Remember remember the fifth of November 💥 Back in July I had the pleasure of chairing a panel exploding the myths of the Gunpowder Plot with @elegantfowl.bsky.social @misswalsingham.bsky.social Prof Stephen Alford and @enortonhistory.bsky.social at @harvingtonhall.bsky.social History Festival

Good evening, Oxford!

Lecturer in Renaissance Art History Birkbeck, University of London - School of Historical Studies #skystorians 🗃️www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNM388/l...

I'm unreasonably pleased that my Shakespeare find made it to Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_...

On my way to Stockholm …

On my way to Stockholm …

On 29 October, prof @misswalsingham.bsky.social will be giving a talk titled: ”Spycraft: Early Modern espionage” at the IMH seminar series. Details here: www.linkedin.com/posts/instit...

Women messing with men’s heads du jour: Salome looking most pleased w/ the head of John the Baptist. By Lucas Cranach, whose day is today.

Collega @judithpollmann.bsky.social kreeg vanmiddag de Spinozapremie uitgereikt in een feestelijke bijeenkomst. Meer dan verdiend: Judith is een fantastische onderzoeker die anderen meeneemt in haar enthousiasme. Ook een enorme opsteker voor de geesteswetenschappen, geschiedenis en ons Instituut!

Winter Lecture Series: Finding Women in Scottish History Join us for a series of free, online lectures to explore sources of women's lived experience, intellectual and religious networks, and socio-political power in medieval and early modern Scotland. scottishhistorysociety.com/shs-winter-l...

Lady costumed for the masque, as a rather racy Flora. Painted in miniature by Isaac Oliver. Today is his day.

Purse made of a walnut shell covered with embroidered silk, England, 1600-1650. (Victoria & Albert Museum, London)

Cup & case, probably made in West Yorkshire, 1692-94 By Francis Place The 'capuchine' [so-called from its resemblance to a cloaked Capuchin friar] was developed in the late 17th century specifically for drinking the new coffee and chocolate. (V&ALondon) #InternationalCoffeeDay

“It actually doesn’t take much to be considered a difficult woman. That’s why there are so many of us.” ― Jane Goodall 💙 RIP to a real one. My childhood hero

An example of a cut-paper artwork by #JoannaKoerten, held by the @britishmuseum.bsky.social -

This 17th-Century Female Artist Was Once a Bigger Star Than Rembrandt. Why Did History Forget About Johanna Koerten and Her Peers? - by Meilan Solly for @smithsonianmag.bsky.social www.smithsonianmag.com/history/this...

You can get it from Westwood Books and there are even a couple of 1st Edition signed hardbacks that I had put aside but forgot if you search it on the site

Wanted: Spycraft from @YaleBooks has escaped from the Tower disguised as a paperback ... track it down at a bookseller near you today!

On the day the paperback edition of Spycraft @YaleBooks is released from close confinement in the Tower, here's an extract to whet the appetite ... www.the-emigre.com/column/the-c...

Old Woman Reading Mid-17th century Dominicus van Tol, active Leiden, c. 1635–1676. (Philadelphia Museum of Art)

Just arrived in Gloucester! Are you in tonight’s audience? #Spycraft www.gloucesterhistoryfestival.co.uk/events/spycr...

Interested in London trades in the 16th Century? Court of Requests proceedings in REQ 2 have you covered. One way to find a bunch of cases (over 500) is to search REQ 2 for "citizen and". discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_a...

We created a reading group in 2024 focused on key classic and new texts from a variety of perspectives on the making, unmaking, challenges and potential in "archives." We will meet next on Friday, September 19 at 2 p.m. Interested? Complete the Google form: jcblibrary.org/events/criti...

Coming up for auction, Sept 13, Hargesheimer auction at Drouot.com - Ginevra Cantofoli, Self-portrait of the artist at the easel with a brush / Allegory of painting drouot.com/en/l/3025356...

🚨 FESTIVAL SPECIAL🚨 Think you know how Mary Queen of Scots was undone? 👑📜 Think again. The Babington Plot is not the story you’ve been told. 🎧 Hear @misswalsingham.bsky.social & @elegantfowl.bsky.social 🎧 Listen now! pod.fo/e/3251ad 🎟️ www.gloucesterhistor...

🚨 FESTIVAL SPECIAL🚨 Forget lemon juice tricks 🍋 — early spies were far more cunning. Some even forged invisible ink letters to keep the game alive! Hear @misswalsingham.bsky.social & @elegantfowl.bsky.social 🎧 Listen now! pod.fo/e/3251ad 🎟️ www.gloucesterhistor...

🚨 FESTIVAL SPECIAL🚨 In the 17th century, carrying a coded message could cost your life ⚔️📜. 🎙️ @misswalsingham.bsky.social & @elegantfowl.bsky.social uncover the dangers of early spy networks on History Rage 🎧 Listen now! pod.fo/e/3251ad 🎟️ www.gloucesterhistor...

🏴‍☠️Practices and Narratives of Early Modern Piracy: Connecting the Seas, 1550–1800, edited by @susannegruss.bsky.social & Marcus Hartner, the newest book in @amsterdamupress.bsky.social Maritime Humanities, 1400-1800 book series is out *22 Sept 2025* Available to preorder: www.aup.nl/en/book/9789...

🚨 FESTIVAL SPECIAL🚨 Early espionage wasn't all Walsingham & Cecil 👨‍💼. Women ran networks, spread misinformation, carried secrets — often overlooked. 🕵️‍♀️ 🔥 @misswalsingham.bsky.social & @elegantfowl.bsky.social 🎧 pod.fo/e/3251ad Live 🎟️ www.gloucesterhistor...

Forget gadgets and tuxedos 🎩🍸 — Tudor spies used invisible ink, folded letters and even swallowed secrets in wax balls 😱. 🎙️ Hear @misswalsingham.bsky.social & @elegantfowl.bsky.social 🎧 Listen! pod.fo/e/3251ad —and live at @GlosHistFest 🎟️ www.gloucesterhistor...

🚨 COMING TOMORROW🚨 From MQOS’ downfall 👑 to the Gunpowder Plot 💥, espionage shaped Tudor and Stuart politics in ways we rarely hear about. 🎧 Join @misswalsingham.bsky.social & @elegantfowl.bsky.social — live at Gloucester History Festival 🎟️ www.gloucesterhistor...

Leuke vraag. Maar waarom geen historicus in de jury?

This woman is wearing entire small animal around neck! Cannot believe that is very sanitary. Otherwise lovely portrait from 1573 by Lucas de Heere, whose day has been today.

After the warm summer we've had the blackberries must be plump and ready for devouring! These hand-coloured beauties are from Hieronymus Bock's 1552 herbal #Blackberries #Autumn

A fabulous searchable database of employees of the Dutch West India Company (WIC) between 1630 and 1665. More than 8000 names. 🗃️#earlymodern

In het septembernummer van @kijkmagazine.nl www.kijkmagazine.nl/artikel/inte... #Spycraft @yalebooks.bsky.social @yalepress.bsky.social @leidenhumanities.bsky.social @unileiden.bsky.social @lnvh.nl @leidenglobal.bsky.social @elegantfowl.bsky.social

Seeing a lot of critical responses from medievalists about this BBC 1066 thing. As an early modernist, just to say that I'm happy to confirm that medieval people were indeed covered in dirt all the time and did all sound like they were in the Wurzels.

In het septembernummer van @kijkmagazine.nl www.kijkmagazine.nl/artikel/inte... #Spycraft @yalebooks.bsky.social @yalepress.bsky.social @leidenhumanities.bsky.social @unileiden.bsky.social @lnvh.nl @leidenglobal.bsky.social @elegantfowl.bsky.social

Very good #reading summer so far: - Moominsummer Madness (Tove Jansson) - Boater (@jobellwriter.bsky.social) - Rath (Volker Kutscher) - The best way to bury your husband (Alexia Casale) and current read: - Stone Sky (@benaaronovitch.bsky.social) probably followed by "Spycraft" (Nadine Akkerman)

I absolutely adore trompe l'oeil paintings of printed images, & here's one of my absolute favorites: The Printseller's Window, 1883, by little-known English artist Walter Goodman, a pictorial meditation on modern image culture & photography's impact on painting magart.rochester.edu/objects-1/in...

Coming soon …

Rousham Gardens

When that bit of evidence you wanted to find is just barely there at the very fragile outer edge of a damaged Chancery answer. 😬

On which ... what are you favourite online collections of early modern letters, diaries/life-writing, and other 'personal documents'? #EarlyModern 🗃️

Oh not much, just a quick peek at a few diagrams in a 13th c. copy of Joannes de Sacro Bosco's influential pre-Copernican astronomical text Tractatus de sphaera (On the Sphere of the World) (UPenn LJS 26) #medievalsky 🔗: https://bit.ly/41EAKFa

🎙️ Just recorded for Gloucester History Festival with @elegantfowl.bsky.social & @misswalsingham.bsky.social ! We explored Tudor/Stuart spy sophistication: invisible ink, covert origami security & why nobody needed to 'break' the Babington cipher 🕵️‍♂️ Sept 4th release! #HistoryPodcast #TudorSpies

The Intersection of Art and Biology as Seen Through the Legacy of Maria Sibylla Merian by Hannah Gemeny www.mutualart.com/Article/The-...

Coming soon in BRITISH ART STUDIES: 'Visualising James VI and I in Continental Europe' by Susan Doran, David Hasberg Zirak-Schmidt, and Paulina Kewes. Below images from books by two Scots, the Catholic Leslie and the Calvinist Beza, epitomising their ideological contest over the young king.