If you teach the History of the Book, or Information Technologies, or the long history of Text and materiality, this might be the coursebook for you—Treharne and Willan—now with StanfordUP’s 40% off. Bargain! www.sup.org/books/litera...

Amazing texture on that skin - could be goatskin? Wouldn’t like to have painted on such a bumpy surface! (But also - LOVE these blueskies! Thank you for doing them.)

Want to spend a day with me at the British Library learning how to deal with vellum and gold and paint a mediaeval animal? Link below - the courses fill up very quickly so don’t delay if youre interested. events.bl.uk/events/illum...

I can’t believe how a letter cutter’s workshop can be so clean and tidy! I visited the Lida K again during a break in Covid lockdown for a @heritage-crafts.bsky.social Lettering Luminaries ‘in conversation’ and it’s almost all I could think of - BUT the fabulous work was amazing!

Coming out of a very special The King’s Foundation event at the White Tower in the Tower of London, the lights on Tower Bridge and the South Bank just glowed! Absolutely magical!

I don’t usually post political but very well done to the great Sharon Hodgson MP who, after campaigning for years about ticket touts and sites selling tickets at hugely inflated prices, has managed to get a Private Members Bill through to stop this. What a benefit it will be to so many!

Looks like acidic oak gall ink - see how it’s eaten through the paper. Always best to work on vellum - even printing - just a tip!

I would forgive this scribe endless imperfectly removed errors for the fabulously crisp and sharp letters. I could look at them f o r e v e r!

Oh many congratulations! It’s a great read!

Love the gravestones that look as if they’re propping one another up across a path - or are they kissing??

The most incredible library in the world, @bodleian.ox.ac.uk opened to OTD 1602, through the energy, money & commitment of Sir Thomas Bodley. It began with 5k books, & now more than 22m, with 2m+reader visits a year, & multi-million online users across the globe. Privilged to be its 25th librarian!

Wishing you well in what sounds like an exciting new venture.

Are the prickings along the top the relics of where a curtain would have been do you think? They’re too irregular for guidelines I would guess.

It’s still as beautiful as when I was there for three years at university. Such a glorious difference for a London suburbs girl to be between the mountains and the sea!

I’m pretty sure that those chaps aren’t the swarthy fellas that they’re making out to be but in fact the highlights of white lead on their faces has deteriorated to grey.

Oooh - that’s my lettering for the logo!

Has the ‘manuscript porer’ got a feather duster in their right hand, or is it one of those fun pens that has colourful feathers stuck in the non-writing end??

Also love the teacher cutting quills oblivious to the classroom chaos!

A spooky church crawl today to see the amazing transi tomb of Alice Chaucer at St Mary the Virgin Church, Ewelme! ☠️🎃🍁

That is just a simply glorious page of celebration! Well done Master Hugo. Can anyone explain the man with a wooden leg try to trim the hair of a rabbit? What a start to a Sunday!

Good question! It turns out the Gothic Bodley MS is absolutely huge, 480 x 350 mm, with ruled space of 337 x 233. The Valenciennes MS is 295 x 260 mm, with no dimensions given for the ruled space, though it has minimal margins in the 2-column part of the codex and more lines per column.

That is absolutely fascinating! I would have expected the narrow upright Gothic script to take up much less room than the rounded open Caroline Minuscule. Is the length of the lines the same/similar?

Photos sometimes show a good representation of what’s in front of the camera and sometimes not. The sun on these acers resulted in the most vibrant red leaves - real show stoppers - doesn’t look like that here but it really was stunning!

I absolutely love the depiction of water in this miniature - it puts the wet streets of today in a completely different light!

This is a most fascinating article and well worth reading. Craft really is the foundation of so many good and worthwhile things in this AI age.

Oh wow! That is just amazing. The spacing on ‘Arithmetick’ is such a joy to the eye.

Hope it all goes well and that you’re able to make lots of sales and co-publishing deals!!

Sounds amazing - love the image!

This is the feast of Æthelburh (Ethelburga), 1st abbess of Barking. 🕯️ Bede describes in the early part of Bk4 of the HE how her brother Earconwald founded 2 monasteries, 1 for him and 1 for her. Here's a screenshot (BL, sigh) from BL Harley 3680, 108r, w/her name (&dilburgȩ!) & Barking's underlined.

It’s an amazing book!

@michaelrosenyes.bsky.social your podcast is so interesting on BBC Sounds. Notice my full stop? 😂

I’ve always said that when there’s a female Archbishop of Canterbury I’m on hand to give advice on lip wear bearing in mind the kissing of the St Augustine’s Gospels that are part of the inauguration ceremony!

Not long now before my ‘Gold on Parchment’ talk at the British Library as part of Silver Sunday (for 60+) on Sunday 5th October. Absolutely free but booking required. It’s also being live streamed. Please RT. events.bl.uk/events/age-u...

I’m so looking forward to this. It’s going to be incredible to have some of the documents in the room that tell the dramatic story of the battle for Elizabeth’s throne 🤩🤩🤩 @hodderbooks.bsky.social

Excitingly, Tracy has curated a display of original records relating to the tumultuous succession to Elizabeth I, including Henry VIII's will and this 1603 proclamation declaring the Scottish James VI King of England [TNA SP 14/1], which will be on display after Tracy's talk [2/3].

I copied this poor sailor falling into the ocean for a double spread of a ‘mediaeval’ manuscript I made for a spoof film associated with ‘The Wreck of the Unbelievable’ Damien Hirst exhibition in Venice. It was a fun project but then ‘aged’ so unrecognisable! www.patricialovett.com/props-for-fi...

Just registered for this - looks really interesting for similar vellum/parchment nerds!

Wow! That sounds interesting!!

Oh Nicholas Hilliard (and Isaac Oliver) - how I admire their work so much - such exquisite brushwork.

Oh come on - those letters just S I N G!!

Today is the feast of Leoba, d. 782, learned kinswoman of Boniface who began her life in religion at Wimborne Abbey and accompanied B. to Germany. BSB Clm 8112, a copy of the Bonifatian correspondence, includes Leoba's letter from Wimborne ca. 732 introducing herself to Boniface. 🕯️#nuntastic

Isn’t that an exquisitely drawn elegant hand?

For Ceolfrith's day, here are the full-res Amiatinus dedication page and fol 852r, Luke I, with a particularly find Q-guy for @rayclemens.bsky.social.

3:30pm TODAY on @BBCRadio4 It's not what you say, it's how you say it Word of Mouth Michael Rosen on the linguistic comfort food of clichés, pragmatics and how we use language to connect us beyond the actual words used. With Dr Derek Bousfield. @michaelrosenyes.bsky.social

Thanks to @patricialovett.bsky.social & @jdmccafferty.bsky.social for reminding me that we celebrate Ceolfrith today! I've had a long day taking Dolly Beagle to the vet for heartworm treatment, so I didn't prepare a post, but this is a good chance to repost my instructions on accessing Amiatinus.

My goodness - that book’s whopper!!

That is a really fab example of Uncials!

I’ve now read it and it really is fascinating!

Thanks so much - how kind of you to post this - I’ll read it with great interest.