Mateusz Fafinski
@calthalas.bsky.social
Late antiquity, early Middle Ages, manuscripts, cities and monasticism. A bit of digital humanities and maps as well.
Assistant Professor at the University of Erfurt
Assistant Professor at the University of Erfurt
Pinned
Medieval psalters be like
🌺🌿🌿🌿🌿🌺🌱🌱💫
🌿🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🌼🌱💫
🌿🟡🟦🟦🟦🟦✨🌱💫
🌿🟡🟦🤴🏾🦄🌝🟦🦚💫
🌿🟡🟦🟦🟦🟦✨🌱🍆
🌿😼🟦🤺🥀🏹🟦🐕💫
🌿🟡🟦🌸🦜🐉🟦🌱💫
🌿🟡🟦🏹🐒🐝🟦🌱💫
🌿🟡🟦🟦🟦🟦eatus vir
🌿🟡🟡🧜♂️🟡🟡🌷🌱💫
🌺🌿🌿🌿🌿🌺🌱🌱🌼
🌺🌿🌿🌿🌿🌺🌱🌱💫
🌿🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🌼🌱💫
🌿🟡🟦🟦🟦🟦✨🌱💫
🌿🟡🟦🤴🏾🦄🌝🟦🦚💫
🌿🟡🟦🟦🟦🟦✨🌱🍆
🌿😼🟦🤺🥀🏹🟦🐕💫
🌿🟡🟦🌸🦜🐉🟦🌱💫
🌿🟡🟦🏹🐒🐝🟦🌱💫
🌿🟡🟦🟦🟦🟦eatus vir
🌿🟡🟡🧜♂️🟡🟡🌷🌱💫
🌺🌿🌿🌿🌿🌺🌱🌱🌼
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
Thread
It’s an empire and it‘s doing empire things. The peace rhetoric is an *inherent part* of imperial war machine. Some people need to brush up on history. And yes, this will get worse.
January 4, 2026 at 8:10 AM
Thread
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
🧶
It’s an empire and it‘s doing empire things. The peace rhetoric is an *inherent part* of imperial war machine. Some people need to brush up on history. And yes, this will get worse.
January 3, 2026 at 8:45 PM
🧶
It’s an empire and it‘s doing empire things. The peace rhetoric is an *inherent part* of imperial war machine. Some people need to brush up on history. And yes, this will get worse.
January 3, 2026 at 7:58 PM
It’s an empire and it‘s doing empire things. The peace rhetoric is an *inherent part* of imperial war machine. Some people need to brush up on history. And yes, this will get worse.
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
In 1990, Crayola "retired" several classic colors, including BLUE GRAY, GREEN BLUE, and an all-timer, RAW UMBER, replacing them with "fun" new colors like VIVID TANGERINE and WILD STRAWBERRY.
We didn't know it at the time, but this was the beginning of the end. In this essay, I will
We didn't know it at the time, but this was the beginning of the end. In this essay, I will
December 31, 2025 at 3:42 PM
In 1990, Crayola "retired" several classic colors, including BLUE GRAY, GREEN BLUE, and an all-timer, RAW UMBER, replacing them with "fun" new colors like VIVID TANGERINE and WILD STRAWBERRY.
We didn't know it at the time, but this was the beginning of the end. In this essay, I will
We didn't know it at the time, but this was the beginning of the end. In this essay, I will
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
My heart is with a different article that came out this year, but I am pleased to have pulled off a citation of Tolkien's 'Return of the King' as if it was some sort of source.
archive.org/details/DOP7...
archive.org/details/DOP7...
Signaling Empire between the Abbasid-Byzantine Frontier and Constantinople: Investigation on the Ninth-Century Long-Distance Optical Telegraph : McMahon, Lucas : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming :...
Lucas McMahon, Signaling Empire between the Abbasid-Byzantine Frontier and Constantinople: Investigation on the Ninth-Century Long-Distance Optical...
archive.org
December 29, 2025 at 11:12 AM
My heart is with a different article that came out this year, but I am pleased to have pulled off a citation of Tolkien's 'Return of the King' as if it was some sort of source.
archive.org/details/DOP7...
archive.org/details/DOP7...
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
I am so happy I got the article on the knapped lithics from the Nepi survey written! It does not come out until 2026, but it means I have pretty much published the material from the survey. Several articles finished but mainly book reviews published, e.g. rheaclassicalreviews.com/2025/10/16/r...
Production, Trade, and Connectivity in Pre-Roman Italy
Jeremy Armstrong and Sheira Cohen, eds., Production, Trade, and Connectivity in Pre-Roman Italy (London and New York: Routledge, 2022). 9780367631727. Reviewed by Ulla Rajala, Stockholm Unive…
rheaclassicalreviews.com
December 29, 2025 at 11:53 AM
I am so happy I got the article on the knapped lithics from the Nepi survey written! It does not come out until 2026, but it means I have pretty much published the material from the survey. Several articles finished but mainly book reviews published, e.g. rheaclassicalreviews.com/2025/10/16/r...
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
My annual list of blog posts, articles and other internet things that I enjoyed or found especially interesting this year:
thesphinxblog.com/2025/12/29/b...
thesphinxblog.com/2025/12/29/b...
Blogs of the Year 2025
As ever, one of the fun aspects of end-of-year reflection is revisiting the blog posts, articles and other internet things that I noted down in the course of the year as worth revisiting – so…
thesphinxblog.com
December 29, 2025 at 11:41 AM
My annual list of blog posts, articles and other internet things that I enjoyed or found especially interesting this year:
thesphinxblog.com/2025/12/29/b...
thesphinxblog.com/2025/12/29/b...
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
@calthalas.bsky.social this has published date 2025, though I got my copy a couple of months earlier - so it just about counts!
December 29, 2025 at 9:48 AM
@calthalas.bsky.social this has published date 2025, though I got my copy a couple of months earlier - so it just about counts!
The year is coming to a close! What are you most happy to have written, achieved, created in 2025? I want to see your books, articles, podcasts, all sorts of creations! (If you want to post your full grant application, by all means, we do not judge here!)
December 29, 2025 at 9:43 AM
The year is coming to a close! What are you most happy to have written, achieved, created in 2025? I want to see your books, articles, podcasts, all sorts of creations! (If you want to post your full grant application, by all means, we do not judge here!)
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
Issue 23 (2025) of I Quaderni del Maes is finally out #openaccess! You will find scientific papers, source editions, a monographic section on sermons and several book reviews.
maes.unibo.it #UniversitàBologna #AlmaJournals #medievalsky
maes.unibo.it #UniversitàBologna #AlmaJournals #medievalsky
December 29, 2025 at 7:41 AM
Issue 23 (2025) of I Quaderni del Maes is finally out #openaccess! You will find scientific papers, source editions, a monographic section on sermons and several book reviews.
maes.unibo.it #UniversitàBologna #AlmaJournals #medievalsky
maes.unibo.it #UniversitàBologna #AlmaJournals #medievalsky
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
Geruchia, a widow in Southern Gaul, wrote to Jerome for advice. Her letter is lost but we can reconstruct her motives,prompting Jerome to paint one of the most entrenched images of a "barbarian invasion", mostly through imagination and literary repetition.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
January 15, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Geruchia, a widow in Southern Gaul, wrote to Jerome for advice. Her letter is lost but we can reconstruct her motives,prompting Jerome to paint one of the most entrenched images of a "barbarian invasion", mostly through imagination and literary repetition.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
Gregory of Tours describing a historical event
▶️🔘───────── 00:07
Gregory of Tours about that one guy miraculously healed from hiccups, St Martin be praised
▶️🔘───────── 7:35:12
▶️🔘───────── 00:07
Gregory of Tours about that one guy miraculously healed from hiccups, St Martin be praised
▶️🔘───────── 7:35:12
November 14, 2024 at 11:07 AM
Gregory of Tours describing a historical event
▶️🔘───────── 00:07
Gregory of Tours about that one guy miraculously healed from hiccups, St Martin be praised
▶️🔘───────── 7:35:12
▶️🔘───────── 00:07
Gregory of Tours about that one guy miraculously healed from hiccups, St Martin be praised
▶️🔘───────── 7:35:12
The year is 2037. A fearful party of journalists braves a long pilgrimage called „The Fact Check“ to a remote location known as „The Campus“. In a lonely brutalist building they enter, warily, an office in which a person sits. Known as „The Historian“, the legend has it they can tell fact from slop.
December 25, 2025 at 11:11 PM
The year is 2037. A fearful party of journalists braves a long pilgrimage called „The Fact Check“ to a remote location known as „The Campus“. In a lonely brutalist building they enter, warily, an office in which a person sits. Known as „The Historian“, the legend has it they can tell fact from slop.
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
there's to be a Christmas court!
December 25, 2025 at 8:42 PM
there's to be a Christmas court!
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
hey i made a starter pack of cutting edge humanists (broadly defined) doing cool stuff inside and outside academia.
check out these folks and repost to signal boost! let's see if we can't "network" better than conferences!
check out these folks and repost to signal boost! let's see if we can't "network" better than conferences!
November 1, 2024 at 4:23 PM
hey i made a starter pack of cutting edge humanists (broadly defined) doing cool stuff inside and outside academia.
check out these folks and repost to signal boost! let's see if we can't "network" better than conferences!
check out these folks and repost to signal boost! let's see if we can't "network" better than conferences!
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
How delicately a Romanesque angel uses the lightest touch of a finger to wake one of the magi, snuggled with the other 2 under their embroidered circular blanket at St Lazare, Autun, c1130 (& how beautifully the textures of pillow & blanket are represented).
Season's greetings to you all!
Season's greetings to you all!
December 25, 2025 at 7:01 AM
How delicately a Romanesque angel uses the lightest touch of a finger to wake one of the magi, snuggled with the other 2 under their embroidered circular blanket at St Lazare, Autun, c1130 (& how beautifully the textures of pillow & blanket are represented).
Season's greetings to you all!
Season's greetings to you all!
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
On the tenth day of Christmas, Thucydides sent to me
Ten misquotations
Nine IR Realists
Eight toiling triremes
Seven sorry Spartans
Six truest causes
Tragic irony!
Ten misquotations
Nine IR Realists
Eight toiling triremes
Seven sorry Spartans
Six truest causes
Tragic irony!
December 24, 2025 at 10:03 PM
On the tenth day of Christmas, Thucydides sent to me
Ten misquotations
Nine IR Realists
Eight toiling triremes
Seven sorry Spartans
Six truest causes
Tragic irony!
Ten misquotations
Nine IR Realists
Eight toiling triremes
Seven sorry Spartans
Six truest causes
Tragic irony!
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
a lot of people don't realize that Christmas carols and traditions are actually folk memories of suppressed pre-Christian events, namely the end of the Third Age and the Fall of Sauron.
December 24, 2025 at 10:05 PM
a lot of people don't realize that Christmas carols and traditions are actually folk memories of suppressed pre-Christian events, namely the end of the Third Age and the Fall of Sauron.
Ah, come, the problem with AI is that they will make *us* responsible. We are supposed to „step up“ and „change our pedagogy“ when they blow the house up into smithereens. And we will. But it is not our fault that they are dismantling higher ed and robbing a generation of access to knowledge.
December 24, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Ah, come, the problem with AI is that they will make *us* responsible. We are supposed to „step up“ and „change our pedagogy“ when they blow the house up into smithereens. And we will. But it is not our fault that they are dismantling higher ed and robbing a generation of access to knowledge.
It is time for a pierogi induced coma, my job is done. Everyone enjoyed the heaps of herring, bigos, pierogi, mushroom stuffed pastries and barszcz. The cook can now have a little Caol Ila in the kitchen when cleaning up, my favorite part.
December 24, 2025 at 6:43 PM
It is time for a pierogi induced coma, my job is done. Everyone enjoyed the heaps of herring, bigos, pierogi, mushroom stuffed pastries and barszcz. The cook can now have a little Caol Ila in the kitchen when cleaning up, my favorite part.
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
Just saw the Odyssey trailer and it is horrible but they are all dressed like in what I imagine Roman carnival costumes of Homer would have been, and I cannot stop thinking that Vergil would have absolutely*loved* it.
December 24, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Just saw the Odyssey trailer and it is horrible but they are all dressed like in what I imagine Roman carnival costumes of Homer would have been, and I cannot stop thinking that Vergil would have absolutely*loved* it.
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
On the ninth day of Christmas, Thucydides sent to me
Nine IR Realists
Eight toiling triremes
Seven sorry Spartans
Six truest causes
Tragic irony!
Nine IR Realists
Eight toiling triremes
Seven sorry Spartans
Six truest causes
Tragic irony!
December 24, 2025 at 5:56 PM
On the ninth day of Christmas, Thucydides sent to me
Nine IR Realists
Eight toiling triremes
Seven sorry Spartans
Six truest causes
Tragic irony!
Nine IR Realists
Eight toiling triremes
Seven sorry Spartans
Six truest causes
Tragic irony!
Just saw the Odyssey trailer and it is horrible but they are all dressed like in what I imagine Roman carnival costumes of Homer would have been, and I cannot stop thinking that Vergil would have absolutely*loved* it.
December 24, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Just saw the Odyssey trailer and it is horrible but they are all dressed like in what I imagine Roman carnival costumes of Homer would have been, and I cannot stop thinking that Vergil would have absolutely*loved* it.
It is time for the ultimate Christmas movie
December 23, 2025 at 6:39 PM
It is time for the ultimate Christmas movie
The final count is 177
Ok, time to get serious with this whole Christmas thing. 37 down, 123 to go.
December 23, 2025 at 12:58 PM
The final count is 177