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The Maniculum Podcast

The Maniculum Podcast

Maniculum: little hand, pointing finger; often found in manuscript marginalia.

Hi! We’re Mac and Zoe, a professional medievalist and triple AAA game developer, and together, we use modern game design techniques to uncover the origins of your favorite tropes and adventures from medieval manuscripts.
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In each episode, we explore a new medieval manuscript, its connections to modern TTRPGs, and teach you how to adapt these tales into compelling campaigns and amazing adventures. Whether you’re looking to recreate the noble Arthurian tales or incorporate weird and wacky medieval monsters into your campaign, the Maniculum Podcast has you covered.

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  • 23 episodes
  • fortnightly
  • Avg 1 hr 28 min
  • English

Episodes 23

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  • September 6 · 1 hr 13 min

    The Voynich Manuscript: Understanding the Untranslatable with Lisa Fagin Davis

    The Voynich Manuscript has been a curiosity and mystery for hundreds of years — what can its strange history teach us about worldbuilding? This week, we’re joined by Lisa Fagin Davis, one of the world’s experts on this enigmatic text. Come along as we discuss the history of the text, its creation and contents, and how the sciences and humanities can come together using tools like latent semantic analysis to discover the nature of untranslatable texts. Join our discord community! Support us on patreon! Get your copy of Marginal Worlds, a deck of 50 magic items pulled directly from medieval manuscripts, built for any TTRPG system here! Socials: Tumblr Website Bluesky Instagram Facebook Citations & References Bowern, Claire. “Voynich.” Yale University CampusPress. Link. [List of Claire Bowern’s publications on the Voynich manuscript.] Davis, Lisa Fagin, and Colin Layfield. “Singulion Structure and the Voynich Manuscript.” Digital Medievalist, vol. 19, 2026. DOI. Davis, Lisa Fagin. “The World’s Most Mysterious Manuscript.” Manuscript Road Trip, 17 January 2015. Link. [Blog post with an image of the comic page mentioned.] Guzy, Stefan. “Book Transactions of Emperor Rudolf II, 1576–1612: New Findings on the Earliest Ownership of the Voynich Manuscript.” Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on the Voynich Manuscript 2022 (VOY2022), edited by Colin Layfield and John Abela, CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 2023. Voynich Manuscript. Circa 1401-1599?, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, New Haven, Connecticut, Beinecke MS 408 1. Link. The Voynich Manuscript. Edited by Raymond Clemens, Yale UP, 2016. The Voynich Ninja. https://www.voynich.ninja/ Zandbergen, René. The Voynich Manuscript. https://voynich.nu/

  • July 26 · 1 hr 26 min

    Medieval Cuisine: How the Arabs Shaped European Taste

    This week, we are thrilled to host Muna and Leila Salloum, two scholars and chefs who introduce us to the medieval Arab world and its many culinary delights. As the European Middle Ages got under way, the Arab world was experiencing a Golden Age — a hub of trade, knowledge, and peoples through which many new foodstuffs and customs travelled to Europe. Apologies for the audio quality; there were multiple overlapping technical difficulties during the recording of this episode. Sources for some specific points, found in the bibliography below: the musician Ziryab, who comes up multiple times in the episode, is mentioned in ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah . the source that credits al-Jahshiyari with the compilation of the Thousand Nights and a Night is ibn al-Nadim’s Fihrist . the quotation about Cordoba being the “gem of the world” is from Hrosvitha’s “Pelagius” ( clarum decus orbis , line 12). ibn Firnas’s experiments with unpowered flight are mentioned in al-Maqqari’s Breath of Perfume . al-Jazari’s status as “father of robotics” comes from the automata described in his Book of Knowledge . Join our discord community! Support us on patreon! Get your copy of Marginal Worlds, a deck of 50 magic items pulled directly from medieval manuscripts, built for any TTRPG system here! Socials: Tumblr Website Bluesky Instagram Facebook Citations & References Works by our guests Salloum, Habeeb, Leila Salloum Elias, and Muna Salloum. The Scent of Pomegranate and Rosewater: Reviving the Beautiful Food Traditions of Syria. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018. Salloum, Habeeb, Muna Salloum, and Leila Salloum Elias. Scheherazade’s Feasts: Foods of the Medieval Arab World. U Pennsylvania Press, 2013. Salloum, Habeeb, Muna Salloum, and Leila Salloum Elias. Sweet Delights from a Thousand and One Nights: The Story of Traditional Arab Sweets. I. B. Tauris, 2013. Salloum Elias, Leila, and Muna Salloum. Celestial Dining to Entice: An Arab Food Contest in Paradise. Austin Macauley, 2024. Salloum Elias, Leila, and Muna Salloum. The Sweets of Araby: Enchanting Recipes from the Tales of the 1001 Arabian Nights. Illustrated by Linda Dalal Sawaya, Countryman Press, 2011. Other works mentioned or recommended ˆal-Jazari, Abu al-Izz ibn Ismail ibn al-Razzaz. The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices. Translated and annotated by Donald R. Hill, D. Reidel, 1974. al-Maqqari, Ahmad. The Breath of Perfume from the Branch of Flourishing Al-Andalus and Memories of its Vizier Lisan ud-Din ibn ul-Khattib. Partially translated [as The History Of The Mohammedan Dynasties In Spain ] by Pascual de Gayangos, London, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland / W. H. Allen and Co., 1840–1843. al-Warraq, Abu Muhammad al-Muzaffar ibn Nasr ibn Sayyar. The Book of Dishes. Translated by Nawal Nasrallah [as Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens ], Brill, 2007. Islamic History and Civilization 70. Hrosvitha of Gandersheim. “The Sufferings of Pelagius, the Most Precious Martyr, Who in Our Time, at Cordova, Was Crowned with Martyrdom.” The Non-Dramatic Works of Hrosvitha: Text, Translation, and Commentary. Edited and translated by M. Gonsalva Wiegand, 1936, pp. 128–57. St. Louis University, PhD dissertation. ibn al-Nadim, Abu al-Faraj Muhammad. The Book Catalogue. Edited and translated by Bayard Dodge [as The Fihrist of al-Nadim: A Tenth-Century Survey of Islamic Culture ], Columbia UP, 1970. 2 vols. ibn Battuta, Abu Abdullah Muhammad. A Gift for the Curious, concerning the Wonders of Cities and Marvels of the Journeys Thereto. Transcribed/edited by C. Defremery and B. R. Sanguinetti, translated by H. A. R. Gibb and C. F. Beckingham [as The Travels of ibn Battuta ], index by A. D. H. Bivar, Hakluyt Society / Cambridge UP, 1958–2000. 5 vols. ibn Khaldun, Abu Zayd Abdur-Rahman. The Muqaddimah: Introduction to History. Translated by Franz Rosenthal, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1958. 3 vols. Nicholson, Reynold A. A Literary History of the Arabs. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1907. van Gelder, Geert Jan. God's Banquet: Food in Classical Arabic Literature. Columbia UP, 2000.

  • June 28 · 1 hr 29 min

    Building a Medieval Village pt. 5: Early Life and Marriage Customs

    This week, we're covering social life in the village: childhood, marriage, and having kids. What were these stages of life like, and what strange traditions and customs arose due to the harsh realities of daily life in the middle ages? And of course, how can we translate that into tabletop gaming and storytelling? Content Warning: child birth, child death, pregnancy loss, violence against badgers. Join our discord community! Support us on patreon! Get your copy of Marginal Worlds, a deck of 50 magic items pulled directly from medieval manuscripts, built for any TTRPG system here! Socials: Tumblr Website Bluesky Instagram Facebook Citations & References Gies, Frances & Joseph. Life in a Medieval Village. Harper & Row, 1990. Ellis, Penny. “Medieval Thoralby.” Thoralby Through Time. Link . Historic England. Medieval Settlements: Introductions to Heritage Assets . Historic England, 2018. Link . [A great PDF introduction.] The Middle English Compendium . University of Michigan. Link . [Note: this site often goes down.] Ray, T.J. “Feudal Terminology.” T.J. Ray: The Eclectic Eccentric . Link . Ray, T.J. “Manorial Language.” T.J. Ray: The Eclectic Eccentric . Link .

  • March 22 · 1 hr 25 min

    Building a Medieval Village pt. 3: The Lord and the Law

    In this episode, Mac and Zoe discuss how medieval peasantry worked, the complexities of the system, what sort of peasants there were, and how world builders, writers, and game masters can both accurately represent and adapt the village system in their medieval fantasy worlds and TTRPGs. Join our discord community! Support us on patreon! Get your copy of Marginal Worlds, a deck of 50 magic items pulled directly from medieval manuscripts, built for any TTRPG system here! Socials: Tumblr Website Bluesky Instagram Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/maniculum Citations & References Gies, Frances & Joseph. Life in a Medieval Village. Harper & Row, 1990. Bennett, Judith M. Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England. Oxford UP, 1999. Ellis, Penny. “Medieval Thoralby.” Thoralby Through Time. Link . Graeber, David. Debt: The First 5,000 Years . Melville House, 2011. Historic England. Medieval Settlements: Introductions to Heritage Assets . Historic England, 2018. Link . [A great PDF introduction.] The Middle English Compendium . University of Michigan. Link . [Note: this site often goes down.] Ray, T.J. “Feudal Terminology.” T.J. Ray: The Eclectic Eccentric . Link . Ray, T.J. “Manorial Language.” T.J. Ray: The Eclectic Eccentric . Link . Terminology & Spelling ale-taster bailiff beadle cellarer claviger hayward majordomo messor reeve seneschal serjant steward woodward

  • March 8 · 1 hr 19 min

    Whatshisname & Enid pt. 4: Legally Justified Kissing

    How many versions of one tale can we tell? In this episode, we’re diving back into Erec & Enide, and Mac has found two more versions of this classic chivalric romance. We discuss how various cultural differences affect the manner in which these adaptations are written, and explore how we can use cultural difference in worldbuilding. Check out our blog post with the names listed out here. Join our discord community! Support us on patreon! Get your copy of Marginal Worlds , a deck of 50 magic items pulled directly from medieval manuscripts, built for any TTRPG system here ! Socials: Tumblr Website Bluesky Instagram Facebook Citations & References Blaisdell, Foster W., and Marianne E. Kalinke, translators. Erex Saga and Ívens Saga . U Nebraska Press, 1977. Chrétien de Troyes. “Erec and Enide.” The Complete Romances of Chrétien de Troyes , translated by David Staines, Indiana UP, 1993, pp. 1–86. Davies, Sioned, translator. The Mabinogion . Oxford UP, 2007. Oxford World’s Classics. Gantz, Jeffrey, translator. The Mabinogion . Dorset Press, 1976. Guest, Charlotte, translator. The Mabinogion . 1877. J. M. Dent & Sons, 1906. Everyman’s Library. Hartmann von Aue. Erec . Translated by Michael Resler, U Pennsylvania Press, 2004. Hartmann von Aue. Erec . Translated by Thomas L. Keller, Garland Publishing, 1987. Garland Library of Medieval Literature (Series B) 12. Thomson, Robert L., editor. Ystorya Gereint uab Erbin . Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, School of Celtic Studies / Dundalgan Press, 1997. Medieval and Modern Welsh Series 10. Terminology & Spelling abatis brunet umbo vespereide

  • February 8 · 1 hr 6 min

    Dear Sidrak: the Valentine’s Special

    In this episode, Mac & Zoe debunk medieval love advice and discuss common misconceptions around medieval love and marriage. Reading the philosophical dialogue of Sidrak and Bokkus as an advice column, can we really say whether attitudes toward romance have changed that much, centuries later? Content Warning: discussions of medieval and modern misogyny and sexual explicitness Join our discord community! Support us on patreon! Get your copy of Marginal Worlds, a deck of 50 magic items pulled directly from medieval manuscripts, built for any TTRPG system here! Socials: Tumblr Website Bluesky Instagram Facebook Citations & References Primary Burton, T. L., editor. Sidrak and Bokkus . Early English Text Society / Oxford UP, 1998. 2 vols. Secondary Clapp, James E., et al. Lawtalk: The Unknown Stories Behind Familiar Legal Expressions . Yale UP, 2011. Gibson, Marian. Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials . Scribner, 2024. Kelly, Henry Ansgar. “‘Rule of Thumb’ and the Folklaw of the Husband’s Stick.” J ournal of Legal Education , vol. 44, no. 3, 1994, pp. 341–65. Mason, Rebecca. “Violence Against Wives in Medieval and Early Modern Scotland.” 10 April 2022. Link . O’Conner, Patricia, and Stewart Kellerman. Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language . Random House, 2009.

  • January 25 · 1 hr 34 min

    The Art of the Manuscript: Les Enluminures & the Roman de la Rose

    In this episode, Mac & Zoe host Sandra Hindman and Jacky Yao from Les Enluminures to discuss the craft and trade of manuscript illumination and creation in the Middle Ages, as well as the influence and popularity of the courtly romance Roman de la Rose. Point of correction: Sandra is not currently serving as chair of art history at Northwestern, but was previously. Join our discord community! Support us on patreon! Get your copy of Marginal Worlds, a deck of 50 magic items pulled directly from medieval manuscripts, built for any TTRPG system here! Socials: Tumblr Website Bluesky Instagram Facebook Citations & References Les Enluminures website Jacky Yao, Embodied Encounters with Roman de la Rose Manuscripts lecture ( Youtube ) Read the Roman de la Rose here or here Les Enluminures, video on the Sidrak and Bokkus manuscript ( Dropbox ) Terminology & Spelling autograph biocodicology ekphrasis Ge’ez Guillaume de Lorris Jean de Meun Jeanne Montbaston missal Ormulum palimpsest

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