The travelogue inside my head

Recently I travelled with one of my secondary characters, Gerolt de Warenne, to the Church of Saint-Etienne in Beauvais France. Gerolt is the hero of my second Hearts in Autumn romance, Courting Cassandry, where he has grown up to be a very level-headed man. But in the sort-of prequel I’m writing (“sort-of” because Gerolt is a secondary character, not the hero), Gerolt is a somewhat wild nineteen-year-old who repeatedly falls into trouble with his best friend, Samson.

 (Church of Saint-Etienne)

One night, during a journey to France, Gerolt and Samson stole out of the castle they were staying at and sneaked into the Church of Saint-Etienne in the dead of night. Why? Because the church was sponsoring the medieval Play of Daniel, and Gerolt and Samson wanted to see if the church was keeping real lions to use in the play. (They weren’t.)

Gerolt and Samson frightened all the canons with their midnight “break-in.” The next morning, the lord of the castle made his displeasure with his guests’ behavior known and Gerolt and his traveling companions were politely but pointedly invited to continue with their journey elsewhere.

The Play of Daniel was a medieval liturgical drama (religious dramas performed in Latin). The play dates from the 12th century and exists in two forms. The earliest known written version contains text but no music. A version from the 13th century includes monophonic music written by students who formed the cathedral choir at the Cathedral of St Peter in Beauvais, France. (Constructed later than the Church of Saint-Etienne.)

Here is a 10 minute clip from the Play of Daniel as performed at the Met Cloisters in New York City in 2008.

The travelogue inside my head

I recently went back in time to study some "striped" churches in medieval Italy. The stripes are horizontal and created by alternating light and dark colored bricks or stones. Here's one from around 1120, in Verona.

(Facade of the Church of Santa Stefano, 

courtesy of OrbiliusMagister via Wikimedia Commons)

Here's a much grander version from the 13th century. Note especially the horizontal stripes on the tall bell tower behind the cathedral.

(Sienna Cathedral, courtesy of Dudva via Wikimedia Commons)

I'm wondering if I could plausibly work a striped pattern like this into the house of my heroine's father, who is a rich silk merchant in Venice? For now I'm just researching and taking notes. I'll make a decision on this in the second draft of my current WIP. If you'd like to read more about striped buildings in Italy, there's an interesting article on the internet called "Facades and Stripes: An Account of Striped Facades from Medieval Italian Churches to the Architecture of Mario Botta." You can read the article here.

The travelogue inside my head

Here are some of the places my research and imagination have visited recently:

The world of medieval Pater Noster cords. How do they differ from rosaries? Both are used to count prayers, but rosaries form a loop, while Pater Noster cords hang loose at each end. 

(detail from Adoration of the Magi, by Stefan Lochner)

Crystal reliquaries

(14th century reliquary from Florence, Italy)

And St Edburg (also known as St Edburga or St Eadburh)

(stained glass rendering of St Edburg)

The travelogue inside my head

I can't afford to travel to all the places I'd like to visit to research my books--besides, the price of a time travel machine is absolutely prohibitive!--but thanks to the internet, I can virtually visit the places I research. Here are a few places I visited today.

Medieval Sicily:

(Did you know there was a huge earthquake there in 1169? It was over there on the east coast. It triggered a tsunami and at least 15,000 people died.):

Medieval Venice:

Medieval Florence:

Where will I go next?