iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I want someone to make the lais into a prestige anthology show like Black Mirror.

Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

There are Bluey episodes that surpass many lauded prestige shows in their efficiency of storytelling and dialogue, as well as elegant layering of meaning and nuanced communication of complex concepts ("Sleepytime," "Flat Pack," "Bin Night," "Onesies," "Markets," "Camping").

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

NYC! It was a Fordham Center on Religion and Culture-sponsored event. There was even a (brief) talkback w/ Andrew Garfield afterwards.

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I saw an advance screening last week w/ other medievalists, and this is pretty spot on. 'Robin Hood' bit was 100% tacked on to a too-long film that was often hard to watch (in writing, violence, and perpetual shaky-cam). I honestly don't know what Paul Greengrass was trying to say with his script.

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

"You see, my beloved children, in the early church there were no patriarchs or popes, only bishops, and they would sometimes gather to settle great matters in a meeting known as a synod. Then, in 325, the Emperor Constantine..."

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I tend to think of it more linearly, like this:

Flow chart of historical sources: primary sources or historical evidence (texts, objects, memories) are either edited/translated and used to create peer-reviewed works or secondary sources (books, edited collections, journal articles), which is historical analysis or historiography. These works are then used to create non-peer reviewed tertiary sources (reference works like encyclopedias dictionaries, handbooks, and manuals; textbooks, non-academic internet media like blogs, podcasts, social media posts, video essays; and general public focused-works of popular history), which are synthetic in nature.

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Candidate for the most frustrating word to transcribe in 14th c. notarial Latin handwriting:

A word in Latin that consists of the letter i followed by fifteen minims.

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

But which one will form the head?

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Reddit is dead, long live rreedditt.

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

My favorite Marseillais oligarch name from the 14th c. is Monteolivio de Monteolivio

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Procopius's Secret History, but only if it's directed by Armando Iannuci.

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

From the same register (ADBR 351 E 659, f.75v | 1396/97). Fish by way of hummingbird?

The initial letter "I" on a notarial document, ornamented with an eye, a kind of tail, some flowers, and a wave-like doodle the looks a bit like a proboscis.

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

One thing I love about Marseille's notaries—especially this one, Laurent Aycard—is that they tend to doodle or decorate their registers and the initial capitals of their acts (in the long-form extensoirs, at least). Aycard organized his registers w/ letters. This is the beginning of "Register O."

A capital O that looks a bit like a woman wearing a headscarf, but has consummate-V teeth and stippling on the chin and around the mouth, suggesting the stubble of a beard. Beneath is a second, less ornamented and longer face, similarly decorated.

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

It is truly maddening to ask "wait, how do we know this?" and then follow a citation chain backwards to have it end with an eminent scholar who has seemingly shed their karmic ties to this world and transcended the need for footnotes.

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

It's cubes, cubes all the way down.

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

For many years, I had this image of a 'stereotypical medieval manor' from William Shepherd's Historical Atlas (1923) in my teaching powerpoints. A few years ago, I decided that I wanted something clearer and more hi-res, so I pulled it into Adobe Illustrator and rebuilt it.

An image of a "stereotypical" medieval manor from William R. Shepherd, Historical Atlas, (Henry Holt and Company, 1923), showing a three-field system, common pasture, meadow, woodland, and waste land.

Modernized version of the "stereotypical" medieval manor from William Shepherd's Historical Atlas (1923) showing a three-field system, common pasture, meadow, woodland, and waste land.

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

This is a bit of an unusual one, but I started using Focusmate for online co-working last year, and it has done more for my sanity (especially during grading) and keeping me on task than any other 'productivity tool' has. Cannot recommend highly enough! www.focusmate.com

focusmate.com

Focusmate—Virtual body doubling for getting anything done

Stop procrastination forever with virtual body doubling. Join for free and tackle any task, from studying and coding to meal prep and everything in between. Featured in BBC, NPR, New York Times, and H...

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Teaching resource: The Map Archive for a lot of your, well, mapping needs. themaparchive.com

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Teaching resources: The Noun Project and Flaticon. I use these all the time to spice up my powerpoints/lecture videos or recreate something I've seen elsewhere (a couple of examples attached). thenounproject.com www.flaticon.com

Powerpoint graphic slide showing some of the products of the Columbian Exchange (tobacco, potatoes, avocados, peppers, maize, cacao, pineapples, squash, turkey, cassava, peanuts, tomatoes, and vanilla from the Americas; coffee, cistrus, plantains, cattle, sheep, horses, wheat, barley, oats, rice, grapes, sugar cane, onions, honeybees, olives, peaches, pears, pigs, Yersinia pestis, smallpox, measles, malaria, diptheria, and influenza from Afro-Eurasia)

Powerpoint graphic slide showing the length of rein, causes of death, and religious affiliations of the Roman emperors.

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Teaching resource: a bit smaller, but the Getty Museum's illuminated manuscript collection www.getty.edu/art/collecti...

getty.edu

Museum Collection | Getty

Explore the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center and the Getty Villa.

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Teaching resource: Medieval & Renaissance Material Culture, with links/references for objects, animals, occupations, and similar categories as they appear in manuscript illuminations and marginalia www.larsdatter.com/sitemap.htm

larsdatter.com

Larsdatter.com Sitemap

Sitemap for content relating to the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

For English historians, a currency calculator for converting purchasing power of English currency from 1270 to the present: www.measuringworth.com/calculators/...

measuringworth.com

Measuring Worth - Purchasing Power of Pound

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

An online version of Orbis Latinus for Latin place names www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/Gra...

columbia.edu

Graesse, Orbis Latinus

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Enigma from CIHAM UMR 5648 in Lyon, which lets you put in the recognizable characters in a word and use wildcards for minims and hard-to-make-out characters. Has decoded a lot of inscrutable notarial handwriting for me! enigma.huma-num.fr

enigma.huma-num.fr

Enigma

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

U Chicago's Logeion (Latin and Greek dictionary) logeion.uchicago.edu

logeion.uchicago.edu

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I did this years ago on Twitter, but, here's a list of tools/utilities that every medievalist show know about and have bookmarked: #medievalsky

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

"Rise or die" sounds like Ridley Scott's Robin Hood, but I suppose "rise or pay the poll tax...again" isn't as catchy.

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

While all of this is absolutely true, and I watch even the bad medieval adaptations, there is an argument to be made for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, which gave us possibly the greatest comedic performance of Alan Rickman's career. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkZq...

youtube.com

My Favourite Sheriff of Nottingham Moments (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves)

YouTube video by Bacon-Wrapped Rainbows

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Still my favorite St. Nicholas meme:

An Orthodox icon image of St. Nicholas with the words "He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake. He knows if you profess the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father."

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Someone in the church I grew up in gave her son's girlfriend a book about a couple that didn't even kiss until their wedding... I think it's telling that Joshua Harris later recanted "I Kissed Dating Goodbye."

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

And is it just me or does Oscar Isaac with slicked-back hair look a *lot* like Jeremy Irons?

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

That was such a weird show, because it tried to copy the tonality of the US franchise, and British crime procedurals really have their own flavor of weird (from grittier stuff like Broadchurch or Wire in the Blood to Jonathan Creek, which was like Monk before Monk but more awkward).

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Really? Not Big Tent Revival's "Two Sets of Joneses"?

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Fourth is Beatrice de Planisoles's deposition from the inquisitorial register of Jacques Fournier. Fifth, Burchard of Worms's Corrector sive medicus (I always get "did people really do this stuff??"). Sixth, the Trotula. And finally, Francis and the wolf of Gubbio from the Fioretti di San Francesco.

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Hands down, Procopius's Secret History (esp. Anthony Kaldellis's translation). It's tabloid trash, and I love it (and so do they). Followed closely by the fabliaux, which I assign alongside the lais in my High Middle Ages course. Third is Margery.

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