Mark Empey
@memps2.bsky.social
1.7K followers 290 following 240 posts
Early Modernist to the bitter end #Bookhistory Female Book Owners; Women Writers; British & Irish historical writing; early Stuart peripheral governments Forthcoming book: Sir James Ware: Royalism, History & Antiquarianism (Boydell) Coined #HerBook
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memps2.bsky.social
Delighted and excited to hear that my #bookhistory chapter, which discusses the important role the Irish Protestant community played in preserving crucial #medieval #manuscripts in #17thc, is now published. And look at that cover 🤩
New publication with Four Courts Press: The Church of Ireland under the Stuarts, edited by Patrick Little, which discusses the religious, political, and cultural contribution of the church in seventeenth-century Ireland My chapter 'Preserving the past: history, manuscripts and belonging, c 1600-41' which discusses the role of the Irish Protestant community in preserving crucial medieval manuscripts and how this forces us to re-evaluate our understanding of the settler society
memps2.bsky.social
They’ll all be copying Kneecap next by wearing Union Jack balaclavas
Reposted by Mark Empey
drjpw.bsky.social
Are you curious about the potential for archival practices to shape the study of emotion; why there are letters in the English State Papers labelled 'mad'; or how the culture & politics of Elizabethan England shaped people's experience of distress? Find out here! doi.org/10.1017/S008... #earlymodern
‘your poore distressed suppliant’: ‘Madness’, Emotion and the Archive in Early Modern England | Transactions of the Royal Historical Society | Cambridge Core
‘your poore distressed suppliant’: ‘Madness’, Emotion and the Archive in Early Modern England
doi.org
memps2.bsky.social
You could add “obviously” and maybe “inevitably” to a list of hated academic phrases, which I fear could grow quite quickly if I put further thought on this debate
memps2.bsky.social
Can’t help but be engrossed by this. Not just the quality or attention to detail but how the desk is presented, the meticulous research, the anguish of research (??), and the hints de Heem left for the viewer to interpret and reflect on. Fabulous
jdmccafferty.bsky.social
Jan Davidsz de Heem, Still Life with Books and a Violin, 1628. (Mauritshuis, The Hague)

Literate viewers knew the titles of the books on this table were concerned with the idea of ​​fate.
memps2.bsky.social
You may not be interested in Maelsechlainn Mór.

You may even not be interested in the magnificence that is the Annals of the Four Masters, compiled by ridiculously talented Irish Franciscans under challenging conditions.

But please don’t tell me you aren’t impressed by work of this scribe 😍
ucdarchives.bsky.social
Maelsechlainn Mór, High King of Ireland, died #OTD 1022.

Maelseachlainn Mor, son of Domhnall, son of Donnchadh, pillar of the dignity and nobility of the west of the world, died on Cro-inis Locha-Aininn, after having been forty-three years in sovereignty over Ireland...
Reposted by Mark Empey
rebpaf.bsky.social
✉️ We're back from our summer break with a new blogpost by Rosenn Nicolas (Galway),exploring a letter to Christopher Plantin that shows how 16th-century European book production depended on networks of publishers,printers, & intermediaries,shaped by commerce and censorship.
#REBPAF #MSCA #BookHistory
Secrets of a 1569 letter: how books defied borders? The power of partnerships in the 16th century
Rosenn Nicolas, University of Galway1 Figure 1: Introduction of the letter The Plantin Moretus Museum keeps an original letter exposing unusual facts about the people involved in the printing spher…
rebpaf.wordpress.com
Reposted by Mark Empey
Reposted by Mark Empey
martinevanelk.bsky.social
Just discovering this database of books as symbols in Renaissance art--a wonderful resource #EarlyModern #HerBook basiraproject.org
BASIRA • Books as Symbols in Renaissance Art
basiraproject.org
memps2.bsky.social
Positive news! Something we all need to hear. Many congratulations
memps2.bsky.social
So much to unpack from Joe’s wonderful #HerBook post on Lady Bindloss’s purchase records. As he astutely notes, such records “help situate book ownership within a broader story of the networks and market mechanisms through which books moved from printer to seller to buyer”.

WELL worth the read 👇👇
memps2.bsky.social
Sir Edward Osborne reported that the assassin, Felton, demanded his pay ‘so peremptorily (with his hatt on) of the Duke, as he kickt him, whereuppon he stabd him in the back, leaving him butt soe much time as to say “villaine thou hast slaine me” and soe died’. The DRAMA
histparl.bsky.social
Assassinated #OTD 1628, George Villiers, 1st duke of Buckingham and favourite of James I. Buckingham enjoyed great influence at court, but public popularity didn’t follow. He was fatally stabbed in a Portsmouth pub. More on his relationship with James I 👇 ow.ly/Jbm850ATmbH
James I and the duke of Buckingham: love, power and betrayal - The History of Parliament
Paul M. Hunneyball, Associate Editor of the House of Lords 1604-1629 project, kicks off with a sequel to his blog from last LGBTHM, 'James I and his favourites: sex and power at the Jacobean Court'.
ow.ly
Reposted by Mark Empey
zannavanloon.bsky.social
REGISTRATION OPEN!

Now more than ever, research is reshaping our view of women’s roles in the early modern book trade. Join us in Antwerp (5–7 Nov 2025) for our conference Women & the Household in the #earlymodern Book Trade.

Register here: tinyurl.com/womenbooktrade

#rarebooks #bookhistory 💙📚📜
Conference: Women and the Household in the Early Modern Book Trade | Museum Plantin-Moretus
The aim of this two-day conference is to share knowledge of women’s rich and varied lives and works in the period before the rapid industrialisation of book production which changed the face of home l...
museumplantinmoretus.be
memps2.bsky.social
Always fascinated by #17thc historians and how they structured and took notes of their research.

Here's an example of the Irish historian, Sir James Ware, trawling through the Register of St Werburgh's in #Chester and listing archdeacons who served in Irish dioceses in the #medieval period
Sir James Ware's notes from The Register of St Werburgh's in Chester in which he creates a list archdeacons who served in Irish dioceses in the medieval period Sir James Ware's notes from The Register of St Werburgh's in Chester in which he creates a list archdeacons who served in Irish dioceses in the medieval period
Reposted by Mark Empey
rhyskamjones.bsky.social
Publication day!!

Find out how C18th Welsh cultural revivalism positioned itself within an expanding British Empire and a newly-minted British state. Includes Welsh sources on slavery/abolition, settler colonialism, Indigenous America, and more

🚨🚨🚨 35% off all formats with the code BB135 🚨🚨🚨
Welsh Revivalism in Imperial Britain, 1707-1819
Reframes the study of Welsh cultural revivalism, highlighting transnational and imperial contexts.
boydellandbrewer.com
memps2.bsky.social
But will you ever get a full night of sleep? Once the munchkins settle down you'll be having nightmares for the next ten years worrying about them going to Copper Face Jacks, and then another five years petrified at what they might be doing there. Following that it's grandchildren staying over
memps2.bsky.social
This volume is a much needed contribution to the wider #bookhistory community, specifically as it places an emphasis on indigenous language and its responses to the rapidly changing colonial and printed world. It also complements the #earlymodern volume 3 brilliantly
historyatgalway.bsky.social
Congratulations to Pól Ó Dochartaigh and Niall Ó Ciosáin (and many of our colleagues in Roinn na Gaeilge) for their contributions in the recently published The Oxford History of the Irish Book, vol II: The Printed Book in Irish, 1567-2010s (OUP, 2025)!
Cover of The Oxford History of the Irish Book, volume II: The Printed Book in Irish, 1567-2010s, edited by Éamonn Ó Ciardha, Frank Sewell, and Alan Titley.
Reposted by Mark Empey
grubstreetwomen.bsky.social
Very exciting: the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography published a cluster of new entries on women stationers. See the intro by Valerie Wayne: www.oxforddnb.com/newsitem/906...

ODNB entries are so helpful in identifying women from traces on printed material. So happy to see this work ❤️
www.oxforddnb.com
Reposted by Mark Empey
historicaljnl.bsky.social
📣John Locke’s Forgotten Manuscript

We are thrilled to announce that @davidrarmitage.bsky.social's
article on his discovery of a new John Locke manuscript is out now👇

It sheds new light on Locke's practical involvement in political economy & his engagement with Ireland 📜🗃️
John Locke and Irish Linen Manufacture: A New Manuscript | The Historical Journal | Cambridge Core
John Locke and Irish Linen Manufacture: A New Manuscript
www.cambridge.org
Reposted by Mark Empey
clodaghtait.bsky.social
A number of Four Courts Press books can now be borrowed on archive.org. Four Courts is a key publisher of works on Irish history, and this means some out of print edited collections on early modern history are now more readily available. And you can read some of my articles there too! For example:
memps2.bsky.social
If you want another brilliant article on women spies have a read of @jimoneillnyw.bsky.social work on their influence in the Nine Years War in Ireland - a war that bankrupted Elizabeth. This was one of the most popular articles I used in my course on the Tudor state

muse.jhu.edu/article/8386...
Project MUSE - Spouses, spies and subterfuge: the role and experience of women during the Nine Years War (1593–1603)
muse.jhu.edu