Next Wednesday 8th October, 12.30-1.30: Jiří Vnouček on "A Tale of Two Parchments" - insular and continental parchment preparation. In person: @bodleian.ox.ac.uk Weston Library, Lecture Theatre Or livestreamed. Free: book here visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/oct25/...

This is so beautifully written:

Time to update your Palaeolithic palettes... 🔵 Very proud to share our new research on the OLDEST use of blue pigment! We identified traces of azurite - a vibrant blue mineral - on a stone object around 14-13,000 years old. Why is this so exciting? 👇🏺 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

@dannybate.bsky.social spotted in Waterstones in Brighton 🙌

A rather fabulous looking tome has just arrived on my doorstep @dannybate.bsky.social 🙌

The highlight of publishing #AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems? Tough call, but possibly this gorgeous bespoke #book #bunting created by the team at Penguin Press - now adorning my office!

This book from @jessiewhchen.bsky.social looks absolutely stunning! 🌺❤️

Delighted to see Cynthia Johnston featuring in this wonderful piece from the Lancashire Telegraph about the exhibition she has co-curated at Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery! www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/2548328...

Look what came in the mail today! Another goodie to share with my manuscripts course that starts next week. #medievalsky

I had a lovely time talking to Sarah Kernan at the Recipes Project, exploring manuscript making recipes and how it feels to recreate them in the modern world recipes.hypotheses.org/26442. The Recipes Project is a great resource for all types of historic recipes! #medievalsky #bookhistory

I ADORE @saracharles.bsky.social The Medieval Scriptorium! 7 richly illustrated chapters open with Sara’s own beautiful vignettes. Journey through beginnings, parchment ins/outs, inks, illumination, painting, & decline! Irish focus in chapter 2! My buddy train read! @reaktionbooks.bsky.social

A great turn out for @cathamclarke.bsky.social and Hannah Lowe at the IHR Creighton Lecture - Doing History with Poetry @ihr.bsky.social

Look how I have cruelly betrayed them by leaving home and going into work #cats

After a wonderfully sucessful Barbotine workshop, we're taking bookings for the next Samian Ware Workshop at the Roman Army Museum. You'll learn about the gaullish production process and make your own replica terra sigillata bowl. No previous experience needed share.google/RS6P5F7WctSl...

Peer reviewers are exhausted. It's common to spend *months* inviting reviewers, getting refusals, inviting more, maybe 12 or more, then 2 agree but 1 doesn't complete, so you go again. That's why your paper is in limbo. I'm very sorry, it's awful, but it's also an untenable academic labour issue.

@cathamclarke.bsky.social Spotted (not once, but twice) in the window of Hatchards in St Pancras

We had another excellent Making Space Session yesterday evening, and our biggest ever - we were joined by 15 creative-critical medievalists! Among our Guild we had album artists, website designers, novelists, poets, zine makers, flax spinners, knitters, embroiderers, cartoonists and illustrators 🎨

Sloe foraging so I can make some winter gin gifts 😊

For more about #medievalmanuscripts, take a listen to Jacke's conversation with @saracharles.bsky.social about her book The Medieval Scriptorium. @jackewilson.bsky.social #medievalsky

The Medieval Scriptorium is now available in paperback! 😊 reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/the-med... #bookhistory #medievalsky #skystorians #medievalmanuscripts @reaktionbooks.bsky.social

My #book is already out in the world, but the official #launch event is next Tuesday - and you're invited! Annoyingly, there's a tube strike planned that day, but I hope you brave souls will still come. 🙏 The Elizabeth Line is perfect for Senate House & will still be running. Bus info in AltText.

There’s lots of knopper galls out on the oak trees at the moment - where gall wasps have laid their eggs inside of developing acorns. These interesting shapes are good for making #irongallink, but they are very sticky!

Look what the postie brought for me today @cathamclarke.bsky.social! That’s tomorrow’s reading sorted 😊

Agnes, daughter of Stephen, was accidentally killed when she was struck by the sail of a windmill in Herringswell, Suffolk, sometime around the year 1240. Accidents such as these (death by the arm of the windmill) are not common in the records I use in my research🧵1/3...

Living the dream 😍 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

I can highly recommend @rebeccamenmuir.bsky.social’s walking tour of Early Modern Latin in the City of London. Visited some new sites and finished off with a nice pub lunch and a toast to Wynkyn de Worde www.layersoflondon.org/map/trails/e... #layersoflondon

It's in the shop. I'll shut up about it now: www.poorfrankraw.co.uk/shop/index.h...

Just bought this after @saracharles.bsky.social posted about it. (It's very good, btw).

There's one day left of the Waterstones 25% discount on upcoming books, which I've made use of to get the books of great authors and scholars like @cathamclarke.bsky.social and @saracharles.bsky.social. My own love letter to written English is included too! www.waterstones.com/book/why-q-n...

Artist statement done... If you're curious it's here and if anything doesn't make sense let me know! 🙈 majnouna.com/artist/

Making paper under the California sun.

🚨PRE-ORDER OFFER Get 25% off the paperback edition of The Medieval Scriptorium: Making Books in the Middle Ages with code SUMMER25 from #Waterstones Offer only valid between 28-31 July #WPreorder #medievalsky #bookhistory @reaktionbooks.bsky.social www.waterstones.com/book/the-med...

Just noticed that The Medieval Scriptorium is also part of the #Waterstones 25% summer discount for upcoming books (SUMMER25). The paperbook is out in September! #WPreorder #medievalsky #manuscripts www.waterstones.com/book/the-med...

I've just preordered Catherine's fantastic new book A History of England in 25 Poems, using this discount code. Can't wait to get my hands on it! #WPreorder

I greatly, greatly enjoyed reading Joumana's @majnouna.com latest article in her Substack about pre-modern ink recipes, Arabic colour terms, and the practical approach to their translation and learned a lot. If you're into #BookHistory, manuscripts etc. go check it out!

Have a spare hour in central London and fancy seeing some sights from a new perspective? Why not follow the @neolatinsociety.bsky.social walking tour of 'Early Modern Latin in London'! We have uploaded the trail and stop details to this handy map 👇 www.layersoflondon.org/map/trails/e...

My face when I realise I now have to lug home the extremely heavy (but beautiful) catalogue I bought from the Très Riches Heures exhibition in Chantilly #medievalsky #medievalmanuscripts

Congratulations to all 92 newly elected FBAs including the wonderful @clairelanghamer.bsky.social whose sterling research is matched by her sterling (or is it platinum?) work for the discipline of History (in all its academic, public and other forms) at the also ace @ihr.bsky.social . 1/2

Finally writing up a long-planned post about the challenges that arise when translating medieval ink recipes, and how praxis helps. Part 1 is about words that are misleading because their meaning's shifted. Title: "I don’t think this word means what you think it means." (Awfully pleased with me)

Sarah Charles' stall at the @imc-leeds.bsky.social medieval fair was an added bonus today. It was wonderful to see all the materials for making manuscripts. I had never seen oak galls before #IMC2025 #manuscripts

If @imc-leeds.bsky.social didn’t exist it would be necessary to invent it. Where else can you get feedback from experts in your niche research area AND context from a range of related fields AND meet people from all over the world AND see owls? #MedievalSky #IMC2025

I’m in the foyer of the union building with all my manuscript materials on display. Come and have a go at illuminating or writing with a quill #IMC2025 #medievalscriptorium @ies-sas.bsky.social @ihr.bsky.social

What an absolute stunner of a volume! Written Treasures: 50 Manuscripts from Medieval Europe, ed. André Bouwman & Irene O’Daly. 300+ pp. w/ numerous illustrations and 50(!) full-page/double-spread colour plates. So honoured to have contributed to this alongside dozens of international colleagues! 🤗

The medieval fun continues with the instruments of the Luttrell Psalter, played by de Mowbray’s Musicke #IMC2025

Learning more about the fascinating world of relic labels at Chelles from the brilliant @ana0dias.bsky.social #IMC2025 #craftingdocuments

Such a treat for medievalists at #IMC2025 - a fashion show by Tanya Bentham. So wonderful to see these costumes in real life 🥰

So exciting to chat with the Battle Abbey Tapestry Group working on this amazing new design - and to add a small part of a griffin outline #IMC2025

Ups and downs but I'm amazed at how many people are viewing my instructional videos on YouTube. www.youtube.com/playlist?lis... There are basic guides on tools and how to carve, and other videos of me doing some of the more esoteric stuff, like masking/painting and filled lettering. Enjoy :)

Publication day! Authenticity in Medieval and Early Modern Literature is out 🥳 @degruyterbrill.bsky.social have been fantastic to work with and all the contributors are incredible - brilliant chapters, a dream to work with, supportive throughout. Check it out: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

You're invited! Join us for the launch of my new #book and this amazing #event on Tues 9 Sept. I'll be in conversation with award-winning poet Hannah Lowe on 'Doing #History with #Poetry', chaired by @ihr.bsky.social Director @clairelanghamer.bsky.social. Book free: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...