Sara Charles

Are you coming along to #HistDay25 on Tuesday 4 November 2025? Why not stay at Senate House for my #lecture in the evening, on 'Can popular #history be radical? Historical research and writing for the public'. Book your free place: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

The Role of Images in Early Modern Botany This seminar brings together two experts on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century plants. Zooming in on the dilemma of visualizing plants (or not), and how images could become part of epistemic methods w...

Join us in Rome or online for a seminar on plant illustrations on 6 November! 🪴🌻🌿

Through images of mandrakes and ferns, @fabribald.bsky.social and I will be discussing issues in the role of images in early modern botany.

www.biblhertz.it/events/43483...

How to Make Madder Lake, part 1 Previous post: Preparation for Making Madder Lake. In the last post, I wrote that we’re beginning with about 100g of madder root and about 30g of potash alum. I also wrote that there was a bi…

I snapped the roots into smaller chunks and heated them slowly in water. Then I added alum and lye and filtered the pigment. I roughly followed this process: sunsikell.wordpress.com/2014/12/26/h...

Colours | Teaching Manuscripts

I also have more info on my website: www.teachingmanuscripts.com/colours

Colours | Teaching Manuscripts

Yes, I have a chapter on all the different pigments used in manuscripts. Also my website gives brief descriptions of all of them: www.teachingmanuscripts.com/colours

Reds | Teaching Manuscripts

There's more information on making madder on my website: www.teachingmanuscripts.com/reds

Oh bad luck 😞. My plants often don’t survive the winter, but I was surprised by how much colour I got out of roots that were only two years old

Absolutely ❤️

How to Make Madder Lake, part 1 Previous post: Preparation for Making Madder Lake. In the last post, I wrote that we’re beginning with about 100g of madder root and about 30g of potash alum. I also wrote that there was a bi…

Of course. As usual I forgot to document the process with photos, but I largely followed this excellent guide by Louis L. Bispo: sunsikell.wordpress.com/2014/12/26/h...

Madder pigment in an oyster shell

Dried madder roots in a bowl on some scales

Madder pigment being mulled on a glass slab

Madder pigment surrounded by examples of dried paint on paper and parchment

Homegrown madder pigment. It's wonderful to create medieval pigment from something grown in your garden #bookhistory #medievalpigments #medievalsky

Oooh, that made me wince 😬

£145

Ragdoll cat plonked on top of laptop to prevent the human doing any work

You’re not working now. You’re giving me attention

Trans Histories of the Medieval Book - Arc Humanities Press Archival collections are political spaces: the decisions that govern whose histories are preserved, when, and by whom are not neutral. They reflect the commu...

It's true: I wrote a book. And what's more, the book is done and soon you'll be able to own a copy. And what's more more, if you want a hard copy you can order one for 50% off now, with the code SAR50. And if you want it digitally, it'll be open access!

www.arc-humanities.org/978180270163...

👋

So excited for this! #bookhistory #medievalsky #parchment #manuscripts

Bewitching Bodleian Bestsellers Celebrate the spooky season in style - from gothic literature to ghoulish accessories, the Booleian has you sorted!

✨Book Curses✨ is included in the list of Bewitching Bodleian Bestsellers, so you should buy Book Curses and the 1000 piece puzzle of The World of Frankenstein. Or Book Curses and a Cthulhu pin badge. Or Book Curses and the Edgar Allen Toe socks.

Welcome back, old friend! #bookhistory

YouTube video by Colin Gorrie History of the alphabet: a conversation with Danny Bate

Really pleased with how this interview hosted by @colingorrie.bsky.social turned out, especially with his questions – Colin is himself such a skilled linguist that his questions fired up my own thoughts. His Yiddish/Hebrew writing reflections (48:40) was a stroke of genius.
youtu.be/5rlaMWduwyc?...

Tawny owl

Six weeks ago, I picked up a year-old tawny owl with a broken leg off the main road near our home and dropped him off at our nearest vet.

After a few days, I received one of the most bizarre phone calls I’ve ever had, asking “So when are you coming to pick up your owl?” 🧵

I am very much looking forward to giving a paper at the @tetraseminar.bsky.social on Middle English book curses and perceptions of the material text! Book-historical horror suitable for the season🕯️🔔📖

A new @guildmedmak.bsky.social blog post is out, just in time for reading over your mid-afternoon tea break. This blog post is written by the inimitable @saracharles.bsky.social ('Sara of the Scriptorium').

Ooh, Sara of the Scriptorium has a good ring to it 🥰

Meet a Medievalist Maker: Sara Charles — The Guild of Medievalist Makers

Its the start of autumn and what better way to usher in the season than with a new Meet a Medievalist Maker blogpost! We are delighted to introduce @saracharles.bsky.social, author of The Medieval Scriptorium: Making Books in the Middle Ages. Read all about Sara's 'historical remaking' below👇

I love watching experimental archaeology. Not because they find out definitively how something used to be done -- that almost never happens. But because they find how it was never done.

Every time you can prove that "No, X doesn't work," you are one tangible step closer to learning what does & did.

In this lecture, Catherine Clarke will re-visit the question of what makes history radical, asking what kind of radical history we need in our public life and contemporary context today. In particular, she’ll explore ways in which popular history – trade publishing for a wide public audience – has the capacity to be radical, drawing on experiences and examples from her own new book A History of England in 25 Poems (Penguin Allen Lane, September 2025). Catherine’s lecture will move towards a manifesto for how research-led, scholarship-driven popular history can and does make necessary, vital public interventions – from opening inclusive conversations and confronting the rise of AI, to modelling radical empathy and imagination.

I'm hugely honoured and very excited to be giving this year's Historical Research #Lecture at @ihr.bsky.social, on 'Can popular #history be radical? Historical research and writing for the #public'. Tuesday 4 November, all welcome. More info in AltText. Book here: www.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

A tale of two parchments In this talk, Dr. Jiří Vnouček discusses differences in species choice and membrane preparation of 'Insular' and 'Continental' parchment used for book-making in the early Middle Ages.

Next Wednesday 8th October, 12.30-1.30: Jiří Vnouček on "A Tale of Two Parchments" - insular and continental parchment preparation.
In person: @bodleian.ox.ac.uk Weston Library, Lecture Theatre
Or livestreamed.
Free: book here visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/oct25/...

This is so beautifully written:

Close-up image of a sand coloured stone, with a diagonal crack. The sand rock has a textured surface, and small spots of blue can be seen towards the centre of the stone. The background is grey.

Microscopic photo of the blue spots, that are irregular in shape and size and positioned diagonally across the image. The rest of the photo shows the rough sand coloured texture of the stone.

Time to update your Palaeolithic palettes... 🔵

Very proud to share our new research on the OLDEST use of blue pigment! We identified traces of azurite - a vibrant blue mineral - on a stone object around 14-13,000 years old. Why is this so exciting? 👇🏺

doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

It absolutely is! 😊