Moments before St Valentine was martyred on February 14th, 269 CE, he wrote a note to Asterius's daughter signed "from your Valentine", which may have inspired modern treacly Hallmark missives. During the Medieval era, a folk belief held that birds selected mates in February, as described in Chaucer’s Valentine poem, “The Parliament of Fowles”. In 1667, English diarist Samuel Pepys described a handmade valentine card to his wife from “Little Will Mercer” who “brought her name writ upon blue paper in gold letters, done by himself, very pretty—and we were both well pleased with it”. Pepys then unromantically notes, “But I am also my wife’s Valentine and it will cost me ₤5”. What we’d recognize as greeting cards appeared in the 1700s to mark the day and, by the late 19th Century, they were mass-produced. St Valentine himself was a big multitasker, as the following illustrates.
© 2024 John Oliver
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