Delighted to be speaking at this year's @chalkefestival.bsky.social after an exciting @royalhistsoc.org 'Pitch My Project' final. Training new historians means hearing more of the stories that surprise us, intrigue us, and make us think. That's good for everyone. royalhistsoc.org/pitch-my-pro...

'Pitch my Project' selects speaker for Chalke History Festival, 2026 - RHS

The Society's 'Pitch my Project' reached its final at an event on Friday 20 March. This initiative -- a partnership between the Society, Institute of Historical Research (IHR) and Chalke History Festi...

royalhistsoc.org

Join me next year at the #SSCLE conference in Porto, from 29 June-3 July 2025. Do please share this #CFP with anyone who studies the Later Crusades (post-1291) and would like to share their research with an enthusiastic and perceptive audience. #skystorians #medievalsky #earlymodernsky

Setting up Moodle for my digital history class this term and considering what to do for an assignment on the week I talk about AI slop and fake historical records. I've settled on a bibliography assignment. Use your favourite AI to generate a bibliography, then verify the references.

On this, the final weekend before what’s shaping up to be a brutal term, I’m in Hammersmith on a sort of pilgrimage.

A poem from this morning.

ACADEMIC READING ALREADY COMES WITH A SUMMARY IT IS CALLED THE ABSTRACT

John Warner@biblioracle.bsky.social · last yr.

The Appendix on an AI policy is actually quite bad. Having an AI deliver a summary before reading has major implications in terms of the experience of student learning. What we want students to do and how they do it is the question. The experience of reading is not the same as reading a summary.

Sod’s Law of Research Days: As soon as you request the manuscripts you want to see at the library hours away from your home, several different people will email you wanting to set up urgent meetings for that very same day.

My Saturday project is doing a bit of conservation work on two 17th-century carved panels I’ve just acquired (rather cheaply, I may add). Treated them for woodworm just in case, and now comes the polishing.

All the most interesting stuff about the Tudors comes from their interaction with the Habsburgs. There, I said it.

Christine Kooi@christinekooi.bsky.social · last yr.

Of all the 16th-cen European royal dynasties, the Habsburgs are by far the most interesting and the Tudors by far the least. I will die on this hill.

22 July 1456: A thanksgiving service for the deliverance of Belgrade from the Turks held #otd at St. Frideswide's #Oxford - now Christ Church (Diliff)

It’s now live! I’ve been working on this Peasants’ War project with some fabulous colleagues from @ox.ac.uk and @royalholloway.bsky.social over the past year+ and we’re delighted to share the fruits of our research.

German Peasants’ War - As It Happened@germanpeasantswar.bsky.social · last yr.

Now live! We've created the most comprehensive map to-date of religious institutions in the German Peasants' War (1524-26), identifying many more affected institutions than existing source lists. Find our map, case studies, and much more on our website: germanpeasantswar.web.ox.ac.uk #skystorians

The last bits are falling into place on the Peasants’ War project. It feels a bit odd that phase 1 is almost done. But - huzzah! - follow-on funding will now enable us to follow up the monasteries project with research on castles in the PW. If you’re in Bristol tomorrow come say hi!

German Peasants’ War - As It Happened@germanpeasantswar.bsky.social · last yr.

Our team is all set to launch our Visualising the Destruction of Convents and Monasteries in the German Peasants’ War project at the Society for Renaissance Studies conference tomorrow. We can’t wait to share with you what we’ve been working on for the last year-and-a-bit! Come see us in panel 2.4

Went to the National Gallery yesterday to experience the re-hang in the Sainsbury Wing. Came across this… interesting… potted history of the Reformation. Not quite sure it rises to the level of 1066 And All That.

Very much looking forward to talking about our @germanpeasantswar.bsky.social project at the SRS conference next week. See you in Bristol, if you’ll be there!

Society for Renaissance Studies@srsrensoc.bsky.social · last yr.

Just over a week until all #EarlyModern ists descend upon Bristol!! Find out who’s joining us at #RenSoc25 and start those conversations ahead of our gathering in person: go.bsky.app/DVyFCxt #SkyStorians

Using AI to “read” literature implies that literary style is ancillary to some informational substance. It’s just simply not. Style is intrinsic to story: how a story is told is inextricable from the story itself. I have never got on with Dickens’ style, but this misses the point by a mile.

Tobias Wilson-Bates@phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · last yr.

This article is going to turn me into the Joker. Literary style is not a puzzle you solve to get a little information treat 😩😩😩

I didn't take much convincing to sign up to this fabulous-looking conference. Tyndale's Antwerp is (for me) John Hackett's Antwerp. Wolsey's right-hand man was negotiating payment of a crusade subvention whilst simultaneously tasked with intercepting Tyndale's Bible before it reached England.

Zanna Van Loon@zannavanloon.bsky.social · last yr.

Registration for the Tudor England and the Antwerp Book Trade conference (8-11 July 2025) is now open! Join us in person in wonderful Antwerp and sign up: tinyurl.com/TudorAntwerp! #EarlyModern #BookHistory #RareBooks Spread the woooooord!

A certain well-known ebook database has added an AI-powered "Research Assistant" to its interface. No thank you. Apologies for incinerating half a tree to generate a single inane point about Duns Scotus. My "Research Assistant" was meant to summarise a wide-ranging chapter about Scholasticism. 🤷‍♀️

Today at the @cemskcl.bsky.social conference I learned that ghosts are a Jesuit conspiracy. They stick candles on crabs, then release them into graveyards to convince the unwary of the doctrine of Purgatory. (Either that or they’re just chaps dressed up in bedsheets.)

#OTD in the German Peasants' War Monday, 5 June 1525 (Pfingstmontag) Peasants threaten the Töß convent outside Winterthur. The clever diplomacy of the city council and the Töß nuns manages to steer the angry crowd into getting drunk instead. The peasants return home the next morning. #histsky

I think it’s jolly rude to send unsolicited auction catalogues to impecunious scholars who cannot purchase All The Old Books.

Putting the finishing touches on some slides for tomorrow’s @cemskcl.bsky.social colloquium on early modern war narratives. It’s a great joy to return to the crusader I call ‘Bob’, whose story has been the jumping off point for so many fascinating lines of research since I first ‘met’ him in 2018.

Sod’s Law of Academic Writing: Five minutes before the library closes, you will inevitably be making rapid progress on a difficult paragraph - which it is then necessary to abandon mid-thought.

25 May 1570: The Papal Bull Regnans in Excelsis, excommunicating Elizabeth I, is nailed to the door of the Bishop of #London #otd (NPG)

This will be an exceptional colloquium, and you should all come - especially if you want to hear about one of the most cringeworthy (but still fascinating) neo-Latin war poems ever. @cemskcl.bsky.social have outdone themselves. Hope to see you all there. kingsearlymodern.co.uk/events/lamen...

Early Modern War Narratives - Annual CEMS Colloquium — CEMS KCL Blog

Join CEMS for our annual colloquium. This year's theme is early modern war narratives. Keynote: Prof. Andrew Hopper and Dr. Ismini Pells.

kingsearlymodern.co.uk

Told you.

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed.bsky.social · last yr.

👀 www.cnbc.com/2025/05/16/c...

This is probably the most ambiguous episode in Warham’s career. After presiding over the submission of the clergy, Warham seems to have changed his mind - and prepared for martyrdom by drafting a speech against Henry’s reforms. But why? Historians have differed widely.

John McCafferty@jdmccafferty.bsky.social · last yr.

11 May 1532: Archbishop William Warham of #Canterbury presides over the submission of clergy to Henry VIII #otd (NPG/BM) #gameon

Drink too much of this and you’ll be seized by the desire to found a diocesan seminary and zealously maintain records of confessions and communions in your parish

I’ll be giving a paper at this colloquium on early modern war narratives. If you’re into the later crusades, wannabe-humanist poetry, or the history of emotions, there will be something for you in it. (The other speakers look fab as well!) Hope to see some of you there!

Emily Rowe@emilyrowe1.bsky.social · last yr.

Happy Friday! you can now register for our @cemskcl.bsky.social colloquium on Early Modern War Narratives! June 6th in person and online! Keynote by Andrew Hopper and Ismini Pells, funded by KCL, CEMS, & @srsrensoc.bsky.social. Register here (and pls repost!) — www.tickettailor.com/events/centr...

For those who love history and/or spectacle and fancy robes, a conclave is the gift that keeps on giving. (I’m mostly here for the robes, myself.)

Cambridge University Library@theul.bsky.social · last yr.

The Conclave to elect the 267th Pope begins today. This broadside, probably printed in Venice, shows plans for getting food and drink to cardinals in a Papal #Conclave in 1605. The food was checked for hidden messages and the door was guarded. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social T*.4.51(D)

It all went down in the Peasants' War 500 years ago today.

German Peasants’ War - As It Happened@germanpeasantswar.bsky.social · last yr.

#OTD in the German Peasants' War: Tuesday, 2 May 1525 - a day of widespread violence The peasants of Krailsheim march from Gerbertshausen to Kirchberg, breaking into Anhausen, Sulz, Lobenhausen, and Hornberg monasteries. They force the nobleman Kaspar of Krailsheim to march with them. 1/ #histsky