Institute for Medieval Studies Leeds

The image shows the Church of St Peter in Croft-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, It is a Grade I listed parish church that dates back to 1130. Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), the author of Alice in Wonderland, spent his boyhood here, as his father was the rector from 1843 to 1868. The church is located next to the River Tees and features a 14th-century chancel and a tower added in 1399. Evidence of earlier habitation includes a carving of a Roman fertility god and an Anglo-Saxon stone carved cross from the 9th century. Photograph by Michael Garlick (CC BY 2.0)

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was born on this day 27 January in 1832. Better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an author, poet, mathematician and photographer. His most notable works are Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass (1871).

More very sad news for medievalists … www.cai.cam.ac.uk/news/david-a...

Live online this coming Wednesday.
More info & bookings, here:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-mediae...

What do pirates in Madagascar, a red knitted jumper, the sunken warship Vasa, captivity and colonialism, and the Prize Papers have in common? They're all part of our new online lecture series "Ships & Seafaring 1500–1800". Join us weekly on Mondays, 1pm CET, on Zoom #earlymodern #maritimehistory 🗃️

Digital Tools for Manuscript Studies

If you have graduate students working with medieval manuscripts this free online training might be useful 👇
www.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

Sunset over the street outside the Parkinson Building, with buildings lining the road and a few pedestrians silhouetted against an orange pink sky.

Well done to everyone finishing exams and good luck to those with a few left.

Take some time to relax and unwind 😮‍💨

We hope your results reflect the effort you’ve put in. If they don’t, support is available 🤝

Find out more here 👇
https://students.leeds.ac.uk/assessments/doc/after-assessments

Remnants of spills on Renaissance-era textbook reveal recipes for 'curing' ailments with lizard heads and human feces A novel biochemical analysis of a Renaissance medical text has successfully recovered centuries-old proteins that might be from lizards and hippos.

Researchers are now using proteomics analysis on historical books, discovering all sorts of proteins people left on them centuries ago. 🏺🧪

Dr. Ann Blair - How Renaissance Scholars and Printers Decided on the Size of Books YouTube video by Harry Ransom Center

If you missed Ann Blair’s @ransomcenter.bsky.social Pforzheimer Lecture last night, you can check it out on YouTube:

www.youtube.com/live/u16QHaI...

I think you’ll agree that it’s both sharp and a lot of fun.

Had a fantastic time today unwrapping the @rialibrary.bsky.social Stowe Missal (MS D ii 3) under the visualiser as part of our virtual class for the amazing @komldsp.bsky.social! 📜🖥️🎉

We are delighted to announce the first 2026 Colloquium! Please join us for an exciting journey through Non-Conformities 🤗🎉

The LMS Colloquia are online and free to attend, but prior registration is required. Please sign up here: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

We are looking forward to it!

Sketch of a person (?)

The inkless doodles of Eadburg, an 8th-c. nun, discovered by new technology: now published by Jessica Hendy-Hodgkinson in EME doi.org/10.1111/emed... (Open access)

12th century German nun and illuminator Guda who created one of the earliest surviving self-portraits of a woman in European imagery #womensart

We are looking at a section of the Great Hall showing a section of the timber frame, the original painted decoration of the Hall and a small narrow rectangular opening.

We are looking at close up of a section of the Great Hall showing a section of the timber frame and a small narrow rectangular opening.

Do you own a medieval Hall?

Do you suffer from pesky door to door salespeople?

Do you wish there was a solution to your doorstep botherers?

Well why not get a tiny window so you can see into the courtyard without opening the door!

From the people who brought you drawbridges!

Six Surprising Foods with Medieval Roots - Medievalists.net Many foods still enjoyed around the world were invented in the Middle Ages, such as these six foods and drinks.

Six Surprising Foods with Medieval Roots www.medievalists.net/2025/01/surp... #Foods

Medieval floor tile from St. Andrew’s Priory in Northampton. The shears possibly reference a connection with the textile trade. The tile is on display at Northampton Museum & Art Gallery. 📸 My own. #TilesOnTuesday #Northampton

A blue glass beaker lying on its side on a reflective surface, its slightly flared rim and curved body showing numerous fine cracks and bubbles in the translucent glass against a dark gradient background.

A beautiful early medieval cobalt blue glass beaker. dating late 7th century AD. Found in a burial in Lauchheim.

This type of vessel has no foot and will not stand upright, it had to be emptied before it could be put down.

📷 @almbawue.bsky.social

*THE OPEN ACCESS COMPANION TO THE CANTERBURY TALES*, a free, scholer-produced onlyne resource for teachinge and learninge *The Canterbury Tales* at the universitye level: opencanterburytales.lsusites.org

'The kiss of Judas' ivory pyx by Sapi artist, Sierra Leone, ca. 1490-1530.
Madonna and Child, Yorubaland, Nigeria, mid-20th century.
patreon.com/posts/146362...

My photo shows a short cylindrical translucent blue glass cup which flares outwards towards the rim. The glass is darker near the rim and lighter toward the base where the display light passes through. The rim is slightly irregular and worn at the back. The glass surface is textured with vertical ridges running down the upper half, while the lower half has a texture which resembles loosely shaped hexagon and pentagon shapes, some larger than others, clustered together like cells of an irregular honeycomb. The glass cup sits on a white surface against a light grey background. The display lighting creates circular shadows and glowing blue reflections around the base of the glass. This glass cup was excavated in 1973 from the richly-furnished Cheonmachong Tomb, also known as the Tomb of the Heavenly Horse. The tomb belonged to a royal male from the ancient Silla Kingdom of the Korean peninsula. I saw this cup on display at the British Museum’s ‘Silk Roads’ exhibition in 2024, on loan from the Gyeongju National Museum in South Korea. It is an example of ancient trading of Roman goods through the Steppe Route, the original Silk Road over the Eurasian plains stretching to Far East Asia. The British Museum label reads: “This glass cup was discovered in the tomb of a royal male, alongside an ornate gold crown and other precious objects. It is of a late Roman type found across the eastern Mediterranean region. Scientific analysis indicates it was probably made in Egypt, which had a major centre of glassmaking in Alexandria. The presence of Mediterranean glass objects in tombs as far as the Korean peninsula and Japanese archipelago reflects their valued status as luxury items in the ancient world. Probably made in Egypt; excavated from Cheonmachong Tomb, Gyeongju, Korea. Early AD 500s”.

WOW! This late Roman blue glass cup made an epic 12,000 km journey!

Made in the eastern Mediterranean, it was excavated from the Cheonmachong Tomb, a royal tomb of the ancient Silla Kingdom in Korea! 🤯

Early AD 500s. Gyeongju National Museum, South Korea. 📷 by me

#FindsFriday
#Archaeology

Detail depicting an elephant from the British Library Collection: Cotton MS Tiberius B V/1, fol. 81r.

Issue 42.2 of Parergon was released just before Christmas. A special issue focused on medieval English attitudes to the outside world, Alison Hudson's article 'Elephants in English Literature, Art, and Material Culture before the Reign of Henry III' is currently open access!

doi.org/10.1353/pgn....

Miniature llama figurine of hammered gold, probably deposited as an offering. 6.3cm high. #Peru, c. 1500 (British Museum)

🚨Call for Papers🚨

We are thrilled to issue a call for papers for our annual conference on 28th March 2026

We'd love to hear about the amazing sources you are using and can't wait to spend the day talking all things Scottish History 💙

Submit a proposal:
scottishhistorysociety.com/call-for-pap...

Medieval manuscript image of a haloed woman holding her cloak out around a small girl who holds a hornbook.

stæf-rǣw, f.n: a letter-row, an alphabet. (STAFF-RAEW / ˈstæf-ˌræːw)
Image: St Anne teaching the Virgin Mary to read from a hornbook; England, 14th century; @bodleianlibraries.bsky.social MS. Douce 231, f. 3r.
#OldEnglish #WOTD

My photo shows a bronze Buddha statuette sitting on a double lotus flower against a grey background in a glass display case. The bronze is now light green in colour, but would originally have appeared like burnished gold. The Buddha is sitting cross-legged with feet upturned. His right hand rests against his knee and his left arm is raised holding his monastic robe. A raised dot on the forehead represents Buddha’s third eye. His expression is serene, with smiling lips, and eyes gazing ahead. His facial features were highlighted with silver, tin, and black niello. There is glass residue in the eyes and the raised dot on the forehead was highlighted with a layer of gold. Height 8.4 cm, width 6.4 cm. It was probably made in the Swat Valley (present-day Pakistan) in the late 500s-mid 600s. It was excavated from Viking-age settlement buildings dated AD 800. It isn’t known how it arrived at its final destination but this exotic object travelled far, hinting at far-flung trade routes. I saw the Helgö Buddha on display at the British Museum’s ‘Silk Roads’ exhibition in October 2024, on loan from Historiska Museet, Stockholm.

A small and exotic Buddha found far from home in #VikingAge buildings on the Swedish lake island of Helgö.

Probably made in the Swat Valley, the Buddha travelled some 5,000 km from its place of origin, encapsulating the idea of long-distance trade during the Viking Age.

#Archaeology

A Cat Left Paw Prints on the Pages of This Medieval Manuscript When the Ink Was Drying 500 Years Ago An exhibition called "Paws on Parchment" tracks how cats were depicted in the Middle Ages through texts and artworks from around the world—including one example of a 15th-century "keyboard cat"

www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a...

The wonderful @caitlinrgreen.bsky.social has a hugely interesting new article just out in Early Medieval England & its Neighbours, all about Alfred the Great's embassy to India - free to read here #India #AlfredtheGreat #medieval www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Two delegates sat on a bench. One is looking on their phone and the other is reading the IMC Programme Book.

Registration for #IMC2026 will be open on Tuesday 10 February 2026! Are you ready?!👀
On Campus accommodation this year which are available are Charles Morris Hall: Storm Jameson Court, Charles Morris Hall: Dobree & Whetton, Ellerslie Global Hall, Lyddon Hall, and Devonshire hall.😊

Today is the Festum Asinorum, the Feast of the Asses, commemorating the flight into Egypt. Think, too, of the donkeys who work for humans globally. Perhaps donate to the Donkey Sanctuary Canada that rescues so many — today might be a good day to make a donation & remember donkeys past and present.

I co-wrote a piece with @profgabriele.com for @historians.org about how we communicate history while doing justice both to our research ethics and the needs of different audiences.

bsky.app/profile/hist...