Word: speculum
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Several months later, Marston ordered two manuscripts from a London dealer, one of which was a modestly priced portion of the Speculum Historiale (Mirror of History) compiled by Vincent of Beauvais, the famed encyclopedist of the Middle Ages. When the Speculum manuscript arrived, it was in such an attractive 15th century binding that Dealer Witten asked to examine it. That night Witten telephoned Marston in great excitement. The Speculum manuscript was the key to the puzzle of the Vinland map and the text of the Carpini mission, which was later to be called "the Tartar Relation." The manuscript was written...
...good move. If not, it was a needless loss of one of the most profitable cash crops in history. Salable slaves were continually trying to starve themselves to death too. But for this at least, civilized man's ingenuity had a remedy-a caliperlike instrument called a speculum oris (i.e., mouth opener). Its pointed shaft was hammered between the teeth of the recalcitrant black, then its wings spread to pull open...