The HiPS Team took part in the British Bible Society conference The Future of Research in Bible Society Collections at CRASSH, Cambridge - sharing findings, methodologies, and collaborations with 2024/25 Munby Fellows, Josh Fitzgerald and Harry Spillane.

X-raying the Great Bible: Science and History in the Study of Henry VIII’s and Cromwell’s Books 📍 The National Library of Wales, Ceredigion, SY23 3BU 📅 Thursday, 28 August 2025 1 PM Join Professor Eyal Poleg for a rare and fascinating look at two of the Tudor Court’s most important artefacts.

📖 For the first time in 500 years, Henry VIII & Cromwell’s copies of the Great Bible are displayed side by side. Join Prof. Eyal Poleg (@HiPS) on Wed 27 Aug 2025 @ National Library of Wales for a lecture on this monumental book. 🎟 ticketsource.co.uk/llgcnlw/e-pbooez #Reformation

Hidden in Plain Sight @ #IMCLeeds2025! You’re invited to join us for a 🥂 Reception on 8 July at 18:30 in University House (St George Room), right after the ⚗️ Scratching the Surface session at 16:30 in the Brotherton Gallery (Sheppard Room). Looking forward to seeing you there!

🕵️‍♀️ Hidden in Plain Sight @ #IMCLeeds2025! Discover how cutting-edge tech reveals secrets of medieval manuscripts in 2 free events in Brotherton Gallery (Sheppard Room): ⚗️ 8 July, 16:30 – Scratching the Surface 🔬 9 July, 16:30 – Below the Surface projects.history.qmul.ac.uk/inplainsight...

A write up of our wonderful 'Great Bible Exhibition' and the scientific analysis carried out on the two stunning presentation copies for Henry VIII and Cromwell @hips-project.bsky.social @theul.bsky.social @qmul.bsky.social and National Library of Wales Such a joy to spend time with these books!

On May 21, 2025, we hosted a workshop on Erasures in Medieval Manuscripts, exploring the material and historical dimensions of manuscript alterations. Experts from conservation, history & heritage science discussed intentional vs. accidental erasures, and how new tools help uncover hidden traces.

#exciting last couple of days of #CH #science and #photography workshops at Royal Heritage Museum in Trongsa with @hips-project.bsky.social @theul.bsky.social @qmul.ac.uk Hands on sessions with lots of positive attitude and curiosity.

Oh wow, this hits me hard, as I have to be away from my kids half of very work week. Children are often silent in early sources. Child's hand: "mon cher papa vené" (Dear papa, come [home].) Adult hand: "cest de la petite main de notre enfans" (This is in the little hand of our child.)

Last few days were extremely humbling and challenging. We were delivering workshops on heritage photography and science to audiences of different professionals from Bhutan Museums and National Library. What unites us all is true passion for heritage. @theul.bsky.social @hips-project.bsky.social

Team members from Hidden in Plain Sight do heritage science in Bhutan 🇧🇹, with support from @qmulhss.bsky.social & @theul.bsky.social. Hosted by Bhutan's Museum Division, we're assisting museums & departments in integrating new tech for conservation and analysis, leaving equipment with our partners.

After the last challenge was met with empathy, we turned to another inscription from a 14th c. devotional codex, B.10.15, Preces. Vita Christi Versifice, in the Wren Library. At the bottom of the final image in a sequence of 58 (some smudged), an inscription is added. Can you help transliterate it?

Preparing for our 2.5-week visit to Bhutan, Dr. Ayesha Fuentes hosted a workshop at the Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology Cambridge, with cultural heritage colleagues from Tibetan & Himalayan communities to explore new ways of writing material histories shaped by diverse identities and values

🚨 We're Hiring! 🚨 We're looking for a Research Project Coordinator to join our team! 📊 Interested? Apply here: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DLT885/r... Feel free to share and spread the word! #JobOpening #Hiring #ResearchJobs

Who's up for a challenge? Some 16th-century Middle English handwriting is proving quite difficult to decipher, as part of our historical context study of CUL MS Dd.15.25, a 15th-century Horae. Any help or insights would be greatly appreciated! #Paleography #BookofHours #MiddleEnglish

This is wonderful news, as the Leiden MSS were pretty inaccessible. Among them are these beautiful copies of Gregory of Tours Historia Francorum (VLO 86) and of Pliny (VLF 61), both dating to the early ninth century.

This week, CHIL at CUL kicked off our series on optical techniques for studying erasures in premodern Western religious manuscripts! First up: MS CUL Dd.15.25, a 15th-c. Flemish Book of Hours, made for the English market features various erasures. #ManuscriptStudies #Erasures #HeritageScience

Commonly used for eye examinations and imaging teeth, Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) can also be used to examine heritage objects. David Mills from @qmul.ac.uk Dentistry Lab paid us a visit to analyse some of the sacred books in the @hips-project.bsky.social project (HiPS)

HiPS team took a day trip to the Science departments @nhm-london.bsky.social and V&A London! Highlights included 3D scanning a meteorite and Kinder Egg, and an extreme close-up of Marie Antoinette’s earrings from her Dauphine days. Huge thanks to Lucia Burgio and Paola Ricciardi for hosting us!"

A medieval Post-it note (well, actually a Sew-it note!) A piece of 13th century parchment with some additional info sewn onto a margin of an 11th century Martyrology. BnF Latin 9085

Flying visit to @[email protected] and some exquisite mineral pigment specimens with @hips-project.bsky.social @suzpaul.bsky.social @mmpawlikowski.bsky.social

Also a good time to recall that the Newberry offers a variety of short-term fellowships for research in many different areas, and the application deadline is coming up on January 3rd: www.newberry.org/research/fel... #earlymodern #envhist #histsci

Squished (sixteenth-century?) spider in a vast 11-volume edition of the works of St Augustine (Basel, 1506) @theulspeccoll.bsky.social (Peterborough.A.6.1-6). #spider #marginalia #saints #christianity #rarebooks #augustine #collecting #basel

An excellent piece of scholarship on #Jewish intellectual history, this is Nadia Vidro's contribution to our Cairo #Genizah anniversary volume (it's free! doi.org/10.1163/9789...). She proves that 2 disputed texts by the famed #medieval rabbi, Saadya Gaon, are, in fact, the same book. #skystorians

Hidden in Plain Sight is a collaboration between @qmul.ac.uk , @QMUL_HSS, @theul.bsky.social, @MAACambridge, @NLWales, and other leading libraries. We’re using cutting-edge technology at Cambridge University Library to reveal the hidden stories of premodern religious books.

🕵️‍♂️ @theul.bsky.social MS Add.662, a 15th-century Ashkenazi Mahzor, has many Piyutim obscured by ink. However, one gloss In the shape of the seal of Solomon is partially visible only after our MSI and XRF analyses. Can anyone help decipher the text beneath? #HebrewManuscripts #MSI #marginalia

A unique case of #marginalia: the Spanish #Inquisition 's censorship of Pope Joan’s life and image in two copies of Boccaccio's Mulieribus Claris and Schedel's Liber Chronicarum (CDMX, Biblioteca Nacional de México). . #MagnificentMarginalia #MaMa #womenvoice #bookhistory #rarebooks #censorship

David Mills [@qmul.ac.uk] visited the Cultural Heritage Imaging Lab @theul.bsky.social for an OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) session. We’re investigating the unique black material used to conceal several hymns in a 15th-century Jewish liturgical codex, CUL Add.662. #HebrewManuscripts

Kicking off a new phase in the project! we’ll explore MSS from various libraries, focusing on different types of erasures. Featured MSS: @theul.bsky.social Add.15.25, @FitzMuseum_UK MS 3-1967, Leeds MS 15, @trincolllibcam.bsky.social MS B.10.15, @parkerlibcccc.bsky.social MS 394.

Meet the team! Over the next few weeks, we’ll introduce our brilliant members from @theUL, @QMUL, @NHM_London, @FitzMuseum_UK, and @MAACambridge, all united for @HiPS_Project. We were pictured here with our esteemed Advisory Board at the annual meeting. Stay tuned!

Hidden in Plain Sight is a collaboration between @QMUL, @QMUL_HSS, @theUL, @MAACambridge, @NLWales, and other leading libraries. We’re using cutting-edge technology at Cambridge University Library to reveal the hidden stories of ancient books.