The weather being such, I satisfied my need to click with a wander around my room, camera in hand. What had I there photo-worthy? Ah, yes. Freddy the Fourth and his historical books.
Freddy the Fourth and his historical books: Photo 9th Jan 2019
#2019picoftheweek challenge title: Historical
For details of #2019picoftheweek challenge see MariaAntonia
crispina kemp 
I love that your history books have a guardian, and I am seeing a couple of tomes that spark two of my passion/guises – I’m a knitter studying to be a historian.
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Ah, the two tomes on the Wool Trade,m one in England’s MIddle Ages (a bitch to read, it features page after page on the taxing of wool, required to raise money to finance the 100 Year War). The other, Wool Trade in Tudor and Stewart England is far more friendly.
My interest in the wool trade is many threaded: Medieval History generally, textiles from the custumery angle, plus I am a descendant of the weavers & spinners of Norfolk with ancestors arising in the textile centres of both South Norfolk/Waveney and North-East (Acle through to the famous Worsted). On top of which I live in a house once the property of an Elizabethan/Stewart wool merchant. Yea, haven’t any choice but to be interested in the wool trade!
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I love Freddy the Fourth!! And I equally love that he guards historical books. Out of curiosity, how did he get “the Fourth” added to his name? Were there Freddy 1-3?
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No, he had no forerunners. It’s just Freddy the Fourth kinda flows. I would have called him Freddy the First, but then he’d be Frederick Barbarosa and my Freddy hasn’t a beard. 🙂
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Freddy the Fourth is the perfect name! It lends his a certain air.
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Does, doesn’t it. Much better than Redit.
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Was gonna ask about “the Fourth” but see it’s just a cool name. I love the look of him!
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This was a serendipitous photo. Click, click, click. And at first I thought, Oops, should have moved the frog. But that frog makes the photo. The other ‘bookshelf’ photos feating history books were just photos of books.
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No way! The frog must stay! 😉
It does make the photo..
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Yea. I looked at the photos I took of just books. But, nah. The frog has it, gands down.
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A good thing 😉
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🙂
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Freddy the Fourth is wonderful, guarding your history books like a dragon guards a cave full of treasure! I’m also interested in the history books…my curious mind is wondering over the half-titles on the right… 🙂
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Yea, isn’t he wonderful.
The half-titles are, from bottom up:
*The Women of the Cousins War*, Philippa Gregory
*Plantagenets*, Dan Jones
*Eleanor of Aquitaine*, Marion Mead
*Mary Boleyn” Alison Weir
On the left, the title that’s totally obscured is a rather obscure little book: *The Anglo-Saxon Heritage in MIddle English Personal Names: East Anglia 1100 – 1399*
All highly recommended.
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They all sound fantastic. Just before Christmas I picked up a copy of Alison Weir’s Innocent Traitor about Lady Jane Grey – although it’s fiction, I think we can safely assume all the history in it will be perfectly accurate 🙂
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Alison Weir has such a strong reputation for historical fiction, I think she wouldn’t dare tamper with what is known from historical records. Pooer, Jane Grey, pushed by her family, no traitor in herself. Though it’s not a case I’m particularly well read on, I did encounter it when researching that period.
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I’ve yet to read any of her historical fiction yet, but I have a couple of her novels waiting to be read. If only there were more hours in the day…
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Ditto. My eternal cry.
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Also, the Anglo-Saxon book on names sounds very interesting 🙂
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It is my treasure! Written by Bo Selten, published 1972 as part of Lund Studies in English (editors Claes Schaar amd Jan Svartvik) I acquired it as ex stock of Coleg Prifysgol Gogledd Cymru (University College of North Wales). It’s not in the best condition, but a brilliant resource for anyone interested in the evolution of English Language, with particular focus on regional biases. I’d say I recommend it. but I’m not sure you’ll find another copy outself of university libraries. Or at exceedingly high price.
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I can see why it’s your treasure 🙂
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Yea, my obsession with language.
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The others have already asked my questions about this curious (i.e., interesting) photo, and you’ve already supplied the answers, so I will simply echo them: Freddy the Fourth is a fun name, and I agree with you that it flows off the tongue better than the alternatives. He seems to take his job of guarding the history books as seriously as you could expect him to, and oh my, what interesting topics!
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Hmm, I believe at one time we mutually expressed an interest in the evolution of textiles. Two of the books focus on Medieval wool trade. Two focus on language, in particular the development of Middle English. The others are what you might call more usual histoy books.
And now Freddy has developed an enormous ego, with all this attention. It was unexpected; all those years acting the guardian … Heavens know what will happen when I post the photos of his shelf-mates, Olley and Tim. 🙂
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Your memory is great, as always! Yes, we discussed the textile trade when I was reading “Hild”, I believe. My interest in it is much more superficial than yours though; I don’t think I’d be motivated enough to get through those two tomes. I wouldn’t mind finding a book that gave a broader overview of trade during the Roman Empire and up into the Medieval period, to get a better sense of where all these various goods were produced and who traded what for what. But I think I’d want to start with “Ancient Trade for Dummies” and work my way up from there. 😉
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I don’t know about *Ancient Trade for Dummies* but your could try *A Short History of Technology* by T K Derry & Trevor Williams. Though far from hot off the press (published 1960), so doubtless more recent research has altered the dates, it gives a fair overview of everything from Food Production, thro’ Pottery & leatherwork, to metallurgy, building methods, transportations etc etc etc from, quote, Earliest Times (Mesopotamia) to 1900.. Not a bad handbook to have as a primer.
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Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll look that up. In the meantime I found almost exactly what I was hoping for in terms of understanding trading across regions: “Transnationalism in Ancient and Medieval Societies: The Role of Cross-Border Trade and Travel” by Michael Howard. It’s not at the “For Dummies” level, but it looks fascinating!
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Hey, that sounds like something worth checking out. Depending on price. My thanks for the nudge in that direction.
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It was quite expensive — for me, at least. The reason I grabbed it now is that most of the used copies I could find online were $35-50, and I found one for $25. Maybe you could find it at your library, though.
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£16 for kindle edition on Amazon. I’ll think about it, read some reviews. If all is well I’ll buy on Friday (pay day!)
BTW, another by his name has published a book on Witchcraft in East Anglia (my exact neck of the woods.)
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That seems expensive for an ebook, ouch.
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It’s £1 cheaper than a secondhand phyiscal copy. Plus that would have postage too. And if it’s not stocked in the country (possible. the author is Canadian) then that postage could be hefty. I didn’t check it. 🙂
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JUst checked it out. No, I don’t understand Amazon’s pricing structure. But it reads like this:
12 copies new @ £17.02 + postage (not revealed until you order, but I’m guessing at £3. RRP £36.96!
3 used copies, the one located in UK ships for £41,81. As do the others.
Hmm. Kindle wins.
I have noticed this over the years: Books with primarily academic appeal cost an arm and a leg. I tend to wait. Though as the above shows, sometimes a secondhand book is no cheaper.
I’m still waiting to buy one which on publication in 2002 was in excess of £200. Or was it in 2012? And, reminder, I ought to check out progress on that. 🙂
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Have you tried AbeBooks? That’s where I got this one, $25 and free shipping. I use their US site, but there’s also a UK site, and it says that many of the sellers ship for free within the UK. I’ve had good luck finding copies of older books there. The trick I’ve found is to click on the first instance of the book I want, then click on “View all # copies of this book”. It lists them all starting with the least expensive (or perhaps that’s a setting I’ve already set). You have to look at the description to see the condition (good, very good, etc.) which isn’t as obvious as it might be, but it’s there. And I like that you can see right away whether the shipping is free or if not, how much it costs.
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AbeBooks outlets through Amazon Uk. Therefore if AbeBooks stocked it in UK, it would be listed amongst the others on Amazom.
I’m loethe to go with another site; it’s one more instance of my bank details online.
No, If I’m goung to buy it, it’ll be Amazon. But before I do, I need to make sure I really want it.
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I can find some of the same books/sellers from AbeBooks on Amazon, but not all of them, so I go directly to AbeBooks.
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Just been. No such book on UK site. Got directed to US site. £35 (includes shipping, but that’s in US). I’m not going to get it any cheaper.
But hey, that’s cheaper than that other book I’ve been waiting so long for. It’s now down to £85 for new, but a staggering £686 old. Tell me why, I don’t understand. Oh, and it was published in 2002, the collected papers of a sumposium (Beyond the Steppes and the Sown); some of these papers I read on Academia, but I wasn’t yet a member and couldn’t download. Another I found on the author’s own site. But I still want the book. Ho-hum. But it is getting cheaper. 🙂
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To clarify, I wasn’t suggesting AbeBooks only for this book, but for these various older/expensive books in general. Sometimes I find an option there at a much better price, sometimes I don’t. But I always check because as you say, wow, some of them really would be a splurge! And I agree, it makes no sense that a used book would cost more than a new one. I’ve had the same problem trying to find academic / science books that turn out to be ridiculously expensive. Good luck with your ongoing search.
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I thank you for your suggestions, 🙂 🙂 🙂
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