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Seb Falk

@sebfalk.com

10K followers 590 following 530 posts

Historian of science || Admissions Tutor at Girton College, University of Cambridge || Singer, sailor, runner, father || "Always generous" – The New Yorker

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Nov 19

Since "La Luz de la Edad Media" came out in September, there are now 8 editions of #TheLightAges!

I'm fascinated by each publisher's different approach to design – but thrilled by the results in every case. Feel free to judge this book by its covers!

8 copies of The Light Ages in different languages: Dutch, English (UK), Italian, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, English (USA), Portuguese

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Aug 20

Brilliant opportunity to work in a fascinating and important role at @girtoncollege.bsky.social!

Elisabeth Kendall @elisabethkendall.bsky.social · Aug 15

Come & work with us at Girton College, Cambridge University! We're seeking a Head of Governance & College Registrar. Here's a half-minute glimpse into life at beautiful Girton ... so check out the job details here:
www.girton.cam.ac.uk/job-vacancie...
@girtoncollege.bsky.social

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Reposted by Seb Falk

Charlie Higson @charliehigson.bsky.social · Aug 2

New podcast episode with the fascinating @sebfalk.com explaining how people in the Middle Ages knew a lot more than we give them credit for shows.acast.com/willy-willy-...

Summer Book Club - The Light Ages | Willy Willy Harry Stee...

with Seb Falk

shows.acast.com

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Jul 21

Thanks for the opportunity!

JDN mostly wrote for academic audiences, but he was a regular contributor to @thetls.bsky.social & his reviews there are often worth reading. His "God's Clockmaker" is great.

Enjoy The Big Hop! I certainly did.

Reposted by Seb Falk

Dr. Verena Krebs @krebsverena.bsky.social · Jul 21

…and this one’s out too: «So, Who Killed the Elephant?» Tracing African-European Entanglements in the ‘Global Middle Ages’!

An essay adaptation of my 2023 @imc-leeds.bsky.social keynote — two case studies, four thoughts on how we might move forward in telling more global medieval (hi)stories.

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Jul 21

@bookscribbler.bsky.social's "Media and the Mind" is a great book!

Doctor Logic @saraluckelman.bsky.social · Jul 21

Shout-out to my colleague @bookscribbler.bsky.social in @sebfalk.com's keynote talk "(How) Did Medieval People Do Science?" at the @durhammemsa.bsky.social conference.

A slide featuring the cover of a book and a diagram in it; to the right, a white man wearing a purple shirt, holding a microphone. The backdrop is a great hall with walls covered in portraits.

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Jul 21

I had great fun thinking through these questions.
(I love writing, but am not sure I'm very good at reading!)

Always interested to hear other people's answers to these things!

Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · Jul 21

New on The Writer’s Bookshelf: eight questions about writers, books, and reading with the brilliant @sebfalk.com. open.substack.com/pub/mathewly...

The writer's bookshelf: Seb Falk

Eight questions about writers, books, and reading…

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Seb Falk

Cambridge University Library @theul.bsky.social · Jul 21

Our exhibition, Curious Cures, is closed today (21 July).

The Conservation team will spend the day checking the manuscripts and will do a page turn to protect them. This gives you the perfect excuse to come back and see what's new!

Book your FREE tickets: https://loom.ly/kVqsPRY

A member of the UL's conservation team is arranging books inside a glass display case in the Curious Cures exhibition.

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Jul 21

Some highlights from a brilliant access-all-areas tour of Durham Castle, courtesy of @durhammemsa.bsky.social Chair @charrathompson.bsky.social.

Wish me luck with my keynote this morning!

Durham's motte & bailey castle, much embellished up to the 19th century

Column capital from the Norman chapel, including a man in an attitude of praising the heavens

Misericord from the Tunstall Chapel, featuring pigs playing the bagpipes

Best toilet interior: a part of a Norman (12th-century) archway with chevron design

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Jul 21

Shocking that #BBCRadio4 #Today runs a long piece on ransomware attacks (incl discussion of M&S, Co-op etc) & DOESNT ONCE MENTION THAT A KEY PIECE OF NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE, the @britishlibrary.bsky.social, is still suffering after-effects from a cyber-attack in *2023*
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Weak password allowed hackers to sink a 158-year-old company

Transport company KNP forced to shut down after international hacker gangs target thousands of UK businesses.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Seb Falk

hannah @hannahkateboast.bsky.social · Jul 19

Shaimaa has a scholarship to do a PhD on Palestinian literature with me at @uoe-llc.bsky.social, but she's stuck in Gaza because the foreign office won't help. Please share. www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...

I should be at Cambridge, but I’m trapped in Gaza

Home Office red tape strands dozens of Palestinian scholarship winners in war zone

www.telegraph.co.uk

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Reposted by Seb Falk

Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · Jul 19

#Openaccess ftƿ!

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Jul 16

If you caught me & James Wade (no relation) in the newspapers or on the radio & were wondering where's the real academic article, wonder no longer!

Here it is, complete with the full transcription & translation so you can decide for yourself what it's all about

academic.oup.com/res/advance-...

The Lost Song of Wade: Peterhouse 255 Revisited

Abstract. Short verses from the Song of Wade survive in an early-thirteenth-century sermon collection found in Cambridge, Peterhouse MS 255. They constitut

academic.oup.com

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Jul 19

Thanks!

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Jul 19

Ah but that's because my co-author is called James Wade! Confusing, I know...

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Jul 19

An actual (excellent) book

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Jul 19

Nice write-up of The Song of Wade in @cnn.com

Highlight has to be my co-author deploying the classic teacher response to a wacky student suggestion when asked if he might be related to a fictional character 😁

edition.cnn.com/2025/07/18/s...

Corrected error in long-lost medieval saga suggests that its hero fought wolves, not elves | CNN

Two researchers are proposing a new reading of the Song of Wade, a once widely known epic from the 12th century, thanks to a scribe’s error they unearthed.

edition.cnn.com

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Jul 19

So it's possible he left the family behind in Basra when he went to Egypt...?

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Jul 19

Ah thanks!

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Jul 18

Oh I'm not making any claim at all. I'm just saying that if we have a problem with him both having a son-in-law & living an ascetic lifestyle later in life, that may be our problem, not his

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Jul 18

Yeah that might be a caricature... but it's always hard to judge what sort of character & relationships anyone might have had 1000 years ago, especially when (like almost everyone) we really know rather little about him. What's to stop an Erdös having a wife & children in 10th-century Basra?

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Jul 18

Just found them on my hard drive! I knew I'd gotten them from somewhere...

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Jul 18

FWIW, here's Sabra's article in the DSB.

Of course even if we assume he was a loyal husband & father, lots of things could have happened that meant he didn't have a wife/daughter by his later life...

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Jul 18

Ah yes, there he is!

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Jul 18

I'm sure you're right. I only had time to photograph the pages, not actually read them carefully!

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Jul 18

Where do you get the son-in-law info from? I have to admit I've not heard that before.

Since I was passing my departmental library with a few mins to spare, here are some pages from Sabra's 1989 edition of the Optics

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Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Jul 18

Or Nader el-Bizri

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