From mid-February 2026, the MGH is able to make all articles from the DA and NA available in digital form, fully searchable and open access! #medievalsky mgh.de/en/publicati...

the stemma codicum of any texts that survive the Digital Dark Ages will be like [original] | [uploaded PDF] | | wikipedia chatgpt redaction summary | | chatgpt | summary ---- Papyrus of wikipedia nukecraterus N. 47

Hey, so I have a book that now exists and that you can purchase (apparently the code BB135 on the boydell webpage will get you a 35% discount) or more realistically recommend to your library! 😅 (Please don't mind the fact that I'm like a month late promoting this here...)

Paleography peeps: I'm collecting examples of premodern descriptive or evaluative (sc. judgy) language about script. E.g. Boniface requesting a book "claris et absolutis litteris scripti" because he can't read "minutas litteras ac connexas" anymore. #medievalsky 🧵

Semiotic paradox alert!

Just watched the new Knives Out and I think it's really important you know that the scene in the Seminary's Gym is filmed in the same place Rick Astley filmed the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up. I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.

HISTORY OF THE 21ST CENTURY: EXAM PART II, ESSAYS 1. Look at the following image. To what extent does the text encapsulate the cultural phenomena that led to the downfall of the American empire?

#PSA: If you feel that #KPopDemonHunters is below your lofty standards for acceptable cultural consumption, you can read Augustine's De Civitate Dei (esp. Book 8) instead. Conversely, if you have no time for Augustine's De Civitate Dei, just watch K-Pop Demon Hunters. Better soundtrack, too.

Coming soon! We are excited to share our first issue in just a few months. We are also accepting submissions for issue 2 onwards! Feel free to send any questions or ideas to @calthalas.bsky.social @sihonglin.bsky.social or me on here, or with the editors via email tinyurl.com/tph5wvmd

My new article has now been published in the 2025 volume of Traditio. I use a little examined episode on the lower Rhine in the late 350s with the aid of agricultural archaeology to reveal fiscal dependency relations between the Empire & Barbaricum, & the consequences of their rupture. #medievalsky

Well, that explains it! lol

Because what we do involves reading things, thinking very hard about them, and then writing those thoughts down, there’s this odd perception that anyone who can do that is/can be a historian, and doesn’t (usually) need to have gone through the requisite training to be one.

It frustrates me that fields such as history are increasingly becoming something of a free-for-all. Imagine the reverse, in which a bona fide history professor publishes a polemic book claiming to ‘lift the veil on secrets’ of, say, structural engineering. It’d be considered absurd, and rightly so.

A common trope here is that AI-written material is easy to spot for everyone. Please, please, dissuade yourselves of this notion. Material written entirely by AI is getting through: in BA and MA theses, in job applications, in journal articles. Probably in PhD theses. And this should trouble us all.

the best use of digital resources in medieval studies, by far, has been the simplest, namely the widespread digitisation of and free internet access to manuscripts in large numbers

Here's an interesting student question: in the game Pentiment [spoiler alert!], the player gets this message after a character dies in a burning building. It strikes me as anachronistic in several points, but I'm also not an expert in late medieval/early modern German law or contracts:

Recently gave a colleague feedback on a paper that was partly written with ChatGPT. What did I learn from this and how should we deal with cases like this? Here are some thoughts 🧵(1/x)

This is an excellent thread on the issue of using generative AI in research. One very important point is that evaluating research & research-based arguments requires work done by human agency. A machine cannot change its mind, because a machine has no mind.

My splendid translator in France, Mikael Cabon, asked me to support an urgent campaign, launching today, opposing AI being used instead of people. I do so willingly, and feel same on behalf of audiobook readers and bookworld artists. I hope readers worldwide will show their agreement.

I want to send *both* books to someone who'd find my work useful! (PP in paperback, GR in hardback—note it's also available as a free PDF! library.oapen.org/handle/20.50...) If that's you, just *quote-post* this thread, and I'll pick a recipient next week 😊 (To share without entering, just repost!)

"Can I call you back? I'm stuck in an O at the moment." St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 711; Abbreviatio Decreti "Quoniam egestas"; second half of the 12th century; p.18 (e-codices.ch/en/list/one/...)

Dear Pew Research, Please ask if people believe in the Parousia. They’ll all say No because they don’t know that word but it’s a better question and the results will be funny. Sincerely, The CTSA

This is a problem.

I'm sorry, worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable permission to my voice and likeness? For what now? In any manner for any purpose??? This is in academia/.edu's new ToS, which you're prompted to agree to on login. Anyway I'll be jumping ship. You can find my stuff at hcommons.org.

'sickos' vocitantur, de eo quod per fenestram ridentes, 'ha ha ha... sic!' clamant -Isidorus Hispalensis

While this is interestin, it seems a bit much to go from "metal production continued in one former urban centre" to (as is being suggested here) "there was no major economic shock after Roman rule," in the face of all the other archaeological evidence suggesting that there was, of whatever rapidity.

One thing I wish would come up in common discourse on justifying why it's good to learn ancient languages is it gets you used to the idea that a dictionary entry is a repertory of a lot of meanings which are defined by lots of contexts and we often don't know exactly what all or any of them mean

Absolute nightmare. Please do not let this happen @mark-carney.bsky.social As a Canadian citizen I am absolutely horrified by this proposal. This is not Canada is about 🇨🇦 www.cbc.ca/news/canada/....

New Wyclif polemic discovered! Only 250 words long, but not obviously detached from a larger work. It isn’t ascribed to him in the manuscript (no titulus or colophon) but the style is recognizably his. I’m posting it here because the content is eerily topical. #medievalLatin #medievalSky #genAI

I finally got my author copies. I'm building a nice little collection in my office.

INDO-EUROPEAN #1: *h₁ey, *knh₃ck *knh₃ck INDO-EUROPEAN #2: *kʷo's *thh₂re? IE 1: *Larry IE 2: *Larry *kʷo? IE 1: Laryngeal! 😁 IE 2: ... IE 1: *gh₂ddit? 🤣 IE 2: that was so bad I think we need to all get in our chariots and head out in all directions just to get as far away as we can from you

Divination may seem silly but it's been done throughout history! There are several forms: Sortes Biblicae, opening the Bible at random Sortes Vergilianae, opening the Aeneid at random Sortes AI, asking a regurgitated pile of slop whether you should add sulfuric acid to your chili for an extra kick

Dismayed to see the imminent demise of Digizeitschriften (like JSTOR for German-language journals). Anyone know the backstory? www.digizeitschriften.de/page/faq

Been rather a long time in the making, but finally have proofs!

Sadly in the case of Latin many people *don’t* realize this, even though it’s the obvious corollary of the original point about the accessibility of European history. This drum needs constant banging for strategic purposes to prevent the discipline(s) from becoming a joke: bsky.app/profile/brun...

Because, unfortunately, his videos get a lot of traction, for my sins I'm now watching Rowsell's attempt at a 'debunking' of Sayer et al. 2025. I'm ten minutes in out of 60 I've identified what is 1 certain and 2 possible (tbc) major, basic factual errors on his part that directly hit his argument.

I am one of the 14 authors who chose to leave the Polari Prize, and I find myself frustrated and saddened at the way this entire story has been represented. 1/

My book is out! Medieval Responses to Ovid's Exile, with Cambridge UP @universitypress.cambridge.org. I am so grateful to the friends, family, colleagues, librarians and archivists who helped along the way. Nervous and excited to see it in the world! www.cambridge.org/core/books/m...

Been rather a long time in the making, but finally have proofs!

The paper on “Updown Girl”, a fascinating find buried in the supplementary data from Gretzinger et al. 2024, is finally out!

Proofs!

apocalyptic literature is like,

The brilliant @lmbd1418.bsky.social has suggested people write to the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper re: my case. If you could spare five minutes, she's created a draft letter which you can use to send to [email protected]. I appreciate everyone's support. ❤️ docs.google.com/document/d/1...

French Revolution document rifle continues! Let’s just not think too much about what these personal papers might be stained with eh 😬😬😬

OMG PEOPLE! I have the BL hack of all BL hacks. Why didn't this occur to me before? It turns out the Wayback Machine has snapshots of MS metadata from the old Digitised Manuscripts site. I tried it for the Benedictional of St. Æthelwold, in honor of his day, and lo! web.archive.org/web/20140305...

It is not reassuring to learn that a clerk at Bonn's Ausländeramt (the office which processes citizenship applications), appears to have used terminology commonly only found among Reichsbürger (a far-right conspiracy theory that denies the legitimate existence of the present German state)

For the fans of the eleventh century (there are dozens of us!), here's a 30% pre-order discount from @oxunipress.bsky.social on my book, due out next month.

My last living musical hero is still my hero but unfortunately no longer living. RIP to the great, great Mr. Tom Lehrer.

The incomparable Tom Lehrer has died 🥲