Leo Belgicus

Leo Belgicus has to be one of the most famous, as well as pictorially pleasing, of all maps. What makes this map so interesting is its direct relationship with the events taking place at the time i…

Bodleian Map Room Blog

"For this book Coomans spend countless hours exploring records and archives and the result is a book full of often small, personal stories that introduce us to people long gone, names we would never have known if they at one time had not gotten into trouble with the law or had to apply for a permit. But the book also mercilessly destroys those old myths about those dirty middle ages. Well, at least in the low countries.

And even though I, as a Dutch person, rather like the idea that we were somehow special and cleaner than everyone else in Medieval Europe, what this book mentions actually fits what we know about how things were in many other countries and regions."

https://fakehistoryhunter.net/2025/08/17/book-review-community-urban-health-and-environment-in-the-late-medieval-low-countries-by-janna-coomans/

@histodons @bookstodon #MedievalHistory #hygiene #TheDarkAgesDontExist #FakeHistoryHunter #LowCountries #geschiedenis

Book review: ‘Community, Urban Health and Environment in the Late Medieval Low Countries’ by Janna Coomans

Medieval Hygiene hasn’t been a serious topic of research for historians till relatively recently, the topic is more related to the daily life of common people, not knights, royals or other fa…

Fake History Hunter

🧬 **Largest-ever ancient DNA study on a medieval cemetery reveals 1,000 years of genetic history in the Low Countries**

“_Remarkably, it also uncovered the first direct evidence of the plague in medieval Flanders, at a time when no written sources from the town make mention of the disease._”

🔗 https://nieuws.kuleuven.be/en/content/2025/largest-ever-ancient-dna-study-on-a-medieval-cemetery-reveals-1-000-years-of-genetic-history-in-the-low-countries.

#Archaeology #Archaeodons #Research #News #Ancient #DNA #Palaeogenomics #LowCountries #Medieval #Migration #Plague #Flanders @archaeodons

Largest-ever ancient DNA study on a medieval cemetery reveals 1,000 years of genetic history in the Low Countries

Geneticists from KU Leuven analysed the remains of 400 individuals buried between the 8th and 18th centuries beneath what is now the main square (Groenmarkt) of Sint-Truiden, a historic town in present-day Belgium.

Nieuws

the modern dedication to pretending the weather doesn't exist makes me sad.

'but what if it rains?'

then you get wet. welcome to the #LowCountries.

'but what if the weather is so so so bad that it's not safe to be outside?'

then you stay indoors, and ponder why #capitalism wants you to commute through a deadly tempest.

#BanCars #cycling #AntiCapitalism

This week I discovered that the Dutch are all fluent in the Beaufort scale. One of them will say something like "the wind's only gonna be at 6 today" and all the others will know exactly what that means (and exactly how hard it is to bike against it on a single-speed). #SocialAnthropology #LowCountries

"While the genre paintings of Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, and Jan Steen are forever relegated to the 1600s, Bruegel and Avercamp painted views that, until recently, remained a common sight in every Dutch and Belgian village."

Low Country Climate Canvasses of Little Ice Age

https://daily.jstor.org/climate-canvasses-of-the-little-ice-age/ via JSTOR Daily
Original image: Hendrick Avercamp, "Winter Landscape with Skaters near a Town" via PubHist
#LittleIceAge #Art #Renaissance #LowCountries #LowCountry #Climate #Winter

The Climate Canvasses of the Little Ice Age - JSTOR Daily

Low Country artists of the late Renaissance and Early Baroque eras captured the happiness and hardships of snowy winters—an ever rarer phenomenon now.

JSTOR Daily
Here's an example of a record from it. I think this was my 11xg-granddad, revealing an approximate date of birth for him. I haven't been able to find any baptisms for children of Secretary William Fowler. #Soldiers #Travel #17thCentury #SeventeenthCentury #BritishHistory #LowCountries #Genealogy #FamilyHistory #FMP #FindMyPast #Histodon #Histodons
Found in #FindMyPast "Registers Of Licences To Pass Beyond The Seas 1573-1677" (UK National Archives E 157) for soldiers going to serve overseas, especially in the Low Countries. Images and indexes. Includes soldier ages so I now have an approximate birth date for the soldier son of the royal secretary I'm writing a journal paper about. #Soldiers #Travel #17thCentury #SeventeenthCentury #BritishHistory #LowCountries #Genealogy #FamilyHistory #FMP #Histodon #Histodons

We (Yannick and me) did a podcast (in #Dutch) on our book on the #prehistory of the #LowCountries. It turned out very nice.

#palaeolithic #archaeology
https://youtu.be/5_Xc_iTEQZA

Radio horzelnest - Aflevering 53: Eerste mensen in de Lage Landen

YouTube
WHOA!!! The Plantin Moretus Museum, aka: The Best Museum In The World is featured on Google Arts. It includes lovely creaking floorboards in this gorgeous #earlymodern print shop.
#bookhistory #histodons #earlymodons #LowCountries
https://artsandculture.google.com/story/qgXxWnOI--kkPg?fbclid=IwAR0nWoJOSLD5ZwDZ90c4QpkNlcuyWayPFbPYS1YWlUPDjiiV_z_1FaTv9e0&zx=48csqsw2nwj2
Home and workshop of the greatest printer-publisher of the 16th century: Christophe Plantin

Home and workshop of the greatest printer-publisher of the 16th century: Christophe Plantin

Google Arts & Culture