Currently being treated to a tour of the early medieval church of San Saba led by Giulia Bordi

To my recent collection of photos of palettes I can now add this one reconstructed by Valery Tovazzi and comprising colours used in early medieval frescoes in Rome

Luca Villa has taken us beyond Rome discussing the use of lapislazzuli in the frescos of several Carolingian churches in Raetia

A new reconstruction of St Mary’s oratory built by John VII at St Peter’s. Presented by Antonella Ballardini in her fascinating paper. Drawn by Luigi De Angelis

Antonio Felle shows two inscriptions from 3rd-cent. catacomb. Latin was used for daughter and Greek for her mother. Language choice interpreted as related to Greek as main language of Scripture at this time rather than geographical origin. Learning a lot at conference on Rome and the Others

An exciting new postdoctoral position focusing on Old English epistolary materials

A GIS visualization of foreigners in Rome between AD 300 and 1000 as shown at conference “Rome and the Others”

Looking forward to giving a paper next week in Rome with the archaeologists who excavated parts of the Schola Saxonum, just opposite the church built over Sancta Maria scola Anglorum, as Archbishop Sigeric called it. Lots of interesting 10th-cent evidence attesting to life in the English quarter

@writinghelena.bsky.social - have you seen this? www.finestresullarte.info/archeologia/... I have very fond memories of the visit to this site you led several years ago

Thoroughly enjoyed the Munch Museum in Oslo; they have got so much, including numerous pieces of furniture and objects belonging to the artist, such as his palette

Oh and all this bling from the Carolingian Empire was found in the Hon hoard, the largest gold hoard from the Viking Age

The serpent head of the Oseberg Viking ship, carved in 820, and shown for the first time to the public in the Oslo Historical Museum

Runes and travel! A very apt discovery at the Oslo historical museum ahead of my paper on long-distance travel this afternoon. The runes on this stone (11th or 12th cent) were probably carved by a man ‘son of Svein’ to boast about his journeys

The Leper Chapel, Cambridge, 12th century

It seems that the shelf underneath the current section on Charlemagne in the Cambridge University Library has been prudently left empty for likely future expansion

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