1.
Alfonso X of Castile
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Alfonso X, called the Wise, was the King of Castile, León and Galicia from 30 May 1252 until his death. During the Imperial election of 1257, a dissident faction chose him to be King of the Romans on 1 April and he renounced his imperial claim in 1275, and in creating an alliance with England in 1254, his claim on Gascony as well. Alfonso X fostered the development of a court that encouraged learning. Jews, Muslims, and Christians had prominent roles in his court, Alfonso was a prolific author of Galician poetry, such as the Cantigas de Santa Maria, which are equally notable for their musical notation as for their literary merit. Alfonsos scientific interests—he is sometimes nicknamed the Astrologer —led him to sponsor the creation of the Alfonsine tables, as a legislator he introduced the first vernacular law code in Spain, the Siete Partidas. He created the Mesta, an association of farmers in the central plain. He fought a war with Portugal, but a less successful one with Granada. The end of his reign was marred by a war with his eldest surviving son, the future Sancho IV. Born in Toledo, Kingdom of Castile, Alfonso was the eldest son of Ferdinand III of Castile and his mother was the paternal cousin of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, to whom Alfonso is often compared. His maternal grandparents were Philip of Swabia and Irene Angelina, little is known about his upbringing, but he was most likely raised in Toledo. For the first nine years of his life Alfonso was only heir to Castile until his paternal grandfather king Alfonso IX of Leon died and his father united the kingdoms of Castile and Leon. He began his career as a soldier, under the command of his father, after the election of Theobald I as king of Navarre, his father tried to arrange a marriage for Alfonso with Theobalds daughter, Blanche of Navarre, but the move was unsuccessful. At the same time, he had a relationship with Mayor Guillén de Guzmán. In 1240, he married Mayor Guillén de Guzmán, but the marriage was later annulled, in the same period he conquered several Muslim strongholds in Al-Andalus alongside his father, such as Murcia, Alicante and Cadiz. In 1249, Alfonso married Violante of Aragon, the daughter of King James I of Aragon and Yolande of Hungary, Alfonso succeeded his father as King of Castile and León in 1252. The following year he invaded Portugal, capturing the region of the Algarve, King Afonso III of Portugal had to surrender, but he gained an agreement by which, after he consented to marry Alfonso Xs daughter Beatrice of Castile, the land would be returned to their heirs. In 1263 he returned Algarve to the King of Portugal and signed the Treaty of Badajoz, in 1254 Alfonso X signed a treaty of alliance with the King of England and Duke of Aquitaine, Henry III, supporting him in the war against Louis IX of France. In 1256, at the death of William II of Holland, Alfonsos descent from the Hohenstaufen through his mother, Alfonsos election as King of the Romans by the imperial prince-electors misled him into complicated schemes that involved excessive expense but never succeeded
2.
Kingdom of Castile
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The Kingdom of Castile was a large and powerful state on the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region and it began as the County of Castile, an eastern frontier lordship of the Kingdom of León in the 9th century. During the 10th century its counts increased their autonomy, but it was not until 1065 that it was separated from León, between 1072 and 1157 it was again united with León, and after 1230 this union became permanent. Throughout this period the Castilian kings made conquests in southern Iberia at the expense of the Islamic principalities. Castile and León, with their southern acquisitions, came to be known collectively as the Crown of Castile, according to the chronicles of Alfonso III of Asturias, the first reference to the name Castile can be found in a document written during AD800. The name reflects its origin as a march on the frontier of the Kingdom of Asturias, protected by castles. The County of Castile, bordered in the south by the northern reaches of the Spanish Sistema Central mountain system and it was re-populated by inhabitants of Cantabria, Asturias, Vasconia and Visigothic and Mozarab origins. It had its own Romance dialect and customary laws, the areas that they settled didnt extend far from the Cantabrian southeastern ridges, and not beyond the southern reaches of the high Ebro river valleys and canyon gores. Subsequently, the region was subdivided, separate counts being named to Alava, Burgos, Cerezo & Lantarón, the minority of Count García Sánchez led Castile to accept Sancho III of Navarre, married to the sister of Count García, as feudal overlord. García was assassinated in 1028 while in León to marry the princess Sancha, Sancho III, acting as feudal overlord, appointed his younger son Ferdinand as Count of Castile, marrying him to his uncles intended bride, Sancha of León. At the Battle of Tamarón Bermudo was killed, leaving no surviving offspring, in right of his wife, Ferdinand then assumed the royal title as king of León and Castile, for the first time associating the royal title with the rule of Castile. When Ferdinand I died in 1065, the territories were divided among his children, Sancho II became King of Castile, Alfonso VI, King of León and García, King of Galicia, while his daughters were given towns, Urraca, Zamora, and Elvira, Toro. Sancho II allied himself with Alfonso VI of León and together they conquered, Sancho later attacked Alfonso VI and invaded León with the help of El Cid, and drove his brother into exile, thereby reuniting the three kingdoms. Urraca permitted the greater part of the Leonese army to take refuge in the town of Zamora, Sancho laid siege to the town, but the Castilian king was assassinated in 1072 by Bellido Dolfos, a Galician nobleman. As a result, Alfonso VI recovered all his territory of León. This was the union of León and Castile, although the two kingdoms remained distinct entities joined only in a personal union. The sworn oath taken by El Cid before Alfonso VI in Santa Gadea de Burgos regarding the innocence of Alfonso in the matter of the murder of his brother is well known, under Alfonso VI, there was an approach to the rest of Europeans kingdoms, including France. He gave his daughters, Elvira, Urraca and Theresa, in marriage to Raymond of Toulouse, Raymond of Burgundy, in the Council of Burgos in 1080 the traditional Mozarabic rite was replaced by the Roman one
3.
Kingdom of Galicia
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The Kingdom of Galicia was a political entity located in southwestern Europe, which at its territorial zenith occupied the entire northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Founded by Suebic king Hermeric in 409, the Galician capital was established in Braga, being the first kingdom which adopted Catholicism officially and it was part of the Kingdom of the Spanish Visigothic monarchs from 585 to 711. Compostela became capital of Galicia in the 11th century, while the independence of Portugal determined its southern boundary, the representative assembly of the Kingdom was then the Junta or Cortes of the Kingdom of Galicia, which briefly declared itself sovereign when Galicia alone remained free of Napoleonic occupation. The kingdom and its Junta were dissolved by Maria Cristina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, the origin of the kingdom lies in the 5th century, when the Suebi settled permanently in the former Roman province of Gallaecia. Their king, Hermeric, probably signed a foedus, or pact, with the Roman Emperor Honorius, the Suebi set their capital in the former Bracara Augusta, setting the foundations of a kingdom which was first acknowledged as Regnum Suevorum, but later as Regnum Galliciense. The independent Suebic kingdom of Galicia lasted from 410 to 585, in 410 Gallaecia was divided, ad habitandum, among two Germanic people, the Hasdingi Vandals, who settled the eastern lands, and the Suebi, who established themselves in the coastal areas. As with most Germanic invasions, the number of the original Suebi is estimated to be low, generally fewer than 100,000. They settled mainly in the regions around modern northern Portugal and Western Galicia, in the towns of Braga and Porto, in 419 a war broke out between the Vandal king Gunderic and the Suebis Hermeric. After a blockade alongside the Nervasian Mountains, the Suebi obtained Roman help, in the absence of competitors, the Suebi began a period of expansion, first inside Gallaecia, and later into other Roman provinces. In 438 Hermeric ratified a treaty with the Gallaeci, the native. In 448 Rechila died, leaving the state to his son Rechiar. Rechiar married a Visigothic princess, and was also the first Germanic king to mint coins in ancient Roman territories, Rechiar led further expansions to the east, marauding through the Provincia Tarraconensis, which was still held by Rome. The Roman emperor Avitus sent an army of foederates, under the direction of the Visigoth Theoderic II. Rechiar fled, but he was pursued and captured, then executed in 457, in the aftermath of Rechiars death, multiple candidates for the throne appeared, finally grouping into two allegiances. By 465 Remismund, who established a policy of friendship with the Goths, five of the attendant bishops used Germanic names, showing the integration of the different communities of the country. After clashing in frontier lands, Miro and Leovigild agreed upon a temporary peace, the Suebi maintained their independence until 585, when Leovigild, on the pretext of conflict over the succession, invaded the Suebic kingdom and finally defeated it. Audeca, the last king of the Suebi, who had deposed his brother-in-law Eboric and this same year a nobleman named Malaric rebelled against the Goths, but he was defeated. As with the Visigothic language, there are traces of the Suebi tongue remaining
4.
Scriptorium
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Scriptorium, literally a place for writing, is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the writing, copying and illuminating of manuscripts by monastic scribes. References in modern scholarly writings to scriptoria more usually refer to the collective output of a monastery. A scriptorium was an adjunct to a library, wherever there was a library it can ordinarily be assumed that there was a scriptorium. By the time movable type printing presses were invented in the 15th century, at this church whose patron was Galla Placidia, paired rectangular chambers flanking the apse, accessible only from each aisle, have been interpreted as paired libraries and perhaps scriptoria. Their copious illumination, niches.5 meter deep, provisions for hypocausts beneath the floors to keep the dry, have prototypes in the architecture of Roman libraries. When monastic libraries and scriptoria arose in the early 6th century, they defined European literary culture, monks copied Jeromes Latin Vulgate Bible and the commentaries and letters of early Church Fathers for missionary purposes as well as for use within the monastery. The products of the scriptorium provided a medium of exchange. Sometimes a single monk would engage in all of these stages to prepare a manuscript, by the start of the 13th century, monastic manuscript production declined because secular copyshops had developed to write for the laity. The illuminators of manuscripts worked in collaboration with scribes in intricate variety of interaction that preclude any simple pattern of monastic manuscript production, records show that one such monastic community was that of Mount Athos, which released all manner of illumination. Cassiodorus description of his contained a purpose-built scriptorium, with self-feeding oil lamps, a sundial. The scriptorium would also have contained desks where the monks could sit and copy texts, as well as the necessary ink wells, penknives, and quills. As its unofficial librarian, Cassiodorus collected as many manuscripts as he could, in the end, however, the library at the Vivarium was dispersed and lost, though it was still active around 630. Cassiodorus contemporary, Benedict of Nursia, also allowed his monks to read the works of the pagans in the monastery he founded at Monte Cassino in 529. In the earliest Benedictine monasteries, the room was actually a corridor open to the central quadrangle of the cloister. The space could accommodate about twelve monks, who were protected from the only by the wall behind them. Monasteries built later in the Middle Ages placed the scriptorium inside, the warmth of the later scriptoria served as an incentive for unwilling monks to work on the transcription of texts. Although the purpose of the plan is unknown, it shows the desirability of scriptoria within a wider body of monastic structures at the beginning of the 9th century. The scriptoria of the Cistercian order seem to have similar to those of the Benedictines
5.
Toledo, Spain
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Toledo is a city and municipality located in central Spain, it is the capital of the province of Toledo and the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 for its cultural and monumental heritage and historical co-existence of Christian, Muslim. Toledo has a history in the production of bladed weapons, which are now popular souvenirs of the city, people who were born or have lived in Toledo include Brunhilda of Austrasia, Al-Zarqali, Garcilaso de la Vega, Eleanor of Toledo, Alfonso X and El Greco. It was also the place of important historic events such as the Visigothic Councils of Toledo, as of 2015, the city has a population of 83,226 and an area of 232.1 km2. The town was granted arms in the 16th century, which by special royal privilege was based on the royal of arms of Spain, Toledo is mentioned by the Roman historian Livy as urbs parva, sed loco munita. At that time, Toletum was a city of the Carpetani tribe and it was incorporated into the Roman Empire as a civitas stipendiaria, that is, a tributary city of non-citizens. It later achieved the status of municipium by Flavian times, with this status, city officials, even of Carpetani origin, obtained Roman citizenship for public service, and the forms of Roman law and politics were increasingly adopted. At approximately this time were constructed in Toletum a Roman circus, city walls, public baths, and a municipal water supply and storage system. The Roman circus in Toledo was one of the largest in Hispania, at 423 metres long and 100 metres wide, chariot races were held on special holidays and were also commissioned by private citizens to celebrate career achievements. A fragmentary stone inscription records circus games paid for by a citizen of unknown name to celebrate his achieving the sevirate, archaeologists have also identified portions of a special seat of the sort used by the city elites to attend circus games, called a sella curulis. The circus could hold up to 15000 spectators, during Roman times, Toledo was never a provincial capital nor a conventus iuridicus. It started to gain importance in late antiquity, there are indications that large private houses within the city walls were enlarged, while several large villas were built north of the city through the third and fourth centuries. Games were held in the circus into the fourth and early fifth centuries C. E. also an indication of active city life. A church council was held in Toledo in the year 400 to discuss the conflict with Priscillianism, a second council of Toledo was held in 527. The Visigothic king Theudis was in Toledo in 546, where he promulgated a law and this is strong though not certain evidence that Toledo was the chief residence for Theudis. King Athanagild died in Toledo, probably in 568 and this changed with Liuvigild, who brought the peninsula under his control. The Visigoths ruled from Toledo until the Moors conquered the Iberian peninsula in the years of 8th century. Today the historic center is pierced of basements, passages, wells, baths, a series of church councils was held in Toledo under the Visigoths
6.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
7.
Parchment
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Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins of kids, lambs and it may be called animal membrane by libraries and museums that wish to avoid distinguishing between parchment and the more restricted term vellum. Today the term parchment is often used in non-technical contexts to refer to any animal skin, particularly goat, sheep or cow, that has been scraped or dried under tension. Vellum in theory refers exclusively to calfskin, and is used to denote a quality of material. The term parchment originally referred only to the skin of sheep and, occasionally, the word parchment evolved from the name of the city of Pergamon which was a thriving center of parchment production during the Hellenistic period. This account, originated in the writings of Pliny the Elder, is dubious because parchment had been in use in Anatolia, in the 2nd century BC a great library was set up in Pergamon that rivaled the famous Library of Alexandria. Writing on prepared animal skins had a history, however. H. Ibscher, and preserved in the Cairo Museum, a roll of the Twelfth Dynasty now in Berlin, the text now in the British Museum. Though the Assyrians and the Babylonians impressed their cuneiform on clay tablets, early Islamic texts are also found on parchment. In the later Middle Ages, especially the 15th century, parchment was largely replaced by paper for most uses except luxury manuscripts, new techniques in paper milling allowed it to be much cheaper than parchment, it was still made of textile rags and of very high quality. With the advent of printing in the fifteenth century, the demands of printers far exceeded the supply of animal skins for parchment. Although most copies of the Gutenberg Bible are on paper, some were printed on parchment,12 of the 48 surviving copies, in 1490, Johannes Trithemius preferred the older methods, because handwriting placed on parchment will be able to endure a thousand years. But how long will printing last, which is dependent on paper and it lasts for two hundred years that is a long time. In fact high quality paper from this period has survived 500 years or more very well, the heyday of parchment use was during the medieval period, but there has been a growing revival of its use among artists since the late 20th century. Although parchment never stopped being used it had ceased to be a choice for artists supports by the end of 15th century Renaissance. This was partly due to its expense and partly due to its working properties. When the water in paint media touches parchments surface, the collagen melts slightly, forming a bed for the paint
8.
Miniature (illuminated manuscript)
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These include Persian miniatures, and their Mughal, Ottoman and other Indian offshoots. This article gives an art historical account of the miniature form, for the techniques involved in production, see illuminated manuscript. The earliest extant miniatures are a series of colored drawings or miniatures cut from the Ambrosian Iliad and they are similar in style and treatment with the pictorial art of the later Roman classical period. Of even greater value from a point of view are the miniatures of the Vatican manuscript of Virgil, known as the Vergilius Vaticanus. They are in a perfect condition and on a larger scale than the Ambrosian fragments. The drawing is quite classical in style, and the idea is conveyed that the miniatures are copies from an older series. The colors are opaque, indeed, in all the miniatures of early manuscripts the employment of body color was universal. The method followed in placing the different scenes on the page is highly instructive of the practice followed, as we may presume, by the artists of the early centuries. Again, for the purpose of securing something like perspective, an arrangement of zones was adopted. It was reserved for the Byzantine school to break away more decidedly from the natural presentment of things, but on comparing the miniatures of the Byzantine school generally with their classical predecessors, one has a sense of having passed from the open air into the cloister. Under the restraint of ecclesiastical domination Byzantine art became more and more stereotyped, the tendency grows to paint the flesh-tints in swarthy hues, to elongate and emaciate the limbs, and to stiffen the gait. Browns, blue-greys and neutral tints are in favor, in the miniatures of Byzantine manuscripts are first seen those backgrounds of bright gold which afterwards appear in such profusion in the productions of every western school of painting. The influence of Byzantine art on that of medieval Italy is obvious, the early mosaics in the churches of Italy, such as those at Ravenna and Venice, also afford examples of the dominating Byzantine influence. In the native schools of illumination of Western Europe, decoration only was the leading motive, the highest qualities of the miniatures of the 10th and 11th century of this school lie in fine outline drawing, which had a lasting influence on the English miniature of the later centuries. But the southern Anglo-Saxon school rather stands apart from the line of development of the western medieval miniature. Under the Carolingian monarchs there developed a school of painting derived from classical models, in this school, which owed its origin to the encouragement of Charlemagne, it is seen that the miniature appears in two forms. Accompanied as it was with profuse decoration in border and initial, on the other hand, there is also the miniature in which there is an attempt at illustration, as, for example, the depicting of scenes from the Bible. Here there is freedom, and we trace the classical style which copies Roman, as distinguished from Byzantine
9.
Chess
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Chess is a two-player strategy board game played on a chessboard, a checkered gameboard with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. Chess is played by millions of people worldwide, both amateurs and professionals, each player begins the game with 16 pieces, one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns. Each of the six piece types moves differently, with the most powerful being the queen, the objective is to checkmate the opponents king by placing it under an inescapable threat of capture. To this end, a players pieces are used to attack and capture the opponents pieces, in addition to checkmate, the game can be won by voluntary resignation by the opponent, which typically occurs when too much material is lost, or if checkmate appears unavoidable. A game may result in a draw in several ways. Chess is believed to have originated in India, some time before the 7th century, chaturanga is also the likely ancestor of the Eastern strategy games xiangqi, janggi and shogi. The pieces took on their current powers in Spain in the late 15th century, the first generally recognized World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886. Since 1948, the World Championship has been controlled by FIDE, the international governing body. There is also a Correspondence Chess World Championship and a World Computer Chess Championship, online chess has opened amateur and professional competition to a wide and varied group of players. There are also many variants, with different rules, different pieces. FIDE awards titles to skilled players, the highest of which is grandmaster, many national chess organizations also have a title system. However, these are not recognised by FIDE, the term master may refer to a formal title or may be used more loosely for any skilled player. Until recently, chess was a sport of the International Olympic Committee. Chess was included in the 2006 and 2010 Asian Games, since the 1990s, computer analysis has contributed significantly to chess theory, particularly in the endgame. The computer IBM Deep Blue was the first machine to overcome a reigning World Chess Champion in a match when it defeated Garry Kasparov in 1997, the rise of strong computer programs that can be run on hand-held devices has led to increasing concerns about cheating during tournaments. The official rules of chess are maintained by FIDE, chesss international governing body, along with information on official chess tournaments, the rules are described in the FIDE Handbook, Laws of Chess section. Chess is played on a board of eight rows and eight columns. The colors of the 64 squares alternate and are referred to as light, the chessboard is placed with a light square at the right-hand end of the rank nearest to each player
10.
Dice
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Dice are small throwable objects with multiple resting positions, used for generating random numbers. Dice are suitable as gambling devices for games like craps and are used in non-gambling tabletop games. A traditional die is a cube, with each of its six faces showing a different number of dots from 1 to 6. When thrown or rolled, the die comes to rest showing on its surface a random integer from one to six. A variety of devices are also described as dice, such specialized dice may have polyhedral or irregular shapes. They may be used to produce other than one through six. Loaded and crooked dice are designed to favor some results over others for purposes of cheating or amusement. A dice tray, a used to contain thrown dice, is sometimes used for gambling or board games. Dice have been used since before recorded history, and it is uncertain where they originated, the oldest known dice were excavated as part of a backgammon-like game set at the Burnt City, an archeological site in south-eastern Iran, estimated to be from between 2800–2500 BCE. Other excavations from ancient tombs in the Indus Valley civilization indicate a South Asian origin, the Egyptian game of Senet was played with dice. Senet was played before 3000 BC and up to the 2nd century AD and it was likely a racing game, but there is no scholarly consensus on the rules of Senet. Dicing is mentioned as an Indian game in the Rigveda, Atharvaveda, there are several biblical references to casting lots, as in Psalm 22, indicating that dicing was commonplace when the psalm was composed. Knucklebones was a game of skill played by women and children, although gambling was illegal, many Romans were passionate gamblers who enjoyed dicing, which was known as aleam ludere. Dicing was even a popular pastime of emperors, letters by Augustus to Tacitus and his daughter recount his hobby of dicing. There were two sizes of Roman dice, tali were large dice inscribed with one, three, four, and six on four sides. Tesserae were smaller dice with sides numbered one to six. Twenty-sided dice date back to the 2nd century AD and from Ptolemaic Egypt as early as the 2nd century BC, dominoes and playing cards originated in China as developments from dice. The transition from dice to playing cards occurred in China around the Tang dynasty, in Japan, dice were used to play a popular game called sugoroku
11.
Backgammon
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Backgammon is one of the oldest board games known. It is a two player game where playing pieces are moved according to the roll of dice, and a player wins by removing all of their pieces from the board before their opponent. Backgammon is a member of the family, one of the oldest classes of board games in the world. Backgammon involves a combination of strategy and luck, while the dice may determine the outcome of a single game, the better player will accumulate the better record over series of many games, somewhat like poker. With each roll of the dice, players must choose from options for moving their checkers. The optional use of a doubling cube allows players to raise the stakes during the game, like chess, backgammon has been studied with great interest by computer scientists. Owing to this research, backgammon software has been developed that is capable of beating world-class human players, Backgammon playing pieces are known variously as checkers, draughts, stones, men, counters, pawns, discs, pips, chips, or nips. The objective is to all of ones own checkers from the board before ones opponent can do the same. In the most often-played variants the checkers are scattered at first, as the playing time for each individual game is short, it is often played in matches where victory is awarded to the first player to reach a certain number of points. Each side of the board has a track of 12 long triangles, the points form a continuous track in the shape of a horseshoe, and are numbered from 1 to 24. In the most commonly used setup, each begins with fifteen checkers. The two players move their checkers in opposing directions, from the 24-point towards the 1-point, points 1 through 6 are called the home board or inner board, and points 7 through 12 are called the outer board. The 7-point is referred to as the bar point, and the 13-point as the midpoint, to start the game, each player rolls one die, and the player with the higher number moves first using the numbers shown on both dice. If the players roll the number, they must roll again. Both dice must land completely flat on the side of the gameboard. The players then alternate turns, rolling two dice at the beginning of each turn, after rolling the dice, players must, if possible, move their checkers according to the number shown on each die. For example, if the player rolls a 6 and a 3, the player must move one checker six points forward, and another or the same checker three points forward. The same checker may be moved twice, as long as the two moves can be separately and legally, six and then three, or three and then six
12.
Astronomy
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Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It applies mathematics, physics, and chemistry, in an effort to explain the origin of those objects and phenomena and their evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, galaxies, and comets, while the phenomena include supernovae explosions, gamma ray bursts, more generally, all astronomical phenomena that originate outside Earths atmosphere are within the purview of astronomy. A related but distinct subject, physical cosmology, is concerned with the study of the Universe as a whole, Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences. The early civilizations in recorded history, such as the Babylonians, Greeks, Indians, Egyptians, Nubians, Iranians, Chinese, during the 20th century, the field of professional astronomy split into observational and theoretical branches. Observational astronomy is focused on acquiring data from observations of astronomical objects, theoretical astronomy is oriented toward the development of computer or analytical models to describe astronomical objects and phenomena. The two fields complement each other, with theoretical astronomy seeking to explain the results and observations being used to confirm theoretical results. Astronomy is one of the few sciences where amateurs can play an active role, especially in the discovery. Amateur astronomers have made and contributed to many important astronomical discoveries, Astronomy means law of the stars. Astronomy should not be confused with astrology, the system which claims that human affairs are correlated with the positions of celestial objects. Although the two share a common origin, they are now entirely distinct. Generally, either the term astronomy or astrophysics may be used to refer to this subject, however, since most modern astronomical research deals with subjects related to physics, modern astronomy could actually be called astrophysics. Few fields, such as astrometry, are purely astronomy rather than also astrophysics, some titles of the leading scientific journals in this field includeThe Astronomical Journal, The Astrophysical Journal and Astronomy and Astrophysics. In early times, astronomy only comprised the observation and predictions of the motions of objects visible to the naked eye, in some locations, early cultures assembled massive artifacts that possibly had some astronomical purpose. Before tools such as the telescope were invented, early study of the stars was conducted using the naked eye, most of early astronomy actually consisted of mapping the positions of the stars and planets, a science now referred to as astrometry. From these observations, early ideas about the motions of the planets were formed, and the nature of the Sun, Moon, the Earth was believed to be the center of the Universe with the Sun, the Moon and the stars rotating around it. This is known as the model of the Universe, or the Ptolemaic system. The Babylonians discovered that lunar eclipses recurred in a cycle known as a saros
13.
Astrology
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Astrology is the study of the movements and relative positions of celestial objects as a means for divining information about human affairs and terrestrial events. Throughout most of its history astrology was considered a tradition and was common in academic circles, often in close relation with astronomy, alchemy, meteorology. It was present in political circles, and is mentioned in works of literature, from Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer to William Shakespeare, Lope de Vega. Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical standing, and common belief in it has largely declined, Astrology is now recognized to be pseudoscience. The word astrology comes from the early Latin word astrologia, which derives from the Greek ἀστρολογία—from ἄστρον astron, astrologia later passed into meaning star-divination with astronomia used for the scientific term. Many cultures have attached importance to astronomical events, and the Indians, Chinese, the majority of professional astrologers rely on such systems. Astrology has been dated to at least the 2nd millennium BCE, with roots in systems used to predict seasonal shifts. A form of astrology was practised in the first dynasty of Mesopotamia, Chinese astrology was elaborated in the Zhou dynasty. Hellenistic astrology after 332 BCE mixed Babylonian astrology with Egyptian Decanic astrology in Alexandria, Alexander the Greats conquest of Asia allowed astrology to spread to Ancient Greece and Rome. In Rome, astrology was associated with Chaldean wisdom, after the conquest of Alexandria in the 7th century, astrology was taken up by Islamic scholars, and Hellenistic texts were translated into Arabic and Persian. In the 12th century, Arabic texts were imported to Europe, major astronomers including Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler and Galileo practised as court astrologers. Astrological references appear in literature in the works of such as Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer. Throughout most of its history, astrology was considered a scholarly tradition and it was accepted in political and academic contexts, and was connected with other studies, such as astronomy, alchemy, meteorology, and medicine. At the end of the 17th century, new concepts in astronomy. Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical standing, and common belief in astrology has largely declined, Astrology, in its broadest sense, is the search for meaning in the sky. This was a first step towards recording the Moons influence upon tides and rivers, by the 3rd millennium BCE, civilisations had sophisticated awareness of celestial cycles, and may have oriented temples in alignment with heliacal risings of the stars. Scattered evidence suggests that the oldest known references are copies of texts made in the ancient world. The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa thought to be compiled in Babylon around 1700 BCE, a scroll documenting an early use of electional astrology is doubtfully ascribed to the reign of the Sumerian ruler Gudea of Lagash
14.
Allegorical
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As a literary device, an allegory is a metaphor whose vehicle may be a character, place or event, representing real-world issues and occurrences. Many ancient religions are based on astrological allegories, that is, allegories of the movement of the sun, in classical literature two of the best-known allegories are the Cave in Platos Republic and the story of the stomach and its members in the speech of Menenius Agrippa. One of the examples of allegory, Platos Allegory of the Cave. In this allegory, Plato describes a group of people who have lived chained in an all of their lives. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows, using language to identify their world. He tries to tell the people in the cave of his discovery, also allegorical is Ezekiel 16 and 17, wherein the capture of that same vine by the mighty Eagle represents Israels exile to Rome. Allegory has an ability to freeze the temporality of a story, Mediaeval thinking accepted allegory as having a reality underlying any rhetorical or fictional uses. The allegory was as true as the facts of surface appearances, if, then, the Greeks or others say that they were not committed to the care of Peter and his successors, they necessarily confess that they are not of the sheep of Christ. This text also demonstrates the frequent use of allegory in religious texts during the Mediaeval Period, following the tradition, since meaningful stories are nearly always applicable to larger issues, allegories may be read into many stories which the author may not have recognised. This is allegoresis, or the act of reading a story as an allegory. S, lewis and A Kingdom Far and Clear, The Complete Swan Lake Trilogy by Mark Helprin. The story of the apple falling onto Isaac Newtons head is another famous allegory and it simplified the idea of gravity by depicting a simple way it was supposedly discovered. It also made the scientific revelation well known by condensing the theory into a short tale. According to Henry Littlefields 1964 article, L. Yet, George MacDonald emphasised in 1893 that, A fairy tale is not an allegory, I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and this further reinforces the idea of forced allegoresis, as allegory is often a matter of interpretation and only sometimes of original artistic intention. Like allegorical stories, allegorical poetry has two meanings – a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning, some unique specimens of allegory can be found in the following works, Edmund Spenser – The Faerie Queene, The several knights in the poem actually stand for several virtues. Nathaniel Hawthorne – Young Goodman Brown, The Devils Staff symbolises defiance of God, the characters names, such as Goodman and Faith, ironically serve as paradox in the conclusion of the story. Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter, The scarlet letter symbolises many things, the characters, while developed with interiority, are allegorical in that they represent ways of seeing the world. George Orwell – Animal Farm, The pigs stand for political figures of the Russian Revolution, lászló Krasznahorkai - The Melancholy of Resistance and the film Werckmeister Harmonies, It uses a circus to describe an occupying dysfunctional government
15.
Board game
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A board game is a tabletop game that involves counters or pieces moved or placed on a pre-marked surface or board, according to a set of rules. Some games are based on strategy, but many contain an element of chance. Games usually have a goal that a player aims to achieve, early board games represented a battle between two armies, and most modern board games are still based on defeating opposing players in terms of counters, winning position, or accrual of points. There are many varieties of board games and their representation of real-life situations can range from having no inherent theme, like checkers, to having a specific theme and narrative, like Cluedo. Board games have been played in most cultures and societies throughout history, the Pilgrims and Puritans of New England frowned on game playing and viewed dice as instruments of the devil. In Thoughts on Lotteries Thomas Jefferson wrote, Almost all these pursuits of chance produce something useful to society, but there are some which produce nothing, and endanger the well-being of the individuals engaged in them or of others depending on them. Such are games with cards, dice, billiards, etc. and suppress the pursuit altogether, there are some other games of chance, useful on certain occasions, and injurious only when carried beyond their useful bounds. Such are insurances, lotteries, raffles, etc and these they do not suppress, but take their regulation under their own discretion. As the US shifted from agrarian to urban living in the century, greater leisure time. The American home, once the center of production, became the locus of entertainment, enlightenment. Children were encouraged to board games that developed literacy skills. The earliest board games published in the United States were based upon Christian morality, the Mansion of Happiness, for example, sent players along a path of virtues and vices that led to the Mansion of Happiness. The missionaries are cast in white as the symbol of innocence, temperance, and hope while the pope and pagan are cast in black, the color of gloom of error, and. grief at the daily loss of empire. Commercially produced board games in the century were monochrome prints laboriously hand-colored by teams of low-paid young factory women. Advances in paper making and printmaking during the period enabled the production of relatively inexpensive board games. The most significant advance was the development of chromolithography, an achievement that made bold. Games cost as little as US$.25 for a small boxed card game to $3.00 for more elaborate games, American Protestants believed a virtuous life led to success, but the belief was challenged mid-century when Americans embraced materialism and capitalism. The accumulation of material goods was viewed as a divine blessing, in 1860, The Checkered Game of Life rewarded players for mundane activities such as attending college, marrying, and getting rich
16.
El Escorial
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It is one of the Spanish royal sites and functions as a monastery, basilica, royal palace, pantheon, library, museum, university and hospital. It is situated 2.06 km up the valley from the town of El Escorial, El Escorial was, at once, a monastery and a Spanish royal palace. Originally a property of the Hieronymite monks, it is now a monastery of the Order of Saint Augustine and it is also a boarding school. Philip engaged the Spanish architect, Juan Bautista de Toledo, to be his collaborator in the design of El Escorial, Philip appointed him architect-royal in 1559, and together they designed El Escorial as a monument to Spains role as a center of the Christian world. On 2 November 1984, UNESCO declared The Royal Seat of San Lorenzo of El Escorial a World Heritage Site and it is a popular tourist attraction, often visited by day-trippers from Madrid – more than 500,000 visitors come to El Escorial every year. El Escorial is situated at the foot of Mt. Abantos in the Sierra de Guadarrama, Quentin in Picardy against Henry II, king of France. He also intended the complex to serve as a necropolis for the interment of the remains of his parents, Charles I and Isabella of Portugal, himself, in addition, Philip envisioned El Escorial as a center for studies in aid of the Counter-Reformation cause. The buildings cornerstone was laid on 23 April 1563, the design and construction were overseen by Juan Bautista de Toledo, who did not live to see the completion of the project. With Toledos death in 1567, direction passed to his apprentice, Juan de Herrera, under whom the building was completed in 1584, to this day, la obra de El Escorial is a proverbial expression for a thing that takes a long time to finish. Since then, El Escorial has been the site for most of the Spanish kings of the last five centuries. Two Bourbon kings, Philip V and Ferdinand VI, as well as King Amadeus, are not buried in the monastery, the floor plan of the building is in the form of a gridiron. The traditional belief is that design was chosen in honor of St. Lawrence. St. Lawrence’s feast day is 10 August, the date as the 1557 Battle of St. Quentin. In fact, however, the origin of the layout is quite controversial. The grill-like shape, which did not fully emerge until Herrera eliminated from the conception the six interior towers of the facade, was, by no means. In fact, palaces of this design were commonplace in the Byzantine. Statues of David and Solomon on either side of the entrance to the basilica of El Escorial lend further weight to the theory that this is the origin of the design. A more personal connection can be drawn between the David-warrior figure, representing Charles V, and his son, the stolid and solomonically prudent Philip II
17.
Madrid
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Madrid is the capital city of the Kingdom of Spain and the largest municipality in both the Community of Madrid and Spain as a whole. The city has a population of almost 3.2 million with an area population of approximately 6.5 million. It is the third-largest city in the European Union after London and Berlin, the municipality itself covers an area of 604.3 km2. Madrid lies on the River Manzanares in the centre of both the country and the Community of Madrid, this community is bordered by the communities of Castile and León. As the capital city of Spain, seat of government, and residence of the Spanish monarch, Madrid is also the political, economic, the current mayor is Manuela Carmena from Ahora Madrid. Madrid is home to two football clubs, Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid. Madrid is the 17th most liveable city in the according to Monocle magazine. Madrid organises fairs such as FITUR, ARCO, SIMO TCI, while Madrid possesses modern infrastructure, it has preserved the look and feel of many of its historic neighbourhoods and streets. Cibeles Palace and Fountain have become one of the monument symbols of the city, the first documented reference of the city originates in Andalusan times as the Arabic مجريط Majrīṭ, which was retained in Medieval Spanish as Magerit. A wider number of theories have been formulated on possible earlier origins, according to legend, Madrid was founded by Ocno Bianor and was named Metragirta or Mantua Carpetana. The most ancient recorded name of the city Magerit comes from the name of a built on the Manzanares River in the 9th century AD. Nevertheless, it is speculated that the origin of the current name of the city comes from the 2nd century BC. The Roman Empire established a settlement on the banks of the Manzanares river, the name of this first village was Matrice. In the 8th century, the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula saw the changed to Mayrit, from the Arabic term ميرا Mayra. The modern Madrid evolved from the Mozarabic Matrit, which is still in the Madrilenian gentilic, after the disintegration of the Caliphate of Córdoba, Madrid was integrated in the Taifa of Toledo. With the surrender of Toledo to Alfonso VI of León and Castile, the city was conquered by Christians in 1085, Christians replaced Muslims in the occupation of the centre of the city, while Muslims and Jews settled in the suburbs. The city was thriving and was given the title of Villa, since 1188, Madrid won the right to be a city with representation in the courts of Castile. In 1202, King Alfonso VIII of Castile gave Madrid its first charter to regulate the municipal council, which was expanded in 1222 by Ferdinand III of Castile
18.
Real Academia de la Historia
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The Academy was established in 1738. Since 1836 it has occupied an 18th-century building designed by the neoclassical architect Juan de Villanueva, the building, which was originally occupied by the Hieronymites, had become available as a result of the Ecclesiastical confiscations of Mendizábal. As formerly the main Spanish institution for antiquaries, the Academy retains significant libraries and collections of antiquities, the keeper of antiquities is the prehistorian Martín Almagro Gorbea. It is one of the best surviving examples of Late Antique Imperial imagery, some Spanish historians have considered it an obsolete misogynist institution, that still considers history as a matter of kings and battles. However, the image has changed since Gonzalo Anes was director, in 2011 the Academy published the first 20 volumes of a dictionary of national biography, the Diccionario Biográfico Español, to which some five thousand historians contributed. The publicly funded publication has been subject of controversy for failing to achieve the standards of objectivity associated with, for example, however, while there was criticism of entries for some living people, the main allegations of bias concern articles relating to Francoist Spain. A notable example is the entry on Francisco Franco, written by Luis Suárez Fernández, in contrast, the administration of the democratically elected President Negrín is described as dictatorial. Most objections came from voices on the such as the party United Left. For his part, Green party senator Joan Saura asked for publication of the dictionary to be stopped, there was also a call for corrections from the Ministry of Education. The Academy announced in June 2011 that amendments would be made to the text on line and in future paper editions. In 2012, when the Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, made a statement on the subject of the dictionary, however, by 2015 with Carmen Iglesias as director, the situation had changed. In 2015 the Academy entered into an initiative in collaboration with Metro de Madrid to provide information about people who have given their names to metro stations. The Real Academia de la Historia is composed of 36 members, with Academic Correspondents covering all the provinces of Spain, the Director since 2014 has been Carmen Iglesias
19.
Intellect
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Intellect is a term used in studies of the human mind, and refers to the ability of the mind to come to correct conclusions about what is true or real, and about how to solve problems. Historically the term comes from the Greek philosophical term nous, which was translated into Latin as intellectus, discussion of the intellect can be divided into two broad areas. In both of these areas, the intellect and intelligence have continued to be used as related words. In philosophy, especially in classical and medieval philosophy the intellect or nous is an important subject connected to the question of how humans can know things, also see, passive intellect and active intellect. In modern psychology and neuroscience, intelligence and intellect are used as terms describing mental ability that people to understand. A distinction is sometimes made whereby intellect is considered to be related to facts in contrast to intelligence concerning feelings, intellect refers to the cognition and rational mental processes gained through external input rather than internal. A person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a capacity is often referred to as an intellectual. Intellect is often considered to be a branch of intelligence reflecting mainly its logical and rational side, because of the lack of emotional and sensitive engagement, intellect is sometimes considered to be strictly limited to the facts and not going beyond mere raw knowledge. However, intellect can carry a high level of complexity and thus avoid linear and formal logic patterns by referring to such processes as, for example, fuzzy logic. Experience plays a role in the formation of intellect. Through solving life problems people can reach intellectual enlightenment and improve their behavioral patterns to act reasonably and appropriately in the future. Therefore, intellectual development is encouraged by the feeling of dissatisfaction gained from particular situation’s outcome, only experience can provide people with genuine and thoughtful understanding of reality, which consequently contributes to intellectual development. Understanding is built upon creating a model of the reality through human perception, the process of finding solutions to life problems enriches human mental “database” of reality attributes. Intellect that reaches its maturity is referred as self-management, at this state intellect can encounter every problem it faces and not only change itself in the most efficient manner, but also alter the reality in the most desirable way. Overall, success and failure turn to depend primarily on the extent of intellectual capabilities, according to J. P. Guilford, intellect consists of three key parameters, operations, contents and products. Each parameter contains specific elements, which are independent and therefore should be measured individually, operations are represented by cognition, memory, divergent production, convergent production and evaluation. Content can be figural, symbolic, semantic and behavioral, products are divided into units, classes, relations, systems, transformations and implications. Intellectualization is a method, which is based on avoiding emotional penetration through intense intellectual focus
20.
Abstract strategy game
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An abstract strategy game is a strategy game that does not rely on a theme. Many of the classic board games, including chess, Nine Mens Morris, checkers and draughts, Go, xiangqi, shogi, Reversi. Play is sometimes said to resemble a series of puzzles the players pose to each other, as J. which in theory could be solved by logic alone. A good abstract game can therefore be thought of as a family of potentially interesting logic puzzles, good players are the ones who find the most difficult puzzles to present to their opponents. The strictest definition of a strategy game requires that it cannot have random elements or hidden information. In practice, however, many games that do not strictly meet these criteria are classified as abstract strategy games. A smaller category of abstract strategy games manages to incorporate hidden information without using any random elements, two examples are the IAGO World Tour and the Abstract Games World Championship held annually since 2008 as part of the Mind Sports Olympiad. Some abstract strategy games have multiple starting positions of which it is required that one be randomly determined, at the very least, in all conventional abstract strategy games, a starting position needs to be chosen by some means extrinsic to the game. Some games, such as Arimaa and DVONN, have the build the starting position in a separate initial phase which itself conforms strictly to abstract strategy game principles. Most players, however, would consider that one is then starting each game from a different position. Indeed, Bobby Fischer promoted randomization of the position in chess in order to increase player dependence on thinking at the board. Analysis of pure abstract strategy games is the subject of game theory. As for the aspects, ranking abstract strategy games according to their interest, complexity, or strategy levels is a daunting task. This suggests that computer programs, through brute force calculation alone, as for Go, the possible legal game positions range in the magnitude of 10170. The Mind Sports Olympiad first held the Abstract Games World Championship in 2008 to try to find the best abstract strategy games all-rounder. The MSO event saw a change in format in 2011 restricting the competition to players five best events and it was again won by David Pearce. 2008, David M. Pearce 2009, David M. Pearce 2010, David M. Pearce 2011, David M
21.
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
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Frederick II was a Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily in the Middle Ages, a member of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, however, his enemies, especially the popes, prevailed, and his dynasty collapsed soon after his death. As such, he was King of Germany, of Italy, at the age of three, he was crowned King of Sicily as a co-ruler with his mother, Constance of Hauteville, the daughter of Roger II of Sicily. His other royal title was King of Jerusalem by virtue of marriage, Pope Gregory IX went so far as to call him an Antichrist. Speaking six languages, Frederick was a patron of science. He played a role in promoting literature through the Sicilian School of poetry. His Sicilian royal court in Palermo, from around 1220 to his death, saw the first use of a form of an Italo-Romance language. The poetry that emanated from the school had a significant influence on literature and he was also the first king who explicitly outlawed trials by ordeal as they were considered irrational. After his death, his line died out and the House of Hohenstaufen came to an end. Born in Iesi, near Ancona, Italy, Frederick was the son of the emperor Henry VI and he was known as the puer Apuliae. Some chronicles say that his mother, the forty-year-old Constance, gave birth to him in a square in order to forestall any doubt about his origin. In 1196 at Frankfurt am Main the infant Frederick was elected King of the Germans and his rights in Germany were disputed by Henrys brother Philip of Swabia and Otto of Brunswick. At the death of his father in 1197, Frederick was in Italy travelling towards Germany when the bad news reached his guardian, Conrad of Spoleto. Frederick was hastily brought back to his mother Constance in Palermo, Sicily, Constance of Sicily was in her own right queen of Sicily, and she established herself as regent. Upon Constances death in 1198, Pope Innocent III succeeded as Fredericks guardian, Fredericks tutor during this period was Cencio, who would become Pope Honorius III. However, Markward of Annweiler, with the support of Henrys brother, Philip of Swabia, reclaimed the regency for himself, in 1200, with the help of Genoese ships, he landed in Sicily and one year later seized the young Frederick. He thus ruled Sicily until 1202, when he was succeeded by another German captain, William of Capparone, Frederick was subsequently under tutor Walter of Palearia, until, in 1208, he was declared of age. His first task was to reassert his power over Sicily and southern Italy, Otto of Brunswick had been crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Innocent III in 1209
22.
Falconry
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Falconry is the hunting of wild quarry in its natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. There are two terms used to describe a person involved in falconry, a falconer flies a falcon. In modern falconry, the hawk, the Harriss hawk. Many contemporary practitioners still use words in their original meaning. In early English falconry literature, the word referred to a female falcon only. A male hawk or falcon was referred to as a tiercel as it was one third less than the female in size. Evidence suggests that the art of falconry may have begun in Mesopotamia, There are also some raptor representations in the northern Altai, western Mongolia. The falcon was a bird of ancient Mongol tribes. There is some disagreement about whether such early accounts document the practice of falconry or are misinterpreted depictions of humans with birds of prey, during the Turkic Period of Central Asia, concrete figures of falconer on horseback were described on the rocks in Kyrgyz. Falconry was probably introduced to Europe around AD400, when the Huns and Alans invaded from the East, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen is generally acknowledged as the most significant wellspring of traditional falconry knowledge. He is believed to have obtained firsthand knowledge of Arabic falconry during wars in the region and he obtained a copy of Moamyns manual on falconry and had it translated into Latin by Theodore of Antioch. Frederick II himself made corrections to the translation in 1241 resulting in De Scientia Venandi per Aves, King Frederick II is most recognized for his falconry treatise, De arte venandi cum avibus. Written himself toward the end of his life, it is accepted as the first comprehensive book of falconry. De arte venandi cum avibus incorporated a diversity of traditions from east to west. Historically, falconry was a sport and status symbol among the nobles of medieval Europe, the Middle East. Many historical illustrations left in Rashid al Dins Compendium chronicles book described falconry of the centuries with Mongol images. Falconry was largely restricted to the classes due to the prerequisite commitment of time, money. In art and in aspects of culture such as literature
