Unfolding the multiple lives of a shipbuilding manuscript: Our first Artefact of the Month in 2026 is known as 'Fragments of Ancient English Shipwrighty' and reveals the interactions between mathematics and practice in the Scientific Revolution: uhh.de/csmc-aom-35

here: www.youtube.com/live/u16QHaI...

The most exciting #BookHistory talk of the season is coming up next week! Join us @ransomcenter.bsky.social or online as Ann Blair delivers the 2026 Pforzheimer lecture. This talk has Erasmus, Gessner, and volumes both large &small! Learn more: www.eventbrite.com/e/pforzheime... #booksky 🗃️📜📚

Ok, I am done - off this rabbit trail. It was fun and I learned more about acoustic machines and their relationship to the practical aspects of shell collection in the 17th century.

A short to add to this, as I went down the rabbit hole: "Musaeum Kircherianum" on right. "Phonurgia Nova" on left.

I also love how this apparatus looks like it has been modeled after a giant conch shell!

happy first day of school to semester colleagues please enjoy this jameson syllabus from January 1996

The FT is not mucking about today www.ft.com/content/ad94...

📢 Call for Papers 📢 2026 Commodities of Empire workshop: “Locating Knowledge: Science and Technology in Commodity Frontiers.” 📍 Madrid, 2–3 September 2026 ⏳ Submission deadline: 14 February 2026 👉 CFP: commoditiesofempire.org.uk/events/ @davidedgerton.bsky.social @samuelcoghe.bsky.social

Interested in the history of cities and how people shape urban space? 🏙️ Join us at the Urban History Evening: Keynote + Social for an interdisciplinary roundtable, followed by drinks and a networking opportunity 20 January at 5pm Alison Richard Building, CB3 9DP https://bit.ly/4j0zl3i

🎺 Are you interested in exploring Connections, Conversation, Contention: Encounters in the Medieval and Early Modern World? Then consider submitting a paper to the 20th annual conference, taking place 13 and 14 July 2026 at St John’s College, Durham University!

Really really really excited to announce that I have finalized my STS (STHS) syllabus for this Spring semester at Tennessee as part of our new interdisciplinary program, artsci.utk.edu/academics/pr... This will be the first year at UTK that an STS course has been taught!

New semester, new books! Check out this wonderful, ever changing, list of books available to review for H-Environment! #envhist #envhum #aghist #energy #climate #animalstudies #ecocrit #plantstudies #waterhist #envphil #envtech #histsci #conservation #sustainability docs.google.com/document/d/1...

This 2022 monograph by Jane Hwang Degenhardt combines perspectives from #EconomicHistory & #LiteraryStudies of #EnglishRenaissance drama, asking how #Shakespeare, #Marlowe, Heywood, Dekker etc. put ideas of #globalisation on the #EarlyModernStage 🌍 opac.sub.uni-goettin...

Now use it in a sentence: She deploys zeugma, linking clauses and concepts.

My online course 'Welsh #History Early Modern #Wales (c.1485-1815) will be starting soon with Lifelong Learning at Aberystwyth University. Explore the history of Wales, including your own local and family history, throughout the Early Modern. Visit aber.ac.uk/en/lifelong-... for more information.

In "Biologists Unite," Daniel Chiu Suarez provides an inside account of the rise and fall of ecosystem services, a burgeoning field of science dedicated to analyzing the many valuable “services” nature provides to humanity. Available #OpenAccess: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255338...

Great job in a great department

On of the coolest things I have seen all year - literally!

I'm hiring 2 postdocs on my Wellcome project "How Did Infectious Diseases Become Wild?: Plague, Yellow Fever, and Disease Ecology in the Brazilian Hinterland (1920-1975)" Department of Global Health and Social Medicine King's College 3 years 01/10/26- 30/09/29 Deadline: 01/02/26 shorturl.at/KZ6Vh

Apply to be the 2026-7 Munby Fellow in bibliography and history of the book @theul.bsky.social www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPZ688/m...

It is John Aubrey’s 400th anniversary this year! My next book publishes his Natural History in full for the 1st time. It is not the quaint collection of random anecdotes suggested by the heavily edited 1847 version, but cutting edge c17 science all penned with Aubrey’s characteristic brilliance.

Needs more attention perhaps. www.france24.com/en/asia-paci...

A nice dusting left in the garden.

Impromptu incredi-bab night!

Dutch world traveler Carel Quina, holding compass over Asia Minor in atlas & w/ Saint Peter's behind him. Painted 1669 by Jacob Toorenvliet.

#MedievalSky #histSTM #histmed CFP: “The Science of Natural Properties: Knowledge, Transmission, and Practice (6th – 15th century)” (Bologna, June 17-19, 2026). Transportation to Bologna is covered for speakers of accepted papers. Deadline: 15 Jan 2026. www.academia.edu/145294551/Ca...

Ghosts Behind Glass has been officially published by @uchicagopress.bsky.social! If you are looking for an absolutely gorgeous book that tackles a deeply serious topic, this is a perfect choice. Would make a really thoughtful Christmas gift. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

Applications for our UofG Library Visiting Research Fellowships close on 5th January 2026, so don't delay! ⏳ We’re welcoming applications from scholars from across the globe to work with our unique research collections. Apply now: glasgow.ac.uk/library/rese... #UofGLibraryFellows

Happy New Years Everyone!

hello. if you work at a university please ask your library to buy my book. it is all about books and libraries and also plants, museums, the Royal Society, and the ways we learn. I think it will be interesting to lots of people, hopefully. thank you www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...

Link this this cool fireworks book is below: ia902904.us.archive.org/16/items/pyr...

All of these are from the very interesting work, PYROTECHNICS: THE HISTORY AND ART OF FIREWORK MAKING BY A. St. H. BROCK, a.r.i.b.a. WITH NUMEROUS COLOURED AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS, 1922

Historical images of fireworks are amazing. A possible thread.

Soon to be that time of year!

My New Years resolution is going to be firing my inner Kevin Patullo.

Back in the BL! Looking at all things practical gauging! Here is a wonderful MS from a mathematical treatise on gauging and perspective!

“Kepler was born the son of an innkeeper’s daughter and a mercenary…This is not the environment in which parents have portraits painted of their children.” @rmathematicus.bsky.social concludes the 2025 Christmas Trilogy by analyzing the few portraits we have of the early modern astronomer. #histSTM

The coolest academic gift I have ever received! My recent article on a mug!

Birthday boy 🎁

Happy Birthday, Isaac. Merry Christmas, everyone.

Found this the other day At the BL. Wonderful little paper instrument.

I really should have booked my items in before I got to the BL. Alas, I can take in the scenes without the stress of needing to complete the PhD. So, that much is nice!

Home, again. Feels great!

Arrived safely in England! If anyone is around in the new year for a coffee or a pint - let me know!

Spotted today in @ransomcenter.bsky.social's stacks: A first-edition copy of The Time Machine (1895) signed by H.G. Wells. The catalog record indicates this presentation copy belonged to Richmond Temple but provides little additional info: search.lib.utexas.edu/permalink/01... #SciFi #booksky 🗃️📜

The natural history of British fishes: London: Printed for the author, and for F. and C. Rivington, 1802-08. (source: https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/5897280) #nature #illustration #art

It never ceases to amaze me how kind scholars are when taking the time to help others on their work. Thank you all so much for the help with finding my trout recipe!

I am looking for something very specific, so I figured I would see if you all had any ideas. I need a recipe within a Tri-State (PA, MD, NY/NJ) cookbook for Brown Trout - within the year range of 1887-1920. If you have any ideas where I might be able to find such a recipe, please do let me know

I was at Sadiah Qureshi's talk this summer at Cambridge as part of the BSHS Conference. It was the highlight of the entire conference! Do watch this equally awesome 'In Conversation'!