Hi, my name is Kathryn and I am a historian. I’m especially interested in all things medieval, including this eclectic mix of subjects: animals in medieval literature; medieval lepers; and the fabliaux (thirteenth-century ribald tales).
This blog is about donkeys. After spending time researching donkeys in the Middle Ages for my book – Introducing the Medieval Ass – I realised that I had amassed a lot of information about donkeys that wouldn’t make the cut. Some of that material fell outside the time frame of the book, other material just didn’t fit the parameters of the book. This blog aims to present some of that missing information in brief but informative posts. Over the next 12 months, my aim is to promote the donkey’s enduring relevance and relationship with humans since it was first domesticated around 6000 years ago.
Images:
#1 – Child and Ass, 5th Century, Byzantine Mosaic (Istanbul). https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Byzantinischer_Mosaizist_des_5._Jahrhunderts_002.jpg
#2 – Wallace Anderson (sculptor), The Man with the Donkey, 1935, Shrine of Remembrance Collection, Melbourne. Photograph by the author, 2019.
#3 – Ass playing the lyre/harp, church of Saint Pierre, Aulnay-de-Saintonge, France. Photograph by the author, 2015.