Can historians benefit from creative works for historical research? In this @hsnatsci.bsky.social short piece, I share how I worked w/ different types of making to research and write my recent book on 17th-c. florilegia. Thank you @dominikhhh.bsky.social & @mbaldwin.bsky.social for the invitation!

I'm working on an article about early microscopic observations of ferns and the resulting images. Taking the opportunity, the core team of #VisualizingtheUnknown returned to the Museum Boerhaave yesterday for a MicroLab to observe fern sporangia and spores through early modern microscopes together!

Het natuurtijdschrift Roots herdrukt in 2026 in ieder nummer—in een serie van 10— één plant uit de Flora Batava (2023), bewerkt door Esther van Gelder en Norbert Peeters. Januari belicht mijn vertelling over de wilde narcis en bloemenkleur!

Volume 10 (yes 10!!!) of our book series “Emergence of Natural History” @degruyterbrill.bsky.social @dgb-history.bsky.social is out #OpenAccess : @dvantrijp.bsky.social ‘s fascinating history of #fish studies / #Ichthyology Congratulations, Didi! #HistNatHist #HistSTM brill.com/display/titl...

Our Knowledge and Art Practices group had a blast and lots of interesting conversations on historical inks, pigments, and paints this morning. So nice to get back to these materials!

Join us in The Hague on 3 December for my book presentation! 🌷🌻🌵 Look forward to sharing some findings, an exciting panel on practical knowledge with amazing colleagues, and a pop-up show on reconstructions/creative works from the project. Register: tickets.kb.nl/nl-NL/Show/D... See you there! 🌺

🎁 It's that time of year – the holidays are just around the corner! Whether you're looking for gifts or want to treat yourself, take advantage of our #HolidaySale and get 40% off our #books and #eBooks! Offer valid through Dec 11. Start browsing now: 🔗 marketing.degruyterbrill.com/DGB_Sale_EN?...

My special issue on gardens and plants as laboratories of premodern science is out on @royalsocietypublishing.org #notesandrecords #nrrs #histplants #histsci #vegscilif #envhist with articles by me, Luzzini on minerals, @johedesan.bsky.social on Guy de La Brosse, Jalobeanu on Bacon, and Benharrech🌱

wrapping my presentation for this beautiful seminar at @bhmpi.bsky.social on Thursday morning (Rome time)🌿 #plantstudies #botany #premodernscience #histsci #arthistory 🌱 Do images have an epistemic role in botanical science?

Join us in Rome or online for a seminar on plant illustrations on 6 November! 🪴🌻🌿 Through images of mandrakes and ferns, @fabribald.bsky.social and I will be discussing issues in the role of images in early modern botany. www.biblhertz.it/events/43483...

Printed copies of Everlasting Flowers are gorgeous! But the digital version is #openaccess for anyone to read: brill.com/display/titl.... A book presentation takes place at the KB in The Hague on 3 December. You are warmly invited! To register: tickets.kb.nl/nl-NL/Show/D... Please share!

As autumn sets in, take a look at flowers that bloom forever 🌸🍂 In this new illustrated #openaccess book @jessiewhchen.bsky.social approaches 17th-c. florilegia as material objects reflecting the diverse plant knowledge of gardeners, compilers & image-makers! brill.com/display/titl... #EarlyModern

Surprise publication day! Earlier than anticipated, you can now read my #firstbook (digital version in #openaccess) or order a printed copy through the link. Official announcement and info on book presentation event coming soon! brill.com/display/titl... #NatHist, #HistNatHist, #flowers

I found a unique lampworking workshop where I learned how to make mung bean sprouts when visiting family in Taiwan last month. These are not skilled glasswork, but I have made my first models of economic botany of some sort! With a bonus clear sprout for further experimentation with glass painting.

June's Treasure of the Month is our new digitised collections - Linnean Online. The platform makes images of our herbaria, specimen and manuscript collections available for researchers around the world. It will also allow us to grow this important resource in the future. Read more: buff.ly/8E3OiOT

Back to the #MuseumBoerhaave to work with two rare compound microscopes from the 17th-c., one made by Giuseppe Campani and another attributed to John Marshall as the maker. So many new thoughts emerged from observing how colors and form changed under the lenses. #VisualizingTheUnknown #histsci

Post from Herbarium World on #coffee and #Planthumanities herbariumworld.wordpress.com/2025/06/16/c... @dumbartonoaks.bsky.social‬

I visited Harvard Uni. the past two weeks. A major event was giving a workshop for the Summer Institute for Technical Studies in Art @ Art Museums. For the theme Experiment, I showed how I incorporate historical reconstruction/hands-on research in my past/present projects & the related experiments.

Next week: in the final session of the Historical Food Preservation Lecture Series, @preservare.bsky.social. PhD candidates @thijselfrink.bsky.social and Tijmen Moesker will discuss brining, pickling, and smoking. 📅 June 24, 15:30-17:00 (Amst) 🌐 Online👉 buff.ly/VlbeNIz @mariekehendriksen.bsky.social

Looking forward to sharing some work-in-progress of my new research at the Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries! Feel free to join us if you are in the Cambridge/Boston, MA, area.

Browse preserved plant specimen collections to travel through history, exploring millennia of botanical experience. Herbaria may look like “plant mummies,” but they’re full of life and meaning. Join us this Thursday at 6pm to hear Maura Flannery share why they matter. Book here: bit.ly/3RZDUhy

Are you interested in the entangled history of humanities and science? Then join us at the Vossius Center of the University of Amsterdam. Applications for fellowships in 2026 are now open. Deadline: 1 June 2025 vossius.uva.nl/shared/subsi...

@l-teixeiracosta.bsky.social & I are excited to see many have signed up. There are still seats left, so register if you would like to join us for the #PlantHumanities Colloquium at @meertens-knaw.bsky.social / @huygensknaw.bsky.social, or online! Register through forms.office.com/e/YUJEB4GzuE.

@sietskefransen.bsky.social neemt deze week de account @historicivertellen.bsky.social over. Zij vertelde gisteren iets over onze #VisualizingTheUnknown project. Kijk eens!

We are delighted to announce our programme for the Spring/Summer term 2025. Our first seminar will be Ian Mell's paper 'Motifs, Policies, and Functions in East and Southeast Asia: "green space" as a travelling concept', on 1st May 2025: @ihr.bsky.social www.history.ac.uk/events/motif...

The Biodiversity Heritage Library has been a really important resource for my research! Thank you the Smithsonian for hosting this vital site for the past 20 years and hope that the BHL can find a new home soon. #ILoveBHL #OpenAccess

Want to learn more about the exciting research in #PlantHumanities in the Netherlands? Then join us on 13 May at the Spinhuis in Amsterdam or online! Register through forms.office.com/e/YUJEB4GzuE before 9 May. Please share!

I am very thrilled and very intimidated to be speaking at the Linnean Society!

Our „Emergence of Natural History“ series @degruyterbrill.bsky.social is growing! The latest volume was just published: Pieter van Wingerden's fascinating account of "The Natuurkundige Commissie in the Netherlands Indies (1820–1850)." Please get in touch if you have a #HistNatHist book proposal.

Congratulations to the editor of & contributors to Epistemic Practices & Plant Classification in Pre-Modern Botanical Knowledge: An Interdisciplinary Treatment Edited by @fabribald.bsky.social www.aup.nl/en/book/9789... It appears in the @amsterdamupress.bsky social series Scientiae Studies.

Took students of NIKI/Huygens course "From Leonardo to Steno" to the Opificio delle Pietre Dure last Friday. Excellent collection for discussing early modern art, science, & material practices and for exercising looking closely by drawing textures. We were amazed by the incredible stone paintings!

Another article I'm working on within the #VisualizingTheUnknown project is about historical three-dimensional representations of plant anatomy. What a treat to be able to see these incredible 18th- and 19th-c. wax botanical models at #LaSpecola in Florence. #histsci

This block was for an event at the National Library of the Netherlands (KB) back in February. Finally able to finish it! Image Source: Dialogus Creatorum/Twespraec der creaturen (Gouda: Gerard Leeu 1481[?]). #renaissancewoodcutting #woodcut #woodblock #blockprinting #printmaking #reliefprinting

The first Thijssen-Schoute fellowship is open to advanced doctoral students and recent doctorated. This new fellowship is an initiative of the Huygens Institute and the Dr C. Louise Thijssen-Schoute Foundation. Apply by 15 May 2025. More information 👉

Test run of working w/ #EarlyModern #microscopes at the Museum Boerhaave for a new article I'm starting! A big part of #visualizingtheunknown is to better understand what early microscopists saw & the encountered challenges by redoing their observations. Back for more observations soon. #histsci

Received my copy two weeks ago but only able to open the parcel now! Exciting book edited by @sarahabendall.bsky.social and @serenadyer.bsky.social. More info: www.aup.nl/en/book/9789... Get 20% off with discount code “AUP20”, valid until 31 March 2025.

🚨 DISCOUNT CODE 🚨 Get 20% off our edited book using “AUP20”, valid until 31stMarch 2025. The code is valid for the print and eBook via the AUP website and their distributor’s webshops. See link below!

In case you missed the publication of our new issue right before Christmas, do check out our interdisciplinary issue on printing privileges in #Earlymodern Low Countries #Skystorians

So delighted that this book is out and honored to be part of it. All the chapters are so exciting! Check out my new chapter on early modern woodcutting knowledge. It was great to document and reflect on my past experimentations. More questions also emerged from this chapter for future work.

@serenadyer.bsky.social & I are thrilled to announce that our edited book is out now! It focuses on how processes of making, experimenting, experiencing, & reconstructing illuminate understandings around manual labour & material life. Overview 🧵 on 📕 chapters & our contributors! 👇

New from @amsterdamupress.bsky.social - Embodied Experiences of Making in Early Modern Europe: Bodies, Gender, & Material Culture Ed. @sarahabendall.bsky.social & @serenadyer.bsky.social aup.nl/en/book/9789... Read the intro (no paywall!) here: assets.ctfassets.net/4wrp2um278k7...

Check out our new special issue edited by Marius Buning and Marlise Rijks on printing privileges in early modern Low Countries emlc-journal.org/issue/view/1...

Super happy to see Elizabeth Bacon Eager's comments in "Panorama" about Andrea Pappas' book "Embroidering the Landscape"! Read the full review at journalpanorama.org/article/embr... Visit the @lhartbooks.bsky.social website for more info about the book: www.lundhumphries.com/products/emb...

I talked about some of the stunning botanical books in the Teylers collections on day 2 of VisionLab! We focused on the various book formats and how the physical sizes of the picture planes affected the depictions of plants & microscopic observations. #VisualizingtheUnknown

Jumping right into action with day 1 of VisionLab, in which we looked at books on butterflies & moths at the Teylers Museum, Haarlem. Discussions centered around how to visualize microscopic observations of the insects through prints and related challenges. #VisualizingtheUnknown

Really excited to share that, as of today, I will be working as a postdoc researcher in the project Visualizing the Unknown, which investigates early modern scientific observation, representation, and communication of microscopic studies and images! visualizingtheunknown.com

Als je de Nederlandse wetenschap wil afbranden, mag je hopen dat er daarna niets meer in de fik gaat. #DoeHetNiet

Can’t believe I haven’t announced this here, yet: Out now: volume 7 of our @degruyterbrill.bsky.social book series Emergence of Natural History. "Insects and Colors between Art and Natural History" ed. by Dr. V.E. Mandrij & Giulia Simonini. #OA #EntHist #ArtHist #HistSTM #HistNatHist 📗🗃️🖼️

I’ve been keeping those to personal accounts. For projects, research centres, seminars, etc., see @srsrensoc.bsky.social’s Starter Pack: go.bsky.app/LLzFj3b

This block was very suitable for practicing cutting curved lines. Image source: Acanthide from Conrad Gessner's Historiae Animalium Liber III. qui est de Avium natura (1585).