Dr. Erika Graham-Goering
@jeanneologist.bsky.social
Too many Jeannes | Medieval lordship and power, French comparative history, archives | Associate prof. Universitetet i Oslo (personal account) | she/hun.
In 1392, a man filing some paperwork with the royal government claimed that many parts of his property 'are at present worth nothing because of the king's hunting grounds, which are full of rabbits'. I know he's probably talking about crop destruction, but I prefer to imagine this problem:
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
Le 3e épisode de la série Histoires de successions est en ligne. Avec la médiéviste Christelle Balouzat-Loubet nous plongeons dans les redoutables intrigues du début XIVe, l’époque des « rois maudits », et de la comtesse Mahaut d’Artois. Bonne écoute ! parolesdhistoire.fr/index.php/20...
Many have heard of the infamous "jus primae noctis" or right of first night, the purported right of a lord to sleep with newlywed peasant brides. As Alain Boureau has shown, this was (as so often!) a post-medieval invention rather than an actual historical practice (cue @fakehistoryhunter.net!)
Many have heard of the infamous "jus primae noctis" or right of first night, the purported right of a lord to sleep with newlywed peasant brides. As Alain Boureau has shown, this was (as so often!) a post-medieval invention rather than an actual historical practice (cue @fakehistoryhunter.net!)
I regret to report that it is actually impossible to successfully search online for any information about a (non-extant) church called "Notre-Dame-des-Brûlés" 😅
OK why isn't all the "Inventaire-sommaire des archives départementales antérieures à 1790" digitized online somewhere?!
Extremely obscure trivia question, has anyone run across instances in medieval French where "lettre(s)" is treated as masculine? I'm surprised to have encountered an example from the registers of the parlement of Paris, where you'd think they'd have seen the word often enough to know it's feminine!
People actually do care about the past. Far from being told I'm wasting my time, I universally get a positive reaction on telling people that I teach ancient and medieval history. Don't belittle the manifestations of that interest if you want people to keep caring about the past.
Sarah E. Bond@sarahebond.bsky.social · last wk.My dentist in rural Iowa asked me about the Odyssey controversy yesterday, in case you were wondering if the world is watching as classicists tear each other apart. I sincerely hope we can all try to now collectively act to show support for the humanities & save all departments under threat as well.
I also frequently get people who are really excited when they hear I am a medievalist. People love this stuff and don't let those destroying the humanities convince you otherwise
Chris Riedel@medievalhistory.bsky.social · last wk.People actually do care about the past. Far from being told I'm wasting my time, I universally get a positive reaction on telling people that I teach ancient and medieval history. Don't belittle the manifestations of that interest if you want people to keep caring about the past.
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
'Anthropic described the project as “our effort to disruptively scan all the world’s books” in an internal memo, which noted “we do not want it to be known that we are pursuing this project”.'
Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele@drdragases.bsky.social · last wk.No longer content with pillaging intellectual work and dismembering our environment (already critically weakened), AI companies are now hellbent on destroying books galore including rare editions. Shut down these nefarious enterprises already.
I actually exclaimed "whoa!" when I got to the blending step—remarkable results here! Fantastic tutorial for any of us trying to get more legible microfilm images, massive thanks @elakdawalla.bsky.social!
Emily Lakdawalla 🏳️⚧️ Uranus Expert@elakdawalla.bsky.social · last wk.A fun image processing distraction today -- how to clean up the noisy background of a photo of a microfilm of a medieval manuscript? Thread, in which I use Photoshop, but similar tools are available in GIMP and other image processing software.
Further adventures in French toponymy bring us to the wonderfully named Saint-Morice-aux-Riches-Hommes(-et-Femmes): Saint Maurice of the Rich Men (and Women)! While only the shorter form is used today, the 'and women' was used in the C14 (when, perhaps coincidentally, the lord was also a woman).
This is just to say I have OCRed the text thet was in tne arch:ve and whicb yov were prabaldy seamhing for "breahtast" Fargme ms fheg mem debo:w5 sb ?mccf mmb 5c oc1b
Do I have any codicologists based in France here, by any chance? (I don't think so, mostly Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany, but maybe?)
Say one has a photo of a microfilm of a manuscript that's (inevitably) rather grainy, anyone know the best way to clean it up a bit to make it more legible? I've got e.g. GIMP, plus other more rudimentary tools, but don't know what kinds of filters or other techniques would be best to apply...
Absolute devastation in this Wikipedia article
![Screenshot of Wikipedia article:
Early development [edit]
Tolls were collected from ships sailing on the River Rhine in Europe for one thousand years from around 800 AD to 1800 AD. During this time, various feudal lords (among them archbishops who held fiefs from the Holy Roman Emperor) collected tolls from passing cargo ships to bolster their finances.[citation needed] Only the Holy Roman Emperor could authorise the collection of such tolls. Allowing the nobility and Church to collect tolls from the busy traffic on the Rhine seems to have been an attractive alternative to other means of taxation and funding of government functions.[citation needed]
Iron chains were often stretched across the river to prevent passage without paying the toll, and strategic towers were built to facilitate this.[citation needed]
The Holy Roman Emperor and the various noblemen and archbishops who were authorised to levy tolls seem to have worked out an informal way vaguel of regulating this process.[citation needed] Among the decisions involved in managing the collection of tolls on the Rhine were how many toll stations to have, where they should be built, how high the tolls should be, and the advantages/disadvantages.[citation needed] While this decision process was made no less complex by being informal, common factors included the local power structure (archbishops and nobles being the most likely recipients of a charter to collect tolls), space between toll stations (authorized toll stations seem to have been at least five kilometres apart)[citation needed], and ability to be defended from attack (some castles through which tolls were collected were tactically useful until the French invaded in 1689 and levelled them).[citation needed] Tolls were standardized either in terms of an amount of silver coin allowed to be charged or an "in-kind" toll of cargo from the ship.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ew6s547jsvp5npbjqd6d6c4i/bafkreidpf32z7xbg255to6rgnhdfqcd3mqxri7ri5c256nk5wnxst2wxsa)
My new research hobby is wandering around Dicotopo at a high zoom level and marveling at the micro-toponymy of rural landscapes: names for everything! (And I *still* can't find all of the places mentioned in my documents. Where *is* the Motte Loys?)
I would like to dedicate today's hours of fruitless research to all the many generations of (French) historians who said weirdly specific shit without giving a single friggin' citation to follow up 🙃
OK I give up, are there *any* waterproof shoes with wide toe-boxes out there? The current fashion trends seem determined to crush my poor toes and my only comfy pair is breathable. (This is a request for recommendations!)
OK I give up, are there *any* waterproof shoes with wide toe-boxes out there? The current fashion trends seem determined to crush my poor toes and my only comfy pair is breathable. (This is a request for recommendations!)
Got my paws on a print copy of Pitts' edition of Barthélemy l'Anglais "Le Livre des regions", part of a very popular encyclopedia from the thirteenth century (you can consult the text online here anglo-norman.net/textbase-bro...). So of course I had to see what it had to say about Norway!
Anglo-Norman Dictionary
anglo-norman.net
This was an excellent conference a couple of years back, great to see the results now out in print!
Brepols@brepols.net · 2w ago𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗺𝗯𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗵𝘆𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗕𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱, 𝟭𝟰𝟬𝟬-𝟭𝟴𝟬𝟬 Edited by Janet Dickinson and Diana Lucía Gómez-Chacón More Info: bit.ly/4wdtOfn #History #WomensStudies #earlymodern #EarlyModernHistory
Disappointingly, this did not happen automatically, so I had to go ahead and found the University of Siena ahead of schedule ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Dr. Erika Graham-Goering@jeanneologist.bsky.social · 2w agoPlaying CK3 and mostly just frittering away time until the University of Bologna is founded so I can visit 😂
Playing CK3 and mostly just frittering away time until the University of Bologna is founded so I can visit 😂
Historian friend was reading a civil war era letter in an archive, the letter said “In this envelope I include my smallpox scabs” and sure enough there they were. Had to call CDC for a hazmat team.
Loot drop after defeating me: –masterwork harp –A Handbook of Dates for Students of English History (+1 Int/+1 Cha if read ≥1/week) –1d100 unusual dice –1 pair outrageously particolored tights* –pocket family tree of French monarchs –Homemade Chocolate Brownie +5 –cat hair (has Endless property)
Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them)@jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 2w agoLoot drop after defeating me: - binoculars - field guide to the birds of [roll d6 for region] - assorted fishing tackle (advantage on Survival) - half a bag of mysterious berries - overalls patterned with highland cows (+3 to charisma) - a Nanopore DNA sequencer - dog hair
