Dr. Erika Graham-Goering

PROCLAMATION LE COMITÉ DE SALUT PUBLIC AUX CULTIVATEURS Sur la Culture de la Pomme de Terre Les préjugés et la force de l’habitude avaient laissé, pendant long-temps, les cultivateurs de beaucoup de contrées, dans l’indifférence sur la culture et las avantages des pommes de terre. La détresse qu’ont produite les troubles inséparables d’une révolution; les manœuvres des malveillans; les besoins extraordinaires d’une guerre nécessitée par les entreprises liberticides de nos ennemis, et les intempéries des saisons, a successivement appris à tous les Français à connaître tout le prix d’une culture aussi salutaire. Personne n’ignore maintenant que la pomme de terre fournit à l’homme une nourriture saine; que les produits en sont proportionnellement plus abondans que ceux des plantes céréales; qu’elle est moins long-temps en terre et moins sujette aux accidens de la nature. Le Comité de salut public invite en conséquence tous les cultivateurs amis de leur Patrie, à ne négliger aucun moyen d’employer toutes les semences de pommes de terre qui sont en leur disposition, ou qu’ils pourront se procurer, pour en planter dans toutes les parties de terrain qui leur en paraîtront susceptibles. Le Comité de salut public arrête que la présente Proclamation sera adressée aux Départemens, qui seront tenus de la fair passer aux Districts et aux Municipalités, qui la feront afficher dans l’étendue de leurs territoires respectifs. [list of signatories] A PARIS, DE L’IMPRIMERIE DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE, Floréal, An III,

Delighted by this "PROCLAMATION THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY TO FARMERS On Potato Cultivation" that my friend has hanging in the window of her antiquarian bookshop!

"Prejudice and force of habit had long left farmers in many regions indifferent to the cultivation and benefits of potatoes."

Page of a medieval manuscript with two columns of black text in the middle, ornamented with an illustration of 5 people gesturing at each other, surrounded by commentary in the margins and annotations between the lines

*Finally* able to visit the renovated Musée de Cluny and enjoyed seeing old friends as well as new highlights. Particularly enjoyed this folio with not only its thorough commentary but its insanely tiny annotations—how on earth is it even possible to write that small with a quill?! O.O

I'm not going to share the man's actual words, but anyone saying the phrase "merely by giving birth" has, in fact, never done so and can piss right off

Out of curiosity, have you ever done this as an in-class exercise? I'm wondering if it could be a good outcome of small group work...

I'm not sure how archives that are researched based on translations the researcher can't verify is better? The chances of errors coming in that don't get double-checked for ages are huge, and this approach will only further disincentivize learning necessary skills—training, not tech for this.

Program cover with participant names for conference

Had a fantastic time today comparing the transfer of lordships across the medieval and early modern periods! Tl;dr, aristocrats love doing whatever they need to by couching it it in whatever terms serve their purposes best 😂

making up shit about books' condition and seeing if anyone notices. Outer couplets minorly flanged; interior verso carbuncles retwinked in claret flagolet, second volume lacking grundispiece; partially twatted, flaps with some visible degrotting, but overall a pesculent exemplar

Couldn't apply to a post yesterday because I received my PhD more than 4 years ago.

Couldn't apply to a post today because I received my PhD less than 5 years ago.

English lit - 6.4% unemployed

Maths - 7.5% unemployed

So kid, in your heart you want to study humanities but you worry about your job prospects? Let’s play a game.

On the latest data, who is more likely to be unemployed after 15 months after graduation. The English Lit grad or the Maths grad?

WRONG!

Main bien sûr que yes!

This is why, in a workshop I've introduced as part of an effort to help students to better understand what it is they're reading, I start with a talk about how academic publications come to be and what they *physically* are, and how this reflects and drives scholarly processes.

While I kind of love this phrasing, having been to *actual* medieval(ist) summer camp, I gotta say Leeds could still improve on this front. I have not once terrified anyone by chasing them with a spear at the IMC.

I said grabby hands, I meant grabby hands 😁

Now let's see if I can get some of these documents onto my spring syllabus!

Sporveis-dikt humanisme skriv ned hele verdenshistorien på soveromsveggen hvor plasserer du neandertalerne hvor høyt opp mot taket hvor nær det store vinduet er det der de forsvant ut har de krøpet inn i lufteventilen til naboens stue hvor my ansvar tar du egentlig for de som bor under føttene dine Bård Torgersen Fra samlingent la oss gjøre dette sammen Forlaget Okstober, 2025 [English translation: write down the entire history of the world on the bedroom wall where do you place the Neanderthals how high up towards the ceiling how close to the large window is that where they disappeared have they crawled into the air vent of the neighbor's living room how much responsibility do you actually take for those who live under your feet]

Spotted in an Oslo metro car

It was *such* an amazing author event—getting to listen to him read aloud was a genuine pleasure! All the different voices, and so much love for the characters and story ^_^

On a related note, I miss being able to go to signings more regularly (one of the advantages of living in the Chicago area).

(A parent, even. Damn the lack of edit button!)

*get* the complete Redwall? As if I don't already have it from my own childhood 😂 (Including a signed copy of Marlfox!) (Though admittedly bringing it over from the States is going to be "fun".)

I will say that my (already limited) self-restraint on buying books has really gone out the window now that I'm a paren. "But it's for the *baby*!" is the perfect excuse to yield to that impulse 😂

5 authors I've read 5+ books by:

Lynn Flewelling
N. K. Jemisin
Martha Wells
Naomi Novik
Ann Leckie

Saw an excellent point made that recent politics has gone into perpetual "campaign mode", rather than actually entering "governing mode" following an election (and of course campaigning and governing are two very different things). I think about that a lot.

The timeframe of my impending deadlines is starting to have real "This is Fine" meme vibes 🙃

I find it very pleasing that sometime around 1040, an Icelandic skald addressed the king of the Norwegians as "sinjórr", showing that already at this early stage the French vocabulary for lordship had entered the Nordic world.

Hahaha amazing, and also a mood! That makes me feel less awkward about having to ballpark it (a choice of verb that seems particularly apt on this occasion)

Now I want to justify a research trip on that ground: "sorry, gotta go measure local bushel markers in cute churches!"

FASCINATING thank you! 🤩 Doesn't have the one specific region I need on this occasion, but this will be immensely useful going forward, excellent pointer! (See, *this* is what the internet is for)

Screenshot from the Dictionnaire du Moyen Français for the entry "arpent" ARPENT, subst. masc. [T-L: arpent; GDC: arpent; AND : arpent; DÉCT: arpent; FEW XXV, 177b : arepennis; TLF : III, 524a : arpenti] A. -"Mesure agraire de surface, divisée en 100 perches ou 30 toises carrées et variant suivant les localités (entre 20 à 70 ares)" : Et, au fait des vignes, il y eut bien peu de vin, et par especial en l'Isle de France, comme d'ung muy de vin pour chascun arpent mais il fut bien bon (ROYE, Chron. scand., I, 1460-1483, 3). - Arpent de bois : Si l'ay j'en plus de cent arpens De bois quise (Mir. st J. Paulu, c.1372, 110). .. les arpens de bois sont de cent cordes, la corde de VIII aulnes et demie de Provins de long ; l'en a dit par arrest au seigneur de Rochefort que l'arpent de bois en Bourgoingne a XXX toises rapenaulz de quarrure et a chascune toise VII piéz et demi de long. (Cout. bourg. glosé P.M., c.1380-1400, 286). Avecques ce lesdiz religieux ont VIII arpens de boiz en une piece en ladicte forest (HECTOR DE CHARTRES, Cout. R., 1398-1408, 282). ..pour vendre ou faire vendre par les verdiers (...) IIJc arpens de bois chauffage, à coper et abatre es forests du Roy (FAUQ., I, 1417-1420, 204). Rem. «L'arpent du roi, utilisé dans le domaine royal et ailleurs, comportait 100 perches carrées de 22 pieds de côté; la perche contenait 484 pieds carrés (22 X 22) et l'arpent par conséquent 48.000. L'arpent valait 51 ares 7 centiares» (M. Devèze, La Vie de la forêt fr. au XVIeS., 1961, 348).

...I hate trying to figure out how big anything was in the past

(If anyone happens to know of a handy reference work discussing French regional variations in units of measurement, please do point it my way! Sounds like the kind of thing some 19th-century person might have compiled, I dunno)

Hah, I'll be there the day after 😂

V2.0 (which is also visualizing the data in a different way). Guess which piece of property was the most important?

A pencil-drawn diagram with circles connected by squiggly lines and also a lot of free-floating text, it's kind of a mess to be honest, and most of the handwriting is illegible

I'm back at my let's-diagram-this-lordship game

(Looking at the image above, it looks to me like they might have re-mounted it differently when it was put back into storage—I seem to recall the hinges being on the sides, which would have worked better for flipping them around. But I may be misremembering!)