Ivan Rezansky's SCA Adventures

The Blacksmithing Arts of Novgorod the Great

The archeological excavation of the Nerevsky End neighborhood in Novgorod in the 1950s revealed a massive amount of material about…

Forging a Medieval English Pen Knife

Introduction Today I am displaying a pen knife, intended to be used in scribal arts for cutting quills from goose…

Decoding References to Items from Novgorod Archeological Digs

Novgorod the Great was founded around 860, and by the 14th century had grown to be one of the largest…

Depictions of the Russian Royal Family in 11th-century Miniatures (Part II)

I am currently reading and translating Kondakov’s book about the Gertrude Codex and its set of Orthodox illuminations, a couple…

Depictions of the Russian Royal Family in 11th-century Miniatures (Part I)

I am currently reading and translating a book written in 1906 about a fascinating piece of history, the so-called Egbert…

11th-century Russian-style Crossbow Quiver

Introduction Today I am displaying an 11th-century Russian-style quiver for crossbow bolts. The piece was constructed using woodworking, leather carving,…

The Revealing World of Medieval Kievan Rus’ Applied Art

I recently finished reading a chapter from “The History of Russian Art” on the applied arts in Kiev and the…

The Fascinating Splendor of Medieval Kievan Architecture

The 10th century rise of Kiev as a centralized power in Rus’, the official state acceptance of Christianity in 988,…

Deciphering Medieval Cyrillic for Russian SCA Calligraphy

I often get asked how to find medieval versions of Cyrillic letters to map to modern Russian texts for the…

Forces Contributing to the Development of Kievan Rus’ Artwork

I was getting ready to read several chapters from the 1953 History of Russian Art, vol. 1, related to Kievan…