#earlymodern Writing about blanks in almanacs and how they are annotated and especially love this tortoise appearance (this is a 1649 Lilly almanac in the Emerson Collection)

Our 2026 Supplement (#18) "Medicine, Race, and Slavery in the Transatlantic World, 1600–1850" Edited by @hsmurphy.bsky.social (@kingshistory.bsky.social @cemskcl.bsky.social) Has now been published by @academic.oup.com academic.oup.com/past/issue/2...

I’ve just finished as external for English Literature and Creative Writing at Exeter. It’s a superb department with an amazing array of modules and brilliant teaching staff. Any sensible University management team would see it as a jewel in their crown. I’m disgusted by these proposed redundancies.

My latest post for the Kings Women follows the archival traces of two women in the 1580s who ran their own businesses and took on apprentices, Anne Collins and Annabell Baye, paid up members of the Grocers Company. www.kingswomen.org/post/the-sis... #earlymodern #womenshistory #londonhistory

On advance access: "Colonial world-making and global knowledges at the early modern Cape of Good Hope" by @gianamar97.bsky.social (@uvahumanities.bsky.social) #OpenAccess doi.org/10.1093/past...

Fellowships run from September 26 to August 27. Deadline 15 July. Please RT and get in touch with any questions!

The best kind of book owner: Edward Lightbourne left not only his lovely signature, but also the year he bought this collection of John Milton's pamphlets, and the cost.

**Final call to sign up for my book launch happening tomorrow, in person and online, 6-8pm** Come and celebrate 'Body Size in Early Modern Germany' with me, Lyndal Roper and Felix Jäger!

📜 New 'Will of the Month' blog over at @materialwills.bsky.social 👇 Read all about Mary Skelton's 'undutifull' son - cut off with only a shilling 🪙 @uoearchhist.bsky.social @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social @cemsexeter.bsky.social #history #skystorians #EarlyModern

I have two spaces left on this month's workshop. Get in touch if you're interested!

It's not much to look at, but this 1618 Star Chamber decree is pretty noteworthy, because James I was sitting as a judge in the court, in direct judgment over his subjects. STAC 8/196/25

Reminder. There's an early modern pub night for PhDs & ECRs (& others interested at any stage of their careers) held in London every month. To be added to the mailing list, send me a DM. It's an informal welcoming event. We meet at different historic pubs across central London. #earlymodern

Many congratulations to @emilymayvine.bsky.social whose excellent 'Birth, Death & Domestic Religion in #EarlyModern London' has been shortlisted for the RHS first book prize! 🗃️🥳👏

Closing soon! 👇🤩

I've also written about the links between open air treatments for patients and the wider leisure movement including hiking in this free Open Access book: www.exeterpress.co.uk/products/ima... 3/3

The headline we didn't know we needed

My new blog for the Social History Society on the loss of adult education centres in universities, with particular focus on history and the closure of the Centre for Lifelong Learning at York. 🗃️

A very cool (and little known) 1638 Shakespeare mention in the Court of Requests proceedings. The dispute concerns the property next door to Shakespeare's house on Henley St [Shakespeare's Birthplace] so mentions John and William Shakespeare living in the property. TNA REQ 2/487B/147

“God’s will is my will”: an entry in Arabic, Syriac, and Danish by a traveler from Denmark, Lauge Christensen, in the friendship album of the English Arabist William Bedwell (c. 1563-1632). Leiden, ms BPL 2753

Now that everything is officially signed, I'm delighted to say that after six years at Queen Mary, I'll be joining Simon Fraser University as Assistant Professor of Early Modern English Literature (tenure track) this autumn🍁🍂 All tips for Vancouver's best food/drink/things to do welcomed!!

This delightful map of Dartmoor (showing Ashburton to Buckland-in-the-Moor, featuring Ausewell Rocks) was part of an Exchequer case in 1605, for settling the bounds of Ashburton manor: discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C3... [MPB 1/7]

CALL FOR PAPERS: Global Connections – Central and Eastern Europe in the Early Modern World (ca. 1500–1800) 🔜 Submission deadline: 15 June 📍 Warsaw | 📅 28–30 Sept Student workshop included :) #EarlyModern #History #BlueSkyStorians More info ⬇️

There's a new 'Will of the Month' post over on the @materialwills.bsky.social blog! 📜 Read on to find out about the will of Sir Francis Cottington, who left money and jewellery to Catholic institutions in Valladolid 👇 #Skystorians #History @uoearchhist.bsky.social @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social

Portrait of a woman, 1435. Don't know what I love more: the eyes, the subtlety of the purple robe, the incredible headscarf (the layers! the folds!) or the pins. The pins! Robert Campin, you did well.

We have finally completed the digitization of this unique work, so as of now it is available online for all #earlymodern #rarebooks #bookhistory people to enjoy! ☞ dams1.antwerpen.be/asset/KIataT...

I'll be speaking about my NEW BOOK 'Body Size in Early Modern Germany' at the roundtable 'Fatness, Thinness & Embodiment: Interdisciplinary Perspectives' next week (28 April) at UCL, and ONLINE, with Dr @psimonetto.bsky.social and Dr Grace Lucas. Sign up below! www.ucl.ac.uk/social-histo...

Delighted to encounter in the archives this unexpected Elizabethan... Kytte Myller 'a pedlar, whoe is a maker of Passportes and goeth apparelled in a Spanyshe lether Jerkynne with longe cutts and a payre of venesyans of canvas cutt', selling his services at Chelmsford Fair on Mayday 1590. 🗃️

!!!!

Very excited for this year's Catherine Silverstone Lecture at QMUL by Prof Lynette Goddard (RHUL) on 'Family Memories and Intergenerational Inheritance in Black British Queer and Trans Plays'! 20 May at 7pm followed by a wine reception. All welcome: book here www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/annual-cat...

Delighted to announce the upcoming Colloquium on Medievalisms, co-organised with CREMS in person at Queen Mary University of London! Please join us on Saturday, 2nd May, for some medievalists' fun! 😊 Registration via link: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/medievalis... Looking forward to seeing you there!

Magnificent cloth of gold and red silk damask velvet cope commissioned by Henry VII late 15th century, likely worn by Wolsey in France in 1521 📷2021 the Stonyhurst vestments at Hampton Court ‘Gold and Glory’ exhibition #textiletuesday #Tudortuesday

👇 😍

It was so much fun to speak at this event last month, and to meet talented designers and innovators working with leather today. From fish leather to goat parchment, you can learn more about their fabulous work here leathersellers.org/leather-ligh...

Three great postdocs are available in Trento as part of the "Travellers’ interactions in early modern Italy" project. Deadline 8 May: jobs.fbk.eu/Annunci/Jobs...

So so pleased to see that my book ‘Body Size in Early Modern Germany’ is now available on Oxford Academic ahead of its print publication later this month: academic.oup.com/book/62409 🎉🎉🎉 To mark its online publication, I thought I’d share a bit more about the book and its contents...

!!! Another great article on premodern touch

If anybody has any references in letters or diaries to cuts or rashes caused by shaving in the 17th and 18th centuries, I would be very grateful if you wouldn’t mind sharing them.

it was a real pain not being able to get into the Banqueting House while researching a recent article (britishartstudies.ac.uk/issues/29/ki...), but how amazing that it's now possible to get this much closer to Rubens' ceiling paintings!

Money for UK-based historians engaged in research and/or public history. #Skystorians

I'm really looking forward to this event on Monday, where I'll be discussing William Bedwell with Prof. Alastair Hamilton and the curators of the Bedwell exhibition, Deborah Hedgecock & Bridget MacKernan. There's still time to sign up if you'd like to come along! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/william-be...

Catharina van Hemessen's 'Portrait of a Woman' Picture of the month March 2026 from London's National Gallery www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/pi... #womenartists #artherstory

🚨 LATE SUBMISSION WINDOW OPEN 🚨 We've had a withdrawal from one of these sessions and would be very keen to include another paper - please do not hesitate to reach out if you're interested, and to help us spread the word. Many thanks!! #skystorians #medieval #medievalsky #premodernrace #imc2026

We're looking for more book chapters! For anyone working with network analysis on any period in history: check it out! Deadline Friday 13th March - send abstracts to [email protected] #digitalhumanities #cfp #skystorians

Ugly to see ECRs pitted against established scholars. No doubt what IS imperilling disciplines is years of under-investment in universities, the huge waste of time and resources that goes into the REF, and the government's xenophobic attitude towards international students and scholars.

'For Caravaggio, clothing was not primarily about meaning, not primarily a language. Clothing allowed him to paint the drama of touch – of sensation... What we are drawn to is Caravaggio’s rendering of the intimacy between flesh and world, simultaneously seductive and repellent.'

Less than a week left to apply for this 🗃️

Delighted to be co-leading 'Leather Lightning Talks' with the Leathersellers' Company at 6pm on 18 March 2026 at the Hall. This brand-new event showcases alumni innovation in British tanning and leather, from fish skin cycling vests to Edwardian women shoe-makers. If you'd like to come, message me!

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...

Back in the time when the sun was pink