Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Monday 31 October 2022

Wreck reveals Baltic trade of the early fifteenth century


Medievalists.net has an interesting report about research work on a fifteenth century wreck discovered in 2003 off the western coast of Sweden. 

When the vessel sank in 1443 or soon after, based on the age of the timber of which it was built and was carrying, it was still a new ship. The cargo and location where it foundered would strongly suggest that it was sailing from the port of Gdańsk ( Danzig ) to Bruges.

The cargo of building materials illuminates the trade patterns and links between not only the Baltic lands and the Low Countries but also to links much further inland, to what is now Slovakia, but was then northern Hungary, as the source of the copper ingots found in the ship’s hold.

The article, which includes links to two more detailed accounts of the ship and its cargo, can be seen at Medieval shipwreck's cargo revealed by researchers


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