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Charles West

@pseudo-isidore.bsky.social

4.3K followers 430 following 1.8K posts

Professor of History at the University of Edinburgh https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/charles-west

Charles West (1816–1898) was a British physician, specialized in pediatrics and obstetrics, especially known as the founder of the first children's hospital in Great Britain, the Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street, London. .. more

History 43%

Philosophy 19%

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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 2h

Only one way to find out!

Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 2h

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Britons travelling to EU to undergo new biometric checks at border from Sunday

Most non-EU nationals entering Schengen area will have photo and fingerprints taken as part of entry-exit system

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Martín Haspelmath, Charles West

Simon Kuestenmacher @simongerman600.bsky.social · 3h

A bit of linguistic cartography to brighten your day. This map shows how the words for camel 🐫 spread across the Old World.

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Reposted by Charles West

Nic Morton @nicmorton.bsky.social · 5h

Online course alert!

"The Knights Templar: 1120-1314"

Starting in November I will be running a six session online course on the history of the Knights Templar in co-operation with @medievalists.bsky.social

For more information see link below:
medievalstudies.thinkific.com/courses/temp...

The Knights Templar 1120-1314

Explore the astonishing phenomenon of the Knights Templar. Trace the order’s development from the First Crusade’s aftermath, through its rise to enormous power, and then its dissolution, for a thoroug...

medievalstudies.thinkific.com

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Reposted by Kris Inwood, Aidan O’Sullivan

Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 5h

Dropped into the National Museum to say hello to some old friends.

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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 10h

District Fire station, now a funeral parlour. Dousing the purgatorial flames?

Reposted by Charles West

John Sabapathy @jwwsabapathy.bsky.social · 11h

Amidst much junk about employability & 'rip-off' degrees, this @jburnmurdoch.ft.com article on.ft.com/47i1Bdo (sharing link) is excellent. Excellent further detail from @britishacademy.bsky.social at www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/policy-and-r....

What the graduate unemployment story gets wrong

People with a degree are faring better, not worse than their non-graduate counterparts

on.ft.com

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Reposted by Charles West, Lesley A. Hall

Schools Week @schoolsweek.bsky.social · 12h

Exclusive: Teachers will use 'deepfake' technology to create an AI avatar of themselves to deliver catch-up lessons for pupils who have missed school

Watch one of the school’s ‘deepfake’ teachers in our story below

schoolsweek.co.uk/schools-trus...

'Deepfake' teacher avatars to help pupils catch up

Academy trust staff to use AI generator to introduce resources for pupils returning to school

schoolsweek.co.uk

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Reposted by Charles West

Agenda des médiévistes @rmblf.bsky.social · 13h

Publication – « After the Feudal Revolution. Power, Local Societies, and Change from the Tenth to Twelfth Centuries », éd. Christoph Haack, Annette Grabowsky, Steffen Patzold

rmblf.be/2025/10/10/p...

Publication – « After the Feudal Revolution. Power, Local Societies, and Change from the Tenth to Twelfth Centuries », éd. Christoph Haack, Annette Grabowsky, Steffen Patzold

The 11th century stands as the watershed between the »early« and »high« Middle Ages. Exactly what this means is hotly debated by historians, but at some point between the 10th and 12th centuries, t…

rmblf.be

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Reposted by Charles West

Helen Gittos @helengittos.bsky.social · 23h

Do colleagues have favourite readings to give graduate students to help them think about the problems as well as possibilties of doing inter-disciplinary work in medieval studies? I'd be grateful for suggestions please.

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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 1d

(Varouxakis in my reading is making a different, more specific argument: that the idea of 'the West' emerged in the 1820s because unlike 'Europe', it excluded Russia as well as the Ottomans)

Reposted by Charles West

Helen Gittos @helengittos.bsky.social · 1d

And here's a useful map of the chronological - and spatial - distribution of early medieval bed burials from a recent article. A A Noterman, 'Sharing a bed but nothing else', European Journal of Archaeology 2025 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 1d

Voila:

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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, indeed. Also some nice majuscule on fol. 80v.

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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 1d

Pretty clean, but it is digitised some where

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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 1d

Danke!

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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 1d

Now listening to Georgios Varouxakis discussing his new book at @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

The West

A comprehensive intellectual history of the idea of the West

press.princeton.edu

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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks John! Very impressed you are using book snakes to read it, rather than just bending the pages :)

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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 1d

We also looked at this 11th-c. manuscript... in which you can see the ghostly trace of a palimpsested Augustine from the 8th century.

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Reposted by Charles West

John Sabapathy @jwwsabapathy.bsky.social · 1d

Henrietta Leyser & the much missed Jinty Nelson's editors' preface for the series has not dated, despite Brexit, Ukraine, or indeed, the Middle East.

Jinty Nelson & Henrietta Leyser's general editors' preface for the Oxford History of Medieval Europe series.

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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 1d

Enjoyed showing @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social students the Edinburgh Martial, a Carolingian manuscript: thanks @natlibscot.bsky.social!

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Reposted by Charles West

Head of Zeus @headofzeus.bsky.social · 1d

The Book of Kells by Victoria Whitworth - Out Today!

The Book of Kells is probably the most famous manuscript in the world – and Victoria Whitworth's masterly treatment offers something new.

Get your copy here! - https://bit.ly/48HEVnQ

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Reposted by Charles West

Francesca Tinti @francescatinti.bsky.social · 1d

A new Early Medieval Europe virtual issue on Travel and Mobility in the Early Middle Ages, featuring five brilliant articles published over the past 20 years by Andy Merrills, Paul Dutton, Frank Riess, Ben Allport and Rebecca Thomas: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...

Beyond migrations: travel and mobility in the early Middle Ages: Early Medieval Europe

Early Medieval Europe is an interdisciplinary medieval studies journal covering European history from the fall of the Roman Empire up until the 11th century.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 1d

A great podcast from BBC History Extra on the German Peasants war, with Lyndal Roper.
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

The German Peasants' War: a summer of fire and blood

Podcast Episode · History Extra podcast · 28/09/2025 · 43m

podcasts.apple.com

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Reposted by Charles West

Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CMRS) @cmrsedinburgh.bsky.social · 1d

⛪ 👨‍👨 Next week we’ll be proud to welcome John Arnold from @camhistory.bsky.social , who’ll discuss his recent research into the changing expressions of lay piety found in medieval southern France.