iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The Friends of Friendless Churches is a truly wonderful organisation and the quality of their work is outstanding. If you don't already, please do join them.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Plausible. Plus some spolia at the bottom?

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Reposted by Mark Kirby

cbnewham @parishchurches.org · 03/10/2026

Beachamwell St Mary, Norfolk was destroyed by fire during conservation in 2022. Permission for full restoration has now been granted. I was fortunate to record this church in 2009 and it is in my Parish Churches app. www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/202... parishchurches.org/parishchurches.html

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ecclsoc.bsky.social @ecclsoc.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Delighted to announce that we are initiating an annual autumn lecture series. The lectures will be held on Monday evenings at 6.30pm via Zoom and will last between 45-50 mins, followed by questions. Full details and booking information here: www.tickettailor.com/events/theec...

tickettailor.com

The Ecclesiological Society

The Ecclesiological Society – Welcome to the Ecclesiological Society's ticket website. Here, you can sign up for and buy tickets for all of our events. Almos...

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

SS Peter, Andrew, James & John at Lincoln's Inn Chapel. By Richard Butler, 1623. Fair bit of restoration work after 1915 zeppelin raid but still pretty good nick. Wonderful painterly brushwork in the armorials. I love St Peter's swaggering pose.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Some of the replies are fascinating. There are many on the progressive side of politics who would rather let Reform in to office than collaborate with the "wrong" sort of progressive to keep them out. It baffles me.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Mildly annoyed that ME sufferers had to wait for Long Covid to appear (which seems to be related to ME in its immune system features) before funding became available. So much more needs to be done. 5/5

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I took part in a recent mass study which confirmed genetic abnormalities which leave some people's immune systems predisposed to over-react to viral infection. It was a huge relief to be able to point to something which shows I'm not making it up. 4/5

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The lowest point was when I was referred to a psychiatrist. I don't say this to demean those with genuine psychiatric illness but you wouldn't refer a broken leg to a psychiatrist. So why do so for an illness mainly characterised by fatigue & pain? 3/5

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

... but I will never be back to normal. I led a study day in Cambridge 2 weeks ago. Got through it but still haven't recovered energy or brain clarity. For someone whose brain has been his living, brain fog is horrific & often embrassing. 2/5

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Please read this by @georgemonbiot.bsky.social ; it's not long. I was diagnosed with ME in 1998 and my life transformed completely, even though what I have is mild compared to many others. I was in bed for a year before beginning to recover a little ... 1/5 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

theguardian.com

Abandoned, dismissed and gaslighted: there is no excuse for the way ME sufferers have been betrayed | George Monbiot

Changes in guidance and science seem to have little impact on millions of devastated lives. It’s a social crisis playing out behind closed doors, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Nice & very well-illustrated piece about G E Street's St Mary Magdalen, Paddington. Posted here as I don't think Jack Chesher is on Blue Sky. Photo below is Comper's recently restored Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre in the crypt. livinglondonhistory.com/a-visit-to-p...

livinglondonhistory.com

A Visit To Paddington's Jewel: St Mary Magdalene Church - Living London History

Sitting proudly next to the Grand Union Canal, today in its own grassy enclave, you can find the jewel of Paddington: St Mary Magdalene Church. It is a Gothic Revival masterpiece and filled with beau...

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The long family history of arthritis has reached me and I've just had my second appointment with a physiotherapist. Various email exchanges confirming appointments etc and suddenly my Instagram feed (usually just church architecture) is full of posts about physiotherapy. Scary.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Its restoration by Anthony Salvin in the 1840s was the first major act of the Cambridge Camden Society, which became the @ecclsoc.bsky.social in due course. The Society's seal was designed by Pugin and depicts the Round Church.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Do visit Sidney Sussex if you have time. Not in the same league as Peterhouse and King's but deserves to be better known. 1910-20 by Thomas Lyon in a neo-Baroque style. Product of an Anglo-Catholic revival in college. Sarum Rite, prayers for Papa nostro, only Lady Chapel in a Cambridge college.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

The sign makes him look as if he's wearing an absolutely enormous wig. Did a double take.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The Rector's Staircase is made of different marbles quarried from all over Italy. Amazingly, Piero Fornasetti executed the the frescoes in 1942-43 in the middle of WW2. Priorities.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Not sure if this is heretical but I rather liked it.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The colonnade shifts style for the 1934-42 Cortile Nuovo by Gio Ponti in the form of C20 neo-classical favoured by Mussolini's Fascists. Ponti was himself a dedicated Fascist whose business somehow survived the war.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Padua University, Palazzo del Bo. A tale of two courtyards. C16 Cortile Antico, architect uncertain but possibly Andrea Moroni. Two storey loggia with walls and vault lined with arms of benefactors & students.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Partly original surviving frescoes in the apse and Ovetari Chapel. Apse frescoes are C14 by Guariento di Arpo; assorted New Testament and Patristic healings. Ovetari ones by Mantegna et al. I liked the way the restorers show the lost parts in a sort of grisaille.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Padua, Chiesa degil Eremitani, C13 Gothic with Venetian influences. All too easily overlooked because it is nextdoor to the Scrovegni Chapel and is much rebuilt after disastrous Allied bombing in WW2. Hull ceiling rebuilt after the war.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Romano also built a house for himself in Mantua. Here the asymmetry is due to a later extension rather than Romano himself. It is sort of the basement and piano nobile of a Florentine palazzo, but missing its upper storey.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The most grammatically correct part of the building is the sublime atrium, which opens out onto the moat and garden. Axial view back into the cortile in the other direction.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The climax is the Sala dei Giganti, where the giants lie defeated after their failed attempt to invade Mount Olympus. Annoyingly, the lights went out after I took a couple of photos and we were ushered after when they didn't come back on again after a minute or two.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Inside is more restrained (in terms of not breaking the rules). Seemingly all designed by Romano. Appropriate to one of its uses, there is a horse theme in the Sala dei Cavalli, & the usual array of mythological scenes in most of the other chambers.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I do love the ruggedness of it, even though it's only painted stucco.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Asymmetrical spacing of pillars. Keystones which have dropped below the cornice. Random attic windows that don't align with what's below. Jokey rejection of Renaissance purity for the entertainment of the cognoscenti. How they laughed!

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Palazzo Te in Mantua, built by Giulio Romano (portrait on R) for Duke Federico Gonzaga (portrait on L), 1526-34. A pleasure palace just outside the city walls, built for entertaining and housing the Gonzaga stables. A delightful Mannerist building, breaking all the Renaissance rules.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I had the pleasure of trialling this app. For any church crawler, church historian or ecclesiologist, it really is a must have.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

(English historical reference here from 1629 when we were having a bit of No Kings moment.) Sounds like Congress needs a Denzil Holles to hold the Speaker in his chair until it proceeds with its remonstrance to the king. Sorry, I mean president (easy mistake to make).

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I will read Goriely's article with interest. Can't help feeling that the Guardian has missed the point by reducing it to "the curves are imperceptible to the human eye" which is sort of Vitruvius' point in the first place.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Almost looks like a daguerreotype.

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Reposted by Mark Kirby

SAVE Britain's Heritage @savetoreuse.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

📣'Mentmore Towers is an astonishing building capable of modern use. There's no good reason why it should be allowed to fall down as it waits for a purpose' @countrylifemag.bsky.social on #Batman house. It praises @buckscouncil.bsky.social for its stand 👉 t.co/fiOoSLm2L1 📸 Jigsaw Aerial Imagery

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ecclsoc.bsky.social @ecclsoc.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

The Fourth Brandwood Lecture: "English Churches in Switzerland" given by James Bettley Tuesday, 15th December 2026 at St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe, London EC4 Book here: www.ecclsoc.org.uk/events/fourt...

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Originally I thought that having John the Baptist kneeling on the river bank was a very odd composition, but the majority of C17 engravings & earlier show it this way. So many of them I never narrowed it down to one likely source, unfortunately.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

That last sentence! *Chef's kiss*

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Elle Cordova @ellecordova.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I am the very model of a modern day typographer I know the type tonalities from elegant to jocular I am a master tracker and my kerning is harmonical I know the sacred swatches and can name the hues Pantonical (Full version of Modern Day Typographer now on my YouTube channel)

youtu.be

Modern Day Typographer - Elle Cordova

YouTube video by Elle Cordova

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

That's a very recherché publication for you, Rebecca. 😏

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Well done for being able to photograph it without people. You must have got there bright and early.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I love this one. Feels more realistic than the fictive interiors with absurd Dietterlin-esque vistas. Small room. Domestic windows. Woven rush matting. Excellent.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Pls ensure @newstatesman1913.bsky.social runs with this repeatedly. NF will argue it was entrapment & no money changed hands (ignoring the opinion poll funding point). This was a confession of 7 times when they knowingly broke the law.

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The Victorian Society @thevicsoc.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

📢 3 days to OBJECT to stop the adoption of part of the draft local plan for Buckinghamshire which proposes to build 7,450 new houses on the countryside around Grade I-listed Mentmore Towers & two surrounding villages🧵 Object to @buckscouncil.bsky.social Local Plan by 6th Sept tinyurl.com/4kujdeev 🧵

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Congrats on a brilliant programme. Reform will try to brush this off but the part that should do them the most damage was the dozen bleeped names of donors who had broken the rules in the same way. I hope you will hand those names to the police.

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Mark Kirby @markkirby.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Could you add me to the list please?

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