Correction: Magnum exhibition is at the C/O Galerie.

Panel at start of exhibition, white lettering on black background.

Three photos concertinaed. From left: a man embracing a woman by a park bench; a child’s head poking through the turret of a toy tank; and a woman in black coat and hat in a snow covered background.

Some amazing photos at the Magnum exhibition in Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, especially the sequences of Russian life before and after the invasion of Ukraine, by Nanna Heitmann. Traditional rural activities vs military training, display and casualties.

Man in open raincoat running towards us with front of a steam locomotive in background.

I shall never be able to take seriously any scenes in the film versions of The 39 Steps after this crazily enjoyable reduced dramatization - miniature train, four actors, silly voices - at #pitlochryfestivaltheatre

Bonne semaine avec ou sans mot de passe !😅💋🫂⚘️🫂💋

Among forms of spiritual homicide in a 15th century confessional manual are: leading the people into despair because of austerity, and creating hatred of others.

Clair Wills · The Price of Safety: Constance Marten’s Defiance The trials of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon were held to determine their criminal responsibility for their daughter...

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Having read Clare Wills’ discussion of the Martin-Gordon trial, I was struck by passage in a 15th century confession manual about parents who kill their children by sleeping with them: guilty of homicide unless too poor to buy clothes against the cold.

Extraordinary customer service from #eurostar on our return journey from Rotterdam today. After our train was in effect cancelled and we had to wait 2 hours in Rotterdam and 1.5 hours more in Brussels, we were all put on a special 1st-class train and given a 1st-class meal by very charming staff.

On the wall, three panels showing left to right a medieval charter and a series of portraits, the last a cardinal wearing red hat and cape.

Playful animation at Utrecht Archive: when researchers leave in the evening, people from the documents they’ve been reading come alive.

Front page of Le Monde diplomatique, with headline and image by Pieter Bruegel of a man hitting his head against a wall.

‘Is digital tech taking us back to the Middle Ages?’ asks Evgeny Morozov. It’s a discussion of various recent critiques of ‘techno-feudalism’ which see tech giants taking rent from controlled resources, not generating profit from production and exchange. Morozov not convinced. #skystorians

On an art gallery floor, 5 cut-out figures: from left, one in white dress seated, one in red/white polka-dot dress striding to right, one in foreground naked with arms above head, behind her one linked to an upright panel with coloured parallel lines, and one with a white dress and a mask.

Great exhibition at Pallant House, Chichester, of artists’ portraits of other artists. Among highlights for me: Snowden’s photos of Auerbach and Riley (clutter vs cool), the Bratby and Cooke husband and wife (cruel vs kindly), and Himid’s colourful cut-outs of 5 female artists, below. Vaut le detour

England and France the same country? In looking for savings from the health budget, the French PM has said of the 13 million people with chronic illness: ‘I do not believe that the French are in worse health than the Germans’ (Le Monde,17 July)

On the left a tall slender bell tower, six storeys visible. On the right the upper half of a pine tree looking as if nodding towards the tower.

My tree of last weekend, from the walls of Lucca, Italy.

National Gallery London, Siena exhibition: star of the show is definitely the display of reunited panels from Duccio’s Maesta’, great achievement by the curators.

Tree of the day (yesterday). Tredegar, S. Wales.

Looks interesting.

A tall panel slants into a wide museum space on a shiny grey floor. The panel has on its left a sequence of strong colour strips shaped to suggest layers of paper torn away to reveal the exhibition title’Nach Hitler’.

I hadn’t realised the extent and persistence of far- right activity in Germany in second half of 20th century, but it’s strikingly revealed in this well-organised exhibition in the Haus der Geschichte in Bonn, continuing all year, structured around the attitudes of successive generations.

I’m looking forward to the National Gallery London’s Siena exhibition, opens tomorrow. Hope it’s as good as NG’s own Renaissance Siena back in 2007.

From publisher’s blurb for a 1934 biography of Catherine de’ Medici: ‘that grim Florentine house of Medici - a family of parvenu apothecaries whose very name invokes visions of power, luxury and crime’. Discuss!

Comptes rendus. Jonathan Ray. Jewish Life in Medieval Spain: A New History. Philadelphie, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023, iv-337 p. Pas encore de compte ?

Également disponible sur @cairninfo.bsky.social

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Not Just the Tudors - An Early Modern Teenage Werewolf - BBC Sounds An investigation into the Werewolf convictions of the 17th Century.

Knew this was coming but still exciting:

My 2021 interview with @sixteenthcgirl.bsky.social on an #earlymodern teen werewolf has been moved to BBC Sounds!

You can hear us ponder children's fantasies, parental fears, and masculine aggression, all without ads. 😊

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

I haven’t published much in 2024 as I’ve been preparing a new book on medieval murder but I did enjoy writing a piece for this volume, on female murderers, especially axe-wielding husband killers. Shades of Clytemnestra.

Winter blooms in London, x2.

On the day of the Pelicot trial sentences, not the best time to see this play with scene of husband abusing sleeping wife with a drug. Otherwise a lively and magical modern production with very atmospheric lighting. Really frosty, myth-fitting relation between Theseus and Hippolyta at the beginning.

Reports of English literature’s death have been greatly exaggerated The rise of AI is making a degree in humanities more valuable than ever

"An education in the humanities or the liberal arts also makes students more adept at dealing with nuance and expressing opinions based on value judgments. These are useful skills for dealing with ... a world composed of various shades of grey."

bit.ly/3ZL72Oh @artsandhums.bsky.social

Wonderful show of Letizia Battaglia’s Palermo street photography at Photo Gall London. ‘Palermo stinks splendidly’ she said. Men parade, resist arrest, or lie dead, women lament, cradle infants, protest.

Assisted dying, a historical sidenote: 15th-century theologian posed this question - if carers for someone afflicted at the end of life move or turn him so that he die more quickly, is this homicide? The fact that this had to be addressed implies some people even then thought it was not.

Great book launch yesterday for Kate Lowe’s study of African people, animals and objects in Renaissance Italy. Praised for its new vision of global history.

Many great surprises at the British Library exhibition on medieval women. A wonderful exploration of the BL’s resources.