Browse Items (44 total)

The spiral horn from the narwhal was sometimes mistaken in the Middle Ages and Renaissance for a more fantastic object, a unicorn horn. Spenser’s New English contemporary on the Munster plantation, Sir William Herbert, lists a ’unicorn horn’ in the…

This portrait is an imaginary rendering of Elizabeth Boyle, Spenser’s second wife, and fellow occupant of Kilcolman Castle. It is a Photoshopped composite of other portraits of the period. There are no extant portraits of Boyle, although her headless…

This oil portrait is copied from a painting currently owned by the Elizabethan Gardens, Manteo, North Carolina. It is a variant of the famous Ditchley portrait and was probably painted in the 1590s by the studio of Marcus Gheeraerts the…

This oil portrait is copied from one currently hanging in the Wilson Library of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. It is thought to have been painted in the 1590s. There is no evidence that Spenser owned such a portrait. He did, however,…

This portrait of a middle-aged man is modeled loosely on that painted by Benjamin Wilson in 1770, long after Spenser’s death, which was based on an engraving made in 1727 by George Vertue of a supposed portrait of Edmund Spenser in the collection of…

Archaeological remains from Spenser’s privy indicate an ample and healthy diet enjoyed by his household, including various game and high-quality wheat. Moss could have served for wiping. Waste would have fallen down a two-story chute, exiting out…

Remains of this south-facing, ogee-headed window still exist in the wall of the tower house. For a contemporary picture from the castle exterior. The view from the window would be of the marsh adjacent to the castle. The window is dubbed “Raleigh’s…

The sheela-na-gig is a “female exhibitionist figure” carved in stone and found most often in the walls of medieval Irish and British buildings, usually castles or churches. Over one hundred are known to exist in Ireland, roughly twice the number as…

Spenser’s second wife, Elizabeth Boyle, would likely have lived at Kilcolman with him from the time they married, on June 11, 1594 (the date identified in his wedding poem, “Epithalamion”). If so, she would have managed many aspects of the household…

Many well-to-do Elizabethans, like other Europeans, would have had tapestries on their walls, both for decoration and for the purpose of keeping their rooms warm. Many tapestries were woven in France and the Netherlands. We do not know the true…