Recent content by MaxPuster

Statues showing characters that would in real life only ride on the most expensive horses available are as representative of the contemporary horses as a gallery of superrich dudes with their favourite car is for the modern automotive scene. There are dozens of prints that show horses, and...

I would assume the "Grande" to be the 1500 Italian/Latin version of what was "Magnus" in Roman times. Modern Italian uses it in a similar way as English uses "great". BTW: The Parisian edition also contains the tale of the fall of Constantinople as told by Gottfried Lange (Godefridus Langus...

The original name was given as Johannis, as in: "At cum a fundamentis (o rem mirabilem) primum jam vallum anteque murale, mirando cum silentio sub-cavassent, Johannis Grande Alemani, ingeniosi militis, rerum bellicarumdoctissimi, quem Johannes Justinianus militiae dux centurionem conduxerat...

The Frisians are most definitely Germans AND Germanic, though of a distinct group. Due to their habitat they just kept their cultural identity better then most (if not all) other groups, like the Saxons, Franks, Bavarians, etc. When Tacitus described the Germans, he stated that the Frisians...

That would probably work out better then a merger with France, as the mentality in daily life is much closer, and would probably be the only way to end the debate wether Copernikus was Polish or German by making it a mute point. :-) The proposal was certainly more a brainstorming then a...

Seems that the issue has not moved much since the original posting, as it is Runciman alone who speculates about Johannes/John being a Scot, and we lack documents on his reasoning. Alas, many newer sources use his speculation of "may be" as a "given", and while most state that he is "thought...

Much obliged :-) I was just looking for arguments pro or contra "John Grant" being a scot, and found this page with a fitting debate. On the issue, it seems that Leonards reference to "Johannis Grandi" is the only reason for his being called "Grant", while I would think "the great" is a far...

I know this is severe threadomancy, but as it concerns an event 550 years ago and a historical work some 180, the 10 years may be forgiven... (or not) In 1834 in his history of the Ottoman Empire Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall explicitely cites a reference of Leonard of Chios on Johann...