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Steffen Hope

@hopesteffen.bsky.social

2.7K followers 750 following 5.1K posts

Norwegian medievalist, bibliophile, music lover and art enthusiast. [Header: Valenciennes - BM - ms. 0320, f.120v]

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Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · Dec 16

Some months ago, a collection of articles edited by Grzegorz Pac, myself, &Jón Viðar Sigurðsson was published by Brepols. The book is in open access, & can be found here: www.brepols.net/products/IS-....

Cover of the book, which features a medieval illumination. The illumination depicts King Wenceslas carrying a bowl to some nobles seated at a table. Behind the king, the archangel Michael appears, holding a spear in his left hand, and placing his right hand on Wenceslas' head in benediction. Wenceslas points backwards to the angel.

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Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 12m

Ah, that fits very well with my own suspicions. Thank you!

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 41m

Interesting! What is the overlap between the two approaches?

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 45m

I suspect that there are many self-identifying Effective Altruists who approach these tenets very differently, but from what I understand I can see how this philosophical framework can allow people to justify avoiding to help people now, arguing instead that their actions will reap future fruit.

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 1h

(And because this is the Internet, I want to clarify that I am not asking for anyone to explain Effective Altruism to me, but I am interested in hearing from others whether this idea resonates with their own experiences.)

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 1h

I am quite far from the point of understanding Effective Altruism as an ideology, but it appears to me that there is something about it which appeals to people who want to make grand gestures but who also consider most of their contemporaries as undeserving. Is this wildly off the mark?

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Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 4h

Exactly. It is such an astounding display of cruelty masked as obtuseness that it makes my blood boil.

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 4h

When it comes to antagonists with unsubtle names, I thought Jean Vilain from The Expendables 2 was a top contender. But then I learned about Professor Adolfo Verybad from the Italian Western series Zagor. (He is, indeed, very bad.)

[Zagor no.680]

Bottom panel from a comic book page, showing the inside of a tent. On the left-hand side, a black-haired man with a small moustache is pointing towards a man seated in front of him. This other man is sitting by a table, glass in one hand and bottle in the other. The sitting man has a black coat, black hair, black, unruly beard, and a wild, demoniacal look in his eyes. The standing man is saying "The professor Adolfo Verybad", while the professor responds with "Hello, Cico".

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 5h

Ah, brilliant, thank you!

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 6h

I suspect these are the same people who will soon demand that the few surviving Palestinians should be grateful. I have nothing polite to say to these abusive shits.

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Reposted by Steffen Hope

Isabel Mellén @isamellen.bsky.social · 12h

¡Regresamooooooooooos! 😃😃😃😃

Divulvadoras de la historia @divulvadoras.bsky.social · 12h

¡Regresamos una temporada más y lo queremos hacer volviendo al origen!

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Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 12h

Cromulent.

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 21h

Two minds, one thought, to use an old Scandinavian saying.

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 21h

This is a copy of the pamphlet in question, the first book to be printed in Scandinavia, which became a bestseller due to a climate of fear & sensationalism. The copy in the picture is currently housed in Museum Odense.

An open incunable pamphlet in a museum glass case.

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 21h

Haha, I would happily go back to the fjords if that meant that the rest of my namesakes in this world would behave decently. But there are simply too many of us, & some are quite nasty. It is quite telling that you seem to have understood immediately whom I had in mind.

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 21h

A similar pattern can be seen in the history of printing in Scandinavia. In 1482, Johann Snell was commissioned to print the Odense Breviary, but before finishing this work he printed De obsidione et bello Rhodiano, on the siege of Rhodes, which was a pamphlet against the Turks.

Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 21h

People think the first thing Gutenberg printed was the Bible. This is false. The first things he printed were a political prophecy, propaganda about the Turks’ threat to Christendom, & a popular school text. If you want a parallel to AI, that’s it: making $ from conspiracies, racism, & school slop.

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 1d

really nice piece on this btw from @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social sonjadrimmer.com/blog-1/2025/...

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Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 22h

In the current climate, I am torn between being relieved that I'm not the worst human being among my namesakes, & wishing that I were, simply because then things wouldn't be so abysmally bad for us.

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Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 23h

Petulant people can be dangerous, because their petulance is what makes them refuse to face reality when reality is not in their favour.

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 23h

Thank you!

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 1d

Brilliant, thank you so much!

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 1d

Glitrande, takk skal du ha!

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 1d

Oooh, brilliant, thank you very much!

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 1d

Can anyone direct me to scholarship on book-binding in sixteenth-century France? (Texts in English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish or Italian are welcome.)

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Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 1d

It looks exactly like the thing I need to delve deeper into the language. (Also, it reminds me of an object lesson in Spanish language politics: a senior Spanish professor chided me for using a Manchego term because it made me sound like a peasant.)

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 1d

I didn't know about this book until just now, but I know that I need it.

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 1d

Currently writing up a report on the fragment I investigated earlier this week. It's a small fragment, but because it is from a liturgical manuscript there are many things to be written about it.

In the foreground is a table with a parchment-bound octavo volume and a notepad. Two blue chairs are placed next to the table. Behind the chair is a large book case filled with books, mainly printed and bound in the eighteenth century. On the left-hand side of the picture, a filing cabinet is situated beside the book case, with several volumes stacked in a tower on top of it. A framed poster of uncertain description is hanging on the wall. The walls are in a cosy light avocado green.