Len Scales.bsky.social @lenscales.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Out next month from @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social, edited by @marcusmeer.bsky.social and me! Quoting the code BB135 gets you (or your library) 35% off all formats. Also applies to advance orders. boydellandbrewer.com/book/iconocl...boydellandbrewer.comIconoclasm and Power in the European Middle AgesExplores the destruction, mutilation, and erasure of images, artefacts, and monuments during the European Middle Ages. 0146
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialCharles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Looks like a great job for medieval historians, at either Assistant or Associate (tenured) level, at John Hopkins. 11010
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialMargot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026'The idea of archaeology as adventure predates the discipline itself. It grew from 19th-century colonial exploration, when the past was treated less as knowledge than as loot.'theconversation.comWhy Indiana Jones is the best and worst thing to happen to archaeologyThe idea of archaeology as adventure predates the discipline itself. 0121
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialCharles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 29/09/2026The governance of late medieval England, drawn by Sebastian Sobecki. communities-of-practice.english.utoronto.ca?page_id=222 0176
Len Scales.bsky.social @lenscales.bsky.social · 17/09/2026For those missing their dose of AI doom - ballistic missiles designed by Claude: unherd.com/2026/09/clau...unherd.comClaude: tyranny’s little helper 000
Len Scales.bsky.social @lenscales.bsky.social · 17/09/2026It matters because it teaches scepticism. Not exclusive to university history, of course. But we teach it (or we should) from day one. Why believe this? For what purpose was it said / written? Instinctive questioning. In an age of fakes, frauds and liars I can't think of a more relevant discipline. 1288
Len Scales.bsky.social @lenscales.bsky.social · 17/09/2026For #adoorableThursday the (Welf?) 'lion portal' from Königslutter minster (burial site of Emperor Lothar III, Empress Richenza and Duke Henry the Proud). Romanesque with 19th-cent. restoration and some serious neo-medieval ironmongery. My photo. 080
Len Scales.bsky.social @lenscales.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Perspectives on Europe rooted in the eastern EU states are often very fruitful. Reminded me of the landmark 'Europe's Centre at the first Millennium' exhibition from the start of the second, with 'Sclavinia' hurrying to join. The designers chopped 'Gallia' (old news?) out to fit the catalogue cover. 150
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialMargot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 17/09/2026'The University and College Union (UCU)’s Edinburgh branch said staff had been called into “informal meetings at less than 24 hours' notice” and told not to bring union representatives.'heraldscotland.comFear and anger as university set to announce 'massive course and programme closures'Asked to respond, a university spokesperson said that staff and students were recently informed of changes to “our future academic offering across… 911487
Len Scales.bsky.social @lenscales.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Hardly news to #medievalsky, but was reminded yesterday just how good are the medieval galleries at the V&A. Here, for Thursday morning, a mid-12th-century Byzantine falcon bowl. 07416
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialIain MacInnes @iainmacinnesuhi.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Medieval history will never not be of relevance... #medievalskyindependent.co.ukPutin sends bones of warrior prince to Ukraine in desperate bid to boost moraleDonskoy, whose name was given to a Soviet tank column funded by the church in World War Two, was declared a saint in 1988 22510
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialColin Veach @colinveach.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Come join me and my colleagues as a Lecturer in History at the University of Hull! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSV911/l... @universityofhull.bsky.socialjobs.ac.ukLecturer at University of HullApply for the Lecturer role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now. 11313
Len Scales.bsky.social @lenscales.bsky.social · 07/09/2026taz.de/Otto-Begraeb... Piece in Berlin's TAZ on the reburial of Otto I, including a report of the regional AfD denouncing the scientific study of Otto's remains as 'Leichenschändung' (corpse-desecration). Link to (paywall) essay by Sachsen-Anhalt chief archaeologist on nationalism and archaeology.taz.deOtto-Begräbnis im Magdeburger Dom: Denn er war unser!Keine kleine Aufgabe, den den Großen genannten Kaiser Otto wieder in den neuen Sarg zu kriegen! Geglückt aber ist es. Muss er uns interessieren? 076
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialMonumenta Germaniae Historica @monumenta.bsky.social · 07/09/2026200 years ago: The publication of the first MGH volume! Annales et chronica aevi Carolini More about the initial volume publicated in August 1826: mgh.de/en/blog/post... mgh.de/de/blog/post... #medievalsky 34313
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialKim Posster @kposster.bsky.social · 02/09/2026War heute mit meiner Pflegehilfe zum ersten Mal im großen Rewe im Viertel einkaufen und habt dort das gesehen Da lässt man euch einmal 3 Jahre alleine und ihr macht sowas 6446
Len Scales.bsky.social @lenscales.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Looking forward to speaking tomorrow afternoon at the @germanhistsoc.bsky.social conference on the strange post-1945 afterlives of medieval emperors - strange enough to allow even the troubled Kyffhäuser ('Barbarossa') monument eventually (1990) to make it onto a DDR stamp. 051
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialJohn Levin @anterotesis.bsky.social · 02/09/2026An "update" to JSTOR’s free reading program: they're downgrading access from 100 free articles/month to just 10. Access to academic writing is being whittled down, bit by bit. about.jstor.org/blog/an-upda...about.jstor.orgAn update to JSTOR’s free reading programBeginning September 1, 2026, JSTOR’s free reading program will provide registered readers with access to 10 articles every 30 days. 14202129
Len Scales.bsky.social @lenscales.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Otto the Great laid to rest (in a titanium coffin) in Magdeburg cathedral. 094
Len Scales.bsky.social @lenscales.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Should be compelling stuff, again. The medievalist in me always appreciated that Gereon is supposed to be originally from Cologne. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...theguardian.comGoodbye to Babylon Berlin, the 1920s TV drama that has eerily foreshadowed real-life politicsThe long-running drama reaches Hitler’s rise to power in its final season as its creators reflect on the unsettling parallels between Weimar Germany and the present day 010
Len Scales.bsky.social @lenscales.bsky.social · 27/08/2026Sachsen-Anhalt: surely the most paradoxically 'German' of German states. Not for nothing did Thomas Mann set the early chapters of Doktor Faustus in a fictionalised Naumburg (or is it Merseburg, or Halle - or all three?) - fictional burial place of that most paradoxical medieval emperor, Otto III. 021
Len Scales.bsky.social @lenscales.bsky.social · 27/08/2026A good piece. Sachsen-Anhalt is a beautiful corner of Germany. (Well, much of it is.) But what strikes the outsider (this one at least) is the sad emptiness - the permanent Sunday afternoon feel - of many of its ancient, historic towns. 041
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialGerman at Portsmouth @germanatportsmouth.bsky.social · 27/08/2026The Nazis drove Bauhaus out of town. Now the far right is waging another war against the movement. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a... via @theguardian.com @deborahcole.bsky.socialtheguardian.comThe Nazis drove Bauhaus out of town. Now the far right is waging another war against the movementPoll to take place in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, where Bauhaus blossomed a century ago – and where AfD is promising ‘patriotic culture policy’ if it wins 093
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialGerman History Society @germanhistsoc.bsky.social · 26/08/2026🎉 Keynote Announcement We're pleased to welcome Prof. John Breuilly (LSE) to the GHS annual conference in Stirling! 📅 3–5 September 2026 📖 Find out more and book your place: www.germanhistorysociety.org/conference/ #GermanHistSoc2026 031
Len Scales.bsky.social @lenscales.bsky.social · 24/08/2026A subtext of this bleak piece is that humanistic-human skills have the potential to become *more* important (though rarer) under AI. Perhaps (hopeless optimism) an incentive for tech leaders - who are supposed to be pretty smart - to seek a less piratical relationship with those who nurture them? 110
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialMargot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 23/08/2026An important read (not just for historians). Do the habits and skills of research and critical analysis really have no other cognitive , social and/or political values? (Well, in much current thinking, sadly no). 32710
Len Scales.bsky.social @lenscales.bsky.social · 21/08/2026Whole thread is good advice. Related is diff. levels of academic formality. UK academics, unless very old-school, usually move to the informal as soon as decently possible (often prefaced with a cautious 'if I may'). German academia often keeps things formal for longer. 140
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialLandesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle (Saale) @landesmuseumhalle.bsky.social · 21/08/2026Am Mittwoch, den 19.08.2026, wurden im Magdeburger Dom die Ergebnisse der Sanierung des Sarkophag Ottos des Großen vorgestellt. Mehr Informationen bietet die Presseinformation des Landesamts für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie: www.lda-lsa.de/presse-und-o... © LDA Sachsen-Anhalt, A. Hörentrup. 0178
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialKenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 20/08/2026“The retreat to the small, and the jettisoning of grand metanarratives of the kind that Hobsbawm excelled at, has reduced our understanding of who we are.” @johnmerrick.bsky.social on @emile-chabal.bsky.social’s biography of Eric Hobsbawm: unherd.com/2026/08/eric...unherd.comEric Hobsbawm's age of contradictions 1155
Len Scales.bsky.social @lenscales.bsky.social · 19/08/2026It was indeed a terrific conference, superbly organised by Éloïse Adde. It was great to have the chance to reflect on the conference themes in the concluding discussion with Éloïse and @cathleen-sarti.bsky.social, captured in the YouTube recording. 031
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialArc Humanities Press @archumanities.bsky.social · 19/08/2026{New book} Shaping the Nation in Medieval Europe Edited by Éloïse Adde explores a fundamental problem of European historiography within a global context: the history of medieval nations and the question of their relationship to modern nation-states. www.arc-humanities.org/978180270424... 163
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.social404 Media @404media.co · 17/08/2026We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.404media.coWe Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training FacilityWe placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books. 8569262
Len Scales.bsky.social @lenscales.bsky.social · 14/08/2026Very much looking forward to exploring the late 20th-century afterlives of medieval Holy Roman emperors, from 1970s Stuttgart via 1990s Hessen to Frederick Barbarossa in the DDR. And very grateful for the invitation. If you're at the GHS conference in Stirling on 3 September, 6 p.m., do come along! 071
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialGerman at Portsmouth @germanatportsmouth.bsky.social · 13/08/202613 August 1919: a surprisingly blunt newspaper description of some of the participants at the "Gauturnfest Münster" 0237
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialcbnewham @parishchurches.org · 11/08/2026The Warning against Idle Gossip. c.1330-50 High up in the tracery lights of the chancel at Stanford-on-Avon is this scene. Three women are engaged in conversation while demons surround them. The only known example of this subject in stained glass. 0229
Len Scales.bsky.social @lenscales.bsky.social · 11/08/2026Re-reading A.J.P. Taylor's _The Habsburg Monarchy_. The bibliography concludes with the words, 'This list does not exhaust the books that I have consulted, some with profit, most without'. Ought to be standard. 0110
Len Scales.bsky.social @lenscales.bsky.social · 10/08/2026A bleak, powerful piece. www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int... Makes the important point that the classic humanities student essay, with its challenge to craft something substantial, considered, and your own out of words and ideas, a form now so compromised by AI, simply isn't really replaceable.theguardian.com‘I hate what AI is doing to the minds and happiness of the young’: Katherine Rundell on the view from the classroomEducation is at a crossroads, argues the author and academic. Should we embrace new technology in the name of efficiency, or is it time to fight back? 053
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialMedievalist.net @medievalists.bsky.social · 08/08/2026New Medieval Books: Black Knights: Arabic Epic and the Making of Medieval Race www.medievalists.net/2025/08/new-... #booksmedievalists.netNew Medieval Books: Black Knights - Medievalists.netMedieval Arabic literature frequently included Black African characters, offering valuable insight into contemporary ideas about race and race relations. This book examines those sources to uncover… 0175
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialGrant Jones @grantosjones.bsky.social · 04/08/2026CALL FOR PAPERS! Alastair Forbes (@areforbes.bsky.social) and I are seeking papers for our proposed Leeds #IMC2027 session: 'Ordered and Disordered Communities in Clerical Thought' All disciplines and career stages welcome - abstracts due 14 September. @imc-leeds.bsky.social #MedievalSky 01410
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialPieter Beullens @pieterbeullens.bsky.social · 03/08/2026If you want to earn a PhD with a study of the medieval readers of the earliest MSS of Aristotle's De anima in Latin, only two days left to apply! 02219
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialCharles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 02/08/2026Listening to Elisabeth van Houts talking about her new book on Empress Matilda on the @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social newbooksnetwork.com/empress-mati...newbooksnetwork.comElisabeth van Houts, "Empress Matilda: Queen of the Romans, Ruler of the English" (Yale UP, 2026) - New Books Network 0115
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialRobert Friedrich @rofrie11.bsky.social · 30/07/2026Medievalists, I'm proposing a CfP for a couple of sessions for @imc-leeds.bsky.social on "Multilingualism in the Global Middle Ages. Creating Communities through Inclusion and Exclusion". Please share and apply (and check out the beautiful 12th c. quadrilingual epitaph from Palermo) #medievalsky 02122
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialHarvard University Press @harvardpress.bsky.social · 29/07/2026The first truly global biography of a revolutionary thinker. How well do you know Eric Hobsbawm? Discover our conversation with biographer and historian Emile Chabal: bit.ly/3RZrUjK Coming August 18. 13519
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialDr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele @drdragases.bsky.social · 29/07/2026No longer content with pillaging intellectual work and dismembering our environment (already critically weakened), AI companies are now hellbent on destroying books galore including rare editions. Shut down these nefarious enterprises already.news.com.auAI labs buy, scan, shred millions of rare booksIf you have retreated to physical books because the internet is too full of AI slop, bad news — now they’re shredding the books to feed their AI slop machines. 14336921925
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialSteffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 27/07/2026As I'm currently in Stiklestad for a work trip, I got to see this wonderful twelfth-century door knocker from Stiklestad Church. It might have served as a sanctuary ring, & is an extremely rare survival of Norwegian medieval metalwork. 3458
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialJane Winters @jfwinters.bsky.social · 23/07/2026Royal Historical Society open meeting (online) for historians working in universities, 4 Aug 2026 - ‘The crisis in UK higher education: the future for history’ www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-crisis.... It’s a definite sign of the times that places are almost gone.eventbrite.co.ukThe Crisis in UK HE: the Future for HistoryAn open meeting for historians in UK higher education on what is needed to best support and protect the profession and discipline. 12741
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialMarcus Meer @marcusmeer.bsky.social · 24/07/2026CfP: "Media of Memory and the Pre-Modern Economy" at the @ghilondon.bsky.social, 5-7 May 2027, www.ghil.ac.uk/events/confe... Interested in how pre-modern communities used the past to address present challenges and future aspirations in economic terms? Please do get in touch by 15/12/2026! 11718
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialCarin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 20/07/2026I made the happy discovery that the catalog from the 2013-2014 Met exhibit "Medieval Treasures from Hildesheim" is online, with many glorious illustrations: resources.metmuseum.org/resources/me... #medievalsky 24117
Reposted by Len Scales.bsky.socialDr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 18/07/2026"don't cite what you haven't read" remains the basic entry level academic responsibility; & if your discpline "doesn't have that as a norm" then sorry, your discipline needs reforming for this new world. Citations are structural parts of trust and knowledge building, not trinkets or optional extras 201578552