Charles West
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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%

Wonderful to see so many new people joining Bluesky.

Just in time for my lecture tomorrow!
Coptic spell to Acquire a Beautiful Voice, 6th–7th century CE, Egypt, ink on papyrus, 37.3 x 25.4 cm (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven)
archives.yale.edu/repositories...

Just had my first go on Edinburgh's new public e-bike scheme: what fun!

Coptic spell to Acquire a Beautiful Voice, 6th–7th century CE, Egypt, ink on papyrus, 37.3 x 25.4 cm (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven)
archives.yale.edu/repositories...

Reposted by Charles West

BREAKING NEWS:- BBC News - Iran medics describe hospitals overwhelmed with dead and injured protesters - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Iran medics describe hospitals overwhelmed with dead and injured protesters
Hundreds of people are believed to have been killed and injured by the security forces, with more than 70 dead in one hospital.
www.bbc.co.uk

If you've ever wondered how I keep Cuthbert the spaniel's coat its orange colour:
www.theguardian.com/thefilter/20...
‘A classic citric-forward twang and complex flavour’: the best UK supermarket marmalade, tasted and rated
Which supermarket marmalades hit preserve perfection and which aren’t worth their rind?
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Charles West

Wow so yeah I loved America's early work on coffee, Italian food, optimism, and power showers, but unfollowing now
I'm really looking forward to the wonderful exhibition on the Hereford Gospels later this year. I'll also be giving a talk and hosting an ink making workshop if you are in the area in May! www.herefordcathedral.org/Event/from-p...
www.herefordcathedral.org/Event/making...
@bibliojenni.bsky.social
From Parchment to Binding - 29/05/2026 19:00:00
The Practical Processes of Making a Medieval Manuscript with Dr Sara Charles
www.herefordcathedral.org
‘Contra the narrow focus of policymakers on Stem subjects or coding, now more than ever our economy rewards broad skillsets: team players, problem solvers, good communicators and creative thinkers.’ @jburnmurdoch.ft.com
www.ft.com/content/5e25...
How to AI-proof your job
The data suggests soft skills more than quantitative competency equal success in a rapidly changing labour market
www.ft.com
Trump talks about Denmark and Greenland just now: "The fact that they landed a boat there 500 years ago doesn't mean that they own the land."

Reposted by Charles West

24 hours of no contact with inside Iran. Not even direct calling my mum’s landline. Seems they have cut off the entire country. No news of my friends who went out to “stroll around and see what’s going on” 25 hours ago. Anxiety reaching high levels.

A giant cocker spaniel looms over a snowman.

Reposted by Charles West

'However, she stopped short of offering the discipline targeted support and instead urged universities to use income from increased domestic tuition fees to “plan strategically and avoid…cold spots [in provision], including in modern foreign languages”.' 2/2

Reposted by Charles West

For #FindsFriday a map of Danish single finds of Carolingian coins from 2016 to 2025, most unpublished. This is for a chapter in a book being edited by @ccooijmans.bsky.social. It shows that Frankish coins were reaching all parts of Denmark, not just trading centres or royal estates.

yes, very exciting (actually launched a couple of months back, though I haven't yet explored it properly) bsky.app/profile/medi...
Une des plus grandes avancées de ces dernières années en matière d'outil de recherche sur des textes médiévaux. Bravo, les collègues de CoMMA.
It's been brewing for months: @inriaparisnlp.bsky.social releases CoMMA (Corpus of Multilingual Medieval Archives) !

📚 2.5bn tokens of mostly Latin and French texts
🕰️ 800→1600 CE
📜 23k manuscripts
🖥️ 18k on the reading interface: comma.inria.fr
🔍 Paper: inria.hal.science/hal-05299220v1

(1/🧵)
Nice bit of digital humanities here - using AI to transcribe more than 32,000 manuscripts in the space of a few months. But with two years of preparation in training the model and creating standards for automating manuscript transcription
www.inria.fr/en/comma-med...
CoMMA: thousands of medieval manuscripts finally transcribed
Transcribing thousands of medieval manuscripts by hand would be a monumental undertaking. Fortunately, researchers in computational humanities at the Inria Paris Centre have been able to automate the ...
www.inria.fr
Yesterday I posted my last ever Tweet and called on the Government to do the same.

Read more below on why I think it’s time to leave the cesspit formerly known as Twitter.

www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...
It is time to leave the cesspit formerly known as Twitter
Grok is just one of many reasons why Westminster should finally get off the website.
www.politicshome.com

Reposted by Charles West

Immensely proud of Iranians these days. May they they achieve liberation; may the regime fall; may every other dictator follow.

Reposted by Charles West

There are just a couple of spaces left now for the next offering of my one-day course on pilgrimage in late medieval Scotland. The course will take place at the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Open Learning - Friday, 6 March.

Further details here: shortcourses.ed.ac.uk/course/pilgr...

Reposted by Charles West

I'm very lucky to have this advance proof copy of Thomas Asbridge's brilliant new book, The #BlackDeath: A Global History - out in April and sure to transform our understanding of this #medieval global pandemic. I can't wait for his lecture at @ihr.bsky.social on Weds 24 June - do please join us!

Reposted by Klaus Oschema

Lots of great pieces in here
🎺🎺 Tari, tara, die Francia ist da 😎

Ab sofort sind die Beiträge der Francia 51 (2024) frei online verfügbar! U.a. mit J. Haemers und F. Buylaert zu "Murder as »Good Lordship«" und F. Rexroth zu Hermann Heimpel in Strassburg...

Hier geht's zum Heft: journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/fr...
Bd. 51 (2024) | Francia
Jan Thorbecke VerlagSenefelderstraße 12 D-73760 Ostfildern
journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de

Reposted by Charles West

🎺🎺 Tari, tara, die Francia ist da 😎

Ab sofort sind die Beiträge der Francia 51 (2024) frei online verfügbar! U.a. mit J. Haemers und F. Buylaert zu "Murder as »Good Lordship«" und F. Rexroth zu Hermann Heimpel in Strassburg...

Hier geht's zum Heft: journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/fr...
Bd. 51 (2024) | Francia
Jan Thorbecke VerlagSenefelderstraße 12 D-73760 Ostfildern
journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de

A great line-up of medieval seminars for @cmrsedinburgh.bsky.social in Edinburgh, including @medievaljay.bsky.social, "Raiders of the Lost Patriarchs: Hebron and Crusader Jerusalem"...
hca.ed.ac.uk/centre-medie...
Centre for Medieval & Renaissance Studies Seminars | Centre for Medieval & Renaissance Studies | History Classics and Archaeology
The Centre hosts a seminar series which takes place throughout the academic year and is open to staff, students and the general public
hca.ed.ac.uk
Researchers and artists at Sorbonne University trained an artificial intelligence to emulate Molière's themes, structures and humor, producing a new play.
Can A.I. Match Molière’s Wit? These Researchers Think So.
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Charles West

Today on the blog, why the Carolingian empire wasn’t the worst place in the early medieval world to be Jewish. Featuring trade, slavery, and, most joyous of all, taxes! #medievalsky #jewishhistory

salutemmundo.wordpress.com/2026/01/08/l...
Louis and the Jews: Louis the Pious’ Grant to Abraham, 815×825
It could be a dangerous thing to be Jewish in Christian Western Europe in the Middle Ages. In addition to being a religious minority, Jews were believed to have orchestrated the execution of Jesus …
salutemmundo.wordpress.com

apparently, an "eccentric picaresque about the restless son of the Holy Roman emperor Charlemagne", no less

These are apparently facial reconstructions of a 2,300-year-old Pazyryk Scythian male and female from the same kurgan in Berel, Kazakhstan and not - as I first thought - that couple I met at a Spiral Tribe soundsystem in 1992 who sold me E that turned out to be paracetamol.

😂