Net Treasures

[skip.knox]

Net Treasures #2 doesn't have much to do with writing, which is why I post here in Chit Chat, but it's one of my favorite net treasures. It's Andrew Rogers' guitar tab collection, strictly for you old folks and anyone with a bit of musical nostalgia.
http://marcdashevsky.com/Ace/
Andrew Rogers' Guitar Tabs

Rogers published his tabs in the golden age of the Internet, back when it wasn't really monetized and people were eager to share. He created tabs for hundreds of songs and simply posted them for the benefit and enjoyment of other musicians. His tabs

And for just a taste of how appreciated he is among musicians, https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/remembering-the-tablature-king-andrew-rogers.1805203/

 

[Maker of Things Not Kings]

I learned SO many songs from his tabs in the 90's. Still have a few of them printed out in folders around here I'm sure.

Ahhh, I miss those days skip. Altavista, Netscape, Angelfire sites, the Geocities "neighborhoods", web-rings, early online game rooms, fandom sites and really, the best of the internet all before big money took over. Rogers' tabs were a treasure to many musicians and open mic-ers.

And I saw recently that Lycos is STILL around!

 

[skip.knox]

>the best of the internet all before big money took over
Yep. In my own field of history, there was a flowering of projects with professors putting all sorts of academic materials online. Few of those have survived, but Paul Halsall's Internet Sourcebook persists at Fordham, and De Re Militari has managed to do more than just survive. Many others have vanished with the retirement of their founder, or have been scooped up by quasi-commercial entities at put behind paywalls. *sigh*

 

[skip.knox]

Net Treasures #15: Cooking

Three sites here about medieval cooking. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, but all three cite sources and are conscientious about being authentic. If you're looking for novel ideas about what to cook tonight, here you go. If you're looking for ideas for what to cook in your novel, here you go!
Medieval Recipes
Oldcook : Medieval recipes, gastronomy and history
Recipes - Medieval Cuisine

 

[skip.knox]

Net Treasures #1b
Pilgrims have traveled to Jerusalem since at least the 4th century, and have been recording their experience ever since. A number of these accounts have survived and were collected by a 19th century group called the Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society. It makes for a huge collection. Here is just a sample, the account written by Felix Fabri in the 15th century.
The library of the Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society : Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society, London : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
If you look at the bottom of that page, you'll find links to other accounts. Some of these are thin and dull, others quite colorful. Reading medieval texts can be a chore, but for those willing to do a bit of wading (and maybe a few deep dives) you'll find much that is rewarding in this huge collection.

BTW, it's #1b because it's a sub-set of the whole Internet Archive collection of texts. I'll have a few others down the road.

 

[skip.knox]

Yeah, it's been a while, but I haven't forgotten! Here's a lovely, obscure treasure. Admittedly this is going to be of interest only to a very few, but if you're looking for something like this, where else ya gonna find it?

'From keel to truck', a marine dictionary in English, French and German : Henri Paasch : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

A dictionary of ship terms from 1885. With lots of illustrations. Cool, right? But this one has the nautical terms in English, French and German!

 

[skip.knox]

Another treasure, again from the Internet Archive, the mother of all treasures.
Castles And Fortified Cities From Medieval Europe : Architecture E-books - Architecture history : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

The information is old, so look to this for inspiration not information. But there's still plenty here. And you can take any one of these fortifications and plug it into a search engine to come up with more (and more recent) information and images.