In the final week of my Microhistories module at @bbkhistorical.bsky.social, I asked students to imagine a microhistory starting with just one primary source. The results were brilliant, so follow along to hear about a bunch of books that definitely need to be written! 🗃️🧵 #Microhistories 1/?

Sleep is pain’s easiest salve, &c. 😴

Friday, May 8th, 6pm-7pm, at Birkbeck: ‘The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living’, an in-conversation event where @katherineharvey.bsky.social discusses her new book on this topic with Clara Rawlings. Register here: www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...

Thurs May 7th, 3pm-8pm, at Birkbeck: ‘Writing Town and Village in Seventeenth-Century England’, with Niall Allsop, Judith Hudson, Ed Legon, Grace Marshall, Abigail Williams, plus Erica Fudge on ‘Fed on Scraps: Fed on Scraps: Bits of Animals in the Early Modern Archive’: www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...

Three - yes three! - medieval & #EarlyModern events at Birkbeck soon. Weds May 6th ‘Women, History and the Stage: Creative Encounters with the Medieval Past’, playwright Sarah Dickson, medievalist @mpdavies.bsky.social, with performance of ‘The Will of Ellen Langwith’: www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...

The garb (not to mention the décolletage) is, to my knowledge, unique for a clergy portrait of that date. Since he had been installed dean of St Paul's late in 1621, I think this is channeling (Roman) orator in a gesture toward a deanship to be defined by preaching.

John McCafferty@jdmccafferty.bsky.social · 4mo ago

John Donne, who died #otd 31 Mar 1631 painted aged 49, that is around 1622. British School (Victoria and Albert Museum, London)

'Beyond utility: pleasure and play in the works of William Leybourn, writer, stationer, and mathematical practitioner' *NEW* #OpenAccess article from @mdpowelldavies.bsky.social emerging from the #WrittenWorlds project at Birkbeck! Free to read here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Excited to share that my article on poetics and play in the practical mathematics of William Leybourn is out now in The Seventeenth Century. Available #OpenAccess here: doi.org/10.1080/0268.... #poetry #play #print #London #mathematics #earlymodern #WrittenWorlds @tandfresearch.bsky.social

Beyond utility: pleasure and play in the works of William Leybourn, writer, stationer, and mathematical practitioner

This article investigates the place of pleasure, play, and friendship in the works of William Leybourn, a printer and mathematician best known for writing practical and decidedly ‘non-literary’ tec...

doi.org

We are hiring postdoc researchers to join our #WrittenWorlds project at Birkbeck, with Sue Wiseman, @mdpowelldavies.bsky.social, @richardjansell.bsky.social and I. 0.5FTE, 13 months, focus on women's or provincial non-elite writing #EarlyModern 🗃️ cis7.bbk.ac.uk/vacancy/post...

Just a reminder... Tomorrow, 5 March, 5.30 pm ✨ Sue Wiseman, Brodie Waddell @brodiewaddell.bsky.social , and Michael Powell Davies @mdpowelldavies.bsky.social speaking on "Written Worlds: Non-Elite Writers in Early Modern England" Sign-up in person & online: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Written Worlds: Non-Elite Writers in Early Modern England

history.ac.uk

Join us next week to learn about how an Atlas of London in 1666 has been researched! This webinar is in collaboration with the Historic Towns Trust @historictownstrust.bsky.social Find out more: www.balh.org.uk/event-balh-r... #WeAreLocalHistory #LocalHistoryForAll

Delighted to be continuing as a research assistant on the London on the Eve of the Great Fire project. To support the creation of this Atlas and Gazetteer of 1665-6 London then consider a donation to the project. @historictownstrust.bsky.social 🗃️ shop.historictownstrust.uk/product/donate

Six greenmen and their fireworks, viz:

'Unseen things seen are most and best approved: gold, because rare, is dear and well beloved.' Join us this time next week for a rare reading of Walter Mountfort's The Launching of the Mary (1632). More details and to register: www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...

'Unseen things seen are most and best approved: gold, because rare, is dear and well beloved.' Join us this time next week for a rare reading of Walter Mountfort's The Launching of the Mary (1632). More details and to register: www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...

Written at sea in 1632, Walter Mountfort's The Launching of the Mary hasn't seen a London stage for almost 400 years. Join us at Arts Week 2025 for a script-in-hand reading of this little-known Renaissance play. More details and registration here: www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event....

Written at sea in 1632, Walter Mountfort's The Launching of the Mary hasn't seen a London stage for almost 400 years. Join us at Arts Week 2025 for a script-in-hand reading of this little-known Renaissance play. More details and registration here: www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event....

The brief 1609 will of John Lux is pulsing with #EarlyModern life: Delightfully, Lux willed that his trumpet be sold 'and that money given and bestowed amongest this Shipps companye to drinke and be merrye withall'. 📜📜📜🎺🎺🎺⚓⚓⚓🍺🍺🍺 #Skystorians #MaterialCulture #MaritimeHistory 🗃️ 🧵1/

Another excellent year of #EMROCTranscribes, this year at Birkbeck with a great group who enjoyed Zooming with transcribers @rcphysicians.bsky.social & elsewhere and the thought-provoking talk on the history of #earlymodern abortion from @maryfissell.bsky.social. Thanks as always to EMROC … (1/2)!

Really excited to soon be in Boston for RSA/SAA 2025! I'll be talking on London, nautical bookshops, and the writing of place, alongside the brilliant @clairerichie.bsky.social and Francesca Bua. With many thanks to Peter Good for chairing and the London Renaissance Seminar for sponsoring!

Dropping some books off at the charity shop, and enjoying the thought of these being out in the world… 📚