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Stephanie J. Lahey PhD

@sjlahey.bsky.social

3.1K followers 870 following 390 posts

Mark Andrews Fellow in #BookScience, Old Books New Science Lab, University of Toronto · #MedievalManuscripts cataloguer & researcher · #Parchment #QuantitativeHumanities 📜 🔬 📚 📊 🇨🇦

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Stephanie J. Lahey PhD @sjlahey.bsky.social · Oct 19

And thus one of my weirder childhood fantasies has been fulfilled: I am a sorceress, a necromancer. I wrest utterances from the void. I raise the dead. 📜🔬🪄👻😜 #OBNS_MISHA #BookScience #MedievalManuscripts
bsky.app/profile/sjla...

The edge of a fragment of a medieval manuscript in poor condition. Riddled with holes, the strip of parchment has been folded in half horizontally. The text traversing its lower half is badly faded to the point of illegibility, while the text of its upper half is partially obscured by stains and ink transfers.

The edge of the same fragment of a medieval manuscript shown in the first photograph. This is a pseudocolour or false colour image produced via special imaging techniques and software manipulation. Here, the fragment is rendered in multiple shades of crimson, dark red, and turquoise, rendering the formerly illegible text legible.

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Stephanie J. Lahey PhD @sjlahey.bsky.social · 18h

Medieval Libraries of Great Britain is back!
📚🥳📜 #MedievalManuscripts

mlgb.bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Medieval Libraries of Great Britain

mlgb.bodleian.ox.ac.uk

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Stephanie J. Lahey PhD @sjlahey.bsky.social · Aug 21

Just gave my first keynote.
(It went well—and was fun. 🙂🤓)
#BookHistory #BookScience #MedievalManuscripts

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Reposted by Stephanie J. Lahey PhD

Niamh Wycherley @niamhwycherley.bsky.social · Jun 10

Nearing the end of season 2 & we've hit over 100K listens on the podcast 🥂. Thanks to all of our guests for sharing their time & expertise! Thoroughly enjoyed talking medieval Ireland over the last 38 episodes, more anon! @maynoothuniversity.ie @researchireland.ie
open.spotify.com/show/1Gq9yIx...

The Medieval Irish History Podcast

Podcast · The Medieval Irish History Podcast · Hosted by Dr Niamh Wycherley, this podcast shows that medieval Irish history is complex and dynamic — not at all stuffy or static. Via lively and engagin...

open.spotify.com

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Stephanie J. Lahey PhD @sjlahey.bsky.social · Jun 10

Hooray! What a great candidate. This is such an exciting project.

Reposted by Stephanie J. Lahey PhD

Michelle Margolis @mmargolis.bsky.social · Jun 10

And some of the images of the poor (and once beautiful, but now not usable) manuscript I'm hoping to image one day to be able to virtually restore to its once-glorious illustrations.
@sjlahey.bsky.social (I found it!)
X893 H12 (it's a Haggadah, probably illustrated by Leipnik)

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Reposted by Stephanie J. Lahey PhD

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

Our brand-new Dye Garden is coming to life! With guidance from colleagues across the UL, and
@cubotanicgarden.bsky.social, our Conservation team has planted traditional dye plants once used in manuscript painting. 🎨

#CambridgeUniversityLibraries #CULconservation #DyeGarden

A member of the UL's Conservation team planting a seeding in a flower bed.

A paper bag full of seeds ready to be planted.

Little seedlings growing in the courtyard of the UL. We see a wooden plant label that says: "The Dye Garden".

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Stephanie J. Lahey PhD @sjlahey.bsky.social · Jun 1

#HappyBirthday to Lester Lawrence ‘Larry’ Lessig III (b. 1961), American legal scholar & political activist, & founder of Creative Commons @creativecommons.bsky.social 🎈🎂

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Stephanie J. Lahey PhD @sjlahey.bsky.social · Jun 1

… After arriving in Halifax, the pair may have continued on to Boston, yet it is possible that Jefferie briefly plied his trade in Halifax. If so, he could be #Canada ’s first printer—an honour usually bestowed upon Bartholomew Green Jr.
#books #typography #BookHistory #CdnHist 📚 📜
[2/2]

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Stephanie J. Lahey PhD @sjlahey.bsky.social · Jun 1

Welcome to June.
In this month, in 1749, settlers heading to Halifax, Nova Scotia with Cornwallis incl. Herbert Jefferie, printer, & Thomas Blackwell, bookbinder. Whether they carried type & related equipment is unclear. …
#books #typography #BookHistory #CdnHist 📚 📜
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Stephanie J. Lahey PhD @sjlahey.bsky.social · May 10

#RIP Greg Cannom
#horror

www.fangoria.com/greg-cannom-...

Oscar-Winning SFX Makeup Legend Greg Cannom Dead at 74

Oscar-winning special effects makeup legend Greg Cannom, responsible for the effects behind films like THE LOST BOYS, has passed away.

www.fangoria.com

Stephanie J. Lahey PhD @sjlahey.bsky.social · Apr 15

See also CAUT’s seven page supplement to their advisory on travel to the USA (PDF): www.caut.ca/sites/defaul...

www.caut.ca

Stephanie J. Lahey PhD @sjlahey.bsky.social · Apr 15

It was an MRI machine, iirc.

Stephanie J. Lahey PhD @sjlahey.bsky.social · Apr 15

CAUT (Canadian Association of University Teachers) advises academics against non-essential travel to the U.S. www.caut.ca/latest/2025/...

CAUT advises academics against non-essential travel to the U.S.

Given the rapidly evolving political landscape in the United States and reports of individuals encou

www.caut.ca

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Stephanie J. Lahey PhD @sjlahey.bsky.social · Apr 14

🥰

Stephanie J. Lahey PhD @sjlahey.bsky.social · Apr 14

“You used a 3 million dollar piece of hospital equipment so you could read a novel?”
— Dr Cuddy, disapprovingly, to Dr House, who has done precisely that (“House MD”, s7e3)

I feel rather seen 😶 (yet defiant 😈💅)
#BookScience 📜📚🔬

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Stephanie J. Lahey PhD @sjlahey.bsky.social · Mar 10

#RIP Dr Joe Nickell (1944 Dec 01–2025 Mar 04), American skeptic and investigator of the paranormal. 😞😔

Reposted by Stephanie J. Lahey PhD

Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literatures @mediumaevum.bsky.social · Jan 26

Our final 'abstract spotlight' from Medium Ævum’s 93.1 issue is on @sjlahey.bsky.social and @aboyarin.bsky.social's '‘Et dixit anglice’: unpublished vernacular verses in British Library, Harley MS 912'.

Members can log into medium.aevum/space to read the full article.

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Reposted by Stephanie J. Lahey PhD

KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · Jan 17

Researchers using digitized photos or manuscripts in any manner in theirresearch, are invited to participate in this anonymous survey of McGill University (forms.office.com/r/nuqD9ZJzFq, 8-10 min to complete). (1/2)

Microsoft Forms

forms.office.com

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Reposted by Stephanie J. Lahey PhD

AaronM @aaronm.bsky.social · Jan 13

The #Vatican was back this week with 40 #Manuscripts www.wiglaf.org/vatican/2025...
Including a ton more Cappella Pontificia annual diaries, a nice 8th C Greek Lectionary, some Chinese dictionaries (including rhymes), several Avvisi, some disappointment from Sire, and more!
#MedievalSky

Vatican Manuscripts Added Week 2 of 2025

Although this is the second week of the year, no manuscripts were added in the last week, and so this becomes the first entry for 2025. A total of forty manuscripts were added, the majority, twenty-t...

www.wiglaf.org

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Stephanie J. Lahey PhD @sjlahey.bsky.social · Jan 13

The codex holds a Sanskrit commentary on a Hindu legal text; this copy dates from the 17th or possibly even 16th century. #HistLaw #LegalHistory #LawBooks 📚 📜

Stephanie J. Lahey PhD @sjlahey.bsky.social · Jan 13

Back at University of Toronto Engineering @uofteng.bsky.social today for an Old Books New Science Lab collaboration with Grasselli’s Geomechanics Group @civmin.bsky.social geogroup.utoronto.ca/contact-us/. We’re micro-CTing a birchbark codex. 👀 #Books #RareBooks #BookScience 📚 📜

geogroup.utoronto.ca

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Stephanie J. Lahey PhD @sjlahey.bsky.social · Jan 7

… By 1788, the library held 2000 volumes. Despite loss of many books in a 1854 fire, in 1866 the library published a catalogue listing 6990 volumes in its collections. #books #BookHistory #CdnHist 📚 📜
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Stephanie J. Lahey PhD @sjlahey.bsky.social · Jan 7

#TIH #OTD 7 Jan 1779: The Quebec Gazette announced a new subscription for a public #library at Ville de Québec—the 1st public library established in what is now #Canada. Some of the books were purchased from local members of the public, but most were brought over from Europe…
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Stephanie J. Lahey PhD @sjlahey.bsky.social · Jan 7

A Dispute? (‘The Cloisters Apocalypse’; Normandy, c.1330)
#MedievalManuscripts #Manuscripts #Critters #MedievalAnimals #Dragon #Wyvern 📚 📜

Lower left-hand corner of a medieval manuscript leaf: folio 20 verso in Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cloisters Collection, manuscript 68.174. At top, above a very deep margin, run 9 lines of Latin text copied in brown ink, the first 3 lines indented to accommodate an enlarged decorative initial ‘E’ rendered in blue and ornamented with fine scrolling pen-work in red. Several threads of pen-work, in red and blue, extend from the initial, a few reaching to the right, over the text, but most descending down the left side of the page into the lower margin. Here, next to the pen-work and drawn in the same red and blue ink, we find 2 critters: at left, a long-necked bird with blue wings and orange feet, a crimson plume gracing his head; at right, a red wyvern—a dragon with wings in lieu of forelegs—with a thick beard and long, pointed tongue. They face each other. The bird, beak agape and eyes round with rage, raises a taloned foot to strike. The wyvern hisses, narrowing its eyes menacingly.

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Reposted by Stephanie J. Lahey PhD

Gregory J. Rosmaita @oedipusnj.bsky.social · Jan 2

Been waiting for an excuse to break this out...

#WeirdHistory #Medieval #ThisIsFine
#AlwaysAddALT #AlwaysReadTheALT

Meme of the bed of king Charles II of Navarre aflame with the king in it, based on the popular meme which shows a dog seated at a table in a room that's on fire, nonchalantly saying "This is fine!"

In this version, vivid orange & yellow flames rise around the king's pillows. Under a white sheet & a red blanket, his knees are bowed. He holds his hands clasped in front of his bare chest. His eyes are closed & his head is tilted to the right. The expression on his clean shaven face is strangely serene, although he is sticking the tip of his tongue between his lips. A white cloth or towel's wrapped around his head like a turban. Above him appear the words: "This is fine!"

This image is a detail from an illumination of the event in Ms. Ludwig XIII 7 (83.MP.150), fol. 274v - Bed of the King of Navarre Set on Fire - Master of the Getty Froissart (Flemish, ca. 1480–1483)

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