A lovely obituary for Prof. Betty Hageman, who helped found early modern English women’s studies. She collaborated with my husband Peter Beal in locating the manuscripts of Katherine Philips and was our beloved friend. www.kernfuneralhome.com/obituaries/E...

The Hoxne Hoard was buried some time after AD407/8 when Roman rule was breaking down in Britain. It was made up of gold jewellery, including this body chain, silver tableware and more than 15,000 gold and silver coins. Read more about the hoard on this link: www.smithsonianmag.com/history/sear...

Fabulous Roman gold body chain!🤩 A jewelled mount set with amethyst & garnets, and a rear clasp set with gold coin of emperor Gratian. Late 4th century AD. Part of the Hoxne Hoard, discovered by a metal detectorist in Suffolk in 1992. British Museum 📷 by me #FindsFriday #Archaeology

It’s here! Bayeux Tapestry Arrives in U.K. After Maximum-Security Operation www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/a...

wæter-sēaþ, m.n: a well, reservoir. (WAT-er-SAY-ath / ˈwæ-tɛr-ˌseːaθ) Image: Speculum humane salvationis; Austria, 1432; @bne.es ms. B.N.Vit 25-7, p. 37. #OldEnglish #WOTD

Thrilled to have my research on Elizabeth's letters, conducted on @misswalsingham.bsky.social 's FEATHERS project, in The Times: www.thetimes.com/article/093f...

The Trustees of the British Museum declined to buy the panels of the Franks Casket #OTD in 1858. ‘They had never committed a greater act of folly,’ said the Keeper of Manuscripts. The museum’s Augustus Wollaston Franks – it is named after him – bought it instead. 📸British Museum

Exciting news - our online platform of over 650,000 metadata records of UK doctoral theses (EThOS) is now available again  Find out more about EThOS and how to use it on our website link.bl.uk/kxk

I will be signing at The ARC festival this Sunday from 1-2pm at the @goshcomics.bsky.social sky.social table. @arcfestivallondon.bsky.social al is an exciting, new, free comics festival in London on the 11th and 12th of July. Come along! www.arc-london.uk

Currently wishing we were here with a good book 🥵 (ps we have aircon if anyone needs to cool off) 🎨 Kriegs Flugblätter des Simplicissimus by Carl Lendecke & Friedrich Otto, 1914; F60136-34

🐻 “Bear With Me” — By Getting Up To Stuff in Bristol, UK 🇬🇧 When Sculptures Feel Alive (14 Photos): streetartutopia.com/2026/07/10/s...

“Omnibus” — it’s all good…

Ancient Greek bronze Corinthian helmet, dated to about 460 BCE. From Olympia, Greece. The inscription states that the Argives dedicated the helmet to Zeus as spoil won in battle against the Corinthians (info from museum caption). The British Museum. 📷 me.

Exactly!

Archives Fest is this Sunday at The National Archives. I'm speaking about treason records (Anne Boleyn's trial record will be on display) so I can promise alleged incest and gruesome executions. Good clean family fun. www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/whats-on/eve...

Love this

Ancient Greek bronze Corinthian helmet dating to ca. 600 BCE. Archaeological Museum of Ancient Corinth, Peloponnese, Greece. 📷 by me. #AncientBluesky

A very highly recommended exhibit (and it’s free): Elizabeth I, Queen & Court, featuring Leicester, Burghley, Robert Cecil, and my crush, Robert Devereux, at Philip Mould Gallery in London: philipmould.com/exhibitions/62…philipmould.com/exhibitions/...s/

2/2 The Armada Portrait: epitome of Elizabethan art. Flat, verbal, syntactic, brilliant. Probably not by George Gower but posting it for his day.

Elizabeth I: The Drewe portrait. Very compelling sense of a real face amid all the sartorial glamour. By George Gower, whose day is today.

Wow, these ancient Egyptian linen tunics are 3,400 years-old! They belonged to Kha, who was the ‘director of works’ responsible for the design and construction of royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings. 📷 Museo Egizio, Turin collezioni.museoegizio.it/en-GB/materi... #Archaeology

2/2 Next came the famous Siena sieve portrait by Flemish painter Quinten Metsys the Younger, 1583. Gorgeous! But the conceit was thoroughly English and belonged to George Gower.

Elizabeth I in the Plimpton sieve portrait, 1579. “I see all and much is lacking.” Critical! By George Gower, whose day is today.

Mary Denton, only 15 years old & wearing several kinds of lavish bobbin lace wrapped in gold wire, plus gold chains & jewels, to be painted by George Gower in 1573. It’s been his day today.

🧵Richard III was crowned King at Westminster Abbey on 6 July 1483. The white boar was a symbol of Richard and was used by his household and followers between the 1470’s and his death at Bosworth Field in 1485. This silver gilt livery badge

My latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com #heatwave

We rely on the fantastic support from Cambridge Colleges' Conservation Consortium whenever one of our MSS leaves on loan Sometimes the loan item is exceptionally special 📖⛪🤩 Head of Conservation, Flavio Marzo, offers a peak to the back-stage: www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/articles/bri... #medievalMSS

Born on this day in 1887, in Belarus, Marc Chagall. Painter with a marvelously fecund and fantastical imagination. Here, his self portrait with seven fingers. He kept them all busy!

Delightful little brown mouse nibbling at a walnut. From a #Roman ‘unswept floor’ mosaic by Heraclitus. Superb use of darker tiles for subtle shadow effects! 2nd century AD. Vatican Museums www.museivaticani.va/content/muse... #MosaicMonday #Archaeology

A trolley full of manuscripts, fragments and scrolls for my presentation this afternoon @bodleian.ox.ac.uk. What could be better? It’s not rhetorical…

The Library is also home to another amazing document from this period in American history: Thomas Jefferson's own draft of the Declaration of Independence, which he worked on with John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. www.loc.gov/item/mtjbib0...

The National Archives has the handwritten & signed copy of the Declaration. The Library has two of the older, typeset copies made at a Philadelphia print shop on July 4th & 5th, 1776. Just 26 of ~200 copies made in this first printing are known to still exist. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtIv...

Fascinating Declaration of Independence 🇺🇸 facts: The printed copy on the right actually pre-dates the more well-known, handwritten copy on the left, which wasn't produced or signed by John Hancock and other members of the Continental Congress until weeks AFTER July 4, 1776. 🧵

Fantastic!

Here’s what just turned up at The National Archives, Kew: 🇺🇸 www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

The change emphasizes the weight of words & Jefferson’s keen ability to choose them. "Subjects" evoked the monarchy the Founding Fathers were rejecting, while "citizens" indicated the forging of a fresh path. Read more about how the discovery was made. ⬇️ blogs.loc.gov/preservation...

Upon closer examination under the microscope, it’s evident there is a word underneath the smudge, and the word “citizens” is judiciously written on top. Spectral imaging reveals that Jefferson first wrote “our fellow subjects."

Ahead of Independence Day, a story brought to you by Library of Congress scientists. Throughout June 1776, Thomas Jefferson was drafting what we now know as the Declaration of Independence. As he edited, he made neat strike outs. In one instance, though, there's an obvious smudge. 🧵

Searching for: Lecturer in Medieval Literature Location: Newcastle, GB DL: 9 July 2026 Fixed Term, 10 months Sept 2026 - June 2027 Salary: £36,636 to £38,784 jobs.ncl.ac.uk/job/Newcastl...

Rare glass king piece from a ‘tafl’ gaming set, a strategy board game played in the Northern British Isles some 1,200 years ago. From Lindisfarne, Northumberland. 📷 Digventures #Archaeology

It’s my 36th ancient relic from each country in the #WorldCup. This is SCOTLAND 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 This is the extraordinary Hunterston Brooch, a Celtic-style silver brooch with gold and amber decoration. It was used to pin a cloak and is thought to have belonged to a king just prior to the Viking age. 🕰️c700 AD

Tickets to see the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum went on sale this morning (I was in a virtual queue for 2 1/2 hours but got the tickets I wanted). Link: www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/...

July is the time for the mower with his scythe. #medievalcalendar Bodleian Library MS. Rawl. D. 939; Astrological and ecclesiastical calendar in six pieces; 14th century; England; section 2ar @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

💕💞

Frida #WomensArt

My latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com

We are recruiting for a Curator of Ancient and Medieval Manuscripts. For further details, and information on how to apply, please see the advert below. The deadline for applications is 12 July.

More of our villa mosaic being uncovered today, at Halberton, Devon #MosaicMonday

Super-niche query based on my ongoing research on #earlymodern women and accounting: is there any work that's been done on Spanish women and numeracy--or even numeracy in Spain more generally? I'm thinking of something similar to @afroide.bsky.social and @jmotis.bsky.social 's work on England.