Fascinating visit to @harvingtonhall.bsky.social today, eye-opening to think more about the dangers of being Catholic in Elizabethan England and the ingenious hiding places that were engineered for their concealment Beautiful stained glass showing scenes from Thomas More’s life

In Case You Missed It: 📢 TUDOR WILLS NOW ON ZOONIVERSE! 📢 A new milestone for our @zooniverse.bsky.social site - we've uploaded new wills 📃dating 1538-1552. Practice your sixteenth-century palaeography✍️ & read wills made during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward ⏳ #skystorians #history

Every aspect of UK universities is in crisis. My institution is going to implement a voluntary severance scheme to remove 5% of staff while spending wildly on marketing & "prestige" events. Students can barely afford to live & aren't turning up for class, & many are reliant on AI for their essays.

It's happening: my ERC Consolidator project 🪶#FEATHERS🪶is organising a 3-day international conference on early modern scribal culture & manuscript production at @unileiden.bsky.social on 7-9 May 2025. See Call for Papers (deadline for abstracts 20 Dec): student.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/20...

My statement on the Assisted Dying Bill.

An absolute archival unit. Containing, inter alia, ladings of cloth sent to Antwerp markets, with ships and masters named (and here two of my very different research projects meet since some of the masters are Lancelot Andrewes' great-grandfathers). (Cambridge U L)

This was a fabulous seminar. Lots of interesting work going on in archives across many periods but especially enjoyed hearing about the HRP project on Henry VIII’s building works.

For those captivated by Wolf Hall, this reading list delves into the real histories which inspired the novels and television adaptation. Featuring Eamon Duffy, Lucy Wooding, Diarmaid MacCulloch, Merry Wiesner-Hanks and more yalebooksblog.co.uk/2024/11/15/t... #earlymodern #reformazing #skystorians

ICYMI: our latest wills project post explores the will of Margaret Nelham, considering not just the content but also the handwriting, layout, spelling, and even the paper it was written on ... sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult... #EarlyModern 🗃️

An engaged library user of the past ignoring the library rule "Keeping books on the floor is not allowed". #earlymodern #bookhistory #skystorians

I am slightly late to the party but in aid of National Handwriting Day (which was yesterday) here is my favourite secretary hand ever!

Brazil's National Museum & FU Minas Gerais' Natural History Museum burned down. Library of Univ Cape Town was affected by wildfire. An archive I worked in flooded, org didn't/couldn't pay for restoration. NY libraries are closing on Sundays. We must fund properly libraries, archives & museums. TFW

Amazing. After a big day of pushing the anti-semitic Great Replacement fantasy, Elon has decided to... double down and embrace the far right 'white pride' crowd. A very normal and healthy thing for the guy with the world's largest media platform.

tag yourself:

This strange document travels with me to lots of places around the world and sometimes I get a few minutes to look at it! Thanks to @emiliekmmurphy.bsky.social for allowing me to investigate a bit further! I'm making headway, here's my initial findings: emsoundscapes.co.uk/voices-from-...

In other news... My dissertation received a distinction and so I am now officially a Master in Early Modern Studies!