Sara Charles

Sara Charles

@saracharles.bsky.social

Medieval manuscript practitioner, bringing the manuscript making process to life. Author of The Medieval Scriptorium. Cat lady. www.teachingmanuscripts.com PhD in medieval martyrologies. Editor of Historical Research journal.

2,105 Followers 515 Following 427 Posts Joined Sep 2023
4 days ago
A miniature of the construction of the Tower of Babel, from Boccaccio's Des cas de nobles hommes et femmes (Add MS 35321).

The British Library’s Medieval MSS team now have a presence on Bluesky @blmedieval.bsky.social

Follow for updates as we restore more of our digitised content online!

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6 days ago

Thank you 😊

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1 week ago

Thrilled to find out I've been awarded a Bodleian Library Fellowship! I'll be taking up a Humfrey Wanley Visiting Fellowship in the autumn term, researching the residents of medieval Catte Street 📚 #medievalmanuscripts @ihr.bsky.social @ies-sas.bsky.social @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

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1 week ago
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Elizabeth Savage - American Printing History Association Dr. Savage is 2014 recipient of the Mark Samuels Lasner fellowship, 2020 winner of the Schulman and Bullard Article Prize from the Association of Print…

A really great - and urgent - discussion of the conditions of possibility for doing printing history today - and why we should keep going - given by Elizabeth Savage for @printinghistory.bsky.social.

printinghistory.org/awards/eliza...

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2 weeks ago
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Introduction to Making Medieval Manuscripts (Practice Based) This course introduces students to the complicated and messy processes of production through which pre-modern manuscripts were created. It offers a mixture of talks and practical sessions that give…

The “messy” course returns to London’s palaeography summer school, 8-12 June. A chance to make your own medieval manuscript. Places are limited so book now (tell your friends)! #medievalsky taught by the amazing @saracharles.bsky.social @stevelawesarts.bsky.social 👇🎨🫟
palaeography.uk/study/short-...

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2 weeks ago
Senate house in the sunshine

Everyone is London is absolutely giddy with the sunshine and I am totally here for it

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2 weeks ago

Only if it’s the finest lapis lazuli 🤭

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2 weeks ago

TEAM WELD forever

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2 weeks ago

Thank you ☺️

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2 weeks ago

Oh thank you ☺️

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2 weeks ago
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Public Lecture: Food for Thought – The Bayeux Tapestry Revisited A public lecture by Professor Benjamin Pohl (Medieval History, University of Bristol) followed by a free drinks reception.

I’ll be talking about my recent research on the Bayeux Tapestry in a public lecture here in Bristol on Thursday 30 April. Attendance is FREE and includes a drinks reception 🍷 Everybody welcome! Please join us if you can and help spread the word! #medievalsky #skystorians

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2 weeks ago

I'll be talking about the messy and difficult (but fun!) processes for making medieval manuscripts on Wednesday. There will also be guest appearances from cats in my presentation 😺 #bookhistory #medievalsky @ihr.bsky.social @ies-sas.bsky.social

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2 weeks ago
Copy of medieval miniature of dragon with tongue sticking out and wings raised on a brown rock. Original from Getty Museum, MS. Ludwig XV 3, fol. 89 Same image showing all the medieval pigments applied

Here's a cute little dragon I painted on calfskin (copied from a 13th century bestiary) using traditional medieval techniques and pigments (labelled in second image) #medievalmanuscripts #medievalscriptorium #bookhistory

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2 weeks ago

Thanks 🥰

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3 weeks ago
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Medieval Women and the Book This course reviews some of the evidence for the role of women – as scribes, illuminators, patrons and authors – in the creation of medieval manuscripts in the western world.

The amazing Michelle Brown is running her summer school course on Medieval Women at #LRBS this year. In person, in London, book now 👇 #MedievalSky #BookSky #BookHistory

ies.sas.ac.uk/study-traini...

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3 weeks ago

Looking forward to March 10th @ies-sas.bsky.social I’ll be talking further about 19th-century book collector, John Bellingham Inglis: his books, his activities, his personal life, his networks, his interests and why we should be interested in his place in #bookhistory

ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

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3 weeks ago
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The peer review system is breaking down. Here’s how we can fix it Peer review is so integral to the scholarly system that research would grind to a halt without it.

The peer review system is breaking down. Here’s how we can fix it
theconversation.com/the-peer-rev...

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3 weeks ago
Practicing Early Modern History through (Re)Making Things How can historians engage with hands-on research to better understand the embodied knowledge and sensorial experiences in historical practices? In what ways can creative works be implemented in order ...

Can historians benefit from creative works for historical research? In this @hsnatsci.bsky.social short piece, I share how I worked w/ different types of making to research and write my recent book on 17th-c. florilegia. Thank you @dominikhhh.bsky.social & @mbaldwin.bsky.social for the invitation!

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1 month ago

That is gorgeous! ❤️

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1 month ago

My amazing colleague @saracharles.bsky.social is giving this seminar on her fantastic experiments in medieval manuscript production on Wednesday 25 February at the IHR. Will be an absolute treat for anyone interested in the history of the book or in getting their hands dirty making things!

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1 month ago

😆

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1 month ago

I am the extremely proud owner of number four 😍

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1 month ago
St Peter’s church, Preston park Medieval wall painting of the murder of Thomas Becket Medieval wall painting of the nativity Medieval wall painting of the weighing of souls

A lovely visit to the 13th century St Peter’s at Preston Park, with surviving wall paintings #medievalsky

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1 month ago

Great - see you soon!

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1 month ago

Oh - I would have come and said hello if I’d known you were in SH! Hope you enjoyed the course

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1 month ago

I'd been wanting to try this for ages, so thank you for giving me the excuse to do it! Congrats on the article 🙌

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1 month ago
Excerpt from article:

I found him, for instance, one week-end, in his toolshed-scullery, boiling a brew of slimy
barks which were, if mixed with oak-galls, vitriol and wine, to become an ink-powder. We
boiled it till the Monday, and it turned into an adhesive stronger than birdlime, and entangled
us both. (p. 509)
Compare with Castorley describing the results of his test on the manuscript:
‘I took a wash, for analysis, from a blot in one corner … and I got the actual ink of the period! It’s
a practically eternal stuff compounded on – I’ve forgotten his name for the minute – the scribe at
Bury St Edmunds, of course! – hawthorn bark and wine. Anyhow, on his formula.’ (p. 511)

I went down lots of rabbit holes on this one, but none so fun as chatting with @saracharles.bsky.social about hawthorn ink - which she then went and made/tested!

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1 month ago
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‘I’d been Chaucer for a week!’: Forging the Medieval in Kipling’s ‘Dayspring Mishandled’ ABSTRACT. Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Dayspring Mishandled’ describes the creation of a Chaucerian forgery in immense detail. The short story, first published in 19

‘No wonder I got drunk that night. I’d been Chaucer for a week!’
- my article on Kipling’s Dayspring Mishandled, his entertaining and peculiar account of a Chaucerian forgery, is out now with the Review of English Studies! I absolutely *loved* working on this.
academic.oup.com/res/advance-...

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1 month ago

And bursaries are available thanks to @bibsoc.bsky.social ies.sas.ac.uk/study-traini...

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1 month ago

We made ink, quills, paintbrushes, and pigments. We did scribing and illuminating while Hildegard von Bingen played in the background. We did early medieval interlacing and bookbinding. It was such FUN!!! And we’re doing it all again this summer ⬇️

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