NEW PODCAST! The History of Sport Episode 2: Baseball & the Little Pretty Pocket Book

One more episode from my new/other podcast before getting back to medieval travel. You can find more on Apple Podcasts and all the other usual platforms.

Today's episode is about a piece of baseball history, very early baseball history. It's about an 18th-century children's book, about a nationalistic effort to claim ownership over baseball, and about a mining engineer's nostalgic memories of the game's early days. It's about Albert Spalding, the Spalding of so much sports equipment, Abner Graves, the mining engineer in question, and the Civil War general, Abner Doubleday. It's about John Newbery, the man for whom the Newbery Medal for American children's literature is named.

NEW PODCAST! The History of Sport Episode 1: Father of Boxing, Swinger of Swords

I’ve got something new to share with you today. I’ve been working on a new podcast. It won’t be replacing Human Circus, and I won’t clutter up this space with too much non-medieval history material, but I’ll post the first couple of episodes here for anyone who’s interested. You can find more on Apple Podcasts and all the other usual podcatchers. I hope you enjoy it!

This boxing history episode (they won’t always be about boxing) is the story of James Figg, the 17th-century born "Father of Boxing" and one of the 1992 Boxing Hall of Fame inductees. But his boxing was not the sport you're familiar with today. Figg, who would set up his academy on Tottenham Court Road, was before the Queensbury rules and all of that. Figg entered the ring with a cudgel and a sword.

This is his story, and the story of his fight with Ned Sutton, the pipe-fitter from Gravesend.

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Prester John 9: The End Part One

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16th-Century Chart - Prester John (Wikimedia)

What happens to a mythical priest-king when you get too close to him? Does he just disappear?

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

  • Ray, John. A Collection of Curious Travels & Voyages. 1693.

  • Salvadore, Matteo. The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402-1555. Taylor & Francis, 2016.

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Prester John 8: Ambassador Mateus and his Many Doubters

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A 16th-Century Portrait of Dawit II (Wikimedia)

In the early years of the 16th-century, Ethiopia's regent, Eleni, sent an ambassador to Portugal to propose an alliance. She sent a man named Mateus. Unfortunately for Mateus, almost nobody believed him.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

  • The Commentaries of the Great Afonso Dalboquerque, Second Viceroy of India. Hakluyt Society, 1875.

  • Alvares, Francisco. Narrative of the Portuguese embassy to Abyssinia during the years 1520-1527. Hakluyt Society, 1881.

  • Baldridge, Cates. Prisoners of Prester John: The Portuguese Mission to Ethiopia in Search of the Mythical King, 1520-1526. McFarland, 2012.

  • Diffie, Bailey Wallys & Winius, George Davison. Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415-1580. University of Minnesota Press, 1977.

  • Eliav-Feldon, Miriam. Renaissance Impostors and Proofs of Identity. Palgrave-Macmillan, 2012.

  • Knobler, Adam. Mythology and Diplomacy in the Age of Exploration. Brill, 2016.

  • Krebs, Verena. Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe. Springer International, 2021.

  • Rogers, Francis Millet. The Quest for Eastern Christians: Travels and Rumor in the Age of Discovery. University of Minnesota Press, 1962.

  • Salvadore, Matteo. The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402-1555. Taylor & Francis, 2016.

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Prester John 7: The Way from Lisbon

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Detail from the Cantino planisphere, a Portuguese map from 1502.

It's part 7 of the Prester John story, on the trip to Prester John's Ethiopia, and on the Portuguese crown's pursuit of the priest-king and how that story was connected to the developing ones of exploration and colonialism.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco Da Gama, 1497-1499, translated by Ernst Georg Ravenstein. The Hakluyt Society, 1898

  • Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

  • Ferreira, Susannah. The Crown, the Court and the Casa Da Índia Political Centralization in Portugal 1479-1521. Brill, 2015.

  • Knobler, Adam. Mythology and Diplomacy in the Age of Exploration. Brill, 2016.

  • Krebs, Verena. Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe. Springer International, 2021.

  • Krebs, Verena. "Re-examining Foresti's Supplementum Chronicarum and the 'Ethiopian' embassy to Europe of 1306," in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Volume 82, Issue 3 (October 2019) .

  • Kurt, Andrew. "The search for Prester John, a projected crusade and the eroding prestige of Ethiopian kings, c .1200 – c .1540," in Journal of Medieval History, 39.3 (September 2013).

  • Salvadore, Matteo. The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402-1555. Taylor & Francis, 2016.

  • Salvadore, Matteo. "The Ethiopian Age of Exploration: Prester John's Discovery of Europe, 1306-1458," in Journal of World History, Vol. 21, No. 4 (December 2010).

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Prester John 6: The Ethiopian Prester John

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This is the first of two episodes on the next jump in the Prester John narrative, as the story pivots to Ethiopia and as Ethiopian envoys and pilgrims travel in 15th-century Italy and Spain.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

  • Knobler, Adam. Mythology and Diplomacy in the Age of Exploration. Brill, 2016.

  • Krebs, Verena. Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe. Springer International, 2021.

  • Krebs, Verena. "Re-examining Foresti's Supplementum Chronicarum and the 'Ethiopian' embassy to Europe of 1306," in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Volume 82, Issue 3 (October 2019) .

  • Kurt, Andrew. "The search for Prester John, a projected crusade and the eroding prestige of Ethiopian kings, c .1200 – c .1540," in Journal of Medieval History, 39.3 (September 2013).

  • Salvadore, Matteo. The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402-1555. Taylor & Francis, 2016.

  • Salvadore, Matteo. "The Ethiopian Age of Exploration: Prester John's Discovery of Europe, 1306-1458," in Journal of World History, Vol. 21, No. 4 (December 2010).

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Medieval Halloween: Lamias, Devils, and Disembodied Hands

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Dante, Virgil, and Satan - The Inferno - Add MS 19587, f. 58r

Medieval stories of the paranormal, for Halloween or any time really. Featuring invisible devils, water sprites, and helpful hands.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • Gesta Romanorum, translated by Charles Swan. George Bell & Sons, 1905.

  • Joynes, Andrew. Medieval Ghost Stories: An Anthology of Miracles, Marvels and Prodigies. Boydell, 2006.

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Prester John 5: The Mongol Priest-King

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Ong Khan, sometimes identified as Prester John, in Marco Polo’s Le Livre des Merveilles - Wikimedia

Ong Khan, sometimes identified as Prester John, in Marco Polo’s Le Livre des Merveilles - Wikimedia

The Mongols, their conquests, and the travellers who went to see them were all going to necessitate some changes to the Prester John narrative. This episode is all about those changes.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

  • Sir John Mandeville: The Book of Marvels and Travels, translated by Anthony Bale. Oxford University Press, 2012.

  • Aigle, Denise. The Mongol Empire Between Myth and Reality. Brill, 2014.

  • Jackson, Peter. The Mongols and the West:1221-1410. Routledge, 2018.

  • Rachewiltz, Igor de. Prester John and Europe's Discovery of East Asia. Australian National University Press, 1972.

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Prester John 4: Waiting for David

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King David (though not the one in this episode) in the Westminster Psalter

King David (though not the one in this episode) in the Westminster Psalter

After their success at Damietta, the participants in the Fifth Crusade decide what to do next, and they wait for a certain someone...

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

  • Crusade and Christendom: Annotated Documents in Translation from Innocent III to the Fall of Acre, 1187-1291. Edited by Jessalynn Bird, et al. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013.

  • The Fifth Crusade in Context: The Crusading Movement in the Early Thirteenth Century. Edited by E.J. Mylod, et al. Routledge, 2016.

  • Brownworth, Lars. In Distant Lands: A Short History of the Crusades. Crux Publishing Ltd, 2017.

  • Cassidy-Welch, Megan. War and Memory at the Time of the Fifth Crusade. Penn State University Press, 2019.

  • Madden, Thomas F. The New Concise History of the Crusades. Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.

  • Powell, James M. Anatomy of a Crusade, 1213-1221. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986.

  • Powell, James M. Innocent III: Vicar of Christ Or Lord of the World? Catholic University of America Press, 1994.

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Prester John 3: The Fifth Crusade

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Attack on tower near Damietta by members of the Fifth Crusade - From the Chronica Majora of Matthew Paris

Attack on tower near Damietta by members of the Fifth Crusade - From the Chronica Majora of Matthew Paris

The crusaders make their way first to Acre and then to Damietta. Perhaps someone would be along to help them soon?

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

  • Crusade and Christendom: Annotated Documents in Translation from Innocent III to the Fall of Acre, 1187-1291. Edited by Jessalynn Bird, et al. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013.

  • The Fifth Crusade in Context: The Crusading Movement in the Early Thirteenth Century. Edited by E.J. Mylod, et al. Routledge, 2016.

  • Brownworth, Lars. In Distant Lands: A Short History of the Crusades. Crux Publishing Ltd, 2017.

  • Cassidy-Welch, Megan. War and Memory at the Time of the Fifth Crusade. Penn State University Press, 2019.

  • Madden, Thomas F. The New Concise History of the Crusades. Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.

  • Powell, James M. Anatomy of a Crusade, 1213-1221. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986.

  • Powell, James M. Innocent III: Vicar of Christ Or Lord of the World? Catholic University of America Press, 1994.