying on Coronis. Drawn by Hendrick Goltzius in 1728. When the bird returned with bad tidings, Apollo scorched its plumage. Raven became raven: shiny black. (@rijksmuseum, BI-1892-3357-32)
Some white ravens escaped Apollo’s wrath. A prophecy of the Mandan, along the Missouri banks, speaks of the ‘bird that made the meat bitter’, and a white raven that heralded the return of mankind to spirituality.
Inspired by the #LockdownBestiary, I have created my own abecedary. (For previous entries search Twitter: #MoneyAtoZ)
a=ancient economy
b=bitcoin
c=cowry shells
d is for….[dogs?] 1/x
a=ancient economy
b=bitcoin
c=cowry shells
d is for….[dogs?] 1/x
2) d is for penny, of course!
Before it was finally decimalised in 1971 (proposals had been repeated since 1850s), British money of account consisted of pounds, shillings, pence--abbreviated £ s d: 12d to the shilling, 20s to the £. After 15/2/1971, 6d=2.5 [decimal] pence!
Before it was finally decimalised in 1971 (proposals had been repeated since 1850s), British money of account consisted of pounds, shillings, pence--abbreviated £ s d: 12d to the shilling, 20s to the £. After 15/2/1971, 6d=2.5 [decimal] pence!
3) £ s d also the abbreviation for accounting units most widely used in France before 1789: livres (lit. “pounds”) tournois, sous, deniers (12d=1s; 20s=1£). N.B. in parts of the Kingdom, accounts were kept in Hainaut or Lorraine livres. No livre or denier coin existed, however.
Inspired by the wonderful #LockdownBestiary, I present #MoneyAtoZ
A is for Ancient Economy
B is for Bitoin
C is for Cowries (1/x)
A is for Ancient Economy
B is for Bitoin
C is for Cowries (1/x)
Cowries are sea snails (marine #gastropod #Cypraeidae) with smooth, shiny, roughly egg-shaped shells; the family is widespread, but so-called “money cowry” (named by Linnaeus, 1758) *farmed* in Indian Ocean off the Maldives Islands 2/x
3/x Like silver, cowries are widely circulated monetary materials, but they come “alrady minted”! Their shells have been used as currency for millenia; 6900 of them in burial site of Lady/Fu Hao c. 1200 BCE; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_of_F…
