Today we've launched our digitised Probate Registers and Bishops' Transcripts collections onto Ancestry. Together that's 16 million records covering 1389-1858 - these can be accessed via a subscription to Ancestry or for free here at the Borthwick! www.ancestry.co.uk/search/colle...

Look at how pretty this manuscript damage is. Any cross disciplinary scholars want to explain why iron gall ink would repel (water? who knows) in this way? A chemistry friend of a friend provided the structural formula. #earlymodern #skystorians #histsci

We have a tenure-stream job opening at the University of Prince Edward Island! Please pass this on to anyone with a specialization in Canadian Literature. #Canadianliterature www.upei.ca/hr/competiti...

BREAKING: The Department of Education has ended its directive that attempted to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in schools nationwide. This is a victory for academic freedom and education equity.

🚨 Funding Alert! 🚨 Are you passionate about book history, bibliography, or book arts? Submit your proposal today for financial support for upcoming events in your community! 📖✨ 📅 Deadline: 1 April (7 weeks away!) Learn more & apply today 👉 bibsocamer.org/events/funding-opportunities

A highlight: Cressida has been traded to the Greeks, who literally pass her around to each covetously kiss her. Her fear & the danger of her position, then her defiant turn to rhetoric as protection, came through strongly with great acting from all. Visceral. Thank you @shakesbashd.bsky.social!

For those looking for freelance work in the wake of WaPo layoffs: I'm an editor at large overseeing Ideas & Culture at Bloomberg, including our Books coverage. Find me at [email protected]

I'm going to a production of "Troilus and Cressida" tonight! I've read this one (long ago) but never seen it. Tempted to make a list of less-performed Shax plays I've been lucky enough to attend.

A staggering statement from former Washington Post editor Marty Baron: "This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world's greatest news organizations."

Wondering if anyone knows about work on interactions btwn #earlymodern elites and the people--stewards, bailiffs, etc--who managed their estates and property. I'm curious about these relationships, which would have required conversation, some level of mutual trust, etc.

It is such a joy to be researching along and see a friend or colleague's work pop up in the database. What an honour to know someone both personally and professionally! You're all out here with such brilliant ideas!

Tlingit artist Nicholas Galanin, “Architecture of return, escape (The British Museum)”, a deerskin map a floor plan of the British Museum and possible escape routes for various Indigenous cultural belongings held there.

I always enjoy the Toronto Fringe, but "Iris (says goodbye)" truly deserves the title of Fringe magic -- a wonderfully dynamic musical, polished to a high shine. Not to be missed! #TheaTO #Theatre #Fringe #TorontoFringe

Hi folks! Would any early modern journal editors be interested in a review of the Kenneth Branaugh "King Lear" or the Kit Connor/Rachel Ziegler "Romeo and Juliet"? Two fascinating interpretations!

What a wonderful reading from Red Bull Theatre -- Barabas came to life as a sympathetic scapegoat before he descended into being a cartoonish villain, and that gave him a nice complexity.

I'm sitting in the one-night-only Red Bull Theater reading of #JewofMalta, wondering how many familiar faces from #SAA2025 I'm about to see!

What a joy to take part in the "Intimate Knowledges" #RenSA2025 roundtable and the "Personation" #SAA2025 seminar -- such rich conversations. Very grateful to the organizers and my fellow participants (& our auditors!) for their intellectual generosity

The #NextGenPlen was such a wonderful panel of speakers; four brilliant papers!

Friends, does anyone have access to Shakespeare Studies 52 and would be willing to send me a pdf of my article? They published my NextGenPlen paper on "personation" from two years ago and I'm keen to relive those glory days! #Shax2025 #RenSA2025 #RSA2025

Feeling absolutely run off my feet by #Shax2025 #RenSA2025, but in the best possible way. What an amazing set of papers and conversations!

Commonwealth Books is a dangerous place, #Shax2025 #RenSA2025!

Hi folks! I'm rejoining this app just in time for #Shax2025 #RenSA2025 🎭 Looking forward to seeing everyone!

Columbia Journalism Review tested eight generative AI search tools and found their answers were wrong 60% of the time, and the paid ones actually fared worse than the free ones. Meanwhile, millions of people trust the way they present total bullshit with confident language.

Friends! Who's coming to SAA and wants to get lunch/coffee/etc? 😎

Bees are coming out of winter hibernation all across the Northern hemisphere. Which ones are visiting YOUR backyard?

Like RIGHT NOW. Vice employees have received an anonymous tip that the whole site might be nuked today. From the same tweet, their email is locked.

Just saw someone on tumblr wryly note that pop sci has made dopamine, serotonin cortisol and adrenaline into the four humors. Ouch But not unfair

This brings me so much joy -- the Topsell is wonderful and the artistry of these animals is amazing

Stunning development in scholarly publishing. NYPL will be digitizing "entire out-of-print backlists" of multiple academic presses and making them available. The Scholarly Press Backlist Revival project shows a striking thoughtfulness in overcoming perceived and real IP and contractual barriers.

For all the Shakespeareans looking for a poem with which to begin their classes:

Thanks @kenlowery.bsky.social for a copy of the cool VOID 1680 AM, a solo RPG about hosting a radio station, played by making an actual playlist! It’s almost certainly going to make it onto my Fall syllabus! Here’s the playlist I created through play! open.spotify.com/playlist/39T...

Canadians please weigh in on behalf of writers and artists everywhere!

Over the holidays, a friend in another field asked me whether I thought "Coriolanus" or "Titus Andronicus" was more obscure. Of course, the questions abound -- obscure to whom, when? -- but I'm curious what you all think.

for folks outside Canada: this is a huge higher ed story Queen's is one of Canada's leading R1 universities and today boasts the fifth largest endowment amongst Canadian universities it's as if Penn suddenly announced it was on the brink of bankruptcy www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

Hey if you’re, say, an author who has a shit ton of recorded interview and video material online, you should warn your parents/partners/etc about this.

Hi Medievalsky! Arthuriana & Arthurian Literature are offering a FREE workshop on academic publishing Jan 29, 1pm Eastern. All welcome, especially grad students & ECRs. Please share widely. Zoom registration is required: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Come be my colleague at the Huntington! (Please share widely.) huntingtonlibrary.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Huntin...

Calling all those fascinated by palaeography or fans of @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social (so most of you on here). The next London Palaeography Seminar will be online only on 30th Jan, 5:30pm GMT when Sonja will be talking on colophons. Will be advertised soon but if you can't wait, email me for link.

as always, do this even if you haven’t run out yet and don’t think you need them, because high demand for free tests is one of the few tools we have to scream at the government about how many people still care about this

Hello early modern folks! Does anyone have a recommendation for scholarship on Peele's "Edward I"? I'm coming up surprisingly empty!

Beyond the transparent bigotry toward trans individuals, I’m thinking of all my Asian & Indigenous students who went by an Americanized name different from their registered name.

I had the great pleasure of seeing "Adrift" by Happenstance Theater last night, and it was absolutely wonderful -- the most joyful, profound, deeply silly celebration of mystery, filled with thoughtful medieval references. Go see it, if you can! www.59e59.org/shows/show-d...

Eating several chocolates from my advent calendar every day because each day feels like a week!

a note to Washington Post readers: On Dec. 7, we ask you to respect our walkout by not crossing the picket line: For 24 hours, please do not engage with any Post content. That includes our print + online news stories, podcasts, videos, games and recipes.

NYC FloodNet Real time flooding data. Here: dataviz.floodnet.nyc. Map looks like this on left! Click the dot and it drills down! [Thanks for sharing, @jerthorp.bsky.social!]

Brilliant op ed from incredibly brave teachers whose own jobs are on the chopping block & who have been pressured to remain silent. Please read & share widely. https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/an-open-letter-from-faculty-at-west-virginia-university/

What a busy week! One thing after another. But I made some time, today, to explore something new: a friend offered to show me how to use a table saw and a band saw. (I managed to keep my "I came, I saw" jokes to myself.) My fall goal is to make a box with a secret compartment. 👀

As hoped, the CDC just recommended the new COVID boosters to everyone (6 months and up), not just the elderly and immunocompromised. Please sign up to get your shots (and encourage your loved ones to do the same). Appointments available as early as next week!

Come and join the COOLEST PROJECT at QMUL & Cambridge! #bookhistory! Material culture! #reformazing history! #earlymodern chaos! COOL SCIENCE TOYS! All info & how to apply here: www.qmul.ac.uk/jobs/vacanci...

Hi Internet! I'm Drew and THIS IS MY FACE. If this GIF has ever brought you joy in the past, I humbly ask you to consider making a donation to the National MS Society. It would mean a lot to me and to those I know affected by the disease! Donate at blinkingguy.com