NEW BLOG FOR YOU Google's energy consumption numbers in their new climate report are mind-blowing. 2 years ago they flipped from linear to exponential growth, and their climate impact is blowing out, too. A WILD testament to the obscene bloat and waste of GenAI: ketanjoshi.co/2026/07/01/g...

Hopefully exciting news for anyone interested in medieval religious communities in general and in Devon in particular. Paging @lsangha.bsky.social, @westgarthdes.bsky.social, @graffitiginger.bsky.social, @balhnews.bsky.social. #Skystorians

Struggling to parse this. Exeter is celebrating its overall global ranking to 136th, comprised (it reports) of 151st (Natural Sciences), 131st (Life Sciences & Medicine) and 76th (Arts & Humanities) while announcing plans to make 25% of Arts & Humanities staff redundant. Does this compute?

📣 People are understandably up in the arms about this (it is horrible). But just want to wave a hand out there 👋 as we're going through the same thing in Humanities at Northumbria (1 out of 5 staff need to go by end of July). 1/?

Many are following this. Those at risk here on Exeter's Cornwall campus include myself and colleagues in Geography, Environmental Science, Marine Science, Renewable Energy, and Environmental Maths, Humanities, and 1/2 the Environment and Sustainability Institute. I really hope this can be resolved.

Exeter Green Party stands in solidarity with the Exeter University and College Union in condemning the University of Exeter’s announcement of sweeping job cuts. These plans will recklessly imperil the University’s vital contributions to the social, cultural, and economic life of the city. 1/4

One hour in to trying to change my train tickets on Trainline (to the exact same journey, just on different dates) without having made ANY progress, and deeply regretting using them for 'convenience'

Great new article by Lizzy Williamson on how the digital provenance of our databases and resources can unlock & contextualize data ethics to inform our use of them academic.oup.com/dsh/advance-...

My book now has a cover and it is all starting to feel very real. I just need to finish the proofs... 🗃️ #BookHistory #EarlyModern brill.com/display/titl...

Trying to design a conference slide showing the movement of bibliographic information in and around the early Bodleian, and feel like I should just insert that meme instead for the same effect.

A week of CEMS events... including PGR lightning talks, our first article workshop, a book launch, and our annual CEMS Colloquium. Full details in the thread below! Join us if you can! kingsearlymodern.co.uk/events

Excited to learn that not one but FOUR of the books gifted to the Totnes town library in the 1620s and 30s, which I thought missing, have recently been unearthed. One was a gift of townswoman Elizabeth Wise, described here (please excuse blurry photo from the olden, pre-decent-phone-camera days)

Fascinated by the placement of signature marks in this 1512 music publication. Surely so unhelpful for the binder, but I love how it pulls them into the text. 'Aus sonderer kunstlicher Art' (Augsburg: Öglin, 1512), Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, altus part, viewer.onb.ac.at/10044E73

I have written to the Prime Minister and Bridget Phillipson, calling for the cruel and confusing EHRC Code of Practice to be rejected. Legislative action must be taken to create an equalities framework that protects trans people’s safety, dignity and humanity.

Back in December 2025 we shared a tour of exhibition 'A body of knowledge' & host two talks on recent research into how we investigate the history of libraries with doctoral researcher Samantha Brown & Dr Alice Wickenden. Watch back history.rcp.ac.uk/blog/investi... @rcphysicians.bsky.social

Some consolation for having to regularly take the slow train to/from London: seeing hares is now a thing that happens in my life

An unusual request in the name of archaeological science: Would anyone happen to have a Shetland or Exmoor pony that wouldn’t mind sending some fur samples to me? We’re trying to compare a potentially preserved fur specimen but there’s (perhaps unsurprisingly) few sources on fur fibre diameters!

Annual @cemskcl.bsky.social Colloquium: "Periodizing the Early/Modern", 11 June 2026, King's College London rensoc.org.uk/announcement... #EarlyModern #EarlyModernEvents #IsItEarlyModernThough

A promotional post for cebeme.manchester.ac.uk/en, a platform for searching and visualising data across PLRE, Renaissance Cultural Crossroads, Plantin sales and provincial booksellers' inventories, c. 1500–1640. So, ownership, sales, and translations of books in #earlyModern England. #bookHistory

Relatedly, does anyone need any teaching or research done, around London or remotely? I'm really good at both those things, my contract finishes at the end of June, I will take any scraps the current HE hellscape leaves.

A promotional post for cebeme.manchester.ac.uk/en, a platform for searching and visualising data across PLRE, Renaissance Cultural Crossroads, Plantin sales and provincial booksellers' inventories, c. 1500–1640. So, ownership, sales, and translations of books in #earlyModern England. #bookHistory

Very few sign-ups for the in-person document sessions on 16 and 17 June. Please circulate with PhD students etc who use legal records in their research (or I won't be able to run the sessions this year). I can promise witchcraft, treason, and all that good stuff (if it runs). Details via the thread.

And here it is! Come to Liverpool in July next year. We have a fantastic [insert appropriate collective noun here] of keynotes: @bkadams.bsky.social, @dnmcinnis.bsky.social, @lucycmunro.bsky.social, Perry Mills & Deborah Payne!

For UK student loans, if you finished the tax year below the annual repayment threshold, it turns out the process for requesting a refund on any monthly payments you made is unexpectedly easy — just in case anyone else has, like me, been putting it off. (You don't even need your P60!)

GET EXCITED! Our biennial conference is happening in THAT LONDON in 2027! It's our 💎 Diamond 💎 Jubilee, so get ready for a party. The #Renaissance Beyond Borders Warburg, 30 June-3 July 2027 Deadline for proposals: 25 September 2026 all info: rensoc.org.uk/cfp/12th-bie... #EarlyModern #SkyStorians

Early May is a lovely time to admire early medieval ruins/apparently I have to go back to work now?

This delightful map of Dartmoor (showing Ashburton to Buckland-in-the-Moor, featuring Ausewell Rocks) was part of an Exchequer case in 1605, for settling the bounds of Ashburton manor: discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C3... [MPB 1/7]

Can someone please tell the SUV drivers that pedestrians crossing side roads have right of way and that, even if that wasn’t the case, you shouldn’t mow them down anyway?

Closing today - please repost!

Look I know I wasn’t meant to be taking more pictures of flowers but look at these beautiful bluebells! and this lovely apple blossom! (It’s Bradninch Black, from the Devon heritage apple orchard at Rosemoor)

Our MA Early Modern Studies trains you in palaeography, book history & archival research skills, plus options in information & literary studies, history & language. Join us for a taster lecture, learn more about the course & ask questions 📅1 May 2-3:30pm BST online app.geckoform.com/events-embed...

Would love a boost for this post to get it to those interested in Arabic manuscripts please and thank you. #Skystorians #MedievalSky @soasuni.bsky.social @soaslibrary.bsky.social @soas-speccoll.bsky.social @soashistory.bsky.social @britishlibrary.bsky.social

Buried 30 paragraphs into this abysmal BBC piece blaming renewables for the high cost of UK electricity is the actual reason it's so expensive, which is fossil gas. But Justin Rowlatt seems uninterested in this detail.

Frantically deleting photos from my phone after a camera-happy day in the British Library yesterday and the themes seem to be: plants in my garden, plants in the allotment, other people's babies, plant babies, old books, plants seen out and about.

Not all books are destined to be best sellers, but this one, my first, means a lot to me. And it has a birthday this month! www.kgbaston.co.uk/2026/04/10/h... ✒️📖

I'm a data scientist @ourworldindata.org and I need help from a botanist or someone local to Kyoto, Japan! 🌸 We present one of the world’s longest climate records: 1,200 years of peak cherry blossom dates in Kyoto. The researcher who maintained it, Prof. Yasuyuki Aono, sadly passed away last year.

Attention #earlyModern #bookHistory and #earlyMusic types! You have to the end of the week to register for the @dormeme16.bsky.social conference Marking Music: The Use of Music Books in Early Modern Europe, at KCL. Registration and the brilliant programme are at www.tickettailor.com/events/aheve...

Just out in 17th Century - my new article on Leonard Wheatcroft, the bard of Ashover, ”Poetry and the Politics of the Parish”. Featuring weathercocks, a non-elite manuscript miscellany, and lots of bellringing! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

📢 Great news for South West writers... Applications are now open for our 2026 Ronald Duncan Stipends! 🎉 If exploring archives sparks ideas for your writing, this might be the opportunity for you 📖 ✍️ For more info and to apply, please visit our LibGuide ⬇️ #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #Archives

Discover the fascinating world of Renaissance botany on 7 May at 6pm with John Gerard’s magnificent 'Herball' or 'Generall Historie of Plantes' 🪴 This is a small group workshop; booking is essential: exeter-cathedral.org.uk/whats-on/events/in-the-library-with-herball/

Attention #earlyModern #bookHistory and #earlyMusic types! You have to the end of the week to register for the @dormeme16.bsky.social conference Marking Music: The Use of Music Books in Early Modern Europe, at KCL. Registration and the brilliant programme are at www.tickettailor.com/events/aheve...

Step into the world of Shakespeare at the Cathedral Library and Archives! 🪶📜 Come & celebrate the South West Shakespeare Festival 2026 at our pop-up display of Shakespeare and the brilliant writers & thinkers who shaped his age. 📆 24 April, 10am-2pm 🎟 Free tickets: bit.ly/shakespeare-fest-exeter

#CfP 📢 "Evident Tongues, Evident Bodies", eds. Mary Katherine Newman and Rana Banna Seeking chapter proposals on how language and the senses shaped evidence in the #earlymodern world (c.1492–1700). ⏰ Deadline for abstracts: 12 April 2026 🔗 www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of... #HistoryOfKnowledge

I'm looking for suggestions of museum/heritage education consultants for a small project, ideally south-west based. Any ideas or recommendations greatly received!

Gloomy here today, but on Saturday it was glorious (when it wasn’t hailing)

I’m leading this London Rare Book School course on the history of collecting. Ideal for anyone interested in studying the history of libraries and how and why books have survived. We’ll be looking at why special collections are special. 22-26 June. #bookHistory👇📚📖 ies.sas.ac.uk/study-traini...

⚠️Register before 12 April ⚠️ Marking Music: the Use of Music Books in Early Modern Europe 11–12 May 2026 @cemskcl.bsky.social & online For scholars of music, book history & related to explore how people engaged with books containing music in early modern period. www.tickettailor.com/events/aheve...

Long in the making….here’s my new article about second-hand books and the Bodleian www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/...

The jump scare of googling things close to your research and then having your own thesis pop up in the results