I manage without one! In part because I don't think I could manage with one...

... holy column. Turns out the story is wild: St Nicholas noticed it in a house being demolished in Rome & pushed it into the Tiber. It then sailed to Bari & was waited in the port for him. St Nicholas himself erected it in the canopy of his own shrine. One way to deal with Ryanair's luggage regs.

Newly published inscriptions provide evidence for the 'supraregional appeal of curative springs' & continuity in places of pilgrimage from pagan antiquity into the Christian period - inc. at Luxeil & Aachen - argues Martin Grunewald in this new (to me) article. Image of Sanxay by JC Golvin.

The reference is here 👇& for more on Sanxay, v near Poitiers, see
www.visitpoitiers.fr/en/decouvrir...

Newly published inscriptions provide evidence for the 'supraregional appeal of curative springs' & continuity in places of pilgrimage from pagan antiquity into the Christian period - inc. at Luxeil & Aachen - argues Martin Grunewald in this new (to me) article. Image of Sanxay by JC Golvin.

So much! The churches, archaeological museum, cathedral museum... and trains to Taranto & Trani &... so many riches.

... holy column. Turns out the story is wild: St Nicholas noticed it in a house being demolished in Rome & pushed it into the Tiber. It then sailed to Bari & was waited in the port for him. St Nicholas himself erected it in the canopy of his own shrine. One way to deal with Ryanair's luggage regs.

its cosmatesque pavement. In one corner of the crypt, there's a...

Bari has two outstanding churches; this one is dedicated to St Nicholas, with his shrine in the crypt, surrounded by...

Bari, Italy: nearer Greece than Rome, conceptually if not geographically!

A large crowd as always at the weekly march in Tbilisi. Georgians have been protesting in 8+ cities every day for the last 507 days.

Ha! Getting into the Pantheon was actually the final thing we attempted on our last evening. The children and I legged it from out apartment in Garbatella to try to sneak in before closing.... but didn't quite make it. Seems now to be ticketed. Good to save something for them for next time!

Showing my boy Rome for the first time; a golden hour in every sense.

A book that's been in the making for half a century.
(I've never seen an acknowledgement to a University Chauffeur before!)

New Directions in the History of Liturgy Study Day - CONFERENCE - RHS Study Day: New Directions in the History of Liturgy II Attendance is free but please register to help us plan the catering (details below) PROGRAMME 10am Welcome 10.15am Chair: Teresa Webber (Universi...

New Directions in the History of Liturgy Study Day
Saturday 25 April 2026
Cambridge, English Faculty, 10-5
Tessa Webber, Henry Parkes, Juliette Day, Sarah Hamilton - & more - Bede's deathbed, Canterbury pontificals, the early history of Prime, C14th Frankfurt...
royalhistsoc.org/calendar/new...

And... This is some of the 2000 objects amassed by Arturo Polese, 'an officer of the Ferrovie del Sud-Est' railway company. He was Director of Works on the Bari-Taranto line in the early C20th - and collected up what his workmen discovered....

Just published apparently! Very exciting.

Just published apparently! Very exciting.

holy moly. what a graph:

Upcoming #History event:

Friday, 22 May, at 7.30 p.m.

Dr Tom Pickles will deliver the 2026 Jarrow Lecture: 'Bede, Providence, and Early Medieval Kingship'

📍 St Paul's Church, Church Bank, Jarrow, Tyne & Wear, NE32 3DZ

Admission is free, and all are welcome.

... and even my children can't help but point out Hercules now. And in southern Italy, there's a Hercules for every season. This is a particularly pissed version.
The caption reads: 'Herakles is lying down with his cub and quiver. 4th century BC.'

And is it that I'm older now, that Black Figure vases begin to resonate. Or is this just especially arresting? Old Priam kneeling in front of Hector's tomb; the hero's weopans placed on top. 365-350 BC

Extraordinary to think this is at just the same time as King's Field Faversham was also being dug through. Both collections have no stratigraphic contexts or records. Both may be mixed with material from other nearby sites. Is there a history of the archaeology of railway construction?

And... This is some of the 2000 objects amassed by Arturo Polese, 'an officer of the Ferrovie del Sud-Est' railway company. He was Director of Works on the Bari-Taranto line in the early C20th - and collected up what his workmen discovered....

Among the Santa Scholastica Museum's many riches...

From the visitor's book ...

The Archaeological Museum in Bari, Pulia, Italy, is a feast of riches, especially from Magna Graecia, yet I don't think I've ever seen it rain *inside* a museum - and for there to be not even a bucket.

East Kent Trust is now without a CEO & has just lost two NEDs. It's not clear what role if any NHSE played in what's happened but the churn of leadership, the negative impact that has & the fallacy of a 'heroic leadership' model was explicitly criticized by Kirkup. What a mess.

A limewashed white building, with grey stone slate roof, standing on a promontory affording a view of the surrounding landscape.

Look at that promontory it's standing on! Look at the view it commands. Hmm.

The chief executive of troubled East Kent Hospitals has been away from her post since November on "unplanned leave." Here's what was really going on.