iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 27/09/2026

Lovely few days in Dublin for the launch of the new "Navigatio Sancti Brendani" at @dias.ie A great range of papers (in English & Irish). And exciting to see the conference get a write-up in the @irishtimes.com after the President gave Trump a copy of the book! www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026...

Reconstructed currach outside the DIAS building

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Trevor Wiley @mearcsteppende.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Want to learn how early medieval people living on the coast in Scotland hunted seals and seabirds? Or how collecting sea snails on the beach was part of new Christian practice? You should check out my new article in Water History! link.springer.com/article/10.1... #medievalsky

link.springer.com

Wild animals, small practices, and the formation of an early medieval coastal landscape on the Firth of Forth - Water History

The large-scale landscape changes that occurred in northern Britain from roughly 400–800 C.E. were built on a vast array of smaller shifting practices which reflected the realities of local environmen...

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 25/08/2026

Looking forward to taking part in this symposium at @dias.ie in a few weeks. Open to all (but spaces limited) – so register now! (I'll be speaking about medieval navigation, of course ⛵ ) www.eventbrite.ie/e/the-voyage...

eventbrite.ie

The Voyage of St Brendan, A European Odyssey

A day of events to celebrate the launch of a modern edition and English translation of the text

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 25/08/2026

eventbrite.ie

The Voyage of St Brendan, A European Odyssey

A day of events to celebrate the launch of a modern edition and English translation of the text

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Shannon K. Supple @mazarine.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Always blown away by conference presenters who present in languages other than their primary one. And answer audience questions, sometimes spoken at lightning speed. Bravo! #eshs-hss

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 16/07/2026

On my way home from a magnificent #eshs-hss conference. Edinburgh hosted us brilliantly (including the conference ceilidh!) & it was wonderful to catch up with old friends & colleagues, and make meet many new ones. Newly inspired by #HistSTM!

Ceilidh lines in the National Museum of Scotland

Edinburgh castle in the sunshine, with blue sky behind

View down over Edinburgh from Salisbury Crags, with the castle visible in the background

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Suzanne Paul @suzpaul.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Fabulous medieval postdoc opportunity on a brilliant project…

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 29/05/2026

My review of Katherine Harvey, "The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living" & Peter Jones, "Self-Help from the Middle Ages", is out in the new issue of @thetls.bsky.social www.the-tls.com/history/medi...

the-tls.com

Mind, body and medieval spirit

Should the Middle Ages be a model for modern life? The period hardly seems promising, with its religious violence, pandemics and penchant for fart jokes.

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Borthwick Institute for Archives @uoyborthwick.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Sweltering in the UK heatwave?? Why not visit your Local Archival Repository! Low temperatures and humidity GUARANTEED* And we throw in the history for free😍 *by regulatory standard BS4971:2017 Archives - Where the records are cool and so are you.

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 26/05/2026

Job opportunity for an early-career scholar in politics/international relations of the Middle East / North Africa / South Asia. 3 years from 1 September. Apply by 4 June. Come and work with me at wonderful @girtoncollege.bsky.social! Full details: www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/55579/

Girton College in the morning sun, with slanting light through the trees, a slight mist, and the tower in the background

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Graham Taylor @pottedhistory.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

The replica Anglo-Saxon urn🏺⚱️I've been working on, based on one found in the grounds of @girtoncollege.bsky.social is now approaching completion #Archaeology One of my prime concerns when replicating archaeological artefacts, is to retain the spirit of the original and avoid over finishing it.

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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

The Enlightenment is a C20 construct. Discuss.

Google ngram graph showing that 'The Enlightenment' appeared as a phrase in the printed corpus in the 1940s.

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Stephen Johnston @stephenaj.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Remarkable drawing by Frances Yates from 1952, as she was studying Giordano Bruno's art of memory. This is the lead image for Relics, a new student-curated exhibition at the @warburginstitute.bsky.social. Much looking forward to seeing this up close.... mailchi.mp/sas/news-fro....

Circular diagram on paper with fold marks. The outer rings of the circle are lettered in black ink and the inner in red.

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Stephen Gadd @docuracy.co.uk · 01/05/2026

✉️ Explore 145,000 medieval merchant letters as a live map: the correspondence network of Francesco di Marco Datini (c.1363–1412), spanning Florence to Barcelona to North Africa. Visualise routes, travel times & seasonality. docuracy.github.io/datini/ #DigitalHumanities #MedievalHistory

A dark-themed interactive map of the medieval western Mediterranean showing 14th-century merchant letter routes as curved arcs coloured from cyan (fast, 0–5 days) through yellow to red (30+ days). Short land routes between Tuscan cities glow cyan; longer sea routes to Barcelona and Majorca burn orange and red, revealing the unpredictability of medieval maritime travel.
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Long (accessible description for screen readers / figure caption):
Screenshot of the Datini Letters Geospatial Explorer in Travel Time mode. A dark basemap of the western Mediterranean is overlaid with curved arc lines connecting pairs of cities in the Datini merchant network. Arc colour encodes average letter delivery time on a gradient from cyan (near-instant, 0–5 days) through green and yellow (one to two weeks) to orange and deep red-magenta (more than 30 days). Dense clusters of fast cyan arcs radiate from Florence and Pisa across Tuscany, reflecting the reliable day-or-two land post. Arcs reaching westward to Barcelona, Valencia, and Palma de Majorca shift to orange and red, capturing the slower and far more variable sea routes that could take anywhere from a week to several months. City nodes are shown as circles: pink for the main Datini fondacos (Pisa, Florence, Barcelona, Genoa, Valencia, Majorca) and blue for correspondent cities. A sidebar on the left shows the Travel Time mode is selected, with a cyan-to-red colour legend and a filter slider for minimum letters per route.

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Dan Armstrong @historydan1066.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

I’m pleased to share that 'Borders and the Norman World', which I co-edited with Áron Kecskés, @rozierhistorian.bsky.social, and @lvhicks.bsky.social , is now being released in paperback. It will be available in June and is currently open for pre-order: boydellandbrewer.com/book/borders...

Book cover for Borders and the Norman World, featuring title, editors, and an image of two knights on horseback carved into stone

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Dr Mark Purcell @camlibresearch.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Venetian hedgehog

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Sadiah Qureshi 🦈 @sadiahqureshi.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Oh my word. I made Quote of the Day in Nature a couple of weeks back and had no idea. www.nature.com/articles/d41... Taken from this piece on de-extinction in Aeon: aeon.co/essays/de-ex... Back to my break.

Quote of the day:

"De-extinction will never be purely, or even primarily, the revival of lost species, but the bioengineering of new life forms that we choose to name after lost ways of being"

Historian of science Sadiah Qureshi argues that efforts to 'de-extinct' species, using frozen biological material or living relatives, risks "reducing species to little more than genetic information, rather than appreciating them as living ways of being alive". (Aeon | 19 min read)

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Chris Kendall @ottocr.at · 05/04/2026

Easter Sunday at Fountains Abbey

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Karl Galle @karlgalle.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

From the same publisher, a new open-access edited volume on Proclus for historians of medieval mathematics & theology: www.mirabileweb.it/edgalluzzo/m... #HistSTM #MedievalSky

Cover image for the book, "Proclus and the Science: Approaches to Understanding the Divine," edited by Anna Motta and Daniela Taormina.

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Laura Keating @lorekeating.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

I keep seeing "all authors use AI, the real issue is they're being forced to be sneaky about it" headlines. Full stop No. This is a lie peddled for normalization. It's schoolyard-level pressure tactics "C'mon, all the cool kids are already doing it. We won't tell. It's fine. We're on your side."

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Krisztina Ilko @drkrisztinailko.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

It's great to see this article in The Conversation up now! Link in the first comment.

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American Astronomical Society (AAS) @aas.org · 17/02/2026

Call for HAD Osterbrock Book Prize Nominations AAS Historical Astronomy Division (HAD) invites nominations for 2027 Donald E. Osterbrock Book Prize for Historical #Astronomy. Deadline: 1 March aas.org/posts/news/2... 📷 Seb Falk, 2025 Osterbrock Award winner at the 246th AAS meeting (Anchorage) 🔭

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Katherine CM Cross @kcross.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Hi guys. Please find attached my book. Some people say it will shape the idea of the English people. Don’t miss the section on the Synod of Whitby. My information is a little patchy, and I’m no fan of the Brits. Maybe you should supplement my work with archaeology? All the best, the Venerable Bede

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Dan Conway @magisterconway.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

So, um... this is bad. Really bad. I looked at the letters that were translated by the AI, and the very first one I found was almost entirely hallucination. Thread:

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 21/03/2026

Authentic medieval "photograph" here 📸 accompanying this interesting @theguardian.com piece on some new (unpublished) research on the Battle of Hastings www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...

Artist's portrait of King Harold II, from a Wills cigarette card, c1898. With blond beard, red cloak and fairytale crown. Used on a Guardian web story with caption "Photograph: incamerastock/Alamy"

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monkeynutcoat.bsky.social @monkeynutcoat.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

@girtoncollege.bsky.social 'The Eagle' in Cambridge has Watson & Crick, but delighted 'The Golden Beam' Headingley, Leeds now has Girton alumnus & physicist Florence Bell on their wall who, whilst working in Dept. of Textiles here in 1938, first showed X-rays could be used to reveal DNA structure!

Print portrait of scientist Florence Bell who, working in the lab of William Astbury at Leeds in 1938, first showed that X-rays could be used to reveal the regular, ordered structure of DNA. The print is a mosaic made up of tiny images from scientific papers and was made by artist and staff member Kristina Keller at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the USA where the original (based on a photo kindly provided by Mr Chris Sawyer) hangs outside the cafe on the Janelia campus.

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 20/03/2026

Timely: here's Baron Smith, rocking not one but two hats at his installation as Chancellor of Cambridge University (@cam.ac.uk) earlier this week For full 🎥 bsky.app/profile/cam....

Lord Smith in Cambridge PhD gown with scarlet facings and doctoral bonnet, parading outside the Cambridge Senate-House

Lord Smith in black hat and gown with lots of gold braid, giving an address in the Senate-House

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Dr Johnson's House @drjohnsonshouse.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

We’re looking for freelance illustrators and designers! Join us in creating Dr Johnson’s Alphabet, a vibrant visual project introducing early years children to unusual and exciting words. Help us make language playful, engaging, and fun. www.drjohnsonshouse.org/jobs

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Kenneth F. Duggan 🇨🇦 @kfduggan.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Traveling by sea in the Middle Ages! Two bishops (under the watchful eye of a bird) sail to Rome to fulfill Edward the Confessor's oath to go on pilgrimage.

Two bishops travel to Rome to fulfill Edward the Confessor's promise to go on pilgrimage. There is a large boat with two bishops at the bow watching over the others on the boat. There are two rowers, one on each side, and a helmsman at the back steering the boat. The boat's sail is raised and it has a cross on it. In addition to the two bishops, two rowers and helmsman, there are at least nine other people on the boat. Beside the large boat is a smaller boat with one person rowing it. In front of them all, perched on land, is a bird, who is watching everything. The water is green and the boat is wooden. The people on the boat are wearing cloaks and tunics in a variety of colours, such as blue, green and orange.

Reference: Vie de seint Aedward le Rei (c.1230x1240, Cambridge, University Library, MS Ee.3.59, f. 14r).

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 02/03/2026

I never met Prof Abulafia. But having read a fair range of his work, I feel I can imagine his reaction to having his recently disincarnated spirit summoned in this way 😱

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 28/02/2026

Why would a publisher with pride trust their audiobook to someone who understands little & cares less about what they're reading? My current listen is ruined by the reader! Misplaced emphasis; mispronunciations e.g. "ZOOlogy" & "centenARy", & howlers like the Hungarian struggle with "Australia" 🙉

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Dr Anna Clark @drannaclark.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

The largest palace in the world: Late Baroque masterpiece inspired by Versailles, La Reggia di Caserta in Naples (with aqueduct) was designed by Luigi Vanvitelli, eminent Italian architect & engineer, died #OTD 1773. UNESCO World Heritage

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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

The only surviving original Carolingian "littera formata", like a passport for a priest. Issued in Lucca, now in Pavia. archiviodigitale-icar.cultura.gov.it/it/185/ricer...

An oblong sheet of written parchment, formerly sealed.

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Dr Anna Clark @drannaclark.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

God's architect: AWN Pugin, led Gothic Revival in Victorian church architecture & designed interior of Houses of Parliament & Westminster ‘Big Ben’ clock tower (renamed Elizabeth Clock Tower); born #OTD 1812. @UKParliament | National Portrait Gallery

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 28/02/2026

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Karl Galle @karlgalle.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

For comparison, Greg Radick @hpsleeds.bsky.social recently posted about how he worked with biology colleagues to incorporate full lectures on the history of genetics, including risks of determinism & eugenics, into the department's main intro courses *before* students studied Mendelism.

Screenshot of Prof. Gregory Radick's post on LinkedIn. Text reads:

"Last week I concluded my annual three-lecture set in the Introduction to Genetics module at Leeds. As reorganized a few years ago by my geneticist colleague Tom Bennett after hearing me talk about my research, the module aims to help students take the internal and external contexts of genes as seriously as genes themselves.

It's easy to pay lip service to the idea that "context matters," far harder to build a curriculum that makes that idea foundational. To that end, after a general orientation lecture, the students hear from me, first on the history of genetics (in which the Bateson-Weldon dispute over Mendelism figures centrally); next on the multifactorial nature of phenotypes (in which norm-of-reaction curves figure centrally); and finally on human genetics and the dangers of genetic determinism (in which the history of eugenics figures centrally). Only at that point do they get an in-depth lecture on Mendelian genetics, in the hope that the framing work of the preceding lectures will enable them to see in Punnett Squares etc. tools whose value, like all tools, depends on understanding their limitations.

Tom has now left the University of Leeds, but this module represents a very positive legacy. He's also given me a great story, in that - as Tom told the students during the module's first outing - his first thoughts on hearing my research talk were "Surely not!" and "How dare you!" But he then spent the next five years thinking about it, at the end of which he decided that I was right, inviting me to join him in reforming the genetics curriculum at Leeds. So I can now end my talks by saying that I hope to have convinced my audience, but if I haven't, they should give it five years..."

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Beth Gaskell @bethgaskell.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

To celebrate the BNA reaching 100 million pages, my colleague Claire O'Halloran has written a blog sharing some of our highlights. A huge achievement-well done to everyone involved at @britishlibrary.bsky.social & @findmypast.bsky.social Here’s to the next 100 million! www.bl.uk/stories/blog...

bl.uk

The British Newspaper Archive reaches 100 million pages

We celebrate this milestone and our long partnership with Find My Past by picking a few highlights from the BNA.

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Dr Jo Edge 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @hagenilda.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Next Wednesday 25 February I'm giving a talk at Magdalen College, Oxford, entitled 'Doing Onomancy in the Later Middle Ages'. All welcome, more details below. #MedievalSky www.torch.ox.ac.uk/event/doing-...

torch.ox.ac.uk

Doing onomancy in the later Middle Ages

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 18/02/2026

A tiny clip from a really fun conversation with a brilliant PhD student about the synergies between Ramadan and Lent 🌙

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Stephen Johnston @stephenaj.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

... and diagrams that were assembled and bound separately from a written text that they must have accompanied. But did Rossetti publish such an astronomical work? Not sure. (But his fortification book has images that remind me of fractals and the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelb... !)

Fortification diagram from Donato Rossetti, Fortificazione a rovescio (Turin 1678), from https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=gri.ark:/13960/t6rz6j63z&seq=5&view=1up

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 17/02/2026

A real treat for me to chat to Imad Ahmed about his work making the Moon meaningful for Muslims 🌙

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 09/02/2026

Anyone in London looking for a fun half-term activity, check this out, featuring the brilliant @gregjenner.bsky.social off You're Dead To Me 🤩 www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/tot...

southbankcentre.co.uk

Totally Chaotic History: Roman Britain Gets Rowdy | Southbank Centre

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Dr Jo Edge 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @hagenilda.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

I wrote a piece for the CDBU blog with some low or no cost things our employers could do right now if they care about precarious staff as much as they say they do.

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