I am available for book reviews! Got shelves to fill :) #MedievalSky #EarlyModern

Fate saw fit to bestow the ultimate academic honour upon me: Introduced myself to someone at a conference, who replied "oh, I've read one of your articles" and then topped it up with "I liked that it was about how rural people weren't stupid" - perfect summary of pretty much my entire research 🎉

New article in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society'. 'Louis XIV’s Attitude to the Chinese Rites Controversy': bit.ly/47NYgmk Dr Sean Heath offers an exploration of ecclesiastical policy in the making under the Sun King. Sean's article is now freely available Open Access #Skystorians 1/2

This is basically the plot of Erasmus's colloquy "A Pilgrimage for Religion's Sake." #reformazing

oooooo! This will be such an exciting Masterclass to participate in. Run, don't walk, #earlymodern #SkyStorians in Nordic countries, if you're a PhD student yourself or have PhD students who should apply.

#earlymodern does anyone have access to the mysteriously almost invisible William Halstead’s Shakespeare as Spoken vol 4 . I’m interested in 19 th century cuts to All’s Well but can’t ask interlibrary loans for it unless I have page references

I'm hoping to propose a panel for the SCS on the 1570s, that most pivotal decade in the later Reformation. If you're interested in joining me, send me a DM. #reformazing

The latest rejection email, this time for a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship. Depressingly, the last year I'm eligible. 😔 The success rate is so stark and depressing. I'm sure the 30 successful applicants will do amazing work, but collectively we have all lost so much time.

Alas. The sun is setting on my Californian conference visit / writing retreat. But it's been a good one!

In the US, even the follies are massive... (Palace of the Fine Arts, San Francisco)

Everything is bigger in the US, especially the trees.

As someone who has published books with 100+ images, here are my tips for finding free #earlymodern images (and tips for discounts when you have to pay for them!) 🗃️ sarahabendall.com/2020/03/11/e...

There’s a piece by me on Erasmus and his use of print ‘pile-on’ tactics in this months History Today! If you buy the magazine you'll also get it in glorious technicolour #EarlyModern #BookHistory 🗃️

Richard Kagan introducing our roundtable commemorating Katie Harris and reflecting on a life of scholarship. #RenSA26 @rsaorg.bsky.social

Third paper of our #EMoDiR panel at #RSA2026: Christine Kooi, “The Devil Congratulates Charles IX.” A biting 1572 Protestant Pasquillus imagines Satan praising the king after the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre—searing satire that sharpens confessional polemic in the later Reformation.

Always good to see witches infiltrating the #RenSA26 @rsaorg.bsky.social. It wasn't too long ago that the only demons were Platonic ones. There will be some excellent @emodir.bsky.social panels tomorrow!

Second paper by Mateusz Falkowski on humanism and humanist practices around the Council of Trent, emphasizing the role of citation and record keeping. #RenSA26

And we're off @rsaorg.bsky.social #RenSA26. My first paper is Jennifer Mara DeSilva on enslaved people in Florence and their presence in baptism records. #earlymodern

If you are at #RenSA26 in #SanFrancisco, don't miss @emodir.bsky.social demonic series of panels, organized by Maria Ivanova in collaboration with @janmachielsen.bsky.social and @stefanovil.bsky.social! 😈😈😈 #academicsky #skystorians

Absolutely no prizes for guessing where I am. Really looking forward to #RenSA26, meeting new and old folks, and hopefully encourage some submissions to the Transactions @royalhistsoc.org. For now though, I'm so sleepy I'm tempted to just lie down next to the sea lions. 😴

20 minutes of me. Too much for anyone. www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

About to embark on the long journey to #RenSA26 and San Francisco. I'll be there as @rsaorg.bsky.social Religion Discipline Rep and as co-editor of the Transactions of @royalhistsoc.org. If you have ideas for an article or just want to talk about submissions, please send me a DM! #earlymodern

Very pleased to be involved in this. It's promising to be a diabolically good #RenSA26!

On my way to Cambridge now! Very much looking forward to the #earlymodern @emodcam.bsky.social seminar tomorrow, especially as Cambridge has been such a hub for early modern Catholic studies!

Glad to see this out! It's a mighty tome, relevant to archaeologists, folklorists, #hextag peeps and more. And an impressive effort even if the functionalist argument doesn't always hold (I think, anyway).

I passed my viva with minor corrections! A huge thank you to my examiners @janmachielsen.bsky.social and @profelainechalus.bsky.social for such a positive and constructive experience!

Congratulations @janmachielsen.bsky.social on the publication of The Cambridge Companion to Counter Reformation Sanctity! Great to see this come out! #earlymodern #history #skystorians

Looking forward to a trip to Cambridge next month!

Not #earlymodern but this abandoned church served a leprosy colony in the 1940s. And the graffiti of the diabolical bishop is delightful!

Highlight of today's home. View of La Gomera and El Hierro from the south side of Teide. The islands almost seem to float in the air.

My mum, partner and I hiked a wonderful stretch of the Wales Coast Path today, in memory of my dad who wanted to complete it. Hopefully one day we will.

Just my sort of Christmas! 🤪

Ha. This feels so predictable somehow... www.nytimes.com/2025/12/13/b...

Very pleased that we got to publish this Comment in the TRHS! And many thanks @chriscampbell1.bsky.social for pitching it. Further reflections on this and other subjects are certainly welcome. 😊 🗃️

If anyone is wondering what the right time is to put up a Christmas tree, the Vatican is still busy putting up theirs.

Another public transport strike so I just had to walk to work today. 😋 (It's all going to be over by the end of next week so just let me be. 😅)

The Milvian bridge just now. No crosses in the sky unfortunately.

Boo!

Jerome translating the Bible by Hendrick van Somer in the Palazzo Barberini. As the sign says, "the challenge of the text becomes hands-on combat". One for @tntwining.bsky.social 😊 #earlymodern

Saint Luke healing a child, while painting the Virgin and experiencing some sort of ecstasy. Who says that men can't multitask? 🤪 By Giovanni Lanfranco, in the Palazzo Barberini

Lorenzo Lotto's Mystica marriage of St Catherine... Love How Jerome is reading through the thing and that he brought his lion! #earlymodern

Hell, to paraphrase Sartre, is other tourists.

I can't help but feel really curious about Christ's genitalia now. 🤪 A statue by Michelangelo in the Domine, Quo Vadis. #earlymodern

The @royalhistsoc.org is running a charitable donation campaign to fund the research of historians who lack support. The number of applications we're seeing is way up. I've been very lucky to have a career as a historian, I've donated, and I think this Christmas you should too. Pay it forward.

Went to see the altar of Joseph of Copertino in the Santissimi Apostoli today. If you want hear more about him and his flights, come to my talk at Sapienza tomorrow at 10am. 😊 #earlymodern

Job Klaxon: Assistant or Associate Professorship in Public History with a specialisation in Modern History at Aarhus.

As an #earlymodern historian of old religious things it is easy to feel at home in Rome. Abominations such as 👇 are reminders that Catholicism is a living faith and that the Renaissance art I adore was new when it was made.

🚨#History #envhist Job Alert: My Department is hiring an Assistant Professor in Environmental History. 🗃️ Come work with us at Warwick. You'll get both excellent colleagues and great students! See details below... And do not hesitate to spread the word... 👇👇👇 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPK289/a...