[Regia-NA] Wheelbarrow

[Carolyn Priest-Dorman]

Kim wrote:

>Wheelbarrow? Where, dear soul, I thought C14 too!

The reference is Trinity College Dublin Ms. E.1.160, which the source dates 
to the 13th century.  The black and white repro I saw, which is only a 
detail of the page, shows three guys on a construction jobsite.  Two are 
carrying stones or bricks in a flat carrier up a ramp while the third guy, 
on level ground beneath, pushes a small wheelbarrow with more bricks.  The 
barrow has a strap attached which the man is wearing around his neck.

I don't know if the dating in this book is correct.  It's an older book, 
and presumably at least some of these mss. have been more securely dated by 
now.  Next time I'm at the Vassar library I'll check some more current 
books and see what I can find on this ms.  If there's a date tweak to 
report, I'll do so here.

Here's the source where I found it.

         Hartley, Dorothy, and Elliot, Margaret M.  _Life and Work of the 
People of England:  A Pictorial Record from Contemporary Sources_, vol. 1, 
"The Eleventh to Thirteenth Centuries A.D. 1000-1300."  London:  B.T. 
Batsford, Ltd., [1931].  Plate 18c.

There's lots of other interesting post-Regia stuff in here, including a 
13th century harp player using a tuning tool of which you can see *both* 
ends, a 13th century screw press, and a wonderful little drawing of a 
cleric scarfing pasties out of a bowl.  (They're half-rounds, for all you 
cooks out there.)  The siege and construction depictions were also very 
interesting, with all their simple yet effective labor-saving machinery.


Carolyn Priest-Dorman              Þóra Sharptooth
  http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/thora.html