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Hannah Boston

@hannah-boston.bsky.social

LRS Nigel Burn Fellow at Divinity Faculty and Clare Hall, Cambridge. Medieval Loyalty Research Network co-organiser (https://medievalloyalty.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk). Charters, property, environment, and regional society. Occasional archaeologist

87 Posts285 Follower 226 Folgt

Francesca Tinti @francescatinti.bsky.social · 2d ago

At long last, my article on Languages, Identities and Communication in the Age of Bede has come out in the EHR. And it is open access! academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...

Languages, Identities and Communication in the Age of Bede*

Abstract. This article seeks to address the underexplored role of language as a marker of identity in the early medieval period by focusing on England in t

academic.oup.com

Hannah O’Regan @palaeohan.bsky.social · last wk.

📣 new #bear paper! Dr Liam Lewis and I gathered the evidence for bears and bear-baiting in #medieval England and northern France. We looked at bones, literature and archival accounts. We found that evidence for live bears increased after the #Norman Conquest 🧵

A sculpture of a muzzled and chained bear lying down with its right front paw crossed over the left. It’s carved as the floor rest on the tomb of Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick, located in the Beauchamp Chapel at the Collegiate Church of St Mary in Warwick. Photo by Liam Lewis.

The Parker Library @parkerlibcccc.bsky.social · 2w ago

Going to see the Bayeux Tapestry? Be sure to look out for the image that may well have been inspired by the 6thC Augustine Gospels (CCCC MS 286) parker.stanford.edu/parker/catal... The 11thC embroidery was probably made at Canterbury where the MS was then at St Augustine’s Abbey #bayeuxtapestry

A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry that resembles the scene of Last Supper in the St Augustine's Gospels (CCCC MS 286)

Feast scene from the Bayeux Tapestry: "Et hic episcopus cibum et potum benedicit" (And here the bishop blesses the food and the drink) written above a scene of 6 people eating and drinking around a curved table; one person carrying more food to the table, and two red animals (dogs?)
It is the scene depicting a feast with Bishop Odo of Bayeux and his nobles are arranged around a circular table, very similar to the Last Supper panel in the Augustine Gospels. Odo is also shown in a pose similar to the figure of Christ, blessing his wine just as Christ was shown blessing his food.

Feast scene from the St Augustine's Gospels (CCCC MS 286): "Cena domini" (Lord's Supper) written above a scene of 8 disciples and Christ eating and drinking around a curved table
A scene from scene of Lord's Supper resembles the one in the Bayeux Tapestry with Bishop Odo of Bayeux and nobles feasting around a curved table

Knowledge Orders before Modernity @komldsp.bsky.social · 3w ago

Huge shoutout to @drdavidrundle.bsky.social, one of our KOM directors, working alongside @tamarajatkin.bsky.social, on their fascinating research uncovering the range of literature enjoyed by citizens of medieval Guernsey. Many congratulations! #MedievalSky #SkyStorians #Manuscripts #Fragments

Manuscript fragments hiding in plain sight shed light on medieval Guernsey’s literary life

Researchers say texts from 12th to 15th centuries ‘hint at a culture which has not even been imagined’

eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com

Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · last mo.

We know that oaths were important in early medieval Europe: but what about oaths that crossed a line, that were unacceptable? A translation of an interesting case study, provided, inevitably, by Hincmar of Reims (as part of some work-in-progress). blogs.ed.ac.uk/cwest3/2026/...

Refusing the Oath in Carolingian Francia – Earlier medieval history

blogs.ed.ac.uk

Eddie Meehan @eddiemeehan99.eurosky.social · last mo.

Postdoc job alert! Early medieval charters, monastic economics and XML-TEI, starting January 2027. Come join a lovely department @livunihss.bsky.social, brilliant project team with @unituebingen.bsky.social and awesome city! #medievalsky #digitalhumanities www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSO571/p...

Postdoctoral Research Associate at University of Liverpool

An opportunity for an academic position as a Postdoctoral Research Associate is available, as advertised on jobs.ac.uk. Apply now and explore other academic job openings.

jobs.ac.uk

Grant Jones @grantosjones.bsky.social · 2mo ago

CALL FOR PAPERS! Alastair Forbes (@areforbes.bsky.social) and I are seeking papers for our proposed Leeds #IMC2027 session: 'Ordered and Disordered Communities in Clerical Thought' All disciplines and career stages welcome - abstracts due 14 September. @imc-leeds.bsky.social #MedievalSky

A call for papers for Leeds International Medieval Congress 2027 on the topic of 'Ordered and Disordered Communities in Clerical Thought'. This panel examines how medieval clerical and monastic cultures defined communities and situated them within social or religious order. We seek to explore how these cultures understood disorder within or between communities, as well as how their judgements shaped ideas about communal identity and belonging. Communities considered might range from individual institutions to wider social order and communities, across the entirety of Christendom in the Middle Ages.

We welcome proposals from colleagues in any discipline of medieval studies and at any career stage, including postgraduate and early career researchers. Although papers should engage substantively with clerical or monastic understandings of order, they need not be confined to clerical communities or clerically authored sources. Please submit abstracts of up to 300 words for a 20-minute paper, along with a short biography, to Dr Alastair Forbes and Dr Grant Jones at: a.r.e.forbes@durham.ac.uk and grant.jones@durham.ac.uk no later than Monday 14 September 2026.

Kenneth F. Duggan 🇨🇦@kfduggan.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Fantastic article by Tom Johnson @tomlukejohnson.bsky.social on “Reckoning and Economic Life in Late Medieval England” in Past & Present. It’s open access and can be read now thanks to @pastpresentsoc.bsky.social offering early access to it! academic.oup.com/past/advance...

Reckoning and Economic Life in Late Medieval England*

Abstract. This article explores the practice of ‘reckoning’, a means of reciprocal accounting that becomes prominent in late-medieval England. Despite its

academic.oup.com

Daniel F Gosling @thegozfather.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Some very REQciting news. My Court of Requests pleadings (REQ 2/16-424) project is now complete. Over 28,000 items dating from c.1547-c.1625 (Edw VI to Jas I) now searchable online. Happy researching everyone 🙂 discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/browse/r/h/C...

discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk

John Marshall @jmarshallmed.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Delighted to see my latest article in PRIA in the wild. It analyses eight fascinating letters sent by Irish kings to the kings of England in the 13thC, while also providing a full transcription and translation of them in the appendix. Even better is that its open access: muse.jhu.edu/pub/423/arti...

Caitlin Ellis @medivalist.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Still 3 weeks left to apply for a PhD position in runic & Latin epigraphy and for two postdocs, one in Latin and one in Old Norse on Alessandro Palumbo’s ERC project in Oslo www.hf.uio.no/iln/english/...

Vacancies - Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies

Read this story on the University of Oslo's website.

hf.uio.no

Sam Riding @medievalpeasants.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Do you study medieval manors? Do you want to speak at @imc-leeds.bsky.social? Then we have the Call for Papers for you! Medieval Manorial Research: Community in the Manor. We welcome researchers of all disciplines and career stages. Deadline 4th September 2026. #IMC2027 #Skystorians #Medievalsky

Call for papers poster for IMC 2027.

From juries to tithing-groups, from haywards to cowherds, from the lord’s steward to the harvest workers in the field: the institution of the manor played a key role in shaping rural medieval communities. Research into such populations has traditionally looked to court rolls, accounts and surveys to understand how ordinary people lived their lives. Yet, the scale and complexity of manorial documentation preserved in modern archives presents a significant challenge and much remains critically under-studied. At the same time, other methodologies incorporating archaeological, landscape, and material culture evidence have much to contribute to our understanding of medieval manorial communities, although multi-disciplinary approaches remain under-explored.

We would like to invite papers from researchers who work with manorial documents, either as a means of understanding medieval life and community, or as archival objects in their own right. We also welcome papers focused on non-documentary source bases, comparative studies combining material and documentary evidence, or studies comparing manorial communities across a broad chronological and geographical range. If you research the medieval manor, we would like to hear from you!

Approaches to communities may include (but are not limited to):
Daily peasant life
Manor courts, custom, customary law
Lordship and seigneurial agency in the manor
Communities in the landscape
Manorial material culture
The use and materiality of manorial documents in the archive

Please send a title and abstract of no more than 250 words, and a short biography including name, institutional affiliation, and email address to jenni.lane@york.ac.uk and samuel.riding@history.ox.ac.uk. The deadline for proposals is Friday 4th September 2026.
We welcome proposals from researchers in any discipline and at all career stages. Please indicate in your submission whether you intend to present virtually or in-person.

NPicts @northernpicts.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Join the Northern Picts team- applications for British Acadmey three years postdoctoral positions are now open! www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...

Postdoctoral Fellowships

The British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships is a three year award made to an annual cohort of outstanding early career researchers in the humanities or social sciences.

thebritishacademy.ac.uk

Dr Caroline Bourne @carolinebourne.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Call for papers Communities in Medieval Wales & the March, @imc-leeds.bsky.social 2027, sponsored by the Mortimer History Society. If you are researching any aspect of Medieval Wales & the March, please consider submitting a paper proposal for our strand at next year's IMC. #MedievalSky #Skystorians

Dr Toby Driver @drtobydriver.bsky.social · 2mo ago

News travels fast...🔥☀️🛩️ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Heatwave reveals lost archaeological sites across Wales

The Royal Commission of Wales said some of these known sites have not been seen clearly in decades.

bbc.co.uk

Alice Hicklin @alicehicklin.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Continuing with the animal theme! A new post on an unusual gift in a charter for Marmoutier, an obscure land measure, and the 'small creatures' about to become the monks' neighbours 🐇. alicehicklin.co.uk/2026/07/23/t...

Those Small Creatures Called Conini

This very short document records a gift made by Géraud Rufus of Talmont, who appeared before the chapter of Marmoutier to gave some land at an unidentified place known as ad Saburas to honour Saint…

alicehicklin.co.uk

Alice Hicklin@alicehicklin.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I’ve (finally) made a blog to share some of the more intriguing charters I encounter 1st up: an 11th-century land sale where the price included “excellent cloth” called zafalbafal, possibly ṣūf al-baḥr, or sea silk, made from the fibres of Mediterranean shells 🐚 alicehicklin.co.uk/2026/07/14/c...

Josh Coulthard @joshcoulthard.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Excited to open the call for papers for this strand and roundtable on the history of emotions for next year’s International Medieval Congress in Leeds @imc-leeds.bsky.social sponsored by @northwestmedieval.bsky.social #medievalsky #skystorians #imc2027

2027 marks the 25th anniversary of Barbara Rosenwein’s seminal article, ‘Worrying about Emotions in History’ (2002), in which she first put forward the concept of ‘emotional communities’. This framework has revolutionised our understanding of medieval emotions and, crucially, redefined the methodological possibilities available to researchers looking at past societies and structures. As we celebrate this milestone, this strand invites contributions from scholars at any career stage to address the question: What comes next?

In particular, we seek to explore the role of ‘non-productive’ emotions in historical research. Emotions and affects such as anxiety, discomfort, nostalgia, paranoia, melancholy, apathy, shame, and guilt have often been overlooked in medieval historiography because they frequently lack the dramatic traces left by more expressive emotions like anger, love, and joy. Yet, these states remain some of the most profound aspects of the human emotional experience, frequently underpinning the internal dynamics of governance, negotiation, and community cohesion.

Papers may address themes such as:
The methodological challenges of mapping ‘quiet’ or elusive affective states within medieval archives.
Case studies focusing on the role of apathy, anxiety, or paranoia during periods of transition, conflict, or institutional change.
How non-productive emotions shape relationships of power, diplomacy, authority, and dissent.
The interactions of materiality and material culture with non-productive emotions.
Temporalities and shifting landscapes of non-productive emotional histories.

Call for Roundtable Participants
In addition to research papers, we are organising a roundtable on this theme. To be considered for the roundtable, please send a short response (maximum 200 words) to the organisers addressing the question: ‘What can the study of non-productive emotions add to our histories?’

Hannah Boston @hannah-boston.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Delighted to have five out of the eight articles for the Journal of Medieval History special issue on Loyalty in Medieval Europe out! 👇

Loyalty in Medieval Europe

Medieval historians frequently write about loyalty, usually in the context of lords and kings, but there has been little sustained engagement with the wider role of loyalty in society. This introdu...

tandfonline.com

Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Normans at #IMC2027! Call for papers sponsored by the Battle Conference. Full details in the alt text and pasted in successive posts. Deadline for abstracts 15 Sept. #medievalsky #archaeology #skystorians @imc-leeds.bsky.social

Communities, Change and Collaboration in Norman History
Organised by Dr Mark Hagger (Lincoln) and Prof. Leonie Hicks (Canterbury Christ Church University)
Sponsored by the Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies

2027 marks two significant anniversaries: the 50th anniversary of the Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies and the millennial anniversary of William the Conqueror’s birth in 2027. It also marks the European Year of the Normans. We hope to organise sessions reflecting communities, change and collaboration in Norman history and welcome proposals that draw on historical, literary, archaeological, and art-historical approaches and sources. Potential contributors might like to think about the following themes although these are not exclusive:

- communities of practice: writing, researching and teaching the Norman past in the middle ages and now
- comparative approaches across different areas conquered and settled by the Normans to communities and change
- communities of different sorts, e.g. financial, administrative, religious, ecological, social and cultural etc.
- landscapes
- tools and theories for understanding change, communities and collaboration as applied to the Normans e.g. digital humanities, knowledge exchange, mapping, etc.
- modelling collaborative approaches to Norman history
- how Norman historiography has change/is changing the way we understand the Normans

Please send abstracts for 20 minute papers (in person or virtual) to Prof. Leonie Hicks (leonie.hicks@canterbury.ac.uk) by no later than 15 September 2026.

Proposals should include
• Title
• Abstract (max 200 words)
• Your name, institution, and role
• Full contact details (these will be used by Leeds IMC to contact you)

Past and Present @pastpresentsoc.bsky.social · 2mo ago

From the current issue: "Economic Change, Silver, and the Plague of 664-687 in England" by @rorynaismith.bsky.social (@corpuscambridge.bsky.social, @department-asnc.bsky.social) doi.org/10.1093/past...

Economic Change, Silver, and the Plague of 664–687 in England*

Abstract. Bede and other authors describe a destructive wave of plague sweeping across Britain and Ireland in the period 664–87. In the decades around and

doi.org

Alice Hicklin @alicehicklin.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Three Hundred Solidi and a Cloth from the Sea

An early eleventh-century charter from Provence records a land sale paid for with money and a mysterious cloth called zafalbafal: possibly the ‘wool of the sea’.

alicehicklin.co.uk

Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Very much looking forward to this book coming out: a silver lining to the arrival of autumn! manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526187185/

Manchester University Press - Social elites in medieval France

Social elites in medieval France - Browse and buy the Hardcover edition of Social elites in medieval France by Dr Niall Ó Súilleabháin

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk

Charlie Rozier @rozierhistorian.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The annual @imc-leeds.bsky.social football match returns! In honour of Dr Rob Meens, who set up the game so long ago that nobody can remember it (how medieval) Please share and please come along to play! ⚽️🏆

Hannah Boston @hannah-boston.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Absolutely delighted to see the first paper is online from a forthcoming special issue of the Journal of Medieval History, on Loyalty in Medieval Europe. (1/2)

Hannah Boston @hannah-boston.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Medievalist Glastonbury

Laura Cleaver @laurajcleaver.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Don’t forget to book for the 2026 Battle conference at Swansea next month. Come and hear the latest research on Anglo-Norman Studies. 👇 battleconference.wordpress.com/2026-battle-...

2026 Battle Conference Swansea 15-18 July

The Conference this year will be hosted by the University of Swansea. You can register via the Swansea shop which also contains the details for discounted train fares with GWR. There is a full brea…

battleconference.wordpress.com

Dr Will Wyeth @willwyeth.bsky.social · 3mo ago

🗣️ Medievalists! 🏰 Check out this page, we’ve done a reconstruction the medieval chapel at Chester Castle! www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places... Please share widely! There’s loads of info and *lovely* images from the repertoire of medieval art - and also more reconstructions!

The Chester Castle Chapel Wall Paintings

The walls of the medieval chapel in the Agricola Tower at Chester Castle were richly painted around 1240 with scenes including miracles of the Virgin Mary and St Edward the Confessor. From the fragmen...

english-heritage.org.uk

Helen Gittos @helengittos.bsky.social · 3mo ago

A die stamp, potentially for making foils akin to those on the Sutton Hoo helmet has been found in Kent. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... The @findsorguk.bsky.social record is here: finds.org.uk/database/art...

Laura Cleaver @laurajcleaver.bsky.social · 3mo ago

🚨Don’t forget- Bernard Meehan will give the 2026 Coffin Memorial Lecture in Palaeography tomorrow! 🚨 ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

The John Coffin Memorial Lecture in Palaeography 2026: Cutbercht, his Gospels (Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS 1224), Named Scribes and Insular Gospel-Books

ies.sas.ac.uk

Dr Martin Roberts @robertsmartino.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Any costume experts out there? C16 MS describes a witness 'se[e] a woman with a musto de u[....] gown'. Unfortunately, the missing word has been completely lost to time (& water damage). Any ideas much appreciated! TIA