Steven Van Impe
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svanimpe.bsky.social
Steven Van Impe
@svanimpe.bsky.social
Book historian, rare books curator Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience, Antwerp. Opinions mine, I may be wrong, follow/like isn't endorsement. He/him. Caregiver for a partner with Long Covid. Used to be @RareBookLibAntw on Twitter. Profile pic by LUCID.
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Him: what are you thinking about?

Me: the Mongolian Winter Olympics uniform
February 7, 2026 at 9:40 AM
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Lieve BS-vrienden, ik heb raad nodig. Ik zoek een EU alternatief voor WordPress. Tot hiertoe als ik een simpele site nodig had, bouwde ik die op WP zelf. Ik wil een site maken voor de podcast, maar graag EU. Ik zie bijv Combel? Iemand ervaring of ideeën? 🙌

european-alternatives.eu/alternative-...
European alternatives to WordPress.com | European Alternatives
WordPress.com is a WordPress hosting provider owned by Automattic, a US American company which contributes to the development of WordPress.
european-alternatives.eu
February 7, 2026 at 10:20 AM
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Every instance of "AI democratizes the arts, you're classist and ableist and a gatekeeper for trying to stop it" is a slap in the face to the literally centuries of poor, disabled people making art on the margins and a crass lie in service of a machine that strips down and regurgitates dreams
February 6, 2026 at 5:36 PM
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Medieval German law told it like it was I guess (but also, what?)
February 6, 2026 at 4:00 PM
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My brain: Oh no, not again!

Me: Emily, Charlotte, Anne
February 7, 2026 at 7:03 AM
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I'm going to ask a dumb question, but it's not my field: if I wanted to read the best works on politics and opera and in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, where do I look? Journals? Book series? Individual scholars? I love musicology but I've very limited knowledge of the field post-medieval.
February 6, 2026 at 9:23 PM
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I do want to shout-out my fellow sociologists, who have collectively created a discipline so woke that not a single one of our introductory textbooks can make it past Florida's censors.

Great work everyone.
February 6, 2026 at 3:00 PM
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So many ages have passed since this chapter was accepted for publication. Empires have fallen. Ozymandias was an early reader. I am reading chapter proofs from the Ordovician era. The permalinks were not, in fact, permanent
February 6, 2026 at 8:21 PM
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Crocuses after the rain
📷 #photography
February 6, 2026 at 6:31 PM
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Coming to your library shelves this summer!
Delighted to announce the 6th volume in the series will be published in June! Click here for details about the forthcoming 'Print and Catholic Persistence in the Dutch Golden Age' by @ewatson.bsky.social boydellandbrewer.com/book/print-a...
#skystorians #CathHist #history #bookhistory #catholicism
February 6, 2026 at 1:45 PM
I can smell this picture.
We've just had half a crab delivered to the back door by a kindly gull, how's your Friday afternoon going?
February 6, 2026 at 5:07 PM
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Great advice in here. I could share my own horror stories. Some things I do when I chair:
- send pronunciation of committee members' names and ask for the candidates'
- leave decompression time after bigger meetings in a space alone
- offer to walk candidate from hotel to campus w coffee included
February 6, 2026 at 4:09 PM
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People get prickly about these requests bc they see them as individual critiques but they're really efforts to set norms and build culture around sharing information, which feels very meaningful and worthwhile to me in this moment.
Man, a lot of you are not using alt text lately. I see something super interesting that I want to repost, but just don't because the alt text is not there.

Also, if you post a screenshot of a news story and don't include a link in the thread or a citation, I am not reposting it.
February 6, 2026 at 3:21 PM
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Storm at sea 🌊

This 1614 book includes a beautiful engraving depicting the hazardous sea journey of Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł. The print shows his ship caught in a violent night storm.

Look at how marvelous the engraver visualized darkness and the wind through an interplay of straight lines!
February 6, 2026 at 2:33 PM
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No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.

Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology
She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.
www.nature.com
February 6, 2026 at 9:09 AM
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Marlon U., oprichter en vertegenwoordiger van de uiterst rechtse Vrijmoedige Studenten Partij (VSP), voerde schrikbewind op de VU www.parool.nl/amsterdam/ho...
Hoe student Marlon U. de Vrije Universiteit al jaren teistert met intimidatie en geweld, zonder dat de universiteit ingrijpt: ‘Ik maak je dood, ik sla je kankerbek in’
Marlon U. (25), leider van de rechts-conservatieve studentenpartij VSP, teistert al drie jaar lang studenten en medewerkers aan de Vrije Universiteit. Hij zingt naziliedjes, intimideert, vernielt, bed...
www.parool.nl
February 6, 2026 at 10:49 AM
Advice from a mid-career curator of #RareBooks: with some donated collections, it is best to adhere to the "miners' protocol": wash your hands BEFORE AND after toilet breaks.
February 6, 2026 at 2:53 PM
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Me on January 1, 2026 vs
Me on February 1, 2026
How it started / How it's going
February 6, 2026 at 1:45 AM
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I’m such a sucker for pop art crochet patterns www.etsy.com/listing/4369...
February 6, 2026 at 4:38 AM
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One must imagine Sisyphus rolling the boulder down into Plato's cave and everyone running Indiana Jones style
February 6, 2026 at 3:22 AM
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Ok. Who wants to hire a badass pirate historian? 🥺
February 6, 2026 at 1:09 AM
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How it started / How it's going
February 6, 2026 at 1:38 AM
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Everyone writing their dissertation right now should feel amazing about their work because no matter what, even if you didn't write words this week, it's better than this
Tfw the judge is scrutinizing your nine-line sentence
February 6, 2026 at 3:14 AM
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Gregor left behind strict instructions his family should follow to appease his ghost.
He didn’t require vengeance, sacrifice, or ceremony. His spirit could only be calmed by acts of self care.
For the rest of their lives, his kids would swear they heard low moaning if they didn’t drink enough water.
February 6, 2026 at 3:23 AM
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Two sheep from different flocks secretly pine for each other.

Bleated Rivalry.
The two best woodworkers in the country secretly pine for each other.

Treated Rivalry.
The two best tailors in the country secretly pine for each other.

Pleated Rivalry
February 5, 2026 at 11:17 PM