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Matt Ryan

@heggledepeg.bsky.social
1.3K followers 2.8K following 41 posts

Historian | Writer | Curator Not often here. Insta below... Insta: tinyurl.com/3byn6z6n Rep: @donaldwin.bsky.social More: www.matttellsstories.co.uk

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Reposted by Matt Ryan
Dr Sam Bailey @18thcenturysam.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
On February 19 I'll be speaking alongside the excellent @heggledepeg.bsky.social at @keelrowbooks.bsky.social about aspects of early modern book history. I'm truly hoping to supply quality slop for the hogs. If you're in the area, you can sign-up here: www.tixtree.com/e/seminar-in...
Poster reads: Public lecture in early modern studies. (Title 1) 'Down and out in late-Tudor London: Elizabethan authorship and a history of the hustle' - Matt Ryan. (Title 2) 'Slop: writing as excrement from Gutenberg to ChatGPT' Free drinks reception and showcase of antiquarian books. 5-7pm 19 Feb.
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Matt Ryan @heggledepeg.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
Meanwhile, over on the Instagrams... I've started making videos (yikes). Come and wander West Cork with me as we hunt down some delicious early modern ruins to explore. Find me here: www.instagram.com/matt_tells_s... Thanks! X
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Ashmolean Museum, Oxford @ashmoleanmuseum.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
📸 What photo, that you have taken, is your favourite? 📸 This portrait was chosen by Victorian photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron, as her favourite. Having taken up photography at the age of forty-eight, Cameron became a pioneer of photography. My Favourite Picture, 1867. WA.OA.1352
A sepia toned photograph of a young woman looking to the right of the frame. She has long flowing hair.
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Matt Ryan @heggledepeg.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
❤️
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Sarah Bendall @sarahabendall.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
@serenadyer.bsky.social & I are thrilled to announce that our edited book is out now! It focuses on how processes of making, experimenting, experiencing, & reconstructing illuminate understandings around manual labour & material life. Overview 🧵 on 📕 chapters & our contributors! 👇
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Alice Wickenden @awickenden.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
apparently my book comes out in September, wow, preorder it for all your library and intellectual history needs, stay for the section on Paradise Lost and John Ray's herbals, or the story of George Psalmanazar, my favourite early modern scammer www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...
cambridge.org
Hans Sloane's Library Collection and the Production of Knowledge | Cambridge University Press & Assessment
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Matt Ryan @heggledepeg.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
Delighted that my article on the exploits of the Martin Marprelate gang is featured in this month's edition of @historytoday.com. Online here: www.historytoday.com/archive/feat... and in the flesh below!
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History Today @historytoday.com · 21/08/2025
The September issue of History Today is on sale from today! Featuring: the #PeloponnesianWar, Birmingham’s influence on Muslim #India, the US occupation of Japan, #Elizabethan sedition, and more. Find out what else is inside and where to get it at www.historytoday.com/magazine
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Matt Ryan @heggledepeg.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
A Bristolian graffito. #RenSoc25
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Matt Ryan @heggledepeg.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
Likewise: follow Beth!
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Matt Ryan @heggledepeg.bsky.social · 05/07/2025
Had a fab time talking about Nashe, Chettle, and their printerly pals at the @srsrensoc.bsky.social conference. Thanks everyone for a gorgeous few days.
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Matt Ryan @heggledepeg.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
Always a joy to write about cheeky John Harington. Do have a read about his double dealing across the Irish Sea in my piece for @rtebrainstorm.bsky.social.
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Crawford Art Gallery @crawfordartgallery.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
RECCE: Cork Prison’s Education Unit Now open until September on Spike Island, this exhibition features work created as part of our Beyond the Frame programme, an ongoing collaboration between Crawford Art Gallery and Cork Prison, curated by Matt Ryan and Daniel Sexton.
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Richard Smyth @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
Why are they reporting it like it's a paramilitary coup?
BBC headline: Group backed by Judi Dench takes over North Yorkshire nature site.
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Daniel Sexton @dsextonartist.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
'with // out' is now open at Spike Island as part of RECCE. Iam grateful for the contributions of @heggledepeg.bsky.social @crawfordartgallery.bsky.social, and Spike Island's curator, Dorota Gubbins. It will be on display until the end of August.
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Matt Ryan @heggledepeg.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Today our show 'with//out' opened as part of RECCE at Spike Island museum. Huge thanks to @dsextonartist.bsky.social, @crawfordartgallery.bsky.social and the curator on the island, Dorota Gubbins. It's up til the end of August - come and see!
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Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
The comma shall be Oxford and the citations shall be Chicago and the 18th century is the longest. #historiantruths
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Joost Depuydt @joostdepuydt.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
Lynda Sayce plays a piece of lute music that was recently discovered in an archival document at the Museum Plantin-Moretus. Since the handwritten lute tablature was folded and reused as scrap paper, it's problaby the first time in 400 years that this music is heard.
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Matt Ryan @heggledepeg.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
Had a great time yesterday with @dsextonartist.bsky.social and Eimear Marley at the @irishmuseums.bsky.social conference in Dublin talking about our project with @crawfordartgallery.bsky.social. Thanks for having us!
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Matt Ryan @heggledepeg.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
For a little while now, I've been working with @crawfordartgallery.bsky.social, @dsextonartist.bsky.social, and a group of men who live in Cork Prison. We've been talking about art, exhibitions, and how our stories connect with the work in the gallery's collection. [1/2]
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Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
It’s not often that new biographical details for Shakespeare are discovered. The fragmentary remains of a letter puts him living with Anne Hathaway at a previously unknown address in London. www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...
theguardian.com
Shakespeare did not leave his wife Anne in Stratford, letter fragment suggests
Professor says text shows Hathaway lived with playwright in London, upending the established idea of an unhappy marriage
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Lorna Richardson @lornarichardson.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Those poor medieval selkies
theguardian.com
Surprise as sealskin is discovered to be cover material of ‘hairy’ medieval books
The findings from volumes kept in a Cistercian monastery in France shed new light on a robust medieval trade network that went well beyond local sourcing
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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
My fave history book of 2025 (so far) is @moudhy.bsky.social’s Between Two Rivers. It’s so beautifully written, so compassionate, so enthralling — it’s a joyous ode to studying ancient Mesopotamia, written by a wonderful scholar. And her audiobook is great too 👍 www.audible.co.uk/pd/B0D1GRSJ8...
The cover art of Between Two Rivers is designed with navy blue text on winding, bronze background in the shape of meandering rivers. The cover is also decorated at by curled calligraphic patterns
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Dr. Peter Paul Rubens @peterpaulrubens.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
Born (possibly) on this day in 1483, and died (alas!) on this day in 1520, Raphael. True genius of the renaissance. Here by himself, with a friend, in one of the great renaissance friendship portraits.
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Dr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
HEY! This episode just dropped on all your favourite podcasting services. You don't have to listen, just download it to make me look popular ;) 🗃️
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Crawford Art Gallery @crawfordartgallery.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Happy #WorldTheatreDay! 🎭 For the day that’s in it, we’re highlighting works in our Collection which feature a variety of figures in theatre, from playwrights, stage actors, and theatre designers. Here’s to their incredible talent and long lasting impact, both on stage and off!
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Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
Let's enjoy a look into book shops of the past. This is a 🧵 especially for #skystorians of #earlymodern Europe, and for #bookhistory, #booksky and #paperhistory nerds 🗃️ Expect, among other bookish stuff, lots of #backwardsbooks, and boxes with paper sheets, and a few sleeping dogs. 1/
A detail from an image of a book shop from Johann Amos Comenius: "Orbis sensualium pictus", pinted in 1658 in Nuremberg. You see a room full of boxes and backwardsbooks and a (tiny) bookseller reading behind a desk waiting for customers.
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Jenny Richards @jennyrichards.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
How timely is this.
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Matt Ryan @heggledepeg.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Natasha's article is a wonder. Really brilliant scholarship. Do have a read! **Also, while you're browsing through the latest edition of 'English', you might also spy my article on the bonkers world of the 16thc print trade ('Thinking Through Community'). Give it a go!**
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Will Rossiter @satyrane.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
1/4 I’m delighted to announce the publication of the latest issue of @englishjournaloup.bsky.social, expertly edited by Archie Cornish, Cathy Shrank & Kate De Rycker. It’s of urgent importance: a transhistorical study of Precarity, both academic & beyond. There are profoundly powerful contributions…
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John Gallagher @earlymodernjohn.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
I'm out here reinventing the Renaissance model of the peripatetic scholar for the modern day (the café I was working in closed early so I've brought my laptop for a non-alcoholic lager while I wait to pick up the kids).
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Caitlin Moran @mscaitlinmoran.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Watched "Adolescence"? Become terrified? Want a book that opens with angry boys saying "Feminism has gone too far," then covers porn, Andrew Tate, how to talk to your son about toxic heroes, and how to find better role-models? Then you want "What About Men?" www.penguin.co.uk/authors/1837...
penguin.co.uk
Caitlin Moran
Can men be feminists? Caitlin Moran joins us to answer our big questions on middle age, social media, Gen Z and more.
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The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) @themerl.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
look at this absolute unit
A very large Exmoor Horn ram, with a small yet noticeable smile.
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Crawford Art Gallery @crawfordartgallery.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
Evie Hone died #onthisday in 1955. To mark her 70th anniversary, we're sharing a small stained-glass work by the Irish artist depicting St Hubert of Liège in an encounter with a stag, which led to his pursuit of a holy life. It was bequeathed to us in 1958 by Hone's sister, Nancy Connell.
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Bríd McGrath @bridmcgrath.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
Thanks for all the lovely feedback on the publication of our #CorkLetterBook! So many thanks to my fellow editors Dave Edwards & the late Aidan Clarke and to David Heffernan for his invaluable help.
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Caroline Fish @historyfishphd.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
#Renaissance #skystorians putting together a proposal for a roundtable on methodologies and approaches to women and diplomacy in #earlymodern for SCS #16th Century in Portland 2025. Foci include royal women, diplomats, unofficial agents, brokers, health, etc. Leave a comment if interested - cfp tba
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Callan Davies @callanjd.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Could a page in the archives be more tantalising…? What a perfect example during a fantastic class visit to Southampton City Archives to think through archival absence and elision… “Whereas there hath beenn muche abuse off …” *blank* [Southampton City Archives SC2/1/6, 1620]
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The Edinburgh Bookshop @edinburghbookshop.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
May the Great A'Tuin always carry you on your travels through the cosmos. Remembering the fabulous Terry Pratchett, ten years on since he sublimed to a higher level of conciousness. #TerryPratchett #books #livres #fantasy
the Great A'Tuin, the giant turtle, carrying the Discworld through the cosmos on his back
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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Working in 1920s Berlin, Lotte Laserstein stakes a claim for a position in the art-historical canon with her 'Self-portrait with a Cat,' (1928) which shows her at her easel, hair cropped, androgynous-looking and holding a very patient feline.
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Diane Watt @dianewatt.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Fantastic new article and open access! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
How many medieval and early modern manuscripts were copied by female scribes? A bibliometric analysis based on colophons - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications - How many medieval and early modern manuscripts were copied by female scribes? A bibliometric analysis based on colophons
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edelsemple.bsky.social @edelsemple.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
After tonight’s launch where I’d lovely conversations and lovely cake (decorated in the book cover! 🤩) I’m looking forward to reading @catherinekirwanbks.bsky.social new police procedural set in Cork city! #Booksky 📚
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Matt Ryan @heggledepeg.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Chuffed that my (first!) article is now out in @englishjournaloup.bsky.social. So, if you want to know what connects rivalrous printers, Thomas Nashe, and talking cats, then do have a read! 1/2 academic.oup.com/english/arti...
academic.oup.com
Thinking through Community: Navigating Precarity in the Sixteenth-century Print Trade
Abstract. In the cutthroat world of the late sixteenth-century print trade, reputations and livelihoods were precarious. Shaped by an increasingly restrict
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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
🚨NEW EPISODE!! If you subscribe to You’re Dead To Me on BBC SOUNDS, you can now hear our new episode about the history of coffee, with comedian Sophie Duker and expert historian Professor Jonathan Morris ☕️☕️☕️☕️☕️☕️ A great episode, this one, all about how our fave drink conquered the world!
The image shows Greg Jenner, Sophie Duker and Jonathan Morris smiling — Sophie is miming drinking coffee ☕️ 

TEXT:
BBC You're Dead To Me: the history of Coffee!

With Greg Jenner, Professor Jonathan Morris, & Sophie Duker

Listen now on BBC SOUNDS, tomorrow on BBC Radio 4, or wait until next month on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc < My Sounds
Greg Jenner is joined by Professor Jonathan Morris and comedian Sophie Duker to learn all about the bittersweet history of coffee. Coffee is undoubtedly one of the most popular drinks worldwide, and we consume an estimated 95 millions cups of the stuff everyday in the UK alone.
But where does coffee come from, and when did we start enjoying its caffeinated effects? From its origins in medieval Ethiopia and Yemen, through the coffeehouses of the Middle East and Europe, to its central importance to soldiers during the American Civil War, this episode traces the complex history of our favourite beverage. Along the way, it explores the uses people have had for coffee over the years, in religious rituals, as a stimulant to intellectual exchange, and even as a medicine. We also debunk some of the myths that have been brewed up about coffee's history. Did the pope really call it 'the devil's brew'? Was it discovered by an Ethiopian goatherd? And did a Dutch man really have to smuggle coffee treesepisode traces the complex history of our favourite beverage. Along the way, it explores the uses people have had for coffee over the years, in religious rituals, as a stimulant to intellectual exchange, and even as a medicine. We also debunk some of the myths that have been brewed up about coffee's history. Did the pope really call it 'the devil's brew'? Was it discovered by an Ethiopian goatherd? And did a Dutch man really have to smuggle coffee trees out of Yemen? Listen to find out!
If you're a fan of delicious disputes over food, wild medical treatments from centuries past and murky historical myths, you'll love our episode on the history of coffee.
If you want more from Sophie Duker, check out our episodes on Benedetta Carlini or the Chevalier de Saint-Georges. And for more on culinary creations of the past, listen to our episodes on the history of chocolate and ice cream.
You're Dead to Me
History of Coffee ☕️ 
If you want more from Sophie Duker, check out our episodes on Benedetta Carlini or the Chevalier de Saint-Georges. And for more on culinary creations of the past, listen to our episodes on the history of chocolate and ice cream.
You're Dead To Me is the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Every episode, Greg Jenner brings together the best names in history and comedy to learn and laugh about the past.

Hosted by: Greg Jenner
Research by: Matt Ryan
Written by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner Produced by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner
Audio Producer: Steve Hankey
Production Coordinator: Ben Hollands
Senior Producer: Emma Nagouse
Executive Editor: James Cook
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Jesse Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
William Blake, Laocoön, engraving and etching, 1826-27
"In an inscription beneath his detailed reproduction of the Laocoön, Blake reinterprets the famous Greek sculpture as a copy of an original Hebraic work representing Jehovah and his two sons, Satan and Adam. Other inscriptions surrounding the central design set forth Blake's interrelated opinions on money, empire, morality, Christianity, and the arts. The central image of the statue may have been executed as early as c. 1815 in connection with Blake's work on illustrations for Abraham Rees, The Cyclopaedia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature. The inscribed texts surrounding the statue were almost certainly added at a much later date, c. 1826-27. Both impressions (A and B) of the single plate, etched and engraved in intaglio, were printed in 1826 or 1827." -William Blake Archive https://blakearchive.org/work/laocoon
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Jesse Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
In 1626, a Cambridge fishwife sliced open a cod, only to find a gelatinous, half-dissolved manuscript inside. It was published the next year under the name "Vox Piscis or, the Bookfish." At this point, why not get your news from inside a dead fish? #earlymodern #bookfish archive.org/details/bim_...
Frontispiece and title page of Vox Piscis, or The Book-Fish, contayning three treatises which were found in the belly of a cod-fish in Cambridge market, on Midsummer Eve last
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Ian Petrie @icpetrie.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Climb on the top of this scummy water tower Screamin 'I can't hardly wait'
youtube.com
Can't Hardly Wait (The Tim Version)
YouTube video by The Replacements - Topic
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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Her primary school has informed me that my daughter has moved on to 'chapter books', but disappointingly this does not mean the MS capitular records of cathedral and collegiate churches
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Matt Ryan @heggledepeg.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
I loved writing this episode of YDTM with the wonderful Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Greg and Emma Nagouse. It was such a pleasure. So, if you're into the Arctic, exploration, and lots of lads getting lost, then look no further!
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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Quick shoutout to not just the amazing YDTM production team, but, also, we can only make this show thanks to incredibly talented PhD students. Since series 1, they have provided fantastically detailed research notes for every episode, and have contributed to scripts too. On this ep, it was Matt Ryan
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