I think Laura Porterwood-Stacer's Book Proposal Book offers some great advice on when and how to negotiate the contract that applies to this — it's definitely easier for later-career folks with more security, but she outlines questions you can and should ask + press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

And also that they will not put your unpublished manuscript into an AI to generate marketing copy. Don’t ask me how I know.

Some academic publishing contract advice: make sure your contract specifies 1. a qualified human copyeditor will copyedit on the MS; 2. a qualified human proofreader will proofread the MS; 3. that production must have a proper system for version control (!).

Just giant dabbers flying around while people are dancing. I am unsure what they are celebrating, but giant ink-balls were used in #earlymodern printing offices in the last step before printing. Such dabbers consist of pieces of leather filled with wool or hair and a wooden handle. #bookhistory

#CfP: Clio Reframed: Women Writing History, 1500-1750. Oxford, June 18-19, 2026 Abstracts by Feb 28 '26. Featuring a quintessential quartet of keynotes: @rhetorician.bsky.social, Claire Gheeraert-Graffeuille, @emiliekmmurphy.bsky.social, & Sue Wiseman www.rensoc.org.uk/event/clio-r... #SRS_Sponsored

Read more here electricscotland.com/history/mora...

May your Christmas be filled with mayhem, happiness and spontaneous snoozes, much akin to Mya’s Christmas morning. ✨✨

A completely unprompted surprise today from my institutional library. Very lovely indeed.

CFP: Tolerance and Dissent Deadline for abstracts 15 January 2026 Conference: 24-26 June 2026, University of Fribourg Travel grants available for graduate students #EarlyModern #SkyStorians all info: www.rensoc.org.uk/event/tolera...

Today on the blog: a magnificent find by @franceswolfreston.bsky.social of a book that the poet Katherine Philips gave to Mary Jeffreys; a discussion with important scholarly implications for the study of Philips earlymodernfemalebookownership.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/h... #EarlyModern #HerBook

We have just joined BlueSky! Since our foundation in 1880, we have reproduced an unrivalled selection of historic maps, plans and views of London. We also publish books and monographs containing original research. See more of what we have to offer at: londontopsoc.org

I ask my students not to use AI because it means they are not fully engaging with their own learning. If they do, it’s a betrayal of my trust. I don’t want to use AI to grade student work because it means that I am not fully engaging with their learning. If I do, it’s a betrayal of their trust

Well, that concludes a week long trawl at the #NationalLibraryofScotland. 🙏 A lovely experience and only the beginning! #earlymodern #earlymodernwomen #songbooks and #miscellanies #earlymoderncreatives

Damn, was just gearing up for a good soliloquy! #edinburgh #earlymodernprejudice #ifeelopressed

An amusingly blasé address to John Scot of Scots Tarvet ‘at Edinburgh, or where soever he is’. #earlymodernletters #earlymodernadresses #scottishhistory

Um, this wasn’t on my archival itinerary. 😏

A lovely view from special collections reading room at #nationallibraryofscotland; a tonic for tired eyes.

Many Irish citizens as well. Please protect them @simonharrisireland.bsky.social

This is a moment of huge danger. There are 4 Scottish citizens taking part in the Global Sumud Flotilla and others from across the UK. The Labour government must speak out. All activists on board must be given safe passage.

How are scholars residing outside the UK and working on Scottish manuscripts supposed to obtain funding to continue the important work on #Scottishearlymodernwomen’s #literaryhistory if most funding only favours those who live in the UK? It’s a rhetorical question but an important one. Sigh.

RHS funding opportunity: David Berry Fellowship in the History of Scotland and the Scottish People. The Society's Fellowship, for up to £2500, supports research by historians of Scotland at any career stage: bit.ly/4ns6LJj Closing date for the 2026 Fellowship: 6 March 2026

Count down to my Scottish research trip has begun! Very excited to be visiting the #nationallibraryofscotland in a couple of weeks to get eyes on #earlymodernwomens #manuscripts and a few other treasures.

Fairies on Fridays! "A crowned fairy king seated on a hedgehog drawn by a girl holding a giant daisy, accompanied by dancing fairies." --- Charles Altamont Doyle. Wellcome Collection.

WSG member Karen Hearn is taking part in the George Villiers Study Day at Melton Carnegie Museum this Thursday 18 September. She will be one of five leading authors & academics discussing the eventful life & portraiture of the 1st Duke of Buckingham. leicestershirecollections.org.uk/villiers-rev...

The single most excruciating and vexing relationship in an academics life is that of the relationship between said academic and their home printer. True or False?

Read the Dramatic C17th Memoirs of Alice Thornton, Who Wrote Four Versions of Her Life Story Researchers have digitized all 4 volumes, which offer a compelling window into a tumultuous period in English history by Sonja Anderson for Smithsonian Magazine www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/r...

Likely a long shot, but might any #earlymodern musicologists be able to identify these bars? There are numerous settings by Campion, Morley, Gautier in this Scottish ms, so I wondered if it was recognisable as any of theirs, or indeed someone else’s. As a lit historian, it’s beyond me, sadly.

Our Element on Macmorris’s Deep Map has just been published and is open-access until the end of the month. Really enjoyed the collaborative process involved in both the building of the map and the writing of this book!

Fairly excited about the prospect of making jam very soon, from our own 🍎. Have enjoyed gooseberry one made by a friend recently that was top drawer, and also a frocken pie, which was scrumptious. Pic of frocken bush (I’d never heard of them).

I am not sure why the link wasn't live earlier, but here it is now - @rsaorg.bsky.social

We have now published the programme for the 2025 Tudor & Stuart Ireland conference at UCD on 21-22 August. All details can be found here: tudorstuartireland.com/2025-confere...

Hallo 👋 #earlymodernist followers. I’m looking to present some new research at a seminar/conference this autumn anywhere in the British isles, on #Scottish #womensmanuscript compilation and socio-lit networks. If you come across any cfp could you please share them on here? A million thank yous. 🙏

Only a week now until the first of our spring online lecture series. Four top historians over successive weeks on aspects of the 1600s, this time covering subjects from radical republicans, religious groups and the outbreak of the civil war... cromwellmuseum.org/events/cromw...

Rather smashing out the back garden this eve. Wicklow,Ireland.

Researching around #earlymodernscottish scripts and hands, I came across this beautiful and ornate example of a secretary alphabet by Jehan de Beau-Chense & John Baildon, 1570.

New article! 'Seeing Women in the Early English and Dutch East India Companies' is now available as an Advance Article with Historical Research. It's been years of work, but I'm proud of this one. I hope #earlymodern #skystorians enjoy it! Some context below: academic.oup.com/histres/adva...

*Usually* we in Ireland would be falling over ourselves for such a recipe! Medical recipe book of Anna, Lady Elcho and Jean Wemyss, NLS, MS3031. #scottish #earlymodernscottishwomen #scottishpaeleography #earlymodernlife

My guess is ‘love’- any early modern Scottish palaeographers willing to pitch a thought?

Got a nasty dark scan too? You could try ...

As an ECR writing within a fairly well known and circumscribed field, some times I feel l have nothing to say, or what I have to say is just too obvious. Or, sometimes I think I have something to say but when I go to say it, it vanishes. Anyone else? Any tips for pushing through this writers bleh

In which the Waits of London get a pay rise in 1600 'because their musick is extraordinary' cc @passamezzo.bsky.social

"Thanks for the fruit" 🤣😍👑 #16thC #17thC #EarlyModern

From a print series entitled Nova Reperta (New Inventions of Modern Times) consisting of a title page and 19 plates, engraved by Jan Collaert I, published by Philips Galle - invention of eyeglasses & book printing. They belong together. (Met Museum)

15 Apr 1661: William Cavendish Duke of #Newcastle royalist & literary admitted Knight of the Garter #otd. Husband of Margaret Cavendish, duchess of #Newcastle, author, natural philosopher (KirkleesMuseum) He died Christmas Day 1676.

Does this ever get old? As an ECR it is very lovely.

Teaching the Early Modern: A Webinar Series! CEMS will be hosting three online sessions on teaching practices and strategies. We'll have three sessions through the spring: 23rd April, 29th May, and 19th June. Full details below! kingsearlymodern.co.uk/events/teach... @kingsartshums.bsky.social

My little collection of diaries, found today, which document years between final undergrad year to PhD thesis submission. Later on they detail fellowship app processes. Amazing how the contents of a single page can return you to precise feelings and thoughts on a given day so long ago.

It would be remiss not to share a couple of pics of the sublime goings on out the back of our house this eve. Picture one is a view to Glenmalure valley and lugnaquilla mountain, zoom in. Picture two includes a moon capture and a couple of red kites in a tree, top left.

'The quotidian concerns of Thornton’s Books ... may seem parochial, even trivial. But, by casting a global worldview on Thornton’s writings, we can begin to trace the worldwide effects of colonialism across the British Atlantic and the ripples they sent through everyday life.' #EarlyModern

More here: exhibitions.ed.ac.uk/exhibitions/... curated by the brilliant Anna-Nadine Pike. Manuscripts above all held at EUL CRC!