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Shahrouz, PhD

@parchmentwizard.bsky.social
1.9K followers 300 following 89 posts

Professor | PhD, Yale History | Specialist in the Middle Ages + World History | Manuscript collector | Taking each day 24 hours at a time.

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Reposted by Shahrouz, PhD
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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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Year after year, semester after semester, before me cometh a fresh flock of students, wide-eyed, hungry, hopeful for what college may offer them, and, LO, they receive through me the sublime revelation that AD does not, in fact, mean After Death. And through this I will cure the earth. Amen.
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
What do I do if one of my college students told me today that she remembers seeing her parents watch Game of Thrones when she was a little kid? It’s fine if I’m getting older, but other people aren’t supposed to get so much younger.
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
This line in Nolan’s Odyssey movie is sooo funny: “Why are we leaving? If this is the end of the Bronze Age, shouldn't we stay and fight for it?” “Hey fellas, are we wrapping up the prehistoric era yet?” “Omg I think we’re entering Late Antiquity now.” “Mom, I’m being deployed to WWI tomorrow.”
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Look, Mom! They’re making comics about medievalists! #medievalsky
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Ticia Verveer @ticiaverveer.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
Archaeologists uncovered a medieval notebook from a latrine in the city of Paderborn, W-Germany. The 700 to 800 year old notebook consists of wooden tablets coated in wax and is enclosed within a leather binding decorated with embossed lily motifs 📷LWL/ S. Brentführer www.lwl.org/pressemittei...
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Napoleon famously embraced the *brand new* smallpox vaccine (Edward Jenner had developed the vaccine only a few years before Napoleon first rose to power) and tried to mobilize widespread vaccination for both the citizenry and his troops.
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Looking for help. I'm having trouble with the word in the image. "Per se p...am presentem et sequentem." The ending is "am," following "ecclesiam" in the next line, but I can't piece together something sensible from the rest. "Per se patrimoniam"? The lower stroke in "a" is missing elsewhere.
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
This letter, addressed to a spice merchant in Montpellier, is dated to the 1250s and written mostly in medieval Occitan. The most compelling part to me is that it's written on paper rather than parchment. Remarkably early example of paper in this region, especially among merchants! #medievalsky
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
New semester, same tricks. Except I'm adding more banned phrases. (Yes, the worst political climate for me to be banning speech, but an informal poll of me and me alone revealed that phrases like "since the dawn of time" are heinous.) #medievalsky
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Students of history will see the parallels between Reza Pahlavi and Napoleon III. Pahlavi might be far less connected, less capable, and less canny than any Bonaparte, but his claim that he'll "step forward" to "lead this transition" via referendum echoes 1848/1852, down to the royalist backsliding.
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Reposted by Shahrouz, PhD
Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
Have a friend, relative, or anonymous internet adversary complaining about the “historical accuracy” of the costumes in Nolan’s upcoming Odyssey film? Let ‘em see how medieval artists depicted ancient subjects—including Homeric stories! This 14th-c. portrayal of the Trojan war will melt their brains
A medieval illumination depicting the Trojan war with anachronistic medieval elements (clothing, armor, buildings, etc.)
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
Have a friend, relative, or anonymous internet adversary complaining about the “historical accuracy” of the costumes in Nolan’s upcoming Odyssey film? Let ‘em see how medieval artists depicted ancient subjects—including Homeric stories! This 14th-c. portrayal of the Trojan war will melt their brains
A medieval illumination depicting the Trojan war with anachronistic medieval elements (clothing, armor, buildings, etc.)
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Who let this slip? Just wait till they discover the truth about the Vikings...
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
In my third decade of life, I realized that referring to Superman and his love interest by their first names results in Lois and Clark. Intentional or not, this fact has been on my mind without interruption for about 36 hours and counting.
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
Please pay your comic artists so they can keep drawing panels like this. #AbsoluteBatman
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
The teachers "mistakenly taught their students about the wrong Roman ruler — Augustus Caesar instead of his predecessor, Julius Caesar." Were the teachers not suspicious of the fact that their Caesar managed to live into old age and died in a much less perforated state? apnews.com/article/aust...
apnews.com
Studying the wrong ancient Roman ruler gets Australian high school seniors out of a history exam
Teachers at nine high schools in northeastern Australia discovered days before an ancient history exam that they had mistakenly taught their students about the wrong Roman ruler — Augustus Caesar inst...
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
I should be grading, which of course means I have exhausted every possible route on the internet to learn about arrowheads made from meteorites, including the Mörigen Arrowhead, found in Estonia and thought to have been made from one of the Kaali meteorites nearly 3,000 years ago.
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Reposted by Shahrouz, PhD
Pieter Beullens @pieterbeullens.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Averroes, Commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics: fragment from a MS of the Latin translation by Michael Scot (Copenhagen, KB, Fragm. 1091) www5.kb.dk/manus/vmanus...
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
I would like to share my recent discovery that a McDonald's Big Mac combo is not a wise choice as the very first meal after a stomach bug.
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Reviving this quote from the historian Marc Bloch, killed in 1944 while resisting the Nazis in France. #medievalsky "I think our country sinks beneath the yoke. It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash Is added to her wounds." (Macbeth, 4.3.45-47)
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Anders Winroth @winroth.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...
theguardian.com
Bob Moore obituary
Other lives: Medieval historian at Sheffield and Newcastle universities who wrote influential books on heresy and the roots of intolerance
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Reposted by Shahrouz, PhD
Game Informer @gameinformer.com · 25/03/2025
Game Informer is back! The entire team is returning and we can't wait to reconnect. Come join us to celebrate the best in games, the people who make games, and the people who play games from all around the world. www.gameinformer.com/letter-from-...
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Game Informer @gameinformer.com · 19/03/2025
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
I teach a History of Medicine course and insist, following @monicamedhist.bsky.social, that my students distinguish correctly between "Trota" and "Trotula." A French pop media article came up on my feed with a reminder that her erasure endures. #medievalsky www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...
radiofrance.fr
Les femmes et la médecine au Moyen Âge : le cas de Trotula de Salerne
Que sait-on de Trotula de Salerne, pionnière de la gynécologie et de l'obstétrique au Moyen Âge ? A-t-elle été victime de ce qu'on appelle aujourd'hui l'effet Matilda ? Pourquoi cette figure encore my...
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Is the Early Modern period a black hole of history? As a medievalist, I am frequently exhilarated and dismayed by how often I encounter something seemingly important but totally unknown to me when venturing past my curfew of 1499.
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
I'm amazed by the efforts of the staff at The Getty Villa @gettymuseum.bsky.social to protect the museum during the Palisades Fire. youtu.be/dbt4p7xMfk8?...
youtu.be
Getty Villa employees recount how they raced to save the museum from the Palisades Fire
YouTube video by ABC7
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
I've finally done it. The instructions for the papers in my undergraduate history courses explicitly prohibit the use of the phrase "throughout human history." But will it be enough? #medievalsky
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Pew Pew Bang! @pewpewbang.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
PROJECT REVEAL! We're a video game podcast where every episode is a slumber party. Tune in every other Monday to hear four women from around the game industry talk games, stories, & life advice. Spotify: tinyurl.com/59rxjh4w Apple: tinyurl.com/276vpwcx YouTube: tinyurl.com/bdcpca4k
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Lucy Pick @lucykpick.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
Very sorry to learn of the death of medieval historian Walter Goffart, who was a friend and an inspiration.
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Daniel Siemens @danielsiemens.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Bob (R.I.) Moore, Professor @newcastleuni.bsky.social for many years, died this morning. He leaves behind an impressive body of academic work, including his masterpiece “The First European Revolution, c. 970-1215”. He was also a pioneer of comparative world history. We will sorely miss him.
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
Read Dr. Marie Kelleher's book! #medievalsky
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Dr. Marie Kelleher was an incredible scholar who mentored me at CSU Long Beach for ~8 years. I studied under her for my bachelor's and master's degrees in history. Like everyone who knew her, I was devastated by her sudden passing last year. I'm thrilled that her final book, The Hungry City, is out.
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
Seeking advice: I'd like my undergraduates to read an article-length work about medieval precursors to Early Modern colonialism, esp. in an Iberian context + how Spanish colonialism drew on earlier interactions with Muslims. Something like Fernández-Armesto's *Before Columbus*. #medievalsky
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
This single manuscript page has writing on it spanning over 1400 years. The base text is 6th century and there are notes from the 13th, 15th, 18th and 19th centuries. There are few objects that remained interactive for longer than medieval manuscripts. BNF Latin 2630, f1r
A manuscript page with writing in two columns and numerous marginal notes and scribbles, as well as a red library stamp.
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
A local account I follow for the city of Montpellier in France posted the January 2025 meal calendar for school kids. It’s genuinely disorienting comparing the quality of this food to the processed pizza bagels, chicken nuggets, and Hot Cheetos on offer for us at my school in the US in the 1990s.
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Sara McDougall @sarannmcd.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
slate.com/life/2024/12... an honor to join so many in a pilgrimage to Avignon to honor the force that is Gisèle Pelicot. #pelicot #mazan
slate.com
The Shocking Trial That Was Unlike Any This Legal Historian Has Ever Seen
Historian Sara McDougall specializes in rape and abuse trials. This one really hit different.
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
Here is a grumpy fish creature with a leaf tail drawn by a notary to serve as the letter “I” in 1372. Am I right that the fish has a mustache? #medievalsky
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
I love medieval notarial signatures. Some are more glamorous than the one pictured, but I like how the notary—named Berengarius Rogarius—embedded his initials into his mark of authenticity. Dated 1284. The document is a mom getting permission to sell her son's property...More below. #medievalsky
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
My students are often surprised to learn that medieval quills 🪶 typically had no decorative plumes. The barbs were almost completely stripped off, as depicted in this 13th-century manuscript. So, I’m curious: how did the fully plumed quill become a mainstay of pop media? #medievalsky
A 13th-century illumination showing a scribe at work. In this case, the figure is Petrus Comestor, author of the Historia scholastica, which is the content of this manuscript. The figure’s right hand holds a calamus or a quill.
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
In 1348, a notary doodled this castle at the bottom of a merchant's will. The doodle had a purpose, though. Notaries in the Middle Ages created personalized symbols to authenticate the documents they drafted. This notary chose a castle because of his name: Johannes de Castello. #medievalsky
A 14th-century parchment manuscript with a doodle of a castle at the bottom. The Latin document is written in crabbed notarial hand.A 14th-century parchment manuscript with a doodle of a castle at the bottom. The Latin document is written in crabbed notarial hand.A 14th-century parchment manuscript with a doodle of a castle at the bottom. The Latin document is written in crabbed notarial hand.A 14th-century parchment manuscript with a doodle of a castle at the bottom. The Latin document is written in crabbed notarial hand.
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
This little manuscript is a king’s order from the year 1272 to pay his court jester. King James I of Aragon paid around 100 pieces of silver to Martynus, labeled in the document as a “joculator”—literally, “a person who jokes.” The king’s royal seal is affixed to the back. #medievalsky
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Cédric Herpson @herpsonc.cpesr.fr · 27/11/2024
#ESR Sorbonne Université quitte X pour Bluesky. www.sorbonne-universite.fr/actualites/s... 1/n
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Erik Kwakkel @erikkwakkel.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Ever encountered a yellowish blob like this in a medieval book? It's a drop of candle wax. Yup, books were read at night back then, by candle light. (Owl disapproves. Hoo-hoo did that?) Angers, BM, 162 (14th century). Digital pics: buff.ly/3VfChhJ.
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
This is a marriage contract from the year 1260. A notary drafted this for a couple in southern France. The groom, Andreas Delmas; the bride, Ermessand... Notarial contracts are so fun. I've seen thousands. Not often glamorous, they're glimpses into the tantalizingly mundane. (1/2) #medievalsky
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
In honor of Marc Bloch’s entry into the Panthéon, some encouraging words from The Historian’s Craft, which he wrote nearly 80 years ago while fighting with the French Resistance, just months before the Nazis captured and later executed him. #medievalsky
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Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales @annales.ehess.fr · 23/11/2024
Marc #Bloch va entrer au #Panthéon. Un professeur d'histoire, un résistant, un penseur décisif et visionnaire du dialogue entre l'histoire et les sciences sociales. www.liberation.fr/sciences/his...
liberation.fr
L’historien et résistant Marc Bloch va entrer au Panthéon
Emmanuel Macron a annoncé ce samedi 23 novembre, à l’occasion d’un déplacement commémoratif à Strasbourg, que la nation allait rendre hommage à l’auteur de «L’étrange défaite», fusillé par l’occupant ...
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Glad my YouTube algorithm recommended this and not "3+ hours of medieval scholastic polemics concerning nominalist epistemology," which would have had me tossing and turning.
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Shahrouz, PhD @parchmentwizard.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Any fans of Peter the Eater? (Petrus Comestor) I wrote this brief note a couple years ago about an early copy of Petrus Comestor’s Historia scholastica in Yale’s Beinecke library collections. #medievalsky beinecke.library.yale.edu/article/osbo...
beinecke.library.yale.edu
Osborn fa38: An Early Copy of Petrus Comestor’s Historia scholastica
Petrus Comestor’s Historia scholastica, composed in Latin and completed in Paris in the 1170s, was one of the key texts for historical and scriptural education among schoolmen throughout the Middle
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