Kate Wiles

'prolem facu nutriri'. LAO/Cj.4/fol.36v

Anyone out there dealing with C16 punishments of pregnant women? I have a record that says that the court ordered the child to be provided for by speech ('prolem facu nutriri'). Any idea what this means in practice? There are a couple of crossings out, but I'm sure 'facu' is the word written. TIA

I have seen a lot of cursed stuff in my time in academia but this is among the *most* cursed.
Grammarly is generating miniature LLMs based on academic work so that users can have their writing ‘reviewed’ by experts like David Abulafia, who died less than two months ago.

If you want to know how the British print news industry ends (which is, de facto, amazingly still what supports most newspaper websites) it's the distribution channels getting banjaxed. When you lose "TG Jones" etc even people who want a paper can't get one. That'll be the real start of the ending.

A whole JAR full of soldiers...

Opening pages of Pauline Stafford's British Academy memoir of Dame Jinty Nelson with abstract text: Summary. Jinty Nelson was a leading scholar of early medieval European history, with a special focus on Francia in the late 8th and 9th centuries. She was at the forefront of a generation that re-vivified the study of the early middle ages, in her case especially concerned with the working of the Carolingian political system and the re-evaluation of the role of the aristocracy alongside king and church in early medieval politics. She was a pioneer of the study of women’s and gender history, demonstrating not only its intrinsic interest and importance, but also that political history could not be understood without attention to both. She had a deep and humane interest in the people of the past. Her academic career was spent entirely at King’s College, London, where she was an outstanding and much-loved teacher. Her professional contribution and recognition went far beyond that, and were marked by her election in 2000 as the first woman President of the Royal Historical Society. She became a champion of the subject and its teaching, wherever that was practised. In 2006 she was made a Dame of the British Empire for services to History.

Now available, the British Academy memoir of Dame Jinty Nelson (1942-2024), historian and first female President of the Royal Historical Society: bit.ly/4qUa0ua

The memoir is written by Professor Pauline Stafford @pstafford.bsky.social and available via @britishacademy.bsky.social #Skystorians

This post brought to you by my brain, panicked and frozen in the headlights of Too Much Stuff

The problem is everything is interesting and important and I want to write about all of it but I CANNOT WRITE ABOUT ALL OF IT because I want people to be able to physically lift this book.

This has been a slog but I’m pleased to day that I’m currently checking the proofs, which means this book will soon be out in the wild!

Oh!! This looks VERY exciting. Congratulations!

The fragility of digital resources is not being rigorously enough addressed to stave off big problems in the near future (the Key to English Place-Names database is broken and I want to look something up)

Oh wow that's amazing, thank you so much!

Elizabethan memorandum in a sprawling illegible hand, with neatly written note underneath acknowledging the problem and providing a transcription. CUL Hengrave MS 89/57

Thoughtful Elizabethan secretary: 'Becaws I suppose this hand of Sergeant Manhood is scant legible . . . I there for write yt again as followeth/ viz: . . .

Thank you so much!

That's really kind, thank you. You're safe though - I have it now!

Ooh, thank you! ‘News across the channel ‐ contact and communication between the Dutch and Walloon refugees in Norwich and their families in flanders, 1565–1640’, pp. 139-152

Very sad news indeed.

I've been reading about a 16th-century writer called Jan van der Noot and this is basically what the inside of my head has looked like all week.

Actually reported in the New York Times! Maybe the coolest thing I found.

This week is the 75th anniversary of History Today.

For 34 of those years David Baddiel has been a constant companion, as this issue’s Glossary proves.

To find out what else is in the 75th Anniversary special and where to buy it, head to buff.ly/34DOsLE

This week is the 75th anniversary of History Today.

Past editors weren’t above the odd feud, as this issue’s Glossary proves.

To find out what else is in the 75th Anniversary special and where to buy it, head to buff.ly/2bUa9kH

A 75th Anniversary Letter from the Editors

History Today was first published 75 years ago this week to make sense of a world undergoing ‘bewilderingly swift’ change.

✍️ Our editors reflect on the story so far

www.historytoday.com/archive/75th...

Happy birthday to @historytoday.com! I didn't know that the current cover design so strongly echoed the magazine's early years.

History Today was launched 75 years ago today.

The anniversary special is available now, featuring Cold War Yugoslavia, Oswald of Northumbria, Aurora Borealis, and a celebration of the magazine’s history.

To find out what else is inside, head to www.historytoday.com/magazine

Bookes are like Cheese, that is neuer well seasoned to euery mans tast; for one will say it is too salt, another wil say it is too fresh, a thirde will say it is to tart, another thinkes it to be too milde; one will haue it too hard, another too soft, another too tough, another too brittle, it neuer pleaseth euery mans tast; no more do Bookes.

Barnabe Rich explaining that "bookes are like cheese"

"Listen, one more thing. That missionary we sent to Ethiopia."

"The one preaching Anglicanism to the entire Horn of Africa?"

"Him, yes. I just wanted to check that we sent someone with, you know, a normal name."

"A normal name."

"Ah. Who did we send?"

"We sent the Reverend Ethelstan Cheese."

Judging a magazine by its cover with 75 years in pictures, as chosen by the team.

Starting, of course, at the beginning: the 1950s.

To find out what else is in the 75th Anniversary issue of History Today and where to buy it, head to www.historytoday.com/magazine

God I love the English translations of Asterix. And yes, they're the perfect example for why you need humans to actually understand the text and the purpose -- word-for-word translations simply do not work.

See: how the initial translation failed, until translators adapted creatively:

Everything is fine

History Today is 75! A massive achievement for an independent magazine and one we're very proud of. Here's to the next 75!

Jingle Bells (Batman Smells): an incomplete festive folk-rhyme taxonomy Gather round the fire, everyone, and let me tell you a story. It has everything you could want in a Christmas blockbuster: superheroes and villains, a car crash, children singing, a mystery to solv…

For your collective delectation this holiday season:
Quite possibly the silliest thing I've ever written (and definitely the most ridiculous graph I've ever made!)

loreandordure.com/2025/12/16/j...