#saint gall

[eli-zab3th]

Abbey Library of Saint Gall, St. Gall, Switzerland

Pictures by @eli-zab3th

[wgm-beautiful-world]

Abbey Library of Saint Gall - SWITZERLAND

[chicinsilk]

Ligne "Libre"

"Vaudeville"

Christian Dior Haute Couture Collection Spring/Summer 1957. Dorothy Griffith wears "Vaudeville" afternoon dress. Embroidery, Saint Gall lace.

Christian Dior Collection Haute Couture Printemps/Été 1957. Dorothy Griffith porte "Vaudeville" robe d'après-midi. Broderies, dentelle Saint-Gall.

Photo Joseph Grove

[paramedicabroad]

Abbey of Saint Gall

Join me on a virtual pilgrimage to the heart of Switzerland, where the Abbey of Saint Gall stands as a testament to medieval splendor and cultural richness. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, this abbey invites us to unravel its architectural marvels, intellectual legacy, and the echoes of centuries past.

Step into the hallowed halls of Saint Gall Abbey, a masterpiece of medieval architecture. Marvel at the intricate carvings, soaring arches, and the timeless beauty that graces this spiritual sanctuary.

Meet the revered guardians of Saint Gall Abbey, St. Gallus and St. Otmar. Their legacies are interwoven with the foundation of the abbey, symbolizing the spiritual dedication that has echoed through the centuries.

Delve into the abbey's rich intellectual legacy, particularly its famed Carolingian manuscripts. Saint Gall's library became a beacon of knowledge during the Middle Ages, with meticulously crafted manuscripts that preserved classical texts and illuminated the minds of scholars.

Embark on a literary journey within the Abbey Library, which houses a trove of rare manuscripts and incunabula. The library's Baroque hall, adorned with frescoes and stucco decorations, serves as a bibliophilic haven for scholars and visitors alike.

In 1983, Saint Gall Abbey earned its place on the prestigious list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. This recognition honors the abbey's outstanding universal value, celebrating its role in the Carolingian Renaissance and the preservation of medieval knowledge.

Stroll through the cloister gardens, where tranquility and natural beauty converge. The abbey's verdant surroundings provide a serene retreat, inviting contemplation and quiet moments of reflection.

For centuries, pilgrims have undertaken journeys to Saint Gall Abbey, seeking spiritual solace and connection. The abbey's sacred atmosphere and cultural significance make it a timeless destination for those on a pilgrimage of the soul.

In conclusion, the Abbey of Saint Gall beckons us to traverse the corridors of history, intellect, and spirituality. When you're ready for a digital exploration of medieval magnificence, Saint Gall Abbey promises to captivate and inspire. 🏰📜🇨🇭

[livesunique]

St. Gall Library, Saint Gallen, Switzerland

• It was founded in the 8th century and contains over 170,000 documents, including many rare and valuable manuscripts.

• Nearly half of the handwritten books are from the Middle Ages, and 400 are over 1000 years old!

• The library is also known for its stunning baroque architecture, which was added in the 18th century.

Photo By Till Forrer

[magical-girl-coral]

I wonder how many people on tumblr who are sharing posts about never killing yourself and suicide hotlines are also the same ones who told Jews to go die in Poland because we asked them not to promote fascist beliefs.

[gatheringbones]

[“As history has shown, and as I was at the time experiencing, a strap-on can be sexy, but it can also be a failure and a threat. It draws attention to how contradictory and fragile our definitions of male and female are, and how tightly we cling to them, even in relationships between women, where gender and sexuality are more flexible.

I think it’s important to look at how this played out, not just in the history of straight men policing lesbians but in the lesbian community policing itself. In the 1940s and 50s a bar scene began to develop in cities across the country, marking the first time when lesbians, particularly working-class ones, gathered publicly and in large numbers. During this time a butch/femme culture developed that included strict codes of dress and behavior both in and outside the bedroom. Butch women slicked back their hair, wore suits and jeans, and were, generally, the “givers” of sexual pleasure. Femme women wore dresses and makeup and were the “receivers” of sexual pleasure. In some ways, this culture was liberating, as it represented a powerful, cohesive group aesthetic and safety in numbers. Especially for women who actually identified as butch, it was also a chance to finally adopt masculine dress without being seen as failed or dangerous but rather as sexy and loveable. For others this culture was a trap, pushing women into restrictive sex and gender roles in the same ways heterosexuality had. It is by no means the only lesbian aesthetic, but I think part of the reason it has stuck around for so long in the popular imagination as the way lesbians are is because it allows straight people to again see themselves as the center of the sexual world.

In either case, strap-ons were not widely used, or at least not talked about. In Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold, a book that documents the lives of Black and white lesbians in Buffalo, there is a pretty exhaustive set of interviews about sex acts and terminology, but no one mentions owning, liking, or even trying sex with a strap-on. Indeed, the one mention of a dildo is one of bewilderment as Vic, a self-identified butch, talks about her friend pulling her into the bathroom to show her the new strap-on she got. “Jesus, she whipped this thing out . . . I’m supposed to be butch and my face felt like a neon sign. I could feel the embarrassment. How do you admire a dildo? No seriously, what do you say?”

Butches in the book took great pride “in their own hands and their ability to please,” which “did not dispose them to think that a dildo would improve their lovemaking.” It’s interesting that they considered the dildo less potent and successful than hands. This could be read as displacing the power of the dick, but, coupled with the silence surrounding strap-on use, it also points to a greater fear about the lesbian body. How regulated and small it had to be to exist. How easily it could be diminished by something outside itself, or destroyed altogether.

In the lesbian radical feminist movement of the 1960s and 70s, there was also a great deal of attention focused on creating distance from dicks. Jill Johnston argued in A Lesbian Nation that the only true road to female liberation was the conscious “withdrawal at every level from the man to develop woman supremacy.” This meant that not only butch/femme dynamics but also penetrative sex were out. Anne Koedt developed the theory that the vaginal orgasm was a myth perpetrated by Freud in order to center male sexual desire for penetration, though her evidence for this was a study done by Kinsey—a man—that found the vagina was not particularly sensitive to touch. True orgasms, Koedt argued, only came from the clitoris—even though she interestingly also called the clit “the female equivalent of the penis”—so if women wanted to have enjoyable sex there was no need for penetration, only clitoral stimulation. Andrea Dworkin went so far as to call the penis “a hidden symbol of terror�� and argued that “violence is male, the male is the penis.”

Dorothy Allison writes about the effects this had on herself and other lesbians at the time. “No one admitted to using dildos, wanting to be tied up, wanting to be penetrated, or talking dirty—all that male stuff . . . my lover wanted us to perform tribadism, stare into each other’s eyes, and orgasm simultaneously. Egalitarian, female, feminist, revolutionary.” In attempting to free themselves from the penis, in many ways radical lesbians ended up reinscribing the power of the dick and sacrificing the range of sexual pleasure they could experience in the process.

In a counter to this, the lesbian sexual outlaws of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s argued that dildos were actually great, not problematic, but primarily because they didn’t reference the penis at all. Some even argued that wearing a dildo turns a woman into a cyborg, not woman, man, or even human, just a body involved in the mechanistic movements of giving and receiving pleasure. While there is something freeing about this argument, as it gets us out from under the idea that we can’t talk about strap-ons and that a woman wearing a strap-on is only trying to make up for a never-ending lack, it still bypasses the sticky, complicated reality of the gendered/human world we live in and the simple fact that sometimes lesbians want strap-ons to look like penises.

All of this begs the question: can a dyke wear a dick and just have some damn fun?”]

amy gall, from my dick, your dick, our dick, from wanting: women writing about desire, 2023

[cuties-in-codices]

people in a state of demonic possession

miniature in a hagiography of saint gall, st. gallen, c. 1451-60

source: St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 602, p. 98

[seab]

demons in scenes from the life of Saint Teresa of Ávila, engraved by Adriaen Collaert and Cornelius Galle I Vita b. virginis Teresiae a jesu ordinis Carmelitarum excalceatorum piae restauratricis, Antwerp, 1613

[flhoarder]

They think Harry running the MC into a puddle is stupid but then the collective body of 41 did decide it was a great idea to do a horizontal cannonball into a massive stained glass wall of historical value to get into an abandoned old church 2 months ago

[paul-archibald]

Medieval Music

The word medieval can often conjure up in our minds a time rife with extreme poverty, war and plague. A period with perhaps very few redeeming features. Put aside the Medieval period as occasionally represented by Hollywood, this period of musical history lasting for around 900 years, was rich with invention, discovery and creative insight. In our programme today, Phil and I take a brief look at…

[nickged]

[jolieeason]

Bookish Travels---October 2024 Destinations

I saw this meme on It’s All About Books and decided to do it once a month. Many thanks to Yvonne for initially posting this!! This post is what it says: Places I travel to in books each month. Books take you to places you would never get to. Please let me know if you have read these books or traveled to these areas. Countries I visited the most: United States, Sri Lanka, India States I…

[chicinsilk]

Ligne "Libre"

"Vaudeville"

Christian Dior Haute Couture Collection Spring/Summer 1957. Backstage. Denyse wears "Vaudeville" afternoon dress. Embroidery, Saint Gall lace.

Christian Dior Collection Haute Couture Printemps/Été 1957. Backstage. Denyse porte "Vaudeville" robe d'après-midi. Broderies, dentelle Saint-Gall.

Photo Loomis Dean

[dlyarchitecture]

[ezekieltobiasfletcher]

This is making me a little weak in the knees. ❤️‍🔥

The knowledge that I'll never live long enough to read all the books I wish to saddens me, and yet it doesn't stop me from trying.

... endless amount of knowledge ...

The Abbey Library of Saint Gall, St. Gallen, Switzerland