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Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes
Récits d’un bourgeois de Valenciennes aka The Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes is a vivid 14th-century vernacular chronicle written by an anonymous urban chronicler from Valenciennes in the County of Hainaut. It survives in a manuscript that describes local and regional history from about 1253 to 1366, blending chronology, narrative episodes, and eyewitness-style accounts of political, military, and social events in medieval France, Flanders, and the Low Countries. The work begins with a chronological framework of events affecting Valenciennes and its region under rulers such as King Philip VI of France and the shifting allegiances of local nobility. It includes accounts of conflicts, sieges, diplomatic manoeuvres, and the impact of broader struggles like the Hundred Years’ War on urban life in Hainaut. Written from the perspective of a burgher (bourgeois) rather than a monastery or royal court, the chronicle offers a rare lay viewpoint on high politics and warfare, reflecting how merchants, townspeople, and civic institutions experienced the turbulence of the 13th and 14th centuries. Its narrative style combines straightforward reporting of events with moral and civic observations, making it a valuable source for readers interested in medieval urban society, regional politics, and the lived experience of war and governance in pre-modern Europe.
Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback format.
Geometry is in Mathematics.
Circle. A circle is an ellipse with equal width and height; a = b.
The ellipse equation when a = b: x2/a2 + y2/a2 = 1 or simplified ( x2 + y2 ) / a2 = 1 or y = ( a2 - x2 )1/2.
A circle has an eccentricity of 0.
PI is the ratio of diameter and circumference of a circle. It is a Transcendental Number.
Plane Curve. A Plane Curve is defined by its eccentricity:
= 0 = Circle
> 0 and < 1 = Ellipse
= 1 = Parabola
> 1 = Hyperbola
Eccentricity is the relationship between the height and width of an ellipse ie if a is the width, and b is the height the eccentricity = ( 1 - a2 / b2 )½
If a = b, which is the case for a Circle, the eccentricity is 0.
If a / b, or b / a is less than 1 then it is an Ellipse.
Ellipse. An ellipse is a plane curve surrounding two focal points, such that for all points on the curve, the sum of the two distances to the focal points is a constant.
The equation for a standard ellipse with width 2a and height 2b is ( x2 / a2 ) + ( y2 / b2 ) = 1.
An ellipse has an eccentricity of > 0 and < 1.
Ellipse. An ellipse is a plane curve surrounding two focal points, such that for all points on the curve, the sum of the two distances to the focal points is a constant.
The equation for a standard ellipse with width 2a and height 2b is ( x2 / a2 ) + ( y2 / b2 ) = 1.
An ellipse has an eccentricity of > 0 and < 1.
Jean de Waurin's Chronicle of England Volume 6 Books 3-6: The Wars of the Roses
Jean de Waurin was a French Chronicler, from the Artois region, who was born around 1400, and died around 1474. Waurin’s Chronicle of England, Volume 6, covering the period 1450 to 1471, from which we have selected and translated Chapters relating to the Wars of the Roses, provides a vivid, original, contemporary description of key events some of which he witnessed first-hand, some of which he was told by the key people involved with whom Waurin had a personal relationship.
Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback format.
Plane Curve. A Plane Curve is defined by its eccentricity:
= 0 = Circle
> 0 and < 1 = Ellipse
= 1 = Parabola
> 1 = Hyperbola
Eccentricity is the relationship between the height and width of an ellipse ie if a is the width, and b is the height the eccentricity = ( 1 - a2 / b2 )½
If a = b, which is the case for a Circle, the eccentricity is 0.
If a / b, or b / a is less than 1 then it is an Ellipse.
Frustrum. The portion of a solid (normally a pyramid or a cone) that lies between two parallel planes cutting the solid ie a pyramind with its top cut off, or a Rolo.
Archaeologia Volume 2 Section XXXV. From this hill I made a hasty sketch of the great barrow at New Grange and its environs1. The lanes about it are planted with rows of trees. And the country forms an ornamented landscape, uncommon in Ireland. The pyramid, if I may so call it, built on a rising ground, and heaving its bulky mass, over the tops of the trees, and above the face of the country, with dimensions of a scale greater than he objects which surround it, appears, though now but a ruinous frustum: of what it once was, a superb and eminently magnificent monument.
Note 1. See Plate XIX.
Plane Curve. A Plane Curve is defined by its eccentricity:
= 0 = Circle
> 0 and < 1 = Ellipse
= 1 = Parabola
> 1 = Hyperbola