Translating a letter of Walter of Coutances (dated to 1196) and have found the excellent expression 'corisco cooperto', meaning 'a pig in a poke'. That is, to buy or accept something without first viewing or assessing it.

Speech House Lake in the Forest of Dean at sunset today.

Three-year research fellowship (i.e a postdoc) in History at Cambridge @girtoncollege.bsky.social. A great job at a great institution. No restrictions on the field of history studied. Deadline 12 January.

There's room for another historian (or anthropologist) at @girtoncollege.bsky.social ! 3-year postdoc research fellowship, apply by 12 January! www.girton.cam.ac.uk/job-vacancie...

Good to have an early medieval story for New Year! This time, it's Andy Seaman's @cuhistarchrel.bsky.social excavations at Fonmon Castle. So exciting that he's digging a site of a type I'm currently writing about (or will be when there's time to write!) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Daffodils in bloom on the Ridgeway, Newport south Wales, this morning:

@alienore.bsky.social @gawainsmum.bsky.social

Sunset from Barry Island (south Wales) on Christmas Day. Beautiful and bitterly cold in a chill wind.

We’re excited to share our new main catalogue, making it easier for you to find and request the majority of our published collection. We’ve also launched an interim version of our Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue. Find out how to start searching and requesting on our website bit.ly/BLNewCatalogues

At last the British Library has an interim Archives and Manuscripts catalogue online again! A quick trial indicates that even if it isn't complete it's a very good start:

Call for papers: the International Conference "Military Orders IX: Documents and Monuments" (to be held at the University of Malta 9-12 Sept 2026) invites proposals for papers of 20 minutes and panels. Submission deadline for proposals: 31 Jan 2026. Details here: www.um.edu.mt/events/milit...

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. 😊 🗃️

SKULL OF THOMAS AQUINAS: TAKE A LEFT NOW PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going— SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti— SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE

A question for #medievalsky Is there medieval theological debate/consensus on the ensoulment of mermaids? How human shaped does a creature have to be to have a soul? Can a mermaid participate in the sacrament? Help me win a shitposting conversation IRL, folks, you’re my only hope.

There has been a change of speaker for tomorrow's online talk from the Hospitaller Research Forum:

"Contemporary depictions of Mary tend to be gentle in their holiness, but Christians centuries ago envisioned her as a powerful agent who fought for their salvation."

Students and staff at Trinity College Dublin have produced the world's first film in the ancient - and dead - Sumerian language

Humans were isolated in southern Africa for about 100,000 years, which caused them to "fall outside the range of genetic variation" seen in modern-day people, a new genetic study reveals.

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has launched a scheme to allow donors to adopt a beam at the former home of Shakespeare's daughter, Susanna Hall if they donate more than £500. 👇 BBC News - Hall's Croft donors can adopt a beam in Shakespeare family home - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Applications are now invited for the Society's 2026-27 Centenary PhD Fellowships for early career historians completing a doctorate bit.ly/48pWB72 Fellowships provide support of £8500 per award for 6 months and are held jointly with @ihr.bsky.social. Closing date: 31 January 2026 #Skystorians

“The Arabic Dialect of Hama, Syria” by Maciej Klimiuk is now available in a two-volume edition! www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/isbn_9783447...

The outline programme for the conference of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East (@latineast.bsky.social) in June 2026 is now available online: very useful for those of us who need to book flights in good time: 11th-sscle-conference-porto-2026.mozellosite.com/academicprog...

#crusades #thirdcrusade #medievalhistory #medievalstudies #academicpublishing #newbook #boydellpress #history

Booking is now open for Making Medieval Manuscripts! A practice-based course where we make ink, cut quills, illuminate, make pigments and bookbind, using #medieval techniques and materials. We also explore early medieval art. No experience necessary! #bookhistory ies.sas.ac.uk/study-traini...

Today, let's celebrate a drawn and illuminated crane that functions as a pointing gesture to a new paragraph (in a fourteenth century manuscript). It looks like he is walking into the text, right? #bookhistory

I'm asking for a moratorium on cool stuff to read until I've made it through my backlog, this looks great

Annual shameless Xmas or other seasonal holiday gift suggestion for those interested in any of material culture, empire or British country houses. Over 500 pages & 100 illustrations. Paperback a mere £30. (Alternatively, free to download from @uclpress.bsky.social or @jstor.bsky.social ).

It's nearly December, but the autumn colour was still alive on the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal (Crumlin Branch) at Risca this morning -- at least, as long as the sun shone:

Grey heron on the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal (Crumlin Branch) at Risca this morning:

My contributor's copy has arrived! Publishers' details at: boydellandbrewer.com/book/the-thi...

🚨TWO WEEKS TO GO!🚨 Railway Work, Life & Death project co-lead Mike is privileged to give the 2025 @balhnews.bsky.social Dymond Lecture! ‘Heads – you lose!’ Working for the railways in Britain before 1939 Thursday 11 December 2025, 7pm, online #LocalHistory #Railway200 www.balh.org.uk/dymond2025

At last a modern, comprehensive study of the Third Crusade! The crusade that was so wide-ranging that it needs a team to write the book and two scholars to edit it ... (You'll have guessed that I was one of the team. I wrote the chapter on the written sources and how unreliable they are.)

Given today's news story on the BBC (www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...), this looks relevant! you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/do...

The loss of the British Library's manuscript catalogue has reached the UK national press (along with the assurance that "an interim online catalogue and manuscript archive is expected by the end of the year" -- I certainly hope so!) www.telegraph.co.uk/books/news/b...

My son muses on his life-long relationship with a computer that is older than he is. The Atari 520ST (on which I wrote my PhD, and which Gawain has used since he was old enough to manipulate a mouse) is now 40: thegawain.wordpress.com/2025/11/19/a...

In case you'd like to try before you buy, the good folk @academic.oup.com have made Chapter 1 of my book free to view for a few weeks :) academic.oup.com/book/61370/c...

From the top of the cliffs south of Tintern (south of and higher than the famous Devil's pulpit), Tintern Abbey can be seen sitting amidst green fields. The Wye is running very high after the recent rain, but at present the fields aren't flooded.

Despite the lateness of the season and yesterday's heavy rain, Beechwood Park in Newport (south Wales) was looking lovely this afternoon:

The Usk looked very peaceful flowing through Newport south Wales this afternoon: the waters were high after yesterday's heavy rain, but not excessively so. However, the quantities of grass and wood in the water suggested that upstream it hasn't been so gentle:

Are you a scholar of the fifteenth century and have an interest in the British Isles and its wider connections? If so, then you will want to know that @memsunikent.bsky.social will be hosting the 2026 Fifteenth Century Conference in Canterbury and the CfP is now open: www.kent.ac.uk/medieval-ear...

The news is as gloomy as ever and so is the weather (it's November), but although it's v. wet it's also still warm here and there are flowers in the front garden -- and the hazel trees are producing catkins.

Coming up on 11 December online from the Hospitaller Research Forum:

My 2nd collection of previously-published articles is now out! Further book details (and ordering) here: www.routledge.com/Myth-and-Reality-Studies-on-the-Templars-and-Hospitallers-Medieval-Narratives-and-the-Trial-of-the-Templars/Nicholson/p/book/9781032565712 . See the image for contents!

Exciting announcement! 2026 theme and call for papers is out! #medievalsky #cfp @downham.bsky.social @imc-leeds.bsky.social @medievalists.bsky.social

Anyone got a spare £million? Asking for.... Well, asking for me news.artnet.com/art-world/me...

🔔 CFP | SSCLE 2026 Crossing Seas, Crossing Cultures 📍 Univ. of Porto 🗓️ 29 June–3 July 2026 Send proposals (papers, sessions, roundtables) 📩 [email protected] 🗓️ 15 Sept–15 Nov 2025 🔗 11th-sscle-conference-porto-2026.mozellosite.com

This 👇

We are advertising for an Assistant Director to join us in Marsh's Library. Full details about this exciting post here: marshlibrary.ie/vacancy-for-...

This little manuscript contains a treatise on cosmography that describes and illustrates the Ptolemaic model of a spherical earth at the center of the concentric spheres of the universe, and includes diagrams of eclipses and an astrolabe (UPenn LJS 26) #medievalsky 🔗: https://bit.ly/41EAKFa

Pound and lock in the upper section of the flight of Fourteen Locks on the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal, Crumlin Branch. (I think the gates visible beneath the trees belong to lock 18 -- but I may be wrong: see the plan here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourtee... ). Spot the two ducks on the pound!