iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Michael Powell-Davies

Brodie Waddell @brodiewaddell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I've changed my email signature, so I guess it's official: I'm now Professor of History at @bbkhistorical.bsky.social. How did I celebrate? Obviously by buying myself a 1743 deposition, 1713 apprenticeship indenture, 1779 receipt and 1651 petition off ebay. Aren't they pretty?

Photograph of a manuscript petition (1651) and receipt (1779)

Photograph of a manuscript apprenticeship indenture (1713) and deposition (1743)

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Brodie Waddell @brodiewaddell.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

In the final week of my Microhistories module at @bbkhistorical.bsky.social, I asked students to imagine a microhistory starting with just one primary source. The results were brilliant, so follow along to hear about a bunch of books that definitely need to be written! 🗃️🧵 #Microhistories 1/?

Screenshot of the module website for 'Reading and Writing Microhistories'.

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Michael Powell-Davies @mdpowelldavies.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Sleep is pain’s easiest salve, &c. 😴

An extract reading: Or whilst in the Day my Spirit is overwhelmed within me, I think sometimes to deceive my Pains a little, by taking a Nap on my Couch.

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Brodie Waddell @brodiewaddell.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Friday, May 8th, 6pm-7pm, at Birkbeck: ‘The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living’, an in-conversation event where @katherineharvey.bsky.social discusses her new book on this topic with Clara Rawlings. Register here: www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...

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Brodie Waddell @brodiewaddell.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Thurs May 7th, 3pm-8pm, at Birkbeck: ‘Writing Town and Village in Seventeenth-Century England’, with Niall Allsop, Judith Hudson, Ed Legon, Grace Marshall, Abigail Williams, plus Erica Fudge on ‘Fed on Scraps: Fed on Scraps: Bits of Animals in the Early Modern Archive’: www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...

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Brodie Waddell @brodiewaddell.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Three - yes three! - medieval & #EarlyModern events at Birkbeck soon. Weds May 6th ‘Women, History and the Stage: Creative Encounters with the Medieval Past’, playwright Sarah Dickson, medievalist @mpdavies.bsky.social, with performance of ‘The Will of Ellen Langwith’: www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...

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Peter McCullough @mcculloughp.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

The garb (not to mention the décolletage) is, to my knowledge, unique for a clergy portrait of that date. Since he had been installed dean of St Paul's late in 1621, I think this is channeling (Roman) orator in a gesture toward a deanship to be defined by preaching.

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Brodie Waddell @brodiewaddell.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

'Beyond utility: pleasure and play in the works of William Leybourn, writer, stationer, and mathematical practitioner' *NEW* #OpenAccess article from @mdpowelldavies.bsky.social emerging from the #WrittenWorlds project at Birkbeck! Free to read here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Screenshot of article abstract: 'This article investigates the place of pleasure, play, and friendship in the works of William Leybourn, a printer and mathematician best known for writing practical and decidedly ‘non-literary’ technical treatises. Studying works composed between 1647–1653, the earliest period of a career spanning several decades, this piece locates the writer as a young man in London, and it reframes his printed texts as discursive works crafted among friends who shared a love of literary delight and practical mathematics. Challenging the relegation of technical writings to the realm of ‘practical value’, the essay interprets Leybourn’s works as multimodal texts that resist singular classification, demonstrates the important role that poetics and pleasure played in the writer’s technical instruction, and reveals how his writings pushed for leisurely enjoyment beyond the obligation to utility. Brilliant but not anomalous, Leybourn is presented as indicative of the rich complexity of non-elite writing culture that remains largely unexplored.'

Photo of a page from Leybourn and Wing, Urania Practica (1649), a printed book, depicting a shape poem: 'the instrument of a globe, fixed upon a base and with lines of latitudes marked. ... collaborations between the poet and printing house, showcasing both literary skill and technical printing capability.'

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Reposted by Michael Powell-Davies

Brodie Waddell @brodiewaddell.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

We are hiring postdoc researchers to join our #WrittenWorlds project at Birkbeck, with Sue Wiseman, @mdpowelldavies.bsky.social, @richardjansell.bsky.social and I. 0.5FTE, 13 months, focus on women's or provincial non-elite writing #EarlyModern 🗃️ cis7.bbk.ac.uk/vacancy/post...

The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, at Birkbeck, University of London, is looking for a talented researcher to join a project focused on expanding our understanding of non elite writers and writing in seventeenth century England.
As Postdoctoral Research Associate you will join 'Written Worlds in Seventeenth-Century England', an exciting Leverhulme Trust–funded project. The role is offered on a 13 month, part time (17.5 hours a week) contract with a salary of £22,124 rising to £25,189 per annum (pro-rated £44,247 to £50,379 per annum).
In this role, you will carry out dedicated research on non elite textual production, working closely with the Principal Investigator, Professor Sue Wiseman, and the Co Investigator, Dr Brodie Waddell. You will have the opportunity to work extensively with manuscripts and printed sources, visit archives, investigate datasets, develop the project database, and contribute to shaping the project’s scholarly outputs - and you may also be involved in textual editing.
As Research Associate, you will focus on one of two thematic strands:
1. Non elite writing produced in the provinces, or
2. Writing produced by non elite women.
Further details via link

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Reposted by Michael Powell-Davies

IHR Society, Culture & Belief, 1500-1800 @ihrscb.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Just a reminder... Tomorrow, 5 March, 5.30 pm ✨ Sue Wiseman, Brodie Waddell @brodiewaddell.bsky.social , and Michael Powell Davies @mdpowelldavies.bsky.social speaking on "Written Worlds: Non-Elite Writers in Early Modern England" Sign-up in person & online: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

history.ac.uk

Written Worlds: Non-Elite Writers in Early Modern England

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British Association for Local History @balhnews.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Join us next week to learn about how an Atlas of London in 1666 has been researched! This webinar is in collaboration with the Historic Towns Trust @historictownstrust.bsky.social Find out more: www.balh.org.uk/event-balh-r... #WeAreLocalHistory #LocalHistoryForAll

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Joe Saunders @joesaunders1.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

Delighted to be continuing as a research assistant on the London on the Eve of the Great Fire project. To support the creation of this Atlas and Gazetteer of 1665-6 London then consider a donation to the project. @historictownstrust.bsky.social 🗃️ shop.historictownstrust.uk/product/donate

Morgan's 1682 map of London. Black and white, showing Tower Bridge, Wapping the Thames and Bermondsey.

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Prof Tracey Hill @tracelarkhall.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

Six greenmen and their fireworks, viz:

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Michael Powell-Davies @mdpowelldavies.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

'Unseen things seen are most and best approved: gold, because rare, is dear and well beloved.' Join us this time next week for a rare reading of Walter Mountfort's The Launching of the Mary (1632). More details and to register: www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...

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Michael Powell-Davies @mdpowelldavies.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

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Reposted by Michael Powell-Davies

Michael Powell-Davies @mdpowelldavies.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Written at sea in 1632, Walter Mountfort's The Launching of the Mary hasn't seen a London stage for almost 400 years. Join us at Arts Week 2025 for a script-in-hand reading of this little-known Renaissance play. More details and registration here: www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event....

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Michael Powell-Davies @mdpowelldavies.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

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Reposted by Michael Powell-Davies

Dr Laura Sangha @lsangha.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

The brief 1609 will of John Lux is pulsing with #EarlyModern life: Delightfully, Lux willed that his trumpet be sold 'and that money given and bestowed amongest this Shipps companye to drinke and be merrye withall'. 📜📜📜🎺🎺🎺⚓⚓⚓🍺🍺🍺 #Skystorians #MaterialCulture #MaritimeHistory 🗃️ 🧵1/

Lines of old handwriting that reads: Item my will and desire is that my Trumpett be sould and that money given and bestowed amongest this Shipps companye to drinke and be merrye withall.

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Reposted by Michael Powell-Davies

Grace Murray @mazinggrace.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

Another excellent year of #EMROCTranscribes, this year at Birkbeck with a great group who enjoyed Zooming with transcribers @rcphysicians.bsky.social & elsewhere and the thought-provoking talk on the history of #earlymodern abortion from @maryfissell.bsky.social. Thanks as always to EMROC … (1/2)!

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Michael Powell-Davies @mdpowelldavies.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Really excited to soon be in Boston for RSA/SAA 2025! I'll be talking on London, nautical bookshops, and the writing of place, alongside the brilliant @clairerichie.bsky.social and Francesca Bua. With many thanks to Peter Good for chairing and the London Renaissance Seminar for sponsoring!

A listing from the RSA 2025 conference programme.

From Fluidity to Fixity: Settling Place Through Writing in Early Modern England

Writing Place and Placing Writing in Early Modern Maritime London
Michael Powell-Davies, Birkbeck, University of London

Fixity in Flow: Manuscript Receipt Books as Means of Fluid Preservation
Claire Richie, University of Miami

The Fixity and Fluidity of Translation in Jane Lumley’s Iphigenia at Aulis
Francesca Bua, University of Wisconsin - Madison

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Michael Powell-Davies @mdpowelldavies.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Dropping some books off at the charity shop, and enjoying the thought of these being out in the world… 📚

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