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Dr Alison Ray

@liber-ray.bsky.social
6.5K followers 1.7K following 628 posts

Collections and Archives Manager @ria.ie 📖 Medievalist 📜 I like big books and cannot lie! (she/her) 📕

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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Me 30 September vs 1 October ☠️💅
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Excited to read Rachel Morley’s new book Church Crawling, and my haul of nuntastic goodies has just arrived from Sherlock & Pages bookshop! 📖🔔🎉
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
A fantastic Culture Night at @rialibrary.bsky.social with our treasures on display for hundreds of visitors this evening! 💪📜🎉
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Thank you so much to the amazing @sims-mss.bsky.social for having me present for their online series today and the 144(!!!) lovely friends and colleagues for tuning in! 🤗📜🎉
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Andrew Curry @andrewcurry.com · 02/09/2026
Ancient parchments, covered in ancient disease DNA! Researchers led by @ucddublin.bsky.social's @gingerhowley.bsky.social recover the genes of a deadly animal pathogen from medieval manuscripts. @science.org
science.org
Ancient sheep virus found hiding in medieval parchment
Newly recovered sheeppox sequences reveal when and how the virus emerged
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Me on 31 August vs Me on 1 September
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
So excited to get my hands on a 1969 Towner Art Gallery guide to the Bloomsbury Group’s wall paintings in Berwick Church with a cover design by Duncan Grant, and a note to say it was first purchased at Berwick! 🤩🎨
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Yale Classics Library @yaleclassicslib.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Online Lecture @sims-mss.bsky.social Friday, Sept. 11 12pm EDT Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social The Pecia System and the Medieval University Book Trade, ca. 1200-1340 | Penn Libraries www.library.upenn.edu/sims/event-s... @rialibrary.bsky.social
library.upenn.edu
The Pecia System and the Medieval University Book Trade, ca. 1200-1340
Alison Ray (Royal Irish Academy Library) explores how medieval manuscripts were mass-produced at universities in the thirteenth century at low cost for members of the academic milieu.
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
A fantastic church crawl to @norwichcathedral.bsky.social today and an honour to meet Budge the Cathedral Cat! 🔔🐱
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
All Shall Be Well: An amazing visit today to the church of medieval anchoress Julian of Norwich! 🌰🔔
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Today I had an epic Cambridge Church Crawl to not one, but six churches- starting with @kingscollege.bsky.social Chapel!
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
A fantastic Cambridge research trip yesterday to @theul.bsky.social and @trincolllibcam.bsky.social + a sneak peek at an amazing new @parkerlibcccc.bsky.social exhibition that medievalists will love! 📜🤩
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
A Liturgical Ladies Big Day Out to Ely Cathedral yesterday with an amazing tour of the Octagon Tower + a visit to the Stained Glass Museum! 🎉
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
A great evening tour of the @nlireland.bsky.social led by Director Audrey Whitty for Heritage Week! 📖🎉
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Had a blast with all the kids today, and loved showing the exhibition to a little girl interested in publishing history- a future curator in the making! 🤗📖
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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Thirteenth-century Paris saw the emergence of a commercial book trade, which included a system for manually copying books at speed and in great numbers. Or: No, medieval manuscripts were not all made by a sad single monk spending his life artisanally crafting one book. Tune in to this talk! ⬇️
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I’m thrilled to be taking part in this year’s amazing @sims-mss.bsky.social mss online lecture series to share my work on the pecia system and university book production! 🤗📜🎉 www.library.upenn.edu/sims/event-s...
library.upenn.edu
The Pecia System and the Medieval University Book Trade, ca. 1200-1340
Alison Ray (Royal Irish Academy Library) explores how medieval manuscripts were mass-produced at universities in the thirteenth century at low cost for members of the academic milieu.
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
So excited to host this tomorrow with the @rialibrary.bsky.social team! 📖🐧🎉
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Happy Black Cat Appreciation Day to all the ghoulies celebrating! Illustration from a 13th-century Bestiary, now @bodleian.ox.ac.uk MS Bodl. 533, f. 13r 🐈‍⬛🖤
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
A great #HeritageWeek visit to Birr Castle, Co. Offaly to see displays on astronomy, photography, and fashion from their archives + the cute shell well in the grounds! 📸🐚🔭✨
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Excited to take part in this online event for the Print Exchanges research network on exhibitions with the fantastic @senatehouselib.bsky.social and @ies-sas.bsky.social team to share my work on the @rialibrary.bsky.social ‘Ink & Innovation’ display! 🤗📖🎉
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Terms of manuscript endearment I have used this week at work: Cutie-patootie 😍 Absolute banger 😎 My little guy 🥹 Sweet boi 🤗 Total babe 🤩
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Library of the Royal Irish Academy @rialibrary.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Total eclipse of the heart! Did you know we hold two copies of only three known Irish translations of Messahalah's De orbibus coelestibus? Our astronomical tracts date from the 14th or early 15th century, and the third copy is held by our friends at @marshslibrary.bsky.social 🌘🔭
Lunar eclipse diagram, from RIA MS B ii 2, p. 12Lunar eclipse diagrams, from RIA MS 23 F 13, p. 314
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Any internet search trying to spell this name is just giving me Hillary Clinton as a result, if anyone can take a look! 😅✍️
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Some funky finds from condition checking the @rialibrary.bsky.social manuscripts today! 📜🎉
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Exciting times this week as we work on the @rialibrary.bsky.social annual stocktake! Have to make sure the manuscripts haven’t gone on summer holidays without us 😂📖 @labnf.bsky.social MS Fr. 682, f. 2v
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
A great last day in Lewes (for now) with visits to the castle and Anne of Cleeve’s house! 🏰
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
This weekend I’ve been on an amazing Bloomsbury Group pilgrimage in Sussex, first stop Monk’s House owned by Virginia and Leonard Woolf as well as a detour to the Glyndebourne Opera Festival! 📖🎨
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
NBD, just hanging out with the Cathach, @rialibrary.bsky.social MS 12 R 33 dating to 560-600 AD and the oldest extant Irish manuscript of the Latin Psalter 🤩📜
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Had a look today at a late medieval devotional miscellany in Irish now @rialibrary.bsky.social MS C ii 2 containing fun interlace initials and a copy of the Vision of Tundale, opening with a drawing of Tundale himself! 📜🎨
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
These little piggies! In honour of #theodyssey movie, here’s a fantastic scene of Circe transforming Odysseus’s men into pigs, from a French translation of Boccaccio‘s Of Famous Women dated 1403 and now @labnf.bsky.social MS Fr 598, f. 54v 🐷✨
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
A brilliant day giving a St Thomas Becket themed #churchcrawl tour to friends today of @cburycathedral.bsky.social! 🔔⚔️🎉
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Having a blast with my student placement looking at the @rialibrary.bsky.social’s collection of printing blocks! 📖🎉
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Just back from a fantastic girls’ art and aperol trip to Firenze! So wonderful to see so many favourite works in person at the Uffizi Gallery 🎨🇮🇹🎉
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
A fun #churchcrawl to Bangor Cathedral today, thank you to Revd Broadbent for showing the AMARC crew the amazing medieval tiles! 🔔🎨
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
A fantastic @amarc.bsky.social Summer Meeting today on Welsh estate records hosted by @ystadaucymru.bsky.social and the @bangoruniversity.bsky.social archive collections team! 📜🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🎉
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
I’m on a boat! Excited to head to Wales for our @amarc.bsky.social Summer Meeting at Bangor University, and here’s an image of Noah’s Ark from the Book of Ballymote to celebrate, @rialibrary.bsky.social MS 23 P 12, f. i-v 🚢🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🎉
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Friday Fun at @rialibrary.bsky.social checking out the watermarks in our 1482 edition of Euclid’s Elementa! This endleaf is packed with user notes and more soon on its provenance 📖💡🎉
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Spotted a fun printer’s device of an elephant and castle as well as a collation register today in a 1565 edition of Leone Ebreo’s Dialoghi di Amore printed by Giorgio Cavalli of Venice! 🐘🏰📖
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Thank you to everyone who came to hear about all things incunable and shout out to my placement student who displayed woodblocks! 🤗📖🎉 We’re also running a family-friendly print day on 19 August for those who want to join the fun! www.heritageweek.ie/event-listin...
heritageweek.ie
Ink & Innovation: A Family-Friendly Printing Workshop | National Heritage Week 15th – 23rd August 2026
The Royal Irish Academy Library welcomes visitors of all ages on Wednesday, 19 August (1-4pm) for a drop-in, family-friendly printing workshop and tours of the ...
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Library of the Royal Irish Academy @rialibrary.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
What links this 1496 astronomical tract and the first President of Ireland? 📖🔎 Come find out tomorrow at our lunchtime Curator's Talk and Tour of the 'Ink & Innovation' exhibition by @liber-ray.bsky.social! Last few tickets available through the link below: www.tickettailor.com/events/royal...
Woodcut detail of an armillary sphere with a scene of philosophers debating underneath, from a 1496 edition of Johannes Regiomontanus's Epitome on Ptolemy's Almagest, now RIA 24 F 19
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
A great visit to Lissadell House today, the childhood home of Countess Markievicz and her sister Eva Gore-Booth! 📖🎨
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
New toy! Got a fun light sheet to experiment on the paper and watermarks of our @rialibrary.bsky.social incunables and early printed pamphlets! 📖💡
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Found the fantastic bookplate of Bulkeley Bandinel, the Bodley’s Librarian @bodleian.ox.ac.uk between 1813-1860 in an English Civil War pamphlet now in the Haliday collection of @rialibrary.bsky.social! 📖
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
My new manuscript tape measure has arrived! 😂🦊📏
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Excited to see the Werwulf trailer today and all things medieval movie! The Doom painting looks like a fun version of the Chaldon mural! 🐺😈🔥
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Hebrew Palaeography Question! Could anyone please help translate the inscription below, from the end leaves of a Latin Pocket Bible? The Latin inscription added afterwards shows the book was also owned by a Dominican friar, and the book is continental but was later in Oxford! 📖🔎
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Three amazing presentations today by the @memsunikent.bsky.social crew Jemima Bennett, Anna-Nadine Pike and Kate McCaffrey for the 2026 @rebpaf.bsky.social ‘Re-Mediating the Early Book: Pasts and Futures’ conference in Dublin! 📖👏🎉
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
A fantastic tour of @chethamslibrary.bsky.social today on a research trip to Manchester! 📖🎉
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Fantastic video by my bestie Niko for #PrideMonth! Stay tuned in the coming months for exciting news from us! 🤗🌈📖
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