Renske Hoff

This is fascinating!! I said something about Bible highlighters in my talk on Bible journaling :)

Our new website is live!! Hurrah! 🎉 we will share all upcoming COST action events, calls for papers for relevant events, and news about available grants and opportunities. Do share widely with any Prayer Studies scholars/ Historians of Religion who might be interested! prayticipate.eu

Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task This study explores the neural and behavioral consequences of LLM-assisted essay writing. Participants were divided into three groups: LLM, Search Engine, and Brain-only (no tools). Each completed thr...

arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872

A 200+ page research paper from the University of Warwick, led by Nataliya Kosmyna (et al)

This was published a couple months ago but I've only just had the chance to read it. I highly encourage others to do the same but I wanted to condense some observations in a short 🧵

Maar... Waarom?! Sterkte!

The pulp paper board of an old book, the letter a barely visible on a fragment

I love finding little legible remnants in pulp paper boards :’) The persistence of typography

Hey #MedievalSky Hivemind! Hive me your minds!

I'm looking for medieval people/manuscripts referring to compilations as a bouquet of flowers or the stars in the sky or w/e (like the Liber Floridus was compiled "so faithful honeybees may suck the sweetness of the celestial juice").

Any thoughts?

Medieval manuscript with the rubric 'Nu spreect totten lufteren voet', followed by an inital O with the wounded right foot of Christ

The text says 'to the left foot' but the image depicts a right foot. Infinitely annoying.

Join us in June 2026 in Dublin! Keynotes by @renskehoff.bsky.social ; @wynkenhimself.bsky.social and Aditi Nafde
#REBPAF #MSCA #ResearchImpactEU

Re-mediating the Early Book: Pasts and Futures (REBPAF) is a Marie Curie Doctoral Training Network coordinated by the University of Galway, which focuses on the ways in which 15th- and 16th-century book producers (scribes, printers, entrepreneurs) negotiated the dynamic relations between the manuscript and the printed book and adapted to the evolving challenges of the market. It also explores the continuing relevance of these cultural and economic negotiations to the modern world. The network will be hosting an international conference at the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin from 23-25 June 2026. We invite papers or posters on late medieval and early modern book culture, broadly conceived. Selection. What shapes a book producer’s choices in form or language? How do physical features reflect meaning or ideology? How do design and content choices reveal cultural values—and how are these reimagined in modern editions? Value. What determines the cultural or monetary value of certain texts over others? How do producers, sellers, and collectors influence these shifting values? How can citation, adaptation, or performance reshape a book’s worth? What is the role of canonicity, and how has it changed? Why and how do we reevaluate texts over time? Accessibility. How does changing a text’s medium—manuscript, print, or digital—affect its reading? How do material or linguistic changes interact with content? How does greater access reshape how readers interpret texts? What are the ethical issues around accessibility and cultural ownership? Can re-mediation serve as critique or recovery? How can we open historical texts to new audiences? Survival. Why do some texts survive while others do not? How do past choices shape their transmission today? What meanings are tied to survival, loss, or rediscovery? How do texts respond to fragility? What roles do preservation or adaptation play in ensuring their future?

CFP: @rebpaf.bsky.social’s “Re-mediating the Early Book: Pasts and Futures” With keynote speakers @wynkenhimself.bsky.social @renskehoff.bsky.social and Aditi Nafde

Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 23-25 June 2026
Deadline: 15 December 2025

All info: www.rensoc.org.uk/event/re-med...

‼️Next year, the REBPAF Final Conference will be held in Dublin.‼️
We invite submissions of papers & posters; the deadline is 15 Dec 2025. We look forward to your contributions and to welcoming you to Ireland!📚
#REBPAF #MSCA #REBPAFConference #CfP #BookHistory
[See images for details & how to apply.]

Text from an ad from Chelmsford Chronicle - Friday 27 August 1858, page 4: INTIMATION. In a short interval will intensely interest its innumerable inspectors, in inviting bidding, at an inexpensive investment, INFANT-INFLICTING or, the Innate-inundating— Infirmity-inducting— Inheritance-invading— Indigence-involving— Insolvency-increasing— Injudicious—intemperate—incumbering—infringing—ingulphing—infectious—intoxicating—and intolerable INFATUATION! An intelligible, invigorating, and inimitable Inspiration, In lucrative Verse, Innocently and inoffensively intended, indeed decidedly and inconceivably, to inculcate instruction and invaluable information as to its Intrusiveness—indesirablenss—inconsiderateness—inconveniences—inducements—insignificancy—insipidity—inferiority—indefensibility—inconsistency—incaution—inaptitude—incorrectness—inelegance—indecorum—indelicacy—indecency—incompatability—insincerity—inefficacy—injuriousness—injustice—inhumanity—and, indeed, its INSINUATING, INSIDIOUS, and INIQUITOUS INSANITY!!! Indited, in extenso, by that inexhaustible, intellectual, industrious, and inquisitive inquirer, inspector, and inveterate interposer MALTHUS MERRYFELLOW. Editor of 'Mirth and Mocking on Sinner-Stocking,' &c. &c. To give birth to those Who can but suffer many years, and die, Methinks is merely propagating death, And multiplying murder!—BYRON.

I don't know, maybe it needs more alliteration?

(from Chelmsford Chronicle, 1858)

Still have a free spot? I'd love to be on it :)

Ohh, I love this! Thanks for your notes, Marie, so sorry to have missed it! @henninghansen.bsky.social, can we have an online coffee sometime and talk about this? I want to hear more! :)

Reviewing lactation rooms: currently at @univie.ac.at. 7/10. 'Family room' with comfortable sofa. Door can be locked from the inside. No tap or fridge, but otherwise a nice space. #ParentInAcademia #Breastfeeding

There is a better space, but in another terminal and only accessible for people on intercontinental flights. I'm extra dissapointed, because I checked with the @schiphol.bsky.social customer service and they said these baby care rooms would offer a 'calm place to feed the baby or pump'...

Pumping on my way to Vienna: reviewing 'lactation room' at @schiphol.bsky.social. Was directed to this 'baby care room'. Well. There's a changing table, but that doesn't really help with the pumping, does it... No chair. 0/10 #breastfeeding

Stoppen Skills Lab raakt studenten die hulp nodig hebben bij studie Het Skills Lab is een van de onderdelen die getroffen wordt door de aangekondigde bezuinigingen. Coördinator Joy de Jong vindt dat een onverstandig besluit. Zij vraagt zich af waar de studenten die hu...

dub.uu.nl/nl/opinie/st...

white page with image of a green plant with written description in red and black below

zoom in on plate edge

Fellow (book)historians, a question! I am working on a late 17th century French manuscript, but it seems to have a plate edge surrounding the image. How would that work? All 200+ images seem to have one? #bookhistory

Cute pastel-y Holy Family scene in a manuscript.

Found the cutest little Holy Family in Utrecht Hs. 1 M 5, fol. 26r (15c)

#MedievalSky

utrechtuniversity.on.worldcat.org/oclc/965428966

Een vrouw met een bril, gestreept shirt en een gele sjerp om laat een groot boek zien aan twee kinderen. De kinderen zie je op de rug.

Ik vind het belangrijk om ook met kinderen over wetenschap te spreken en te laten zien hoe uiteenlopend wetenschap is. Zo was ik pas betrokken bij het kinderwetenschapsfestival KennisKnetters. Geweldig om daar met kinderen over mijn onderzoek te praten! 1/3 www.tivolivredenburg.nl/agenda/99496...

Ik zou héél graag zo'n account maken, maar dan heb ik wel jullie input nodig! Dus als jullie voorbeelden hebben van teksten in de openbare ruimte die door gebruikers zijn aangepast, stuur ze me vooral! Kan door op deze post te reageren of via de mail (r.a.hoff@uu.nl).

Krantenartikel met de kop: 'Vrouw in het ambt: Beschibkaar zijn voor mensen'. Er zijn twee foto's: een van een vrouw met kort haar achter een bureau, de andere van dezelfde vrouw in toga, met witte bef.

Ook mijn oma was gespecialiseerd in religie. Ze studeerde al in de jaren '50 theologie en werkte tot haar emiritaat als predikant en docent godsdienst. "Ik geloof verder niet dat het [predikantschap] om specifieke vrouwelijke of mannelijke eigenschappen gaat," stelt ze hier (1979). #vrouwinhetambt

Heart-shaped hole in the paper of a early 16th-century devotional manuscript

Dag allen! Deze week neem ik jullie mee in mijn werk! Mijn naam is Renske Hoff, universitair docent Middelnederlandse letterkunde aan de Universiteit Utrecht. Ik doe onderzoek naar religieuze boekgeschiedenis van de vijftiende en zestiende eeuw. 1/3

“Behandel vreemdelingen die bij jullie wonen als geboren Israëlieten. Heb hen lief als jezelf, want jullie zijn zelf vreemdelingen geweest in Egypte. Ik ben de HEER, jullie God.“ Leviticus 19:34 👌🏻

Deze week kun je me ook volgen op het wisselaccount @historicivertellen.bsky.social!

Overigens zag het er zo uit toen we hier kwamen wonen, dus we hebben lekker tegelgewipt!

Iets van vijf meter breed bij zeven-acht meter diep, denk ik.

Wild en groen! Paar vaste struiken (allemaal inheems) en verder een combinatie van een gezaaid bloemenmensel en planten die aan zijn komen waaien.

Hahaha, the perfect place... One of my favourites: "You can use the accessible toilet to pump. It has one of these changing station, where you can lay your baby on!" Well, the baby is not here, that's sort of the point...

Reviewing lactation rooms at @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social, part 8: Vening Meineszgebouw 2. 9/10! Another room in the same building, much better! Tap, fridge, comfortable chair and door can be locked. Hurray! #ParentInAcademia #Breastfeeding