I have at least 11 of those too! 🤩 Have never gotten around to alphabetising mine though

Big bright yellow y-fronts

This is obviously best for UK readers

Venetian hedgehog

Venetian camel

Quote of the day: "De-extinction will never be purely, or even primarily, the revival of lost species, but the bioengineering of new life forms that we choose to name after lost ways of being" Historian of science Sadiah Qureshi argues that efforts to 'de-extinct' species, using frozen biological material or living relatives, risks "reducing species to little more than genetic information, rather than appreciating them as living ways of being alive". (Aeon | 19 min read)

Oh my word. I made Quote of the Day in Nature a couple of weeks back and had no idea. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Taken from this piece on de-extinction in Aeon: aeon.co/essays/de-ex...

Back to my break.

Easter Sunday at Fountains Abbey

From the same publisher, a new open-access edited volume on Proclus for historians of medieval mathematics & theology: www.mirabileweb.it/edgalluzzo/m... #HistSTM #MedievalSky

I keep seeing "all authors use AI, the real issue is they're being forced to be sneaky about it" headlines.

Full stop No. This is a lie peddled for normalization. It's schoolyard-level pressure tactics "C'mon, all the cool kids are already doing it. We won't tell. It's fine. We're on your side."

It's great to see this article in The Conversation up now! Link in the first comment.

Call for HAD Osterbrock Book Prize Nominations

AAS Historical Astronomy Division (HAD) invites nominations for 2027 Donald E. Osterbrock Book Prize for Historical #Astronomy. Deadline: 1 March aas.org/posts/news/2...

📷 Seb Falk, 2025 Osterbrock Award winner at the 246th AAS meeting (Anchorage) 🔭

Ah, Martellus, thank you!
(Here's another copy at the British Library, if you're interested: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:In... ). Lots to admire – and lots to wonder bemusedly at...

Very interesting! Do you know the reference for this map (what manuscript it comes from)? It has some fascinating features

Hi guys. Please find attached my book. Some people say it will shape the idea of the English people. Don’t miss the section on the Synod of Whitby. My information is a little patchy, and I’m no fan of the Brits. Maybe you should supplement my work with archaeology? All the best, the Venerable Bede

So, um... this is bad. Really bad. I looked at the letters that were translated by the AI, and the very first one I found was almost entirely hallucination. Thread:

‘A fascinating discovery’: research challenges Battle of Hastings narrative Harold may have sailed, not marched, in 1066, reshaping explanations for his defeat in England’s historic battle

I’ll reserve judgement on this new hypothesis, but am very pleased to see my brilliant student @tyguson.bsky.social offering the Grauniad her eminently sensible two cents.

Artist's portrait of King Harold II, from a Wills cigarette card, c1898. With blond beard, red cloak and fairytale crown. Used on a Guardian web story with caption "Photograph: incamerastock/Alamy"

Authentic medieval "photograph" here 📸

accompanying this interesting @theguardian.com piece on some new (unpublished) research on the Battle of Hastings
www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...

Print portrait of scientist Florence Bell who, working in the lab of William Astbury at Leeds in 1938, first showed that X-rays could be used to reveal the regular, ordered structure of DNA. The print is a mosaic made up of tiny images from scientific papers and was made by artist and staff member Kristina Keller at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the USA where the original (based on a photo kindly provided by Mr Chris Sawyer) hangs outside the cafe on the Janelia campus.

@girtoncollege.bsky.social 'The Eagle' in Cambridge has Watson & Crick, but delighted 'The Golden Beam' Headingley, Leeds now has Girton alumnus & physicist Florence Bell on their wall who, whilst working in Dept. of Textiles here in 1938, first showed X-rays could be used to reveal DNA structure!

Timely: here's Baron Smith, rocking not one but two hats at his installation as Chancellor of Cambridge University (@cam.ac.uk) earlier this week
For full 🎥 bsky.app/profile/cam....

We’re looking for freelance illustrators and designers!

Join us in creating Dr Johnson’s Alphabet, a vibrant visual project introducing early years children to unusual and exciting words. Help us make language playful, engaging, and fun.

www.drjohnsonshouse.org/jobs

We all need editors like that 😂 (I sent my full draft of my book to my older sister for the same reason)

Thanks for the word Stilblüten though: I reckon that'll come in very useful!

Very cool! (And kudos for the extremely thorough alt text 🙂)

Two bishops travel to Rome to fulfill Edward the Confessor's promise to go on pilgrimage. There is a large boat with two bishops at the bow watching over the others on the boat. There are two rowers, one on each side, and a helmsman at the back steering the boat. The boat's sail is raised and it has a cross on it. In addition to the two bishops, two rowers and helmsman, there are at least nine other people on the boat. Beside the large boat is a smaller boat with one person rowing it. In front of them all, perched on land, is a bird, who is watching everything. The water is green and the boat is wooden. The people on the boat are wearing cloaks and tunics in a variety of colours, such as blue, green and orange. Reference: Vie de seint Aedward le Rei (c.1230x1240, Cambridge, University Library, MS Ee.3.59, f. 14r).

Traveling by sea in the Middle Ages!

Two bishops (under the watchful eye of a bird) sail to Rome to fulfill Edward the Confessor's oath to go on pilgrimage.

Highly original and finely written too! That's a nice accolade from someone who certainly knew his way round a pithy sentence 👏

I never met Prof Abulafia. But having read a fair range of his work, I feel I can imagine his reaction to having his recently disincarnated spirit summoned in this way 😱

This is – well, words fail me so 😬 will have to do.

But I'm curious to read DA's lovely review. Care to post a link for those of us too lazy to search for it?

Fuckers.

The 49th Latin and Palaeography Summer School, 27-31 July 2026 The School, formerly the Keele Latin and Palaeography Summer School, returns for its 49th year. In 2025 The Ranulf Higden Society took over the organisation of the Latin and Palaeography Summer Sch…

Calling #Skystorians #MedievalSky the 49th Latin and Palaeography Summer School (formerly the Keele summer school) is open for bookings. 27-31 July in Birmingham. 👇

palaeography.uk/study/short-...

Why would a publisher with pride trust their audiobook to someone who understands little & cares less about what they're reading?

My current listen is ruined by the reader! Misplaced emphasis; mispronunciations e.g. "ZOOlogy" & "centenARy", & howlers like the Hungarian struggle with "Australia" 🙉

The largest palace in the world: Late Baroque masterpiece inspired by Versailles, La Reggia di Caserta in Naples (with aqueduct) was designed by Luigi Vanvitelli, eminent Italian architect & engineer, died #OTD 1773.
UNESCO World Heritage

An oblong sheet of written parchment, formerly sealed.

The only surviving original Carolingian "littera formata", like a passport for a priest. Issued in Lucca, now in Pavia. archiviodigitale-icar.cultura.gov.it/it/185/ricer...