This is insanity: Trump's DOJ is about to "settle" his lawsuit against the IRS by creating a $1.7 billion slush fund to pay off victims of Biden "weaponization." I talked to Jamie Raskin about this. It's even more corrupt than it first appears. 1/ (new piece) newrepublic.com/article/2105...

Today on the blog, Sarah Lindenbaum discusses a gifted book and two other books owned by the wonderfully named Dulcibella Dunch, giving us an indication of her library and reading practices. earlymodernfemalebookownership.wordpress.com/2026/05/04/d... #HerBook #EarlyModern

3 May 1667: The date on which Mary Palmer asserted, in Apr 1682, that she had married Andrew Marvell MP & #poet at Holy Trinity, Little Minories (TCC).

Elizabeth Boleyn was in the news yesterday, and I had to weigh in on the discussion around the Windsor sketch! Does it depict Elizabeth Boleyn? What are the issues with the research? You can read my post here: open.substack.com/pub/sophieba...

If you want to help me, here is my one ask: pread the word about the threats to democracy and how we can fight back. Subscribe to Democracy Docket for free and share its content with everyone you know. Thanks. bit.ly/4qmEiFz

Which King/Tyrant/Dear Leader are we on again?

KIMMEL: “You know how sometimes you wake up and the First Lady demands you be fired? We’ve all been there, right? — I agree hateful, violent rhetoric is something we should reject… a great place to start to dial that back would be to talk to your husband.”

The local laundromat here does the same. I picked up novel whilst waiting on Sunday morning, haven’t put it down since. 📖🤗

The ruins of Godstow Abbey, Oxford, in the twilight. A 2019 study by historian Katie Ann-Marie Bugyis ascertained that for local benefactors, the prayers of the Godstow Benedictine nuns held equal value compared to that of the nearby male communities, and that in some cases, they were valued more.

Woe betide you, humanity. A beasty fish-monster with an abbreviated warning "WEWEWE" featured on the skin. In German this stands for "Wehe, Wehe, Wehe den Mensch". Also worth mentioning: a human leg, a sword, and 3 pikes.

Adding a picture of the very pretty cover

Chandler Levack's MILE END KICKS earned strong $230K at Canadian box office last week, projected to hit $450K in theatrical run here. Top-performing theatres included Montreal's Cinema du Parc and Cineplex Forum, Ottawa's ByTowne. Context: most Cdn films would be lucky to crack $100K at box office.

Sen. Warren: "Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?" Handsome Kevin: "ummm... errr... " His response raises real questions about whether Warsh is independent of the President and if he has the courage to tell hard truths.

My new Substack post discusses Elizabeth Boleyn's apartments at palaces, castles, and manors across the country during Anne's queenship! You can read it here: open.substack.com/pub/sophieba...

It was only a matter of time: the powerful anti-abortion org Students for Life has endorsed legislation to imprison abortion patients. The move marks the biggest shift in anti-abortion politics in decades. jessica.substack.com/p/the-mask-i...

New Directions in the History of Liturgy Study Day Saturday 25 April 2026 Cambridge, English Faculty, 10-5 Tessa Webber, Henry Parkes, Juliette Day, Sarah Hamilton - & more - Bede's deathbed, Canterbury pontificals, the early history of Prime, C14th Frankfurt... royalhistsoc.org/calendar/new...

Found a Shakespeare thing; wrote about it in @thetls.bsky.social: www.the-tls.com/regular-feat....

I don't think my day can recover from "I thought it was me as a doctor." Let's call it a wrap.

I love this photo of Saint Luke with piles of manuscripts in his lap from the Gospel Book of Otto III (c. 1000 CE) (Manuscript (Clm. 4453), Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich). Probably projection, but he looks traumatized by all the reading he still needs to do before the end of the semester.

Hungary has chosen Europe. Europe has always chosen Hungary. A country reclaims its European path. The Union grows stronger.

Finder’s fee: seasonal fruit. Early modern provenance mark on the flyleaf in a 16th-century illuminated manuscript: ‘This book belongs to Catrina Leoners. Whoever finds it should return it to her for an apple or a pear…’ #rarebooks #earlymodern #bookhistory 💙📚📜

10 April 1678 #OTD Alice Thornton brought a case at the quarter sessions in Thirsk against her former servant, John Calvert, for stealing sheep. In late 1677 Thornton had owned 32 ‘fat’ sheep (i.e., ready for slaughter) but they all mysteriously disappeared from the meadow near her house. 🗃️ 📜

BREAKING: Following the American threat of an “Avignon Papacy,” Robert Kennedy has begun a Diet of Worms

all these universities kept axing medieval history departments as if they thought tyrants beefing with the Pope was going to stop being relevant

Google Images consistently produces results that assume all Black people are interchangeable.

Do you or one of your colleagues need an index created for a book in the humanities? I make beautiful indexes (yes, such a thing does exist!) I have space to take on 1-2 additional projects in April/May. Get in touch!

Today (after a bit of a hiatus) a brand-new blog post by Joe Black and Hilary Ely on joint early modern inscriptions by an aunt and nice in a copy of a book by Josephus with a bit of verse earlymodernfemalebookownership.wordpress.com/2026/04/07/f... #HerBook #EarlyModern

And a Beautiful Book Binding to You

THE Emma Smith, author of Portable Magic: A History of Books and their Readers, troubles assumptions made about the First Folio, the nature of value, and how culture is communicated across time. Stay tuned for more from Emma on Throughlines this week.

Re-reading today in the memoir that William Latymer (a chaplain to Anne Boleyn) wrote for Queen Elizabeth I, that when her mother washed the feet of poor women, she also gave them more Maundy money than they expected.

✨JUST PUBLISHED✨ EDITING AN EARLY MODERN PLAY by Suzanne Gossett & Gordon McMullan a long overdue new introduction to the pleasures and challenges of editing early modern drama free to download until 04.10: www.cambridge.org/core/element... cc @loughnrv.bsky.social

National Review accuses me of lying about the rise in maternal mortality since the end of Roe: "It turns out that maternal mortality rates declined in 2024 according to the CDC." You absolute fucking tools, that's *national data*—take a look at what's happening in states where abortion is banned

Gorgeous flourishes in a woman’s spiritual diary (late 17th century) - the letters seem to take off and dance across the page #earlymodern

I’m leading this London Rare Book School course on the history of collecting. Ideal for anyone interested in studying the history of libraries and how and why books have survived. We’ll be looking at why special collections are special. 22-26 June. #bookHistory👇📚📖 ies.sas.ac.uk/study-traini...

23 Mar 1421: Catherine of Valois and Henry V keep Easter at #Leicester #otd

This is not just a “mean tweet.” This is a character assassination of an honorable public servant, a concept Trump will never understand, all to rewrite the history of Trump‘s own dishonor.

How do we know Shakespeare was Shakespeare? Historian @sdamussen.bsky.social shows how we can be certain that the glover’s son was the author behind Hamlet, King Lear and The Tempest? Join us at @toppingsbath.bsky.social on Tuesday 24th: www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/bath/... #Bath #booksky

Nothing to see here, just the original enrolled act that made Henry VIII Supreme Head of the Church of England (26 Hen VIII, c. 1). TNA C 65/143

For anyone up late and eager to be pissed off: Ohio Republicans have introduced a bill that would require every pregnancy to be registered with the state and given a "certificate of life" jessica.substack.com/p/ohio-gop-w...

17th-century version of clickbait?! Opening page of Ann Bathurst’s spiritual diary, late C17th #earlymodern

I planned to share my report on the body cam footage early next week when I learned that a DC news station had obtained some of the footage as a result of my lawsuit and they were going to scoop me. After working on this for a year, I couldn't let that happen. Published 2 mins before they aired :)

Anyone know of any pots of money for ECRs paying for image permissions?? Sorting it all out and things are adding up..

Never forget that this what The Washington Post said when Noem was nominated.

Stil life of untrimmed pages with proof corrections of the Polyglot bible #rarebooks #earlymodern #bookhistory 📚📜💙

🚨 It looks like the UK government is gearing up to upend copyright law in favour of AI companies, legalising the theft of their work. This is despite creatives' huge protests, and despite previous proposals being roundly rejected by the public. Please spread the word. 🧵 1/4

Next Thursday (March 5th) @ihrscb.bsky.social we are hosting the Written Worlds: Non-Elite Writers in #EarlyModern England. Sign up here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

23 Feb 1679: d. Anne Conway, Viscountess, #philosopher. Her body was then placed in a glass coffin #otd

#Doodles - a 17thC super-turban from a library in #Rome (JMcC)

JD Vance hinted last week that the Trump administration wants to officially stop funding family planning abroad. Not only would that be devastating globally—but would mark another key step in attacking contraception here in the U.S. jessica.substack.com/p/jd-vance-h...