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Thomas Noriega

@nhomastoriega.bsky.social
1.1K followers 1.2K following 79 posts

PhD Student at Harvard working on classical reception and university printing in Early Modern Europe. Former bookseller, occasional librarian.

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Thomas Noriega @nhomastoriega.bsky.social · 5h
NRS AC9/4075 proves spelling is hard. Charles Stewart, Captain of the HMS Ethalion, took a French fishing vessel called La Prudence in 1804. Admiralty Court deciding on the condemnation of the ship couldn't decide if the ship's master was named Jacobus de Boo, Jacques Jean Deber, or, somehow, both
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Thomas Noriega @nhomastoriega.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
NRS E371/21, the final boss of archival documents, a century of assorted papers and parchments rolled together and stiffened with time, and sewed together through the middle of the bundle. I gave such a distressed look to the archivist that it got fast-tracked to conservation
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Thomas Noriega @nhomastoriega.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
That's it, you're going on the List of Persons, Thieves and Broken-men (NLS 1.24.50)
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Thomas Noriega @nhomastoriega.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Does anyone need a handheld Epictetus? In 1760, Francis Douglas made sure the good people of Aberdeen could assuage their worried with a pocket-sized dose of stoic philosophy. Now with Latin translation! (National Library of Scotland, Hall.199.k.23)
A small brown book is suspended in a person's hand over a gray cushion with a white string weight upon itThe same book is open, revealing a title page in Greek and Latin
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Dustin A. Chacón @lingdustin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I've heard people make claims that AI would lead to a new Renaissance, but I didn't imagine it'd happen like this:
Screenshot of a Tweet from Pope Leo XIV. It reads: 

"In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgen to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity."
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Thomas Noriega @nhomastoriega.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Found a wonderful tranche of documents about the publication of John Clerk of Eldin's "Naval Tactics," licensing me to work at least 2 Aubrey/Maturin references into the ensuing article
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Ryan @ryanwright.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This is how I remember the order of Henry VIII’s wives.
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Thomas Noriega @nhomastoriega.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Today's a rare day when the National Records of Scotland are open on a weekend, but it might be slightly improper to use the public open house day to read archival accounts of printers suing each other
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Gwen C. Katz @gwenckatz.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Fuck ChatGPT flyers. The future is broadsheets.
A crowded broadsheet with way too many fonts. It says:
Forget ChatGPT Flyers
Say it with 
Broadsheets
Unlimited fonts
Stretch them
Or cram a really long sentence into one line for no good reason
No whitespace
Mix capital and lowercase
Pointing hands
(They're called manicules!)
Don't be left behind
Broadsheets are the future
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Dr. Will Green @drwillgreen.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
There's now just over 3 weeks to get your abstracts in for this CFP 😱
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Thomas Noriega @nhomastoriega.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Booth School of Business moment
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Thomas Noriega @nhomastoriega.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Catastrophic and vile, and not the first time Russia has targeted literature and education www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/w...
nytimes.com
Russian Attacks Destroy Millions of Books, the Heart of Ukrainian Culture
A publisher whose warehouse was hit twice said Moscow “thinks that books are more dangerous for them than military equipment.”
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Thomas Noriega @nhomastoriega.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
My sisiphean travel woes getting to Europe (subletter bailed 2 hours after I left Boston, bags never loaded onto the plane, ended up in Frankfurt for reasons beyond my ken) truly pale in comparison. I hope these brave travelers make it home soon!
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🔪🔪🔪bryan 🔪 🔪 🔪 @murderxbryan.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Uhhh did you think it just fixed itself?
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Thomas Noriega @nhomastoriega.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Whenever I scan a printed book, Google Drive justifiably asks me if I've taken a photo of an eyewear prescription
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Mary Lewis @profmarylewis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Excellent oped in @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social by my @harvard.edu colleague Jill Lepore. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...
But of course, the machine conversation is not free. It comes at the cost of our common life together as teachers, learners, and researchers, colleagues, mentors, and friends. Not to mention, supervising student researchers is our job.
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Thomas Lecaque @tlecaque.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
YOU COULD HIRE SO MANY FUCKING TENURE TRACK FACULTY FOR THIS. SON OF A BITCH.
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Thomas Noriega @nhomastoriega.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Renewed my reader ticket at the National Library of Scotland today. The last time I was there I was 20 years old and still working on my undergrad thesis, but the staffer said she couldn't tell the difference between my old photo and the new one, seven years and 2 degrees later!
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Rare Book School @rarebookschool.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Do you like waiting until the last minute? Well, the last minute is here! Applications for our fall 2026 online courses will be closing soon. Apply today! 𝗛-𝟭𝟴𝟬𝘃 𝗣𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝘀 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗹𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮’𝘀 𝟮𝟱𝟬𝘁𝗵 𝗟-𝟭𝟯𝟬𝘃 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 rarebookschool.org/courses
A graphic advertising two Rare Book School courses is topped by a horizontal black bar with white text reading, “Rare Book School Fall 2026 Online Courses.” Below this are two sections with an image and course information. In the first, a composite image shows a Black woman in 18th-century clothing holding a quill pen while behind her are profile outlines of people’s heads overlaid on Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects. Text alongside this reads, “H-180v Phillis Wheatley and Friends at America’s 250th. Tara Bynum. Course length: 12 hours.” The second band has an image of two computer screens on a desk, displaying different documents. Next to this, text reads, “L-130v Digital Sustainability for Cultural Collections. Nancy Y. McGovern & Kari R. Smith. Course length: 12 hours.” These two sections are separated by a horizontal red bar with text that says, “Apply Today! Rarebookschool.org/courses."
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Kate Clancy @kateclancy.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I love when the best argument against unionization someone has involves denigrating what they see as unskilled labor. Buddy this just tells me the food sucks when you host a barbecue.
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Thomas Noriega @nhomastoriega.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
The ethical integrity of Harvard Business School remains unimpeachable
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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
French Historian Marc Bloch, 1940. This is from his book Strange Defeat that tried to make sense of why the French elite succumbed so seemingly easily to the Nazi takeover. Bloch, a nerdy middle aged Sorbonne professor, joined the resistance and was executed by the Gestapo in 1944.
By birth I am a Jew, though not by religion, for I have never professed any creed, whether Hebrew or Christian. I feel neither pride nor shame in my origins. I am, I hope, a sufficiently good historian to know that racial qualities are a myth, and that the whole notion of Race is an absurdity which becomes particularly flagrant when attempts are made to apply it, as in this particular case of the Jews, to a group of co-religionists originally brought together from every corner of the Mediterranean, Turco-Khazar, and Slav worlds. I am at pains never to stress my heredity save when I find myself in the presence of an anti-Semite. But it may be that certain persons will challenge. the evidence which I propose to put on record, and attempt to discredit it on the grounds that I am an 'alien'. I need say no more in rebuttal of such a charge than that my great-grandfather was a serving soldier in
1793; that my father was one of the defenders of Strasbourg in
1870; that both my uncles chose to leave their native Alsace after its annexation by the Second Reich; that I was brought up in the traditions of patriotism which found no more fervent champions than the Jews of the Alsatian exodus, and that France, from which many would like to expel me to-day (and may, for all I know, succeed in doing so), will remain, whatever happens, the one country with which my deepest emotions are inextricably bound up. I was born in France. I have drunk of the waters of her culture. I have made her past my own. I breathe freely only in her climate, and I have done my best, with others, to defend her interests.
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Deidre Lynch @drbibliomane.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
I got tired of waiting for the journalists at @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social to cover this (it IS summer), but this is to say that ALL the staff members in Women & Gender Studies here were laid off last week, on the top of the cutting of 5 lecturer positions in the program last year.+
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Rachel Midura @rmidura.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
As you prep syllabi, consider Postal Intelligence! It's available Open Access and I also love to visit classes. Perfect for #earlymodern, history of information/communication, #renaissance, #reformazing etc. 🗃️https://cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501779923/postal-intelligence/
cornellpress.cornell.edu
Postal Intelligence by Rachel Midura | Paperback | Cornell University Press
Postal Intelligence connects and situates histories of the post and government intelligence alongside print technology and state power in the wider context of the early modern communications revolutio...
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404 Media @404media.co · 17/08/2026
SCOOP: 404 Media placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it. What did we find? It ended up at an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books. Yes. This is literally the logo outside the Amazon warehouse door. Read now:
404media.co
We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility
We 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.
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Alfonso de Zamora @perurealfonso.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Ann Blair on her new book In the #Scholar’s Workshop: Hidden Histories of Collaboration and #Authorship (@princetonupress.bsky.social) on the @academiclife.bsky.social podcast newbooksnetwork.com/in-the-schol... via @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social #EarlyModern #BookHistory #ScholarlyHistory
newbooksnetwork.com
In The Scholar’s Workshop: Hidden Histories of Collaboration and Authorship - New Books Network
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Thomas Noriega @nhomastoriega.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Looks fantastic! Can't wait to send in an abstract
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
We have published a new collection of advertisements about apothecaries and medicines in 18th c. Bridgetown, Barbados. dloc.com/collections/... More information in the thread. 1/
Screenshot of digital items of the collection Apothecaries and Medicines in colonial Bridgetown.
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Thomas Noriega @nhomastoriega.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Friends, Romans, #Skystorians, could somebody help me translate the Hebrew contained within this printer's mark? For context, this is one of several woodblock illustrations utilized by the printers of Greifswald in the 17c to mark certain events. This one is used for weddings.
A pamphlet on 17th century rag paper reads "DN. JOHANNIS FLITNERI, Diaconi apud Grimmenses meritissimi, Filiae charissimae, Grimmae d. 13. Octobr. Anno 1668. celebratis, Vota nuncupant Fautores & Amici."
Text is interrupted by an image of two hands clasping beneath the sacred heart, above which is an image of the sun with rays emanating from it and Hebrew text in the middle. Below the hands is a rose, and the entire image is encircled by a ring of vegetation.
Text continues: "Gryphiswaldiae, Typis Matthaei Doischeri, Acad. Typog. 1668."
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
'Transcribe Bentham began in 2010, and another 20,000 or so manuscript pages require transcription. We’d like to invite your readers to help us complete the project and to explore the writings and correspondence of a figure of enormous historical importance.' #Skystorians
theguardian.com
Join the crowd digitising Jeremy Bentham | Letter
Letter: Dr Tim Causer invites readers to help complete a transcription project and to explore the writings and correspondence of the philosopher and reformer Jeremy Bentham
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Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Sure #earlymodern #alchemy is cool, but have you spend a thought on how superb the kilns of alchemist looked like? They look like factories or houses, don't they? #skystorians
a kiln looking like a tower full of instruments.a kiln looking like a factoryanother kiln, looking like a house
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Laura Cleaver @laurajcleaver.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
My book exists! Thanks to everyone @archumanities.bsky.social for their patience and support.
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Thomas Noriega @nhomastoriega.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
I've tried picking at the recent translation of Aliocha Coll's Attila for ages and I just can't get into it. The translator admits to using AI as a research assistant. It casts a pall over the work, causing me to ask whether the disjointed nature of the book is successful modernism or hallucination
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Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Like Loebs? Every fall semester, I like to remind people that while Perseus has many free Loebs sectioned up into book and chapter, if you want to download and read the public domain Loebs (277 of them) as PDFs or txt files, Duke U's very own Ryan Baumann created _Loebolus 📗📕_. ryanfb.xyz/loebolus/
ryanfb.xyz
Loebolus
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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 04/08/2026
Obviously, the non-American world has a digital sovereignty problem - Trump has means, motive and opportunity to order his tech companies to shut down any public official, large corporation, or individual who displeases him: pluralistic.net/2026/06/18/t... 1/
A beautiful 17th century world map. It has been altered. Amongst the various creatures and ships that float in the map's seas now also float various 1950s and 1960s mainframes and components, along with Trump's disembodied hair and mouth.
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Holly Casio @hollycasio.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Here a compilation of stupid things library consultants have said to me in solidarity with library pals at Lambeth Libraries where genius consultants has decided that a qualified head of library service post isn't really essential.
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Dr Ian McCormick @wokestudies.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Advice for freshers in 1660: "Goe not a gadding and gossiping from Chamber to Chamber..." (James Duport) #students #HigherEd #edusky #academicsky #university
" Scholars arriving in Cambridge in the 17th century were not short of advice. James Duport, a tutor at Trinity College, compiled rules that covered most aspects of their lives. Today’s freshers take note: “Let your discourse be sauoury & sappy.” "
https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/advice-for-freshers-in-1660-goe-not-a-gadding-and-gossiping-from-chamber-to-chamber
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Dr. Will Green @drwillgreen.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Ahead of launching the actual CFP, thought I'd give a little preview of a thing I'm doing 🫢
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Thomas Noriega @nhomastoriega.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
On every front, dig in your heels!
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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Need to have some frank talk about #Yale President McInnis, General Counsel Alexander Dreier and the trustees. First, they keep saying that they are compelled to enter into a settlement with the #Trump administration. Untrue. 1/
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Emilie K. M. Murphy @emiliekmmurphy.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
proofs! 😍
Proof page 
Cambridge Elements
Elements in Travel Writing
edited by 
Nandini Das
University of Oxford
Tim Youngs
Nottingham Trent University


Listening to Early Modern Travel Writing

Sound, Bodies and Purchas His Pilgrimes

Emilie K. M. Murphy
University of York

Cambridge University Press
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Kathleen E. Kennedy @themedievaldrk.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
This nonsense about the printing press and universities is simply a different form of the "the Church enforced thought control in the Middle Ages" canard and says quite a bit more about what the speaker thinks about modern institutional surveillance and control than about history.
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Thomas Noriega @nhomastoriega.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
And indeed many universities began acting as oversight or neutral arbitrators for the nascent printing industry. I've come across multiple printers who went out of their way to get in good with the universities since they were such a dependable source of commercial income
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Duygu Yıldırım @duyguyildirim.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
So happy to finally share the news that my book, “A History of Uncertainty: Science between the Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe,” will be out in Spring 2027 by the University of Pittsburgh Press. I still can't believe it's now beyond my hands and on its way to meeting its readers.
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Thomas Noriega @nhomastoriega.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Abysmal decision. Say what you will about Harvard standing up to the Trump admin, they're letting their students and faculty down in a thousand little ways
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New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
This is just to say I have OCRed the text thet was in tne arch:ve and whicb yov were prabaldy seamhing for "breahtast" Fargme ms fheg mem debo:w5 sb ?mccf mmb 5c oc1b
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Matthew Kirschenbaum @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Hot take: the Odyssey needs a prequel where we get the story of the war, the people who fought in it, their passions and rivalries, and their shields.
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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
From time to time I toy with the idea of organising a conference composed entirely of tea, coffee and lunch breaks.
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Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 22/07/2026
'The Historian's Craft & Practice: new writing on history teaching and historical research' bit.ly/45l8I2M Selected recent articles from the Society's journal, 'Transactions', on the practice of pedagogy and research. All content available Open Access. New article submissions invited #Skystorians
bit.ly
The Historian's Craft and Practice: new writing on history teaching and historical research - RHS
The Society's academic journal, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, publishes a wide range of content from historians of all disciplinary backgrounds and career stages, worldwide. This inclu...
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Society for Renaissance Studies @srsrensoc.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
GET EXCITED! Our biennial conference is happening in THAT LONDON in 2027! It's our 💎 Diamond 💎 Jubilee, so get ready for a party. The #Renaissance Beyond Borders Warburg, 30 June-3 July 2027 Deadline for proposals: 25 September 2026 all info: rensoc.org.uk/cfp/12th-bie... #EarlyModern #SkyStorians
screenshot of The Renaissance Beyond Borders: SRS conference 2027
30 Jun 2027-3 July 2027
deadline 25 September 2026
Location: the warburg institute and school of advanced study, university of london
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