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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

Due October 10th >> The New College Conference on Medieval & Renaissance Studies returns 5-7 March 2026! Accepting abstracts on all topics in European & Mediterranean history, literature, art, music & religion (4c-17c): www.newcollegeconference.org/cfp #medievalsky #earlymodern #renaissance #CfP

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

The New College Conference on Medieval & Renaissance Studies returns 5-7 March 2026! Abstracts on all topics in European & Mediterranean history, literature, art, music & religion (4c-17c) are due 1 October 2025: www.newcollegeconference.org/cfp #medievalsky #earlymodern #renaissance #CfP

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Detail: (Painting, btw, is in the Maritime Museum in Genoa, which is amazing.)

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Lest anyone think that life in the Middle Ages was provincial, isolated, and rural... (Medieval Mediterranean port cities like this often had pop. densities ca. 100K/sqmi, which is more than Manhattan or Mumbai today [60-75K].) —Cristoforo de' Grassi, 1597 copy of Genoa in 1481.

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Happy Earth Day from the #sferaproject! #medievalsky #earlymodern #maphistory #bookhistory (G. Dati, La sfera/The Globe, early 15c; BNCF Magl. XI.83, f. 7r)

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Venetian camel, as ordered! Even derpier!!! (Venice, BibNat Marciana Ital. 6279, f. 20v, with helpful "africha" label).

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Thanks, David. In appreciation I offer you derpy Sfera camels (Florence, BML MedPal90 16v, "camels laden with spices").

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Also, isn't our work-in-progress gorgeous? 👀👀 lasfera.rrchnm.org (with mad props to @jasonheppler.org)

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Like many other #NEH -funded projects. the #sferaproject received notice yesterday that our grant has been cancelled. It's not yet clear what that means for the project, but we hope to have more info soon. Meanwhile, here's a screenshot of what they cancelled (our website-in-development):

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Also this map of Dead Emperors in the 3c Crisis invariably gets a response from students (credit wildeastmofo/reddit):

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

San Vitale, Ravenna. You could just show them the mosaics of Justinian and Theodora, but why would you stop there when they occur in such a magnificent setting?

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Oh, goodness. So much to choose from! I'm going to give you one object and one location shot. The object (Diocletian's tetrarchs, now in Venice except for the single detached foot still in Istanbul), because it's fabulous and made of porphyry, and also has a crazy afterlife.

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Last call! Sat March 8th in Sarasota @lauramorreale.bsky.social and I will be offering a PD teacher workshop on pre-modern maps and mapping, based on our NEH-funded work on the #sferaproject. Pls see details tinyurl.com/sferamar25 — we have extended the sign-up deadline to Wed March 5th.

PDF detailing "The World in the Renaissance: Digital Tools and Primary Sources", details at https://tinyurl.com/sferamar25.

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

#skystorians #earlymodern Please see and share the attached CFP for #AHA26 on Histories of Nostalgia. (A topic near and dear to my heart. cf. 2011 Urban Legends, etc.)

Call for Papers, AHA 2026: Histories of Nostalgia

The rise of MAGA drew scholarly attention to the politics of nostalgia, and subsequent events, most especially Donald Trump’s 2024 victory, have reaffirmed its power. This series of panels seeks to bring together an array of perspectives on and approaches to instances of nostalgia in Europe and North America, beginning in the early modern period. At a moment when nostalgia is seen as a technique of the right, these panels will explore a wider spectrum of how appeals have been made to tradition.

Hobsbawm and Ranger’s Invention of Tradition serves as a model for the types of investigations we hope to bring together, but we are casting a wider net, looking at nostalgic uses of the past on two continents over four centuries (1500-1900). We hope to elicit submissions focusing on the motivations for an uses of nostalgic evocations of the past. Whereas The Invention of Tradition emphasized practices, especially ritual practices, we also encourage submissions from those working on appropriations and reinterpretations of the past in other forms.

Possible themes include, but are not limited to:

Historical representations (art, film, etc.) that communicate political messages
Ceremonies that consciously evoke the past
Political or religious rhetoric and its appeals to tradition
Historical monuments / memorials
Contests over a particular historical event
Efforts to link a political figure or event with a particular predecessor

In your proposal, please specify the period / circumstances in which your nostalgic interpretation occurred, the historical referent which this nostalgia evokes, and / or if (as in the case of "Make America Great Again") there is no precise referent.

Please send a brief CV, a presentation title, and an abstract (up to 300 words) to Elizabeth McCahill (elizabeth.mccahill@umb.edu) and Nicole Breault (nabreault@utep.edu). Please detail any A/V requirements you might need.

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Working on deleting my formerly-known-as-bird account, and came across this absolute gem. Yes, I still need this dress. (John Bright Collection, 1880s).

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

Also, as someone who has had no access to work files for 3 wks (dead laptop security-locked by IT which was closed for break; diagnosed with major failure i.e. everything is GONE; backup is too big for former laptop to load), I'm going to celebrate 2025 and my return to BlueSky with this (Torcello):

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

#Historians: I'm on the program committee for the 2026 #AHA in Chicago! Anyone who might be interested in presenting, please get in touch via email [last-name-no-diacritic at ncf full-stop edu] or DM. I'll also put a few idea in the replies. #medievalsky #earlymodern #maphistory #academicsky

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

PUBLIC EVENT! @lauramorreale.bsky.social, Jessica Maier, Chet Van Duzer, & I are hosting "Imagining the World in the Renaissance": fountains, mountains, camels, & sea monsters! At NCF, Thurs 12/5, 5-7pm: www.eventbrite.com/e/1076710904... Via Mellon & nehgov.bsky.social (MS here BNCF II.II.69)

A hand-drawn Renaissance map of the Middle East from Florence, BNCF II.II.69

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 25/09/2024

I also love that the official welcome includes a quick history of Bamberg’s urban development, with multiple historical maps!#spathum2024

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 25/09/2024

This conference has amazing break food. I love Bavaria.

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 24/09/2024

For any fellow attendees, I’m “The Analysis and Presentation of Global Knowledge in the Manuscript Tradition of Dati’s Sfera”, Thurs @ 9am (here Tunis)…

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 24/09/2024

Greetings from Bamberg (here in post-pluvial evening light)! Looking forward to spreading the #sferaproject good news and learning A LOT at the #spathum2024 conference. 🤓

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 20/09/2024

One of the fun aspects of my sabbatical job chasing down #sferaproject manuscripts last year was alllllll the different libraries I ended up in. Here are 2 selfies from the Österreichisches Nationalbibliothek in Viennal (left) and at the Biblioteca Braidense in Milan (right).

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 20/09/2024

Favorite nerd medievalist moment: that time I wrote my "Introduction to Medieval Manuscripts" syllabus as a glossed book (oh yes I DID).

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 20/09/2024

I post mostly abt the DH #sferaproject, now in its 2nd year of NEH funding with @amandamadden.bsky.social, @lauramorreale.bsky.social, and @lauraingalli.bsky.social. It's an amazing amalgam of visuals, maps, & text, so enjoy the ride! (below, coast of Morocco in BML ConvSopp 109) 2/2

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 20/09/2024

Bunch of new followers so I suspected someone put me in a starter pack, and... yup! Quick intro: I'm Carrie, I teach late medieval/Renaissance history and urban studies—especially Italy, the classical tradition, & book history, & MOST especially these days spatial history (below, Genoa). 1/2

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 17/06/2024

For handbag aficionados, here is the object that prompted the debate…

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 17/06/2024

I just bought a handbag with these felines on it. My husband and 11yo are convinced they are cheetahs, although every reference I see on teh internets says "leopards". #medievalsky, what say you? Odds of there being leopards or cheetahs (or artists to depict them accurately) in Norman Sicily?

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 10/06/2024

Hear ye! Hear ye! TEAM #SferaProject just submitted the MS of our gorgeous, super-illustrated, side-by-side It/Eng translation of Dati's _La sfera_, coming from Italica Press in 2025! (This is one cover image option. Srsly, the images are FAB.) #medievalsky #earlymodern #maphistory #bookhistory

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 10/06/2024

And with that, the AMAZING folks at the BAV have HD-digitized all *14* of their Sfera manuscripts! Here's BAV Borg. Lat. 539, f. 7v (elemental spheres): an unassuming MS, but one of my favorites. #bestcollaboratorsever #sferaproject #medievalsky #earlymodern #maphistory

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 22/05/2024

#sferaproject snippet: Unique in our corpus is this image of Saturn devouring his children, from #BnF MS Ital1076 f3r. I've been using a B/W microfilm PDF for months, and I didn't recognize this until I got color pics this week! Bit creepy, actually. #medievalsky #earlymodern #astronomy #mythology

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 17/05/2024

Apparently my first book is on sale this week! Get all your made-up medieval foundation legends here! 📣😆https://www.psupress.org/two_week_sale.html (>>use code MED24) #medievalsky #earlymodern #renaissance #italy

Benes, Urban Legends (2011) cover: The Sienese wolf and twins.

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 19/04/2024

Reminded of the medieval collection of bronzes at the Lateran while prepping for a site visit next week. Here's Marcus Aurelius *before* his 16c removal to the Campidoglio (left, Filippino Lippi c1490; right, Marten van Heemskerck, c1532). #medievalsky #earlymodern #rome

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 10/04/2024

#sferaproject snippet: Today, just a lovely (and whimsical!) illustration of Cairo and Alexandria from BAV Urb Lat 752, f23r. Note the distances marked along the coastline in red, at right. #maphistory #medievalsky #earlymodern #bookhistory

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 08/04/2024

#eclipse day! I really can't miss posting two great #sferaproject solar eclipse diagrams (left, Bib. Med.-Laur. Ashburnham 556 f5r, & right, BNCF ConvSopp B.1.2618 f7r). Caption: "the sun is obscured bc the moon stands btw it and the earth." #medievalsky #bookhistory #astronomy #earlymodern

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 28/03/2024

#sferaproject snippet: After Venice, I popped over to Padua to the Biblioteca del Seminario, which holds two more Sfera copies, including this one (MS 29, here f14v), which may be the most charming TO map I've ever seen... #medievalsky #maphistory #earlymodern #bookhistory

Statue of a bronze phoenix over the "Bibliotheca" sign marking the entrance to the Biblioteca del Seminario in Padua/Padova.

A 15th-century TO map with rivers, houses, walls, trees, and other decorative features, from Padua, Biblioteca del Seminario MS 29, f.14v.

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 27/03/2024

Ital. 6307 also has a very cool 2-page map of Greece/the Peloponnese at the back of the volume (ff. 31v-32r), which is much more detailed than any of the maps accompanying the La sfera text:

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 27/03/2024

#sferaproject snippet: On Monday I was in the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice, which has *3* copies of La sfera. This one (MS Ital. 6307, here f4r) was mostly uncolored but the drawings were lovely! #bookhistory #medievalsky #earlymodern #maphistory

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 14/03/2024

#sferaproject snippet: Please admire the very Italianate details of these Middle Eastern cities in Riccardiana 818—especially Cairo (spelled Hairo) at bottom right. #medievalsky #bookhistory #earlymodern #maphistory

Marginal detail from a 15c manuscript of Dati's La sfera, showing Cairo, Damascus, Nineveh, Baghdad, and Mecca.

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 29/02/2024

#sferaproject snippet: Last week I was at the Bib. Reale in Turin to see MS Aldini 90 (left), but a casual question revealed the existence of MS Varia 123 (right, sorry abt pixelation), which—three years into this project—we had no idea existed! You never know what will turn up...

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 14/02/2024

#sferaproject snippet: These little vignettes in Laurenziana Med-Pal 90 just get more interesting, the more you zoom in (both 16v, African coast Tunis > Tripoli). Ships, flags, crow's nests, harbor—and what's with the dogs [?]? #medievalsky #earlymodern #bookhistory #maphistory

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 12/02/2024

Today's #sferaproject snippet is actually NOT La sfera, it's #fragmentology! Here's a fun late Caroline binding fragment (text is Gregory the Great's Homilies on the Evangelists) in Biblioteca dell'Archivio di Stato di Firenze, MS Gianni 53 (image reversed): #medievalsky #bookhistory

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 12/02/2024

CALL for VOLUNTEERS! True to its crowdsourced roots, the #sferaproject is looking for help transcribing map labels in 15c Sfera MSS! One MS is prob. 1-4 hrs of your time: typical examples below. Sign up here: tinyurl.com/sfera-geodata 🙏 #medievalsky #bookhistory #earlymodern (+ pls repost)

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 08/02/2024

#sferaproject snippet: diagram of the 16 winds in Ravenna. Bib. Classense MS 242, f. 23r. Please note the charming humanistic bookhand and the cute little TO map at the center. #medievalsky #bookhistory #early modern

A lat-15th-century diagram of the 16 winds, with a TO map at the center.

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 07/02/2024

Hedgehogs: SQUEE! That is all. (Pabenham-Clifford Hours, Cambridge Fitzwilliam MS 242).

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 07/02/2024

#sferaproject snippet: Given that it's February, please enjoy this wonderful depiction of "summer" from Lucca, BIblioteca Statale MS 1343: Swimming, with wine. Not to mention swim trunks that don't seem entirely opaque. 🫣 #medievalsky #bookhistory #earlymodern

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 06/02/2024

#sferaproject snippet: Last week I was at the Biblioteca Universitaria in Pavia, which has a SECRET TOILET. 👀 Also, the manuscript was in a lovely hand even if it did attribute the text to one "Niccolò Dati".

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Carrie Beneš @cebenes.bsky.social · 11/01/2024

#sferaproject snippet: Fantastic sea beasties in Laurenziana Med.Pal. 90 (f. 14r):

A hand-drawn city and sea beasts in Laurenziana Med.-Pal. 90.

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