Back to Todas las Almas for lunch

A new Early Medieval Europe virtual issue on Travel and Mobility in the Early Middle Ages, featuring five brilliant articles published over the past 20 years by Andy Merrills, Paul Dutton, Frank Riess, Ben Allport and Rebecca Thomas: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...

At Early Medieval Europe we’re thrilled to team up once again with the BSR to sponsor a fellowship! One doctoral student or ECR will have the chance to carry out a month of research in Rome. More info below

Dame Janet L. Nelson (28 March 1942 – 14 October 2024) by Alice Rio (All Souls College, University of Oxford) doi.org/10.1093/past...

Excited and very grateful to be starting as a Visiting Fellow at ‪@clarehallcambridge.bsky.social ‬today! The photo (from the college website) makes the UL look far off in the distance, but in reality it’s just a short walk away… so really no excuse not to get the work done...

Reposting for the early morning crowd: a three-year postdoc opportunity to work on early medieval correspondence

The @oxembi.bsky.social is hosting a special lecture, Long Distance Travel from Early Medieval Britain by Prof @francescatinti.bsky.social & a workshop on Global Britain with Jörg Drauschke, Maria Duggan, @caitlinrgreen.bsky.social, @jk-viking.bsky.social & others. 14 & 15 October. All welcome.

Very excited about this new project on early medieval correspondence starting in January 2026

Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social has gone through EME’s back catalogue to create this timely virtual special issue on tariffs and tolls in early medieval Europe gathering five contributions originally published between 1992 and 2025. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...

A rather unexpected turn of events for Peter's Pence, a tribute that originated from the voluntary donations made to the papacy from AS England: the election of an American pope might render it taxable by the US government- www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2025...

I had some time to kill while in Madrid and entered the Lázaro Galdiano museum expecting to find El Greco and Goya as its major attractions but it seems that this private collector did not disdain some Visigothic bling either

End of the day conference excursion and aperitif

Clemens has just shown us a recent “photograph” of Anastasius bibliothecarius

And Clemens Gantner is now about to start his talk which promises to be very interesting

And we now move on to @ecroberts.bsky.social

About to start our second day at the Estella conference on Languages and Identities in the Early Middle Ages. Herewith Ramon Martí introducing the brilliant Magali Coumert

Another early medieval winner at Kalamazoo! Congratulations to Graham Barrett for winning La Coronica book award for his recent monograph

Maya Maskarinec has discussed, among other things, documents on stone, like this one inscribed on the floor in front of the altar and on a column of the church of Sant’Antimo in Tuscany

Our third and last session has featured great papers by Marios Costambeys, Patrick Morgan, Elena Shadrina and our editorial board member Maya Maskarinec

The last paper in this session takes us to early medieval Rome; it is by Eric Ware and discusses Pope Zachary’s triclinium and its mappa mundi

Second paper in this session is by Tom Schweigert and is titled “Pope Pelagius I, Bishop Euphrasius of Parentium, and the Three Chapters Schism (or not?)”

And we are now on to session 2 with a first paper by Deanna Forsman on Sidonius Apollinaris’s Letters

The final paper in this rich session is by Lauren Farnsworth on liminal spaces in early medieval English poetry

And we have now moved on to Genevra Kornbluth who is speaking about Roman bound pendants in early medieval graves

The second paper is by Hope Willard and focuses on exchanges of textiles in Merovingian hagiography

The first session sponsored by Early Medieval Europe at Kalamazoo starts off with a paper by May Peterson on this intriguing image contained in BnF Lat 4787, a Carolingian collection of law codes

Bob Berkhofer announcing the winner of the 2025 Otto Gründler Book Prize: Rory Naismith. Congratulations @rorynaismith.bsky.social !!

Apparently someone at this coffee shop chain thought this was a good marketing idea

The best part of our day trip to Favignana was undoubtedly the blue of the sea but the old Florio fishery now turned into a museum was also pretty good. This is where, allegedly, canned tuna was invented.

A day between Trapani and Erice

Wishful thinking in Trapani cathedral?

La costa agrigentina nei pressi della Scala dei Turchi

Nel tempio della Concordia si possono ancora vedere all’interno i resti della chiesa di fine secolo VI dedicata ai SS Pietro e Paolo. A quanto pare, la presenza della chiesa sarebbe il motivo del miglior stato di conservazione del tempio - Valle dei templi, Agrigento

Overwhelmed by the beauty and incredible state of preservation of the mosaics in the Roman villa at Piazza Armerina in Sicily

Una delle scalinate dipinte di Noto

Annibale Carracci, Tre Marie al Sepolcro

Currently thinking about expanding the section of my Kalamazoo lecture about English merchants pretending to be pilgrims in order to avoid tolls (tariffs?) while travelling through Carolingian territories

The organizers of the Estella international conference on 'Languages and Identities in Early Medieval Western Europe' have opened a call for doctoral students and ECRs interested in presenting their research at this event. Grants are also offered #medievalsky www.siem-estella.es/es/comunicac...

Very excited about this international conference on Languages and Identities in Early Medieval Western Europe. It will take place in the lovely town of Estella, Navarre on 15-18 July. More info and programme at www.siem-estella.es/es/inicio

I enjoyed the Silk Roads exhibition very much. This explanation accompanying the Anglo-Saxon MS on display was a bit surprising though…

I have had this 1982 edition of Paul the Deacon’s Historia Langobardorum for decades and have only just noticed this rather revealing take on it printed on the back: the Lombards, who had distant Nordic origins, conquered Italy and their history became ‘confused’ with ‘ours’ - una perla, veramente!

I will be in London in a couple of weeks with time for one only exhibition: Silk Road at BM or Medieval Women at BL?

A reminder about the EME/BSR fellowship: a month's stay in Rome for someone doing/recently finished a PhD on early medieval European history. Deadline 31st January. bsr.ac.uk/second-bsr-e...

The difference 24 hours can make. An empty Rialto Bridge at midnight on 1 January

This sounds like something we’ll have to read… not today though www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The last light of 2024 is special. Happy New Year!

We left San Sebastián - we found San Sebastian

Merry Christmas from atypically sunny and semi empty Santiago de Compostela!