iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (CMEMS) @cmemsedinburgh.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Would you like to join the University of Edinburgh Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies mailing list? 📩 Just pop an email to Mike Carr and Kate Ash-Irisarri mike.carr@ed.ac.uk and k.ash-irisarri@ed.ac.uk

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Society for Renaissance Studies @srsrensoc.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Congratulations to our #SRSlyGood Book Prize 2026 shortlist: @jwscolley.bsky.social, Colby Gordon, Chloe Ireton, Jack Hartnell, & Tiffany Jo Werth! 🎊🎊🎊💫💫💫👏👏👏💫💫💫 🥳🥳🥳💫💫💫👏👏👏💫💫💫🎊🎊🎊 #Skystorians #EarlyModern rensoc.org.uk/srs-book-pri...

A Banner of BEAUTIFUL BOOK Covers, detailing all the shortlisted books:

John Colley, Humanism, English Literature and the Translation of Greek, 1430-1560, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025)

Colby Gordon, Glorious Bodies: Trans Theology and Renaissance Literature (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2024)

Jack Hartnell, Wound Man: The Many Lives of a Surgical Image (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press,2025)

Chloe L. Ireton, Slavery and Freedom in Black Thought in the Early Spanish Alantic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025)

Tiffany Jo Werth, The Lithic Imagination from More to Milton (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024)

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Society for Renaissance Studies @srsrensoc.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

The winner will be announced at a star-studded* online event on Friday 18th September 2026. 17.00BST, hosted by the distinguished, dazzling & divine duo @jillburke.bsky.social & @onslies.bsky.social #Skystorians rensoc.org.uk/announcement... * get your desktops set to show images of the galaxy

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Jill Burke @jillburke.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

So, for some reason, I am on this list. Many thanks to colleagues in the BA for the honour/responsibility/joy of standing up for the humanities.

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The Warburg Institute @warburginstitute.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

*Call for Papers* @srsrensoc.bsky.social has announced its next #conference at the Warburg. 'The Renaissance beyond Borders' frames the #Renaissance as a dynamic, interwoven process that transcends the geographical limitations of a fixed European moment. Learn more ➡️ rensoc.org.uk/announcement...

Image credit: 'A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, Borough of Southwark, and Parts Adjacent’ (detail), by John Mottley (London: J. Read, 1734-5). With thanks to Senate House Library for the image.

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Jill Burke @jillburke.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Am playing The Game of the Goose tonight, one of the most popular board games in early modern Europe. I’ve printed out the 1598! Italian version from the British Museum. Like snakes and ladders except with gambling! And geese! Will report back….

Print out of a sixteenth century board game engraving.

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Ideas Roadshow @ideasroadshow.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Watch an illustrated video podcast with @jillburke.bsky.social about the nude in Italian Renaissance art & changing beauty standards for women related to the newly fashionable statues from Antiquity. 🗃️ #arthistory #skystorians #art #academia #ArtHerstory #womenartists 🏺 youtu.be/5tLubAF_X2Y

youtu.be

Ep. 7. BODILY INSIGHTS: A conversation with jill Burke

YouTube video by Exploring Art History

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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 13/06/2026

To the extent that people are angry (as they very much should be!) about the horrific war on science, they also need to get angry about this outrageous war on the humanities. Both attack peer reviewed research that doesn’t happen to fit with a center-right worldview.

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Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 11/06/2026

For further details of 100+ UK subject societies in history, please see our new resource bit.ly/43xhXw6 All are membership groups, offering support for historians from a wide range of backgrounds. If you seek fellow researchers in your field, we hope this guide proves useful #Skystorians.

Guide to UK history societies and networks, with text:

"The Royal Historical Society works closely with a number of other UK and Irish societies dedicated to the study, communication and promotion of historical knowledge and understanding.

Once a year, the Society hosts a half-day meeting of heads of UK history societies to discuss subjects of shared interest, such as publishing, membership and advocacy for the discipline. The Society also holds regular online meetings with its equivalent national organisations worldwide."

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Shannon K. Supple @mazarine.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Research fellowships at Yale’s Beinecke Library! 📜📚 First: Short-term Research Fellowship (2027-2028) For anyone not a student. (Students: see next post.) Application deadline is August 15, 2026. beinecke.library.yale.edu/programs/fel...

beinecke.library.yale.edu

Short-term Research Fellowships

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Claire L Jones @claireljones.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Oh yay, the new Bulletin of the History of Medicine is out! It features my positioning paper on objects and materiality in the history of medicine. After years, it is finally out! muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

muse.jhu.edu

Project MUSE -- Verification required!

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Aaron Allen @mchapelproject.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Got to enjoy a masterful inaugural lecture by @jillburke.bsky.social last night. She looked at historical documents through their key ingredients: paper (through flax); ink (oak gall wasps); quills (from geese); and thought (through Da Vinci’s cat doodle). Fantastic.

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Jill Burke @jillburke.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Am giving a talk in Turin next week! 4.45pm 13 May, Villa della Regina - ‘Bella per forza: donne, bellezza e potere nell'Italia del Rinascimento’

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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

NEW from me: many of our universities are now in a dying fall. A new global-national-regional-local split is opening up, which could choke off progress on almost all the Government's plans. Do they have a plan? Nope, nothing, not a clue. 👇 isrf.org/blog/whats-t...

isrf.org

What’s the future for our universities?

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Holly Fletcher @drhollyfletcher.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

It seems that books are a bit like buses... 'Fat Bodies in Early Modern Europe' edited by Christine Ott, @jillburke.bsky.social and me is out now!! #EarlyModern Also including contributions from Alex Pyrges, Andrea Baldan, @scarlettgauthor.bsky.social, Pablo García Piñar, and Roberta Colbertaldo

Book cover for 'Fat Bodies in Early Modern Europe' edited by Holly Fletcher, Christine Ott and Jill Burke, showing the title and editors' names on a maroon, floral background.

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Jill Burke @jillburke.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

@bryonycoombs.bsky.social and I have been making ink @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social historical reconstruction lab. My v. easy 1555 recipe is from Alessio Piemontese’s Secrets - it involves wine, very Italian - and made pretty good ink, even with my Scottish galls. Can’t wait til our workshop!

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Dr Bryony Coombs @bryonycoombs.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Some really instructive (& fun) ink making experiments with @jillburke.bsky.social this afternoon in prep for a forthcoming ink & quills workshop. Scottish, English or Aleppo oak galls: which makes the best ink? we will tell you after the workshop! 😉 Many experimental ideas in the pipeline ✍️📜🍃

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Jill Burke @jillburke.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

I'm giving a talk! It's online for ePublic of Letters, on “Why were beauty tips so popular in sixteenth-century Italy? Readers, Makers and Realms of Knowledge in Early Modern Cosmetic Manuals". April 15th, noon eastern U.S., 5pm UK, 6pm continental Europe. RSVP here: forms.gle/DNLMPQuBGcEi...

Beauty recipe books – both manuscript and printed – crystallised as a distinct genre in sixteenth-century Italy, going on to be translated, adapted and plagiarised in many European languages. Usually explicitly aimed at a female audience, they largely consisted of compilations of recipes dealing with multifarious issues that affect the appearance – from hairstyles to scabies, from fatness to athlete’s foot. Long treated as a marginal element of the ‘book of secrets’ tradition, recent research has shown they make for fascinating reading, giving us insight into intimate worlds of anxiety about appearance and the everyday health concerns thought to mar attractiveness.

This talk takes three complementary approaches. Analysis of dedicatory letters and verses show sometimes surprising ways in which cosmetic knowledge and practice were framed, and offers evidence for how authors imagined their readership. Text mining of several thousand recipes reveals recurrent beauty problems, as well as the range of ingredients, techniques and equipment expected from diverse users. Finally, an evaluation of the plentiful readers’ marks on around 80 copies of Giovanni Marinello’s Ornamenti delle donne (Venice, 1562, 1574 and 1610) suggests how readers actively engaged with the texts, the identity of readers and owners, and which recipes drew the most attention.

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Holly Fletcher @drhollyfletcher.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

So so pleased to see that my book ‘Body Size in Early Modern Germany’ is now available on Oxford Academic ahead of its print publication later this month: academic.oup.com/book/62409 🎉🎉🎉 To mark its online publication, I thought I’d share a bit more about the book and its contents...

academic.oup.com

Body Size in Early Modern Germany

Abstract. This book uncovers the significance of body size—of fatness and thinness—in early modern Germany. It explores how early modern people conceived o

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Holly Fletcher @drhollyfletcher.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

@jillburke.bsky.social, Christine Ott and I also have a co-edited volume 'Fat Bodies in Early Modern Europe' coming out later this year with @routledgehistory.bsky.social which looks at fatness in various European settings including a couple of contributors who touch on England.

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Institute of Historical Research @ihr.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Interested in environmental history? The IHR is offering a summer 2026 internship with the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH). Apply by 15 April 2026, 11:59 pm BST. More details at: buff.ly/Vzpz6G3.

history.ac.uk

IHR Internships

IHR Internships support new researchers to develop their skills and broaden their experience within and beyond the historical research community.

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Karen Desmond @karendesmond.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

The ERC-BROKENSONG project at Maynooth University, Ireland, is hiring (two positions - this is the second)! I'm also looking a new research assistant/postdoc to conduct image analysis of the medieval Insular music corpus recovered within the project. See: www.timeshighereducation.com/unijobs/list...

timeshighereducation.com

Research Assistant / Post-Doc Researcher, Music - Maynooth, Ireland job with MAYNOOTH UNIVERSITY | 408256

The Music Department at Maynooth University invites applications for a 12-month position as either a Research Assistant (Level 2) ...

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Mark Hailwood @markhailwood.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

'I would set off, with some sense of what I might be looking for, and see what I stumbled across...' Is going for a walk a valid methodology for a historian? And if so, how much theory do you need to read before you start? Some thoughts in my latest blog post: manyheadedmonster.com/2026/02/10/i...

manyheadedmonster.com

Is Walking Research? A Methodological Ramble

Mark HailwoodI needed to try something to get me writing again. Blessed with a period of research leave to resume work on my book – Everyday Life in the Seventeenth Century English Village &#…

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Erika Is Still Writing @bluetit24.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Women wore a bra already in the 15th century! Amazing discovery. Also: I highly recommend the book “How to Be a Renaissance Woman: The Untold History of Beauty and Female Creativity” by @jillburke.bsky.social 📖🌟💄

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Jill Burke @jillburke.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Still (just) time if you’re looking for a Christmas gift for someone who likes history/art/make up 😉

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Dr Bryony Coombs @bryonycoombs.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Phew: another output for the PTAS project ✔️ A really stimulating afternoon discussing experiential learning, heritage in education, recipes, historical fashion, pedagogy & so many exciting projects currently underway. With massive thanks to @jillburke.bsky.social for a fabulous keynote✨

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

We are offering up to £10k for researchers to seed collaborations, feasibility studies, application advice and training, partnership building etc for applications to Pillar 2 of Horizon Europe – Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...

thebritishacademy.ac.uk

Horizon Europe Pump Priming collaboration between UK and EU partners 2026

This programme is providing pump priming funding to seed collaborations for applications to specific Horizon Europe topics in Pillar 2. The aim is to build collaborative activity between UK and EU/Ass...

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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

The first to realise that gall wasps came from an egg was Swammerdam in 1669 (Redi dissected thousands of galls and concluded reluctantly that gall wasps generated spontaneously). He drew this picture of a wasp laying an egg. janswammerdam.org/Images/gall....

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Jill Burke @jillburke.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Oak gall wasps are my current obsession - galls are a key ingredient in European writing inks before industrialisation. Countless ideas on paper start with the relationship between an oak tree and a wasp. Marcello Malpighi observed galls to understand and illustrate their growth in the 1670s

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Leverhulme Trust @leverhulme.ac.uk · 23/09/2025

The Renaissance changed how people saw and understood the body. Cultural and art historian @jillburke.bsky.social @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social explores fashion and everyday life in Renaissance Italy, reflecting on the surprising history of bras in medieval times: www.joinexpeditions.com/experts/4582

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

Have you heard our recent BBC You’re Dead To Me episode about Renaissance Era Beauty Trends? It’s very funny, and I got a historical makeover! My guests are fab comedian Tatty Macleod and brilliant expert historian @jillburke.bsky.social Available on all podcast apps worldwide

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Manchester University Press @manchesterup.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

📣Are you a #histmed scholar whose book proposal belongs in our Social Histories of Medicine series? The @sshmedicine.bsky.social Annual Book Development Prize Competition is open for submissions!🥳 Secure £2,000 in funding to help turn your idea into a published monograph or collection! Details👇

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

'The study...found that the main driver of increased red tape was university efficiency reforms. It threw doubt on the idea that increasing automation results in real efficiency, and suggested that Australian universities...had recently shifted towards stronger central executive management.' 1/2

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Antaine Mac Aoidh @antainemacaoidh.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

GRW-Rima! As we hear about nails, 16th century beauty treatments, and the value of care. With @jillburke.bsky.social @gregjenner.bsky.social @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social @cmatbaby.bsky.social and more. 1815 on R4 or afterwards on BBC Sounds. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

bbc.co.uk

BBC Radio 4 - Pick of the Week, Rima Ahmed

Rima Ahmed presents selection of the best bits of audio across the BBC.

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

New episode of BBC YOU’RE DEAD TO ME: Renaissance Beauty — makeup, hair, skincare in 16th century Italy With me, comedian Tatty Macleod, and expert historian Professor @jillburke.bsky.social Available now on BBC SOUNDS, and coming to other podcast apps in 28 days www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Smily photo of comedian Tatty Macleod with pink hair and pink shirt, Professor Jill Burke with blonde hair and white shirt, and Greg Jenner with green shirt, brown curly hair and beard, and he is pointing to splodges of orange makeup on his face

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Alice Thornton's Books @thorntonsbooks.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

Great to see our project written up in today's Guardian. Follow the link inside to our digital edition - more than one thousand pages of Thornton's writings transcribed and modernised. @kingsdigitallab.bsky.social @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social #EarlyModern 📜 🗃️

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Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

Every strand of this Edinburgh University report could be its own front page. Yes, some of it will be familiar to historians, but this kind of frank public recognition is all too rare. Incredible work by many different scholars.

theguardian.com

Edinburgh University had ‘outsized’ role in creating racist scientific theories, inquiry finds

Investigation finds one of Britain’s oldest and most prestigious universities benefited from transatlantic slavery and was haven for white supremacist theories

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History: The Journal of the Historical Association @hisjournalha.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

#History #SkyStorians 2025 @hisjournalha.bsky.social Research Bursary scheme is now open! Available: 1 ECR award & 1 mid-career researcher award, each worth up to £1,500. Deadline *15 August*. For further particulars & downloadable application form, see www.history.org.uk/higher-ed/re...

history.org.uk

History Research Bursary Scheme: Early Career and Mid-Career Routes

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Georgina Wilson @georginaemw.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

Print Matters summer school hard at work at Thin Ice Press amid 3 days of book-making, reading Lucretius, depicting 'chaos', and perusing the Minster Library and Shandy Hall

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StModerna @stmoderna.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

📢 Call for Applications The Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici has published its 2025–2026 fellowship call (15 scholarships available). Deadline: 31 July 2025 More info 👉 www.iiss.it/bando-di-con...

iiss.it

Bando di concorso per borse di studio dell’anno accademico 2025-2026. Scadenza: 31 luglio 2025

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Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Plan your summer 2026 to include Edinburgh in July: it will be THE place to be for historians of science! #hstm #bshs2026 #hss2026 #eshs2026

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Jill Burke @jillburke.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

This is for people who are familiar with Italian sixteenth-century handwriting and/or who are clever at manipulating images. I think someone wrote their name on this frontispiece to a beauty manual in 1571 then the later owner, Girolamo Garofano, wrote over it. Can anyone make the first name out?

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Jill Burke @jillburke.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

A bit unseasonal, but thought I’d share a pic of these gorgeous 16th c Venetian handwarmers we looked at behind the scenes at the V&A last week - which include a gimbal so the oil pot and wick face upwards whichever way you hold them

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Evelyn Welch @evelynwelch.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

And it's out! Open access and free to download. Thank you @wellcometrust.bsky.social and @manchesterup.bsky.social. Excited to see it out in the world (and sure that despite all the proof reading, I will find typos) @hsmurphy.bsky.social @historyelaine.bsky.social @medievalbadger.bsky.social

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

The author of this piece advocates getting AI to read for you because “the internet-era explosion of digitized text now mocks nonfiction writers with access to more voluminous sources on any given subject than we can possibly process” 🙄

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Edinburgh Archaeology @edinburgharchaeo.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

Our @samleggs22.bsky.social is part of a new #exhibition @stgilescathedral.bsky.social@edinburghcouncil.bsky.social about the 1st Burghers as part of #edinburgh 's 900th birthday! 🎂 Check it out at #StGiles until 30th Nov ⛪ @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social #edinarch #archaeology #scotland #archsci

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Jill Burke @jillburke.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

A joyful first event at the Edinburgh Historical Reconstruction lab where we tried European and Chinese early modern cosmetics and perfumes, found out what James I and VI smelled like, and made pomanders from a 1555 recipe.

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

'Sir Peter is facing anger from staff at the University of Edinburgh at plans to cut £140m from its spending - equivalent to at least a month's expenditure each year....in a wide-ranging interview...he said he cannot rule out compulsory redundancies at the 442-year-old institution.' 1/2

bbc.com

Funding warning from Edinburgh University principal Mathieson - BBC News

Sir Peter Mathieson says ministers must act over the future funding model for Scotland's universities.

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