Adventures in skating historiography
Comparing what a few editions of Comenius have to say about skating is interesting. Each edition includes Latin and one or more other languages. Let's start with a later Swedish one. Woodcut from Johannes Amos Comenius's Orbis sensualium pictus (1775 reprint) Pueri exercent se cursu, sive super glaciem 1 diabāthris 2, ubi etiam vehuntur trabis… Continue reading Skating in Comenius’s Orbis sensualium pictis
In sermon #15 of the Paradisus anime intelligentis, Meister Eckhart mentions two magic shoes: Nû schrît, edeliu sêle, ziuch ane dîne schrittschuohe, daz ist verstantnisse und minne.(Now go, noble soul, put on your walking boots, i.e., understanding and love.)Sturlese & Vinzent, 250–251 This edition calls the shoes "walking boots", but Meister Eckhart called them "schrittschuohe"… Continue reading Meister Eckhart’s magic shoes
In his autobiography, Goethe recounts a conversation with his friend Klopstock about whether the German word for an ice skate should be Schlittschuh or Schrittschuh. They spoke namely in good southern German of Schlittschuhen, which he did not accept as valid because the word does not come from Schlitten, as if one puts on little… Continue reading Goethe & Klopstock on ice skates