Walking through the world with a toddler who waves at every single passer by is a real litmus test of societal morale.

Newly restored online: Leonardo da Vinci's Notebook, also known as the Codex Arundel (Arundel MS 263), written in his characteristic mirror-writing with diagrams, drawings, brief texts, and personal notes. You can consult the entire manuscript online now: searcharchives.bl.uk/catalog/040-...

Happy birthday to Montaigne, and to my book! This product of love and errance, now available @academic.oup.com.

Early modern Frenchies! Oxford Modern Languages/Trinity College is looking for a Departmental Lecturer, a 3 year position to replace me while I'm on secondment my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

𝘔𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘖𝘭𝘰𝘯. A French spirit that reenacts a moment of ‘yck’. Yck was a regular emotion of the 7th century used to express a moment of irredeemable disgust, a cognate of the modern ‘ick’ (OED).

If you're looking for a sign to switch careers: this is the sign.

Annibale Carracci, Diana and Endymion, 1597-1602, Fresco, Galleria Farnese (Palazzo Farnese, Rome). Francesco Albani wrote, “When Annibale was alive, I heard him say that he wanted to redo his Diana, observing that it seemed as if she was plucking lice off her beloved Endymion.”

Something we don't talk about enough is Caravaggio's humour.

i know we're all busy but i just overheard a plumber say "parlez-vous français ? non ? you motherfuckers don't even speak french, do you" to a pair of french bulldogs

all this is both foolish and unnecessary

Maybe this is the year I read Moby Dick.

Virgin of the Dry Tree. Tiny, fascinating devotional work by Petrus Christus, whose day was today.

Italy in 2025? Opening up the literature supplement of a major newspaper to find an 'interview' from heaven with the recently canonised millennial saint, San Carlo Acutis, entirely written by AI.

Ready to start a movement that argues universities should spend money on their core functions, rather than flashy nonsense. Such as teaching and research for example.

New analysis of the Turin Strike Papyrus—a detailed account from 1157 BCE—shows how artisans building the royal tombs at Deir el-Medina staged a coordinated walkout after going 18 days without grain rations. tinyurl.com/29822yb2 #ShareGoodNewsToo

Nothing like compiling your index to find out what your book is actually about. So far, it seems 'ambivalence', 'chance', 'control', 'death' and 'hands'.

'These days, I stress that close reading is not magic. Its power lies in argument: always vulnerable, nothing simpler and yet nothing harder.' Loved this both tender and sobering defence of close reading: www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...

Fun times to be in Modern Languages.

We're launching a really exciting new MSt in Creative Translation - details here. Oxford has a wealth of brilliant translator energy and I am excited to see what will come out of this. Please forward to likely sorts! www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk/news/2025/11...

I wrote a book on Montaigne! Here's some proof(s).

Early Modern caption competition - literally (c.1680)

absorbing #ValentinesDay BBCFreeThinking BBCRadio4 lineup on the many meanings of romantic love. Suffice it to say Ann & I were dining out—in Perth 🥰. Rana Mitter with Susie Orbach @armanddangour.bsky.social @rhymeswithditto.bsky.social Catherine Wheatley, Mary Harrod www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Going to be putting forward my best defenses for the anti-love camp this Valentine's Day, on BBC Radio 4: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Giving this another go. Any other accidental #earlymodernists / #seiziemistes / people who don't quite fit in period or disciplinary boundaries out there?🫡

I reviewed Daisy Lafarge's Lovebug--a chance to think about interdisciplinarity, genre, irritation & what they might have to do with love. review31.co.uk/article/view...

Book edits procrastination has reached a whole new level and I am now reading Montaigne's astrological birth chart.

It's nice and quiet here.