Secrets & confessions in Antwerp cathedral at night, 1638, by Pieter Neefs the Elder. Today was his day.

2/2 A real church this time: Antwerp Cathedral, painted by Pieter Neefs the Younger in 1660. He was in fact baptized on this day in 1620, and today is his (shared) day.

His face. His hand. His pillow. Albrecht Dürer, in 1493. Today was his day.

Born on this day in 1471, the incomparable Albrecht Durer. Just a complete dandy in his 1498 self portrait. I mean, the cap! The braided strap! And the gloves!! Not to mention the long curly locks.

LISTEN NOW: "The Salesman" with Ulysses Swanson, who explains how he researches transgender people through history. #genealogy #ancestry #FamilyHistory

I was REALLY lucky to see her live in Nueva Yol in 2010. QEPD.

Born on this day in 1593, in Antwerp, my younger colleague Jacob Jordaens. Here with his family (and the pets) in 1621, by himself.

On February 21, 2026, #StolenMemory volunteer Nathalie Letierce-Liebig handed over Stanislaus Szydlewski’s personal effects to his nephew Harry. She carried out digital research in three countries before eventually locating Stanislaus’s relatives. Read more: www.stolenmemory.org/en/personal-...

Greed and chaos, get rich quick schemes meet corruption. The (South Sea) BUBBLERS bubbl'd (c 1720). I swear I wasn't looking for it I just opened a drawer @jcblibrary.bsky.social.

#MosaicMonday takes us to the #CapitolineMuseums in #Rome to find the most famous #mosaic in history, a copy of a work in #Pergamon by the mosaicist #Sosus, found at #VillaAdriana in 1737. It had many copies subsequently, and became a kind of shorthand for #classical taste. #AncientBluesky 🏺

2/2 Like a church or cloister, but a temple of commerce instead: the Amsterdam Exchange (or beurs), designed by Hendrick de Keyser and here wonderfully painted by Emanuel de Witte in 1653.

In another life, I kept a list of real people from 18th-century New England with names out of a didactic novel. Our heroine, Fanny Forward of Deerfield. Our villain, Capt. William Wanton of Newport. New entry for today: The enigmatic rural post rider, Silent Wilde.

Interesting... I'm trying to find 18th-century British Jewish people and they're often just described as "a Jew." If that were softened/removed, the search would be much, much harder.

Did Homo erectus cuddle up with Denisovans? Yes, and what's more, their Union was Blessed with Issue. Paper in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Pyx or it didn't happen. #ReliefWednesday takes us to the #Bargello in #Florence to admire this #ivory #pyx from 500-525 CE with the story of #Actaeon, yet more evidence that classical culture did not end with the coming of #Christianity. #AncientBluesky 🏺

2/2 Another great renaissance naturalist's cabinet: Ferrante Imperato of Naples. Just for comparison. Visiting these was a wild experience!

Also born on this day in 1588 in Aarhus: Ole Worm, physician & collector of everything. Famed for his cabinet of wonders.

2/2 Framed by arches, interior of Antwerp's S. Carlo Borromeo church with my painting there above the high altar. By Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg.

The Jesuit church in Antwerp, 1668, painted on marble (& how great is that?) by Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg, who was born OTD 1630. That’s my painting over the high altar, too!

Interesting, Samson drank water from the rock at Lechi ("jawbone" in Hebrew), and the Dutch Bible mistranslated that he drank directly from a jawbone, which is why it's issuing water! 👄💦 www.getty.edu/art/collecti...

The markets have tried to sell us slop LONG before AI.....

Enjoyed the Museo del Romantismo this morning, definitely falling under the spell of the 19th century recently—so many fascinating queens like Isabel II & Maria Cristina, might have to expand the scope of my early modern #queenship module! 👸

Many thanks Judith Ortega & Cristina Fernandes for the wonderful Women & Music in the Iberian Courts conference! I’ve learned so much from seeing queenly patronage through the eyes of musicologists & hearing fascinating case studies. Check out the virtual exhibition biblioteca.ucm.es/ghi/clave-fe...

Happy birthday Sir David! 🎂 www.bbc.com/news/resourc...

Sometimes, however ornate your handwriting is, it's not enough and you have to add some totally unnecessary embellishment, just because you can! A tip of the hat to the clerk responsible for this fine piece of work in the Goldsmiths Company's apprenticeship register. Is it imitating filigree work?

Died (alas!) on this day in 1651, in Antwerp, my colleague Cornelis de Vos. Excellent painter of portraits, allegories, & more. Here with his lovely family, by himself, in 1621.

The Virgin Martyrs have lined up in alphabetical order: Agnes, Barbara, Catherine, Dorothy. Love this moment of whimsy in mystical adoration of the lamb by Jan van Eyck.

My new webinar, Top 10 Free Resources for Jewish Genealogy, is now live on Legacy! It's free for the next seven days so check it out. And the comments from attendees are so nice ☺️ #Genealogy familytreewebinars.com/webinar/top-...

Deesis: Mary, reading a good book (and why not), God the Father (or is it Christ), and John, also w/ book. Reading is your pathway to divine understanding, as we learn from Van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece.

Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, died on this day in 1527 during the Siege of Rome www.medievalists.net/2022/06/sack...

Playing games & drinking because it's Tuesday night and you are... a monkey. Painted by my colleague Frans Francken.

Young man in black, 1560. Beside him, naked statue. Behind him, naked man in the garden. Also check out table, which has human-shaped feet! Must be mannerism, from Alessandro Allori, born OTD 1535.

Portrait of Sir Edward Cecil, Viscount Wimbledon. Fascinated by fact he is wearing brown rather than the standard black. So daring! Michiel van Mierevelt had an eye for fashion, and today is his day.

2/2 Smaller crucifix with exciting decapitated martyrs surrounding Christ, late 1330s. By Bernardo Daddi, on his day.

Woman in an A+ green dress, holding a pair of gloves (key fashion accessory of the renaissance), in a wonderful portrait from 1560 by Alessandro Allori. It’s his day today.

3/3 You have to look closely (and not be distracted by the cucumber!) to realize that the thing in center is a stone head, sticking out of the base & staring up at saints. Wild!! From the Camerino Triptych.

I buried the lede - this paper provides what is possibly the first genetic data on medieval Iberian Jews. Almost all of our DNA data has been on northern European Jews from Great Britain and Germany.

While I cry about Bluesky eating my long thread about the opening of the new #LACMA David Geffen Galleries, here's a puffed-up feral kitten getting in your face. OK, it's a jaguar vessel from Panama, ca. 600-900 CE. 🏺 1/ 📸 me

Saint Jerome elbows lion out of the way in excitement: a thrilling plot twist in his book! Lion is taking it well. By Marinus van Reymerswaele, whose day has been today.

Very odd portrait of a man with possibly exploding donkey in the landscape behind him. Meanwhile he points to a small maze on the ledge. By Dosso Dossi, who understood what this meant even if we don't.

Some great advice on preserving your family history records by the South Street Seaport Museum. #FamilyHistory #Genealogy southstreetseaportmuseum.org/from-attics-...

🎉🧬 Hooray for National #DNA Day! 🎉🧬 Celebrated April 25, it honors the discovery of DNA’s double helix and the Human Genome Project. GeneSprout helps parents take action early with #geneticscreening for #childhood #conditions—built for parents, backed by #science. 🎉🧬 Learn More at GeneSprout.com

Mercury: Quiet! Jupiter is making butterflies! Wonderful vision of creation from 1529 by Dosso Dossi, whose day is today.

Charles V couldn't have done it all without the royal women in his family! We talk about it this week on "Rediscovering Latinidad": www.spreaker.com/episode/seas...

A pineappleeeeeeeeeeeeee www.youtube.com/watch?v=93Ok...

From Queen Isabel of Spain to her Tudor daughter Catherine and granddaughter "Bloody Mary," check out this fun discussion about a powerful female line in history: www.spreaker.com/episode/seas...

When you eat pistachios, do you pretend to be a giant leaving behind vast middens, or are you normal? #archaeology

The Fighting Temeraire, one of the great gunships of Trafalger, being towed to her last berth to be broken up in 1838. A setting sun. By J.M.W. Turner, whose day is today.

👑 Queen Isabel of Castilla turned 575 this week, so Queenship scholars @susanabernethy2.bsky.social & @ewoodacre.bsky.social joined us to discuss Isabel & her gifted royal female line: Juana of Castilla, Catherine of Aragon, Mary I of England & more! Listen now: www.spreaker.com/episode/seas...