Continuing on from the last post, this is still very much work in progress. Ideas from the last two posts are continuing to develop, albeit slowly. Some (very) broad themes I am working around include: ancestry, knights and chivalry, the Middle Ages, and astronomy.

A few notes that inform the image above: between 4-6 August 1181, the supernova* that has come to be known as SN 1181 was first observed in the sky by Chinese and Japanese astronomers, who recorded it in eight different texts. They described it as a ‘guest star’ (i.e. transient) that shone as bright as the planet Saturn. SN 1181 appeared in the constellation of Cassiopeia**, and was visible and motionless against the fixed stars for 185 days. Unfortunately, there are no known European sources on the appearance of such an event, even though people in Medieval Europe regulated their lives based on the position of the luminaries, the planets and the stars that constitute the signs of the zodiac.

At the same time, 1181 is the year when the first Franciscan orders emerged, and the Third Crusade (1189-1192) was a but a few years away.

*A supernova is the powerful and luminous explosion of a star in its last evolutionary stages.

**Cassiopeia is visible all year round, but can be found high in the sky from October to January.