Charles West
banner
pseudo-isidore.bsky.social
Charles West
@pseudo-isidore.bsky.social

Professor of History

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%

Reposted by Charles West

Save the date of the last GHIL lecture in our winter series given by Stefan Esders (@freieuniversitaet.bsky.social) on 'Ethnicity and Legal Pluralism in the Early Middle Ages':

📅 9 December 2025
📍Pushkin House, London
⏰ 5:30pm GMT
🔗 Sign up: www.ghil.ac.uk/event...
1/7

Reposted by Charles West

📚 New on the blog!

@arezouazad.bsky.social rediscovers Bamiyan’s medieval archives, revealing a diverse, literate and interconnected Islamicate society in Afghanistan.

Have a read:
The Warehouse of Bamiyan: Q&A with Arezou Azad - Edinburgh University Press Blog
Arezou Azad rediscovers Bamiyan’s medieval archives, revealing a diverse, literate and interconnected Islamicate society in Afghanistan.
edin.ac

Reposted by Charles West

This has me picturing a miniature gallows for moths

Reposted by Charles West

I’m thrilled to share my new article, online and open access in Medieval Encounters! It’s called “Beyond Belief: Byzantine Statue Stories and their Absent Objects,” but it could be called “A Tale of Two Boars” 🐗 🐗
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.

They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
Publication – « Aristocratic networks. Elites and social dynamics in Italy in the age of Lothar I », éd. Giuseppe Albertoni, Manuel Fauliri, Leonardo Sernagiotto

rmblf.be/2025/11/25/p...
Publication – « Aristocratic networks. Elites and social dynamics in Italy in the age of Lothar I », éd. Giuseppe Albertoni, Manuel Fauliri, Leonardo Sernagiotto
This volume collects the proceedings of a conference held at the Department of Humanities of the University of Trento from 13 to 15 October 2022, as part of the initiatives of the PRIN 2017 project…
rmblf.be

Reposted by Charles West

#SaveTheDate An anonymous world chronicle originally composed in 713 CE, likely by a Syriac monk from Apamea, has remained almost unknown until now. In his Gotha Manuscript Talk, Adrian Pirtea speaks about the rediscovery of the only surviving copy! Wednesday, 26 November 2025, 6:15 CET
'Kendall told a UKRI event on 24 November that nearly a fifth of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)’s budget will be earmarked for research aligned with Labour’s missions, with £8 billion of UKRI’s £38.6 billion budget over the next five years “targeted towards the UK’s national priorities”.' 1/3
Kendall: Haldane not breached by research spending direction
Science secretary defends decision to dedicate nearly a fifth of UKRI budget to policy priorities
www.timeshighereducation.com

Super exciting!
Eek! My episode doesn't technically air until 8 December, but the whole series of the new BBC Arts Civilisations series is out now on iPlayer, including this episode on the Aztecs with me and friends @amyfuller.bsky.social & @restall.bsky.social (& others not on the Sky). Airs Mondays at 9pm, BBC2.
Civilisations: Rise and Fall - Series 1: 3. Aztecs
The Aztecs battle to save their civilisation from Spanish invaders – but is the real threat from the enemy within?
www.bbc.co.uk

Reposted by Charles West

Eek! My episode doesn't technically air until 8 December, but the whole series of the new BBC Arts Civilisations series is out now on iPlayer, including this episode on the Aztecs with me and friends @amyfuller.bsky.social & @restall.bsky.social (& others not on the Sky). Airs Mondays at 9pm, BBC2.
Civilisations: Rise and Fall - Series 1: 3. Aztecs
The Aztecs battle to save their civilisation from Spanish invaders – but is the real threat from the enemy within?
www.bbc.co.uk

Reposted by Charles West

I find it very pleasing that sometime around 1040, an Icelandic skald addressed the king of the Norwegians as "sinjórr", showing that already at this early stage the French vocabulary for lordship had entered the Nordic world.

Reposted by Charles West

🎨 In our final seminar of the semester, Neil McClelland joins us from @uofglasgow.bsky.social to discuss his ongoing doctoral research into the the history of art commissions from across the social strata from late medieval and early modern Naples.

Many sympathies.

Can't wait to read this!
Can't get enough of local priests? I hope not, because my book 'Pastoral Works. Priests, Books, and Compilatory Practices in the Carolingian Period' has just been published by Brepols (doi.org/10.1484/M.US...). You can read the book's introduction on my website (libripendis.eu/posts/26past...).

Reposted by Charles West

Can't get enough of local priests? I hope not, because my book 'Pastoral Works. Priests, Books, and Compilatory Practices in the Carolingian Period' has just been published by Brepols (doi.org/10.1484/M.US...). You can read the book's introduction on my website (libripendis.eu/posts/26past...).

Fascinated by the 1950s brands in the Beamish living history museum.

Listening to a BBC adaption of Wuthering Heights, and finding it gripping.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/serie...
BBC Sounds - Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë - Available Episodes
Listen to the latest episodes of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë on BBC Sounds.
www.bbc.co.uk

Reposted by Charles West

AotW: Johannes G. Stolk and Theresa Jäckh, 1009: Adémar of Chabannes on the Destruction of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, in: Transmediterranean History 3.2 (2021), DOI: doi.org/10.18148/tmh....

*We are looking for authors: ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/transmed/ind... !*

#medievalists #medievalsky

Cuthbert tests the defences of a castle.

Congratulations Laury! Wonderful news, richly deserved.
Review copy just landed!

"Becoming Arab: The Formation of Arab Identity in the Medieval Middle East"

by Yossef Rapoport
@princetonupress.bsky.social

The languages in particular? No, I'm not aware of any specific work on why he seems to have wanted this information (It's a terribly neglected source!). Maybe it was his agents who thought it was something he should know.

What languages did the 35 hermits living in Jerusalem in 808 pray to God in? Charlemagne wanted to know, so he found out. (Mostly Greek and Syriac)

Fascinating to see how a top London law firm now expects its graduate applicants to be familiar with using AI. www.shoosmiths.com/careers/emer...
What’s AI got to do with it?
Whether you’re applying for a training contract or designing early careers strategy, in this article, Samantha share insights for both candidates and career professionals on Shoosmiths’ AI-enhanced re...
www.shoosmiths.com
It's the most wonderful time of the year: Scotland's gritter tracker is back! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿❄️🧊

www.traffic.gov.scot/gritter-trac...
Hot off the press, my review of Doublier's (excellent) 'Reich ohne König?'. The book is an absolute game-changer for how we approach politics in 11th and 12thC northern Italy.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Ein Reich ohne König? Akzeptanz, Deutung und Repräsentation königlicher Herrschaft im regnum Italicum zwischen dem 11. und 12. Jahrhundert. By Étienne Doublier. Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Schriften 84. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. 2024. LXXIV + 666 pp.; 45 colour figures and 10 b/w maps. €115. ISBN 978 3 447 12274 0.
Click on the article title to read more.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Churches in Jerusalem c. 808, mentioned in Charlemagne's survey