chasingcaterpillars's blog

Stuck in Suriname

Writing this part has been going well...until I realized I needed to address the slavery issue in Surinam in 1700.

Stuck big time!  It was not a good situation and I really didn't want to go into it.  But I cannot ignore it since Maria Sybilla didn't.  I believe that I have finally found my solution, and will see if I can write it today so I can go on with her story.

No Wells in Amsterdam?

Were there really no wells in Amsterdam in the late 1600s?  While researching material for my book about Maria Sybilla Merian I realized that not once had I come across any reference to wells.  Nothing was mentioned in the books I read.  I had not seen any marked on old maps of the city.  Oh there was plenty of water with all of those canals, but I suspected that the canal water was salty since they did connect with the sea.  So where did the residents of Amsterdam get their drinking water?  Who could I ask?

I finally emailed the information desk of the Amsterdam Historical Museum with my question.  Frans Oehlen answered.  He answered my question and provided even more information.

As I thought, canal water was salty.  It was also polluted.  But it was used for washing, and for cleaning doorsteps.

Some people used rainwater collected in wooden rain barrels for their drinking water.  But there was not always enough.

The best water for drinking was brought into Amsterdam by water barges.  These barges brought water from the Amstel River (upstream), the Gein River, and especially from the Vecht River.  This water was for sale, though, and not everyone could afford it.  Also during the winter it could be a serious problem to keep the rivers navigable when they became frozen over.  (Ice cutters probably had a good seasonal business then.)

I had never given a thought to the possibility that people ever might have to buy water back then.  In fact I assumed that buying water was a more modern phenomenon.  I knew from traveling when I was a child that the taste of local water in various places could be quite different, but nobody ever bought and took water with them anywhere.  Only fairly recently has buying bottles and jugs of water become an option...at least in my area of the world. 

Researching Amsterdam

I have taken Maria Sybilla Merian and her family from Frankfurt, Germany, where she was born to Nürnberg, back to Frankfurt, on to Castle Waltha in Friesland, northern Holland and now to Amsterdam.

This part feels different to me because I have not yet been to Amsterdam; I haven't seen it, I haven't walked the streets myself where she would have walked.  By far, the best source for obtaining a bit of this feel is the DK Eyewitness Travel Amsterdam guidebook!  It has given me new directions to pursue as well as showing in brilliant color what is there.

But I would still love to actually go to Amsterdam myself.  I want to see for myself what streets are like with canals running down the center.  I want to see the old house placques, the gabled houses, the "yawners" that used to be over the pharmacies, the skinny bridge.   I'd like to know how long it takes to walk the length of the Prinsengracht, what the Hortus Medicus looks like, etc., etc

I do hope that my readers cannot tell from my writing what feels so different to me.

Inside the Old Walls of Nürnberg

The first photo shows the cobblestone street––notice the width of the street––and a modern wall that is boundary of someone's house/yard today.

The second photo gives a better look at the outer wall.  The tower has the door which is an entrance to the upper walkway of the wall.  Here I can imagine the men, whose duty it was to defend the city, walking their assigned stretch and keeping a close surveillance of any activity outside the city.

Entering the old City of Nürnberg

This is one of the more interesting entrances to the old city.  It curves inside the wall and is more like a tunnel.  You can see the curve in the middle photo.  The third photo shows the exit into the city, but it also gives a feel of how dark it would have been without lights.

Most of the old German cities have only a small section of their old wall remaining, due to the horrific bombing of World War II.  Some tore down remaining walls because the openings were too small to allow fire trucks into the old section, or they felt they needed to widen the streets for modern traffic.  I'm so glad that Nürnberg did not do this; being enclosed within a city wall is the only way you can get a feel for the size both of the city and the thickness and height of the wall.  It emphasizes the fact that everything is within walking distance, and helps give a feel to life "back then."

I was awed to think that both Albrecht Dürer and Maria Sylabilla Merian walked this town and through this entrance.

Washing Your Hands?

Washstand

Shown here is one style of what we would call an old washstand.  These were used in Germany in the 1600's for washing your fingers before eating.  Yes, I did say fingers instead of hands. You didn't wash both hands, instead you washed only the first two fingers and thumb of each hand.  No housewife wanted to waste water, and the first two fingers and thumb is all you use when eating. (Notice next time you eat...this is true!)   And, I'm sure that if you are the one who has to go outside with a bucket, draw the water from a well, and then lug it inside to use, you don't want to be making a lot of trips to the well. 

Inside St. Sebaldus Church

These photos are from inside St. Sebaldus Church in Nürnberg, Germany.  Besides being another lovely old church, this one has special meaning for me.  This is the church Maria Sybilla Merian attended, and where her second daughter, Dorothea, was baptised.

When I learned that the statue of St. Sebaldus is easy to recognize because he is holding a church, I had to photograph it!

I was also interested in the very old baptismal font in the church.  It is the original one, made around 1430, and is the one used when Dorothea was baptised.  How awesome is that!  When our country is less than 300 years old, I just find it incredible to see something still in existence and over 550 years old--something older than the US.  (And as luck would have it, on this particular day, a baby had just been baptised when I entered the church.  You can see the photographer snapping pictures of the family.

Artists' Pigments

The sole reason I toured Albrecht Dürer's house in Nürnberg, Germany, was because I had read there was a display of his paint and where it came from.  Now Dürer lived 170 years before Maria Sybilla Merian did, but things were slow to change back in those days; I figured the source of paints would still be the same.  I had already spent two and a half years researching the old paint recipes to find a few which would be usable in the classroom during the study of art in the Middle Ages.  (I was bored with the time period and needed a way to "liven it up" 'cause it's a sure bet that if the teacher's already bored, the students will be triply bored, and the last thing we need is bored kids in the classroom.)

I was delighted to see that what I had read was confirmed here.

The blue pigment in the picture on the left is azurite; the powdered form was kept on the half shell, it's source is the azurite rock behind.  The red pigment was new to me--it is called Drachenblut, or Dragon's Blood.  It comes from a red resin from the fruit of a palm tree found in Asia.

The center picture shows a pigment made from roots of the Rubia plant--also new to me--on the left.  On the right is a dish of cochineal bugs which, when crushed, make a purply-red pigment.  (And, yes, the dried bugs do stink if you get your nose too close to them!)

The picture on the right shows the beautiful bright red pigment derived from Cinnabar rocks from Spain.

One added note:  most rocks lose their color when crushed and cannot be used to make paint.  Those that do retain their color make very lovely paint, indeed.

Chörlein

Chlörlein

This bit of architechture is a famous landmark in Nürnberg, Germany; it is called a chörlein.  This one was built in 1513.  Looks to me like an elaborate 3-sided bay window held up by an elaborate stone column attached to the side of the house.  This house is where the pastor lived.  

The other building in the background is the St. Sebaldus church, the one Maria Sybilla Merian Graf attended, and where her second daughter, Dorothea, was baptised.

The Frauenkirche on the Market Square

The large Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) on the Market Square is something to see, especially at noon.  As music plays, doors below the clock open to reveal a statue representing the Holy Roman Emperor.  Then figures representing seven electors come out, bow to the emperoror and go around the emperor three times before disappearing again inside.  This is called the walk of the little men, or the Mannleinlaufen.  The clock then chimes the time, after which the doors close.

The clockworks were made 1506-1509.  I find it amazing that they are 500 years old!  And still working!  The clockworks were constructed by Joerg Heuss; Sebastian Lindenast made the figures.  During WWII the clockworks were kept in the Art Bunker under the castle, which is why they survived intact.

I find it fascinating that Maria Sybilla Merian heard and saw this same clock and figures in action.