The most monstrous dictator in Europe since Hitler, not just appeased, but fêted, honored, by President Trump, who is seemingly intent on giving Putin absolutely everything he wants, including Ukrainian land his barbaric forces have not yet even conquered. A shameful day.

I've just heard the terrible news that my friend - and friend of many here - Andrew West, @babelstone.co.uk, the incomparably brilliant Sinologist and Tangutologist passed away suddenly but peacefully on 10th July. 1/2

The official Harvard 2025 Yearbook: “October 2023: War Breaks Out in Gaza.”

"Never again"

"This was not just a handover of an Israeli captive. It was a ritualistic humiliation. A Jew was hauled to a public square packed with men who hate her kind. She was made into a spectacle for the sport of radical Islamists. It was an outrage from another century." www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-...

"The West’s progressive dogma has deprived it of a theory of mind for savagery." telegraph.co.uk/gift/fa907a1...

ברוך אתה אדוני, אלוהינו מלך העולם, מתיר אסורים

13 Jan. 1898 - Emile Zola addresses the President of France and accuses his government of antisemitism and the unlawful jailing of Alfred Dreyfus, a French Army officer sentenced to life imprisonment for espionage. Zola points out a litany of judicial errors and an utter lack of serious evidence.

JEWISH PRINTING IN HEBREW, IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL IN 1578. This is Rabbi Samuel Aripul's "Sar Shalom", printed in 1578 by Abraham & Eliezer Askkenazi at Safed (צְפַת Tsfat), the highest city in the Galilee, in what is today northern Israel. Jews were printing books in Israel nearly 5 centuries ago.

In 1553, the population of Safed consisted of 1121 Muslim households, and 716 Jewish households, which rose to 945 households in 1567. There were more than 30 synagogues and 7000 Jews in Safed in 1576 when Murad III issued an edict for the forced deportation of 1000 Jewish families to Cyprus.

Jews have been a settled, permanent, continuous presence in the Holy Land for over three millennia, and have only ever left in numbers when exiled or forced out.

This is the beginning of the oldest Arabic version of Christ's Letter Sent from Heaven. This 10th century ms. (Munich BSB Cod. arab. 1067) is one of the oldest witnesses of this apocryphon in existence. Digital images are available online here: www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb0....

A machzor (prayerbook), printed in Sulzbach in 1794, with a contemporary Hebrew manuscript account bound in of the Jews murdered in a Polish pogrom on the 2nd day of Pesach 1655, together with an additional later Yiddish translation written in pencil. 1/

The 7 days of Sukkot start tomorrow. Sukkot is one of the three Jewish festivals on which the ancient Israelites were commanded to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. This beautiful machzor (prayerbook) for Sukkot according to the rite of Avignon, was written by David Tsoref in 1721. 1/

Sefer Chibat Yerushalayim. [Book of the Love of Jerusalem]. Written by Rabbi Chaim Horowitz, and printed at the Press of Moshe & Yehudit in Jerusalem in 1844. The first edition of the first book about Jerusalem printed in the Holy City, illustrated with the Western Wall on the title page.

JEWISH PRINTING IN HEBREW, IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL IN 1578. This is Rabbi Samuel Aripul's "Sar Shalom", printed in 1578 by Abraham & Eliezer Askkenazi at Safed (צְפַת Tsfat), the highest city in the Galilee, in what is today northern Israel. Jews were printing books in Israel nearly 5 centuries ago.

A shekel struck in year 3 of the Jewish Revolt against Rome, AD 68-69. Obverse: Chalice with Paleo-Hebrew: ŠQL YŚR’L (= Shekel of Israel) and the date: Y(ear) 3. Reverse: 3 pomegranates, with Paleo-Hebrew: YRUŠLYM HQDUŠH (= Yerushalayim Hakedosha = Jerusalem the Holy [Place]).

To all the acquaintances of mine in academia who casually repeat this blood-libel: like many Jews I will never forget, nor ever forgive. "There is a sadistic triumphalism in charging Jews with genocide, as though those making it feel they have their man at last." telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05...

I unreservedly support every word of this moving and brilliantly written letter. Am Yisrael Chai. 🇮🇱 docs.google.com/document/u/0...

may all sentient beings be at peace om mani padme hum om mani padme hum om mani padme hum om mani padme hum 🐀 唵嘛呢叭咪吽🐂 唵嘛呢叭咪吽🐅 唵嘛呢叭咪吽🐇 唵嘛呢叭咪吽🐉 唵嘛呢叭咪吽🐍 唵嘛呢叭咪吽🐎 唵嘛呢叭咪吽🐑 唵嘛呢叭咪吽 🐒 唵嘛呢叭咪吽🐔 唵嘛呢叭咪吽 🐶 唵嘛呢叭咪吽 🐷 唵嘛呢叭咪吽 👨 唵嘛呢叭咪吽 👩 唵嘛呢叭咪吽 🦏 唵嘛呢叭咪吽 👼 唵嘛呢叭咪吽👹唵嘛呢叭咪吽🧑‍🦲唵嘛呢叭咪吽🐈 唵嘛呢叭咪🌏🌍🌎

Digitization & cataloging is complete for the collection of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of ʻAkkār in northern Lebanon. The colophons and endowment notes testify to close interactions in the Ottoman period across what is now the border between Lebanon and Syria. Info: hmml.org/collections/...

Disappointing that there isn't a convenient way to say this in English. In South Africa, one often hears the wonderful Afrikaans equivalent: "moer-my-gesiggie". Do any other languages have a word or convenient standard phrase for this?

A collage of Adhucs from a court record in 1250 Norfolk "Adhuc" means "Still" and appears at the top of some membranes. The heading tells readers the proceedings are a continuation from the same district listed on the previous membrane. For instance, a dragon breathes fire on "Still from Grimshoe"

A new free post on my Substack, 'All Old Strange Things', looks at 10 history books that have transformed the way I think drfrancisyoung.substack.com/p/books-that...

To all the acquaintances of mine in academia who casually repeat this blood-libel: like many Jews I will never forget, nor ever forgive. "There is a sadistic triumphalism in charging Jews with genocide, as though those making it feel they have their man at last." telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05...

I unreservedly support every word of this moving and brilliantly written letter. Am Yisrael Chai. 🇮🇱 docs.google.com/document/u/0...

One of the best, most innovative booksellers in the US - if you're not on the @funkebooks.bsky.social mailing list, you should be.

You see the printed black square from a page in Robert Fludd's "Utriusque cosmi maioris" (1617) that represented the nothingness that was prior to the universe. The square is framed by four sentences in Latin: "Et sic in infinitum" (And so on to infinity). #earlymodern #skystorians

A hundred soldiers, museum conservators and even members of the public, joined the rescue effort. They climbed on each other's shoulders to pull down artworks mounted high up on walls.

Map of the world with Jerusalem in the centre, and some of its inhabitants are depicted. BL Add MS 28681; 'The Map Psalter'; 1262-1300 CE; England; f.9r

Consider me surprised: Vesalius’s Vesalius, which fetched $2,280,000 the other day at @ChristiesBKS, didn’t sell to a private collector after all! Was purchased by the Belgian Gov’t and KU Leuven. Will be at the university library. newatlas.com/collectibles...

The Archangel Michael slaying the dragon, and pulling a soul from the dragon's mouth BL Egerton 3763; 'Prayer book of Archbishop Arnulph II of Milan'; between 998 CE & 1018 CE; Italy, N. (Milan); f.104v

I've signed a contract with @archumanities.bsky.social to write an introduction to Baltic mythology and folklore for the Past Imperfect series, entitled 'Pre-Christian Baltic Religion and Belief'. Coming in 2025 drfrancisyoung.com/2024/01/16/c...

Good morning! New artist book just dropped: ANTHROPOCENE, BOOK I This portable manuscript recounts the six days of Creation as written in the Book of Genesis. But holes soon begin to appear in the pages and then multiply, making the text increasingly difficult to read… 1/5 vimeo.com/902147337

The Princeton Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Egyptian Miracles of Mary (PEMM) project is a comprehensive resource for the 1,000+ miracle stories written about and the 2,500+ images painted of the Virgin Mary in these African countries, and preserved in Geʿez between 1300 and the present pemm.princeton.edu

“And that’s really what it’s about,” said service and communications coordinator Els Van Rompay. “This is more than a library, though books are its core. It’s also a place to learn, connect, develop, collaborate. Or just to be. A meeting place for our minds.”

The Evangelists München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, BSB Clm 13001; Bibliorum veteris Testamenti pars secunda (inde a Psalmis Davidis). Libri novi Testamenti (Giant Bible of Henry IV); c. 1060 CE/1070 CE; Rome (?); p.390

Miniature of Judith holding the head of Holofernes München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, BSB Clm 13001; Bibliorum veteris Testamenti pars secunda (inde a Psalmis Davidis). Libri novi Testamenti (Giant Bible of Henry IV); c. 1060 CE/1070 CE; Rome (?); p.181

Just appalling. So different from the meticulous preservation, ongoing digitization and widespread accessibility of the tens of thousands of Hebrew books left behind in Arab hands by the 800 000 Jews forced out of North Africa, Syria, Yemen and Iraq in the 20th century.

My latest piece for The Spectator is uncomplimentary about the Ministry of Justice’s idea of destroying 100 million historic wills www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...

"Scouts in Bondage" by Geoffrey Prout is the most famous double entendre title in all of book collecting, a charming memento of a simpler, more innocent age. So what else, you ask, did Geoffrey Prout write? ... 1/

An Icelandic phrase about an unspecified or long-ago time is sautjánhundruð og súrkál. It means “seventeen-hundred and sauerkraut”

The Silchester ogham stone was found in 1893 at the bottom of a well in the Roman walled town of Calleva Atrebatum (modern Silchester). It is now held in a top secret underground storage facility belonging to Reading Museum. 📷 🅭🅯🄎 Andrew West, July 2016

Inscription Advent Calendar Day 4: Shang oracle bone/turtle plastron. C. 1200 BC, China. Image by BabelStone, Wikipedia, CC BY-SA

The presentation picture depicts Æthelstan, King of the English (924/5 CE-39 CE), presenting the book to St Cuthbert Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 183: Bede the Venerable, Two Lives of St Cuthbert with Regnal Lists; f.1v @ParkerLibCCCC @CorpusCambridge

"Ales diei nuntius lucem propinquam praecinit" Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 264; Prudentius, Carmina; around 900 CE; region of Lake Constance; pp.4-7 (www.e-codices.ch/en/list/one/...)

Today I visited Leipzig University Library to look at some of the "Oriental" manuscripts that Constantin Tischendorf brought back from the Middle East and which were acquired by this library after his death in 1873. Here are my 3 take-aways: 1/

I recently came across an online auction that was held last year to sell three curious photos and a court document. What do these have to do with one of the most important manuscript collections in the world? A thread: 1/ www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/...

My review of Carlos Eire's astonishing, inspiring new book 'They Flew' is out in First Things: www.firstthings.com/web-exclusiv...

At long last, I have made Stories of Abjad available as an ebook. You can pick it up directly on Gumroad : majnouna.gumroad.com/l/abjad