Remarquable exposition "Esclaves en Méditerranée, XVIIe-XVIIIe siècle" à l'Institut du Monde arabe. Documentation centrée sur la France et sur l'Italie, mais un très bon aperçu des conditions de vie des esclaves, chrétiens comme musulmans, à cette époque. Jusqu'au 19 juillet 2026.

Does anyone have recommendations for the best laser cutter settings for making letterpress woodcuts? I am using Lightburn software. I am trying to replicate some 18c woodcuts. #letterpress #bookhistory

#maritimehistory #tacit knowledge #environmentalhist

I did a research deep-dive into whaling and the northern fisheries while writing this poem about systemic human predation & individual ethics: a deck-bombing fulmar looking for offal scraps makes an appearance. www.badlilies.uk/catherine-ro...

To be very clear, I'm not trying to use the AI — I'm just trying to read the court documents. It's clear that the AI is programmed to replace offensive language. But what does that mean when it's being used to summarize historical documents? What happens when people rely on the summary?

Recently, FamilySearch digitized and uploaded tons of microfilmed records, including many from 18th-century Massachsuetts. They're using some sort of AI to transcribe/summarize the handwritten documents. I've noticed that the AI strips out references to race and enslavement in 18thc documents.

I am a human data center, and you are one too. If anything needs more energy, and care, it is us. And not machines.

More than just books and pictures— also globes and nautical instruments! A one-stop shop for #earlymodern #maritime practitioners! #bookhistory :-)

Frame-maker’s workshop, drawn by Salomon de Bray of Haarlem, whose day is today.

A writer thinks genAI great at coding but bad at writing. A coder thinks it's great at writing but bad at coding. Neither consider that genAI isn't good at anything! At all! It has no practical, responsible, or ethical use!

#earlymodern #flowerfriday

This is obvious and has been so for some time now, but then I'm a historian so I would say that. A working world of low-quality derivative slop places a premium on genuine, original, articulate, and critically conscious employees. That is the literal type of graduate the humanities produce.

Canvas is down, ye say? Aye lad hearken to me and I'll tell thee of a time when a man might say canvas was down! When the leviathan booms his bulk upon ye an' thy splintered masts surrender their sails to the foaming, merciless drink!! then, lad, ye say might say with some authority that can (1/135)

"Computing incunable."

I had a great time speaking with Sophie Rose about her new book! This pairs so well with Lamotte's book as a study of empire, gender, sex, race, religion and law. This really enjoyable, in-depth discussion is a great introduction to this must-read book for historians of the Dutch empire 🗃️

@mark-carney.bsky.social "AI" is clearly not the future, so can the Canadian government please quit propping up an industry run by delusional billionaires intent on destroying society and the environment?

A free press is under threat around the world. On #WorldPressFreedomDay, we stand with journalists facing imprisonment, harassment, and violence. We oppose efforts to retaliate against reporters and punish journalism. A free press must be defended.

✉️ Explore 145,000 medieval merchant letters as a live map: the correspondence network of Francesco di Marco Datini (c.1363–1412), spanning Florence to Barcelona to North Africa. Visualise routes, travel times & seasonality. docuracy.github.io/datini/ #DigitalHumanities #MedievalHistory

🧵 In 1691, a French shipmaster and his crew were invited onboard an English vessel in the port of Tunis to eat. He proceeded to hit the English shipmaster over the head with his weapon, and his crew seized the vessel. In response, Tunis detained 15 or so French vessels. How did Marseille respond?

Life stages of a historian- thread. 1. Oooh I wonder what the archives say about X. 2. Wanders down multiple rabbit holes. 3. Discards several ideas because people have already written about them. Why. But do I like their take on it? 4. Collects more material.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Maritime histories from the margins, 1500-present, 11-12 November 2026. Share your proposals for an interdisciplinary conference co-convened by the Centre for Port Cities and Maritime Cultures, University of Portsmouth, and the Royal Museums Greenwich www.rmg.co.uk/call-papers-...

Dutch printing pals: What's the English for "Afslagen" as in what this pic from the fab Plantin-Moretus Museum is showing here? Are these strikes that haven't yet been justified as matrices? search.museumplantinmoretus.be/Details/coll...

Every time I see someone talk about Claude I think about how they switched from female to male names as soon as they wanted the robots to seem like experts vs personal assistants.

Want to go to there

Cornelis Dusart (#BTD 1660) appreciated that peasants too liked a good book! Hope you're enjoying one today too.

2/2 Man. Reading. Drawn by Cornelis Dusart, who was born on this day in 1660.

We have finally completed the digitization of this unique work, so as of now it is available online for all #earlymodern #rarebooks #bookhistory people to enjoy! ☞ dams1.antwerpen.be/asset/KIataT...

3/3 Unhappy ending to Cabral's story -- as they traveled onward, his fleet hit storms and many ships were lost. And from there, things just got worse! Drawing from Memória das Armadas, c.1568.

There's still space on my Summer course. I promise a week of highway robbery, pickpockets, pirates, burglary, murder, execution, & more. It'll be great fun! Crime & Punishment in Early Modern London & the Home Counties | Oxford Lifelong Learning, University of Oxford share.google/sEp55JVrpBtZ...

Hey! Look! A maritime history workshop on women and the sea, with online registration open, happening next week! www.swaan.org/registration Check out the program! www.swaan.org/program #maritimehistory #swaanproject

Maya Angelou on the joys of being edited

#Ontario Opposition Leader #NDP #MaritStyles questions rationale of Premier #DougFord purchase of a private #jet for his use. #cdnpoli #ONpoli

Ford's Private Jet: at least we finally know what he's been doing with the $6 billion he cut from our children's education

Learn more about maritime printed ordinances from the Hanseatic League! New blog 'Law on the High Seas' by Arthur der Weduwen, our co-director and head of the COMLAWEU project Read it here: ustc.ac.uk/news/law-on-...

The Bibliographical Society of America is participating in a social media campaign with ACLS this week, and we invite you to join in! The message is simple and proactive: we need more humanities and social sciences scholars and research. #TalkAboutHumanities

Letter from the presidents of the Canadian Historical Association and the Institut d'Histoire de l'Amérique Française regarding Carney government's decision to close the Parks Canada library and decommission its collection

Dream positions: 3 (!!) PhD placements at the Prize Papers with emphasis on finding students with the following language skills: French, Spanish, Dutch, and Scandinavian languages. (Of course, I emphasize the Dutch language!) www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/professional...

Received in mail this new annotated edn. of The Descent of Man by #CharlesDarwin (@princetonupress.bsky.social) & I like this bit in the acknowledgments from Elizabeth Yale, about her children referring to "Mom's Darwinning" while she & coauthor James Costa were working on it. #histsci #HPS #books

Rachel Feldberg shares how the discovery of a young women's diary revealing an interest in science, culture, and sociability in York sparked collaborative research, a conference, and a book that brings Jane Ewbank’s world to light. #18thC #BookSky #skystorians Read the blog > buff.ly/ATgu3WP

OK, fellow early modernists, this I'm teaching the grad seminar on early modern Europe for the first time in 5 years. What monographs in English, preferably in paperbook/ebook formats, can you recommend that work well in seminar instruction? And thanks! #earlymodern 🗃️

Still time to vote in #DH Awards 2025, the #DigitalHumanities Awards awareness event. Anyone can vote (once) up until 2026-04-17. Anyone? Yes, anyone. Your aunt can vote, your highschool friend can vote, anyone! dhawards.org/dhawards2025... (or secure form directly at forms.gle/FvWp3NYs8hv1...)

The longer I spend in digital humanities, the more I am obsessively drawn to analog technologies and convinced we must actively and intently teach them or the digital world loses its color, texture, and depth.

Library and Archives Canada will eliminate 152 employee positions and 9 executive positions. 70 indeterminate positions were eliminated in 2025 prior to the announcement of the most recent budget cuts.

Currently, Library and Archives Canada (LAC) receives $208 million from the federal government. It will see a permanent annual cut of $22.1 million, which means spending cuts of nearly $50 million over the next three years.

Jesus this thread is brutal, Canada is decimating federal funding for their libraries and archives including completely cutting libraries in prisons & entirely removing the register of historic places

Another day, another power-grabbing omnibus bill from the reckless Ford Conservatives. This education bill cuts communities out, sidelines local trustees, and hands more control to the Minister. More power from Toronto. Less voice for you. #onpoli www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/poli...

It's great to see my review of Benjamin Darnell's "Maritime Power and the Power of Money in Louis XIV’s France: Private Finance, the Contractor State, and the French Navy" online. This is a remarkably learned and thoughtful analysis of a profoundly challenging topic – historians owe him a great debt

The League of Canadian Poets’ @canadianpoets.bsky.social theme for National Poetry Month this year is Land & Sea. More here: poets.ca/offerings/pr...