"The problem of the lack of papyrus [after c.1000] forced a receptiveness to new forms of papal government which the high medieval 'reformers' were able to move into and exploit from about 1050"... Absolutely enthralling new article by @cjg70.bsky.social and Ben Savill (Open Access). #medievalsky

Final call for the @bsrome.bsky.social and Early Medieval Europe early career fellowship, for a month's stay in Rome plus some travel costs to get there. Deadline tomorrow. bsr.ac.uk/awards-resid...

There's no cover image yet, but look what's coming out next year: Do you like bureaucracy? early Christianity? both? Robin Whelan has got you covered: www.cambridge.org/core/books/s...

It me! Online attendance also available; book on Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/professor-...

Looks like essential reading for Carolingianists, gonna need to carve out time to read this! #medievalsky

Today on the blog - was Pirenne a psychohistorian and what influence did he have on Asimov’s classic SF Foundation series? #medievalsky #SF #Asimov salutemmundo.wordpress.com/2026/01/22/a...

A few months ago I was curious to know how much Anna's Archive was charging AI developers for access to their massive library of pirated works for training - so I emailed them saying I was interested in buying access. Here is their reply. 🧵 1/n

PhD funding for early career historians completing a doctorate. Applications are invited for the Society's Centenary PhD Fellowships for the academic year 2026-27 bit.ly/49MzqmT. Two awards of £8500 per student, held jointly with @ihr.bsky.social. Closing date: 31 January 2026 #Skystorians

Our first seminar of 2026 will be this Wednesday at 5.30pm (IHR, Wolfson Room NB02), when we welcome @helengittos.bsky.social to speak on "Christianity before Conversion: The women who led the way". All welcome, please register in advance: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/... #medievalsky

Excellent news - @monumenta.bsky.social to the rescue of online access to Deutsches Archiv!

The inkless doodles of Eadburg, an 8th-c. nun, discovered by new technology: now published by Jessica Hendy-Hodgkinson in EME doi.org/10.1111/emed... (Open access)

From the current issue: Viewpoint: “Secularizing Strategies in the Early Middle Ages and the History of Pre-Modern Religion” by Conor O'Brien (@oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social) #OpenAccess doi.org/10.1093/past...

Came across this handsome diploma of Otto I from 947, granting the abbot of St Gall the rights to hold a market and mint coins in Rorschach, on the southern shore of Lake Constance, 'for the convenience of those travelling to Italy or Rome'. www.e-chartae.ch/de/charters/...

My chat with the wonderful Marco Panato about mills in Italy for the inaugural episode of Early Medieval Europe podcast is now up! Join us for a conversation about water and wealth, class and gender, and power in every sense of the word. #medievalsky rss.com/podcasts/ear...

Plus reviews of recent books on the Three Chapters controversy, King Liutprand, Hincmar, 11th-century León & Galicia, Alfred the Great, the Regnum Italicum, Ernst Kantorowicz, and cartularies!

But there's more! The issue also sees the launch of the EME podcast. 🌟 In this inaugural episode, catch @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social in conversation with Marco Panato about his article in the issue 🤓 rss.com/podcasts/ear...

Finally, 2026 has started properly, with a new issue of Early Medieval Europe! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14680254...

@memsunikent.bsky.social term card until March, featuring yours truly on Wednesday 14 January. For more details links to online access for each paper, see here: research.kent.ac.uk/medieval-ear...

Medieval legal manuscripts don't often contain illustrations, but this collection (Vatican lat. 1339) made in central Italy in the mid-11th C features depictions of 6 ecumenical councils and 44 portraits of canonical authorities. Here's the 431 council of Ephesus, convened by Theodosius II:

There is time to apply until 30 January for this opportunity sponsored by Early Medieval Europe to spend one month at the British School in Rome

DigiZeitschriften is now sadly gone, though apparently any last orders for its public domain content can be made until the end of April...

Our first RHS lecture of 2026 is '"Alike in Appearance but not in Scope": Queens and the Making of Medieval Europe', with Prof Charles West (Edinburgh) bit.ly/49GlmMR 6pm, Friday 6 February. In-person booking is now full but registration to attend this event online remains open #Skystorians

Been greatly enjoying this new book, which contains some excellent studies of life in the Carolingian Empire. brill.com/display/titl...

Konf: Ein Europa der Bischöfe? Wege und Möglichkeiten der Erforschung von Bischöfen in überregionaler Perspektive (10.–12. Jahrhundert) https://www.hsozkult.de/event/id/event-159457 Köln, 09.02.2026-10.02.2026, Étienne Doublier, Abteilung für Mittelalterliche Geschichte, Universität zu Köln; …

Happy new year! We're delighted to share our seminar schedule for Spring 2026. All events take place at the @ihr.bsky.social (Wolfson NB02) on Wednesdays at 5.30pm. All welcome - please sign up in advance here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Publication – Privaturkunden und Dokumentationspraxis im langen 10. Jahrhundert (Archiv für Diplomatik, Schriftgeschichte, Siegel- und Wappenkunde, t. 71, 2025) rmblf.be/2026/01/05/p...

Another beer post for the evening: In 1241, Pope Gregory IX informed Archbishop Sigurd Eindridesson (r.1231-52) that children who are baptised in beer can not be considered to have been properly baptised.

This is the kind of medieval Christmas content I'm here for.

Call for papers for our Medieval Germany Workshop organised in cooperation with the German History Society (@germanhistsoc.bsky.social)! 📯 📅 29 May 2026 📍GHIL 1/5

The e-book version is already available, including my chapter on dodgy Carolingian priests, Simon on Carolingian coins and many other great things: brill.com/display/titl...

In the tenth century a charm to control a bee swarm was added, upside down, in the margin of an earlier mss. It's one of the earliest Old High German texts. Tim Hertogh argues in recent article it was intended as an amulet to cut out & place in a hive - explaining the margins excised elsewhere.👇

The ad for the second postdoctoral position on our @leverhulme.ac.uk Britain’s Early Medieval Letters project is now live. We’re looking for an Old English specialist (who also works with Latin). 32-month FT post. Deadline for apps is 16 Jan 🙂 jobs.kent.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

Great Friday afternoon read! Even more intriguing is the suggestion the Astronomer may have been Rudolf of Bourges...

Looking forward to this lecture next week!

New Name In Print post on the blog: my latest article is an important study of tenth-century Normandy and the micropolities it came from; but shepherding it into print was a bit of a weird time: salutemmundo.wordpress.com/2025/12/03/n...

Unfortunately the HE 2025 ballot failed at 39% turnout. I have written about why and about what desperately needs to change in UCU's national structures off the back of this result. Some HEC members need to chi up and understand their role in all this, and how disconnected they are from members.

And here is the table of contents: our topics range from multilingualism in chancery documents to medieval work and Syriac historiography (doi.org/10.1553/medi...)

Did you ever wonder how the Early Medieval state worked? (And what it was ...?) - Here is my take on it. doi.org/10.1080/0304...

We are back at @ihr.bsky.social this week on Wednesday, 26 Nov, 5.30pm, in Wolfson Room NB02, where we welcome Ella Kirsh (Cambridge) to speak on "Ipsissima verba? The limits of shorthand under the Roman empire". All welcome, but please register in advance here! www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Can't get enough of local priests? I hope not, because my book 'Pastoral Works. Priests, Books, and Compilatory Practices in the Carolingian Period' has just been published by Brepols (doi.org/10.1484/M.US...). You can read the book's introduction on my website (libripendis.eu/posts/26past...).

And the news is... We're recruiting! Applications are now open for our 2026 @leverhulme.ac.uk Doctoral Scholarships. So, if you want to study at PhD level pre-modern handwritten cultures and the organisation of knowledge and power within them, do investigate our refreshed website.

Applications are now invited for the Society's 2026-27 Centenary PhD Fellowships for early career historians completing a doctorate bit.ly/48pWB72 Fellowships provide support of £8500 per award for 6 months and are held jointly with @ihr.bsky.social. Closing date: 31 January 2026 #Skystorians

It’s publication day for Law, Society and Political Culture in Late Medieval and Reformation Germany! At last, the key sources from the Holy Roman Empire - laws, treaties, and polemics - are available in English translation. #medievalsky #earlymodern manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526165893/

Good to see the problems facing our colleagues @britishlibrary.bsky.social being raised here by @hetanshah.bsky.social (of @britishacademy.bsky.social). If this had happened in France it would be considered a national problem to be urgently addressed! www.cityam.com/the-british-...

In association with the @ghilondon.bsky.social - the GHS is pleased to invite papers for the 2026 'Medieval Germany Workshop' Workshop date: 29 May 2026 Submissions due: 15 February 2026 www.germanhistorysoc...

Looking forward to this next week - a terrific line-up!

New #OnHistory blog, IHR Fellow Chris Lewis writes about new publication, "Making Domesday: Intelligent Power in Conquered England" by Stephen Baxter, Julia Crick, and C. P. Lewis, and Domesday scholarship in the IHR. blog.history.ac.uk/2025/10/dome...

Sad to see that the DigiZeitschriften is shutting down at the end of this year. I've used this for many years for journals such as Deutsches Archiv... will DA be available anywhere else online? @monumenta.bsky.social

Compulsory team teaching on every module is perhaps the biggest ever threat to the quality of teaching in UK universities. It causes chaos on the ground for timetabling, ruins course coherence and turns lecturers into permanent supply teachers. It is pedagogically incoherent… 1/

Wider engagement on this disaster-by almost all media, government but also universities themselves-has been self-indicting for the last two years. No one does indeed seem to care about our national library.