I still miss doing A-Level Physics past papers (not a sentence I ever dreamed I would write). Something about the finality of the 'correct' or 'incorrect' answers...

Reminder: the deadline for proposals for the panels @drkrisztinailko.bsky.social and I are running on high medieval political culture is next Tuesday! Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions

This is basically the range of the emotions that you experience if you catch a train from Cologne to Berlin. You will live all of this in the space of four hours.

Delighted to announce that Krisztina Ilko and I are organising a set of panels for next year's IMC as a continuation of the some of the themes of the Bonn workshop back in January, this time focusing on chronological shifts in high medieval political culture. Details below and do feel free to share!

Been meaning to post this for a while but, as some of you already know, I heard in May that I was successful in applying for a two-year postdoctoral fellowship from the Gerda Henkel Stiftung. After what had been a very difficult year, I am enormously grateful to the Stiftung for their support

I’m not saying this is a cover up for Otto I coming back from the dead. I’m just saying that if the Holy Lance in Vienna goes missing we’ll know why.

In the run up to Leeds, I am indeed feeling quite chicken-like today (from Carlo Ginzburg's 'Our Words, and Theirs A Reflection on the Historian’s Craft, Today')

From Björn Weiler's cousin Jens. Do feel free to share the photos with those who will wish to see them. The phrase we used was a favourite one of Matthew Paris as Björn had examined in some detail. We hope he would have found it fitting.

Does anyone happen to have a pdf. of Nigel L. Ramsay and Margaret Sparks' 'The cult of St. Dunstan at Christ Church, Canterbury' in St. Dunstan. His Life, Times and Cult pp. 311-323? Would be very grateful for a copy!

Very excited to be involved with this alongside my Exeter colleagues!

Absolute genius www.youtube.com/watch?v=28vZ...

Your 'pro-growth' government deliberately designing policy to put off international students from studying in the UK. As usual these days when Labour announces a new white paper, I am reminded of that Malcolm Tucker line. 'Think the unthinkable?! You can't even cope with thinking the thinkable!'

There is something bordering on abusive in the way ministers today are talking about public services – Jacqui Smith on universities, and Yvette Cooper on care homes. They are blaming institutions for decisions forced on them by government, without admitting they or changing anything.

There are plenty of proposals out there for a system which could secure broad consent, based on the country's needs and vulnerabilities on the one hand and the dignity of immigrants on the other. A government with a big majority, four years out from an election, could pursue that kind of plan.

Would any colleagues happen to have access to 2022 issue of the Zeitschrift für bayerische Landesgeschichte, specifically 'Der deutsche Episkopat im Alexandrinischen Schisma' Boshof, Egon. (2022), pp. 159-196. The online availability (and Bonn's physical copies) don't include the last five years...

Permit me Lord to read about this cardinal at least once without immediately thinking of...

Admonitio

Fantastic news.

Today marks 80 years since the end of the Second World War in Europe. Earlier this year at the GHIL, Lucy Noakes (@universityofessex.bsky.social / @royalhistsoc.org) and Frank Trentmann (@bbkhistorical.bsky.social) reflected on how the war has fundamentally shaped Germany and Britain after 1945. 1/3

I don't suppose any kind colleagues happen to have access to a pdf of Mainzer Urkundenbuch. Bd. 2: Die Urkunden seit dem Tode Erzbischof Adalberts I. (1137) bis zum Tode Erzbischof Konrads (1200)? The first volume is online but alas not the second (as far as I can tell)

Watching Conclave and can't help but be reminded of Leeds

A lovely a worthy tribute to a fine scholar and dear friend.

Would I be right in thinking that the new dmgh doesn't have OCRed copies of the texts available (a useful feature of the old system)? Can OCR texts myself but would be grateful if anyone knows if the old html texts are available somehow...

Studierende und Promovierende deutscher und französischer Universitäten können sich bis zum 1. Juni für die vom @dhiparis.wisskomm.social.ap.brid.gy organisierte Studienreise "Mediävistik in München 2025" bewerben. Die RI-Arbeitsstelle München ist auch dabei. www.dhi-paris.fr/aktuelles/de...

📣The TRA Present Pasts invites interdisciplinary contributions from archaeology, history, art history & related fields to uncover the diverse and nonlinear processes that influenced the transition from antiquity to the medieval world. ℹ️More info: www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/outreach/...

Es ist wieder Zeit für einen Call for Papers: Auch dieses Jahr findet unser Forum zum britisch-irischen Mittelalter statt, diesmal am 29. September 2025 in Innsbruck. Die Frist zur Einreichung von Vorträgen endet am 28. Mai 2025. Alle Infos unter www.fobim.de/forum-2025. #medievalsky #skystorians

Today, my review of @catjarman.bsky.social’s book ‘River Kings’ (or, rather, its German translation ‘Flusskönige’) has been published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. In short: go and read the book (if you haven’t already)!

While I love this passage from Robert Caro describing the difficulty of boiling down a book to its essentials by writing an outline first, I do always wince at the last few words. Seven years...

Lovely to see this review of the Addressing Injustice in the Medieval Body Politic volume (superbly edited by @kbneal.bsky.social and Constant Mews) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

“Picts or It Didn’t Happen: Evidential Uncertainty in Early Medieval Scotland” #TitlesSearchingForAnArticle

Oh this will be very useful: a database for which saints lives are in which manuscripts.

That was exactly what I hoped it would be. A fantastic set of papers and predictably brilliant keynote lectures. Björn and Alheydis would have loved every minute of it. Incredibly grateful to @dependencybonn.de for making it happen and to all the staff there who enabled the event to run so smoothly

Very excited for the next two days and the wonderful programme we have lined up. For those of you attending online, the Zoom link should have landed in your inbox (or possibly junk folder!) on Friday. Do feel free to get in touch if you need it sent again!

Off to Björn and Alheydis fest in Bonn. Looking forward to seeing both new and old faces there! www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/en/outreach/...

Excited to receive my off-print for this ahead of the launch on Thursday. DM me for a PDF of my article. Otherwise, the full thing will go Open Access after the launch. If you want a hard copy, you can purchase it at www.sidestone.com/books/cremat...

As emphasised in this book among many others:

The Geschichtsquellen site was already brilliant, but now has a new map feature, so you can see what was written where (yes, there are a few gremlins) geschichtsquellen.de/ort?geo#~-0a-

'The study of high medieval royal sacrality, and the depiction of royal-episcopal relations in general, would instead benefit from a far broader and in-depth comparative study.'

Was delighted to be asked to write this short obituary of Jinty Nelson, one of my great academic heroes, who did much for my career (as that of countless others), for the latest @historytoday.com.

It is a bold move, to say the least, to publish something on medieval German history, to not cite (and presumably to not read) anything published on the subject in German, and then to lament that the said topic has been understudied

Does anyone have any recommendations for resources they have found useful regarding letter collections and Latin hagiography (esp. episcopal vitae) produced in Iberia circa 1000-1300? Esp. on hagiographical front everything is pointing me to vernacular texts

As the warning about slippery platforms due to inclement weather sounded, Þórdís drained her can of M&S mead and wondered what she wanted in life. Did Gunnhildr think about her? Sigh. Another day at work. She stepped onto the platform, raised her axe and with a cry charged in the direction of Pret

📚📜🔍 New course: Introduction to Medieval Spanish Palaeography – a course to learn to read medieval Iberian manuscripts and charters. 💻Online 🗓️28 April 2025 - 1 May 2025 With @ainoacastro.bsky.social & @manuelmunoz.bsky.social!! Join us!!! Now open for booking: ies.sas.ac.uk/events/intro...

Rather melacholy circumstances in which to share this, but here is the draft programme for the workshop in honour of Björn Weiler and Alheydis Plassmann, organised by Ryan Kemp (Bonn). Please email [email protected] ASAP if you would like to attend online or in person.