A must-read post by @ResObscura on whether vintage LLMs mark the beginning of a new humanistic field. Certainly they are changing the way we must think about archiving and collective voices accessible from past documents. resobscura.substack.com/p/are-vintag...

Are "Vintage LLMs" the start of a new humanistic field?

Thoughts on Historical Language Models and Talkie-1930

resobscura.substack.com

Very excited about work by Nick Levine, Alec Radford, and David Duvenaud on "talkie" - a vintage LLM. Here's their post introducing it: talkie-lm.com/introducing-...

So often in awe of the way that people in the past were prescient - but sometimes it's fair to think "they thought WHAT?" contingentmagazine.org/2026/04/16/t...

They Thought What?

Unpacking the history (and present) of science

contingentmagazine.org

weird research encounter of the day: someone looked at the alphabet and thought, “great, but it needs more goblins.” honestly, correct. sammlungenonline.albertina.at/objects/1064...

The Carletti book is out (www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...), and with it my very raunchy article. Here reviewed in the Corriere Fiorentino (Corriere della Sera)! Enjoy (but not too much!).

Doing research using pharmacopeias, drugs, or the history of medicine? Tomorrow's First Fridays Pharmacopeias features Stuart Anderson about his recent book, Pharmacopeias, Drug Regulation, and Empires: Making Medicines Official in Britain's Imperial World, 1618-1968. dm mcooley@hamilton.edu to join

Competition for the best essay focusing on early science, medicine, technology, and other forms of natural knowledge across the globe before 1800. #EarlyModern 🗃️

spreading the news about the Cambridge Early Modern Science and Medicine Essay Prize 2026 Competition! Early Science and Medicine and the Early Sciences Forum of the History of Science Society's prize competition for the best essay...

New article in RQ where @mackenziecooley.bsky.social uses the relaciones geograficas so show how the Columbian Exchange was, at a local level, uneven and idiosyncratic emspanishhistorynotes.wordpress.com/2026/01/06/c...

Cooley, “A Patchwork Colombian Exchange,” RQ Winter 2025

Mackenzie Cooley, “A Patchwork Columbian Exchange: Ecological Imperialism, Animals, and the Relaciones Geográficas  of New Spain,” Renaissance Quarterly 78.4 (2025).

emspanishhistorynotes.wordpress.com

Oh, so you mean present-day exhibitions of early modern objects? I'll have a think. This volume co-edited by @mackenziecooley.bsky.social, @annatoledano.com, and @duyguyildirim.bsky.social (someone needs to encourage them to hang out here!) may have leads: www.routledge.com/Natural-Thin...

Natural Things in Early Modern Worlds

The essays and original visualizations collected in Natural Things in Early Modern Worlds explore the relationships among natural things - ranging from pollen in a gust of wind to a carnivorous pitche...

routledge.com

Join the Historical Pharmacopeias community for our monthly conversation - “First Friday Pharmacopeias.” Conducting research on materia medica? Interested in HP (dalme.org/collections/...)?

A new week means a brilliant selection of new titles from our distributed presses. First up, "Knowing an Empire: Early Modern Chinese and Spanish Worlds in Dialogue" from Lever Press's ASIANetwork Books collection. Find it here: bit.ly/3Vcoc47 @leverpress.bsky.social @mackenziecooley.bsky.social

A mini-intro to the first part of our book, "Knowing an Empire" with @leverpress.bsky.social services.publishing.umich.edu/Books/K/Know...

"Knowing an Empire: Early Modern Chinese and Spanish Worlds in Dialogue" unveils how these two vast empires developed comparable systems to gather, order, and wield knowledge about their local worlds in the process of empire-building. services.publishing.umich.edu/Books/K/Know...

"Knowing an Empire: Early Modern Chinese and Spanish Worlds in Dialogue" is now out! It's open-access via Lever Press. Please check it out here: services.publishing.umich.edu/Books/K/Know...

Knowing an Empire

Knowing an Empire: Early Modern Chinese and Spanish Worlds in Dialogue unveils how these two vast empires, separated by thousands of miles, developed comparable systems to gather, order, and wield kno...

services.publishing.umich.edu

KNOWING AN EMPIRE by @mackenziecooley.bsky.social & Huiyi Wu is now available! This ASIANetwork Books collection reveals the dynamic dialogues between early modern China and Latin America through a new methodology. Start reading: services.publishing.umich.edu/Books/K/Know...

Announcing the winners of the 2025 Dan David Prize – the world's largest history prize. Winners receive $300,000 each in recognition of their contribution to the study of the past and to support their future endeavors. Congratulations to this year's winners 👏 dandavidprize.org/winners

Knowing the Empire: Early Modern Chinese and Spanish Worlds in Dialogue with @leverpress.bsky.social is now in proofs. The big work is already done. Now we just need to make sure the is are dotted, the ts crossed, and tails pinned to the now-extinct Iberian cebros!

Join @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social on Zoom tomorrow, Feb 21, 12pm EST for her book talk on "Humans: A Monstrous History" sponsored by Hamilton College's History, Medieval & Renaissance Studies Department! ➡️ hamilton.zoom.us/j/98320370360 @ucpress.bsky.social @mackenziecooley.bsky.social

Another virtual book talk for my new book, HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY from @ucpress.bsky.social ! Hamilton College, Feb 21, 12 noon / 5pm GMT. Click on the link in the poster, or copy the link below: hamilton.zoom.us/j/98320370360 💙📚 🗃 #medieval #earlymodern #artsky #histsci #histmed 1/🧵

Impressed by Emily Beck's thoughtful oral history work on this website "Plant People," "celebrating the proliferation of plant & land-based health practices in and around Mnísota Maǩóčé" z.umn.edu/plantpeople

Plant/People

Celebrating the proliferation of plant & land-based health practices in and around Mnísota Maǩóčé

z.umn.edu

Good morning, bsky folks. It's time to read about old things again. Speculation? Check. Alchemy? Check. Shoot me an email if you'd like to join this workshop with Wenrui Zhao and Vera Keller on February 24th.

oh btw I think you might find this book I'm putting out next year interesting. You probably already know @mackenziecooley.bsky.social, one of the co-editors.

Knowing an Empire

Knowing an Empire: Early Modern Chinese and Spanish Worlds in Dialogue unveils how these two vast empires, separated by thousands of miles, developed comparable systems to gather, order, and wield kno...

services.publishing.umich.edu

It's finally coming! I have a chapter on environmental change throughout the Spanish empire in the relaciones corpus here. Get ready to learn about some extinct horses running around Iberia...

Lever Press@leverpress.bsky.social · 2y ago

We're so excited to reveal the cover for our upcoming book, KNOWING AN EMPIRE by @mackenziecooley.bsky.social and Huiyi Wu! Out August 12, 2025! Read the full description here: services.publishing.umich.edu/Books/K/Know...

Horse genetics: "illustrates the spread of horses of Oriental origin via the Iberian Peninsula after the Middle Ages .. Our survey also revealed a second major historical dissemination of horses from Western Asia, attributed to the expansion of the Ottoman Empire." www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The global spread of Oriental Horses in the past 1,500 years through the lens of the Y chromosome | PNAS

Since their domestication, horses have accompanied mankind, and humans have constantly shaped horses according to their needs through stallion-cent...

pnas.org

Obsessed with this interview by Vera Keller about Intellectual Terroir and mission-driven history. Reckon with your place in important ways. www.klcc.org/podcast/oreg...

Oregon Grapevine: Intellectual Terroir and Studying History

Professor Vera Keller explores the importance of place in the relationship between a university and its location. She speaks with Oregon Grapevine host, Barbara Dellenback, about the study of history....

klcc.org