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
Marc Bloch, historien et résistant juif, entrera au Panthéon le 23 juin
Marc Bloch, historien et résistant juif, entrera au Panthéon le 23 juin
La date du 16 juin avait été dans un premier temps pressentie pour son entrée au Panthéon, mais la cérémonie a dû être décalée de quelques jours en raison du G7 à Evian-les-Bains.
www.lemonde.fr
February 8, 2026 at 6:00 PM
Marc Bloch, historien et résistant juif, entrera au Panthéon le 23 juin
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
Such an honour to be at Nagoya University for this fabulous event, talking about a project I am conducting @dependencybonn.de using data from Connecting Late Antiquities
February 8, 2026 at 4:29 AM
Such an honour to be at Nagoya University for this fabulous event, talking about a project I am conducting @dependencybonn.de using data from Connecting Late Antiquities
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
"Data in itself is not knowledge. Even the greatest concentration of data will not on its own bring us closer to getting to know the past. Concentrating data does not write history." I wrote this five years ago and it is more relevant then ever in the age of AI.
academic.oup.com/dsh/article-...
academic.oup.com/dsh/article-...
Facsimile narratives: Researching the past in the age of digital reproduction
Abstract. Taking a cue from the reflections and contributions made by manuscript, archival and historical studies, this paper proposes a new approach to th
academic.oup.com
January 29, 2026 at 1:14 PM
"Data in itself is not knowledge. Even the greatest concentration of data will not on its own bring us closer to getting to know the past. Concentrating data does not write history." I wrote this five years ago and it is more relevant then ever in the age of AI.
academic.oup.com/dsh/article-...
academic.oup.com/dsh/article-...
Cabbage rolls stuffed with buckwheat, potato, and twaróg cheese, baked in cream tomato sauce and sprinkled with buckwheat popcorn.
February 7, 2026 at 5:57 PM
Cabbage rolls stuffed with buckwheat, potato, and twaróg cheese, baked in cream tomato sauce and sprinkled with buckwheat popcorn.
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
Our great thanks to Professor Charles West for his excellent Society lecture yesterday evening: ‘”Alike in Appearance but not in Scope”: Queens and the Making of Medieval Europe’ bit.ly/4tluezd
The recording of Charles's lecture will be available shortly.
@pseudo-isidore.bsky.social #Skystorians
The recording of Charles's lecture will be available shortly.
@pseudo-isidore.bsky.social #Skystorians
Charles West gives the Society's annual medieval lecture on European queenship - RHS
On Friday 6 February the Society hosted the first lecture in its 2026 programme. Our great thanks to Professor Charles West (University of Edinburgh) who spoke on: ‘"Alike in Appearance but not in Sco...
bit.ly
February 7, 2026 at 7:49 AM
Our great thanks to Professor Charles West for his excellent Society lecture yesterday evening: ‘”Alike in Appearance but not in Scope”: Queens and the Making of Medieval Europe’ bit.ly/4tluezd
The recording of Charles's lecture will be available shortly.
@pseudo-isidore.bsky.social #Skystorians
The recording of Charles's lecture will be available shortly.
@pseudo-isidore.bsky.social #Skystorians
This is important on so many fronts but I just wanted to highlight one: we do find new texts from late antiquity even if rarely!
"A truly sensational find" made by my friend and colleague Adrian C. Pirtea 👀👇
#Syriac
#ChristianArabic
#ChristianEast
#Syriac
#ChristianArabic
#ChristianEast
medieval worlds • no. 23 • 2025
A truly sensational find is presented in volume 23 of Medieval Worlds: a newly discovered Christian world chronicle in Arabic, which Adrian C. Pirtea examines in a preliminary case study. We furthermo...
medievalworlds.net
February 6, 2026 at 4:27 PM
This is important on so many fronts but I just wanted to highlight one: we do find new texts from late antiquity even if rarely!
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
Arrakis, one of the most complicated knitting patterns available on Ravelry, is finished. Hellshawl is done.
February 5, 2026 at 1:45 AM
Arrakis, one of the most complicated knitting patterns available on Ravelry, is finished. Hellshawl is done.
A self-driving car
February 6, 2026 at 3:51 PM
A self-driving car
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
"A truly sensational find" made by my friend and colleague Adrian C. Pirtea 👀👇
#Syriac
#ChristianArabic
#ChristianEast
#Syriac
#ChristianArabic
#ChristianEast
medieval worlds • no. 23 • 2025
A truly sensational find is presented in volume 23 of Medieval Worlds: a newly discovered Christian world chronicle in Arabic, which Adrian C. Pirtea examines in a preliminary case study. We furthermo...
medievalworlds.net
February 5, 2026 at 10:33 AM
"A truly sensational find" made by my friend and colleague Adrian C. Pirtea 👀👇
#Syriac
#ChristianArabic
#ChristianEast
#Syriac
#ChristianArabic
#ChristianEast
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
germany invest in your public infrastructure and services challenge, difficulty: impossible
February 6, 2026 at 9:59 AM
germany invest in your public infrastructure and services challenge, difficulty: impossible
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
Finally had a chance to go through some of our finds from last year's excavation at #CerneAbbey & thought I would share this gem. Book clasps are quite common finds on monastic sites but this little fella is the finest I've ever excavated & must have come from a pretty fancy prayer book or psalter
January 21, 2026 at 7:41 PM
Finally had a chance to go through some of our finds from last year's excavation at #CerneAbbey & thought I would share this gem. Book clasps are quite common finds on monastic sites but this little fella is the finest I've ever excavated & must have come from a pretty fancy prayer book or psalter
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
we should bring back having to latinise your name if you publish a book
February 5, 2026 at 2:06 PM
we should bring back having to latinise your name if you publish a book
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
February 4, 134 CE: A collective of nine scribes 🖋️ —named Diogenes, Euporos, Mystes, Marion, Sarapion, Sabinus, Herakleides, Harpokration, and Heliodoros—in Ptolemais Euergetis (Roman Egypt) sign a contract to copy gvmt tax & census lists (P. Mich 11 603): papyri-prod.lib.duke.edu/ddbdp/p.mich...
![HGV: P.Mich. 11 603 [source] [xml]
Title Hire of Scribes
Publications P.Mich. 11 603 More in series P.Mich.More in series P.Mich., vol. 11
Support/Dimensions Papyrus
Post-Concordance BL Entries VIII 216; XI 132
Translations Migliardi, Vita privata e vita pubblica (1992), 14
Origin Ptolemais Euergetis (Arsinoites) More from Ptolemais Euergetis (Arsinoites)
Material Papyrus
Date 4. Febr. 134 More from the period between 134 CE and 135 CE
Commentary Zur Datierung vgl. BL VIII, S. 216. Vgl. Kruse, Der Königliche Schreiber, S. 786f.
Mentioned Dates
Z. 15:132 - 133
Print Illustrations Plate I
Subjects Vertrag; Schreiber; Kopieren von Laographialisten; zwei Kopien
Images http://quod.lib.umich.edu/a/apis/x-1422...
License Creative Commons License © Heidelberger Gesamtverzeichnis der griechischen Papyrusurkunden Ägyptens. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:byohyhodi6iknxngf3oypcge/bafkreihezowxa23c2rbmh4r7fl7j3cqz45dvetxzjxha63ozrotzujtgpu@jpeg)
February 4, 2026 at 12:49 PM
February 4, 134 CE: A collective of nine scribes 🖋️ —named Diogenes, Euporos, Mystes, Marion, Sarapion, Sabinus, Herakleides, Harpokration, and Heliodoros—in Ptolemais Euergetis (Roman Egypt) sign a contract to copy gvmt tax & census lists (P. Mich 11 603): papyri-prod.lib.duke.edu/ddbdp/p.mich...
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
Over the next year, I’ll be transitioning into the role of editor-in-chief for the journal Biblical Interpretation. So a reminder to all you who work on biblical and adjacent materials to consider submitting. brill.com/view/journal...
brill.com
February 4, 2026 at 7:08 PM
Over the next year, I’ll be transitioning into the role of editor-in-chief for the journal Biblical Interpretation. So a reminder to all you who work on biblical and adjacent materials to consider submitting. brill.com/view/journal...
I really want to stress that this is not some form of wishful thinking. It is an understanding of higher education that stands in opposition with the model that brought us graduates in crippling debt, adjuncts being fired for teaching difficult subjects, and a rat race for third party funding.
University is not a business, students are not customers, education is not a product, researchers are not salespeople.
February 4, 2026 at 7:27 PM
I really want to stress that this is not some form of wishful thinking. It is an understanding of higher education that stands in opposition with the model that brought us graduates in crippling debt, adjuncts being fired for teaching difficult subjects, and a rat race for third party funding.
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
Just checking in on what I wrote yesterday. It does, you know.
February 4, 2026 at 7:17 PM
Just checking in on what I wrote yesterday. It does, you know.
So that bit about democracy dying in darkness was a mission statement
WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington Post says one-third of its staff across all departments, not just the newsroom, is being laid off.
February 4, 2026 at 4:23 PM
So that bit about democracy dying in darkness was a mission statement
The narrative supporting much of the criticism of higher education is that university as a model is fundamentally broken. It is not. It’s just a poorly maintained and therefore increasingly inefficient and damaging to people that run it. But properly taken care of it can still deliver great results.
February 4, 2026 at 4:00 PM
The narrative supporting much of the criticism of higher education is that university as a model is fundamentally broken. It is not. It’s just a poorly maintained and therefore increasingly inefficient and damaging to people that run it. But properly taken care of it can still deliver great results.
I feel obliged to remind everyone that there are plenty of countries where higher education is either completely free or cost a token amount of tuition money and that many of these countries offer top notch teaching and research. It’s a political choice.
February 3, 2026 at 5:59 PM
I feel obliged to remind everyone that there are plenty of countries where higher education is either completely free or cost a token amount of tuition money and that many of these countries offer top notch teaching and research. It’s a political choice.
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
Palaeography politics magazine called Kurrent Affairs
February 2, 2026 at 8:57 PM
Palaeography politics magazine called Kurrent Affairs
Guys, the Odyssey is a work of fiction. There is a cyclop, a sorceress, and a bunch of gods. A hero and a princess and a man lost at sea. We can all be one of them if we want to. It belongs to everyone and no-one can forbid anyone from having it.
February 2, 2026 at 6:38 PM
Guys, the Odyssey is a work of fiction. There is a cyclop, a sorceress, and a bunch of gods. A hero and a princess and a man lost at sea. We can all be one of them if we want to. It belongs to everyone and no-one can forbid anyone from having it.
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
Close ups of the two sides.
February 2, 2026 at 12:39 AM
Close ups of the two sides.
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
Brilliant thread relevant to post-Roman Europe
This is actually very interesting because that’s what people get wrong about the Middle Ages as well. Simply put: you might know how to build aqueducts from self healing concrete but you might lose the need *and* capability to do so. Three separate things. Many misunderstand how societies adapt. 1/
It’s so weird how this article in the weekend FT conflates knowledge and capability. We didn’t forget how to go to the moon.
February 1, 2026 at 9:44 PM
Brilliant thread relevant to post-Roman Europe
This is actually very interesting because that’s what people get wrong about the Middle Ages as well. Simply put: you might know how to build aqueducts from self healing concrete but you might lose the need *and* capability to do so. Three separate things. Many misunderstand how societies adapt. 1/
It’s so weird how this article in the weekend FT conflates knowledge and capability. We didn’t forget how to go to the moon.
February 1, 2026 at 7:18 PM
This is actually very interesting because that’s what people get wrong about the Middle Ages as well. Simply put: you might know how to build aqueducts from self healing concrete but you might lose the need *and* capability to do so. Three separate things. Many misunderstand how societies adapt. 1/
Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
Bonjour les haricots. Shall we cassoulet?
February 1, 2026 at 6:44 PM
Bonjour les haricots. Shall we cassoulet?