I am politely asking web designers, in the thrice-accursed name of Nyarlathotep the Crawling Chaos, to stop taking stuff that is easy to use and replacing it with shinier stuff that's not. Thank you in advance. If you don't comply then I shall descend upon you in the darkness and consume your soul.

Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵@threadinburgh.scot · last wk.

There's been a user interface update on the British Newspaper Archive. Let it just be said, I'm not happy 😡 They've gone into the trap of moving well-established menus around and adding extra clicks in simple steps in the name of a slicker appearance, totally breaking muscle memory of regular users

Galen, , Ioannis Polemis, Sophia Xenophontos, and Sophia Xenophontos. 2023. <i>›on Avoiding Distress‹ and ›on My Own Opinions‹</i>. Berlin: De Gruyter. doi.org/10.1515/9783....

There is no version of yourself you could become that would satisfy the people who hate you. So you might as well be who you are.

Mammoth remains revealed in Bulgaria after Danube water levels hit record low. 🦣 www.reuters.com/business/env...

I discovered during my PhD that there are academics who like to take MA and PhD students' work and use it for their publications. Seeing it happen to people I know (and me!) affected my willingness to share work then and now. It's unfortunate, because academics need to share their work more often.

You are the patriarch of Alexandria in AD 304. The persecution is raging. One of your bishops has buckled and sacrificed. Do you (1) Excommunicate him (2) Write to others to avoid him (3) Write to him and pull him back. www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2026/...

A letter of Peter of Alexandria to a bishop who apostasised in the persecution under Diocletian

In the Acts of St Colluthus, which record events in May 304 AD, the persecutor Arianus attempts to get Colluthus the physician to apostasise by sacrificing to the gods. Not that Arianus, nor the emper...

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Added to e-Clavis: Manuscripta apocryphorum ~ Mount Sinai, Monē tēs Hagias Aikaterinēs, ar. 409 (13 c.) feat. Acts of Andrew and Matthias and several homilies on the Dormition. www.nasscal.com/manuscripta-...

I wish it was easier to find Coptic texts. Truly. www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2026/...

A few musings on Colluthus and Coptic and copyright infringement

I'm still pottering around in the Coptic martyrology area, especially with regard to the Great Persecution of the church under Diocletian.  I have  a translation of another version of the Acts of St C...

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Why not rely on an LLM for Latin vocabulary list generation? Some thoughts here on explainable/interpretable (computational) philology... exploratoryphilology.org/posts/introd...

A Roman trial of a Christian in 304 AD - a literal transcription in English of court proceedings in the persecution under Diocletian. www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2026/...

The trial of St Colluthus ca. 304 AD - a literal transcription of the court proceedings

St Colluthus was tried and executed in the Great Persecution ordered by the emperor Diocletian, in May 304.  Unusually we have a near-exact transcript of his appearance before the Roman provincial gov...

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Finally, the new #Ge'ez grammar from Stefan Weninger is out! This should replace the old Dillmann grammar.

If anyone is considering editing something from our collections, we will happily supply a digital copy at no cost. Please contact Kate (archives at ucd dot ie).

Irish Manuscripts Commission@irishmanuscripts.bsky.social · 2w ago

Closing date: Wed 29 July The IMC student prize of €1,000 is awarded to a postgraduate student for editing a short historical document, which will also be considered for publication in Analecta Hibernica. Learn more at: irishmanuscripts.ie/imc-student-prize-2026/

Other work of the Ladybird artists. ‘Eastbourne’ (circa 1950) Artist: Ronald Lampitt

A 1973 academic book which could be better! www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2026/...

From my diary

A book arrived through the post yesterday: E.A.E. Reymond & J.W.B. Barns, Four Martyrdoms from the Pierpont Morgan Coptic Codices, Oxford (1973). This contains the martyrdom of St Colluthus, plus an E...

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English translation of two medieval Coptic miracle stories from the martyrium of St Colluthus. Not very interesting, but the first items to reach Europe from the White Monastery. www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2026/...

Two miracle stories of St Colluthus from the White Monastery

As I wrote earlier, the first pages - parchment - to arrive in Europe from the library White Monastery at Sohag in Egypt were leaves of a life of the incredibly obscure St Colluthus (or Coluthus), con...

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Gorgeous papyrus from 200-300 AD showing a verb table! www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2026/...

A 3rd century papyrus conjugating γράφω in the indicative

Here is a truly fascinating item.  It's a leaf of papyrus from Oxyrhynchus.  On it, someone has drawn out a table of the forms of the Greek verb γράφω ("I write")! Here's a splendid image of the verso...

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First pass at supporting Classical Persian: selections of the Shahnameh from Pizzi 1883. work of @farnooshamsian finally starts to surface. tinyurl.com/5n8yfh9v

A gorgeous papyrus, showing a schoolboy drawing out the forms of a Greek verb! www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2026/...

Inscription to Sol Invictus at Corbridge near #HadriansWall. Dedicated by a detachment of the VI Legion under Sextus Calpurnius Agricola, governor of Britannia 162-168 CE. First line defaced c. 193 CE. Details in ALT text. 📷my own 2012 #RomanBritain (Repost with corrected dates).

I did this years ago on Twitter, but, here's a list of tools/utilities that every medievalist show know about and have bookmarked: #medievalsky

Another synaxarion entry for St Colluthus. www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2026/...

I have read that Google has restarted scanning for Google Books, obviously to populate its LLMs. If so, there are opportunities for archives here.

Katharine Hayhoe@katharinehayhoe.com · 3w ago

DUE TODAY. This page makes it super simple. If you haven't commented yet, just take a few minutes!

Some brilliant doctoral theses never get published yet remain fundamental. Peter Richards' 1980 work, supervised by Catherine Hills, on 'Byzantine Bronze Vessels in Britain & Europe' is one. I wondered what became of him and have now found an obituary. www.theguardian.com/theguardian/...

What other foundational doctoral theses were never published?

Helen Gittos@helengittos.bsky.social · 2w ago

Some brilliant doctoral theses never get published yet remain fundamental. Peter Richards' 1980 work, supervised by Catherine Hills, on 'Byzantine Bronze Vessels in Britain & Europe' is one. I wondered what became of him and have now found an obituary. www.theguardian.com/theguardian/...

Low tech bilingual searching Homer: e.g., search for Greek μῆνις and see Greek/Eng at the sentence level: tinyurl.com/5fe4e6fw AT Murray archaic xlation (for now) but useful

Other work of the Ladybird artists ‘Chester’ Railway poster, circa 1955 Artist : SR Badmin

The entry for St Colluthus in the Constantinople church liturgy (Synaxarion) as printed in the Menologium Graecorum of Basil II. Lots of work to access this! www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2026/...

The Menologium Graecorum of Basil II and the "Life" of St Colluthus

In the 1781 publication of two Coptic fragments of the "Life" of St Colluthus, the preface begins by describing how the pages reached the hands of the owner, Francisco Borgia.  It then continues by pr...

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The 18th century discovery of Coptic parchments from the White Monastery in Egypt - the Latin preface and an English translation. www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2026/...

How the first pages from the White Monastery were discovered

In the 18th century, a chamber in the ruins of the White Monastery at Sohag in Egypt contained piles of loose leaves of a vast and ancient Coptic library.   In previous posts I have noted how the firs...

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AI means Google have resumed scanning academic books for Google Books. www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2026/...

More digitizations at Google Books?

An interesting email has reached me, noticing that work seems to have resumed at Google Books: I don't know if you've noticed this, but Google Books has been adding new material this year from a num...

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with all the translations we are adding, we have enabled 7 columns for comparison: gregorycrane.github.io/persverscomp/