My simple project, identify sources of mediaeval Cologne trading goods, has now evolved into a fairly large scale research project.
Everything started so well.
The first trading good I looked at was stoneware. Specifically the Bartmann Krug.
Right period, major production centres well with bicycle distance, most of the production centres even have a museum.
But, some of the information shown at the first two museums seemed to be a bit contradictory. So, as you do, I tried to find some information in books and online. Unfortunately, the publicly accessible books are broad generalist books. Online wasn’t much better. I started downloading papers, which then presented quite another challenge, namely, too much information [1].
I also stumbled across the website of a project between various research institutions called Bartmann goes global another wonderful timesink.
So, with one thing or another, I have now got a growing Obsidian vault with 250+ (and counting) documents. Which I’m now cross referencing [2]. As you do.
[1] as in, eg. Finding the downloadable archive of the Hansische Geschichtsverein, who have been publishing about the handsome, including Cologne, for the last 150 years plus.
[2] which led me to confront my lack of skill with bash and python scripts
#HistoryCycle #steingut #stoneware #steengoed #bycicle #retirement