Brooch

circa 1400: Perfect. "This heart-shaped brooch with its romantic inscription was given as a token of love. It would have been used to fasten a tunic, gown or cloak. Gold was the most costly of metals, generally used only by royalty and the nobility. It is inscribed and would have formerly been enamelled on the reverse in French, in black letter script, ‘Ourselves and all things at your whim’ ('Nostre et tout ditz a vostre desier'). The design on the front of the brooch, possibly stylised leaves and flowers or feathers, would also have been colourfully enamelled." Link

Extraordinary Commonplaces

"Commonplace" is a translation of the Latin term locus communis which means "a theme or argument of general application", such as a statement of proverbial wisdom. Scholars have expanded this usage to include any manuscript that collects material along a common theme by an individual. Link

Not a dull or trite book, as the usual sense of ‘commonplace’ would suggest, but a writer's notebook in which interesting ideas and quotations are collected for further reflection and possible future use. Link Whenever they came across a pithy passage, they copied it into a notebook under an appropriate heading, adding observations made in the course of daily life. Link

This is an album of watercolours, sketches and prints by various artists, accompanied by handwritten copies of poems and extracts from letters. Link

Maps

"1491: The inclusion of places from Biblical history, classical times, and mythology emphasize that the function of the map was not to provide a picture of the world as it was in 1475. Rather the map presented an interesting view of the world with some essential things that a beginning student should know about it. The time did not matter. Thus places from different eras, real and mythological, were placed side by side. The map, like most of the other illustrations in the book, was a teaching aide, presenting basic information in graphic form.

Each of the details, the place names and the illustrations as well, was meant to tell a particular tale or to serve as a reminder of some aspect of a particular place. Unfortunately no explanation accompanies the map, and we are often forced to guess at the meaning of individual details. Thus the two men talking with one another in the Garden of Eden have been explained as either a teacher and his student (school is paradise?) or a Jew and a Christian seeking together the road of wisdom." Link and Link