And so we all trooped round for this long anticipated field trip to the Archives. I was fairly looking forward to the visit -although perhaps not the trek to get there.
I knew that we would be seeing some fairly old documents and be given a quick briefing on the Archives. However, it seemed to me slightly removed from our course subject -even with our section on research.
None the less I found myself completely fascinated at the presence of such a wealth of historic documentation. One document in particular I found to be quite mesmerising, that of the Papal correspondence. I'm not entirely sure I remembered exactly but I think it was from 1188 A.D. -the Twelfth century anyway.
On a completely non Film related note, I couldn't help my eyes from drifting back to that specific item. To think of the time and world that that letter was written was crazy. To think that a year prior to the Ink touching that letter's surface Saladin Recaptured Jerusalem from Christian hands -and almost 100 years of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem came to an end. Also, the fact that the letter was from the most powerful person in the Christian world -a major world player.
Ok, I may be self indulging in my very 'Un-Filmy' interests, but I was really amazed to see a document from one of my favourite periods of history. Incidentally, just to put the letter into a cinematic frame, it was written a year after Ridley Scott's 'Kingdom of Heaven' is set.
Perhaps I'm being a tad bit obsessive though. The other documents were also extremely fascinating. I particularly found the Luftwaffe reconnaissance picture of the Clyde interesting.
I would say, however, that I enjoyed the trip to the Archives on a far more historical level than that of a research one.
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