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Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · 2d

Happening this Friday!

Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · 8d

Next Week: We invite you all to the RGME 2025 Autumn Symposium, "Readers, Fakers, and Re-Creators of Books: From Page to Marketplace and Beyond". This event will be held online October 17-19; more details and registration found on the website: manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/2025-rg...

Poster for Research Group on Manuscript Evidence Autumn Symposium, 17-19 October 2025

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Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · 8d

Next Week: We invite you all to the RGME 2025 Autumn Symposium, "Readers, Fakers, and Re-Creators of Books: From Page to Marketplace and Beyond". This event will be held online October 17-19; more details and registration found on the website: manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/2025-rg...

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Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · 8d

Next Week: We invite you all to the RGME 2025 Autumn Symposium, "Readers, Fakers, and Re-Creators of Books: From Page to Marketplace and Beyond". This event will be held online October 17-19; more details and registration found on the website: manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/2025-rg...

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Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · 15d

#historyofliteracy #historyofcookbooks

Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 15d

Told our grad fellows about Avery's work just last week—a go-to example of book history since her conf talk. Made food-stain charts on old paper, compared w/historical cookbooks under microscope=>unearthing moments in time for cooks who often couldn't write+otherwise left out of historical record:

Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · 16d

Excited that longtime Viral Texts collaborator Avery Blankenship’s *American Literature* article is out—stemming from a chapter of her diss, it outlines her research using infrared spectroscopy to analyze food stains in C19 cookbooks—interesting for DH, book history, bibliography, and foodies alike

Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · 23d

#noahsark

Dr Patrick McDonagh @patrickmcdonagh98.bsky.social · Sep 15

An illustration of Noah's ark in a fourteenth century Irish manuscript accredited to Ádhamh Ó Cianáin, a scholar from medieval Fermanagh, at the @nlireland.bsky.social. In the top left can be seen the dove (or 'colu[m]ba') carrying an olive leaf returning to the ark.

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Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · 24d

#historyofcollections

Archive Mole @archivemole.com · May 28

This document marked the end of the Maison Dieu's 300-year religious life and its transfer to royal control during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

This record, held at The National Archives, UK, is one of thousands still undigitised.

We can help you access them.

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Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · 24d

#picturepoems #carminafigurata #wordsasimages

Ennius @enniusredloeb.bsky.social · 25d

Carmina figurata: text written in the form of a king #RoshHashanah
BL Oriental 2733; Mahzor for Rosh ha-Shanah, Franco-German rite; 14th century; France; f.51r

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Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · Sep 3

#lists We admire Michael Hensley's work on book lists. He spoke about it for our 2025 Spring Symposium, and we are eager to learn more. #historyoflibraries

Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · Aug 25

‘We like lists because we don’t want to die’, said Umberto Eco. What drives our deep fascination with lists? PhD researcher Michael Hensley explores the meaning of Ethiopian and Eritrean book lists, offering glimpses into communities that would otherwise be lost:
uhh.de/csmc-hensley

Ethiopian and Eritrean manuscript evidence from the medieval period survives until today in varying states of preservation, ranging from whole codices, small fragments, or somewhere in-between. Some exemplars, for example, were later palimpsested to accommodate new texts. One such case is shown in the image above. Now housed in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, this manuscript was acquired by Antoine d’Abbadie (1810–1897) during his travels in Ethiopia in the nineteenth century. While the overtext dates to the seventeenth century, the pages on which it was written were taken from at least four earlier manuscripts, ranging from the fourteenth (or possibly earlier) to the early sixteenth centuries. This written artefact, and other palimpsests like it in the Ethiopian and Eritrean context, was treated recently in Erho 2025.
Image: Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, ms. Ethiopien d’Abbadie 191, f. 96v. Gallica. Accessed 20 August 2025.

Donation List of ʾIyasus Moʾa from the gospel book of ʾIyasus Moʾa = EMML 1832 (1280/1281), recording the manuscripts that he donated to the monastery of Ḥayq ʾƎsṭifānos on his death in 1292. This important document is treated in my dissertation. Image courtesy of Meseret Oldjira.

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Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · Sep 1

With the start of September, we mention the CFP deadline of 15 September for your proposals for our sessions at #kazoo2026 ( #2026icms ) and #imc2026 at Leeds. manuscriptevidence.org/2026-interna...

manuscriptevidence.org

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Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · Aug 31

#doodles

Erik Kwakkel @erikkwakkel.bsky.social · Jun 20

Just came across this web resource: 76 digitized handwriting manuals 1600-1800 - mostly with models for handwriting exercises (bibliotheques-specialisees.paris.fr/search/N-503...). A bored child learning to write doodled in one of them (source: bibliotheques-specialisees.paris.fr/ark:/73873/p...).

Flyleaf of writing manual shows doodles of child.

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Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · Aug 28

Now up on the IMC Padlet as well! universityofleeds.padlet.org/imc13/imc-20...

Manuscripts at Play and as Play:

Temporalities and (Re)Configurationsas Reading Methods

universityofleeds.padlet.org

Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · Aug 27

#kzoo2026 CFP: this year the RGME is co-sponsoring 5 sessions at next year's ICMS- more details and portals for submissions on the website: manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/2026-in...

Research Group on Manyscript Evidence 2026 ICMS call for papers to co-sponsored sessions

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Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · Aug 25

CFP: the RGME is sponsoring a session for #imc2026 called "Manuscripts at Play and as Play: Temporalities and (Re)Configurations as Reading Methods". Send us your proposals!
manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/2026-in...

2026 ICMS at Leeds: Call for Papers -

Call for Papers Sessions Sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence at the 2026 International Medieval Congress (In person or Hybrid) 6–9 July 2026 “Manuscripts at Play and as Play: Tempor...

manuscriptevidence.org

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Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · Aug 24

#inscriptionsinstone

Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · Aug 24

The last known inscription made in #Egyptian hieroglyphs was carved #OnThisDay in AD 394 🏺 #Archaeology

The Graffito of Esmet-Akhom depicts the god Mandulis, accompanied with a text hoping the inscription will last forever. It seems the engraver got their wish 1/2

📷Olaf Tausch / CC BY-SA 3.0

Brick wall engraved with a humanoid figure accompanied by hieroglyphs.

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Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · Aug 24

The last known inscription made in #Egyptian hieroglyphs was carved #OnThisDay in AD 394 🏺 #Archaeology

The Graffito of Esmet-Akhom depicts the god Mandulis, accompanied with a text hoping the inscription will last forever. It seems the engraver got their wish 1/2

📷Olaf Tausch / CC BY-SA 3.0

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Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · Aug 24

#inscriptionsinstone #generosity #beauty

Ideas Roadshow @ideasroadshow.bsky.social · Aug 24

An exceptional Byzantine mosaic made of marble & glass tesserae showing Ktisis who personifies the act of generous donation, c. 500.

👁️ Read/watch Byzantium: Beyond The Cliché, here: ideasroadshow.substack.com/p/byzantium-...

#mosaicmonday 🗃️ #arthistory #medievalsky #skystorians 🏺 #archaeology

Fragment of a Floor Mosaic with a Personification of Ktisis
Byzantine, 500–550, with modern restoration.
The following text is from The Met where you can view this mosaic:
The bejeweled woman, holding the measuring tool for the Roman foot, is identified by the restored Greek inscription as Ktisis, a figure personifying the act of generous donation or foundation. The man with a cornucopia, originally one of a pair flanking her, has the Greek inscription “good” by his head, half of a text that probably said, “good wishes.” The fragment, made of marble and glass tesserae (small pieces of colored material), is typical of the exceptional mosaics created throughout the Byzantine world in the 500s. The Metropolitan Museum, after acquiring the two figures independently, has restored them in accordance with a dealer’s photograph showing their original arrangement while in storage before separation.

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Reposted by Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Ideas Roadshow @ideasroadshow.bsky.social · Aug 24

An exceptional Byzantine mosaic made of marble & glass tesserae showing Ktisis who personifies the act of generous donation, c. 500.

👁️ Read/watch Byzantium: Beyond The Cliché, here: ideasroadshow.substack.com/p/byzantium-...

#mosaicmonday 🗃️ #arthistory #medievalsky #skystorians 🏺 #archaeology

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Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · Aug 1

Restorations, with thanks to our Associate, Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social

Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · Aug 1

Update on the great discovery of archived BL manuscript metadata: I started putting together a page at my website to host PDFs of the archived pages I retrieve.

ruffnotes.org/british-libr...

#medievalsky

British Library Manuscripts Metadata

Since the cyberattack of October 2023, the British Library has restored only a fraction of the manuscripts it digitized over the past decade-plus. Even for those MSS now back online, we have only t…

ruffnotes.org

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Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · Aug 1

More Is More, Wayback Machine Style for British Library Online, Hindsight Included. With thanks to our Associate, @carinr.bsky.social

Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · Aug 1

OMG PEOPLE! I have the BL hack of all BL hacks. Why didn't this occur to me before? It turns out the Wayback Machine has snapshots of MS metadata from the old Digitised Manuscripts site. I tried it for the Benedictional of St. Æthelwold, in honor of his day, and lo! web.archive.org/web/20140305...

Screenshot of the Wayback Machine capture of the old entry for BL MS Add 49598

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Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · Jul 24

#beautifulbook #turnedthepages

Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · Jul 11

This is the feast of Benedict of Nursia, d. 547–THE Benedict, with apologies to B. Biscop & B. of Aniane. 🕯️ Let's do a 🧵 of manuscripts of his Rule. Bodleian Library MS Hatton 48, early-8c England, is the oldest surviving copy of the Rule. It is written in Uncials...

#medievalsky #monasticism

Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Hatton 48, fol. 1r

Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Hatton 48, fol. 7v

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Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · Jul 20

#booksinpaintings

Rijksmuseum @rijksmuseum.bsky.social · Jul 14

What are you reading this summer? 📚

At first glance, this painting looks like a celebration of books and music. But look closer. The lute? Just a wooden case for the instrument. The books? Empty covers, used for storing bills and documents. 📖

👁️ https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200107940

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Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · Jul 19

#historyofliteracy

Dr. Peter Paul Rubens @peterpaulrubens.bsky.social · Jul 19

Edgar Degas (born OTD 1834): dancer takes a quick rehearsal break to catch up on the news. Cannot be as surreal as today's is!

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Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · Jul 19

Join us on Monday online for the next RGME Friends' Meeting. "Food for Thought" = Fairy Tales and Cookbooks. We explore realms of imagination and nourishment, as we look at books for a lifetime/lifeline and prepare our Community Cookbook. Interested?
See manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/meeting...

manuscriptevidence.org

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Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · Jul 16

#booksinpaintings

John McCafferty @jdmccafferty.bsky.social · Jul 16

St Clare of Assisi, Unknown Artist, 17th century (Pinacoteca Civica Domenico Inzaghi, Budrio, Bologna)

Clare was b. #otd 16 July 1194.

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Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · Jul 16

#turnedthepages #beautifulbook Antwerp Sedulius declared a treasure. #medievalmanuscripts

Zanna Van Loon @zannavanloon.bsky.social · Jul 16

Two exceptional manuscripts from the collection of Museum Plantin-Moretus are officially recognized as Flemish Masterpieces! These rare and irreplaceable works now receive special protection from the Flemish government. 🎉 /1

#earlymodern #rarebooks #medievalmanuscript #bookhistory 💙📚📜

Two facing parchment pages of the 8th-century manuscript written in an Karolingian script and with miniatures on the right

Opening parchment pages of the 8th-century manuscript written in an Karolingian script and a large opening initial letter P on the right

First page in a volume of the Chroniques by Jean Froissart. A book handwritten on parchment with a half-page miniature depicting a contemporary scene and decorated illuminated borders.

Last folio in a volume of the Chroniques by Jean Froissart. A book handwritten on parchment.

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