Dr Anna Clark

The image shows the Church of St Peter in Croft-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, It is a Grade I listed parish church that dates back to 1130. Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), the author of Alice in Wonderland, spent his boyhood here, as his father was the rector from 1843 to 1868. The church is located next to the River Tees and features a 14th-century chancel and a tower added in 1399. Evidence of earlier habitation includes a carving of a Roman fertility god and an Anglo-Saxon stone carved cross from the 9th century. Photograph by Michael Garlick (CC BY 2.0)

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was born on this day 27 January in 1832. Better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an author, poet, mathematician and photographer. His most notable works are Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass (1871).

Went for a walk on Dartmoor yesterday & found these little water spouts bubbling up in a place that's bone dry in Spring & Summer. Today, an ecologist has explained to me these are 'ephemeral springs': where the bedrock on Dartmoor is impermeable granite, the water can't sink past the bedrock.
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Large historiated initial letter C decorated in different colors and in gold to introduce a new section of the text in gotic type. It depicts a monk writing text on a leaf of paper as a scribe, holding both a quill as well as a pen knife. He wears a blue robe and a red undergarnment and a hat.

Large historiated initial letter O decorated in different colors and in gold to introduce a new section of the text in gotic type. It depicts a saint writing text on a leaf of paper as a scribe, holding both a quill as well as a pen knife. He wears a red robe and a blueish undergarnment and a hat.

Large historiated initial letter A decorated in different colors and in gold to introduce a new section of the text in gotic type. It depicts a monk writing text on a leaf of paper as a scribe, holding both a quill as well as a pen knife. He wears a blue robe and a grey undergarnment.

Large historiated initial letter P decorated in different colors and in gold to introduce a new section of the text in gotich type. It depicts a monk writing text on a leaf of paper as a scribe, holding both a quill as well as a pen knife. He wears a grey robe.

Medieval scribes at work.

A 13th-century Bible manuscript is filled with historiated initials, a few of which depicts scribes with their essential tools: a quill pen for writing and a penknife for sharpening the nib and scraping away mistakes.

#bookhistory #rarebooks 💙📚📜

Classic Vienna. -- Every tourist knows the Strudlhof steps. But there are more steps than are dreamt of in your guide book. Like the "Thurnstiege" that I walk up and down at least once a day on the way to town. #photography #Vienna #photographyOnBlueSky #Austria

The golden valley: Samuel Palmer, English Romantic landscape artist, born #OTD 1805; influenced by William Blake, he painted visionary pastoral scenes, inspired by the countryside of Shoreham, Kent.
Sunset c. 1861, Yale Centre for British Art

Winter Landscape with Skaters, c. 1608, oil on panel, by Hendrick Avercamp, ‘Little Ice Age’ Dutch painter of lively snow scenes, baptised #OTD 1585 in Amsterdam; pupil of Isaacsz, and possibly Vinckboons (a follower of Pieter Brueghel the Elder).
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

La Commedia Illumina Firenze, fresco of 1465 by Domenico Michelino, after Alesso Baldovinetti Santa Maria del Fiore, Firenze

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita,
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura…
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was exiled from Florence #OTD 1302; in 1465, he was portrayed dedicating his famous poem La Divina Commedia to the city; Descent to Hell on the left, Mount Purgatory behind & Paradise above.
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Working on 19th Century reminds you that until the last 70 years or so people died at all ages. Now, if you make it past infancy it’s rare (though of course it happens) to die before about 70 in wealthier countries. Nutrition, vaccines, antibiotics and good sanitation makes so much difference.

Four-panel image-led graphic. Left panels show David Attenborough wearing a beige jacket, seated outdoors beside reeds and water, smiling and gesturing behind him. Right panels show close-up photos of a beaver swimming and standing upright among tall reeds. Bold yellow caption text across the panels reads: “If someone had told me when I first moved here that one day I would be watching wild beavers in London, I would have thought they were mad. But there they are, right behind me. Happily going about their own business.”

Beavers are back in London 🦫

Here's how (and why) we did it ⬇️

My first time in Notre Dame since the fire… and she didn’t disappoint!

Turner, ‘The Burning of the House of Lords and Commons, 16 October 1834. Following the fire, utilitarians agitated for a more democratic design that could accommodate all the MPs at once.

Painted Etruscan terracotta funerary urn lid showing a reclining woman in banquet pose, holding a fan, wearing draped chiton, gold jewelry, on museum display.

A painted #Etruscan terracotta cinerary urn lid with a reclining woman.
Found in Chiusi, dating 150-120 BC.

It was on display at the Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, which will be closed for the next couple of years.

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📷 me

Japanese woodblock print of mountains and a waterfall, the foreground mountains are in blue and black

This brilliantly coloured Japanese woodblock print is by Utagawa Hiroshige.

Here Mount Fuji is viewed beyond a waterfall in the Izu peninsula to the south-east of Mount Fuji.

The waterfall is probably Jōren waterfall, a well-known Izu landmark.

Old woman in profile, her face caught by the low sun

The Anna Ancher exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery is as good as everyone is saying. On till early March.

A farmhouse nestled in rocks at the edge of moorland

The glorious, remote Nant Pasgan Fawr farmhouse in the hills above Talsarnau, Eryri/Snowdonia, approached by a slate slab bridge across a stream

The house has been dated by dendrochronology to the late C16th 😮

👉 coflein.gov.uk/en/site/405144

📷 My own, yesterday

We have a new paper in Science today on how malicious AI swarms can threaten democracy.

AI systems can already coordinate autonomously, infiltrate communities, and fabricate social consensus.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Led by @kunstjonas.bsky.social & @daniel-thilo.bsky.social!

Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, versatile French sculptor, born #OTD 1714; patronised by Louis XV, his more decorative early works such as Mercury (1753) contrast with the later compelling realism of Voltaire Nu (1776).
Musée du Louvre

High Baroque masterpiece: illusionistic frescoed dome of Sant’Andrea della Valle Rome, 1627; painted di sotto in sù with Assumption of Virgin by Giovanni Lanfranco, born in Parma #OTD 1582, pupil of Agostino and Annibale Carracci.

Cratère du Ve siècle (v. 470-460 av. J.-C.) représentant Triptolème accompagné de Déméter et Prosperpine. C’est grâce à lui que l’humanité apprend l’agriculture. Musée archéologique de Palerme.

Natural History Museum, #London Hintze Hall with Blue whale skeleton.

Natural History Museum, #London

Architect - Alfred Waterhouse. 1880
Hintze Hall with Blue whale skeleton.

#SundayStonework
#Alwayslookup #CeilingsOnSunday

Présenté dans le dernier épisode de Secrets d'Histoire, ce manuscrit, réalisé au IXe siècle pour l'empereur Lothaire Ier (l'un des petits-fils de Charlemagne), est un trésor des collections de @laBnF.

📖 Vous pouvez le feuilleter dans @gallicabnf.bsky.social : gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...

#MosaicMonday

#Roman mosaic shows the Indian Triumph of Dionysus / Bacchus - Dionysus with Arianna on a chariot drawn by two tigers
National Archaeological Museum of Seville, #Spain

#Ancient #artwork #art #History

Narcissus transfixed by his own reflection

BL Royal MS 20 A XVII, f.14v

This is interesting. The point about diversity of disciplines particularly strikes me as we are striving to make @bennettschool.cam.ac.uk meaningfully interdisciplinary.

Tate Modern.

Sunlit church porch way with light streaming through gates opening onto the churchyard. A bicycle leans against a bench in the porch with the shadows of the gateway stretching towards the viewer.

Sometimes the light catches you in calm, enchanting places. Here, at Albury, it seems the ghosts of parishioners past come through to say hello. #AdoorableThursday

Flashback to a key Auld Alliance moment for me - making haggis from scratch for my in-laws in France - a mildly traumatic experience!
Also an early recipe for haggis, Sloane BL MS 1986, f. 55r.
Happy Burns night! #BurnsNight

A nice Sunday church crawl to St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin! 🔔

A cairn circle in a moorland setting

#StandingStoneSunday Mk II 🥰🥳

After 54 years, and a failed attempt last week, I finally made it to the famous Bryn Cader Faner cairn circle in Eryri/Snowdonia this morning 😮

It didn't disappoint 🤩. What an incredible Bronze Age locale!

📷 Today