Daniel Bellingradt

Sure, but why the (mocking) monkey?

So what’s the background story of urine bottle using monkeys with medical expertise in Europe‘s past? #skystorians

Monkey doctors in York Minster's medieval stained glass. One is consulting a flask of urine whilst another treats the patient. The most obvious condition you can test for is diabetes - the urine is sweet - but colour, smell, the presence of blood etc are all hints towards the patient's condition.

Suspect he really is asking for a medical sample. There's monkey doctors in York Minster's medieval glass, for example, with flask of piss and all...

Managing Pandemics in Early Modern Germany, edited by Peter Hess, is out now with Berghahn books, and I've just learned that the introduction (which I wrote) is free to read on the website! www.berghahnbooks.com/title/HessMa...

The history of fashion and dressing has a chapter about working men in tights! #skystorians

It was and still is: men managing the opened tabs of the internet best when wearing stylish tights.

But if you do your multitasking in tights, as the monk in the images does, it might help the process.

In a nutshell: 🤖 👻 🦜

Let me echo this: the future ghosts enslaved to AI forever are made from the stolen texts and images, and knowledge, and human work in general. If you are a writer or artist, you’ll be an AI ghost parroting weird content tomorrow.

Another way to think of it: as an exercise, I asked ChatGPT and Claude to create a table of tech competencies students should develop by the time they graduate. Each model recommended itself as an essential technology to master, but not competitors. And people want to trust this with your research?

What do you do with eight cases of Baskerville font punches?!
Have lots of digital letter fun of course!
There's even RTI and 3D Models to play with ...
cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/...

Agreed.

🛜 🌐

🌐 📚

Watching books gradually be pushed to the margins of society is one of the stories of my life.

bsky.app/profile/dbel...

#bookhistory

Having too many tabs opened in your browser is called tab hoarding. The scribe from 1400 Europe already had an idea. The image is from SBB Ms. germ. fol. 1191.

a scribe sitting at a writing desk, in a setting of around 1400 Europe. he is writing with a quill in one book, while another book is opened, and two more books are present on and in the writing desk.

Tab hoarding is leading to stress and information overload, and distraction, since the Middle Ages. #tabhoarding

I am sure that someone over at #histmed or #medhist could make sense of this urine sampling and advising ape.

A manuscript page with text and image parts. One detail is the urine bottle carrying ape.

And here is the page in full glory, for #bookhistory

An ape holding a urine bottle, talking to a pig-like animal. This detail is on a page in a manuscript (SBB Ms. theol. lat. fol. 271).

"Listen mate, I know we both are trapped in this manuscript of around 1300 AD forever, but you really need to fill this urine bottle with your best hybrid creature 'mid-stream', and I'll bring it to the lab, all right?" #skystorians

🫧

Nice detail!

Detail of an early modern engraving with the corner left unprinted because seemingly a paper slip was between the plate and the paper sheet, as the unprinted area has a rectangular shape.

Page in the book with the entire engraving showing an unprinted area in the right corner below.

Title page of the book. Printed text surrounded by an engraved border reading ‘P. Ovidius Nasonis Metamorphoses.’ The imprint clarifies the book was published by Jan I Moretus.

We all slip. In 1591, so did 1 of Mynken Liefrinck’s workmen quite literally. While printing engravings for this edition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses published by Jan I Moretus, a stray paper slip seems to have been left between plate & sheet. Its edge blocked ink, leaving a defined unprinted corner.

Heartbreak on the Colonial Front: Women’s Writing, the Seven Years War, and Humanity in the Archive By Thomas Lecaque This article is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Patrick Lecaque, 1/15/1949-10/11/2025, who taught his son the joy of history, of research, of discovery, and to find the individuals…

A powerful look at how women’s writing during the Seven Years’ War reveals the raw emotion, loss, and humanity often hidden in colonial archives. A moving reminder that behind every global conflict are intimate stories worth remembering. @tlecaque.bsky.social ageofrevolutions.com/2026/03/02/h...

Tongue yelling it is!

Good luck, Drew! Hope you find a tenure track for your expertise.

It is called a group therapy for dragon-like animals.