I had a wonderful time at Lectures on Tap at Theory in Chicago last night. Great audience and fun questions. Highly recommend their events. lecturesontap.com

I wanted to share probably the most important sermon I’ve given and it’s while I’m being arrested. It’s torture pure and simple what happens at #Broadview. I’m ok, though I was thrown to the ground and choked with my pectoral cross. A review of the video shows I was peaceful - did I deserve this?

If you haven’t read the FBI file on the song “Louie Louie” it’s worth a look. vault.fbi.gov/louie-louie-...

From ISU's Carthusian Breviary. Any idea who the saint is ? Stephen the protomartyr (stoned to death) or Antony (self-mortification)?

Wanted to share this beautiful miniature from Illinois State University’s Special Collections. These are from a Carthusian Breviary.

Many #children with #autism are non-verbal, so if a child knocks on your door and holds out their blue #pumpkin, just know that many won’t talk or say trick or treat. Don’t take it as rude; they're just trying to enjoy #Halloween like everyone else. #TrickOrTreat #NonVerbal #BluePumpkin

Some shameless self promotion if anyone happens to be in Chicago and wants a beer and a talk on medieval manuscripts.

NEW: Cardinal Blase Cupich, the Archbishop of Chicago, has issued a new statement declaring that Chicago "communities are shaken by immigration raids and detentions. These actions wound the soul of our city. Let me be clear. The Church stands with migrants."

Chicago No Kings Rally. 10/18/2025

Fascinating micro-history done in the Newberry collections by a U of Chicago intern about a man charged with bigamy. www.newberry.org/blog/constru...

Mind-numbing how many layers of history there can be to a single manuscript page: Syriac upper text (10th c.), Armenian undertext (pre-10th c.), Arabic material used for binding (11-12th c.?), Coptic foliation in the margin (date?), modern foliation at the bottom. Image: Leiden UL Or. 14236, link ⬇️

Chris Fletcher’s new book is out and it’s open access! I’ve heard him speak on it and it sounds fascinating and very helpful for those teaching public humanities. www.arc-humanities.org/978180270096...

This unusual animal? is from Newberry Ayer MS 612, a seventeenth century copy of Tarih-i Yeni Dünya, el-musemma be hadis-i nev, A History of the India of the West, written in Turkish. I hope to post more, especially amazing maps that accompany the manuscript.

I saw this amazing manuscript at Illinois State University yesterday. They’ve really beefed up their medieval holdings since I taught there. I’ll be posting on them soon. This is a thirteenth-century record of punishments from Italy. Love the parchment.

I’m doing my best to be a cranky old man but I have to admit I love the over-the-top Halloween decorations in my neighborhood.

They are taking brown *and* Black Chicagoans. ICE is terrorizing neighborhoods. They want us to be scared, to obey in advance, to bend the knee. And my city of big shoulders, we need to step up even more. Do not go gentle into that good night. The more privilege you have, the louder you should be.

My husband was detained by ICE today Juan Muñoz, an American citizen, father of 2, and local government official, was peacefully protesting w. other elected officials. He was assaulted and taken away I have had zero contact or updates since #SOS @duckworth.senate.gov @durbin.senate.gov

Our brave troops patrolling the rough Gold Coast community in front of the Newberry Library. Keeping our manuscripts safe from their rightful owners, uh, I mean immigrants.

Hello comics-friends! A quick reminder that you have until Oct. 17th to submit your minicomic ideas for consideration for the Newberry Medieval Minicomic Prize! Lots more info at the link.

This is a wild “D” from Newberry Case MS 1 (French?, 11th century). I see Irish influence—can someone help me find parallels or tell me I’m crazy? I love how rough 11th century parchment is and the wonderful letterforms particularly the x that takes up the space of two normal letters.

Happy “E” for Monday! Ecce! Behold! From Newberry Library MS Case 1. French? Early 11th Century.

Happy dog.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to play with this beautiful manuscript the Newberry Library. This is Newberry MS Case 1, a homiliary from the early 11th century. Love the elongated format. Likely France.

Today’s signpost

If you’re in the Boston area this Wednesday I’d love for you to come on out! This talk is free and open to the public. as.tufts.edu/art-architec...

A world weary eleventh century initial Q-guy. From Newberry Library MS 2.

"Human rights is in this sense a visibility project: its driving focus is to get us to see the people around us, particularly those whom we might otherwise (only slightly metaphorically speaking) not see at all, or those whom we would try to ignore if we did catch a glimpse of them.” Conor Gearty

Yesterday the Newberry Library held a memorial for Robert Williams, calligrapher, book designer, teacher, Renaissance man and decent human. I saw him in April when I returned to the Newberry reading room and he told me about an article on a French manuscript handwriting book he was working on.

On Monday I was fortunate to visit the University of Chicago’s Special Collections to look at their Bacon collection of manorial charter rolls. An almost unstudied font, I will post a "Thesis in a Box" on Substack soon.

One of the fun things about living in a city is stumbling across historical artifacts. This is a relic of the Oliver Typewriter Co., established in 1895 by Thomas Oliver (d. 1909) who invented a typewriter that allowed the typist to see the text they were typing.

My pictures from ground zero on December 21, 2001. My mother had a station she worked at in the Twin Towers. I grew up across the Hudson and thought the Twin Towers were a permanent part of the landscape. My CUNY summer Latin class celebrated finishing our course in Windows on the World.

Got to hand it to the British authorities. At first I was mad when they scrubbed the #Banksy, but they have unintentionally made one of the most powerful artworks of all time.

Amazing how those democratic lawmakers who were hunted down in their homes in the middle of the night in Minnesota weren’t a watershed moment of political violence, huh?

This poor person is another marginal initial from Newberry Library MS 2. Not sure if he’s waving or blessing us. Hopefully the latter. I love these scribal drawings wherever they pop up. Southern France, eleventh century.

Another fun initial from Newberry Library MS 2, southern France, 11th century.

SO EXCITED TO SHARE THIS! Announcing the Newberry Medieval Minicomic Prize: two juried mini-grants of $250.00 each to support emerging artists l for the creation of a new minicomic that engages with medieval culture. More details available here: www.newberry.org/calendar/new...

A medieval head from the Newberry’s oldest codex, Newberry MS 2. From southern France, 11th century.

I returned to the Newberry Library after a month's break to play with Hebrew MS 2. It did not disappoint. I will write about the encounter on Substack soon with more images. It’s an astronomical mss, so many beautiful tables like this one.

💯 Check out BASIRA (Books as Symbols in Renaissance Art), a new #openaccess online database of representations of books & other textual documents in the figurative arts between 1300- 1600 CE! Visit here: basiraproject.org #books 🗃️ #arthistory #skystorians #academicsky 💙 📚 #PhDsky #medievalsky

The last page of the first part of Gratian's Decretum, ending with D.101 d.p.c.1 in a manuscript from the 1190s, written in Bologna. The second gloss layer in the bottom contains a version of the apparatus "Ecce vicit leo" on C.1 authored before 1210 by Petrus Brito, professor in Paris. 1/

Jersey raised me to be tough and to stand up.

All reports in this thread are from the collections of Northwestern University's Transportation Library. Materials we've digitized can generally be found in HathiTrust. Learn more and search our catalog here: www.library.northwestern.edu/libraries-co...

The State of Illinois at this time has received no requests or outreach from the federal government asking if we need assistance, and we have made no requests for federal intervention.

Something that’s lost in the disc of “small majors.” I majored in religion bc I loved the subject, but a huge part was that it was a tiny major where I could know all the profs and they could know me. For a first gen student who was completely overwhelmed in college I needed this, desperately.

ACLS has released a statement regarding the White House review of Smithsonian Institution museums: bit.ly/3HEbfgs

New Thesis in a Box from the Newberry Library, this one an extremely rare Hebrew manuscript from the Probasco collection, one of the Newberry’s foundation collections. @newberrylibrary open.substack.com/pub/raymondc...

Today, we proudly opened our exhibition, Sing Joyfully: Exploring Music in Lambeth Palace Library, to the public! 🎉 👉 Learn more on our Sing Joyfully homepage: www.lambethpalacelibrary.info/sing-joyfully/ #SingJoyfully #LambethPalaceLibrary

A new Thesis in a Box on Substack. Two Wing manuscript in the Newberry Library collections. Scribal pattern books. Lots of room for new scholarship. open.substack.com/pub/raymondc...

I love Peter Gabriel. Time slips in the mirror As an old man, I was born But I've grown to be a baby With a halo and a horn Burn up like a lightning bolt All gone within a flash You look around to find a home Where the asteroid will crash So Much