When you stare into a manuscript and the manuscript stares into you

Claudia nos explica cómo ha ido la experiencia en nuestro blog #PeopleAndWriting

peopleandwriting.usal.es/es/carolingi...

There are still a few places left at our Carolingian Calligraphy workshop!
23-24 June
7 Owengate, Durham
FREE (please note that you will need to provide your own materials - click the link for a list of what you'll need.)
Find out more and book your place: www.durham.ac.uk/research/ins...

🧵Is the piece of parchment too small?
No problem – I’ll just stitch on another one to match!

#Materiality #MssStudies

Guest post: Nerea Fernández, “Anonymous scripts" - People and Writing El proyecto People and Writing, Universidad de Salamanca, explora al ciudadano a través de la escritura en la Edad Media. ERC StG Research Project 2020-2025

🖋️ Who wrote the past when names were left out?
Discover how anonymous scripts can still speak volumes in this thought-provoking guest post by @nereavsk.bsky.social on People and Writing.
🔍 #Palaeography #MedievalStudies #Manuscripts
👉 peopleandwriting.usal.es/en/guest-pos...

L'odyssée des chiffres (2/3) | À la conquête du monde | ARTE YouTube video by ARTE

The documentary "L'odyssée des chiffres", on which I had the pleasure to collaborate, is now available!!
@artefr.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=njcS...

The Manuscript of the Week is the Book of Uí Mhaine, RIA MS D ii 1. The contents of this 14th C manuscript are described in a marginal note as ‘bolg an tsolathair’ (bag of mixed content/miscellany).
Read more & find a link to the @dias-isos.bsky.social digital copy here: www.ria.ie/collections/...

Thank you!

Thank you! 💚

Even fakes can be precious. They tell us not just what people wanted to believe, but when and why those beliefs mattered.

If you'd like to access these notes, I've uploaded them here zenodo.org/records/1530...

👍

Which means: when the forgery was made, the monastery was right in the middle of a major cultural, liturgical and graphic transition—and the script still shows signs of resistance to change.

After a close comparative study of 28 Visigothic-script documents from the Oña archive, I was able to demonstrate—with solid evidence—that this charter was almost certainly produced in the late 1090s.

The aim: to provide an approximate production date for the charter dated 30 June 1023 (BNP, coll. de Bourgogne, vol. 77, no. 90), in which Sancho the Great reforms monastic life at San Salvador de Oña according to Cluniac custom.

To answer my colleague’s question, I spent the last few days analysing every document in the same archival collection, including the one that sparked the consultation.

So even if the document is diplomatically ‘false’, it might still tell us a great deal—particularly if we focus on its material features.

We’re talking about a crucial period: the transition from the Hispanic to the Roman liturgy, a shift from local to international politics, and a major script change—from Visigothic to Caroline minuscule (see the per abbr.)

Why does that matter? Because forging a document in 1033 is very different from doing it in, say, 1090—especially at such a pivotal moment in Iberian history. 😱

A few weeks ago, a colleague asked me for help dating a medieval document long considered a forgery. Yes, a forgery—but one with a precise date: the year 1033. And yet no one had ever asked: what if that date actually matches the likely time it was produced? 👇 #MssStudies

Do sign up for this course!! If I were in London I wouldn't miss it (if it were online, I'd be the first to sign up!)

The framing of palaeography as a challenge to be overcome rather than a useful skill and a joyful exercise is concerning and devalues both this critical ability and of historical research work generally.

Our conference room

Our conference room in the beautiful Teleborg Castle

Very much looking forward to this residential workshop on The Parish #Church in #Medieval Smaland (Sweden). I've been invited to share comparative insights from my research on medieval England and Wales, including especially www.thomasway.ac.uk. Lots of interest to @chppc.bsky.social too!

This is a flyer for the Digital Medieval Studies Institute at the University of Leeds (UK). The event takes place on July 11, 2025, and features a one-day workshop program focused on digital scholarly methods for medievalists. The flyer has a dark blue background with code/programming elements and includes a circular image of a medieval manuscript illustration showing a figure in blue clothing and a flower. The DMSI logo, the University of Leeds logo and the Digital Medievalist logo appear in the bottom right corner. The workshops offered include: Geospatial Tools for Mapping the Middle Ages (led by Carrie Benes) Cooperative Network Visualization with NetCreate (led by Nathan Howard) Artificial Intelligence: Image Analysis Applied to Medieval Manuscripts (led by Dominique Stutzmann) Foundations in Working with Medieval Manuscripts Using IIIF (led by Paul Mollahan and Tom Crane) Seeing Beyond: Practical and Low-Cost Multispectral Imaging (led by Helen Davies) The flyer includes a "Register Now" button, contact information (dmsi.hello@gmail.com), and a registration URL (https://tinyurl.com/DMSI-2025-UK). The event is organized by N. Kivilcim Yavuz and Laura Morreale.

📜 There is still time to apply for the remaining few spots at the Digital Medieval Studies Institute UK edition, a one-day event on digital methods for medievalists, sponsored by Digital Medievalist!

📆 July 11 2025, University of Leeds
▶️ Info and registration: tinyurl.com/yeyhact4

#medievalsky

Another personal sign — this time from the scribe of the document. Shaped like a puzzle piece! #PeopleAndWriting

¡Recién salida del horno! 🔥

Reseña del libro de Graham Barrett, Text and Textuality in Early Medieval Iberia (711–1031), imprescindible para quienes estudian cultura escrita en la Alta Edad Media

🆓 👉 revistas.usal.es/uno/index.ph...

#ManuscriptStudies #PeopleAndWriting @erc.europa.eu

Early Medieval Europe: Vol 33, No 2 Early Medieval Europe is an interdisciplinary medieval studies journal covering European history from the fall of the Roman Empire up until the 11th century.

New issue of Early Medieval Europe Vol. 33, No. 2 (2025) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14680254... @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social

Guest post: Pilar Ledesma, “Labour, Writing, and Orality" - People and Writing El proyecto People and Writing, Universidad de Salamanca, explora al ciudadano a través de la escritura en la Edad Media. ERC StG Research Project 2020-2025

Back from Easter break with a thought-provoking new guest post on our #PeopleAndWriting blog:

Pilar Ledesma explores how labour, writing, and orality intertwine in medieval contexts. A must-read!

👉 peopleandwriting.usal.es/en/guest-pos...

@usaloficial.bsky.social @esmicroproj.bsky.social La semana que viene estaré en el Colegio Público de Monterrubio para hablarles a l@s alumn@s del cole y sus compañeros del CRA de Castellanos y San Cristóbal del concepto de comunidad y valoraremos el patrimonio histórico del pueblo y sus aledaños 👇

What's not to love about attestation signs in #Visigothic script? #PeopleAndWriting

😞

Bobbio Missal fol. 285v: single column of light brown text in more-or-less uncials, with a pale red heading and brown initial R ⅔ of the way down the page. The script is a little shaky but mostly clear.

Bobbio Missal fol. 286r: the script from 285v ends ⅓ of the way down the page and then a new, much messier hand picks up with a decorative initial D. The second hand's lines wander and much of the ink has spread or feathered.

Continuing the #HolyWeek exploration of the Bobbio Missal, BNF lat. 13246 a Merovingian missal-sacramentary-lectionary in a fat little package with very questionable Latin. This week, many of my clergy friends will attend a Chrism Mass. Here are blessings of holy oils from the MS. #liturgy #latin 🧵