iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

📃 Publication news! Ida's first dissertation article has been published in Studia Neophilologica. The article examines the use of Old English "witch" words in early medieval prose and verse. Link to the article: doi.org/10.1080/0039...

Screenshot of Ida Meerto's article "Magical practitioners in Old English prose and verse: A study of a lexical field", in Studia Neophilologica.

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Mari-Liisa Varila @mlvarila.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Running three sessions of our research-based TTRPG at Medieval Turku 🤓 English version of the game coming later this year! @titaraproject.bsky.social @utu.fi @koneensaatio.fi

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Last week Sara ja Ida spoke about the influence of Latin on specialized alchemical vocabulary in Middle English at the 23rd International Conference on English Historical Linguistics, organized at the University of Milan. #konefoundation #koneensäätiö #titaraproject

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

TiTaRa oli esillä myös Turun Sanomissa aiemmin!

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Tähtiin kirjoitettu -pöytäroolipelin valmistumista juhlittiin tiistaina Turun yliopistolla näytepelin muodossa! #konefoundation #koneensäätiö #titaraproject #tähtiinkirjoitettu

Kuva Tähtiin kirjoitettu -roolipelin kirjapinkoista.

Kuva, jossa Tähtiin kirjoitettu -näytepelin pelaajat näyttävät pohdiskelevilta Turun yliopiston luentosalissa.

Kuva, jossa Tähtiin kirjoitettu -näytepelin pelaajat Turun yliopiston luentosalissa kuuntelevat oikealla olevaa Sara Norjaa, joka selittää käsillään.

Kuva, jossa Tähtiin kirjoitettu -näytepelin pelaajat nauravat kovaan ääneen ja riemukkaasti Turun yliopiston luentosalissa.

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Parin tunnin päästä pelijulkkarit paikan päällä Turussa sekä Zoomissa!

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Sara Norja @saranorja.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

New @titaraproject.bsky.social article alert! My piece in The Library examines the English-language alchemical texts attributed to Roger Bacon. Really happy this is out!

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Mitä roolipelisuunnittelija tekee? Miten yhdistetään tieteellinen tutkimus ja roolipeli? Mitä roolipelillä edes tarkoitetaan? Näihin ja muihin kysymyksiin vastaa Kristelin kirjoitus @koneensaatio.fi Kaivolla-blogissa! #titaraproject #koneensäätiö #konefoundation koneensaatio.fi/tarinat-ja-j...

koneensaatio.fi

Millaista on roolipelisuunnittelijan työ osana tutkimushanketta? - Koneen Säätiö

Kristel Nyberg kertoo, miten Tieteen ja taikuuden rajamailla -hankkeen pöytäroolipeli syntyy ja millaista on yhteistyö tutkijoiden kanssa.

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Sara's article on alchemical metaphors is now officially published!

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Idan, Saran ja Karolina Kouvolan toimittama erikoisnumero Between Science and Magic (Mirator 2/2025) on ilmestynyt! Viime vuotisesta symposiumista kummunneessa erikoisnumerossa Carla Suhr ja Antti Ijäs pohtivat tieteen ja taikuuden yhteenkietoutumista. journal.fi/mirator/issu...

journal.fi

Mirator Vol 25 Nro 2 (2025): Between Science and Magic

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

The special issue Between Science and Magic (Mirator 2/2025) edited by Ida, Sara and Karolina Kouvola is out now! The special issue continues with the themes of our symposium last year as Carla Suhr and Antti Ijäs explore the intermingling of science and magic. journal.fi/mirator/issu...

journal.fi

Mirator Vol 25 Nro 2 (2025): Between Science and Magic

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

🇨🇭 Lokakuussa Ida puhui työn alla olevasta artikkelistaan keskiajan Englannin kieleen, kulttuuriin ja kirjallisuuteen keskittyvässä SEM XXV:ssa (25. Studientag Englisches Mittelalter) Zürichissä. 1/ #titaraproject #konefoundation #koneensäätiö @koneensaatio.fi

A beautiful old library in Zürich, with finely carved doors and bookcases.

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Mari-Liisa Varila @mlvarila.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Tänään kokoustimme @titaraproject.bsky.social kesken ja suunnittelimme tulevia julkaisuja aina akateemisista artikkeleista roolipelin taittoon sekä tapahtumia konferensseista testipeleihin. Hankkeessa on edelleen paras meininki! Hyvää säätiöpäivää ja lämmin kiitos tuesta @koneensaatio.fi 🙏

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Mari-Liisa Varila @mlvarila.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

We spent this evening telling kids about Old English and manuscripts at the Science Night organised by Lounais-Suomen LUMA-keskus (photo by them). Excellent work matching OE/PDE/Finnish words, reading manuscript facsimiles, and writing with dip pens 🤩 @titaraproject.bsky.social @koneensaatio.fi

Old English, English and Finnish words printed on small cards.

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

New TiTaRa article out! Sara's "Nourishing the alchemical child: metaphors of family life as textual cohesion in the fifteenth-century The Gracious Work" is out in first view in BJHS Themes: doi.org/10.1017/bjt....

Screen cap of the BJHS Themes page with Sara Norja's journal article "Nourishing the alchemical child: metaphors of family life as textual cohesion in the fifteenth-century The Gracious Work".

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Mari-Liisa Varila @mlvarila.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

We tested our project’s tabletop role-playing game Written in the Stars @ Ropecon. It focuses on alchemists, astrologers and magic practitioners – and their communities – in medieval and early modern England. Launch in Finnish & English in 2026. @koneensaatio.fi @utu.fi @titaraproject.bsky.social

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

💐 Event season of spring/summer 2025, part 2 Ida attended the 8th international symposium on history of English lexicography and lexicology in Tallinn, Estonia, last week. She presented her research on Old English and Latin words for magical practitioners (& what they have to do with each other). +

Closeup photo of the ICEHL conference programme and a notebook on a desk.

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

While working on TiTaRa, our researchers Mari-Liisa and Sara have also found time to edit a special issue of Renaissance Studies!

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

🌸 Event season of spring/summer 2025, part 1 🌸 Last week, Sara gave a talk on alchemical manuscripts' visual features at the Reading Visual Devices in Early Books conference, held in Turku. The conference was organised by @emodgral.bsky.social, which TiTaRa's Mari-Liisa is also part of.

Photos of the delicious food at the Reading Visual Devices conference: an avocado starter, risotto, and a coconut pannacotta.

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

While working on TiTaRa, our researchers Mari-Liisa and Sara have also found time to edit a special issue of Renaissance Studies!

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Viime viikolla väitöskirjatutkijamme Ida vieraili Cambridgessa ja osallistui Cambridge Colloquium in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic -konferenssiin. Ida puhui muinaisenglantilaisesta noita-sanastosta parantamisen ja sairauden yhteyksissä. #titaraproject #konefoundation #koneensäätiö #ccasnc

A photo (by Ida Meerto) of King's College, Cambridge, with a parked line of bicycles in the foreground.

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

✨TiTaRa wishes everyone a lovely winter solstice, merry Yuletide and a happy New Year ✨ The past year has been full of activities & work and it's now time to quiet down for a bit. Next year will be the last full year of the project! + #titaraproject @koneensaatio.fi

Photograph of Turku Cathedral in the dark. The red-brick cathedral can be seen on the left, its stairs descending to a snowy square where a brightly lit Christmas tree stands. The sky is the calm, dark blue of a winter evening.

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

I'll be teaching at the California Rare Book School next summer. If you'd like an intro to medieval manuscripts, please consider applying. And if you know anyone who would be interested, please spread the word. www.calrbs.org/introduction...

calrbs.org

Introduction to European Medieval Manuscripts (2025) – CalRBS

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

There's still time to submit an abstract for the Between Science and Magic special issue! 🔮📚⚗️ Proposals are welcome from all, whether you presented a paper at our symposium or not, and on all topics related to the themes of the special issue (see CfP in photo). Send us your proposals!

CALL FOR PAPERS
Between Science and Magic
A special issue of Mirator

This special issue stems from the Between Science and Magic Symposium, held 10-11 October 2024 at the University of Turku and jointly organized by the project TiTaRa: Between Science and Magic and the Finnish network of magic studies.
The special issue (Mirator 2/25) will explore the themes of the symposium and the TiTaRa project: the practices and worldviews of people operating between science and magic, as well as those engaging in practices of witchcraft and esotericism. The TiTaRa project explores questions of identity through English historical linguistics and book history, and the Between Science and Magic symposium’s papers dealt with a variety of materials and languages using methods ranging from folklore studies to archaeology.
Mirator (https://journal.fi/mirator) is a multilingual, peer reviewed open access journal published by Glossa, the Society for Medieval Studies in Finland. Mirator’s open access policy means that all texts published in the journal are freely available (to read, download, distribute, or link). The journal publishes texts in Finnish, Swedish, and English.
Submissions
We welcome submissions on all topics related to Western esotericism, magic, witchcraft, and early sciences bordering them such as astrology and alchemy. Submissions on the intersections of magic and science are especially welcome. The special issue will focus on the medieval period, but submissions related to the early modern period will be considered as well. While the special issue is related to the Between Science and Magic Symposium, we welcome article proposals by non-participants as well.
Please send a 250-word abstract and a brief biographical statement by 30 November 2024 to idwira@utu.fi. Submitted manuscripts must comply with the journal’s author guidelines (https://journal.fi/mirator/about/submissions) and will be subject to a double-blind peer review.

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

Our postdoc @saranorja.bsky.social spent Hilary Term this year as a Bodleian Visiting Fellow. It was a wonderful opportunity to delve deep into @bodleianlibraries.bsky.social alchemical manuscripts! Our PI @mlvarila.bsky.social has also been a Bodleian Visiting Fellow. Recommended!

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Bodleian Libraries @bodleian.ox.ac.uk · 20/11/2024

Possibly our favourite snow pic from yesterday, showing the Rad Cam. Taken by our very own librarian www.instagram.com/spiralling_oxford. Please do share any photos you snapped and we'll repost our favourites.

The top of the Radcliffe Camera, Bodleian Libraries, Oxford University pictured with a dusting of snow and snowflakes falling in front of the camera.

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

🖋️ Our intern Maija wrote about her experience as a symposium assistant for the U of Turku English Department blog! You can check out her musings at blogit.utu.fi/englishturku... #titaraproject #konefoundation #koneensäätiö

blogit.utu.fi

TiTaRa: Between Science and Magic Symposium Through the Eyes of an Assistant ← EnglanTY

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

We had a great team day last week!

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 10/10/2024

Getting ready to kick off our Between Science and Magic symposium! It's pouring with rain here in Turku, but we'll be cosy listening to fascinating talks 🔮 #betweenscienceandmagic #titaraproject #koneensäätiö #konefoundation

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 04/10/2024

🍁 Conference autumn part 2🍁 TiTaRa researchers Mari-Liisa and Sara attended a conference last week in Aarhus (DK). The multidisciplinary conf, organised by the Nordic Network for Renaissance Studies, gave us 3 days of intriguing papers & other programme. #titaraproject #konefoundation #koneensäätiö

TiTaRa researchers Sara Norja and Mari-Liisa Varila looking relaxed and happy in front of a historical Danish building in Den Gamle Byn

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Mari-Liisa Varila @mlvarila.bsky.social · 28/09/2024

Conference excursion to Rosenholm Slot #notalion

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Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies @sims-mss.bsky.social · 30/09/2024

For #CoffeeWithACodex on October 3 (12pm Noon EST, on Zoom), Curator Dot Porter will bring out LJS 500, a 15th century alchemical and medical compendium containing recipes and texts from a variety of sources. Everyone is welcome! Register to attend. Register 🔗 : bit.ly/4d8DtJK

bit.ly

Coffee with a Codex: Alchemy & Medicine

An informal lunch or coffee time to meet virtually with Kislak curators and talk about one of the manuscripts from Penn's collections. Each week we'll feature a different...

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 01/10/2024

Tänään on #säätiöpäivä ! Nämäkin muinaisenglantilaisten tekstien editiot on kammattu läpi Koneen Säätiön tuella @koneensaatio.bsky.social. #säätiötekoja #October1Europe #koneensäätiö 1/

A scholarly still life photograph with a "Witches' Brew" waterbottle, an astrology-themed clipboard, and some editions of Old English texts.

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Manuel Kamenzin @manuel-kamenzin.bsky.social · 20/09/2024

#openaccessmiddleages K M Rudy, Touching Parchment: How Medieval Users Rubbed, Handled, and Kissed Their Manuscripts. Vol 2: Social Encounters with the Book (2024). Link: www.openbookpublishe... #medievaltwitter

K M Rudy, Touching Parchment: How Medieval Users Rubbed, Handled, and Kissed Their Manuscripts. Vol 2: Social Encounters with the Book (2024).

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 23/09/2024

Last week, TiTaRa attended a symposium on the Histories of Expertise at the U of Turku (19-20 Sept). @mlvarila.bsky.social & @saranorja.bsky.social gave a talk on how alchemists and astrologers are described in Early Modern English printed books (c. 1500-1600). 1/

Flat lay photo of two plates with a delicious semifreddo dessert on them. A vase with dried flowers is on the left, out of focus. The red of the dried flowers complements the red of the sauce on the plates.

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 21/08/2024

Come to Turku for 2 days of exploring practices & worldviews of people operating btwn science & magic, & those engaging in #witchcraft & #esotericism! #medievalsky #earlymodern Sign-ups are still open for our Between Science and Magic symposium, 10-11 Oct! DL 31 Aug! blogit.utu.fi/titaraturku2...

blogit.utu.fi

Registration – Between Science and Magic Symposium

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 24/06/2024

🧙 TiTaRa x Ropecon 🧙 TiTaRan koko projektitiimi löytyy la 20.7. klo 13-13.45 Helsingin Messukeskuksen salista 103 puhumassa noidista, alkemiasta, astrologiasta ja roolipeleistä Euroopan suurimmassa vapaaehtoisvoimin järjestetyssä roolipelitapahtumassa! #koneensäätiö #titaraproject #ropecon2024

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 24/06/2024

Tätä luvassa nyt perjantaina Turussa!

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 05/06/2024

🔮TiTaRa x Keskiajan Turku🔮 Kiinnostaako keskiaika? Entä magia, noituus tai alkemia? Oletko Turussa kesäkuun lopulla? Tule siis Via Tribunalin terassille perjantaina 28.6. klo 18! #titaraproject #koneensäätiö #konefoundation #keskiajanturku

Paneelikeskustelu ”magia, noituus ja alkemia”

Perjantaina 28.6.2024 klo 18.00-20.00

Via Tribunalin terassi (Porthanin puiston puolella)

Magian, noituuden ja alkemian kiehtovien teemojen äärelle johdattelevat tutkijat Ida Meerto sekä Sara Norja Tieteen ja taikuuden rajamailla -projektista. Puhetta johtaa projektin johtaja Mari-Liisa Varila. Keskustelussa mukana keskiajan historian dosentti Reima Välimäki.

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AMARC @amarc.bsky.social · 30/05/2024

A database of Polish medieval manuscripts - including MSS in Polish repositories, of Polish origin/provenance, lost manuscripts, and fragments - has now launched! Take a look 👀 manuscripta.pl 📜

manuscripta.pl

Manuscripta – Przewodnik po rękopisach średniowiecznych w zbiorach polskich

Pelplin, Biblioteka Diecezjalna im. Biskupa Jana Bernarda Szlagi, 4 (8)

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Stephen Gregg @shgregg.bsky.social · 03/06/2024

This is huge news. The microfilm (& OCR?) of EEBO and The Eighteenth Century (ie ECCO) is available via Internet Archive! I need to dig derper but I wonder about the reactions from libraries, Gale, and ProQuest. H/T to David Smith @dasmiq.bsky.social for sharing news. archive.org/details/bim_...

archive.org

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

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Ennius @enniusredloeb.bsky.social · 02/06/2024

Presenting a hole in the margin..... MS Dd.4.17; Books of Hours; East Anglia; 14th Century C.E.; f.36v @CamDigLib

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Tanja Säily @tanjasaily.fi · 31/05/2024

How do we view texts in historical #corpuslinguistics and how does this influence our research? I wrote a piece with Samuli Kaislaniemi (in Finnish, with an English abstract) on the layered #materiality of historical texts in corpus linguistics: researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/publicati...

researchportal.helsinki.fi

Layered materiality of historical texts in corpus linguistics

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TiTaRa @titaraproject.bsky.social · 31/05/2024

On Wednesday the project team met to discuss plans for the upcoming summer and fall. Afterwards we visited the Pharmacy museum. The riverside museum charmed us with its historical decor, pharmacy equipment (some related to alchemy) and exhibition on mercury. #titaraproject #konefoundation

Photo of the view of the courtyard out of one of the Turku Pharmacy Museum's windows

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